001Six 806. Mr. Jazensi. Roll call, please. >> Here >> Thank you. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Next item on the agenda, if there's any audience members who would like to speak, please go to the one of the mics. Thanks. Nope. Seeing none, we are moving on to the presentations. Um, first item for presentations is the recognition of our teacher uh, PAR educator of the year, Dr. Solen. >> Sure. I' I'd like to pass it off to uh, our elementary supervisor for special education, Christina Sherwood, who will introduce Miss Perno. >> Yeah. U, do we have a open mic? Y. >> Thanks, Good evening
002everyone. I am deeply honored to recognize Cheshire's 2025 PAR educator of the year. Our recipient Jerry Perno currently serves as an ABA DTI PAR educator at Norton School. Jerry exemplifies all that it means to be a positive role model. Jerry consistently demonstrates optimism, flexibility, initiative, and an unwavering commitment to her students and colleagues. In her previous role as a special education pareducator at Highland, she built respectful, genuine, and lasting relationships with both students and staff. As one teacher has shared, from the moment she walks into the room, Jerry brings warmth, kindness, and a genuine positive energy. Her patience is incredible and students feel safe and supported with her. Beginning in 2024, Jerry embraced a new challenge, joining our intensive ed program, transferring to a different elementary school and helping to open a brand new classroom
003at Norin. From day one, she greeted students with a smile. And on the second day of school, she turned to me and said, "We got this." That simple phrase perfectly captures who Jerry is. positive, steady, and ready to do whatever it takes to support both students and her team. Jerry also demonstrates her deep commitment to the profession by taking on an additional role in our district as a parah education para educator mentor, supporting new para educators transitioning into our district. She eagerly applied for this leadership position in hopes of providing new para educators as an update on district policies, routine and clear expectations as their role in their role. Her approachable nature, various experiences, and genuine interest in other success makes her an invaluable resource to our district. Her current supervising specialed teacher, Kathy Erman,
004describes Jerry as a calming force in their classroom. With a gentle voice, steady demeanor, and professional expertise, Jerry knows exactly how to help her students feel safe, refocus, and succeed. Jerry is the first step up, first to step up and offer her assistance. She leads by example and has greatly contributed to the success of our classroom. Jerry is deeply valued, appreciated, and loved by students, staff, and administrators that have the absolute pleasure of working by her side. Congratulations, Jerry. Thank you. Up next, our school partnership award and Dr. Herrian will present. Good evening. Um, I would like to introduce you all to Denise Ronary. >> Hi. You don't have to stand through the whole thing. I'll call you up after after I say some nice things about you. Denise Rancari is far more than a
005parent volunteer or former PTA president. She is a true partner in shaping the heart and spirit of the Dodd community. Her exceptional dedication has spanned years extending well beyond her own children's time at Dodd. Denise first became involved through the PTA where she quickly emerged as a natural leader. As president, she was the driving force behind countless successful events, fundraisers, and initiatives bringing together families, staff, and community partners to strengthen the culture of our schools. She has dedicated countless hours to attending monthly PTA meetings, meeting with administrators, even during the summer, and organizing memorable school events such as staff versus student volleyball and basketball games. Um, the seventh grade social and class night. Most recently, she collaborated with Parks and Wreck to host a Friday night old school dance for both seventh and eighth graders.
006featuring a fun and safe opportunity for students to connect outside of school. What truly sets Denise apart and why we believe she is so deserving of this recognition is her continued commitment even after her children moved on to other schools. While many parents understandably shift their focus, Denise has not stopped giving. She continues to volunteer to support the programs that enrich the Dodd experience. all with warmth, humility, and an unwavering sense of reliability. Dodd Middle School is proud to honor Denise for her enduring dedication and the lasting impact she continues to make on our school. Her generosity of time, spirit, and heart truly embodies what it means to be part of the Dodd family. The Cheshire Board of Education thanks Denise for going above and beyond for the students in Cheshire Public Schools. Come up
007here. Thank you. Congratulations to both of you. Miss Perno, Miss Ron Carly. Awesome. We are excited to see this middle school showcase. So, Miss Lana, all yours. >> Thank you. >> Well, good evening everyone. That's loud. So tonight we're you're going to hear the story of how Cher Public Schools worked together to achieve to increase math achievement. It involved quite a bit of stakeholders. This didn't just happen overnight. It started with, as we usually do, we're looking closely at the data, at our student data, really examining what it was telling us. It began with the math coaches, Jess Atnes at the elementary school, Tom Tusano at the middle school, Lisa Bernabi at the high school coming together with Kevin who was our curriculum coordinator and myself to study the data and to ask some hard
008questions. It included stories from our teachers and just as importantly listening to the voices of students in their classrooms. This led to collaborative meetings with Robin Kerry as the PPS director, Marie Broadway, the secondary supervisor of special education, Kevin Hanlin, curriculum coordinator, and administrators at both the high school and the middle school to better understand the full picture. Teams of teachers working with Kelly and with Kevin looked at all sorts of curriculum materials. They examined instructional resources. They identified the best tools and strategies to meet the needs of our students. It also required incredible leadership from Kelly Gillow and from Ryan Murphy who balanced the culture and climate in their building while providing the support necessary for meaningful change. Ultimately, it involved everyone here working together, including the board of ed, who listened to presentations
009of the curriculum that we wanted to select for the math department. So, all of us in this room are had a piece of this this puzzle, preparing the conditions for progress, laying the foundation for success, and creating a culture of continuous instructional improvement. And tonight, we'll shine a light on the activities at the middle school, giving you a glimpse inside the success and the collaboration that made it all possible. >> Well said. Hi everyone. We are really excited to share our little journey of um how we have improved uh middle school math performance. And Marlene is right. It is absolutely an enormous collaborative effort on behalf of a lot of people. Um, but we thought we would start with our why. Uh, my first year and a lot was happening even prior to my first
010year, but that first year I was here, I couldn't help but really hear some of our kids' voices and and how they were feeling about themselves as math students. Um, at that time we did have um a couple different pathways in math. For example, in seventh grade there was an accelerated well actually in both grades, but in seventh grade it was uh pre pre-alggebra accelerated and in eighth grade algebra 1. for some kiddos and for others it was just grade level math which is regular grade level math. Nothing wrong with that. But they felt it was not good enough that they were not smart enough realizing uh what we would realize that this is it's grade level math. It's where you're supposed to be. So you're not on the accelerated pathway but you're exactly where
011you're supposed to be. But they didn't feel very good about themselves. They actually said we are dumb. And that was a real loud and clear message. Um, and there was a great sense of urgency when we really stopped and listened to our kiddos. Um, so that's where my journey really began. Um, even though there were some things already in motion, the journey for me really began that first year um, as the principal here at Dodd and hearing some of that feeling and the low self-esteem that they had about themselves as math students. Do you want to add on? >> Sure. So, as more and more kids were in the accelerated program, it meant we had less grade level classes. Um, we got to the point where we only had one or two grade level classes,
012you know, per team, which meant that all the special ed kids would end up in the same section. So, now what we had is we had like 12 special ed kids in a group of 24. And now they really felt like they were dumb. Um, so we are the teachers were really working hard, the kids were working hard, but we just weren't seeing the results that we wanted to see given all the time we were all putting into it. >> I got to back up really quick. I apologize. Andrea Kof Francisco is our special education. She's an eighth grade special education teacher. She's also the division leader for special education. Tom Tusano is um our geometry teacher um for eighth grade students and our division leader and math coach. And of course, Marie Broadway is
013our supervisor of special education for grades 7 through 12. Um, so yeah, there was a lot of hardworking teachers. A lot of hard work was going into um not seeing really great results at that at that time. And so we began this journey um to to really explore how we could how we could improve things. And like Marlene already said, I won't belabor the point. It was a district-wide team effort. Uh we really examined very closely our curriculum resources which Tom is going to talk about. Um we really examined our instructional practices, how we were giving assessments and of course supporting this journey through continuous professional learning that we were very dedicated to. Um so at this point I'm going to turn over to Tom Tusano who's going to share a little bit about when
014we examined our curriculum resources and made some shifts what that looked like. >> Thank you. I'm good. Um, so we talked a little bit about the why of the shift. Um, one more data point that we really dove into was as that accelerated class grew larger and larger, those students continued to be successful. So, it wasn't just that we were failing this smaller group. As we empowered more students, as we gave more students the opportunity for accelerated pathways, they were successful. So that drove us to the decision at the beginning of last year to delevel our classes and put every student in the accelerated track. So in the past we worked with ESPback band scores and some other measures on whether a student would be a grade level student or an accelerated student. This had
