00120 26 >> Mr. presency. Roll call, please. >> here. >> Thank you. Before we begin, I I'd like to ask everyone to um join me in a moment of silence. Um and I want to pause to honor and remember um the American service members who have recently lost their lives in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East right now. and I feel like their sacrifice does remind us of the courage and commitment of those who serve our nation and especially since you know one of our schools is named after our veterans. So I think it's appropriate to acknowledge this. Um additionally I I feel like we do hold our hearts um the children and families communities around the world um who are experienced fear. They're experiencing loss and a lot of uncertainty during this time
002of conflict around the world. So um we I want to keep all those affected in our thoughts, in our prayers. Um want to pray for strength, for comfort, for peace. And to those living through these difficult times, um please know that you're not forgotten. We are thinking of you and we pray for your safety. So please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation with liberty and justice for all. First item would be our fabulous student representatives. I'm going to ask the DOD representatives, Whitney and Silas, to go first. Sorry, Connor. >> Hi, my name is Silus Newell. I'm an eighth grader on the
003green team. Hi everyone, I'm Whitney Rabbel and I'm an eighth grader on the red team. >> We want to thank you for the opportunity to share some of the great things happening at DOD. Once again, >> um while there are tons of um important and exciting things happening at DOD, tonight we're going to show you um some of the few things that have happened in the past and a few things that we're looking forward to coming up soon. To start, members of the band, orchestra, and chorus, all passionate about music, came together in the CMEA, a concert made up of the best of the best musicians our schools have to offer. In order to participate in the CMEA, students first had to apply, try out, and learn extremely difficult music. Students also had to learn
004to work with an unfamiliar conductor and students from other school districts. Furthermore, Cheshure students performed outstanding this year. Out of all 25 students participating, seven of our Cheshure students were the first seats, meaning they were the most skilled in their sections. More specifically, Chesher conquered the flutes, clarinets, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, viola, as well as trumpet sections. Overall, the CMEA was a great experience for all of the students involved. Um, this year Dodge Drama Club has been really dedicated to put on an amazing show this year. And their show dates will be tonight, March 19th at 700 p.m. Um, tomorrow, Friday, March 20th at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, March um 21st at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Um, the production is a really fun musical called The Susical. Um it's about an elephant um from
005Horton hears a who and he hears a quiet call for help and he decides to help the who's down in Whoville. And I just want to say everyone who's been involved in this production has worked really hard to put on an amazing show. So I really encourage you guys to check it out. As you all may know, the Dodd Student Council is a group of students who work together with teachers to organize and arrange various charity and fundraising events. Furthermore, the student council has the option to like suggest what they might want to support. In fact, even right now, our student council will be hosting two events, one of which being suggested by a student. The first of these being Hats for Hope, an event that will raise money to support local children with cancer
006and their families. The second event is a hygiene product drive for things like shampoo, dish soap, and conditioner. This collection will take place from March 23rd to April 2nd. From setting up simple and fun events for students all across DOD to an extremely successful food drive and fundraising events, our student council has definitely had some accomplishments this year. On Wednesday, March 11th, a few students from Dodd, including Silus Newell, um Evelyn Huvong, Thomas Roland, James Fitzgerald, Natalie Muert, um Elizabeth Paragalo, and me, we got to be chosen to take a trip uh take take a trip to the Capitol. and we got to hear some of the bills being proposed um such as uh proposed banning of phones in school and whether or not um school buses should be powered by gas or should go
007electric. Um in addition to this, we got to hear various opinions about the um topics that were being discussed. Um after hearing the discussion, we also got to go on a self-guided tour around the capital. On April 2nd this year, students all around the school in both seventh and eighth grade who represent our spark values will be attending a leadership conference run by the CHS peer health mentors. Roughly 40 participants will have the opportunity to display their leadership and make a positive impact on our do community. Students will partake in team building activities, watch a panel, view various other presentations, and finally discuss what it truly means to be a leader at the high school. All the students involved in this leadership conference will definitely come out the other side having learned and grown as
008a leader and a person. Um over the past couple weeks, DOD student advocates have done a great job leading um upcoming seventh graders around DOD for a tour. And during these tours, they show them around DOD, give them little tips and tricks, maybe teach them how to work their locker. And um also we held the sixth grade orientation. So with um families with upcoming seventh graders got to come to DOD and learn what they should expect next year for their student over the next two years at DOD. They also got the chance to meet a lot of our great staff. This winter at DOD we had an amazing sports season. This winter both boys and girls basketball and cheerleading were available for students all of which were rather popular. This year about 30 students tried
009out for cheerleading. Over 60 students try out for girls basketball while roughly 70 students try out for boys basketball. For starters, cheer had an amazing season winning second in their tournament. Furthermore, both boys and girls basketball teams performed amazingly. All throughout this winter season, our athletes improved teamwork, developed skills, and made new friends. There is also an upcoming spring sports season. Very soon, students will be able to try out for baseball, boys and girls, uh, track and field, and softball. It seems like the spring season is going to be just as popular as 58 students are already lined up to try out for baseball. It's safe to say there will be more opportunities for students to learn and grow. >> Um, I just want to say thank you for having us back and we really
010hope you've enjoyed hearing about all the great things happening at DOD. >> Thank you. Um yeah, we will see you on April 16th to share more of the things that are happening at DOD. >> Awesome. Any board members questions? Miss Kauer, >> thank you for that. That was wonderful. Uh after attending the capital since both of you went um and hearing some of the debate, what is your view on cell phones being banned in school? >> I feel like I like it because it gives students more of a chance to pay attention. I feel for me that if I had my cell phone, I would probably be more distracted. So, I'm appreciative of this. >> Yeah, I agree fully. I think they should probably be banned. >> Dr. Hi, I want to talk also about
011Cave Day on the Hill. Um, Miss Cullinin and myself were there on Wednesday and I couldn't be more proud to see the delegation of Dodd students there. And I just want to put out a big shout and a big thank you to your two teacher chaperoons who set this all up and um afforded this really great opportunity to um this nice group of of DOD students. So, thank you for participating and thank you for reporting on it and I'm glad that you have opinions about things that are going on in your education. So, thank you. Oh, I wanted to ask Whitney, are you are you related? >> Uh, yeah. He's my brother. >> That's why we said the last time to get her a name tag, but she's already halfway there, too. >> We just
012have to cross out Connor. >> Sam, >> thank you. calling it. >> Yep. >> Um and I just want to add um to Dr. Herrian's um what she had to say tonight. I also went up to the Capitol and um Dr. Solen, you would be very proud in a room filled with adults and lawmakers and policy makers. One of our students steps stood up and asked questions and kind of put the speaker on the spot, I would have to say um about some issues. So, I was very proud of our Cheshire kids and then they walked over the Capitol and um and then they did some visiting and politicking over there too from what I hear. So, thank you. Thank you for setting that up and thank you to the teachers um who took our
013our students there that um day. >> Thank you. Any other board members? >> Thank you both. Um what is there a ticket price did you say Whitney for? >> Um I think it's like $7 maybe. >> $7. Okay, great. I think we get a discount if we're a senior citizen. Is that what you're saying, Miss? Okay. >> I thought the discount was for board of ed members. >> It's debatable. Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> I fit both categories. >> All right. Connor, it looks like your uh co-anchor is is coming. >> Thank you. >> So, Maddiey's at rehearsal tonight. She is our leading player in Pippen. So that's right. They are running the entire show tonight. So she has to be there. >> But before I start, I want to say I'm really
014impressed with the representatives from Dodd. Uh I don't know if my report is quite as detailed. Uh but I'll I'll try my best. So >> And you're not biased at all. >> Oh, definitely not. >> Okay. >> It's almost like I live with one of them. But >> anyway, starting off, we would really like to give a big recognition to our Cheshure Boys ice hockey program. While their season did end on Tuesday in a 4-1 loss to Lyman Hall in the division 2 seate semi-final, their season really was filled with a lot of really notable accomplishments. Whether it was their record- setting 21game win streak or their SEC championship title, there really is a lot to be proud of. In addition to all their team success, we had multiple members of the program receive individual
015honors with Ryan Miller receiving the SEC player of the year and SEC athlete of the year and then head coach Anthony Gusto was recognized as the SEC coach of the year. So, a big congratulations to the boys for for a really terrific season. But as as our winter sports close, our spring sports are ramping up. pitchers and catchers reported on Sunday for both baseball and softball. And then on the 21st, all of our other sports programs will begin their seasons. Uh like the middle school representatives, I'd like to mention the number of students we've had participating in sports this year. As of spring sports signups closing, 914 Cheshire High School students were signed up to play a sport, which makes up almost 75% of our student body. And as someone who was a part of
016Cheshure High School sports, I think this can kind of speak to the testament of not only the success that we have on the field, but the communities that these sports teams create as well. So yesterday, Pure Health was at it again. We hosted our annual unified basketball tournament. Uh I had the opportunity to attend and you know, it really is a special event because it it gives you some perspective into kind of how good it is to just be around people who are always happy. I think one of my favorite things from being there yesterday is almost all the unified athletes. I don't think I saw any of them frown once. They're all so happy and I think with everything that's going on, it's a great great reminder for us to kind of just take
017a second, smile, and appreciate what we have around us. Anyway, going forward, Chesher High School has a lot of exciting things happening. We have our Spilled Ink, our literary magazine. They'll be hosting their gallery walk on March 25th. It's a great opportunity for I think our our students to see what their peers are doing in the art and literature realm. Also, this is a really fun announcement. I'm sure all juniors are thrilled about it. They will be starting their standardized testing. They will take the SA SAT on April 16th and then the NGHS or NJ or NGSS assessment on the 21st. So, Maddie is not here obviously because she's preparing for the play. But we do want to kind of announce that you are all invited to come see it March 26th, 27th, and 28th.
018The production will be Pippen, which is a fun and exciting production following a young man's search for kind of purpose and an extraordinary life as the leading player, Maddie, takes him through a whole bunch of different realms. I think Maddie mentioned politics, um, revolution, pleasure. So, this show is going to mix a lot of humor. I know they break the fourth wall a ton. So, it'll be really a a fun watch and our cheshure drama program is always fantastic. So, we're all very excited to see how it turns out. But, thank you for having us tonight and uh we hope well we hope to be back soon, too. >> Thanks, Connor. Any board members? Oh, Dr. Sing. >> Um, you talked about the spring sports season. I have the opportunity to have lunch with Connor
019and a bunch of other students uh about every month to just kind of connect and and um this year they decided to set a goal around uh engaging more students in in connecting with their peers around different events. Uh because usually we get a ton of people at high school football games, the occasional basketball, hockey game, but um we have a lot of impressive performers in the arts, music, other sports that don't get a lot of recognition. You want to talk about the goal you guys set and what you're working toward a little bit? >> Yeah, sure. So, we're kind of a group of about I would say 30 students. And the nice thing about this group is it's not just seniors. There's it's freshman through seniors. And honestly, it's really cool to work with
020some of the younger grades because I've been really, really impressed with some of our younger student leaders. But our goal is to kind of like Dr. Solen said, getting people to events that aren't football, basketball, lacrosse games. So, our plan is to kind of have a weekly calendar that we roll out on social media each week kind of going through what events are happening and also kind of having like an incentive system to get people to come to these games. So, I think something we discussed in our last meeting was uh a system called RAM points where you come to the game, you take a photo at the beginning of the game and after the game, you send it into our social media page to kind of prove that you were there and then based
021on what event it is, you'll get a certain amount of RAM points and then like any other reward system, you can redeem those points in for a prize. We haven't really figured out what prize is yet, but we're pretty excited about the initiative. >> It's fantastic. Did you have a question? >> No. Any other board members? >> Yes. Thanks, Connor. Um, always great to hear from you. I just had a question. I also um lies with the Chesure Education Foundation. And in our last meeting, it was noted that we had a nice substantial increase in the amount of applications for at least the scholarships that we administer. And that was great. I was happy to hear that because there's eb and flow, but this was like a market increase. Jason, I was just wondering if
022you heard more about it this year. I don't know, you know, did you seem to think like there was just kind of more buzz about it or or why there might have been an an uptick and I'd love to see that continue. >> Yeah, a lot of the a lot of my friends at least I know we all applied for a lot of scholarships. It's it's nice to get kind of they give us a booklet of all the scholarships that we can apply to and you know it made my life a whole lot easier because I went through and I could go kind of organize scholarships that I wanted to apply to. I think I think the the guidance department that we have does a really good job of setting us up for success. I
023know if you needed anything you could go down and ask and the whole kind of scholarship thing was run by them. So I think kind of the convenience and then obviously it's really relevant for a lot of us. College is expensive. So we're all we're all looking for ways to make it as cheap as possible. So I think >> yeah I also think students like informing other students kind of that word of mouth um is great and and I already have my ticket for March 29th for Pippen. So or 28th for Pippen. So I'm really excited. So thanks again for plugging that. >> Of course. >> Great. Any other board members comments, questions? >> With respect to the um applications though, we worked to almost make like a common app sort of format now where
024students only enter their demographic information once and it populates into a variety of things. Marlene, I know you worked a lot with Scott Conway on that. Can you >> Yeah. So, sorry. What Scott Conway did, Scott is one of our data analysts in our tech integration um office. And what he did this year, which Connor, you might not even be aware of because it's the first year they've done it, is they put two links on the website. The first link you put all of your data into, your demographic data, and the second one you can upload as a PDF, your resume, your transcripts, etc. So rather than students having to do this multiple times for every single application, it merged them together and made it super simple for students to apply to more than one.
