001March 11 and I'd like to welcome everybody for being here this is ex thank you I meant to say that and what what board members do we have on okay so this is an exciting night because we have a lot of awards to give out uh mostly from the high school and then we have some uh great Awards to give out to some of our uh coaches and teachers that are here tonight also so thank you for joining us and if you all rise we're going to do the pledge of Le IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and jusice for all okay thank you members you may notice there's a little bit of a difference in our agenda
002um we mixed it up a little bit uh that we have our our minutes to approve first that giv anybody in the public that's grabbing our or whatever they get a chance to look at the minutes and see what we've we've discussed and we've done before so um we can do these by consent uh we don't necessarily need motions on each of these so I'm just going to go through them if we have 100 if I see can if anybody is not consenting just let me know and we'll stop and we can uh we can change those hi Felicia thanks for joining okay so uh the minute of January 28 2025 as a any issues then we accept those minutes February 11th 2025 in a regular meeting February 11 any issues then those minutes are
003accepted minutes of February 27th 2025 which was a special Boe budget Workshop anybody just any issues they minutes are accepted March 4th 2025 special board of education budget Workshop any [Music] issues then those minutes are accepted and then March 6th 2025 special CHS walk through any changes or issues then those minutes are accepted okay thank you very much I just want to let the board know going forward with the minutes and I've had this conversation a little bit with the audio according to Freedom of Information the only thing that that minutes are really meant to be for votes who's attended uh and what the votes were for specific uh specific items the idea that we take uh you know that we even uh bring letters into the minutes are not necessary okay the minutes a
004letter to the board of education is basically informative for the Board of Education to know how people feel they're not necessarily for the minutes nor nor does the public um ask us to um change their statements or to make sure that their statement is read into the minutes that's not what the minutes are for so going forward the minutes will be a little bit more STK more towards the issues that we're voting on and and whoever speaks in uh public comment they'll be listed as such that they spoke there may be a line on on the topic they went to but we're not going to we're not going to uh um have a narrative on what they said if you will okay so that that is an foi that's a Connecticut foi statute so we're
005within the statute okay uh having said that now we go to public comment for anybody in the audience will'll start with anybody in the audience would like to speak in public comment the only thing we ask is that you give your name and your address and we like you to keep it within 354 minutes if you can do that for no I meant I me everybody was going to walk out the door three minutes 3 minutes is there anybody in the public tonight that has anything they' like to address the board of education on any any item you're free to do so okay hearing none in the audience I'll go to online is there already online that would like to address the Board of Education if you're joining us online and you'd like to make
006public comment you can go ahead and use the raise cam feature zoom and I'll call in you by your Zoom name one more time for the public and I close out public comment thank you okay let's move to the administrative reports the only thing uh from the uh Chairman's side is I'd like to remind the board of education on March 19th I'd like to remind the public that's here tonight March 19th is our time to present to the board of Finance the budget that we approved at our last meeting and I'd like to encourage all the board members to be there in support and even our student members if you'd like and even if you'd like to speak on the budget you can do that uh but I'd like to encourage everybody to be at
007that meeting I believe it's 7:00 p.m. no 6:30 6:00 6:00 okay so they'll be serving uh sandwiches and there'll be a small buffet in the back that'll get you there right don't count on it if it is it's a cash Buffet only okay uh so if you can make it at 6:00 p.m. uh the board will U if you can be there for that uh comment having said that I'll now turn to the superintendent for any announcements or report super thank you Mr tles good evening everyone it's great to see everyone here I want to give a special welcome to Mr to pipo and Dr Kidwell tonight who will be presenting our Canton celebrates for our high school students and staff and also to provide the board a little bit of an update on what's
008going on with Ken High School I I do want to take the opportunity to acknowledge our student Board of EDS and our Board of education that the month of March is Board of Education Month celebration month and on behalf of the the students and the staff of the parents in the community we present you with a a gift um thanking you all for your service to the the town of of Canton so thank you so [Applause] much I want to Echo Mr Daniels I want to thank the board of education for approving the the budget last week at a uh 6.45% and for anyone in the community that would like to know more about this budget please go on our website the videos are on there when you see 6.45% this is a flat budget
009what drives this budget is 3% of insurance cost and 3% of um Staffing in cont contracts the the only new staff positions that we have within this budget are uh uh three campus monitors for one for Cher Brook one for Kon Intermediate School and one for the afternoon for the high school middle school and then a05 District social worker that we work with in our Thrive program but that's an offset that if we had to PID for that one way or another we'd be paying for that so as there's a lot of things families here I would encourage you to be involved in in this budget process but the the budget that was presented by the administrative team and voted by the board of education is a flat budget um compared to 2425 to 2526
010so I would encourage uh people to uh attend the the board of Finance meeting uh on March 19th and I would encourage all board members to support Mr Daniels who will present your budget on March 19th it is not the administrative team budget it is your budget so I would encourage you to uh go to that meeting I'm not going to speak too much about activities because I know the the High School Board of head members will speak about it but it has been a busy past three or four weeks of going to games uh going to music performances at Cherrybrook going to the Middle School play going to the high school science s folks come on in our high school girls basketball team is joining us right now and then um upcoming we have
011an artist reception at the the library the musical which I know you'll speak about and then I do want to share a very important date of March 25th that's a very important Board of Education possible meeting depending upon any Board of uh Finance reductions to the the the budget that is that you all propos I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions for the superintendent St [Music] reps feline no okay no questions for the superintendent thank you Dr grman Mr Bishop thank you chair Daniels I'd like to provide uh briefly uh an overview of an Outreach piece for us um I'm continuing my work with the Farmington Valley Health District in their Community Health Improvement program I'm co-chairing the mental health committee and we're uh doing work around uh
