001[Music] right there okay all right good evening everybody and welcome to uh tonight's meeting the this is a regular meeting at the Board of Education February 14 2023. um I know that uh Ryan will not be here tonight and I know Cindy will not be here tonight and they won't be online so just FYI um with that and our student reps won't be here tonight so we're gonna streamline some of this so you can get home and have a nice Valentine's Day evening with your spouses so so if you'll join me with the uh Pledge of Allegiance please technology I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice yeah at this point we are going
002to open up hey Kim how are you yeah okay at this point we'll we will open up for uh public forum on the budget so the superintendent LED at our last meeting at our special meeting uh presented his budget with a 7.9 increase and uh don is here and uh of course Kevin and John and the team is here to answer any questions based on that that budget so Kira anybody want to make mentioned so if you're joining us online tonight and we want to make your public comment you can go ahead and use the raised hand feature of zoom and I will call on you by yourself name there's some people joining okay we'll give them a few minutes for those of you that just joined if you'd like to make public comment and
003you're online tonight you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature Zoom hey what Kevin maybe you'll just give a quick another brief update on the Budget [Music] Finance while we're waiting sure thank you thank you chair Daniels good evening everybody nice to see all of you thank you for being here tonight and and welcome to the people um tuning in from home um as chair Daniels um stated last week I presented my proposed uh fiscal year 23-24 budget uh to the Board of Education it represents a 7.9 increase over this year's budget as we begin this process we were looking at um all of the fixed increment fixed cost increases in contractual obligations all of those totaled up to a 7.57 percent increase the administrators and uh cabinet uh Donna misakowski our business
004official and John Bishop our assistant superintendent analyzed every line item I reduced the administrator's proposed budget by over eight hundred thousand dollars to bring it to the level where it is currently a major cost driver of this budget is in the area of special education and support services for students we are proposing a new special education program called Drive which would meet the uh the needs of students with behavioral and social and emotional learning challenges and then there is one other new position other than the positions necessary for the Thrive program and that's a full-time math consultant to work with our Middle School and High School teachers and students to improve math achievement so that's a brief overview of uh the proposed budget at this point Thank you Mr Case do we have a list
005of the things that were cut in the 800. um Erica you do you have that on your spreadsheets it's one of them last week it's so long it's been right so it's Oh I thought these were things Cuts left it would have been amazing so I'm just I'm just reviewing for everyone okay how we got last week's budget okay so no additional Cuts yeah panicked me a little bit I can see why um so the uh the finance committee met tonight Russell do you want to just give a quick recap of where we stand um from the finance committee standpoint sorry to put you on the spot yeah no worries the um so basically Kevin we went over uh the budget with Mr Case again we talked about potential areas of that could be cut
006ahead of going to the board of finance and we decided to be a budget basically flat other than fixed cost to increase I'm not basically flat a budget is bad other than fixed costs so it's our recommendation that we would be going backwards if we made any further cuts at this point what he's already put together yeah and and we we're promoting the Thrive program is something that could be very very good for um for the Board of Ed and board of financial for the town generally so we are we're going to uh showcase that is really a separate investment um by the board of Finance to approve that 300 000 which includes um help me with that again too uh poor teachers and two news four special education teachers and three parents and three
007para Educators so we will we will present that to the board of Finance because in their their great wisdom and it was pretty good and again I give Mr schadner a lot of credit on this tomb for a long time we've been looking for a way to keep students in uh in Camp rather than outplace them and I think this is the uh this is a great project that Barbara's put together and so it will take a little bit of investment but there is there is the opportunity that it may be a break even in year one and it certainly will be a uh a uh a big savings if not a money producer for us down the road so thrilled to have that so we're going to keep that a little bit on the
008side and ask the board to find so we'll take that out of the budget so that's that really takes us down to maybe 6.9 and we'll ask them if they want to make that investment and I'm sure they will because of the uh the advantages and opportunities with it so did I get that right Russell okay Joe you want to make any comments on the finance fee no no I just some guy sucked it up very well okay so uh having said that is there anybody that would like to uh give the board of Board of Education input on the Finance on the finances in the budget and we'll open it up again to the outside foreign even my first go around on the board you had done a wonderful job and you are part