025So we went from between seven and 800 and I think we had 130 students apply individually to over,00 applications this year. I still haven't figured out how many students that meant but tremendous increase in the number of scholarship applications out there. >> That's awesome to see. That was quite a hurdle as I recall just it constantly entering the same information over and over. So I I know where that came up a bunch. So thank you for doing that. That's excellent. >> Scott Conway, you did a great job. >> Yeah. From personal experience using the the common app. It was a Google form that had kind of like three step or three or four steps to it where first you would kind of pick the scholarship you were applying to. Then you would upload your demographic
026information. But having it all in one spot and then I think having it as a PDF upload and having the demographic information, the PDF was created for you. So you filled out the form and then you got it back. So you didn't have to really do anything. It made my life a whole lot easier. And I applied to a whole bunch of scholarships, so it really it's a timesaver and it it made the whole thing not only less stressful, but just easier in general. >> Thank you, Connor. We'll see you back here in April. >> Um, next item is we do have a school partnership award. So, I'm going to ask Mr. Colour to um go to the mic for our do a little school partnership presentation. All right. Thank you. Uh on behalf of
027Mrs. Lopa, the dittle principal, and together with the board of ed, it is our great pleasure to recognize Sarah Lefabe, a truly dedicated and valued member of the school community who has generously given her time and energy to Dittle for many years. As an an engaged parent, teacher, and committed PTA leader, she consistently goes above and beyond to support Dittle staff, students, and families. Sarah has faithfully served as PTA secretary for more than five years and is instrumental to the entire PTA board. As a teacher in the building, she helped strengthen the connection between the school day and PTA initiatives, ensuring communication, collaboration, and partnership remain strong. She spearheaded the picture this program, leads the VIP and me dance committee, runs the PTA website, oversees the sixth grade yearbook and promotion ceremony. In addition, she
028serves as chair for the end of the year party and is currently leading the launch or actually we just had our new bingo event at Dittle which she chaired. Whether attending every PTA meeting, planning and chaperoning beloved events such as the spring dance and trunk or treat, volunteering at the ice cream social and book fairs, or stepping forward whenever extra help is needed, Sarah brings enthusiasm, organization, and heart to everything that she does. her unwavering commitment, generosity, and school spirit have made a lasting impact and meaningful a lasting and meaningful impact on our community. We are deep deeply grateful for her leadership and proud to recognize and celebrate her this evening. On a personal note, I've had the privilege of working alongside Sarah on the PTA board at Dittle for the last six years, and
029I can firsthand second the sentiment of her deserving this award, both inside the classroom and as a parent volunteer. Not only is she the epitome of the incredible teachers that Cheshure is lucky to have across the district and what makes our district so great, but she's also one of the most involved parents that I've ever met. um Dittle School and the PTA as a whole are far better off because of her. So Sarah, it's been a great pleasure working alongside of you and you are so deserving of this award. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Congratulations again, Sarah. Our next item of business would be audience participation. If there are any audience members who would like to speak, please go to the mic, state your name and address. I also want to note too that this
030um speaking information will be made available. Thank you, Miss Fitzgerald. Um on our website so that the public is well aware of why we have the audience section, how much time is allotted for speakers. Um and so should you want to speak, please reference our board of ed um website before coming to the the meeting. So >> correspondence to right purpose of that >> um we do have the correspondence email. So the BOE um contact at treasure.k12 page all that use. Is there a way to shorten that ultimately because it's a lot >> that that end of our email address have to give it a lot and it's like you need an intermission about halfway through our email address. It's a little overwhelming. Um I know the town just shortened theirs. We could look at
031if there's a possibility moving forward to shorten ours. I think make life like a little easier. >> Yeah. or just hyperlink so it goes straight to >> I'm sure Scott can do so. >> We can link easily off the website like a mail to link but you know just giving out the email address is a little cumbersome >> right >> thank you Dr. Seeing no audience members, we're going to move to committee reports. And the first committee would be curriculum. Miss Collins, the board of education uh curriculum committee met on Monday, March 9th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Um committee members present, myself, Dr. Herrian, Tim White, and Heather Fitzgerald. Um also Cheshire Public Schools staff was represented. um our assistant superintendent, curriculum coordinator, high school principal, and assistant principal DOD middle school principal and assistant
032principal. Um the meeting was called to order at and um our first order of business was to discuss uh field trips. The first one under new business was an outofcountry field trip uh that the um school is going to Costa Rica June 23rd through the 29th. Our world language teacher Gina Curado shared that um the trip is aligned to the curriculum provides an opportunity for students um to use the language um practice the language in real life scenarios through immersion. They are students that have been studying Spanish for six years. And um we did check about a a travel advisory and we were assured that Costa Rica is currently um at a level two, but obviously we will be um continually monitoring the advisory level and plans would be adjusted. Currently we have 10 students
033that are registered to go with the potential for additional students. The um committee did move um make a motion to move this trip to the full board for approval. So tonight I would like to put that in front of the full board to move that the Cheshire Board of Education approves the participation of Cheshire High School students in the educational field trip to Costa Rica from June 23rd to June 29th, 2026. Is there a second? Dr. Herrian second. Discussion on the trip. Mr. Colout, I just have a a question, Miss Colin. And you mentioned that we're at level two now and closely monitoring it. Is there an objective like if it goes to this or goes to that, like that's the cut off? I mean, how would that handle if if that travel advisory was
034escalated? >> Sure. It's not cut and dry. like it's not if then all the time, but uh we we monitor it as it gets closer. The ultimately the superintendent has the decision to the ability to cancel the trip. All families for any international trip we make are offered and strongly suggested to do um insurance >> on that. So they're all notified of that at the outset and um you know fingers crossed that things will become calmer and instead of escalated. >> Do you um get info from the travel company the recommendations? >> We use EF tours who also closely monitor that along with the alerts that we sign up anytime we sign on for one of these trips. >> Yeah. State Department, you know, the Homeland Security and then um EF tours basically depending on
035who the vendor is. We have different trips. >> Any other comments? Mr. Aki, >> just a quick question on the timing on this. It's kind of unusual to do this kind of a trip at this time of the year. >> No, we've had other people going for trips. I believe they went to Germany in part of our last summer and um I don't know if you know Gina Curado. She's one of our former teachers of the year and was really looking forward to >> I was just curious. >> Yeah. We we did um have that discussion with her and it is on her own time and um but she feels very passionate about giving the students a real um opportunity to to live the culture. Any other discussion? There is a motion on the floor.
036Um there is an opportunity for public comment but I don't see any of the public here. So, all those in favor of the motion that is on the floor, unanimous. Thank you. Any other items? Miss Kelin, if I could just um continue, we had some other um overnight out ofstate uh field trips. One um the high school is going to Grand Canyon April 10th through the 14th of 2027. Physical education teacher was there and shared information about um the trip. The students will have an opportunity to explore the Grand Canyon while focusing on health and wellness. Physical activities will include hikes, river cruises, rock climbing, um as well as observation in various outdoor settings. Students will gain a better understanding of the vital connection between physical and mental health. Um the trip also connects coursework
037um in the physical health and wellness um classrooms and will include um a culinary component. Student interest will be gauged after board approval is granted. The trip is offered to students in grades 9 through 12. >> I don't think we need um >> no >> board approval. >> We don't. >> Any questions on this trip? That one doesn't need approval right now. >> No. >> Okay. And the next um three trips are Chapman, Dittle, and Norton. Um Chapman is going to Ivory Town, Connecticut, and Dittle, and Norton are going to Charleston, Massachusetts for Nature's Classroom. Um they will be attending the Nature's Classroom trip. It's all the uh the same company and again um you know we went through what's needed from parent permission. There was a question um about Highland School. Highland has surveyed
038families regarding field trips and they are continuing to offer in-house or in town handbook adlesu field trip experiences. So those are the four um elementary schools for their fifth grade students end of the year field trip. Sixth grade. >> Sixth grade, >> isn't it? >> Sixth grade. Yes, >> sixth grade. I'm sorry. Sixth grade. >> And wait, are you saying Highland is not participating in um >> Highland is doing um not participating in those particular trips, but they are having a in-house or in town hands-on field trip experience. the um the school has um surveyed families regarding um field trips and they'll continue to offer what they've offered in the past. That's what the parents at that particular school have agreed to. >> That's unfortunate. >> I just have a question comment again. Me, can
039I speak? Yeah. >> Yeah. No, I just wondered do you they revisit it every year specifically asking if nature's classroom is an experience that they parents either do or don't want for their children. I just want to make sure we're giving them ample opportunity to raise their hand to get back on the nature's classroom train. >> Dr. Solen, I believe you were involved in the discussions with Mr. Jeffrey. I know they have not done it since co and I know they have surveyed families multiple years in a row and provided something that they feel is on par like low ropes courses bringing in some more dynamic opportunities. >> Yeah, that's that's been a constant uh annual point of of conversation I think is the um number of students at Highland grew. it became harder to
040get um chaperones that many chaperones to go without significant disruption to the school. We're hopeful that you know when we kind of right size next year that it'll kind of come back to uh being an option for us. >> Yeah. I just thank you. I I would love to see at least the opportunity present itself again that maybe they can go. It's just such a >> Yeah, we think it's valuable. really valuable experience and memorable. >> Yeah. >> And the kids still talk about it. So, it's unfortunate that we couldn't go. I I hope it's not a financial situation either. >> It didn't sound like it was financial at all, but rather um this is what the families have have approved and have wanted. It started during CO um and this is how they've they've
041gone. But he asks um according to what we heard um the families are asked every year. >> Any other comments for the curriculum committee? Anything else? Miss Colina? >> Yeah. Then we had a multilingual learner update. Um Azra Redzic shared with us that at this time the district has 180 ML students. Um the last links testing was will be concluded um was concluded on Friday March 13th and those test results um we'll get them back in miday to see how our students um are doing at that time. Some students may exit ML services based on their results. Um the ML student data was also broken down by elementary, middle, and high school levels and the top languages represented in the district were shared which include Spanish, Mandarin, Albanian, Erdo, and Korean, but as I said,
042there's 180 different um languages. I do have >> 180 students, 55 different languages. Any questions or discussion on that? >> Thank you. >> Okay. And the um then we had a lengthy discussion on middle school schedule. I'm going to send it over to Marlene to just go through some of the highlights of it for us. >> Sure. Principal Gillow and Assistant Principal Murphy were both a part of our meeting that day and they shared with us how they are exploring master schedule options um with the following goals in mind. They are trying to increase instructional time which I think is very beneficial. They are seeking to add an advisory block to better support social emotional learning types of uh academic infusion. They would like to decrease class sizes especially in Spanish where they're currently reaching
04328 29 in a class and they're also looking to reduce the eyeblock. The IB block is essentially a study hall. So they're f trying to find a better way to balance the amount of students in eye block with the team time. So they talked and brought us through a couple of options that they had, none of which are really solidified until we have additional information on what staffing might be available through the budget process and then also what the candidate pool is dependent upon whether or not we can find dually certified staff. So they looked at both a six period schedule and a seven period schedule. They in your packet is an outline of some of the benefits to each one. Ideally, the sixth period schedule would eliminate all of the eyeblocks and PE and
044health would be combined into a wellness class that is similar to the wellness classes that have been launched at the high school this year. They would also adjust world language time, meaning students would not have world language at the same frequency that they do this year, but it would be still more um instructional hourswise than the same course at the high school. So, Spanish one at the high school, the hours would still be more at the middle school, but they would be seen less during the middle school time. And then um the seven period day would increase times in core classes. So core academic classes and unified arts classes would um it would reduce the number of UA classes for music specialed intervention students etc. So they're really looking at both. I think this was
045um their opportunity to sort of bring forth the concerns that they have and what they're trying to do and how supportive the two additional middle school teachers would be to this process. It gives them more opportunities to attack their goals and achieve them. Okay. Next, we discussed some um presentations regarding assessment data. And I'm going to turn it over again to Marlene to take us through the reading benchmarks and um the kindergarten entrance inventory. So, I'll start with the reading benchmark assessment data. Um, you may or may not recall that as part of the right to read legislation that the state identified a few different types of reading assessments back a number of years ago and the dis districts had to choose one assessment. Cheshure went with a cadence. We are currently using a cadence
046in K through 8. In K through six that is a paper and pencil test. teachers are scoring that by hand and data entering the information into data sheets. As part of the right to read legislation, the CSD is collecting all of the K3 reading benchmark data so that they can look at how all of the districts are doing and can begin to kind of look at comparisons, trends, needs because we are doing it by hand, which frankly we're not excited about. We would like to have the digital version. we have to put in um and there's a cost to the digital version where there is not the paper one is is free. Um they're collecting that information but to we need to do a lot of work on our end to be able to translate
047that information to the state. So Azrazik as the prek8 curriculum coordinator, Scott Conway and Artha Cassgen in our technology department along with Ann Marie Cullin uh Amie Cullin Amarie Win and Marie Wintenberg are all working very hard to get all of the data into the format that the state needs because we have to have that uploaded to them by March 27th. We will need to continue to do this um for the long term unless we are able to purchase the digital version. The digital version, let's ballpark it at between 10 and $15,000. So, we're hopeful that um we would like to be able to use the digital version both because it would make much more um time sense to our teachers, but also because of this added layer of sharing that data with the state.