015consequences for college level courses they could take. Um and that just didn't sit right with us. as well as the, you know, emotional, psychological piece of a seventh and eighth grade student saying, "I'm dumb. I'm in the dumb class. I got a a Yeah, but it's the dumb class." And that really wore on us and we had to think of something. We had to try something else. So, we made the decision that we would get give every student the opportunity to take accelerated math. We didn't want to say no to anybody. we were going to take any bumps and bruises along the way that we had to, but every kid we wanted to empower, every kid we wanted to give the opportunity to. This went handinhand with our shift to the I Ready um curriculum,
016which we pitched last year to the board. Um very high rigor, very high thinking tasks with lots of pathways for all students. So, it was a great time in our curriculum to also move that over. Instructionally, um the BTC strategies have been very huge for this district. I'm sure almost everyone in this room has heard of them and how we are trying to implement them. Um what I want to really focus on in this slide is the self-reflection that went into teachers that we weren't doing these to the best of our abilities with all of our students. that we would give rigorous tasks, but maybe some students got less rigorous tasks. We would try to move some students through flow while some students got hints a little faster than others. Some students got right up
017to the boards and got started to work while others needed more instructions. And we had the best of intentions with these lower performing students and special ed students, but we realized that our actions were not matching what we felt. And what we felt was all students can learn. So to really help us live by that, we found we felt like there was no other way to empower them, have classes with students, bands one, two, three, and four. Special ed would be mixed, not in one class, but in four. and truly act like we believe that all students could learn at a high level. So another really important um shift that we made was embedding opportunity for students to receive intervention. Um we were we are really u burdened a little bit by the schedule it
018the with 47 minute classes and a really rigorous math curriculum with I ready which is great we love that uh but being able to support them at a tier with with tier one intervention was challenging to say the least we are truncating what is supposed to be a 60-minute lesson from I ready into 47 minutes 45 minutes in reality so we did structure our schedule um to now embed a a section of the today that is dedicated to tier one intervention. We call it RAM um for reading and math, not for the Cheshire Rams, although that's a nice perk, I guess. Uh we have um this time is dedicated every single day. It is embedded in every schedule, seventh and eighth grade. Um it is and and we are getting really good at uh using
019this time with Fidelity um in really really strategic ways to support students in their learning, not just in math, but also in reading. Um but as far as math goes, twice a week our students are um accessing the my pathway in I Ready, which is those prerequisite skills that are determined the needs for those are determined by the diagnostic test that they take at the beginning of the year, take it again at the middle of the year, and things adjust along the way. But really accessing those prerequisite skills to support their understanding of math um has been a major focus, but then also time to work one-on-one with teachers um to get the support that they need. either to unpack those prerequisite skills or to touch base back on what is being taught um that
020they might be it's moving quick right because we've now everyone's in these classes that are accelerated um so teachers uh have the opportunity to touch base and do some reteing when necessary as well. So we did embed um that RAM time that intervention time uh for and a lot of those times are it could be individual with a teacher it could be in a small group as well and that's all tier one we still have tier 2 and tier three for SRBI that is a dedicated time in the schedule as well in addition to that for those who need it but this was a big shift for us uh because that tier one piece was lacking uh prior prior to last year and we really felt it is enormously important especially moving to the accelerated
021pathway for all um and to be able to support those kids. So we're really really proud of uh the time building into the schedule was a key component but then also supporting our teachers in understanding what their strategies are and how they could um support those kids during that time in a meaningful way. Some of the most major shifts came with special education which Marie will talk about. So, we knew um that our work had to really shift in a lot of different ways, especially in our service delivery model in the classroom, in our eyeblock with assessments, with IEP goals and objectives, and in consideration of our students. So what we what we did in the classroom, what we were doing was over scaffolding. We were giving them way too much help. Um we were
022making modifications. We were changing things too much for them. Changing the curriculum in such a way that it was actually lower expectations for them. We were lowering the floor doing that. Not not out of, you know, it was kindness in our hearts. We thought we were doing the right thing, but we really were doing a disservice to our students. We were answering proximity questions. So, if they asked a question, we gave them the answer right then and there. We grouped all of the special education students in one or two classes. So, the ratio of general ed to special ed was way off. So, Kevin knows the story, but um when we were giving assessments, a lot of the time we would be circling around the classroom and you know, we would have a pen in
023our hand. So if we had to give any support to kids, we would mark it, you know, like put a little star that meant the kids were prompted. Um, so during the assessments, there was just a lot of interaction. We're walking around, we're prompting, we're almost giving answers and we're doing it all and then we're grading it and we're going, "How is this a grade?" Like we're they're they're not this is not an assessment. Um, so you know, we had a couple of meetings and we talked about, you know, on the spot, on the moment, at the moment scaffolding and Kevin was, you know, we need to do less, you know, less modifications on these these tests. And I was like, yeah, that's never going to work. Um, you know, these kids are special ed.
024They're special ed for a reason. If they could do what everybody else could do, they wouldn't be special ed. Not true. Um, we I said, "All right, Kevin, you're the boss. We'll go along with it." And we made some very, very, very small tweaks to the first assessment. And we stood back and, you know, we circled around. We asked, you know, we answered questions in a different type of way. And the kids did an amazing job. And the kids knew they did an amazing job and they felt great about it. And that was the last time last year that we modified or even scaffolded a test. Um, at this point, 99% in in the general ed classroom, we do have kids who are in resource math. Um, right now we're not really, you know, what
025we're talking about really isn't pertaining to them as much. They're still a work in progress. Um, but in the gen ed classroom, the kids are all taking the same assessments. Now, um, what we've done in terms of scaffolding is we have mild, medium, spicy. um you know some of the problems are you know standard based grade you know meeting the standard and some are above standard. So some of the special ed kids may not answer the above standard questions but a lot of them do and they're doing an amazing job with it. Um productive struggle that was something that the special ed teachers and the general ed teachers struggled with because what are we doing? We're teachers. We're here to help kids. If Marie asked me a question I shouldn't have to frustrate her. I
026shouldn't have to make her struggle. But we learned differently. We learned that the kids talking to each other and working through problems made all the difference in the world. And I was in a a math class today and we were doing point slope form. And I stopped and I looked around the room, 24 kids, several of them special ed, and every single kid was engaged and they knew what it was. And I guarantee that like we don't all know what point slope form is. Um, but in 20 minutes without direct instruction, they were doing it. Um, you know, it's all in the mindset. We talk to the kids now. We tell them the math is hard. I sit with them in the morning. I'm like, "Oh, you guys, we're going to do some really hard
027math class today. It's going to be very difficult. Let's sit here." We go over it in the morning. We do it in iBlock. We pre-teach. The kids go into class and they feel good about it. They've had some exposure, so they're ready to answer questions, and they're they don't feel like they're dumb anymore. They they feel like they're empowered. And the just the growth in the actual math skills has just been nothing short of incredible. just I love anyone to come in and watch a class here because you just wouldn't even believe what you see and you would never even know who the special ed kids are at this point which is you know the goal of it all. I think one of our biggest shifts was with our eyelock class and iblack is a
028resource room classroom. So a small number of special education students taught by a special education teacher um and working on IEP goals and objectives. However, what was was really homework time or making up miss class miss classroom assignments. And it's because again we feel like we have to help them be successful. So a way to help them be successful is to help them complete their work. And um we I gave permission. I said no more homework. Homework is not for us. That's for home and that's for the general education teachers to help their students with. It's not for us. Let it go. Let it go and really focus on something else. So, we started calling it DoddMath Academy and and like I said before, the kids come in and and they most of the kids
029have eye block either every day or every other day and it's just a time to like preview what's going to be happening in class. We also use that time to, you know, work on the kids gap skills and things that they've missed in the past, prerequisites, things like that. But what we found more and more is that we spend less time working on the prerequisites because we're able to teach the prerequisites in with the grade level content and they're they're kind of getting it all at the same time now. Um, so there's much less, you know, gaps than we saw before. And our I Ready data last year when we were, you know, did the midyear I Ready. Tom's room is next to mine. And as the kids were taking it and the data is