009of the glue that keeps this Machinery running so I want to thank you for all your hard work okay uh let's move into the agenda then so the students could not be here tonight the only thing I I looked at the report that's in your packet um maybe the thing that I would highlight is uh just to remind everybody that February 20th and February 21st next Monday and Tuesday school is closed for a uh for a short uh winter recess and um other than that I would say that uh to keep on the lookout for the Seussical um play that's going to be coming up any questions on the student report that we have no okay thank you uh the PTO did provide us uh some information and uh an update and we're very fortunate
010that each one of the pa uh each one of our ETO has provided some uh some information on what's going on with them and a couple things we'll point out is you may remember last year the months is chocolate fundraiser at Cherrywood Primary School by the PTO that is going to start again um I think it starts this Friday and will run through three three and then I also know the schools are doing their bus uh bus driver appreciation um which you know we are very fortunate uh when the Martell bus company and the folks that are running those buses I only hear uh good things about the drivers and the way they take care of our our children so that's great um so they asked me to mention that and then other than that
011you see a student basketball game and you see some community outreach things this all being the consent agenda next time but I want to thank the PTO president for all the work that they do on behalf of our schools and and they're just so creative and uh making things happen in the Canton School District so any questions on the PTO reports that are in your your your packages everybody's good okay moving right along we'll go uh right to the superintendent's report Mr Casey okay thank you very much so over the past couple of weeks um as you can imagine the majority of our time has been spent um was spent uh um putting together the budget proposal in preparation for uh the presentation last week I want to let you know that um we're very
012excited that tomorrow night will be a parent meeting where we will be giving an overview of our Student Assistance Program to meet the health and wellness needs of our grade 7 through 12 students this is the program you approved in December we've had several meetings with staff and now we're ready to roll this out to our family so tomorrow night will be a parent meeting that we will record and make sure we post on our website the communication was sent out to parents last week and another one will go out tomorrow morning and for those parents who are listening in tonight a reminder that the parent meeting will begin at seven o'clock through zoom and the zoom link will go out to the entire Community tomorrow morning and this is a student assistance program for
013all 7th through 12th graders that comes at no cost to families it is it is and has been supported financially by uh this board of education to benefit our students where we hear daily across the country uh this is a a Public Health crisis adolescence uh Wellness so this program is very timely and I hope as many parents as possible can tune in tomorrow night a reminder that only students whose parents give consent can participate in the program so a parent will need to sign a consent form we're sending out the consent forms tomorrow morning with the invitation so parents will have an opportunity to take a look at that and to develop questions prior to tomorrow night's meeting so we look forward to that and uh more information will be coming out as we
014implement this program we'll be getting some monthly reports so we know how many students are taking advantage of the program so we look forward to hearing more which is a good question yes so is there an electronic signature option for that or what's is it in person or what's the not the great question uh Donna do you know the answer to that uh I believe it is a paper puppy but I can double check um to be returned to the high school guidance office okay all right so we'll be collecting these through the school counseling office at the high school that's a great question for Lisa we will check on it are you going to record the zoom and put it on the program so then maybe send out an email list and look at
015things a little bit to get as many as possible absolutely thank you Erica as we prepare for um next year um we have a kindergarten orientation uh meeting for families on the night of February 27th it's a Monday night beginning at 6 30. so I like to let you know as a board that uh the the series of meetings has begun for our entering kindergarten families and again for those listening at home if you've already registered your kindergartner at Cherry Brook Primary School you you have and will again be receiving this information but if you have a student who is eligible to attend kindergarten a child who will turn five years of age by December 31st 2023 please be sure to contact the school because we're really trying to um to get an accurate enrollment
016number uh in kindergarten for next year the students pointed out that on February 7th we had an early release professional development day and that was a a great day overall um I I can tell you that at Cherry Brook Primary School the staff spent time looking at their student intervention team process and as Mr Bishop talks about the multi-tiered system of support the acronym for that is mtss so as you hear Mr Bishop uh in his presentations this year when he talks about mtss multi-tiered systems of support we have three tiers of interventions that we do with students tier one is what the regular classroom teacher I say regular versus special education so what the general education feature does in the classroom with the strategies he or she uses to meet all needs of students