012metrics for the upcoming meeting and then being able to uh poost the the next round of improvement efforts for us so this is an opportunity for uh us to be able to engage in this conversation at a regionalized level in support of of the pon community and the broader Community as well uh a little bit more locally within operations here I'm preparing with Mr Moore Mr Ji and M meanie to be able to present at the cast conference uh that's the uh conference for Connecticut administrators to be able to present uh findings that we have gained during our work with uh student performance data relative to the commissioner Network Pro process so we're very excited to be able to share Lessons Learned with that looking forward to a Full House for our presentations and then
013uh a bit more locally to within our operations we've been uh having some great conversations with our instructional uh instructional leadership collaborative that includes our administrators our department chairs and our coaches giving us the opportunity to really be able to calibrate on the work that we do together singularizing our vision so that we can continue to be able to do really really strong work together within can so really pleased with the work that we have going on here any questions for me thank you Mr any questions for the assistant superintendent okay Kim just join us just for the record okay great um student uh student representative report Magie you want to go first and we'll go right down the line sure I'll be reporting on CIS so last Friday CIS was given a sneak peek
014of the CHS M theater production of this SpongBob musical CIS held it small Ensemble concert last week and the concert included 28 pieces and students didn't outstanding talk CIS is celebrating National reading month in March congratulations to the CIS band who did an outstanding job performing The National Anthem at the Wolfpack game they were told by the wolf pack that their band was the largest they've ever hosted through random acts of kindness week CIS collected 202 kindness cards each representing a different act of kindness shout out to miss H's class for earning the most kindness cards C thanked all of their van drivers and crossing guards as part of bus driver Appreciation Week guest student guest speaker Ed G met with students in assemblies and shared his messages of gratitude dreaming big setting goals and
015having a positive attitude and congratulations CIA students who defeated staff 80 to 60 in a student faculty basketball game than Ed 49 THS night very good thank you I will say that uh I went to the wolf back game and our students performed just fantastic it was great and then I was at the student faculty game and uh I saw a couple of teachers hanging on the rim I'd like Dr to speak to them so okay um J um I will be recording on Cherry Brook um so on February 25th Cherry hosted its annual kindergarten parent orientation uh this event provided families with an overview of a typical day in kindergarten um the presentation included details on daily routines learning activities curriculum and classroom expectations um a follow up to uh Cher's 100 day uh
016food drive challenge um which was basically an event on the 100th day where every classroom tried to collect 100 items um in total Cher collected 1,786 items which will be donated to the c um additionally on the music side the third grade cheer gr singers recently went on a field trip to Yukon stores and was able to have the opportunity to work with professors there and also with current students there at Ukon uh last week was also read Across America week at Cherry and part of this the National Honor Society from K High School took a visit to Cherrybrook and seniors were able to read to all the different grades so K through third we all took a classroom and we were able to share one of our favorite childhood books with them and then
017tomorrow March 12th uh from 5:30 to 7: will be I wonder night at Cher I wonder project is a it's a a stem based um event where the chair Book Students will work with high school students from y Theta and snhs and just be able to do some Hands-On uh stem activities additionally next week uh teacher parent conferences will be occurring and also the PTO that's great thank you do luas so as many of you guys already know the SpongeBob musical is uh this Thursday Friday and um tomorrow the uh NHS Anda are hosting the p k which is a 3.14 km run out on the track with many other Pi Pi Day Pi week activities um this Friday two lucky students uh who have bought raffle tickets will get the chance to pie a
018teacher that they select oh my God the board would like to be present for that um unfortunately both the boys and girls basketball Seasons came to an end this Friday with uh losses in the quarterfinals which is still very far for considering past years is great Improvement for both teams great um the boys ice hockey team also lost uh this past Monday to Hall there in for's close game we played very well and baseball will be starting up very soon uh this Saturday um the Middle School um students are forming Relay for Life teams to participate in the farman valley edition of that event uh CMS put on a performance at the roges gall of roges gallery sorry cting crew did a great job um the CMS school climate team hosted their monthly resiliency lesson
019uh which had students writing and Performing skits about managing challenging emotions um coming up soon we have have uh sixth grade families are invited to sth grade orientation uh on Thursday the 13th at 5:30 uh parent teacher conferences will be next week and for the middle and high school be C jazz festival with the guest artist be on March 26th starting at 7 p.m. that's great so this pie in the face thing can is an administrator is that or is it just Dr one students students reached out to a couple students from specifically Society reached out to a couple teachers in the school Y and um a few teachers volunteered to put their name in the Hat and so how it works is we're selling either one ticket for a dollar or five tickets for
020$6 to students at lunch and before school okay and they get to select one of those think eight teachers and then we'll draw two names two two tickets for the big pool whichever Student's name is on it whichever teacher they picked get to get to buy them I believe at maybe 2:00 okay very excited thank you for that report okay any questions for the student reps anything you heard I know we're very excited about the SpongeBob musical and uh I think I'm going Thursday night I don't know about anybody else but uh looking forward to while opening opening night that would be great good okay um I'm going to ask for the board to move oh I'm sorry I to do that to Anna you know why I don't know why Anna uh the business
021business manager financial report please excuse me thank you um tonight we'll um review the results of the February of financials um we are still unfavorable [Music] $334,500 is better than the previous month by $278,500 General isable continues to be forecast favorable um which is um 5572 which is slightly worse than the previous month however the big mean has was in special education although we're still unfavorable 9,349 we are better than last month by CH 98 479 um the the uh the good news comes from two um individual um incidents the first is the special education excess cost Grant which we are constantly talking about the um where the um the state promises 88% of this grant um we got the bad news in late December ear January that would only be 62% % um which