030coming in and we're looking at how many points they were going up, we're like yelling across the rooms. We're like, "Oh my god, so and so went up 64 points. Oh, this kid went up 128 points." Or we'd be in the hallway and we'd grab a kid and we'd be like, "Oh my gosh, you went up so much." And it was just the excitement, the kids, the teachers. So really, again, nothing like it. >> I was getting texts all through the night. It was great. I was texting Robin. I was like, "Look, look what this one did." Um, we already kind of talked about assessments and how we move from modifications to accommodations. So, not changing anything. Um, so I'll skip down to IEP goals and objectives. And we always have academic goals. We always
031have executive functioning goals. We had homework goals unfortunately and um they were more contentbased. So you might see something like so and so will solve one and twostep algebra equations for for example. So you know we had to shift away from that. We were we were not focusing on the right things in our IEPs. So now we're really looking at, you know, what's the barrier to instruction. A lot of time it's not like specifically the math skills. It could be the executive functioning. It could be the reading comprehension. Uh so we're just a lot more targeted in what we're, you know, how we're approaching everything. Um and it's again making a huge difference. >> And in that eye block, they're working on those skills that they need. And because they're working on the skills that
032the student is lagging behind in, they're becoming more successful and able to access that regular ed curriculum successfully and making such progress. Um, and again, we talked about the students. We had to keep the students in mind. To even hear that the students felt like they were in the dumb class just broke our hearts. And we knew we had to make some some major changes. And it was a it was hard. Um, we kind of did rip the band-aid off and just nope. This is the way it's going to be from here on in. >> And I have nothing to add to that. It's >> I don't know who's we did rip the band-aid off. Boy oh boy did we. It was the best thing we could have ever ever done. But not without a
033lot of work. Um so the continuous professional learning that went into uh the these shifts was tremendous. These leaders um are doing an amazing job every single day last year. Uh there's no question about it. The blood, sweat, and tears went in to making it such a successful year. We'll talk about some of the data in a minute, but it wasn't for um the enthusiasm, the passion, the dedication um was there and the blood, sweat, and tears. The elbow grease was there. But we went in uh with the mindset of we have to support our teachers you know with with this lift as well. It was a lot we were asking the shift of the mindset alone was was significant. We had to you know really make sure everyone was in the same mindset as
034we all were and believing that all students can learn and achieve at a really really high level. Uh so we we worked a lot with them and and of course um supporting their their skills with these instructional shifts with the new curriculum uh and with the uh one common pathway for all a lot of things that we asked of our teachers. Uh but again the support was there in addition to these amazing folks through our faculty meetings through grade level department meetings. We also had some coaching that went on that we hired a consultant um who came in and supported the math department on five days and uh did some real intense professional learning with uh with them. There was a lot of um modeling and a lot of observations and a lot of time
035for discussion about what these practices should look like uh and what you know what they shouldn't look like along with all of the other you know curriculum again and assessment. There was a lot of mind shift and actually just doing the do of of trying these practices out with fidelity and it all came together you know really nicely but it was a lot of work. It was a lot of work. So we did um schoolwide PDs, faculty meetings, grade level meetings, division meetings, of course our professional development days um as well. And we try as much as we can to help them stay focused at the best professional development is the teacher down the hall. So they're relying on one another and they're relying on these two amazing leaders. Um, so there's some great, you
036know, great things happening professionally here and we've seen some amazing results that Tom is going to walk you through. >> Well, both of them, Tommy and Andrea are going to walk you through. >> So, up at the board, we have last year's data versus this year's data. Um the proficiency as you can see we went up almost 12 almost 11 points for all math students. Special ed almost doubled. That's how many students were in band three or four from 19 to 38%. So that percent of growth target on the right is the one we're the most proud of. So the state gives every student a number of points that they have to grow every year. So it could be 40, it could be 28, it could be any of those numbers. The percent of growth
037target is how much of their growth did they achieve? It's not a yes or no. It's we want all STO students growing. How much did they grow? Well, all math students grew 25% more than they did the year before. And all sped students grew 11% more than they did before. And what this did was our biggest sparkle is the uh is the eighth grade, not DUR. The eighth grade special ed in the state was fourth in growth rate out of every school and seventh in growth target. So a lot so this is how we know what we're doing is working and and how we're going to continue the work. But what one thing did we do? There were so many different things that we talked about that went into the work. Um, >> yeah. >>
038Still work to go. Yeah. >> Still going. I think that >> that was the last one. >> Questions that. >> Yeah. Thank you. That that is everything. I feel like that was the most concise version of that. Even though it feels a little long-winded, a lot of great stuff, a lot of great results. We're really proud. Um, happy to be able to share that with you tonight. Do you have any questions for Tom? Mr. >> Thank you. Um I know that uh when Marlene had first explained what you were trying to do, I know I was u personally excited about it. I know how important math is and um how how we were having that big drop off at junior year and how this is sort of like a way to sort of start to
039solve that problem and it's great to see how it it really is working. So congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. And I will just add to that. I think you brought up, you know, you brought up junior year. It really started, I think, philosophically, we started looking at students more K12. It wasn't grade seven, 8 math and the high school math. It was really K12 students. So, we saw that group of students not just struggling for us, but continuing to struggle. So, so I'm glad you brought that up. That was a another big driving factor in why we made the changes. Any other board members comments, questions? >> Well, thank you. This was amazing. Congratulations, Dodd. And thanks for contributing. I know a lot of hard work was put into this. I personally witnessed it
040myself, seeing Tom at workshops. By the way, did you get your uh Tumblr back? Okay, good. Um, so I know it's been a lot of time and effort. So, awesome job. Congratulations. All right. Um I with that I will take a motion to adjourn this showcase meeting. >> Mr. Gripple. Is there a second? Mr. Perigeni. All those in favor of adjourning the showcase meeting unanimous. and then we will transition right into our regular business meeting. >> All right, we are going to call to order uh the business meeting of the board. Mr. Zinski, roll call, please. here. >> Here. >> Thank you. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. I >> aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible,
041with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll let our student reps get settled over there. >> Whenever you're ready, Connor. >> All right. Um, first, I'm loving the change of scenery. I got to see a lot of people I don't normally see at the high school, and I got a slice of pizza and a Coke. So, never a bad night. >> Exactly. >> But, um, as we start, the Rams find themselves winding down their fall seasons. And you know, as a surprise to no one, we've had a lot of really good success. So recently, our girls cross country team finished second in the Class L state meet. And then we had two swimmers earn recognition. Um Annabelle Superchie was recognized as the SEC girls swim and dive athlete of the year. And then um
042her teammate Gabriella Williams was recognized as the SEC girls swim and dive tournament most outstanding athlete. So a lot of good stuff happening with our sports teams. Thank you. Even though many of our sports teams are wrapping up their fall seasons, the football team season is continuing and there is an especially important game this Friday. Oh, it's a home game. In partnership with CHS's Brave Club, the football team will be honoring our local veterans. Members of Norton's Cub Scout Pack will be presenting the nation's colors at this game as well. As the fall sports seasons begin to wind down, CS will host this year's first college signing this Wednesday from 2 to 3 p.m. at this signing event, students, parents, and coaches will be able to celebrate our fantastic athletes who will be continuing their
043athletic career at the college level. >> Yeah. And outside of sports, CHS is always busy. So, tomorrow, Pure Health, our student leadership class, is hosting their first event. uh they'll be having a elementary school leadership summit where they bring in uh sixth graders that last year as fifth graders had attended the elementary school leadership conference and we bring them back. They have the opportunity to hear from a panel of high school leaders work with some peers from different schools and take part in a lot of fun activities all with kind of the goal of developing them as student leaders. And then um on Veterans Day our brave club is really doing something great. We have our CHS Veterans Day event where we invite um students to invite their family members who are veterans to the
044high school to take part in our Veterans Day presentation. Um Brave always does a really good job. It's really well put together and it's just a great way for students to honor their in town veterans. >> Yeah. And all in this same week, Winterfest will be sending several students to all four elementary schools to read Winter themed stories. To heighten the holiday spirit, these same students will be visiting the elementary schools in costume. However, CHS's student involvement doesn't stop there. This weekend, CHS will be hosting its annual community leaf raking day where students will be volunteering to rake leaves for senior citizens. This activity is a wonderful way to show our appreciation for all members of our community as well as giving back. >> And then just to add on the um reading, I'll be