017that's tier one tier two intervention is when teachers pull students aside in small groups or one to one to individualize their instruction and tier three is when a student may be pulled out of the classroom for tutoring support or special education support so the staff spent time that day talking about what strategies they're using collaborating with their peers and Mr Bishop and Mrs McLean are director of people Personnel Services has been an outstanding presentation for the staff and really engage them in this discussion all in the efforts to to align with our primary goal of meeting the needs of each and every one of our students this past Thursday I had the um the opportunity and I don't know um if any of you participated also in a cave webinar webinar on effective communication practices
018we were fortunate that Kira joined that presentation as well and Mr Bishop was part of that as Mr Bishop in in Kira and I know Felicia work on our Communications plan for the district there were some helpful hints I thought coming out of that uh seminar that webinar and I know Kade records them so if you go to the cable website if you have an opportunity to listen it's an hour and 15 minutes I think you'll find it very meaningful one of the suggestions that the presenter made was to have Community conversations with the community about what's happening in each of the schools and I'm proud to say that's something that we've done every year those of you who have been on the board know that in the spring I like to do neighborhood coffees
019if um if parents are willing to invite me into their home I will go to parents homes and talk about the state of the schools before the pandemic we did that and then when the pandemic hit of course we had to do things virtually um this year I want to let everyone know that um I have a series of um of what I'm calling uh coffees with the superintendent and assistant superintendent so uh you can find these dates in my budget PowerPoint presentation but I want to go over them right now um for those of you that would be interested Tuesday February 28th from 6 30 to 7 30. Mr Bishop and I will be at Cherry Brook primary school and we may have some invited guests with us also Wednesday March 1st at 6
02030 we'll be at Canton middle and high school and that is just prior to the high school choral concert so for those planning to attend the choral concert uh please stop by and have a conversation with Mr Bishop and myself Thursday March 2nd at 6 30 we'll be at Canton Intermediate School and then for those parents who may prefer to um to have a morning session on the morning of Wednesday March 8th at 10 30 we'll be meeting at LaSalle's market and I will treat everyone to coffee tea or the beverage of your choice and these um these meetings are meant to uh to have give the public a chance to ask questions anything that people want to know about our district or about our school or about our budget and to give give us
021feedback because the only way we can continuously improve is to get feedback from our constituents so um so these are the initial meetings that have been set up and then I will schedule other meetings later on in the spring it's a good question is the one on the first at 6 30 as well yes they're all at 6 30. so can any parent um I mean you're at the Cherry Brook primary school that's not just for cherryburg primary school students right right thanks for asking that Peggy so yes any parent can come to any session and there are no specific topics whatever um parents or citizens would like to talk about so so you're a Cherry Brook on the 27 28th but you're also on your the 27th for a um that's the kindergarten orientation
022orientation okay yes what do you thinking no I wish there was a way to consolidate you know get those folks about but um but I'll be there both nights sure to answer the have there'll be refreshments I'm kindergarten away as well that's great um I may have mentioned I I know I mentioned this in the past but I just want to say again how wonderful it was to um to attend the unveiling of the mural at Canton Intermediate School that happened on January 31st and I don't believe I reported on that last week but I thank all of the community and you board members for participating in that project and prior to that the entire school was able to go to the American mural project in Winston that has been 20 years in the making
023it's the largest mural in North America and there were two great articles in uh the Valley Press a couple of weeks ago um if you didn't see them try to find an older pathy I know we have one copy in our office but a great publicity and I'm just so proud of Deb Costello the Canton intermediate school art teacher and the Canton Arts Council Who provided funding for the project and for their involvement so it's just it's it's so exciting to see how our Public School in Canton and the community support the Arts I want to let you know also something that you may not know and that's that for several years we have been collecting our food waste at um at each of the schools and we can post that so um so the
024food waste is disposed separately from other waste and we've really focused on Canton Intermediate School under the direction of one of our teachers Diana heisen she has formed what she calls the green team at Canton Intermediate School made up of students who helped direct this effort during lunchtime kitchens at Cherry Brook primary school and the middle school high school also dispose of their food waste in this way we're now looking to expand the program up to the middle school high school to get it started again because before the pandemic it was going strong and then our students moved up and graduated so we're we're needing to train additional students to help in this effort and then we want to bring it down to Cherry Brook primary school and I know the town is also looking
025at um how do how to dispose of food waste residential ones so I just wanted to let you know that that we're continuing with this effort and we hope to improve upon it and I had Donna and I had a meeting this week on how to do that can I ask a question where's the composting taking place at individual schools like that good question okay um no we hire a company called Blue Earth composting and they pick up the food waste our challenge has been bears and Wildlife how to keep them out of the food waste containers so we had to get new containers that are barefoot that was a major obstacle but we now have thank you for asking become posted and then I wanted to um to mention to you you may have