022was really um detrimental to our financial status and then through a lot of um a lot of activity from school superintendents directors of people services our legislature that number got moved to 75.8% which for Canton is 168 638 better than budget which is where we needed to be so that was exciting news um the other news is we budget $850,000 for um tuition paid to campon from other towns specifically for special education um we're a little over budget um this year at [Music] 13,752 over so that's where our good news is coming from um this month so let me let me just ch so everybody in the community can hear last month we were showing approximately 698,000 in the red with the excess cost that came in from the state and as M Robins said
023we were expecting 88% we budgeted actually 72% knowing that that's what we got last year then the state came back and said no you didn't get 72 you actually got 62% so that put the district already in a hole with that and then that was we were already in the hole for special education approximately the number that you see $334,000 so by getting that excess cost to 75.8 that helped us so for the board of that that was not at the the finance committee meeting that's really good news so 698 to 3 34522 will present that at the board of Finance meeting the the the next month the the remainder of their report is very similar to what you um saw last month previous month M Robins I don't know if you have anything more
024to add I know you're you're getting over a little so I want to save here we speaking Russ I don't know I know you'll speak about it a little bit when you get to the financial report we'll take any questions for um Mrs Rob any questions on the financials any online all right the new the new procedur is while we have it right right in front of us we're we're going to vote on the financials it's a money it's a money thing so it will a roll call vote because it is a money situation so I will take a motion to accept the financials as presented by the business manager can I have a first thank you Jordan second thank you Peggy any discussion any other questions all right all those in favor Erica hi
025Russell hi Joe hi Peggy hi Jordan Kim hi and Felicia hi okay and I by the chair so we have an 80 vote on the financials thank you very much I'm going to ask the board to move new business because we have uh we have some of our stars here from uh from SpongeBob and I know they want to get back uh I'm going to ask that we uh move out of order I'll take a motion to move new business forward so we can do our Canton celebrates uh and then we'll get to our miscellaneous board standing committee report so motion to move new business to our next budget Island Peggy first second any discussion all those in favor I okay so we will now go to C celebrates Dr BR super it's great to
026have Mr pippo and Dr Kidwell here and our high school students and our high school um staff I want to let families know that after all the awards are done we'll be making sure that you'll be able to catch pictures with your your child or parent in some of the situations that we have here tonight um with the Board of Education foll hi everybody thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of what's going on great at high school I'm always happy to talk about the high school around I'll try to keep as brief as I can um we have so much to celebrate high school and we're just two3 through the year barely and so uh what I choose to do during this time is focus some of the awards on the immediate
027um things that have been going on which are some formal awards given by um C uh which Mr Bishop already mentioned our our Connecticut Association schools as well as honor some of our students who have done a tremendous job as part of our our uh senior Camp project um so on the academic level we also have a few adults here who have done tremendous things in our community for our students that will also be recognized um in in the spring up starting the fall you we brought several students forward as leaders in various uh regions of the school the Ma I'm sorry the music department um the theater department and and athletic leaders and they kind of gave us a broad view of um what was going on in each of those areas tonight I
028want to honor four specific students um in both arts and Athletics um for their recognition on the state level um theid Association schools gives uh Awards to um basically the art program and the athletic programs of all schools and we recognize these students um at a banquet and they're also recognized tonight in front of board of education so to begin I don't see our art students here yet I think they're still downstairs so bring the athletic students forward um Juliana [Music] so the Connecticut High School Arts Awards annually honor two outstanding seniors from each of the cast School member schools who excel in instrumental performing or Visual Arts to be selected each students must also possess qualities of scholarship and Leadership Ken High School winners this year are James Parker and Shay Shaker and they
029will be forly honored as a mention along with their families at a banquet on o on April 1st at the operat so congratulations [Applause] so a little more about these students um music department selected Shay because of her consistent positive enthusiastic approach to the the Performing Arts here at the high school she truly is a triple threat she can be seen playing the clarinet the symphonic band singing soprano section of the concert choir and in the chamber singers and acting uh the fall play and the spring musical she also was a leader uh amongst her peers uh in the drama club and uh in prisms as well so um you can see uh she is ready to go um this Thursday night but really her Sunny disposition uh really brings herself to the uh Forefront
030she loves to perform and is really seen as the glue both um uh in her musical Endeavors and in the drama Productions so we're so happy um to have you on here tonight thank for all you do and J was selected by our drama advisor uh Michelle Taylor who also uh directs the plays for his Performing Arts over the last four years James has been in every play um since the drama club initiated 40 years ago both in the fall and in the spring musicals um you may remember him as cat the hat uh in suico you might remember him as Uncle Fester in The Adams Family you'll see him playing Plankton and patch and pirate I think he's ready to go as a Pat and pirate for Thursday night um but similar to Shay
031he's been so active um within this department uh growing as a leader in the drama club to the point where he runs all meetings and while he's come in front of the Board of Education to present we've had him present um you know in front of parents for some of these um Endeavors that he's involved and he's very boisterous and humorous and um you know certainly is um entertaining but really what I think James is best for he's a really quiet leader amongst his peers he's kind to everybody and he takes on all comers in the drama club and he's will to move that club along and that's what Mrs Taylor said she's going to remember both congratulations J right so now we can bring up Juliana and [Music] Nick similarly um Juliana and Nick
032were selected by the CIA as scholar athletes the criteria is academic Excellence good citizenship and high levels of integrity and self-discipline as well as having personal standards which serve as a model for others who are essential with being considered for this honor they will be honored at a banquet at the aqu turf on May 4th along with students from every other high school so congratulations both of you [Applause] the board Ed knows Juliana well as a student rep and she's eloquent and thoughtful and very concise in things that she has to present on in school she is an amazing student um as we all know and an amazing leader um but what you might not know on the board of education she's a tremendous athlete as well she's a member of our track all three