045going to a couple schools as the elf on the shelf. So, I'm very excited about it. Um, but after all this outreach, uh, Chesher High School still manages to have fun. Um, on November 15th, we will be hosting our homecoming dance run by our homecoming committee, which recently brought it back last year. They really do a great job. They put a lot of effort into making this event successful and it's really a great time for students. Um, and then in addition, our CHS drama department who is always very, very good. They are having their show coming up. um the love of three oranges and that will be running from November 20th to November 22nd. >> Um we wish you all the best. That's the end of our speech and we hope you have a great
046Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. Any board members? Dr. Heran, >> Connor and Mattie May, thank you again for a great report. I love especially hearing um how the high school students are going into the the other schools, especially the elementary schools. I think that um it's it's something that the the younger kids really I think it makes a great impact on them. So um I just want to put out there in so in so far as you can help to continue to um have those things happen. It would be great. Um the second thing I want to say is um I believe I'm now a senior citizen. How do I get on that raking leaves list? Um well we have a sign up I think Mr. Hanland Mr. Tardi runs that right. >> Yes. >> How
047would one sign up? >> So is it not a community notice? Notice you have anybody on your know. >> Thank you. That wasn't really for me. I just wanted the information on uh how people can get get that service. Thank you. Any other comments for board members? Well, thank you both. Definitely happy Thanksgiving. Um, we're looking forward to see you in December. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Have a good night. >> Thanks, guys. >> Um, next item is audience. If any members of the audience would like to speak, please go to the mic on the table. Seeing none, we're going to move forward with our committee reports with curriculum. Miss Cullinin, our curriculum um meeting was held on October 20th and um we actually had a very light agenda, but then our assistant superintendent
048of schools uh Mrs. Solano really um gave us a lot of information on what is going on um in the school system and I'm going to ask her to give us a little bit more detail particularly on some of the PD um the new teacher induction program um and some ongoing budget meetings that have already been held. >> Thank you. Oh >> are we good? >> Okay, thanks Mike. Yes. So, uh, the first item that we talked about was that our colleagues in another school district in Connecticut down in Monroe had reached out to us and asked if we could talk to them about some of the bright spots we were seeing in math at the middle school. So, we had held um a nice meeting with their one of their principles and their math
049coach and their curriculum coordinator to review what you got a snapshot of tonight. Um, we also talked about the educator growth plans that you all had approved two years ago now and described how those are in full swing with collaboration between teachers and administrators as they're working on writing their professional learning priorities for this year. Um, we've also been busy meeting with our new teachers, whether they are a new teacher to the district or whether they are in the team program and a brand new teacher. All of those folks get assigned a mentor and they have ongoing support both from our central office as well as regular induction meetings at each of the schools. At the point in time we had this meeting, we had just concluded budget meetings with do uh Dr. Solen, myself,
050Emily Taylor, and each of the principles. We had some in-depth discussions on the variety of needs, whether it was support services or maintenance, um revisiting STEM coordinator, athletics, unified arts, etc. I know you'll be hearing more about that. Uh we also discussed ML needs. Um we had talked uh just in general about um the redistricting and how that's coming up. We're all looking forward to our meeting on Monday night. and we talked at length about the professional development that we're continuing around the book by Peter Liladal who's the author of building thinking classrooms. Two of our division leaders here at the middle school also attended this training on a day that they had off from school. So it was not a work day. So, we're very proud of the commitment that the staff is showing
051to attending these sessions and our administrators have been plugged into how are we going to build on that capacity and have the teachers who we've sent out to this bring it back to the larger faculty. I can tell you that um as on our our election day, our professional development day, we saw a lot of that capacity building where teachers were heavily engaged in presenting to their colleagues. And then um lastly, as a part of my report, we talked about the five-year curriculum review cycle where library media, world language, school counseling, and health and PE will beginning their evaluation cycle. So the curriculum committee will be hearing from them. Um, at the end of next year, Azrazik, who's our curriculum coordinator, gave an update on our multilingual learner numbers, and I've actually shared those in
052the packet with you. So if you look at that, we have a total of 171 multilingual learners in our schools. 142 at the elementary and then 14 and 15 at the middle school and high school respectively. Those students receive both pushin and pull out services. We identify those multilingual learners by taking what's called the lost links assessment. Um some of those are newcomers. They score in the newcomer range. Those are usually our students who have less than 10 months or less in the country and then they are scored on a a level of one through five and five being that they get exited. So students who are in that level one receive 30 to 45 minutes roughly four times a week for support. Um previously uh Kevin Hanland and and has mentioned this and I
053will reiterate it. It was reiterated by Azra at our meeting that when multilingual learners, if you have 20 multilingual learners of the same native language in a school, they would need a bilingual program. We thought we would be uh very close to that at Highland this year because Highland's enrollment is so great. Next year, this will probably be less of an issue for us just because of the redistricting. And uh there was a question by one of our board members about what are the top five languages in the district and those are Albanian, Mandarin, Spanish, Erdo and then Arabic and Korean comes in fifth. So as you can see we have quite a range of languages students that we're serving. The other item in your packet is a letter to couple of letters to parents.
054The first one is about the uh PASS assessment that is known as the pupil attitudes to self and school survey. It's uh handled by a company called Renaissance. The assessment is actually called Renaissance Fundamentals. This marks the third year that we're administrating administering this survey. You recall when we've had a representative from the company come, he referred to this as the Switzerland of assessments and we agree. So our students take this twice a year. once in the in the fall and again in the spring. And our our administrators and teachers look at this information and they're able to make goals both for individual students, for groups of students, and as a as individual schools as a whole. So, we're constantly looking to improve our social emotional learning and the um climate in each of our
055buildings. By the way, students in grades 3 through 12 take that. In the past, we've done also done kindergarten through second grade, but we've eliminated that piece of it based on some feedback from our teachers. Um, and and also it was more cost-effective. Uh, the last item is the safe school climate survey. This parent notification and opt out information was sent out prior to the administration of the safe school climate survey. You will remember that this is uh an an assessment that we administer every two years. We had had administered this in April, but we did not get as robust a response as we would have liked. So, we are in the process of concluding that uh that survey this year. Parents were given an opportunity to both um respond to it via email. It
056was also made available through QR code at every open house both at the high school, at the middle school, at the elementary schools and our staff including our paras are all of our support staff were encouraged and really um strongly encouraged to take this survey so that we get a really well-rounded representative sample of our schools. Um students continue to take this um they have not completed that as yet but are I would say the majority of the students have have done so. We're just doing some um makeups for stragglers now. And I think that was yeah that's the end of our report. >> I have I have a quick question. Um, how um did we when we did these at open houses, did we get some takers? >> We did. We did. We had
057it I think um Mr. Hanland had it on a sandwich board in the main lobby. The elementary teachers had it posted on each of their classroom doors. It was sent home via via newsletters. I don't have updated information as of today, but it certainly increased from our meeting. I I do I do know that. Great. Thank you, >> Mr. Pine. >> Marlene, quick question. I When we talk about multi- language learners, I I think it was a year ago, if not mistaken, we were talking about the population, the student population, and just how many native languages that represented at home. Was I mistaken? It was over over a hundred. Correct. We >> we have well well over 27 languages. um >> within the schools. But I thought there was I if I maybe I'm dreaming
058this, but I thought there was a list of all the languages. >> Yes. Yes, we did. >> It it seemed I've maybe it was it was more than 27. >> It it certainly was. I think that 27 were the 27 were the most popular. One of the most popular, >> but there was a long list. >> Yeah, there were languages on there that I I honestly had never heard of and I had to Google. >> I was just curious if that list has grown since last year. >> That's a good question. I don't know if it's grown, but I I could look >> Wouldn't surprise me. >> Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. >> It It's It's incredible. Yeah. >> Thank you. That was That was it. >> Any other board members? >> Thank you for