026seen on the news today that Governor Lamont did sign the bill providing for free breakfast in lunches for all Connecticut students through the end of the school year so I know chair Daniels you advocated for that you said he read my letter that's right you send a very persuasive letter to State Legislature I got juice wow so um so this is very exciting and what I do want to say though is we don't have a start date yet so it's really important that families continue to pay for lunches and make sure there's money on their account until the first day that this begins and we should know about that very shortly within this week and we'll send communication all about that and then you can guess well if I recall we have a surplus in
027that account 100 and some odd thousand dollars I think right Donna yeah so why why knowing this is going to happen why can't we start the program right away and use some of that Surplus so the kids immediately they don't have to worry about it I don't know when when the start date is going to be but we just said starting Monday canton's going free couldn't we couldn't we take down some of that Surplus well I feel better if we actually had to start eating so we knew with the effect of the financial effect would be and you should it's the financial person but um you know I can't imagine that it's gonna be too far off in the future because there was something soon and so you know we could then put together a
028little analysis on that and if it is not going to start too soon we'll take a look at that okay all right we'll talk to Maggie our food service director about yeah it's it's a little volatile right now given the fact that um I think the lunches have gone down since the pain you know I was I was at Cherry Brook one day while visiting my granddaughters and I had lunch with with them and um quite frankly I wouldn't eat what they were eating but who who makes that food uh it is our food service it's a shared Service uh between region 10 Avon and Canton and it's all fresh farm to table kind of thing okay you're putting a little lipstick you know there's something like teens have also been a challenge and there
029are some issues you know with that but uh you know overall they try to make things from scratch yeah what I can say is um the number one school for serving meals is Cherry book students love those well I know my one had the French toast stick so how do you go wrong with syrup and fresh but then I saw some of these burgers that were coming out and I was like who determines up the content that we have I guess that's where it all starts that where what decides our contract with food servicing do we select them or town select them and we stay yes so we we um we're very proud that we're part of this shared service collaborative with Avon Edward region 10 in La last couple years we were working with
030Litchfield too so this is a cost-effective move to share one administrator along three communities and we hire our own employees and they um they create the food based upon nutritional recipes because it's very the nutritional guidelines are very stringent you might not think so by looking at some of the food but it it truly is so if we have any feedback about the lunch program we really need to get that to mag um so Maggie's the one that's like she's setting the menu baggage rare develops the menu and then all three districts and then make sure the recipes are given to the cooks in each of the schools and again very very strict guidelines so and they do go out of their way to do Farm to Table would it be overstepping to invite the
031board members when at your convenience if you'd like to uh stop by school and have lunch would that be all right we would love that I'd love to give you a tour of the school and have lunch there absolutely well I was going to as part of my report I was going to ask about that walkthrough maybe uh when we do the school visit if you can make it uh we'll start with lunch and then we'll move from there would that be all right I love that okay we'll work on that love that okay um finally as part of my report um I'll build lamb jobs or the state or the state um yesterday um aligning with our district on student wellness uh yesterday in Canton middle school held uh the first annual day of
032Wellness we're over 20 um 20 visitors uh percent presented a different aspect of Wellness to our seventh and 8th graders and Kim I want to thank you for coming in and painting Rock having the students paint rocks and I heard that was fantastic I wish I was there to see it myself and then Felicia thank you for coming in and and teaching the students yoga so so Mr Moore and I really appreciated that you gave your time to do that we had great fun I think it was wonderful I think Mrs brinsel did a nice job setting this up and organizing it so this was their first time ever doing something like this it was well received I think by the staff and the students they all really got so relaxed a little bit do
033something they enjoy I think there was a little bit of a you know they could do they would love to do it again because they didn't get something get to go see The Guiding eye dog and take it for a walk so it was a wide variety of horses that they could do two things but they enjoyed everything they did and it's just like they need more of this you know it makes you see how much um you know stepping outside the classroom doing something different working with different ages and groups because those seven were mixed with eight I think more of this is needed and I think right Felicia wouldn't you say it was a great great event it was definitely a good good outcome I mean I'm curious to know like I don't