033of our track teams cross country indoor track um and outdoor track she's been the captain of all three Sports she's been an all conference in indoor track um and um she's getting excited for outdoor track for senior year so her leadership um as well as her uh academic prowess has helped her uh get this award tonight congratulations julana brought M forward as an athletic leader um here to you in the in the fall but now more specifically we can start to celebrate his accomplishments this year was Captain on a very successful uh soccer team this year um he just finished his wrestling season which he was considered an allc conference performer he's now part of our 100 win Club here at um at Kon High School which is an outstanding honor um he fought tremendously
034um to help us win our nlec um Conference Championship uh as a team this year um and also he will be golfing very soon as a leader on our golf team so he's a captain all three of those Sports again along in the classroom with leadership has helped us um select him for tonight [Applause] congratulations I will turnor over to Dr Kidwell for the next few Awards okay thank you um y so we're gonna have [Music] dou all right so we're excited to present these two Awards tonight um for students who participated in the Lions Club student voices competition so this year the Lions Club hosted the first annual student voices public speaking competition they're looking for students from around the state to participate in local and then Regional competition to highlight the concept of
035diversity within service to one's Community the students were asked to create and memorize a 46 minute speech on this topic within the theme so we had two students participate Nicholas Le and an Johson um and both of them competed in our local competition and I represented at the regional one with other students from around the state and both were truly impressive in their messaging and their communication skills uh public speaking as everybody knows in this room it's not necessarily an easy task and they jumped right to it um and we're very proud to celebrate them tonight so congratulations um I'm happy to present some certificates to our outstanding hon Mastery projects te years so as most of you know and some of you have lived through um all seniors in the fall semester um create
036and go through our camp project Camp Master project which is where they pursue a topic of their choice could be a passion a hobby a talent something new they want to learn career exploration there's a such a wide variety of topics that students research um practice engage get in the field you know do some real hands-on experience and it's always culminates into a wonderful Expo night in when all of the students present and it's just such an honor to see all of those presentations and projects come together and it's often difficult but there's four this year that really stood out as just outstanding distinguished projects so I'm going to have those students come up Juliana Kavanaugh Coran kendle Tyler and could not be with us [Applause] so MIA could not be here but I definitely
037wanted to acknowledge her project which created a sustainable fashion guide um where she learned to thrift clothing how to alter how to make clothes from scratch with her ultimate goal of reduce reuse recycle um really studying the effects of the fashion industry and excess waste and carbon emissions um she talked to me about how there's enough clothes in the world to clothe the next six generations of human beings on the planet um so she learned how to make her own clothes and just really became more appreciative of shopping second hand as well so congratulations to me um Tyler Ro created an epoxy River table which is a hybrid table with two wood planks with epoxy is a river in the middle I can look that up bit but if you had a chance to see
038it it was an absolutely stunning table that Tyler um created and when I asked him why you know what was your passion for the project he basically said to me if I could so he did and it was absolutely beautiful table um he's described it as the process as time consuming perhaps even tedious but definitely worth it and he's already working on a second table that we may or may not see for sale in the future congratulations is there an auction for this or he got a growing list buyers my goodness uh Corgan Pendle um spent her project working with students at CIS um to introduce them to Concepts in theater and to make theater activities accessible to all students so she worked with CIS students in grades four five and six um general education
039students special education students she coordinated with other seniors including Parker um to introduce acting skills and acting activities as well as the behind the scenes work which we know is one of corgan's Specialties um she loved taking on this leadership role and working with younger students and seeing them get excited for their their moment on the stage and she said that made it exciting for her as well congratulations [Applause] for and um since Juliana Kavanaugh doesn't do enough with her time generally speaking uh she's also a Cadet in the Emergency Medical Service program so she's MMS and she works with that about um 8 hours a week give or take in her spare time and her projects highlighted this experience and so she created a video to capture what that was like and what her
040training was like and the Practical experience of getting into that field um she talked about her skills learned on the job training of actually um attending and responding to 911 emergency calls and getting that experience in the ambulance um and as she is someone who is looking to enter the medical field later in life this has been a great opportunity and a very exciting project for seniors to experience [Applause] [Music] congratulations so again those were selected amongst several Camp projects and again um you know the camp experience while um you know it can be you know exhausting the entire sum at times for students a bit of a gauntlet um but the you know my experience has been um that as students work through you know their individual experience that the benefits they gain um
041you know are just U they just multiply in terms of the skills they'll need outside of school you can see the product or the process is being so important to their growth so it's something that that we hold a lot of pride in and I'm so happy that you know these students were able to share out uh the way they are proud of them as well so speaking of Pride we have several adults here tonight um that deserve some recognition um you know within our school um and within our district so um I'd like to speak about four individuals we'll call them up individually the first is Mr Brian Joon so uh thank you for coming tonight uh with your family um for the board who may not know Mr Jones is our Co teacher
042at both the Middle School and High School uh he's been with us in Kanas 2017 and tonight he's being recognized for his individual work um because it is quite amazing Brian is a finalist in the American prize series and um Brian wrote and produced a song that was again gain recognition on this um prestigious um level the American prize is a series of of nonprofit National competition designed to recognize and reward the very best in Performing Arts in the United States so people come from schools or churches or communities at large on any level and the American prize is basically awarded to annually to those people who submit and are recognized by judges based only on on the recorded performance so there isn't anything live but it it's it's recorded and again judged uh as