059the I think that's it for your committee report, right? Uh next committee would be finance. Dr. Herrian, looks like you, Miss Taylor. >> Yes. I'll just get us started and then I'll punt it to you and Okay, this is not standing up. All right, I'm not touching it. Um, so we have in our packets uh the financial report for 202526 board of education budget reflecting expenditures and incumbrances through October 31st, 2025. Uh I will just begin by saying the approved budget for fiscal year 202526 is 93 million124,314 and as of October 31st 72,451147 or 78% of the budget has been encumbered and expended which includes also expenses from our largest accounts including payroll and transportation. Um, at this time no variances of concern have been identified and I will give it to Ms. Taylor to
060talk about some financial highlights and then probably move on to our uh medical benefits update. >> Thank you. See, good evening everyone. Um, so some financial highlights like it like uh Dr. Herrian said, there are no variances at this time. We'll obviously have to watch that as the year goes on. Uh, we do have a 40% expenditure cap uh right now, which has helped us stay within the bounds of our budget. Um, and some highlights. This is not related to our operational budget, but I did want to highlight that our five-year capital expenditure plan was approved and went to referendum, so it's in its final state. Uh just as a reminder, you all approved this in February at for our first year at 5,40,000 that ultimately went to the town council who approved $3,300,000 in
061October of this year. And then after the referendum, $1.7 million was approved for year one. So that was an increase to the prior fiscal year when $1,490,000 was approved in year one. Um which was 29% of the initially proposed plan. So this year we've had 1.7 million approved for the first year plan which is 33% of what we had proposed. Uh of the proposed projects the three were approved by the town council did not need to go to referendum. Uh that was some playground equipment for Highland and Doolittle, the fire sprinkler system replacements districtwide and some electrical service replacement at Highland for a generator. There had been money that had already been approved for that project. Then there was another project that was approved at referendum. That's the fire alarm control system at Chreasure High
062School for $1.1 million. And then the two projects did not pass referendum and that was the south parking lot configuration at Cheshure High School. Um, I know there was a big focus on the parking lot component of that, but really it was more about the loading dock uh repair and then the synthetic turf field replacement. Um, which was not actually a uh something that was approved by the board of ed that was brought up at a sub subsequent town council meeting and brought to referendum, but both of those items failed. Um, so where we are is the $1.7 million for this current year. So, we're going to continue to explore opportunities. Something that we've talked about, this will be our third board of ed meeting, is the district repair and improvement project. Still no information
063about applying for that grant. Um, but it's supposed to be issued annually on June 30th. And we are eligible for about $180,000 of funding. So, not a humongous amount, but certainly could be helpful as we are repairing some of um that can be used for HVAC. There's a number of items that this could be used for, but it's to be ter determined once we see the application process. Um, and we will obviously move forward with that once the application opens. So, that is what I have for the finance report. Before I move on to medical benefits, want to open it up? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Thanks, Emily. Um, I'm wondering, um, so I'll I'll put this to the whole board. Um, maybe we need to do a better job of, uh, talking about with the
064public about some of these referendum items that failed. Um, because we did talk about and uh, concentrated on the south parking lot at CHS. we didn't really emphasize this loading dock portion of it that's really failing. So, um I'm just I'm just making the comment I think we maybe need to do a better job of um letting educating the public about some of our needs that are real needs. Thanks, Mr. Gribble. >> Thank you. Um, a couple of questions and comments. Um, uh, firstly, in the the line item budget, >> um, I noticed that we were overdrawn in a line that I was wouldn't wasn't expecting to see, uh, an overdraft and that was in textbooks and software. >> And so I was just sort of wondering, usually we we raid that line to pay
065for other things. Is that what happened there or was there some sort of new expenditure that was unexpected? Yeah, we did have some um curriculum items that we needed to purchase this year at the beginning of the year. Um Marlene, I can't I'm failing to remember the name of the program right now. >> No, we had a history we had a history we had a history textbook that we needed to get into kids hands at the beginning of the year and also our math materials both for Eureka math and for I Ready. >> Okay, great. And then um I guess to piggyback on what Dr. Herrian just said um being this is my last I think this is my last uh business meeting um Dr. here asked me, uh, what am I going to spend
066my time on? And I initially said watching more Netflix. But then I looked at this report and I I remembered that the turf field failed. And so it's I think that it's probably going to become uh one of my um uh personal items is to to get a new turfield uh passed um for our school because I know that if that I know we're right up against the safety standards and if we fail at any point next year, we won't be able to get insurance and none of our kids will be able to play on those fields. So, um, uh, I would like to meet with anyone who would who would, uh, like to do a cost breakdown. Perhaps we can come up with some, uh, creative strategies to, I don't know, maybe not even
067have to have all of it go to referendum or, you know, make repairs to a peace meal or something like that to get us to get us going. Um, so, um, that'll certainly be my new personal crusade in my free time. Um, so I just wanted to to say that and uh u I think that's a great use of your >> Yeah. Right. So you know watch out town council I'll be coming pretty soon. >> But don't forget we also I believe Jeff let let me know if I'm wrong. We also need the track. >> Uh yes. Excellent. What the hell? Let's go for it. Right. >> Yeah. Why not? >> Yeah. I'm all in. >> So thanks >> Mr. Perini. No. uh not to beat a dead horse, but uh you know the reality
068the reality is both projects weren't well known the public beyond you know the >> misinformation on on the forum. So >> uh I don't think the turfield failed by that big of a margin if I remember the counts didn't. >> So to me that's more of just public education. So I'm I'm pretty confident that the next board um you know I'll be a little bit more proactive with the public um hold some open forums with them and what I am talked about because there are um we now have what been 14 years of history with that turfield and I I was telling Mark earlier it was almost a year ago 16 years ago where I got on the board and we actually had to force a vote to get in front of town council to
069get it going and that was with the $500,000 grant. which was kind of free back then, right? So, but there's a lot of public um education. Now, we have 14 years of experience, cost saves, number of events held. So, I I I'm pretty sure the case is there. Um I think next time it's just more of a public communication, but did I did I hear you correctly that this was not one of the projects we approved? That can't happen. town council cannot put a project on referendum that they not talked about with the board about because I just assume I I was wondering about that because that was mixed in with the splash pass and high dollar number projects which probably wasn't the best time to do it. So maybe next year >> there probably
070fewer more educated the board be a better position but it's nothing that can't be solved this this board's more incapable. So anyway, those are my last two cents. >> Any other board members? Mr. White, >> thank you. Yeah, so sorry, Mark. Um, yeah, I you're right. We didn't The board didn't vote on it. I did vote for the turf when I walked into the voting booth. Uh, at the same time, you know, 20 years ago, I was on the town council and one of the things that I kept hearing from people over and over again is you just kept forcing the pool down our throat. And I I'll say maybe take one more chomp at the apple if that's what's going to happen. But this is it's not a good situation to be in. Um,
071and frankly, I really I I mean, if we were asked to vote on it today, I would say no. This is uh this is not something that the voters they spoke loud and clear as far as I'm concerned. And it's a real predicament and I don't know what the answer is. Um, but it's problematic because I really don't feel like having people yell at me and say, "We already said no, so what's different this time?" It's it's just uh it's a bad situation um that frankly we shouldn't be in because this shouldn't have even gone out to referendum because we didn't ask for it in the first place. Um I mean I do recall the conversations with Vin. was you basically said, "Look, we can go another year or two and and then this thing
072went over to the council and then they sent it out to referendum without us really being too aware of it." Um, aside from that, I'm just curious if we have uh a 30 secondond elevator pitch on performance contract. We did the financing. I'm guessing we locked that in. Did we get a good rate? Anything? I thought he was in charge of performance contracts. That's why I was Yeah. Just really quick, I it's getting late and we've got more to go. So, >> well, the update is that work continues to progress. We have a um on November 22nd, we're shutting down power at the back of Cheshire High School so that we can have the electrician come in to do a review for the fuel cell at which is part of the performance contract. >> Uh
073we also provided some additional information on operational cost and maintenance. So, that work is progressing. You know, Jeff and I uh we've submitted the school construction grants. We did receive some push back from the state. We have a meeting scheduled for Monday. That's $6 million of the roughly uh $12 million that we're counting on to fund this energy performance contract. So, you know, we we are working through. I do expect for it to get approved, but it's not going to be approved as quickly as we wanted it to be. this month. So, still um pushing this along and I'm going to stay at this seat because I have the next item after Emily's done. >> Can I just I think one >> Tim >> followup which is you said this is moving a little slower
074than expected. Uh does that end up encountering any problems if we get to December 31st and the law changes? I'm just wondering if this is just intentionally getting slowwalked without saying that >> the impact is if we don't get it approved um by early December, meaning the construction grant acceptance because the approval will take time. We'll have to sit with the office of school construction and grant in January to review the plans. But it does jeopardize the financing that was approved through Bank of America. The rate lock >> and the commitment expires December 31st >> and the tax credits are still intact. The only thing that happens in January is there there's a provision for the entities of foreign concern. So the sourcing of the solar arrays and components has to be compliant with IRS