048Any questions on the reading data? >> Members questions? Dr. Go ahead. >> Um, I don't have a question. And I just want to highlight that we heard two very good reasons for why we need to be really aware of what's happening during this budget session because the um town manager has uh recommended a cut of $300,000 um to the budget that we put forth to the town. That means we might not be able to have those two teachers at DOD. And without added personnel, DOD is not going to be able to in implement a uh new schedule. And I was so impressed with this schedule that came uh forward to us. It shows so much work. It's concentrating on instructional time with the students. all the right things were uh taken into consideration and all
049of that work and everything that we're trying to do, you know, it's likely won't happen if we don't have um if we can't get the budget that um that we have put forth to the town. The other one is this um uh automated how would you describe it? >> Reading assessment. Yeah, the the um digital reading assessment. Uh we have personnel spending a lot of time doing pencil, paper, accounting and uh using you know their time and resources um because it's expensive. It's something that it was it in our budget that we put forward or we didn't think it was >> or we didn't include it. >> Yeah, we didn't. included. >> So, this is what happens when >> Matt had asked about that. >> Yeah. >> So, this is what happens when um our
050budget that we want to put forth to the town gets then cut back further and um we need to be sensitive to that and and aware of what's going on during this budget season. I just wanted to point that out. Any other items? >> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. >> Keep it going. >> We also shared some information about the um kindergarten entrance inventory. The kindergarten entrance inventory is another required um survey that our kindergarten teachers need to complete for each of the incoming students when they it's around October and they uh it's it's semi subjective. Some of it is based on observations of the kindergarten teacher for every student and others are more easily determined based on did the child go to preschool the previous year or not. And so this information um really looks
051at six domains. It looks at language skills like literacy skills, numeracy skills, physical motor skills, creative aesthetic skills, and personal social skills. And this information again is sent up to the state department of education so that the state can it use it to inform their decisions on on you can um surmise what they might be using it for but certainly for reading growth but also I think more specifically around preschool. So that was something that we looked at. We looked at numbers of um about three years worth of data and I would say that overall we're trending about the same year overyear and in growing in those places around um there they they sorry there's three levels level one two and three and at the highest level where students need the least amount of support
052we have seen a bit of a trend in that direction students needing less report. Now, that also might be coinciding with the kindergarten legislation that students need to be older, need to have have reached 5 years old before they start school in September. >> Questions? Questions on >> is that this not to be confused with the sparkler? >> No, kindergarten separate. Yeah. K. Lastly, I will just share that I had gotten a few questions about Cheshire's response to AI and AI literacy. So, I've prepared a little report for you that's I shared with the board of ed that is also in your packets. I won't go into great detail with it, but I will say that we have a committee, the Cheshire Strategic Planning Initiatives Committee that's comprised of preK through 12 certified teachers, and
053we've really been looking to address this issue twofold. We're looking at the reading of the book Anxious Generation, and we're also looking at a lot of um a literature review really around AI, which as you know is ever changing day by day. It's very hard to even keep up with it. But looking at AI and education in the workforce and we're trying to make a philosophical shift with our students and our teachers shifting away from this being a cheating tool that you cheat on homework or assignments to really a thought partner. And what we have done with that was we started with our administrative team. And we began by doing some research and listening to some podcasts as a group and really doing some activities around unpacking the idea of if you go back a
054few years, people feeling guilty if they use chat GPT to get some of their work done. And then um we introduced it to teachers using a segment that was on CBS mornings. It was a clip about two newscasters who used uh chat GPT to plan a trip to Las Vegas. And so we got folks kind of interested in that and seeing how they could could do that. Last year actually a year ago tomorrow, March 20th, we had an entire professional learning day devoted to the impact of AI in schools. We had M Matt MVIS attend. He is from Ed Advance. He's sort of Connecticut's guru and runs the chat edu podcast. Um they shared a number of tools with us. We tried to focus our understanding on durable assessments and talked about AI bias and
055and all that is incumbent upon teachers not using AI and knowing that AI has that bias and talked about hallucinations. um our technology coordinator who I think I've referred to at least twice tonight, Scott Conway. He has also created a plethora of quick quick bites he calls them, which are a live stream little live stream PDS that he does for teachers who can kind of self-pace on how to use Gemini and intro to AI. Uh we are using the Google workspace and so within our platform we are able to use Gemini and notebook LM. Some of our staff has also pursued an AI micro credential with Ed Advance and SA uh Southern Connecticut State University. Dodd Middle School division leaders Kristen Giuliano and Christristine Castellano have attended some workshops as well. And as of last
056week, one of our school psychologists and a math teacher from the high school also represented Cheshure at um a digital well-being conference. So, we have a number of centralized resources. We have a web page that was devoted to all of the tools that we're currently using. We are not using a student AI platform. That is not something that we're even pursuing at this time because of the exorbitant cost per student. That really puts guard rails around what students can do. And at that point, you can ask them to use a particular platform to utilize AI. That's that's not something that we can do at this point. Our um our focus has been on making sure that teachers understand how to use it and our next meeting with the committee is in May and we're really
057looking at student AI literacy and we plan to establish competencies for students at certain grade levels so that everyone knows what it is a student can and is able to do or should know. But before we can do that with the students, we need to make sure that the staff has an understanding. So, while our educational goals for students are clear, we really need to acknowledge the complex human element of this initiative, getting adults to embrace a rapidly evolving technology, especially one that they can can feel intimidating, is going to take some time. And we also need to um give acknowledgement to the fact that some people might feel opposed to this because of the impact on the climate and on energy. So, it's a it's a difficult sort of balance, but I think we
058we need to validate that resistance from staff and be able to make sure there's an understanding amongst all of the adults that AI is a tool. It's here to stay and it will be used by our students as they get into the workforce. So, more more to come, but I wanted to at least share with everyone the progress that we have made to date. Thank you for that, Marlene. Uh, this is a very interesting topic to me. Um, February 5th, 2026 is a date that will go down in technology history in civilization from the model of AI that was released. and I work in CPG, consumer packaged goods, very fast-moving businesses, startups. Um, and in less than a month, there was a fundamental shift in how businesses are run and how the economy is run.
059And the way I've told my children about this is my my parents probably would have had a hard time in today's generation with their lack of computer skills. like computer skills, computers came around too late in their lives for them to really multiply the impact that they could have, you know, in their in their profession. Um, the kid AI is going to go faster, right? AI is not going to be something that you like hopefully you know how to use because it will help. AI will be a requirement. Um, and I remember the day that my middle school got computers. I went to my first class and did my querty keyboard like race car game. How many words per minute can I type on? Like great. And then I went home and went on AOL,
060right? Like I was so far ahead of what the school districts and education were doing that it was almost laughable because the kids were going above and beyond because education moves slower than industry. Um, so one, I offer whatever help and assistance I can. We were about to hire a $150,000 technical engineer and I spent an hour in Claude and came up with all of the same things. Um, did not get $150,000 bonus for it. Um, so this is of of a lot of the issues facing education today. Um th this is one that we have to be able to handle and have to be able to handle it quickly because it's going to go so fast. I I could talk all day on this topic. Um I was going to bring it up and
061I'm glad you did. Um but yeah, this this is not uh this is not optional for tomorrow's workforce. This is this is mandatory. take a look at um what we put out. If you would like to see any of our internal web pages, information, etc., we'd be happy to share that. >> Thank you. >> What What is the suggested right now as far as in like potential staff allowable usage? you know, you you can hop on chat GPT, you can hop on um Gemini, there's magic school, which is highly recommended by the state because it's all the securityities built in place. Is there a direction that the this group is going in which ultimately you have a platform that's approved by the district to use as opposed to jumping around various ones? >> I think
062we really like the product that is being put out through Ed Advance. It's really cost prohibitive. But I think the first thing that we have is the tools within the Google platform. So we do have Gemini. We haven't officially gone with that from with the students because we have to do that with our staff first. And there's, you know, as I was saying in in curriculum, there's the right to read legislation. There is BTC and learning by design strategies that teachers are learning. there is AI that they are learning there and there's three days that we have really you know right full days to work with them so we try to balance that and and we feel the the impending nature of how important it is to do this we shared with staff um the
063percentages I don't have them in front of me of employers who require won't even talk to you unless you have AI experience and know how to use it so it's it's required that our students become AI literate Yeah, I do I do agree with Matt that it does need to speed up because it's constantly evolving. Chat GPT alone is constantly updating, you know, its platform. So, I don't I don't want us to >> that's part of the issue that, you know, I've long used the Justin Trudeau quote that the pace of change is fast, but it'll never be this slow again. Every day it's like an accelerating pace of change. And um you know that's why it's hard to even nail down one one platform because it's like it would be like when I was
064a kid Atari being introduced and three weeks later Nintendo came out and then three weeks after that Sega came out. I'm dating myself but like >> you know you you just you're getting a hold of one and then all of a sudden it's it's that much different. But it underscores the point that we need to really prioritize this. >> Yeah. I don't want us to get late into the game because the game's already started and we're just >> Oh, the game has >> the surface tapping the surface. >> I just I just want to add um we've been talking about this for a few years now in uh higher ed um environments at the university level. And um you know what what it comes down to also at at where we're at right now is
065um just making sure that our students know that there are good and bad uses of AI like everything else and just to get them started uh recognizing when it's a good time to use AI and when it is not a a good time when it's cheating you of learning. Um, so, um, you know, there's a lot of I'm in full support of getting the staff on board with understanding um, the uses of AI because they're ultimately responsible for letting our students know how to responsibly use it. It's not just a matter of being good at it because you can take off and and do it. And it's not a matter of having um stop gaps put on it um so that they can't access it during school time because they go home after school and
066they have access to a lot of things. So it's it's the teaching the responsible way to use um our technology. That's I agree. It's available to us in faster than ever every day. Mr. White, thank you. Yeah, I just want to reiterate the um the date that Matt mentioned, February 5th. Um, so I'm not an expert in this field by any means, but my understanding is that that was a critical date in how this is moving forward exponentially faster, increasingly exponentially faster. Uh, so that may end up being a date for all of us to remember, but just to piggyback on what Matt was saying about the seriousness, the relative urgency with which we move in AI in relation to education. >> I mean, my understanding is Skynet has not gone live yet, but it
067probably is going live soon. Anyway, thank you. >> Any additional items for the curriculum? No. >> Thank you, Miss Lano. >> I just have a one question. Yeah, I'm so sorry. Um going back um and I agree on all the AI stuff and again Yale higher education I'm happy to bring forward any interesting nuggets points are doing a lot of research on it both from career side but also environmental impact side so I'm happy to share as you know I compile more and more information through my own work um but going back to the reading assessment uh I was just wondering if you haven't yet if you can build an understanding ing of the number of man-hour that it takes to do the pen and paper feeding of the reading assessment into where it needs
068to go and then kind of keep record of that. Just I'd like to, you know, kind of quantify that on a financial like what are we what are we spending in terms of time and and dollars? Um, and how does how might that measure against the software? >> Perhaps when they finished the project, I can ask them to spend some time tabulating how many hours they spent. any other >> I would I would just point out that to me that seems like a perfect use for AI for the teachers you know SAS SAS platforms like grading and and >> you know we you know look we've used a lot of platforms for all sorts of things marketing and warehouse management and ERPs and whatnot and they're dead like the hard programmed hardcoded programs are are
069dead they're going to be obsolete within in 12 months because everything is going to be AI. And I bet you Marlene, if I sat with you and we went through one of those tests, I could say, "Here's the solution. Here's a one student's test." Like, give me give me a grade. I I think that the um part of the issue here is student data privacy and the constraints that we are under relative to that and and certainly we have you know student ID numbers and and so forth but we are under some maybe some different um ram uh parameters when we're dealing with student data privacy laws in Connecticut but >> well correct me if I'm wrong also So in compliance with what the state is asking of us, >> right? It's the way they
070they want it reported to them is the format that we have to give it to them in. Yeah. >> Yeah. I would agree that I I even had that question for you. I think AI would be great for this. But right privacy concerns, but also how many iterations of kind of testing do you want to make sure do you have to do it over and over just to make sure that it's like, you know, accurate? So there'd be I would be really concerned. I would want to make sure we're doing our due diligence before we would move to like an AI, you know, kind of system for something like if we ever could. Um, just obviously tons of testing prior to Thank you. >> And just speaking on behalf of the teachers, if they're taking
071all this time to grade this, it's time that they could be doing something else. We really do frown upon teachers and we have told them that they cannot use should not use AI for grading. That is is not an an acceptable use. Number one because we can't put student work into those um platforms at least the in the in their current form and with without having a platform. Um I don't know if that's >> No, I wasn't talking about using AI. I was talking about them manually grading things. Yes. And not being able to prepare for lessons or grade other things. >> I'm so sorry. >> Yeah, >> that's what I understood, Mark. >> No, I defin I I agree, Mark. I mean, there are uses in which the there's efficiencies that could be had