043is so there are two levels of competitions and series of competitions but Brian became a finalist for his work based on his Excellence so we're congratulating Brian tonight um I'm being selected as a national finalist for his comp in composition for a shorter Coral work in a professional division his piece was called it may be um we have plenty of copies in links if you'd like to send that out to the board um we've all received that at school and it's just simply beautiful fantastic congratul [Applause] Brian certainly is one of the reasons why we continue s name um you know uh on the national level with our Nam ay every year for the work he does at both middle and high school um we're proud of the work he does we're fortunate that he
044is with us and I know student greatly the next person like forward is who's here with her family as well so Margaret as you know has been our field hockey coach for the past 11 seasons and uh during her tenure year we've had amazing success um in very consistent and steady growth in all of our players um her teams over the last 11 years have won three NCA championships and um very recently we played in a State final which was exciting for our entire uh School community over the course of her tenure Margaret has been named twice as the class s coach of the year but this last fall she was named to a higher honor where she was named by the Connecticut coaches association as the Connecticut field hockey coach of the year so
045we had uh she was part of an all state banquet back in the fall but we wanted to make sure that she was honored amongst her community here tonight at the Board of Education congratulations next I bring up coach mados coach Brian [Music] [Applause] mados so uh for those of you that don't know coach pados is our coach of our girls basketball team um Brian was hired 12 years ago um and has taken the rain and and ever since um I do remember a conversation I had with Brian when I was trying to hire him I told him I thought it would be a good fit if he came to co-chair K High School I don't know if people believe me at the time but I think things have worked out well and we continue
046to be proud of Brian's work um during his tenure his team has had unprecedented success here making the state tournament all of his years um he has won four NC uh n Triple C titles uh they've won two state championships and they played Four State finals games had a tremendous season this season with a very young group and I know he's very much looking forward to continuing his growth with this group why he's being recognized tonight is he won his 200th game in the world of Athletics it's a very high number um so it's certainly um recognizable and so we're happy that uh he surpasses 200 win total and again in 12 years uh that's averaging about 17 wins a year so um it's quite a high performance congratulations Bri and test thanks [Applause] Bristol
047coach brist [Music] [Applause] coach that know uh coach briso is our wrestling coach uh he's been with us for the last 12 years he's also an alumni can high school um and during his time here as coach he has shown amazing passion for the sport growing the sport here the high school um wrestling you know is a sport where there's not necess fewer programs in town so our numbers change from year to year um but what he's done to kind of combat that he's created some programs he has helped in the Middle School to develop programs and has given a tremendous amount of his own personal time to cultivate growth in wrestling um so we're appreciative of that tonight he's being honored um for his C of Victory as a coach um I do want
048to mention here we went with uh Nick that better that Nick is won his 100 match during his tender as a wrestler in high school Josh also is on the banner for 100 Victories but now we're also adding the fact that he has 100 Victories as a coach in dual matches which is uh which is amazing and this year um we also won the n c so a lot of glorify Josh over the years and this year so congratulations and we appreciate [Applause] so before we do pictures I just want to tell our students that uh what makes Canton such a great place uh is the exceptional students that we have and you are leaders in your areas and we are so proud when we hear hear these things we do this eight times a
049year in the spring and in the fall for each of the schools and uh we're just so proud of our students and what youve accomplish and reason why you gotten to where you are is when we talk about our coaches Mr Jones and and the and the support that you get both mind body and soul if you will from our teachers and our coaching staff and what they develop with with our students and finally you know we tip our hats to our parents because none of this could be possible without the input and support of our parents we have such a great supportive group of parents um in our district and the fact of the matter is what we'll hear after this and I know most you won't stay but we'll hear more about the
050continuous Improvement plans that we have at the high school and in our schools from Cherrywood to uh CIS and then through the middle school the trajectory is like this for our schools and that's that's a tribute to of course our students and our staff and our Administration and all the work that they've done to get us where we are we have an exceptional School District so I want to thank everybody for coming tonight we'll do pictures over there if you'd like with the Board of Education with we just move right over there for anybody that like to be in there coaches and Mr Jones you're invited to be there too please [Music] Champion here [Music] all right look at me first and then everybody else all right thank you all right thank you guys [Music]
051[Applause] [Music] com it's almost over [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm feeling good about this meeting I'm thinking we're going to get out of here pretty quick not a lot of pressure though l no we want to hear continuous Improvement is what this board's about so you take your time all right you have all 10 minutes so you just do you no I'm only kidding you know Mr the PIP up yeah so um I appreciate a little bit more time you know we spent a great deal of time with the board on uh just last week and we shared I think a lot of our growth data and sort of a big picture movement um and and had a nice tour so just to maybe put a few things in writing um for the good of the
052order tonight you know I do feel like K High School is moving in a really positive direction this year um our goals are very slow and steady um and we've seen a lot of success so i s started with the successes and going to back back into the CIP you know I think what you witnessed tonight is the essence of our school I think you said it very well the students you know at the high school level truly you know the things they produce how they how they respond how they grow um when you see it through um you know their interactions you see it through um their maturity you see it in the classroom you see it you know in their Endeavors but but when you see them you know carrying things forward you
053know that you're doing a good job so things I mention here again some of the programs of participation that we've had you know students ran our veterans day they you know do all these Camp presentations we heard about several opportunities for our students to go to other schools and be involved those things happen on a monthly basis you know other things that we're excited about is basically that students are just highly active and engaged in our school there high participation in music and Fine Arts um you know 60 to 65% um you know I share shared this data a few years ago but our Sports continue to grow um again we have about 2third of our students involved in individual sports unique students so that helps as well um you know I you you mentioned