075guidelines that have not been released yet. >> Yeah. >> So you know and we're fortunate that interest rates are probably coming down. >> Sure. >> So if the rate lock did expire and we had a reset to January, it may not hurt us. But the point is that we are trying to make sure that we push really hard to get the state to accept the grant construction grants. There's some technical issues that they're fighting us on. We think we're correct, but we have to follow the process and we we're doing that. So, I guess my my only concern is uh if the state thinks they're going to they can sloww walk this and save money, whatever it is, would it be helpful if I or anybody else here calls our state legislators, if you do,
076and says, "Hey, can you call them up?" I mean, >> that that is something that we're working on as well in the background. >> Got it. >> So, we could talk offline about it. That's kind of >> that's phase two. >> Yep. Which is already teed up. I just want to make sure everybody's and we didn't have this conversation before but everybody heard that because I mean there's a lot of uh there's a lot of money sitting on the table basically from my perspective and if it's available and we can take it then I think we take it. So but if somebody decides to slow walk something then it can be a problem. So that's it. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other Mr. Eki and then Mr. Gripple was next. >> I just
077want to follow up on the uh the turf conversation. This has been uh something that we've been talking about in planning for uh since I've been on the board the last two years. Um my experience in in the turf fields. I was I was part of the uh the original concept of of the one that we put in. You don't see fields that last 14 years. And we are rolling the dice every every year on whether that thing is going to pass. And if it doesn't pass, we have nowhere for our our athletes to participate in in inter scholastic athletics. So we this is a priority and it's something that needs to needs to get done. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Gripple. >> Um I just wanted to say uh I guess I guess I'll
078be a member of the public at your next uh budget meetings, but I would like to request the board. I know that we have an account set up, but I think it should be a priority for the board that assuming we are to get a new turf passed that we uh the town should perhaps never again have to pay that kind of money to have a replace. We have an account. We could have been saving money for it all this time if it's my recollection that we have only about $50,000 in that account right now or we could have been redirecting gate receipts and stuff like that. Um, so I think it should be should be a priority for the board and for the town to once we do get this turf passed that we
079should be saving for the next one. We've been very lucky that it went 14 years and maybe we'll be that lucky again and we'll have 14 years to save for a new one. But, you know, uh, time is a very powerful thing when it comes to money and if if we do a little bit at a time, we'll have a lot when the time comes. Thanks. >> Yes, sir. I just want to address one technical uh point about the the money that was set aside through gate receipts which is about $50,000 over the last you know 14 years. There was a provision when the town council approved the turf field and um gave us the ability to charge a search charge was there was a res resolution passed that said we cannot use operating funds
080from the board to add funds for the turf replacement. I don't remember the exact language, but Tony, I don't know if you remember that, but it was pretty specific. and argued with Jerry to put on the table. >> That's how we got started. And the intent was never to fully fund the turf field because uh statutoily we couldn't and there is a limit. I don't know if that's governed by the town charter. But um you know if the next board wants to update that update that work with town council to change that amount I don't know if we can uh look at the statutes absorb carry that much money over the other the other flip side to this too there was a lot of push back then um from folks that had already donated because
081there was also some 300 some odd thousand dollars raised in donation put that in and felt that that sir charge was >> you know 50 cents here and there was the big deal. So, but uh let's be clear that I didn't I never proposed that to be a full perfect replacement because we're just going to get that done. But >> who knows, maybe it's a something else going forward. But also mind you that you know it's another tax, right? Uh we also have the parking fees and activity fees. Other stuff adds up. So >> my guess is the public be a little less appetite for more. But >> doesn't hurt to try. >> Thank you, gentlemen. I um I I definitely agree with my colleagues here. uh highly disappointed that the turf did not pass.
082I felt in my opinion there were too many referendum items that again didn't allow the public enough to digest and um us to really communicate exactly what the needs were at least for our items um so to speak. So I you know that is top priority. Um thank you Mr. Gripple for being the first person to be on our turf committee then. appreciate that. Um I hope Tony comes along as well because we definitely need the historical knowledge there. Um but we definitely also need to think innovatively as to how we need to get this passed. Um I think we took a chance, we did talk about it for two years. Um I guess they took a chance and put it on the referendum. Um and it was a slim margin. So I'm hopeful uh
083if we can come up with some alternative ideas. Um therefore planning committee needs to get to work for sure. Any other comments and then you have medical benefits then? >> Yeah m >> um for our medical benefit benefits report just as a reminder our medical benefits fund budget is 15,90058,339. We upped our contribution this year to about $1.2 $2 million per month to fund the reserve account. Uh it was $1.1 million last year. Um and then our beginning balance was about $2.8 million as of September 30th. So this is a month behind because we're so early in this month that we don't have October yet. So this is September 30th. The medical benefits reserve fund balance is in a pretty good position um with $2.4 4 million in the fund compared to about $2 million
084in September 2024. Um, this helps offset in September 2025 we had about $1.4 million in claims, which was a 33% increase compared to September 2024. So even though we have more claims, we're in a strong position with our benefits fund because we've been putting a lot more money into the account. Um, so we have about 1.94 claim months in reserve. Last year that was 1.71 claim months in reserve. So higher claims but we have more in reserves at this point in time. Um and compared to the net the net fund balance it increased by about $8,000 in comparison to August 2025. So it's stable right now. Um in general medical benefits like as a market is trending about 12 to 17% higher than in previous years. there's higher utilization of gene therapies and uh brandame
085drugs and so that increased costs um but like I said with even with that we're in a stable position uh and we haven't received any stop-loss reimbursements for fiscal year 26 but we are receiving some last ones in for fiscal year 20 24 so those have not been added to the medical benefits fund yet but we should start seeing those since we're a little farther into the year I for medical benefits. >> Comments, questions? Dr. >> Emily, it looks like um that we are taking into account though some um prescription rebates. >> Yes. Yes. Um we had $188,000 in prescription rebates this year. That's compared to 139,000 last year at this this time. So we have we have some more rebates as well. Thank you. >> Board members. No, >> Mr. Le, there was um
086talk, I don't know if you have any knowledge of but during the election season um that we could potentially look at our insurance plan again or any idea of >> uh there's not a plan for it right now. Um, but I will say we are self-funded, so there's a limit to how much changing a plan is going to change our costs, right? Because this is driven by the claims that we get. Um, it's not the, you know, it's self-funded. So, these are our costs. Our administration fees are not really that much. I think it's 70,000 from Sigma. So, those aren't the drivers of of the the medical benefits budget. >> Thank you. I mean, go ahead, Mr. White. >> Yeah. Is my understanding is the council was looking at insurance. I just assumed we were
087looking at it jointly. Are we? >> Yeah, that's my question. >> Okay. So I know that the town um had initi had recently pitched the idea of a um a group to evaluate our uh and this includes not just representatives, politicians, but also members of the community to evaluate our insurance positions uh both on both sides of the street. So, um, that is in its infancy, so I can't really tell you much in terms of what that would look like, but >> I know we put out a solicitation to community volunteers, uh, through Power School, excuse me, parents square for our families, but um, that's to be determined. To Emily's point though, you know, there's the overhead is dramatically different when you're self-insured, which we are. Uh, it's it's a much slimmer margin for them.
088So we're paying basically for the facilitation of these services. The bulk of the cost comes from the claims that we uh experience through our many employees that we ensure. So uh we'll see. I mean I know we've evaluated this on on regular basis over the these 10 years I've been superintendent and I know before that too. Uh and we had Anthem for feel I think forever and uh made after a lot of investigation a switch to Sigma uh numerous interviews with different clients including Anthem u that that was the most cost-effective strategy um and it's you know laborious it's worth the work and looking into it but uh you know we'll we'll see what the and this group decide. >> Okay. So, the the council is the council's sort of starting a discussion. It will
089have no impact on the budget that you put forward in January. It's not going to happen. But >> I wouldn't think it would be uh we'd be able to be in a position to shift for July one. >> If even if they start if they start >> now, >> I don't think we'll be in a position to shift carriers for July one. >> So, it'll take a while. Yeah. I don't think it'll impact this this budget cycle. >> Okay. >> Is there a window though that we should at least >> try to make a decision on? >> It's not it's not necessarily we um it's it's us collectively with the town, right? >> Um and that that group that is supposed to look at this hasn't even been you developed yet. It's not even close.