072for teachers. Lesson planning is definitely one of them. I listen, I used to spend hours planning lessons. AI did it in a heartbeat for my teachers. We have magic school for teachers. We have magic student for our students and it has saved a lot of time. So I I think we just need to to kind of accelerate our uh decision- making on this. Any other comments, Miss Cullinin? Any other thoughts on there? >> Thank you. Next committee would be finance. Dr. Herrian. Yeah. So included in your packets is the financial report for the 202526 board of education budget reflecting expenditures and incumbrances through February. Um, basically the approved budget for fiscal year 202526 is as I imagine everybody knows this number but maybe not 93,124,314 and as of February 28th 2026 um 89.4% 4% has
073been encumbered and expended which is um really on par with February of 2025. So um you know I think we're chugging along under normal circumstances and I will pass along to Miss Emily Taylor who will report on maybe some of the financial highlights and uh take us into the report on the medical benefits. Great. >> Thank you. >> So, as um we are 89.4% expended or encumbered, I want to uh flag that three accounts or actually four accounts. Um we have we've spent over 100%. Those are reflected in the variance in the top of the table. You'll see this is the first month where the variance is not 0% for all of those budget categories. Um, so this is the first month where we're looking at those instructional programs, which is tuition and outplacements is
074why we have a variance, where we're looking at support services, transportation is why we have a variance there. Um, and we're offsetting that with some of our operations and maintenance. Um, so you can see where the projected year imbalances are negative for the instructional programs and support services, but being offset by the operations and maintenance. Um I think the the overall impact of that is when we're offsetting with operations and maintenance, it's a little less um work that we can do on our buildings at the end of the year. Um which means we really do need to prioritize the work that's being done in our buildings. Uh so those are the kind of the the variances I wanted to just make sure I I highlighted, but we are on track with the the spending that
075we had in February 2025. Um, and we'll continue to keep our eyes on those four accounts, especially if we're able to, you know, tuition or outplacement as if students are moving in or out is changing those incumbrances. Um, this is kind of a critical phase in the year to make sure that if we're able to free up funds, we're doing so, especially with transportation. Uh, I would say that tuition outplaced and transportation go hand inand because we are transporting kids to their outplacements. Um, so one affects the other. And in terms of financial highlights, I mentioned this last board meeting, but there is an insurance advisory study group. They've met three times, one of those being this past Monday. I have been in attendance for those meetings. They during the last meeting, we reviewed medical
076claim trends for both the town and the board of ed with our broker USI. And there were a lot of questions from the insurance advisory group uh about BOE uh per person spend versus the town per person spend. And again, the the hope is that we get to a place where they are able to make a recommendation to the town council about ways in which we can economize our medical and property um insurance costs. I have flagged for them that a concern we have is stop loss. And so, you know, I' I've I've said that that's a thing that the board is interested in. Um, and I unfortunately did not get the the tail end of last meeting, but I know it it came up in the the end of the meeting, but they're meeting
077pretty regularly and the meetings last for about an hour and a half, two hours. Um, and we have two folks that are on the committee that are um I would say experts or their their uh careers are in medical insurance and then one is in property and liability insurance. Then the capital expl the capital expenditures plan. We the planning committee had a meeting tonight. So you'll hear more about that in a little bit about planning for fiscal year 27 capital expenditures. Again that's distinct from the operating budget. Um we present on a slightly different timeline. Last year we kind of presented both at the same time but the town bifurcated the processes this year. Um, and so hopefully later this spring in May, we come with a recommended capital plan from the planning committee. And
078the last item, uh, I know I said that, hey, we're offsetting some of these variances with operations and maintenance. We were officially awarded the district repair and improvement grant, which is called the DRIP grant for short. We were expecting $180,000. We're going to get $189,000. The grant is issued by June 30th, 2026. So we have submitted the uh certification process for that so that they can um all districts have to submit that before they can release the funds but they do have to be issued by June 30th I hope sooner because that is the end of our fiscal year. So um and the other piece of facilities and I would say that this is a component of our operating budget that has not been finalized is our cleaning contract for next year. So that is
079out for uh RFPs. Last Friday, we had 22 vendors and over 30 people show up to do walkthroughs of buildings, which is great. Um, and hopefully gives us a lot of options. The bid opening is scheduled for March 31st at 2 p.m. So, we will see who actually submits and the bids that we get. Um, and our budget for that is a little north of a million. Our contract value this year is $859,000. That will go up. We're increasing 72,000 square feet. Um and the other component is the newer buildings. They have a lot more window um windows than our prior buildings. So that that can increase cost too. But we will see where we land on March 31st. And then after that we'll have more just we'll be able to confirm that that line
080item in the budget. Um so I'll stop there before I go into medical benefits for questions. >> What was the number that we um put in the budget for this? >> I'll double check it. It's just a little bit north of a million. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, the other thing I wanted to ask, Emily, is those four accounts that are over 100%. That's pretty that's been usual, too, hasn't it? >> I would say that it's not it had it wasn't this high last year, but our overall budget spend was 89%. So, you know, I'm keeping my eye on it. I'd never like to see it above 100%, but I feel fine with the offset being in operations and maintenance right now. I feel fine knowing that you're keeping your eye on it. >> Thank
081you. >> And what's the composition of that group again? Just those three any >> Yes. So there's three members of the advisory committee and then who has also been in attendance is I've been there. Sean Kimble has been there and then we have a new HR manager at the uh he might be director of HR Ronald Ing who started like a month ago and he's been in attendance as well. on the town >> on the town side. >> I'm familiar Wood run. >> Oh, yes. He's from Stratford. Yes. There you go. Um, yes. So, it's been good. And what I will say is what's been great is that we have had USI, we have had Acquirer, which is our property workers comp. So, we've had external parties that have been able to show data. So,
082it's not just, you know, me and Sean talking about our data. They've been able to ask our brokers. And I we're having Sigma come next, but I can't remember the date of that meeting. >> Gotcha. Thank you. Go ahead, Tim. >> Thank you, Emily. Um, wondering about uh Iran, cost of gas, cost of hydrocarbons going through the roof. I'm just curious, could you give me a a recap on where uh bus fuel, diesel? >> Yeah. >> And heating fuel lands in the budget. And are we locked into rates through the rest of the year at least the school year or >> Yes, we are locked in either through uh I think the electricity is locked in through October 2026 and I'll double check for our diesel. I think it's June 2025. I've been in communication
083with >> sorry 2026. >> Okay, >> wrong year. I'm going backwards. >> Um but I've been in communication with some of our energy brokers. It's it's not great at this point in time in trying to get any prices on diesel. um heating heating fuel or electricity. The electricity rates are not looking great right now. Um and there's a lot of instability. Uh and so we'll keep our eye on it. We locked electricity around April of last year, so we're coming up to it, but there's just so much instability in all of those markets that um I don't really have an answer right now, but we're we're staying in constant. I've been in um a meeting last week about diesel and fuel um and essentially I was expecting to be able to have pricing and they
084were like we can't do anything right now because we had given you some pricing and all of that is out the window >> and and with regard to that you're talking about future pricing correct. So so just to just to recap here what you've said is electric is locked in or electric rates are locked in through October. >> Yes. which the price going up makes sense to me because a lot of it I think it's half of what we have here in Connecticut is natural gas which that comes through the LNG liqufied natural gas comes through the straight of horm so to hear that that price is going up is not surprising to me um but we're locked in for electricity and then there's uh oil or gas >> heating in our schools as well
085as the diesel if I heard you right for the buses were locked in for a diesel contract through June >> yes >> through the academic year. >> Yep. >> And then what about uh heating? Gas or oil heating for our schools. >> We have not locked in um gas in prior years. It just hasn't been advantageous to do so. Okay. >> Um but heating oil is the same vein as the diesel. We're in the we're in the same spot. >> So we're locked in through June of this year. >> Okay. So the only the only serious risk that is cost risk that is currently unhedged is natural gas for heating and that does not include Norton or Dittle but we do use natural gas at each of our other schools I think. Right. >> I'll
086check which campuses are which um and I can send that to you um because everyone's using something slightly different and I know especially with going off Darcy and Chapman I just want to confirm before I tell you which ones are using which. >> I'm pretty sure it's okay. I'm almost positive it's just Norton and Dittle, but I'm not sure if any of them still use oil. I guess the ones that >> that are staying online, >> Norton and Norton and Dittle both use oil. There are not gas lines that go to those schools. Every other school has gas lines that pass them. >> Um I'm not I guess I'm curious in general if any of the other schools are still a dual fuel or if they're just moved over to gas, natural gas. >> Double
087check. >> And if you happen to know, that's great. Otherwise, >> still dual. >> It's okay. It's at some point we could talk in the future. You don't need to reach out back to me. Reach back out to me. I But I am curious to know that because this is a particularly big deal right now. I saw oil is >> what was it? Two months ago I bought it. It was 260 a gallon in January and now I saw it over $5 today. So the price has doubled. >> Anyway, thank you. >> Yep. Matt, >> Emily, do any of the budget items and what we're seeing now and this year, do you think what would you anticipate any of the impacts on the budget we ultimately adopt as a board of ed when we get
088the number back from town council? I was trying to pull up numbers as specific examples, but you know, for example, the I think I saw the outplacement transportation was at 115%. Mhm. >> Um, this number isn't accurate, but making it up. If that line item was proposed to go up 15% next year >> and we're already outpacing it, like, do you anticipate any material changes when we get the final town council number that, you know, you and the team are going to have to come back and say, "Well, look, given what we learned this year, here's all these adjustments we're going to have to make because of some of these things that outpaced their budget last year." Yeah, I'll I'll speak to this and then um pass it to Jeff. I without placements, it's very
089specific to the year and the students. So, we actually go line by line the student, their placement, and if they're graduating from the program. So, we budgeted 3.6. It doesn't feel like a line item we can cut because the reality is those students, we don't have any students that are graduating out of programs next year. So, there's some volatility with that line because it's not a a linear um and it's it felt exponential in terms of growing year-over-year. And in transportation, um we budgeted for there to be an additional bus based on the routing and where all the schools are. Um but usually we're seeing a standard percentage increase. And so what I hope is after next year, um there's some more regularity with the buses that we can anticipate. But that was hard with
090redistricting this year. >> Yeah. And and Jeeoff, I know you're going to jump in, but my my question is more general than specific line items. I mean, even something like substitutes and interns, right? That line item was a 27% increase next year, partly because of the FMLA, right? Um, I think I have that right, but just >> does last year in general for the process any year >> inform ultimately how we allocate dollars after we get the town council number. There are a number of things that uh influence how the allocation shakeout post I mean like to your point last year's performance might influence our budgeting for next year but you know as we're discussing this global events uh also influence this um and I think that's one of the things that sometimes people have
091a hard time wrapping their head around is that we have a number of account lines Right? And we design a budget uh for those account lines. But the world is fluid. So, you know, sometimes we get caught with a lot of snow, right? And we may have budgeted only that much. Well, we have to pull from other lines. And that's where that part of the budget discussion comes into play where, you know, a lot of our our uh expenditures are fixed, you know, contracts for cleaning, things like that. Uh certainly all of our staff unless we cut staff or add staff through the year, but that's very limited. So a lot of that like 80% of our budget uh is our staff. Roughly 95% of our budget is fixed. So we have that other 5%
092where we move things around to address those things that come up um and that we have to pivot on. We'll be much better informed on, you know, in hopefully May 15 than we are on uh January 30th when we adopt a budget. We'll know more. Uh so we'll get the money uh back from the council and at that point try and make recommendations based on those things knowing that things happen and we may have to pivot. I hope that the world's in a better place come May 1st than it is today and the costs have kind of come back down a little bit, but who knows? >> I don't know if that answer your question. I mean, >> I have enough pieces to I I think answer it. Yeah. And that is we we will
093you will adjust line items before a full adoption in May. We'll make recommendations. >> Yeah. >> And then you guys will adopt >> and then we'll go with the adjusted line items and then and then it's still changing as you go into next school year. And so things are things around but but it's again just making up an example. You may come and say look given what we learned on diesel, >> we have to cut this thing that we proposed in January because we know we need more a higher budget for gasoline. >> Yeah. And what we would try and do because there's higher volatility in diesel fuel than there are in some other things that we would have to make a decision at that point about well how wildly far off are we? What's
094the probability that comes back to earth? Um you know so maybe we wouldn't make an adjustment May 1, but be poised to have to make an adjustment January 1 if necessary. Um, and that's why, you know, we have to adjust uh lines throughout the year on a fairly regular basis because things, you know, evolve. But we at the end of the year, actually on June 30th at 7:30 in the morning, we have a board meeting to say, "All right, here's where everything shook out." Our bottom line is we just have to balance it. And so on June 30th, we'll say, "All right, we're moving X dollars from this account to that account. this account to that account and the board reviews all that and then adopts it. >> Tim, >> thank you uh for the