054is um our play tomorrow night um you know it it was a choice to have an interactive with CMS support it was a choice to choose this type of um Musical that would involve so many characters and need so much on the back end of things our tech crew is over 30 for this production we have like 75 students involved daily and it's musical you know it gives students something very focused to do something we be proud about and something that then we all benefit from and this number goes up every year so again last year um I feel we had like 40 students involved in the play because that was the play that it was this open the door for more Mo up because we have that kind of Interest our clubs continue to
055grow you heard about the model the other night you know the honor socities you heard it today talking about some of the interactions that happen amongst the schools um we have an astronomy night coming soon you know I'm really excited that the board supported trips internationally again um you know it's always you know you know there there's Financial concerns there's safety concerns there security concerns but there's also this opportunity that's amazing for students so we're taking unroad we're going to Spain as you know in April um I know we're on the docket to go to Disney next year as well probably close to 100 students when it comes down to it so those things are just amazing opportunities for students to take um to be involved in so we're very excited that it's back up
056and running again our student council continues to be the undercurrent with great ideas um we have connections with the other schools we have a tremendous amount of community outreach as well so you know I think culturally in our climate um I shared with you some numbers um at the end of last year that we had really become I guess a better uh better way to say is a kind of scho you know students were just really in in a better spot and and I think a lot of these after school opportunities and co-curricular extra activities grounds it's in our school and we really are thriving in that way instructionally I I I mentioned a couple of these bullets because I think the board has had a significant impact at assuring that we have these tools
057we've hired you know academic um coaches uh leadership positions in terms of um you know two positions at at the high school one is one is at the high school solely one is shared in both math and Ela to support um both our staff therefore our students in growth and really um we also hired an English chair this year and um again that was an addition to the budget um or a tradeoff in the budget to ens sure we have that position and those positions have made uh have had a dramatic impact instructionally in our school the leadership in the sharing professional development that we have I think the best thing we do and I I I shared this with the staff as part of the CIP is this iterative process of learning about our
058students looking B at our curriculum balancing the two what are our standards what is our curriculum how are we looking at it what are our strategies where our students land and if we need to go backward to go forward we continue to do that so I think students are growing our data shows that um I shared again the data um with with Bo the other day that in most places on our standardized assessments we see tremendous growth um from year and year out PSAT and star we're seeing it at with a breath of students meaning 70 to 80% of our students are growing independently and we're seeing students make big gains um in proficiency levels um from year to year so all of that is happening while we continue to focus on our neas work
059which again um the the as for we had a visitation two and a half years ago um but at the same time we have outcomes that need be uh brought forward as well um and we're working hard with our curriculum this year um something new in structurally you were is that Dr F Russell who is um you know our library in Innovation specialist working with both the 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th grades are really F refocusing at research methods and that's really helping our um teachers rely on her to uh help instructionally and then uh you know a small move that we made internally is um um to support students more um we redistributed our Beauty chart this year to increase the amount of study halls that we would have in our school uh
060second semester and what we did was because we allocated our staff um instead of having like nine study halls like 16 or 17 so they're super tight and so what that happens is um the the staff members have nine students in a study hall a couple of just based on the way the number shook out but that affords like another way for adults and checking students so I think on all levels like Global level we're looking at standardized scores instructionally you know we're sound and using the data um we're focusing on big goals which are Nas goals and we're really looking at students I I I I find that uh interesting that you um compressed the study balls was that a best practice somewhere else how you that's great sure I mean we the goal
061is to just try and and provide students with a space where they can re-engage and work on their you know um work through their homework and that kind of thing so we've had different versions of trying to create that structured support for all students and just through different sort of scheduling obstacles or challenges we we weren't necessarily reaching the whole population that we wanted to so we were able to just sort of um collapse one pathway that we had had previously to give a few more people some some areas and just sort of also talking with the teachers philosophically about what some of those study halls look like and how we're engaging um especially with the new role of the phone regulations how that impacts some of their structur stud I love the Innovation I
062think that's great that we try something like that see how it works I think that's wonderful Dr thought it out she it happens appr her there and she you know we did we spent some time talking about the cell phone regulation and with with the smaller group that was with us last week and you know in short you know I think it was clear that you know we're learning and it's own well and people are relaxed with with with the shift but part of the reason to get these study halls smaller is because we're trying to reaffirm what should be going on in these study halls I think when we grew up study meant something and I think based on the way work you know a lot of inst instruction works is when I'm you
063know students think well I did the work I'm done and what we're trying to reaffirm with that some of that time through verbalization is you need to go back in you have to look at that powerp one more time maybe you have to create some flash cards maybe you have to look at the vocabulary again and again not having their phones available to them in that study hall nth 10th per gives them that next opportunity to dive back in so I think it's all working in Cel so those are sort of our successes and then the CIP you know our goals you know they continue to be relevant I I added a couple bullet points in there of things that we're doing um but really I you know they've been shared with you in the
064past um you know you've seen this language before in terms of you know what we're doing uh you know for achievement you know uh you know I've spent a lot of time on already you know the you know what else we're doing we've impended you know two three new courses this year financial literacy ECE economics EC Mandarin and we're really looking uh to build discuss our financial literacy course is add for soon another business pathway course so that will be our next roll out for next year uh as we continue to talk but you know we continue to be engage with the community through our our newsletter and social media you know we're working with with you know Jordan you know in yourselves on the budget um you know we really feel like again between