090So, it's going to unfortunately take a while. Any other comments from the board? Thank you. Um I think that's it, right? Oh, no. >> that's it for finance. >> For the finance. >> I had Vinn on here for the other Sorry. >> So used to it. Yes. The next committee is planning. So Mr. Ekie, all yours. >> I'm going to kick this right back to Dr. Solen who's going to talk about the acceptance of the ADA project completion at CHS. >> Yes. So in a nutshell um we were re we had an ADA compliance review and as many of you know um the CHS needed extensive work. So initiating that in 2015 we had a review done. uh an extensive amount of planning and executed uh a comprehensive update to the facility in the summer
091of 2021. We had submitted the grant uh reimbursement request and were denied because in essence of a technicality that the board of education needed to accept the uh completion of the project in order to receive reimbursement, which is why you have that um motion before you tonight. >> Shall I make the motion? Vin, is there anything you want to add there? >> No, this is to um >> pretty sure, >> you know, enable us to submit and get $49,000 or so of grant money. So, the public building commission was assigned this project. It was successfully completed. They filed a closeout report. We submitted that as part of our grant application. And recently the the um office of school construction grants said no no no can't be the public building commission. It has to be a
092board's motion. So this is just to enable us to complete the file and try and get out 49,000. >> All right. Move that the Cheshure Board of Education confirms that state project number 025-0101 CV for code compliance improvements door accessibility upgrades at Cheser High School was success completed successfully and further project has been closed out as fully completed by the town of Chester's public building commission which was assigned as the building committee for the project. Quick question. >> Yes, sir. >> Vincent, was this was this from that list from 2009 or several? Okay, never mind. >> Yes, it was. >> Thank you. >> That list, by the way, the last major component was the West Gym locker rooms which were completed last summer. So, all the bulky items are done >> for this for CHS
093>> for CHS. >> That was a townwide thing. >> No, it was just a high school this 2009 I believe there was a uh >> correct >> CH compliance review >> compliance review on the board and and remember looking at a long laundry list of stuff and I saw that's that's awesome that it's done and and uh for the newer members you probably wondering well geez that was 2009 here it is 20 2025 it was a lot of work a lot of dollars that um I don't know how you did it to fit all that Plus, >> I had 10 years to do it, too. >> No, but just just finding the right combination for projects, cost savings, and um >> Thank you. I know that was not a an easy feat. >> Well, I
094think Chapman was on the list, wasn't it? >> No, they never had >> there are comp um ADA compliance deficiencies, but Cheshire High School was the only one that had this CHO review and was cited. offici >> any other discussion, >> Mr. Grippble >> just cuz um I'm feeling a little punchy in my last meeting. >> Keep it going. >> Um >> keep it going. >> The uh the mo the motion language. Was this supplied to you or did you write this because it feels like it's a little bit of a jab? >> To who? To whom? >> Well, because like we because we weren't given the money and we have to do this now. So, I was like, you know, I just kind of feels like, well, okay, it's completed and now it's done.
095>> I did write it. It is compliant with what the state needs. If an edge came through, I apologize, but >> No, I I I enjoyed the edge. That's why I'm just saying. All right. Thank you. >> It's another mandate there. Yeah. Any other discussion on the motion that's on the floor? Hey, motion on the floor, seconded by Dr. Herrian. All those in favor of the motion, unanimous. Thank you. Next committee would be policy. Mr. Aki, right back at you. Um, November 3rd, we had a meeting. We spoke about a series of uh policies and regulations to get us in compliance with the law. Um these are things that we are not inventing uh but we're told we needed to do. We also had uh we also discussed some board related responsibilities. Um did Dr.
096Dr. Do we share those with the the rest of the board or just >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, those were originally shared with the board, but um you know, in essence um like Mark said, these are um aside from those board related responsibilities. Uh and the those are the 9,000 series policies. The suicide prevention and intervention policy was an update to regulations um upon the advisement of council and our exper our own experience. Um everything else is a legislative update. the board member responsibilities um and the monitoring products and processes is a function of the retreat held uh this summer. So um I encourage you to to take a a look at those uh modifications that we made, but certainly believe they reflect the the conversations that we've had. Additionally, um we had not at
097this meeting but at the prior meeting uh Jod Gooler from CABE who uh works with them on the the board processes. Uh follow up to Nick Caruso. Uh they reviewed our our um you know board bylaws and made these recommendations as well. So all on the same page. Any other questions? >> Mr. Gripple. >> Um I just wanted to add a point of information. Um during our discussion about uh library collection and development um the policy sort of gives the impression that the library media specialist >> I think it was the term >> y >> um had sole discretion in uh the um what's in the library for lack of a better term but I think it was uh Dr. Solen, you added that that's not exactly true that there's a uh a line of
098approvals there where the the media director will submit create the list and submit it for review. >> Yeah, the um I think certainly to your point the law provides deference to the library media specialists training to be able to select uh appropriate text. But um you know certainly within the district there's a hierarchy and a process that we go through to um select our texts and and certainly you know our library media specialist does play a central role in that process but people like Marlene Azra the building principles are all involved. >> Other questions. Thank you. Uh there's no motion to be voted on, Mr. Aki. It doesn't look like. No. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. >> Then we are going to uh move on other standing committees. Um I know we some
099this had been brought up the legislative uh we are going to plan on having it once session opens. >> The legis. >> Oh, the legislative session. Yeah. So, um I do have an update on that that we are in the process of scheduling a a breakfast through CABE a legislative area breakfast >> uh in addition to a legislative session. So, we're trying to get the uh legislative breakfast scheduled first. That would be regionally uh with people in our area. Uh we've been in, you know, communication with CABE on trying to nail down that date in December. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Um, next item is the approval of minutes. Oh, Mr. Roy, did you have a question? >> Yeah, just a quick question. You mentioned a legislative breakfast and a legislative session. There's like both
100located here in Cheshire. >> Yes. >> All right. So, we'd have a legislative committee meeting, >> but we're also scheduling a regional legislative breakfast through through Cave, >> right? >> Okay. Do are would Mike be videotaping either of them, showing them on TV? >> So, the >> not the breakfast one. The cave breakfast is really uh not >> school business or board meeting. It's just a >> Okay. >> But um >> I I you know what? I'm not sure if they've ever been You know what? I >> I could tell you they haven't been recorded because we had some legislative some statements that they wouldn't want. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, probably not. Um but the your legislative legislative board meetings certainly. >> Yeah. I was just curious what the if there was a plan.
101Okay. >> Yeah. We'll have a committee meeting. >> I don't think we've ever hosted a legislative breakfast. Yeah. So we we need to host one at least. Any other questions? Okay. Next item is approval of minutes. Um please review the packet of minutes. And I do need a motion to approve. Mr. Grio >> move that the Chaser Board of Education approve the minutes from the meetings held on October 9th and October 15, 2025. >> Is there a second? Dr. here again. Are there any additions or corrections to be made? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion that is on the floor. Unanimous. Thank you. Well, Mr. one last time. Are there any correspondence >> one last time >> for now? >> No correspondence. >> Thank you, Dr. Solen. Superintendent's report, please. >> Sure.