095explanation. One point that I don't think you mentioned that is I feel important to include is the what you refer to as the discretionary spending, >> instructional supplies, capital equipment, all those things. And so during every meeting, we're basically just giving an update. I'm just connecting the dots because you're new. just in case it hadn't in case you hadn't thought about it but that discretionary expend spending it starts what 30% in September October is it 60% now I don't recall if you said it but it it >> it basically increases and that's his cushion there for the reforcasting I think at least part of a at least one cushion that he's got >> 75 60 >> the there's a cap at 60% >> yeah and several of the school I mean most of the schools
096are well below that at this point um it's a small lever but it's one that we're we we use is putting an expenditure cap in place. >> Yeah. >> So, my question for Emily is, did Vin leave you his crystal ball? >> He didn't, but I sure wish it was available this year more than any. >> Yeah. >> Other questions? >> Any other items? Um, well, I'm going on to the medical benefits report, which is, you know, I'm going to end on a high note. Um, so for our medical benefits, >> our claims for the month of February were about $1.1 million. Um, we have two claim months in reserve, which is, um, I'm I should go back to my written report. Uh, so our claims represented a 17% increase compared to February 2025. Claims
097last year were only $942,000. Um, but our claim months in reserve were 1.71 in February 2025 and they're 2.0 in February 2026. That again is, you know, even though the costs were increasing, we increase the amount um going into our claim reserve every month. So, we accounted for that and that has been working for us. So, we are in a good spot with our medical claims. Um, and you know, this is also reflected in how much we've budgeted next year, just south of 7%. There are a lot of districts who are seeing staggering and almost incomprehensible medical benefits increases. And we had good claims this year, and that's that's reflected in our budget, which is which is really good for us because it's a pretty big line item. So, With that, any questions about the
098medical benefits report? >> We'll take those. We'll take those small. I think that's it. Thank you, Em. Any other items for finance besides? >> No, I think that wraps it all up nicely. Thank you, Emily. >> Um, on to personnel committee. Miss Colin. >> Yep. The um board of education personnel committee was held virtually on March 4th, 2026. It was called to or order at 70:06. The committee met in executive session to discuss the superintendent's evaluation and um the committee came out of executive session and the meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m. >> Just for clarification though, this was um a scheduled midyear check-in so to speak on updates and progress. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you, Miss Colin. Planning Committee, we just had a meeting, Mr. Aki. >> All right. We met a couple
099hours ago. Um, and the biggest uh issue we want to get through is the capital expenditure plan. Um, our goal is to uh get that out of committee and to the board. get out of committee in April and get it to the board in May so we can figure out where we're at. Um, I don't know. Do we want to go into depth with that or we could just hold on to that? >> I think we can just share like some big high we had a a guest tonight talk to us. Um, so >> yeah, I was going to I was going to get to that as as we go go down the uh agenda from tonight. Um, we we spoke about the weight room uh updating the weight room situation. The uh the once
100we do the HVAC, we had talked about having to do the floor. We apparently uh Mr. Parisino decided that the floor is top quality. We're going to keep the floor so we don't have to uh wait once the HVAC is in. Then it's just a matter of just getting the new equipment in. Uh so that's that's a good thing. Um the wait room again will be temporarily held in the uh in the maintenance garage. Um while the work is going on this summer in uh for the HVAC, uh we spent a significant amount of time talking about the turf and and and the field review. Um, I'll pass this back down to you because you probably could present this better than I could. >> I don't know that that's true. Um, but I'll just share
101some highlights. We had SLR come to share some preliminary design elements of the uh new track and field. I know that there's been a lot of talk of replacing just the turf, but basically where we are with our um our track. Um the asphalt underneath our track is over 30 years old. That's a long long life that that our track has had and um honestly it it makes a lot of sense just to do the two projects together. So SLR went through the um the initial plan review and some of the elements. John Paracino had shared previously some safety elements and ways that we could um there were some netting and I think it was our shot put um just >> yes it was a shot put >> okay yes I was like oh was
102it a discus um but there were just some elements that could be um improved as part of that project um and so they SLR is going to get back with some more figures. our planning committee has the opportunity to ask some questions and if board members have any questions about uh turf track field I can share that initial presentation and share them with SLR. Um we have planned to put that in budget year one. We understand that that would go to referendum um for this November for a potential start date of next year. That that's the preliminary plan. But >> we we have ballpark numbers. I don't know if we want to talk about those yet. >> Yeah. So, um, the very like initial estimate was 1.8 1.7 1.8 for both the track and the
103turf. Um, and that's without the shock pad. I know that the board has heard a lot about GMAX testing and the risk of concussion and protecting um, our athletes. And, you know, there is a lot of variation in what can be offered in a turf field. um not so much the track, but you know, there's a lot of decisions to be made about how much we want to invest and that can really change the the the dollar value of the project, but it's looking like 1.7 1.8 right now. Um and there's even when we're talking about turf, there are a lot of uh there's a lot of impact on what is happening in the Middle East on those markets as well. And those prices are shifting a lot. So, it's even as removed as we're
104talking about turf and that's impacting prices. Um, and she understands the uh the track that they're talking about going down inches on the track. So, it's not just the rubber surface. It's the going down to the asphalt, you know, putting a new layer of stone and then two layers of asphalt and then putting the track on top of that. So, it's >> it's quite an involved process. We talked about uh the track as it currently sits. The standard is outside the outside lane. You should have one meter and we have about 8 in between the outside lane and the fence. So possibly moving the fence out. The uh the shotput pit doesn't meet standard. It's the apparently I'm sorry discus uh pit is supposed to be uh a half inch below grade. That little circle
105that they throw out of ours doesn't do that. The the the netting that we have around doesn't meet standard. So there's a lot there's a lot of moving parts that go along with the project. It's not just the the track itself and and the turf. And I know this is the beginning of a conversation, but one thing that has been asked um before just in general is, you know, well, what if we went back to natural grass? Uh and that would be a very costly uh initial investment, yearly investment, and it would really reduce the amount of time that we get on the field. You get about 25 hours on a good week on a natural ga grass field. The time is pretty much limitless on turf. Um and John Paracino very roughly estimated about
10636 hours of practice game time a week. So that's well above you know what we have you know and we don't have enough field space to rest rest a natural grass field. So >> I think the other misconception and I didn't bring this up when we were meeting is um the thought of can we do it separately? Can we do the field and then the track? And I think, you know, the plan that's presented suggests or recommends that we do everything all at once. Can you speak to kind of why that idea would not, you know, be cost-effective or >> Yeah. So, there's a couple things in play there. So, when we talk about the track, tracks should be replaced every 21 years if you have them on a maintenance cycle of every I think
107it was year seven, year 14, year 21. um you know, we're past that point and some of the maintenance options that would have been available to us aren't anymore because the the track is just it's older. Um and so you have a 21-year life cycle on a track, you have about 12 to 15 years on the new turf. And so they kind of go hand in hand. And because both our track and turf are um older, you know, it's it's kind of time for the replacement. Um and just doing them on separate years, you know, there there is economy in doing them at the same time, you know, with as with everything. I don't know the exact cost, but I do know that SLR is going to do an itemized list. Um and I don't
108know that that itemized list would hold if you did them in separate times, but at least we'll have a picture of how much each component of that project would be. Yeah, I think the consensus discussion. No, Tim, did you have a question? >> Oh, no. Just comment. >> I was just going to say it's like bundling, right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Mister. >> Um, just a quick question. You had that 36-hour estimate of usage? Um, my question is just is that CHS usage or is that like kind of townwide? All the programs >> that that is our sports programs, >> just us alone. Yeah, >> we were trying to see if Parisino can give an example of, you know, just us using it. Would it even meet >> the standard recommendation of grass? And
109now granted, again, I made the point I'm a soccer man. I prefer a grass field, but there's no way given all the other sports that >> it would be quite expensive to maintain. >> Thank you. >> So, Tim, >> thank you. Yeah, just uh to reiterate sort of my takeaway from what you were saying, from what we're hearing downstairs, the difference between if we didn't redo the artificial turf, what I'm calling basically maintenance, and we switched over to a natural grass, the two numbers I heard thrown down thrown out downstairs tonight was $2 million to redo the turf and the track versus $3 million actually, I think, just for the natural grass is what he was talking about. So regardless whether that's apples to apples or not, uh the natural gas natural grass would be
110sorry I have energy on my mind. Um that would be 50 50% more expensive. And then he I think John Perino, the athletic director said 20 to 25 hours per week >> on natural grass versus 36 hours per week of use using the artificial turf. So you get 50% more use with the artificial turf and that time gets filled up, right? I mean, uh, or 50% and 50% more in cost for the natural grass. So that really doesn't make any sense to me just from an economic perspective or service perspective. Um, I would like to see this move forward and get done. I don't want to see the field effectively get shuttered. Um, one of the concerns that I sort of wrap my head around tonight in speaking with the expert there is the safety.
111So, we've been talking about this in terms of a safety issue and it was described in terms of GMAX as well as a few other measurements that can be used for it. But what struck me was uh the higher the number, the more dangerous it is, the more compacted it becomes. The number 200 is like hitting concrete. Uh the numbers that we're not supposed to exceed are around 180 or maybe 165. So it's a little bit softer than concrete. The natural grass, the number they were saying was 135. So it's significantly significantly softer than the artificial turf. And the issue with the artificial turf, which I really did not understand at all tonight about how this would work, but it basically has to do, I think, and Mark, correct me if I'm wrong on this,
112but basically the crumb rubber, so it kind of gets kicked up and out over time off the field. There's less of it. There's less infill. Um, and >> and if it's not wellmaintained, it can it can get compacted as well. >> It gets Okay. And it gets compacted and so it becomes more akin to concrete than natural turf. So that's where we are right now. And it also is not uniform across the entire field. When we do the testing that's been mentioned, it's actually 10 different tests done at different places around the field. And certain places are do get more compacted like the center of the field gets a lot more used in general probably across all sports. And therefore it gets more compacted there than other parts. Um I just wanted to offer that
113in case anybody else didn't understand because I didn't have any understanding about all that until tonight. Regardless, I would like to I would like to see this move forward and I know it got rejected at referendum last year. Um I hope that uh I hope that it can move forward. Um and I do, as I mentioned in a maybe it was a month ago, I really would like to get an explanation from I I would like the public to get an explanation from council leadership about sending it out and not following up on it at all. And then several referenda failed. Um, I think that's unfortunate, but I do think that that creates a higher hurdle for the board of ed to get this uh to get the turf done if it ever happens. And
114it may not because the voters have said no once. Um, so that's it for me. Thank you. >> I I think the consensus though, Mr. destroy if you all agreed that the language and thank you Emily for you know moving forward looking into the potential of ensuring that the language on the referendum is a there's initial public awareness um and that we're explaining it critically it's you know let's bring up the parking lot again right that we um really prioritize in explaining it properly so that the public doesn't get confused as to really what they're voting for too. And then, you know, outlining also the expense plus the impact on taxes, too. So, I want to thank you in advance. Um, I know you're going to um, you know, move forward with trying to figure
115out a way for us to do that. So, appreciate it. >> Any other items we might have missed? I don't think so. >> I don't think so. >> Excited about the wait room? >> Yes, >> for sure. >> Yes, that's going to be a great addition. >> Awesome. >> Yeah, one. >> Thank you. Yeah, you mentioned the the parking lot. Yep. And that was I voted for it and I may very well be sending it uh that got rejected by the voters. I may very well end up vote to send that back out to referendum. Um I do want to make one point though about that. I when we discussed it a year ago, my feeling where my focus was was the loading dock right outside the cafeteria and the problems associated with that. And
116it wasn't the parking lot. Um, so that's bad on me. Um, but I want to highlight that for the voters because I don't recall the loading dock being a significant part of the public discourse last year with regard to that one particular referendum and I think that that's the loading dock was the important part for me, not the parking. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> I think that was it for planning. Thank you Emily again. Um, policy is next. Mr. Ar, you're still on. >> Okay. We got a couple of things. The uh, first off, the we talked at length about the undocumented student policy and we I want to make sure that uh, we discussed in committee that we wanted feedback from the full board. So, if you get some time, take a look at
117that policy. We are uh somewhat on the fence I I would say about whether we actually need to put the implement the policy and we are looking for feedback from from the board in general. So before we you know that's at its second second reading. So, um, >> is there anything specific you want us to hone in on or just the idea? >> Just the idea of having it, you know, we we we took some of the, uh, some of the language that that Cab had in their model policy out and as we as we've reviewed it and we've discussed it, um, I don't know if we need it. um the uh the administration and the administer administrators in the the individual schools know what their responsibilities are uh should should ICE come to the
118school. Um, and I don't know that having the policy, if you read the policy, I don't know that it does anything for us. And we we discussed at length whether uh having more policy is a problem than having less. So, uh, it's it's a relatively short policy. >> Mr. White, thank you. >> Yeah. So in terms of feedback, I had uh I spoke with Matt Kler Kolar about it. Uh so thank you for that and he explained it to me from his perspective. I think I don't want to speak for him, but my words based on what we talked about. Um a lot of the stuff in there in the policy is makes sense, but I'm going to be really blunt about it. I see the name of it being undocumented students. We have President