034know if Mr Moore's doing this but like what the student thought and what they'd like to see moving forward like how much they did have a survey he was doing this they were surveying all the students so they could give feedback on their survey and Report because they may have ideas yeah so the big a big thank you does go on to Mrs brinjal who organized the events this took the place of the Day of Service which the middle schools held for several years but because our theme was on student and staff Wellness they wanted to focus on that this year I mean he's still able to do a day of service later on because that was so valuable as well you know why do we have to limit it to like either or I
035think it just comes down to time for planning event there's both events that take an extraordinary amount of time at well worth what you get back from absolutely so thank you Bob that's my extensive report for those very good thank you thank you any questions for the superintendent anything that uh you'd like to ask I have a question about the earlier so I will need to find out the details um we're we're concerned about the political unrest in Peru at this point um I think out of a level out of four levels of advisories peruse at level three um so I've asked um I've asked the trip leaders to work with the tour company and look into the situation at this point so if the communication went out about that I did not see that
036okay yeah I think I saw something nice the high school newsletter yeah they switched I forget they switched from Peru to some play Ecuador Maybe I think they got to come back to the board on that it just can't switch the trip I was surprised I was surprised that that was just can't do that about it but I thought that maybe I missed something behind the scenes yeah I want a full overview of Ecuador because that was if you remember I voted against the trip it was one of the questions that I had still have it that they're going down to you know a country that we're not that familiar with so I think they got to come back before they start saying that they're going to go to Ecuador Erica thank you for bringing
037me yeah thank you I didn't see that a quick question Kevin and speaking of Wellness uh are you seeing an uptick in what absences comparing a lot of the covet talk cases are you seeing that or not I have not seen any data related to uh to covet absences nothing that's been brought to my attention I can tell you the schools where I'm spending a lot of time at have not had any recent upticks in covert because tradition no that's that's the same at our uh monthly safety school safety briefing it's been very very flat even flu uh was very flat too you know good okay okay good all right uh chair report we'll go real quick and then I'm gonna do some committee updates um what is I want to remind everybody on 315
038if you can mark your calendars that's a Wednesday that is the board of Finance meeting where we'll be presenting are of approved budget at that point to the board of Finance so it's a 315 it'll be in the big room I believe is it 6 30 do you know I believe it might be um six o'clock six o'clock um but Lou if I could just also mention that was the date of one of our community gatherings but of course the board of Finance doesn't check the Board of Ed calendar so we may need to look at that date yeah or for changing the community Gathering yeah which I'm sorry about yeah that's fine but we need to do that sooner than later okay I'm fine um the other thing is um you might have noticed
039we had promised you a safety briefing with the chief of police but we've moved out to March it's March um just in the interest of time so we are going to do that safety briefing at one of the meetings in March uh the other thing is uh the Avon Canton rotary has uh made an offer to the uh to the schools to uh two things one is um they had done this for many years in Hartford where they would come in and provide tutoring Services there were actually 10 15 or 20 of us that would go into the Milner school um once or twice a month I can't remember but they would like to try to initiate that here in Canton to provide you know they have some retirees with great expertise they would like
040to uh do some tutoring in some Sport and help and Mr Bishop is uh is helping coordinate that the second thing they've offered to do is to do an on Hand Project where a landscaping project Adopt A School if you will and they will do the uh the plantings and even make some donation to uh getting that done and again Mr Bishop is looking into that so that's great um the uh the final thing I want to mention is um once a month we have these leadership meetings with the uh with the town which has the CAO the first selectman myself Kevin John attended the last one and Ken Humphrey the uh chair of the board of Finance just to keep everybody kind of apprised what's what's going on and uh at that meeting you've
041heard some conversation that we we need space and uh John did an excellent presentation in providing them with the backup in the background of why we need space and uh the way that um our the bubble that we have coming through beginning in 2025. um it was a very good meeting and very productive and very collaborative because of what was determined in that meeting is rather than to do a um a Band-Aid fix you know we had talked about the community center or another building or where can we go to find Space uh we were even looking at Kevin's house for a little while but uh in any event um let's go on the market so in any event um they were very Cooperative in collab and they said listen you have a problem let's
042fix the problem let's do it the right way so uh whether that entails a building project or something else um I know Kevin John and myself are meeting to put that together they want to expedite it um they don't want to slow walk it which I'm really happy to hear so we're going to get back to you on what our thoughts are and then we'll get back to the town on how we start to uh to get the public support behind whatever's required but uh I will tell you what I what I feel very good about is it's going to be a not a short-term fix it's going to fix the problem whether that be um you know the middle school or CIS or even Cherry Brook but that's that's the job of the administration