065the the I guess a big success for us this year I'm looking at um learning environment belonging um the support teachers the evaluation goals related to classroom environment and high expectations you know we did I think a great deal of work in the summer uh going into the into the fall to prepare teachers for this new evaluation document it's more of a coaching model and I think we really had some successes with getting uh teachers to choose goals that would support students in different ways and and I I think teachers are more relaxed with what they're doing more flexible with what they're doing and they're izing some of the language in in the goal planning so I give um I know Mr Bishop has been certainly very helpful in helping all the administrators roll that
066out but that's been a huge success for us we've really seen the difference I think with with some of the teacher effective attitudes towards their goals um and I think that has helped students be more comfortable um and again we're standardizing many things we're doing with our instruction so you know I mentioned goals already you see uh where it says um you know embracing Equity you know basically these high expectations for all students um you know through instructional practice has really been the focus and again we see that our goals um we continue to work hard on students who struggle to get to school um and you know really talked about the grading practices and and do a lot of work with staff in terms of trying to make sure that they're consistent in Fair
067and really I you know again at the end it mentions for course development I just think it's a win with our coaches that we have in our school and our leadership on on the department level um that that student uh staff they grow they grow every year then stud benef from so you know again that's grief you know I can go on each of these full areas but I just feel like we are moving in the right direction well we attribute a lot of that to your both your leadership uh you have us in the right direction our school our high school is so quiet relative to other schools our kids and we've seen it as we walk through the classrooms are so polite so uh respectful kind I mean um working towards the the
068model of The Graduate I mean you guys are doing a great job with it so any questions for our [Music] principles I just say it was a it was a wonderful visit last week yes uh you when you scheduled for two hours and you stay 2 and A2 you know it must be going well um and all the things you talked about are just so evidence when you walk around the building and you talk to students and you watch students and teachers the relationship between them the the uh engagement on the level of students and as L just mentioned it and the sort of quiet engagement was very impressive two and a half hours so thank you thank you for coming appreciate and it was very interesting and informative when you had the students share
069about the U the two different areas uh the model you in and and the cell phon how that impacted them that was really interesting it's always great to hear from the students and so really brought those two things to life thank you for that Kim do you have anything you want to mention or I'll go to you first uh no it was a great visit you know really informative and we always enjoy visiting the classrooms they really are you know like it seems like everybody's engaged and you know I love how relaxed but yet on task the students seem and how focused you know their their objectives were but um I have to I just want to say one thing I had to laugh I left the meeting and there was the cookies left and
070I was like well I'll just bring him over to you know Jen Zen zenu right and I brought him over and she's like oh come on in come on in they were doing their culinary and cooking and it was fabulous we too bad that wasn't going on when we were there but the students were loving it they were so happy you had four boys who I just saw playing a basketball game like a couple nights before they were they were cooking cutting shaking cutting strawberries mixing measuring they had their aprons on they were they were so happy it was like it was such a delight to see that culinary class in action that you know they that dishwasher is well worth every penny because what those students get out what they get out of that
071class and and how AED and how hard they're working was amazing it was really fabulous to see it was kind of a bonus for me it was not on purpose but I was delighted so kudos to all your staff and your students thanks good thank you Felicia anything for you on your side I don't have anything I know I was unable to attend but I just want to thank you both for all that you do for the school and for the district and um appreciate everything and seeing the feedback and what you shared today was great to here thank you anything else board no thank you very much for the report excellent job and thanks for bringing me students and sure we'll see you in the fall and we'll catch up on where we are
072again so all right can't wait okay thank you all right thank you for having us okay let's move on to standing committee reports we'll start with Finance Russell anything uh you want to add or buildings grounds CIP anything no I think an did a great job but it was definitely good to see the excess cost money's come down and the additional U I don't think incomes right but money's coming in for the tuition for revenue for the for the special education buildings um we talked a little bit about what we're carrying for excess costs for next year what we did this year and then the buildings and grounds uh we we talked about the HBC in Auditorium that's moving forward um and a little bit about plans for the tennis courts but I don't think
073we didn't come to any conclusion on that waitting for some more information great thank you um any questions on finance I have a question about the tennis course is that going to prohibit the uh students from play yeah so our our boys tennis is a co-op program with East Grandy so it doesn't affect them at all because they play at East grity the girls tenis to will that um Mrs uh he our athletic director and Mr pippo met today Mrs he had a meeting with Tommy Richardson our director of Public Works and our director director of recreation Taran to discuss the the courts itself it looks like that they're going to be able to get two of the courts playable for our kids and um possibly another Court practices won't be an issue matches are
074going to be an issue so she's looking at outside sources that may have tennis courts for our kids to be able to play matches on that will be something that would be a budgetary uh impact for us so that is something that it's still being worked out okay um leave that alone curriculum oh policy I'm sorry I'm sorry that's okay that's policy sorry Mr sh jumping ahead we met tonight for the lengthy meeting tonight my thanks to Jordan Peggy and J and Lou uh we finished our review of the bylaws it was a lengthy review I can assure you that we went through the mall of the Fine's home uh we're moving mainly through shipments bylaws but certainly not entirely uh there'll be some cave ones merged in as well uh you will get from