119Trump who is I think he's pretty well known for being vindictive. And my simple question is if we have if we're doing everything like Mark I think Mark was saying like our principles know what they're supposed to do then we're adopting a policy that literally I just wonder does it turn us into a sanctuary city and then all of a sudden we have $2 million of federal funding at risk again. Just to be really direct and blunt about it. I just don't see that's where I see something like this going. Well, we don't and one of the interesting things we don't know if any of the students are undocumented as a school as a school system kid has an address registers for school. That's we don't ask them if they're they're undocumented or not. >>
120Would this change that? >> No. >> Okay. So, it has no impact on that. So, I I appreciate what you're saying. >> Yeah. Um, yeah. I, you know, I I want the superintendent to do what he needs to do to obey and enforce the law. I don't want to I'm not a big I'm not a big fan of this enforcement this mass deportation policy to be blunt about it. Um, I want to see the worst of the worst deal with. Um, but having said all that, I uh, as I said, I just don't if there's if we're doing everything in the policy already, I feel like this literally creates a risk for us in terms of federal funding. I I truly believe that and that's why I don't support moving forward with it based on
121what I know about it. Thank you. And >> I would just add another uh way to look at it though, Tim, and that would be um if it just makes one, two families, three, I don't know how many. If it just makes one family feel a little bit better because they know that we have a policy on what what to do with undocumented students. Um, I think there might be a reason to have a policy on the books, but that's that's one way of looking at it. >> Any other comments? Mr. Collard, you had a comment. >> Yeah. Uh, I think as you all know, I'm on the policy committee. Uh, this is one I do not think that we should adopt. uh my reasons why with my operations and and business background anytime I
122make a decision in any walk of life I think why are we doing this what does it improve what's the return on investment um what risks are we mitigating by making this decision um and and when I put it in that frame of reference for the board adopting this I I can't come up with a good reason why this is a good policy to to do that um Dr. Solen has stated in policy committee meetings. I he may have even stated it in full board meetings that all of the things in that policy are things that we're doing anyway, right? That that is how that we how we would handle that situation. And so the policy doesn't fundamentally change the way that we would operate. The state doesn't mandate a policy like this and so
123we don't have to ma to adopt it to be compliant and there's no tangible benefit to that. um you know we're not improving compliance even with the law because again Dr. Solen has assured us the policies that the procedures that they would follow comply with the law. I spent the better part of an hour today in preparation for this discussion with the assistance of AI um going through and trying to figure out where where are boards of ed and towns liable for situations like this where policies have have burned them. And uh a lot of what I found is not the actual event that happened and how the event rolled out. It was how the event rolled out in difference from the policy. Even in 2000, there was a lawsuit uh Southernington Board of Ed
124and it wasn't about hey, I don't like what happened. It was you didn't follow the policy. Right? So whether or not the outcome and the process was sound, it was you didn't follow the policy. Um and so you know that that's my issue with this adopting this policy to me has no upside given that you know Dr. Solen and team are going to handle this according to the way that the policy would be written. Um and I wouldn't want our community to pay for the consequences of us doing something that we we really don't need to do doesn't fundamentally change change our approach to the situation. Um and you know Dr. Higan, I I think that's the second or third time you've mentioned if it makes one person feel better, but you know, we're charged
125with the good of all students. And you know, if we wanted to do or something that made one or two people feel better, most of the people that showed up for redistricting didn't support the decision that we made. And so we could have made a decision that made one or two of those people feel better, but we went with a unanimous vote on what is best for the community. And I think putting this policy in place is not what's best for the community because it doesn't fundamentally change anything and opens us up to potential litigation. You know, god forbid something did happen in this realm. And >> I'll just respond very quickly that none of your measurements took the human value into consideration in any way, shape or form. And I I do take the
126human impact into consideration. >> Yeah, I I I understand that. um you know, but there were humans here in other scenarios where we we didn't take that into consideration or or it wasn't the driving force of the vote. And you know, I I I would welcome you in letting the board know which of those families you're informed about that would feel better about this. If it's some abstract idea, that's one thing. If it's a couple of families that are asking for this and concerned about this, that's an entirely different thing. And I and I may feel more about this the way that you do, but I I don't have any of that information to think that that would be true. I would also disagree with your um assessment of taking the human value into consideration
127because I things like um Ann Marie and I getting in our cars and spending some time driving those bus routes. We did take the human um consideration into our deliberations and we took it very seriously before but it was part of our of what we it's part of what we wanted to include as we were assessing and I you know I just feel that we shouldn't slight that part of the argument that we should always be talking about that as Well, >> I I did not to intend to imply that you did not take the human aspect into account on redistricting. We we we certainly did. I commend you for that drive around. >> Well, I think we all did. I didn't mean to make it sound like we're the we're the saints in all
128this. I think we But we did. We >> I we some of us agonized over it a lot. I I know that uh I know that Heather did, for instance, >> and I'm and I'm all for helping as many people as I can, but in in my view, if you know, using your words, if there's one family, two family, three families that feel better about this, >> well, these are these are families these are people that I think feel very under attack right now in this in the climate that we're living in. And I I think it is important to make that consideration. That's all I'm saying. >> I think the other considerations that you bring forth are worth uh considering as well, but I don't want to forget that that human value. >> Dr.
129Solen, to your knowledge, have we've received any correspondence specifically about this issue or concerns from community members? >> I have not. >> Um >> Miss Fitzgerald Thank you. Sorry. That's okay. Uh I have a question. Um appreciate the discussion. Um but just to like help me understand. So you know if we don't institute this policy and I get I don't want to open us up to any unnecessary uh you know issues of legality. But if ICE came to the school in pursuit of a potential undocumented student, does implementing the policy change anything that we would do if we didn't implement the policy? So everything would be enacted exactly the same. We would protect undocumented students in the same way if they came to the door. Got it. Thank you. >> Before you answer that, Dr.
130only if you are by definition what what is the policy any policy technically supposed to do >> generally provides guidance and parameters around how to navigate specific situations that are outlined in that policy. >> So therefore based on her question or comment >> law supersedes everything though. So we could write all the policies we want. If they're contradicted by the law, we have to follow the law. >> Mr. Eki, did you make a comment? >> Um, something I neglected to mention. We asked uh Dr. Solen to uh survey area boards of education and uh Southernington, Wilut, Wallingford, Meridan, Handen, Bethany Prospect and region 16 and Waterberry do not have a similar policy. Correct. Stratford and Meridan do just to keep in perspective. >> Meridan's mentioned twice though on both sides of the aisle. >> Yeah,
131you didn't mention anything. Yeah, Meridan, I'm sorry. In the in the minutes, we have Meridan twice. Dr. S, do you recall if Meridan's in or out? >> They have the draft. They started a draft. >> I thought Meridan did have a draft. >> Not that I know. >> There was one that they shared that they had. >> Do you have the policy number? I can look real quick. Uh 511 511.3. So, I have a question for Mark, I guess, chairman. Um, what does CAB say about it? Does CAD have a policy? >> They they have a recommended policy that we we reviewed, I believe, in the spring, Dr. and we didn't like some of the things that were in there and removed quite a bit. Um, and so what we have left in, you know,
132for the for the policy for you guys to take a look at is the things that we left behind. I think we tweaked some of the language. Um but the the base structure is is based off of uh Cage recommended policy. >> Can we just comment off of the Google document then if we are making suggestions or how would you like to collect the feedback >> since the ask is for us to review and provide feedback? Yeah, I I think you'd be better off making comments to Mark. >> Um because engaging the board with a Google doc could be construed as a meeting. Okay. >> So, um I would review it and then just send any comments to Mark. >> Thank you. >> Any other items? Mr. Yes. Hold on. Mr. White, did you have
133a question on this particular >> Oh, just one. >> Yeah. Um, this is definitely not an absolute rule, but as a generally speaking, most of I believe that most of our policies are driven by state law. Jeff, do you happen to know if that's true? Like, do you have any idea is it almost all of them or most of them? It's got to be at least most of them. >> Yeah, almost. And the easiest way to tell is look at any policy at the bottom you'll see legal references. Um and just to go back to the previous question, I don't see the policy being adopted and merited. >> Thank you. >> So mo but most of our policies is it fair to say most of our policies are driven by state law? >> Yeah. >>
134And there is no state law on this. >> Is there's law on how on what the parameters are for um immigration enforcement on campus. >> Okay. So there is something related >> there is law related to you know serving subpoenas and whatnot. >> Okay. But I >> Tim are you asking whether the policy is mandated by the state to have? >> Yes. Right. >> Are most of our policies mandated by the state and is this one? >> This one is not. I know that the I couldn't tell you that the majority are. I' I'd really have to go back one. >> That's just so I'm going based off of memory over the past few years I've been on the board. Most of them have been driven by state law mandating it >> because pretty much
135everything I bring forward >> is a legal change that we have a policy already in place for >> and we're making a change or um as you'll see for the third reading statutoily required. >> This is not statutoily required. >> Yep. >> Right. >> Good. Sorry. Just one more comment. I mean whether it's mandated or not, whether we institute it or not, I take an Herrian's point on signaling to families very seriously and want to consider that. And so whether we adopt or not, I and I know you've done this already, Dr. Solo, but I think it remains important to signal and at least to to share what we do have, what the law is with our school community so that they are aware and that they know we're aware and thinking about it and
136it's not just something we're not even considering. I I think that's important. >> Thank you. >> I have just one other statement. I just want to bring you back to our curriculum meeting because I think there's some data there that we should again be aware of. Um in lie of as I'm reading this policy, it was also noted that codifying the district's position could help undocumented families feel safer and more secure. You know, I heard everyone's comments on it, but I just want to bring it to the forefront, too, that we have 658 families that have a se second language at home. Right now, we have 191 181 active students, ML students in our district. And if I look at some of of the the data earlier from in the last five years, we have
137doubled our ML numbers over time from the 2122 school year where we had at the end of the school year 83 to this school year where we're now at 171. So there are changing demographics. I think we have to be aware of that and we have to make sure that if indeed we don't need this policy. We have to be cognizant of the fact that there are families in the district with students in our schools that may at some point be a little nervous about everything that's going on in the world around them. So maybe it it doesn't have to be codified in policy. Uh, I do think we have to be aware of it and we just can't say okay. So, we're okay. Tim, I don't think I could call on you, but I
138did. Go ahead. >> I think Sam is nodding. Okay. No, what you just said, I appreciate it very much. I've personally had conversations with uh parents of my kids' friends, their parents who are not were not born here in America, people of color. And they've made it really clear to me oneon-one they're nervous because there's I mean there's talk about what the 14th amendment doesn't count anymore. So even if you're born here, but if you look different or something, I mean, I don't know what all it I agree completely about that and about uh reassuring people that there's a concern. It's like I said, I'm just coming at it from I think that can be done without putting the $2 million out there like, oh well, too bad for Chester. We're just going to pull
139it because this is how I see it in the press and I'm just trying to be practical about that, >> right? And I don't know if a policy is what would do it, but how do we give that sense of safety to our families out there? Like how do we assure them of that? >> We we I I mean I did share last year the guidance that we follow um in a statement. >> How did how did you share that Jeff? Parent Square, which does get translated, by the way, into other languages. >> Yeah, I would only add to to what Tim was saying. Not >> sure if we cover all of them. >> Emory, thank you for that that uh data. Um I would just add to what Tim said that um families are
140feeling under attack. I mean, people are being picked up off the streets for crying out loud. Um and people who feel under attack are not very likely to come knocking on administrative doors and saying I want to um I need asurances. They're they're not asking for it. So, you know, to say if if we're not hearing anybody, then you know, if we haven't surveyed people, then we don't know. I don't know that to be true. Then I I just don't that's not a >> I know. But and I think the thing with that is some of these families or people are hesitant to come. >> Exactly. That's exactly the point I'm trying to make, but apparently and I'm not doing it very well. There's an insecurity clearly and I think as a district and you
141know you can't you can't tout and promote SEAL without considering the SEAL components within this policy as well. So I'm going to ask that the board please take a look at it make the comments and suggestions to Mr. Aki so that we can move forward. Um right now it's not even on a second read at all. >> No it is it >> it's second reading. >> It is for your next meeting it will be Yeah. >> Thank you. Okay, your next policy. >> All right, we have a third reading and approval of policies. Move that judge Board of Education give a third and final reading to policies 1312.46161.13 46161.13 Library Collection Development and Maintenance 1312.56161.14 Library Display and Program 5141.5 Suicide Prevention and Intervention bylaw 9040 board related responsibilities and bylaw 9400 monitoring products and
142processes and direct superintendent to put set policies into immediate effect. >> Second >> discussion >> and these uh these are things that we are mandated to put in >> mostly not the uh the bylaws that's that those were our our decisions. >> The bylaws are our operating room. Yes. >> But the library the library stuff was mandated. >> Yeah. >> Suicide prevention as well. >> Yes. Suicide. Yeah. And >> we have a policy on that. That was something that but it's super dated. We reviewed it with I reviewed it with Robin and our attorney. She made the recommendations to make these updates. Um and you know we reviewed >> that was from 1996 or something like that. >> Yeah. It's dated. That's when you also uh went and talked to Michelle. >> Yeah, Michelle Picarilla.