043that kind of give us the option so that's what's going on there uh before I get to the committee updates any questions for me anything that I've said okay um committee updates uh we did Finance Joe do you want to I know we have some uh sure we have two policies for tonight for our first reading um and we're working on two I think pretty important policies uh one on controversial issues and one on selection of instructional materials and those are fairly complicated and timely topics that we hope to have a first reading at the next meeting but no guarantees great thank you Erica do you want to on curriculum curriculum hasn't had that so I'll have to do that next do you know when your next meeting might be um I need to okay
044yeah Joe your next meeting will be waiting in a second to six o'clock on the 22nd for those of you that would like to hear more on the policy people are in policy right now it's it's Cindy myself Joe Ryan Ryan yes you are Peggy sorry when are we meeting next I'm 22nd at 6 p.m before our regular board meeting all right yeah we regularly mean before the an hour before the second meeting of the month this happened to me three meetings this month so okay that's why we we made the Board of Ed meetings at 7 15 so we can get a meeting in rather than trying to get some consistency Behind these other side meetings and then on the communication side um our next meeting is February uh 24th at 2PM and um
045we're just kind of working on things to make uh District communication more transparent and just feedback from uh local Town parents and you know the kind of collaborate so many things thank you and I think that covers all the uh the committee reports okay we'll move on to uh we had public forum we'll open up one more time and see what you want to um bring up anything that was um not covered in the budget and of course if you have a budget questioning please feel free to uh to present that also but we'll open up for public forum again so for those of you who've joined us more recently if you want to make your public comment now you can use the raid fan feature on on Zoom it's on the bottom of your
046screen and I'll call on You by resilient sorry [Laughter] I don't have any reason you're kidding me you just raise your hand okay all right we'll close the public forum thank you very much so information reports will continue along with uh the assistant superintendent's report okay I only have a a few things to be able to share tonight but I appreciate the opportunity when you say only in a few that doesn't that doesn't jive with me I only have a view it's it's it's it's it's it's it's detailed notes go ahead um wanted to be able to let you know um uh Justine Ginsburg and our continued partnership is going to be working with us on March 8th for uh meaning we're calling the anxious child so I'm talking about anxiety with our children we
047know that that's a major a major issue um but we're looking forward to being able to have those conversations I will say from a Communications standpoint one of the things that we we discussed is how we're able to be able to track the connection and communication with folks we did see that we have an uptick actually in our in our first meeting we now have 45 views on our video that we had from previous oh that's where we only had we only had like seven people in person with us in this next one we had a lot of Engagement with the short snippet the the video that we sent out in response to hey this is what this is about and Kira did a great job of being able to build a web page or
048a page on our our website to be able to say here is the resource and here are I'm sorry here's the recording and here are our resources and we're going to work on being able to track that data on how many clicks and engagements we have with those types of things so here I appreciate your your partnership with that um Justine has been wonderful to work with she even has invited me to be able to participate as a featured star of the resilience grows here videos will be passed around the um the the Farmington Valley area so I know my children will be very proud of me as I'm shown in middle schools throughout the area but uh but it is something that we really believe in um in the value of participating locally to
049to act and um a broader perspective to be able to support all of our communities and I know other districts are going to be invited to be able to participate as well so that's that has been great I want to thank our our police department and I also want to thank our state representative Elaine Cavazos de brats sharing the information with us on the State security infrastructure grants we had a great conversation with we need to be able to discuss some of the initiatives that we have and also look at some of the projects that we have had in the past and some of the work that we're looking at going forward to being able to put into a hopeful grant that we hope to be able to to receive some support for um and
050we'll keep you all updated as that information comes along um and then here is doing a wonderful job on developing a a newsletter that will be able to go out to the community around our budget process highlighting the great things that are happening and the great work that's moving forward for us as a district we'll have that electronically but we'll also have that printed for folks too so that we can live in the digital and the analog world and then Alicia thanks for your feedback with this too um being able to start to curate more stories online that we can we can develop we can send out with a little video message and then curate those resources and stories so that there can be just in time uh communication and information for folks to be