075John a lengthy email with bylaws in them uh sometime the next week we'll send them out with okay I would ask you to find some time to take a look at them uh there are a couple that we have questions about that we bring to the whole group at the next meeting and if you have any questions or concerns please shoot me your job all of us an email we happy to address him at the meeting that that'll become your first read on that uh at the next meeting so if you get a chance to go over that and as Joe said there's quite a bit so um do the best you can if you will now okay Mr Bishop shared a presentation regarding the new model digital citizenship curriculum adopted by the state of
076Connecticut and outline current actions of the district in regard to dig digital citizenship and shared planned next steps for improvement relative to the model um we discussed scope and sequence across all grade levels in the C Public Schools um and then we also looked at two options uh for incorporating this into our Bo ofed goal priority um number four learning environment and belonging and the committee kind of zeroed in on one option and so we will be bringing that to the board at a future date perfect um and our next meeting should anybody enjoy attending will be March 26th at 9:00 a.m. at the high school okay thank you very much any questions on curriculum and our minutes are always posted to the website if anybody's interested in reading about them in further detail you
077always get them on the website we're going to include minutes from from each of the Committees in the uh in the packets going forward so we'll just make sure so as you read your pack you'll have a chance to see what's going on in each of the Committees Communications Felicia anything I know we're going electronic I was talking to K on the way in we're getting ready to make a yeah we we finalized um the newsletter that's coming out um I everything's finalized it just it's ready to go out um we did that between the last meeting and the last week or so and our next meeting is uh March 26 or 24th I'm sorry at one o'clock but that's we don't really have any other updates besides that we're just trying to make sure
078we have all the information in that newslet letter to send out to the public so they're aware of all the happenings okay and I I have a question so as we get um I know we can't promote we can't use uh Town resources for the budget once it's um once it's adopted by the the board of Finance I guess um but is there what's going to be our communicate I know the board of finance will send out a communication like they always do I guess it's um it's it's the three boards we we'll send you have any so I had Mr Bishop meet with or he's going to meet with Mr Penny to discuss last year cure helped out with sending out the the town does the the finance letter we assisted their them last
079year with it and it was basically from the board of that and the board of Select and the board of Finance so John's going to be meeting with you haven't met with him he's going to be meeting with Mr penck to discuss how we want to do it in the future I would recommend to um Felicia and Mr Bishop and and that team to maybe look at a a way of how to communicate budget without violating any laws that you can do as a board member and if you would like uh Mr Daniels I can have um next month if you'd like um a possibility of myself from Mr Bishop talking to our school board attorney to share with the board what you can do and what you can't do or maybe it's conversation that
080you have with attorney no you you can you can bring the board but I you know I I I agree with the electronic version but I still think and it's inexpensive for we can print it here black and white we don't need pictures but I still think that we need to have something at the library at the Town Hall maybe at the the the the front desk of uh of each of the schools like we used to have just just for those people that like print and want to take it out you certainly can make copies for each of the schools and uh town hall and the library it's 400 it's nothing okay good that's great anything more on Communications okay no that's all okay uh Youth Services Bureau is Cindy she's not here tonight
081CRA is now um Kim was nice enough to say that she would she would uh take over uh the correct relationship uh and be part of that Council I don't know Kim if you have anything we report on correct I I'm going to keep it in there but not sure if you have I'm just going to look for my notes Here I did attend the the meeting um I'm going to be meeting with the director just to acquaint myself on their you know goals objectives and Mission but I listened to a presentation on from student staff from one of the correct schools on restorative practice um so that was I open interesting and it was a very honest and open discussion you know there was some school that have not seen success and then others
082that explain how it is successful but it's more of a culture and a climate it's not an end all to discipline or you know um Behavior but it does seem like they will present different topics that you know I can maybe follow up with Mr Bishop on just to see that's great you're don't like Greg Florio he's really nice and I think that's great that you're going to meet with him uh and get part of that group so thank you for doing that yep no problem okay um that that covers all the reports uh calendar of events do we have calendar of events there isn't a calendar of events in the package just because we've spoken about all of the things that are happening so good we've mentioned meeting we mentioned to play early release
083um that's that's good so April you so so once once the board of Finance has our budget and depending on where we end up I'd like this all to be com ambassadors of that budget while we Dr Gman will find out what we can and can't do but I had suggested that you know even if it's a concert that we have a board of education table with with maybe those handouts in case somebody has a question they can come us I think it's more about visibility we get a question but it's visibility reminding people the vote is May 7th uh here's the information if you like it if you have a question so I may ask board members periodically at the uh as we get into the spring events prior to the vote to maybe
084uh man the table I'll be there uh many times but there might be some time where I can't do it so I just ask you all um really become ambassadors and champions to that budget I think we need to do that any any further questions to me I had a quick question regards to the meeting next Wednesday um are you asking us to just be physically in attendance orur do you want to say anything no no you don't have to say anything you be physically physically there or even online I just want to see that the board is behind I plan to be there I just but listen you public comment please when is this meeting Lou next Wednesday that's when we present to the board of Finance Kim at 6: p.m. at the uh
085Community Center I will be at conferences oh that's the same night as conferences yep High School Conference night conference know that kind of stuff needs to be coordinated better I think but no but what they starts six you're about the 19th right yeah 19th yeah that's 19 I know there always something I know there is always something like tomorrow night Thursday we have an art show at the the library at the same time as the Middle School orientation so it's just always going to have overlap I think but but the the interesting thing about all these events is like the hard show may start at 5:30 6:00 and then something starts at 7:00 so sometimes there's some overlap to be able to do both events like a lot of times I'm able to go to
086a double header so I think we have the play also is there so the art shows actually early no F Well same time as the middle school but it'll be recorded yeah so okay um that's great all right um anything else to come before the Board of Education anybody object to us adjourning then we are we are adjourned at uh at um 7:45 88 your right