143We asked for feedback from her too. >> Any comments? Um >> No, but I have a question. >> Yeah. >> So, that concerned me that suicide prevention being 30 years old, 1996 to now, lots of things have changed in um you know, in with with kiddos's minds. And um my concern then is like is it part of the committee's charge to look at updating all policies? >> So um Carol, what was it a few years? Several years ago we did an audit. >> Um the policies five years ago were so far out of whack it was crazy. Um, we did a comprehensive audit through a service at CABE, um, which was really helpful, provided us a ton of the the ones that were really out of whack. It may be, um, good to take another
144run at it um, at some point to to see what else at this point because those were serious issues. Now it's like, you know, what's the next tier of uh policies we should be taking a look at? Uh it might be helpful because they they will double check it against law changes and um give us feedback around that. So that's something I think Carol we could get a quote on that and discuss it at the next policy meeting. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> especially with all the mental health concerns that are coming out. >> Yeah, all of our practices have changed, but you're right, the the laws are changing. Um, let's just take a a look at the policy manual. >> The motion is on the floor. All those in favor? >> I think
145it's unanimous. Thank you. Next item. Mr. Aki, is there another policy item? >> I believe I am done. >> That's it. Yeah. Awesome. Um I'm going to open it to any board members who are or who wish to report on any uh other standing committees or liaison reports as well too. I report >> um as many of you know the ASUS executive director um is retiring as of um July 1 and an extensive search was done. and I sat on the um committee and we ended up last week at our um meeting recommending that Dr. William Rice be the new ASUS um director. Right now he serves as an assistant director at ASUS and um I think we we started out with 72 people maybe that applied. We cut it down to 12 that we
146um did a paper review of. We brought I think seven in um for interviews and then we went down to three and he came out on top. So he is the new effective July one um director education executive director of ACES. >> Thank you. Congratulations Dr. Rice. Any other committees or liaison reports? Great. Next item are the approval of minutes. If you can take a sec just to make sure and review and then I will need a motion. Anybody want to move a motion? >> I wasn't here, so >> Tim. >> Yeah. Motion. >> Uh, move that the Cheshire Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on February 19th and March 5th, 2026. >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Kauer. discussion. >> Any corrections? >> No. >> Awesome. All those in favor of the
147motion that's on the floor, Miss Cullinin. Favor or no? >> Great. Unanimous. >> Thank you. I know Dr. Sullen's uh distracting you. >> Sorry, >> Mr. White. Are there any correspondence to be read? >> I'm going to ask the superintendent if there's any correspondence. No. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I'm going to leave it at the superintendent because he's got a good visible. >> All right. I am going to try and rip through this, but when I tell you like this month has been one of the hairier ones I've ever experienced in terms of just volume and stuff. Some people think it's Mercury and retrograde, but um maybe I don't know. Uh anyway, so first and foremost, this month is board member appreciation month. So, I just want to take them the time to
148offer you another bag of apples. Um, or anything. We do have gifts for you. I will hand them out at the end. Um, but I do on behalf of, you know, Carol, Marlene, and Emily just want to say thank you for all the time and energy that you put into it. It's it's kind of a thankless gig most of the time. Uh, as a matter of fact, I recently heard a prominent politician in the state in a private meeting say that um >> he was never so crazy. >> No, he's not dumb enough. >> Well, I wasn't going to out him like that, but he's not brave enough. He He corrected himself to say he was never brave enough to run for the board, but um you know, it was a tough gig and I
149appreciate everything. We appreciate everything that you guys put into the job. Um, so thank you. Uh, legislative session. And when I say crazy, this is the craziest legislative short session, long session, doesn't matter. The craziest I've ever seen as it relates to school law. So, there are laws um being proposed to apply PE credit for students who play sports uh rather than take classes. There's a law refining homeschooling. um the expectations, you probably heard about that in the news, uh law about the ECS grant, the federal or excuse me, the state grant money that um we've had $10 million for the last 40 years for. Um there's a proposed change in non-renewal of non-tenured teachers. There's a proposed change in math. There's proposal in reading and test taking. There's a proposal to institute a tax
150on sweetened drinks and provide students free breakfast. Um there's a cell phone law that Matt brought up. They did already adopt uh the law that moves kindergarten start age as a requirement to September 1st as opposed to it used to be January 1st years ago and it's kind of been a kind of a slow phase in so trying to monitor all that. Um I sit on the cap's legislative committee. We can't even monitor at all. It's so um just frantic right now. But um just keeping you apprised of that. I'm sure there will be some changes out of it. I wanted to let you know that we um won another $50,000 grant for Connecticut grown for Connecticut kids. We um were able to acquire a pizza maker. Um, and so now we're we're this additional
151grant allows us um some special equipment to support that and a farm to school event that we'll be hosting on on October 26th. Um, so congratulations to Erica and her team for securing that grant for us as the third grant that we've we've earned. Um, I have been working with a team at Cheshire High School on a program called You Belong Here. And basically our goal is um multiaceted in the sense that we have a lot of transitions happening in the elementary grades. Um, we also want to leverage our high school kids as leaders to send a strong message about um, mean-spirited behavior. Um we are um using high school kids starting with the peer health educators to go down to the elementary schools and have conversations with them about what leadership looks like um
152and you know establishing positive school climate and positive school community. Uh so our peer health educators have now trained some underassmen. Uh they're they've created a video. I sent I well I will send you guys the um my very quick intro to that video. Uh and they'll be going out in March and April and meeting with the kids at the elementary grades recognizing that there's kind of a developmental difference K to 6. They're reading stories in the younger grades. They're doing class presentations in the upper grades. It's just been such an exciting evolution to see uh and I really appreciate the support of our team at Jeser High School uh for pulling these uh peer health educators together, recruiting underassmen so that there's a legacy to this. Um, we didn't want it to be something
153that was just a hit and run, but this is the first iteration of something that can evolve because, you know, as adults, we can message children all the time and it's meaningful when our kids message them. It's powerful and we want to build on that. We're looking forward to that. And uh, coming up later this month and and next, um, I've been invited to speak at a a conference, statewide conference on May 15th. uh workforce vitality um in stabilizing the talent economy. Um that's at Southern. Um there's quite a diverse group of panelists and uh presenters at that uh workshop. Um really the emphasis is on with the shifts in employment um what role does education play in that and so uh should be really interesting. looking forward to that. Uh the school construction update,
154uh I've been at both schools this week. It is just exhilarating to walk through those buildings and see how much progress has been made. There are lockers in there's scoreboards up um at Barnum um playscapes at both schools. it like it's really coming together and there's been so much work put into it um by a lot of people and I'm I'm just thrilled to see it coming together. Uh but as part of that we're also looking at the transition planning that has to occur for that. That's been a lot of uh effort on a lot of folks part. Um the new friends day as we call it will be June 4th 5th rain day um where we are taking the students from their current schools and busing them to new schools uh to have uh
155activity team building activities with uh the the kids that will become their new community. Uh and so our focus initially has been on getting that squared away. That will obviously happen toward the end of the spring. Uh tomorrow actually we you know Marlene and I Christina Sherwood and I have been bouncing around meeting with principles and and teachers to tell them about the moves that we're making. I think most of them are um in a position now that they're feeling more optimistic about that. We had tours this, not that people were really upset, actually a number of people that were thrilled about it, but um the we had tours last week uh and this week to bring I guess it was just this week, right? >> Monday feels like a month ago. Um to bring
156teachers that are moving to the new buildings to see those buildings and they were excited about that. Um, Marlene has been putting a lot of work into uh the the transitions for our staff. I mean, tomorrow is our PD day. So, uh, they have their new friends day, as we you kind of tongue-in-cheek call it, new friends day. They they are meeting new people and connecting with their their new faculty. Marlene, you want to talk a little bit about what that is? Yeah, tomorrow we'll have um 16 teachers who are transfer 16 teachers who are transferring schools along with about 15 teachers who have been working at Darcy for a long time and not in a bigger school. So, we're bringing all of them together and we'll really be doing some deep thinking to build
157the foundational cultures for New Norton and for Barnum. We're going to be um working on some foundational beliefs about teaching and learning and really crafting the um figuring out how we're going to support students through systems, structures, intrinsic motivation. And the the day should really be about creating a brand new culture at each school. It's not just going to be Norton 2.0 or Chapman 2.0. It's it's really about bringing people together. So, we have a number of activities designed to really unearth that and get people working together that um don't know each other yet or have only seen each other from afar. We figured that if we do that for the staff, then they will be really primed to do that for the students. So obviously, you know, there's there's a lot of coordination that
158goes into all of this stuff and um appreciate the flexibility of our parents, students, and staff to um make the most of the transition and see it as an opportunity. It's it's exciting. Um quick update on the energy performance contract. uh we were the beneficiary of legislation uh to work through an issue we were having with OCGR and uh we've subsequently submitted six grants for solar projects around the district really at um Barnum Norton Dodd Highland Dittle and CHS so really across the the entire district um right now um Eneria and Johnson Control controls are reviewing the original plans, making any adjustments. Applications have already been submitted for building permits. So, we're working through that process. We're also working with Bank of America on uh financing, which we hope to close on that end of
159April. This is all stuff that's otherwise already been approved. And I mean, we're working break neck speed to see what we can do to get uh solar installed as as quickly as we possibly can. Uh it'll certainly drop the the cost of our utilities. Um so I appreciate all the work that Vin is doing on that. Um I know that he's working on getting the working group together, which Tim sits on. Uh so hopefully we'll get that scheduled soon. And um that concludes my report. I'm sure there's like 42 things like even today Marlene and I were at the uh CAP spring cons uh conference. Um the speak the speaker the keynote this morning was a guy named Dan Heath who wrote the book reset. Great book um that we've read with our admin team
160after Marlene and I read it last year. We wanted to bring it to them. just take a fresh look at what we do and how we can improve. And the afternoon keynote was uh Mark Brackett from the Yale, he's the director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Um and again, you know, really dovetailed both morning and afternoon with the work that we do here around complex thinking and social emotional learning and inspired to uh do more work in those areas because we know how meaningful it is for our students. So that now concludes my report, I guess. Oh, CF. Looking at Heather reminds me CF uh on Saturday. Uh anybody playing? >> Uh we're taking the trophy. >> Let you know that in advance. >> All right. There's some uh smack talk going on
161early. Um I'm sure we'll be battling for the basement. Um but it'll be a lot of fun. >> You can still get uh tickets to that. You can still participate. It's $80 for a team of four. Uh it'll be at Cheshure Academy. bring your own beer or wine. Uh people bring shuderie, all sorts of fun stuff. And uh go on cheshireedfoundation.org if you are interested in participating. I think we already have 24 teams including um a team of rockstar teachers from Highland. uh Denise Shalaba uh was invited because um I had reached out and I appreciate the the support of OMG who's our construction company in Tecton who's our architect who each made thousand donations to be uh marquee sponsors of the event and um so OMG can't make it and they've given their table
162to uh to Denise. >> Nice. >> So >> questions for Dr. Solen Mr. Thank you. Thanks for that, Jeff. Um >> Marlene, you had mentioned uh Norton and Barnum building their school communities. I'm curious. Highland is how many kids? 900 right now? >> 900 something. >> Okay. Just ballpark. And next year it's going to be 700. >> 950 720. >> Of that 700, how many are currently in the 900? >> Of the 7. Is it all 700 or is Highland getting any new kids? >> No, Highland's not getting >> Yeah, Highland has significant transformation and they have a new friends day as well. >> Okay, that was my only point. Like I feel like Highland is going through it. >> Is getting some students who are coming from Chapman, but they are not getting any
163teachers or staff from other buildings. >> Okay, I'm focused right now. >> But they are getting new kids is the point. Yes. So that community is >> and they're involved in the new students day uh new friends day in June. >> Okay. >> And Dittle's getting >> I don't think they're losing some losing. >> Yeah. They're basically going from >> getting more Dittle's losing like 50. >> Yeah. It It's a small change there. And then >> you know they're not really getting new students. So we don't have um I asked uh Kristen Lopa the principal to just make contact with those handful of people that are um new to Dittle for whatever reasons. I think it's four um and some of them are children of staff members who are now working there. So she'll connect
164with them to make sure the kids feel comfortable. >> Uh yeah. So I didn't mention it during liazison reports. I wasn't thinking about it at the moment, but I'll take this opportunity, which I'm guessing the other schools are doing something similar like the Norton PTA is organizing an ice cream social >> for um Highland parents coming over to Norton >> uh the kids as well obviously uh just to meet some of the Norton community, the Norton parents and Norton kids. And my last question, Adventure Playground, any chance of uh keeping up with the new schools? >> So, the playscapes, >> the mentioned playcapes, and that's what got me >> they're not as they're not adventure playground in the way you and I would think of adventure playground. Uhhuh. >> And I think it is something
165that, you know, when the it's built out and we have space, that would be a priority item for me to take a look at. Um, you know, I'm sure with donors, I had spoken to um the Boy Scouts in advance of the project >> three years ago. >> Okay. Um, but you know, I'd love to try and coordinate something that has incorporates the uh adventure playground the way that that we have studied in the past and and tried to Yeah. junkyard. >> Yeah. Without it looking like junk, you know, we want it. It's okay if it looks like junk. We just in some respects we don't want it to look like trash on the sideyard, but >> it's what the adventure playground is really. The kids put this together and love it. >> So, I
166have a bit of an adventure playground in some open space in my backyard and I had four fourth grade boys at my house this afternoon having an absolute blast with with a junkyard. >> Awesome. >> They do enjoy it. All right. >> Did you make their parents sign a waiver? >> Just saying. >> Thank you. >> A question from Arlene. Are you is are the principals facilitating the gathering or are you co-f facilitating? So, I will be there. All of the principles will be there. Kathy Carluchi will be there. But about a year and a half ago, I had um reached out to Mike Anderson, who's a national speaker, and also Andy Ducus, who's done a lot of work with teachers at all of those schools. And so, they will be primarily doing some of
167the uh facilitation so that the principles can participate and be a part of getting to know the staff. >> Gotcha. Great. Thank you. Um uh so I'm gonna have to ask Dr. Sen because it's a bone of contention for me personally. How's the sign situation? >> Oh yeah, they're they're in the process of uh drafting a a what you call it um dedication plaque that uh would be discussed at the next meeting which may be next Thursday. Does that sound right? I think >> there's no agenda publicly posted yet for >> Not yet. No, not yet. Um, you can plan on next Thursday though that we do have a meeting next Thursday night and I'll I'll follow up with Rich tomorrow. >> Okay. >> To see where that stands. Thank you. >> Because I know
168we had discussed that maybe prior to that meeting >> having some sense. >> Yep. You're right. >> Yeah. >> I'll follow up with him tomorrow. Um, thank you for sharing that. Any questions for Dr. Soulen? Comments. Awesome. Thank you, sir. Um, I think there's no old business, but there is an item for new business, and I believe it has to do with the healthy food certification. Um, you want to kind of go over this really quick? >> Yes, I'll be brief. Uh the healthy food certification is something we do every year. Uh it's about food items that are sold to students separately from reimburseable meals. Um they have to meet certain standards. You guys have all snacked on things that meet the standards for the healthy food certification, including the sun bites, the goldfish, and
169the sliced apples. Um why do we participate? Other than the health benefits, we get reimbursed 10 cents a lunch if we participate, which is about 20k a year in revenue. Um so there's a financial and a health incentive. Um we there are 189 eligible districts to participate and eight 183 participate. So they have about 97% participation across the state state including 130 public school districts. Um and the healthy food certification has been around for about 20 years. Uh the participation has increased from 50% 20 years ago to 97% as of this school year. So you have um motions in front of you that we need to vote on. Um we have motion one and well three. Um one is to participate in the healthy food certification. That's motion one. Motion two is about food exemptions
170and motion three is about be beverage exemptions. So we do have to vote on the motion separately. I am happy to review any of this but I also know it's it's getting later at night. So if you have questions I'm willing to entertain them. But um you know I didn't want to go through >> I think the only question I have is because there's legislation on the table does that impact >> what we're ultimately going to vote on? >> No, this is our just the certification that we're going to um retain a healthy foods program that provides guidelines around, you know, how much sugar, salt, all those things that could be in any of our our food. Now, if the federal guidance changes around, every kid has to have whole milk or whatever. Um, this
171is federal guidance. So, I >> So, we had to come back and >> I think we'd probably revisit it, but um it because like um like Emily said, you know, there's there's funding and everything tied to this and we've run this program for a number of years. Nothing's really changing in this, but um God knows what could change at the federal level. And this is um the Connecticut general statutes. And I will say the you know the motion one is about participating. The second two motions about are about exemptions which allow us to sell items at our concession stands for games. Um there are certain windows you have to abide by to have the exemptions. Um but generally we're saying we're going to participate and then we want exemptions for these special events. >> Okay.