051able to engage with um and be able to really do a great job of telling the story became Public Schools that's what I have heard something it was such an excellent report and it was only really this much of it yes that was that so Mr Bush up next any uh questions for Mr Bishop thank you for all the work that's going on with Communications and it's just so important especially as we did at this budget cycle so thank you very much okay um January uh 2023 you're up all right well I I have committee already um so just a short synopsis uh the uh same format as we have had every month I have separated the special education expenses from the other expenses and uh just basically highlighted the areas of uh where we're
052unfavorable budget um but again but it's by no means means that we're going to be coming in over budget it just means you know these are the areas where we've had to compensate in other areas so between that compensation and some of the anticipated reimbursements that we might get through the city of Hartford or excess boss Grant uh we would hope to be I'm sorry with um but just to let you know uh the first item is always the the most volatile which is the honest District tuition which is uh eight hundred thousand dollars over budget and this is an increase of 48 000 over last month and it is due to one student that has entered the program of out of District tuition uh all of the rest I've added on our on my
053variance sheet here uh I've noted that basically there's no change over last month so although it's an unfavorable variance right now uh it is not changing it's uh staying pretty much the same and again still hoping that uh with other compensation and reimbursements that we would come in online at the end of the school year so um if you have any specific questions you can let me know um but it's the same uh the same story basically is our special ed expenses um for the 800 000 intuition and then there's 171 000 in special ed pairs uh and then the transportation for out of districts uh are the big nuts in that special ed piece so um that's about it basically it's you know nothing to worry about and uh that's the story is I
054would just say that um Mr Case reported that they started a soft freeze um in the district as we um as we begin to kind of tighten up the uh the financials at this point but uh in in conversation that um you know if if our Administration administrators not spent certain dollars they probably didn't need to spend the dollar so um and and what you see here is you're not seeing the offsets too a lot you're only seeing the variances tonight so it's it's the start of it it's February um no need nobody thinks the sky is falling just yet but um the the administrative team is is taking certain steps right now to make sure that we stay within the uh within the framework right we'll know better as time goes on and we
055start to forecast out for the end of the character questions on finance we're picked on it thank you that was a great report too I appreciate it okay so we can move into the uh consent agenda Mr Case thank you very much uh the consent agenda exhibit two in your packet consists of meeting minutes from the January 24th 2023 and February 7 2023 regular Board of Education meetings I would ask that you approve the consent agenda as presented okay um any questions on the consent director I have a question about the um now Margaret Lynch came and talked about um how many times right against Cash Cash correct is that some are we going to discuss that in some date about would you like we could put that on the next agenda I think so
056sure we can do that it's right now it's the CIA see it's an accepted practice if you went to any ciac Tournament game you have to go to the QR code and give your credit card I guess the exchange of cash makes some people nervous but we could certainly have that conversation we can bring in the ad to kind of give in a little bit more information so sure okay that'd be fine any other questions before I take a motion okay may I have a first thank you um on this February 7th meeting it has Cindy and Ryan as abs and they're both virtual oh uh February 7th meeting regular or special um special regular we're the only at the at the regular or nothing special no that was a special that's a good pickup
057especially increase then there's big emotion second questions and the great questions and then how do I I have to amend this so what's the procedure quality can answer that question Robert's Rules expert yeah you want me to take a first a second have discussion or do you want me to you want to amend them now well I don't know if there's is there an error no I don't think there's an error no I don't think they were at 6 30. oh okay I'm sorry okay okay all right then I'll again Eric gave me a first can I have a second thank you Joe any any further discussion on the consent agenda all those in favor aye opposed and six seven seven oh okay um first reading the the uh the policies joke graduation requirements right
058uh graduation requirements this is a a minor minor change um to make sure that our uh credit giving curriculum is in line with state regulations Sean you were going to explain exactly what that was sure um there essentially what we're adjusting from this is there was a previously a required a requirement for four math credits uh it's being shifted to three math credits but still requiring an overall and you'll see in the graphic and overall nine credits in stem and that's right in line with what state statute is for that and so that moved around a couple other elements for it but it really does reflect what um what state guidance is and what that practice is I will say the one thing that we continue to be able to ask for um that is