172Questions before we move a motion? >> Yeah. >> Or do you want to move and then have discussion? >> We could. We'll do. We have to do them one at a time anyway so we can take questions. >> Um, somebody want to do the first motion, please. Dan, go ahead. >> Um, move that the that pursuant to CGS section 10-21 lowercase F. The Cheshire Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from
173all sources, including but not limited to how many lawyers did it take to write this? Uh, school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or by non-school organizations and groups. >> Second, Mr. Right. Discussion. >> The discussion I wanted to make was the comment that we talk a lot about unfunded mandates by the state. These these are mandates that I can really get behind. So, um, we do them every year and there's never been any blowback in my opinions. So, I'm happy to make the motions. Thank you. Any other comment, Mr. Caller? >> Uh, I I just have a question. Which of the three motions that we're gonna talk about tonight is the goldfish relate to? >> Number one. >> Anticipating. >> So, healthy
174food option. >> It is there's actually a really extensive list of all the healthy like it will say goldfish, whole wheat, cheddar flavor like there's a you go on the website, it's there. >> Do we do any work on top of that? I mean, I understand that that would be more of like a hey, here's what's approved to fall under that, but I mean, >> I think you'd be hardressed to to make an argument that besides some state list that this is healthy. >> They're made with smiles. >> It's made with smiles. >> It's wheat, flour, and vegetable oil. I mean, it's it's like the healthier version of the craft, but it's >> Yep. It is by no means a healthy food option. >> Start. Any other comments, discussion on this? All those in favor
175of the first motion that is on the floor? I think we have unanimous. All right. Somebody give me motion number two, please. M. Corer, you want to tackle that one? >> I'll I'll let you catch your breath, Dr. Heran. >> Yeah. Thank you. uh move that the Chester Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards provided that the following conditions are met. Number one, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Number two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice
176meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food sales. Is there a second? Dr. Herrian. Discussion on the second motion. None. All those in favor of the second motion? Unanimous. Okay. Third one. Go ahead. >> Oh, keep going. >> It's the same thing. moved that the board of that moved that the Cheshire Board of Education will allow the sale to students of beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met. Number one,
177the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Number two, the sale is at the location of the event. And number three, the beverages are not sold from a vending machine or a school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice, meeting, or extracurricular activity. The school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the beverage sales. >> Second, Dr. Herrian. All those in favor of the third motion, unanimous. Thank you, everybody. That was a lot. Um, just a few items for my update. Uh, first I I just want to thank
178the staff and students who participated in the uh YMCA's annual polar plunge. I did not see Dr. Soulen in any of the pictures, so I'm not sure if you were >> behind the scenes. Yeah, I didn't. >> No, I was underwater. >> Were you? >> Yeah. Un must be when the photo was taken. I was snorkeling at that point. >> I apologize. Well, it was a nice enough day for sure for that. >> Oh, yeah. It was fantastic. 34 degrees in the water. Um my understanding is they raised about $16,000 over their >> incredible amount of money. >> Really cool. So appreciate um you guys participating in that. Um second, I I think you know it's critical I want to remind everybody to kind of stay informed. Visit our BOE website, visit the town website.
179You know, budget season's not over. Dr. Solen just presented last week to the town council. There were some comments and questions that were floating around. Um I strongly encourage you at home to really make contact with Dr. Solen and administration to clarify any you know misunderstandings especially with the data pieces. Um I feel you know just speaking as an individual that the board did scrutinize and go through each line item before we voted and forwarded to the town council. Um it is unfortunate that the council or I let me not misspeak that you know the town manager did cut us $300,000 um and that before he moved it to the town. So again recommendation >> they made a recommendation which is not favorable in my view but um >> but again we're asking that the
180community support go out um make sure that you speak on behalf of the board's recommendation um just to ensure that our students moving into next year have you know and our staff have the means and the resources that they need. So strongly encourage that. Um uh I know Dr. Solen mentioned this earlier. Uh we did myself, Dr. Herrian. Um town manager, Mayor um TARA and Mr. Jinx did go up to the state capital. Um had a meeting with Speaker Ritter and Representative Lenahan um concerning ECS funding. It was a pretty productive discussion. Um although it happened after the uh >> he already made a press conference, but there's some light there. I I will say I mean Dr. You want to kind of >> Yeah. So right now in the legislature they made an announcement
181um that they were looking to take 150 100 to $150 million to um allocate to communities for education. um that I mean it's I guess it's a nice sentiment but it doesn't change the structure of the funding mechanisms that have kept us steady and actually if adopted um would see us go from about 9.8 million to about 7 million over the course of a decade. Um right now we're held harmless because that law was an act enacted a few years ago. So we stay where we are. Um the there are two proposals, one in the House, one in the Senate that would shift how the um money is allocated. And really they both are predicated on playing with what's called the foundation. The foundation is $11,000 roughly and that's what they account for every student.
182Actually, there only two districts in Connecticut that actually get $11,000 per student. Uh, New Britain and Hartford. um we get like 2,000 and it's because there is another part of the formula that really in impacts that and that's it's called base aid and so we really don't get much on that. Um the Senate proposal would certainly be more favorable but neither of them really change the base aid. The Senate version is more favorable because it does jack up the foundation higher. Um, and so like if I had to pick one, I guess it'd be that one. But really, it's the base aid that, you know, I'd love to see adjusted, but I don't know that that's going to happen because it's not enough money to do it. So, under the circumstances, I would take a
183hard look at the Senate when I can send you guys information on that tomorrow. >> Yeah, Mr. Wright. >> Thank you. So, I saw a headline about the $150 million and I'm kind of following what you're saying. If we if it was a straight line based on population saying we're 1% of the state that would be a million and a half dollars that would certainly be helpful. I doubt it would be anything near that. Probably get less than 1%. Is this is the idea for this to be recurring or one time? So, so it would be a one time the 150 and and >> it'd be like a block block grant like uh educational I education cost excess cost grant is >> and that you know it's it's based on need and things like that.
184So >> it won't wouldn't be a million dollars. It's probably like a few hundred thousand >> and yeah and I if if there's money on the table and we can take it then I definitely would say take it. But I also just want to point out that it also creates a problem next year in Cliff being there basically. So >> yeah, >> it's uh >> on balance it's it's good but it's definitely not uh perfect by any means if it if it does come to fruition in that form. >> Yeah, I think you know the proposal was to provide something immediately. That's what theund to 150 million would be. at the same time that they restructure ECS. Um, so I think the intent was that it would be an immediate infusion with a restructuring, but
185you know, at the same time they're also deliberating a restructuring right now, which would have an immediate impact. >> We lose. Chester loses almost certainly with that. So, um, that's my perspective. We do okay with the with the Senate, you know, um we do okay with the House one, too. In both cases, we get a little bit more um and we don't get impacted as badly as the current ECS formula is. Um but, you know, the House ones, neither of them are like, wow, all right, all of a sudden we're getting, you know, 15 million a year or something. Um it's relatively nominal >> but positive >> rather than simply tinkering with the ECS formula. Did they was there any discussion about simply funding it? >> Uh it would be astronomically expensive to fully fund
186it. >> So the answer is they're not going to fund it. But maybe they'll play with it. No, they they need to find they but they've been I guess they've been dramatically underfund underfunding it for better part of 25 years. Um and I I think we're ready for progress. Um and I think I give everybody bipartisan credit that they are working on progress. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. There was mention of the potential or they're formulating a study group that could um >> the governor has asked for a a study group which you know um kill it through committee you know um I'm weary of that but I I think there is a lot of uh desire blue red small town big town to do something about it. I started sitting behind this
187desk 25 years ago. So, I think I'm just a little cynical at this point, but thank you. I appreciate it if it is moving in a good direction. >> The intent is there. We'll see what comes of it. >> And I think it it's it was critical for us to go up there because, you know, it seems like the urbans are always representative of the, you know, when situations come up, but you know, in these times, it's really impacting every no matter what district you're in, it's impacting everybody as we notice now. So, um, so again, appreciate Speaker Ritter taking the the time to meet with us as well, too. Um, outside that, I'm going to repeat it again. We are coming home with the trophy, right? Matt and >> let's go. >> Dr. Soulen
188asked who was playing. Some people are playing. We're going to be winning. >> I don't know what our team name is, but that's besides the point. Okay. >> I think I think I put in a team name something like BOE powerhouse or something. >> Oh, okay. I don't remember anymore. >> Just winners, period. >> Yeah, >> same. Go with the Huskies. >> Oh, don't talk about the Huskies. I'm a little upset. Um, all right. Next, uh, announcements of upcoming meetings. We have Monday, April 13th, 7 p.m. we have policy committee meeting at Human. Thursday, April 16th, 7:30m at um B at Town Council Chambers here. BOE business meeting. Uh, Monday, April 20th at 7 is curriculum at Human. Um, as far as Chester Public Schools, March 20th, tomorrow, is professional development day. Tomorrow is the
189first day of spring. Doesn't feel like it, but here we are. April 3rd is Good Friday, so schools and district offices are closed. And then we move to April break, which is the 6th through the 10th. All schools are closed. May 25th. Outside of that being my birthday, it is Memorial Day and schools and district offices are closed. Thank you for giving me the day off. And that is it. I will take a motion to adjourn. Mr. White, second by Dr. Herrian. All those in favor adjourning, it's unanimous. Thank you everybody.