059is beyond what the state recommendation is is um two years of World Language because again we we have to leave and we do believe the value in being able to persist in the study of world language language particularly as we consider ourselves uh to be preparing to be Global Citizens as well so it was just a minor change to make sure that it is it was reflecting the accuracy of our program and state state guidelines and this is just the first reading list anywhere so you don't have another shot at it so I need a um a motion to accept as a first reading p6146 graduation requirements Joe first and Felicia on a second any discussion on this any further discussion questions like I said it's first reading will come back to you all those
060in favor aye seven 7-0 thank you and now the second one jump second one is exemption from instruction uh that there are times when a parent can choose to have their child Exempted from a certain industry can't exempt your child from math but there are other areas where you can exempt them from um oddly enough the policy uh begins with an area where you can't exempt your child from uh and that's uh the state requires substance abuse education it can't opt their child out of that the other areas are pretty self-explanatory there um and it brings us in into guidelines with state regulations and what we added uh which not all districts have of what I asked John there was just a simple form uh it has not come up often in the past but
061it's very occasional that a parent requested child B and there are the areas that it's legal to have your child Exempted from did you so choose and this brings us right in line with uh some of the earlier policies that we had discussed earlier in this year making sure that we're enacting this in the proper way and that's uh the form is on page three of the um right after the um the policy itself right so where would a parent find that form that's a good question that will be available on our on our um our policy page we can also refer to it in our school handbook as well and we can hyperlink those types of things as well they're able to get access for them and probably it's probably not in the school
062handbooks right now but it probably would be good to have just a small note let's agree and what I would say too is our administrative staff when there are questions that come to them they they are aware that there is documentation that would need to be a part of this so this will be the tool that we will use to be able to say we understand your concern is if you could just go into document for us to be able to to send that back in and what that does which is wonderful is it it continues that communication pathway between home and installing and this uh this is not a new policy or is it a new policy first not a new policy it's an update um but it's an update on a policy from
063um 2003. and I think the updated area was sex sexual abuse and Assault Awareness and prevention program that was what was added right they were there were actually a number of them to them but those are all in line with what our current state statutes are okay so can I have a first on this first Reading Please can I just ask clarify can I just get the person a second then we'll go to the discussion is that okay just to keep it in process so Kim on the first aircon the second and now discussion thank you what what is bilingual education that's a horrible World Language no no that's a that's a good question um uh not to validate it or dismiss it but I I was wondering the same thing with it um and
064it's really around the concept of being able to be instructed in two languages there are bilingual schools in which you might be instructed in English and Spanish um so it would provide that that flexibility but it's not World Language okay are you good with them yeah I mean I think those are some of the fancier programs in schools the you know they're teaching French to everybody as well as English they're doing that so sign me up I haven't heard that term one of the fancier when I was teaching in West Hartford one of the elementary schools had only French yeah all right uh first and second all those in favor aye 7-0 thank you okay and then the final thing for tonight is the approval of the January 2023 financials can have a motion to
065accept thank you Russell thank you Peggy first and second any any further comment on the financial concerns hearing none all those in favor aye opposed Eric did you vote okay thank you sir okay so that's 7-0 thank you very much all right uh any board comments questions um that you would like to express um in talking about mental health since we're you know focusing on the court I just wanted to point out which which is not related to the board but um uh principal Corton sent out a newsletter that had a recording of a conversation that was done within the community through a c and one of the healthcare provider or the mental health writers was on there speaking about the effects importance of SEL within the schools and we also had a person come
066in from crack talking about trauma-informed practices so it's you know if anybody's interested in that it's in her newsletter she's sexual excellent I I also just to piggyback off of that if you saw the uh Hartford current Community section um last week the town of Simsbury now is exploring uh the mental health they had a ton of Statistics but uh they're they're looking to implement programs and they're looking to add more of a public discussion about mental health both for staff teachers and students and they actually listed some interesting statistics uh relative to the students which is alarming if it's not so I I think we're taking the right steps but it's it's certainly gay gaining momentum out there to look at these types of programs so any other comments questions we don't meet again
067then until um next Wednesday the 20 seconds right okay which policy first the Board of Ed uh so hearing none um I think this was a record it was an hour um all those uh motion to adjourn peace thank you Russell thank you Felicia all those in favor aye okay we have seven off thank you we're adjourning