102Um, and then you what you have in your packet is in accordance with uh public act um PA12-1 173. Uh it's also one of the policies that we're adopting in um compliance with the legislation. I have to provide to the board an annual report regarding special ed programming contracted by the district. Uh furthermore, the report requires that uh I site our work site partnerships and attrition rates for staff. Well, the um law is is not incredibly clear around attrition rates. I think the intent was um to limit it to those working with special education. Um the report that I have included uh is broader than that and reflects um all of our our positions across the district. I apologize to fit it on this page. Um, you may need reading glasses or binoculars, uh, microscope
103perhaps, but um, if there are any questions about it, I'm certainly happy to answer them. uh the community- based organizations that we contract with uh for special education uh the schools proved and the the type of services is pretty clearly outlined on the first page uh of the report as indicated. Uh we do have a number of workplace partnerships with special education that are outlined on the second page. Uh and the the programs that those um work workplaces are affiliated with they're also outlined. And then as I mentioned the attrition rates uh which include retirement. So it's um you know it's really everything uh where people have left a position um retirement we had reduction in force uh like at high school we lost a a Spanish position in the last budget. So this reflects
104everything. Uh the majority of our folks leave at least our certified staff leave due to um retirement. Any questions for Dr. >> on that report? >> Mr. Just a just a comment. Uh I know uh during our policy meeting I I asked if it was going to be anonymized or not, but these charts are so small I don't think it matters. >> It is anonymized. You can't you can't read it. So it's uh anonymized for anybody over the age of seven. Vision. It's a vision test. >> Printed out on what was that 11 by 14 or something. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I I'll I can uh provide it digitally for you guys so it's a little bit easier to read. I didn't realize because I was looking at a computer where I had it blowing
105up. Yeah. >> Yeah. On the computer it's a little bit easier to read. So when I printed it out, I didn't realize how um minuscule it would be. Um new schools report. Uh >> I think he had >> Oh, sorry. Another question. >> Sorry. No. Uh new schools report this evening. Uh we were excited to be able to offer the opportunity to tour Barnum and the new Norton with uh members of the town council, NextGen um school building committee, folks that hadn't really had the opportunity to see the inside of the facilities yet uh along with the board. Uh really exciting tour. I'm sure you guys uh uh just judge judging by the the comments and the pictures being taken and everything, it was really amazing to see uh the the fruits of our labor
106uh come to fruition in that way and it's an exciting time for the community. Um I also wanted to add and you know Kelly Ryan and the team talked a little bit about uh Dodd success. Um I did post on um Super Cheshure recently on Instagram and on Facebook that uh the district performance index results are out. We'll have a more thorough report on that in the next meeting. But uh in short, we had the best performance in our history. Um ranked eighth in Connecticut. Uh real testament to the work that our people are doing and the sport you provide. Uh and certainly our kids. So, uh, that was an exciting, uh, piece of news this past week. Uh, we've also joined the science of reading cohort, uh, facilitated by the Connecticut Association of Public
107Schools, Superintendent, and, uh, the Connecticut Department of Education. Um, the, uh, guest speaker Wednesday when we went was Margie Gillis, who's nationally renowned expert in reading with. So, we've had a real intent focus on K through three reading and uh how to support the development of our our youngest readers, our youngest learners. Uh so, it's been really really valuable. Uh and finally, I'll probably issue to the community tomorrow a video u on a fundraiser that we're partnering with the United Way on. and I shared with the board um that uh it should be fun. It's a it's a candy fundraiser with fascist chocolates um and so the the video is our community will see is kind of themed accordingly and uh we appreciate any support uh that that people can provide. If you buy a
108candy bar for $10, um you have basically a one in a hundred chance of winning a gift card valued up to $500 and uh there'll be one lucky winner of a chocolier at Fos's Chocolates for the day. So cool, cool prize and uh if you lose, you're still a winner because you got a candy bar. So encourage you to participate. >> Any questions for us? Miss White, did you have that question? Uh yeah, it's not a question, but I ju I just wanted to say something at this moment in time in particular. So for years I've advocated for CHS grads to follow alternative pathways besides college. Um that includes the trades, military, etc. And I I truly believe the military is a great choice. They report to the man commander-in-chief, the president, but the constitution
109states war is declared by Congress. Now Congress appears to be sleepwalking into war with Venezuela. This leaves me with grave concerns and I just encourage students to consider um students who are considering the military should keep in mind the implications of our feckless Congress before joining right now. That's it. Thank you. I I I don't want to um deviate too much from that, but along the trades line, I regret not mentioning um and I don't take our partners for granted, but on November 14th, we have a field trip during the day for uh 20 of our middle school students to visit Richard Chevy, East Coast Mechanical, Hanoa Aerospace, and uh Marian Manufacturing. ing um to see the various technical skills that are available uh right here in our community whether you're an aspiring engineer uh
110trades um you know a machinist uh auto mechanic um it'll be great opportunity and I again want to thank our partners um who are the door is always open with these these folks so we really appreciate the community support that we have in that respect. >> Any other questions, comments, Mr. Purple? >> Um, I just I just would that actually kind of rattled my brain a little bit. Um, I think I mentioned this to you, but um, my son's in the manufacturing class with uh, Tom Leewok and they went to the uh, the convention the manufacturing convention and uh, he said he loved it and there was lots of great vendors there and they learned a lot and I think him and his buddy actually ended up on TV so that was pretty cool. Yeah.
111>> Yeah, it was a great event. Yeah. And the aerospace and manufacturing event is always um Wow. And you don't realize how much is made in Connecticut either. We have a high respect for that too. Yeah. >> Um any other questions for the superintendent. >> Um I know Dr. So, there there is talk at the state level about establishing or at least looking into um more of a public safety pathway if there's if that's a potential for us to especially, you know, with you know, historically we've been short officers here, maybe creating some sort of pathway to kind of uh >> Sure. funnel that into >> Yeah, I know there are right now um I sit on the Connecticut Association Public School Superintendent Executive Board and we're u taking a hard look at a plethora
112of career pathways across the state and how do we um support exposure? Um there seem to be so many shortage areas professionally uh you know in the careers. Um how do we meet the needs and and best support our kids? And you know those of you who have sat on the policy committee over the years know that if there is a policy that changes almost more than any other, it's the requirements around graduation. Um, and so we're we're looking at how do we make that more flexible so more kids can access areas of interest in state needs >> um rather than, you know, pursuing things that maybe they're not interested in and don't have the same value. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. White. I'm >> pretty sure you're talking about pathways. >> Yep. >>
113We have an explorers group, don't we? That >> Sure. Police explorers. Okay. Yeah, act very active group. >> Yeah, >> that's just a initial start, but to really establish a full-blown pathway where they can get a certification training and then be hired in, you know, a workbased certificate and be hired by the police department would be really awesome. So, um, next item would be all businesses. Uh, none on the agenda. I'm going to move into my report. Um just announcements for the upcoming meetings. Uh we do have a meeting on November 10th, which is next week at 6 PM finance committee um at the CHS library. Okay. Um was there a conflict? >> We're doing that at the CHS library because at 7:15 we have the redistricting presentation. >> You're right. Um Wednesday, November 12th,
1146 p.m. personnel committee that will be virtual. Monday, December 4th at 7:30 PM would be the board of education organizational um business meeting. >> Thursday, >> Monday, December 4th. >> Thursday, December 4th. >> Uh we have Monday, December 1st. It should be our policy committee meeting. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> December. The first would be the policy meeting which is at HS and the fourth we have a board meeting >> which should be >> oh is that the swearing in day >> that is the swearing in day so we do have to reschedule that. >> Yeah. >> Um I had policy down though at 6 and or at 7 and the swearing in is at swearing is at six >> but we'll have new board. >> We also have to do the transition meeting as
115well too. So, I think it's best to just reschedule. >> Yeah. >> Then, >> um, and then the 4th would be our regular business meeting, right? Basically, >> um, and then December 8th would be the curriculum meeting at 7 o'clock at Human Boardroom. And I do think we should discuss um, putting planning on the agenda as well as soon as possible. And then um, for November 10th, like Dr. Dr. Solen said we do have the CPS redistricting presentation. So we hope to see the public there at the CHS Thorp auditorium for 7:15 and then we're moving into Thanksgiving. So the 27th and 28th schools will be closed. Um December 24th through January 2nd we will have our rental break which schools are closed as well. January 19th is Dr. Martin Luther King Day and schools
116as well as central office will be closed. And then we move, bless you, we move into um January, which is our budget season. Um but I think you are giving us a preliminary presentation, Dr. Sen, prior to that. >> Um no, we're just having a conversation about, you know, what items would are we looking at in the budget, what are the variables that are going to be impacting the budget, things like that. >> Gotcha. Thank you. Um the next item I'd like to say is um congratulations, Mr. Coower. Thank you for being here um to you and Miss Heather Fitzgerald as they will be transitioning on to the board uh during the transition meeting that I just mentioned. So looking forward to having you and your expertise and hopefully part of our you know Mr.
117Gripple will lead again that turf committee. So we got to get to work. Um, and I do want to say a few things to the two gentlemen that will be exiting the semidas here. Um, so if you will bear with me because goodbyes make me crazy. I do have to read this. I'm going to start with Adam. Um, I just want to say thank you for your service on the board and everything you've contributed during your time, especially during as secretary as well. Um, I personally have always appreciated your perspective and your willingness to bring alternative view viewpoints to the table. I felt it's helped us think more critically and make better decisions for the district. Um, I know I can always count on you to be at a committee meetings ready to jump in,
118lend your insight no matter what's on the agenda. You're flexible, reliable, um, and I feel like you've been an asset to the team. And of course, no budget season will be complete without your detailed spreadsheets and insights. So you brought a a level of precision and analysis that's made our disc discussions stronger and our process more transparent. So it's been a real pleasure, sir, serving alongside you. I've learned a lot from your approach and your steady commitment to doing what's right for our schools and community. So please stay involved. As I said, you're already going to be on the turf committee and just keep those spreadsheets handy because, you know, I'll be reaching out to you soon for them. >> Well, you know, I appreciate those kind words and don't worry, Matt's spreadsheets are better
119than mine. >> They're more colorful than Mr. Peragini. Again, thank you for your incredible leadership and dedication over the past eight well, I've kind of known you for the past eight years. Um, you've guided this district through some of the most challenging times, especially during co with some steadiness, thoughtfulness, and really an unwavering commitment to what's best for students, staff, and our community. Um, your work with cave has been such an asset not just for chaser but for public education across the state and you've always been a strong voice for collaboration, good governance and continuous improvement and of course it's made a real difference. On a personal note, you've been such a great model for me as chair and I've learned a lot by watching how you lead with fairness and perspective. And if I
120ever mess up, I'll just say I learned it by watching Tony. So, so thank you for everything you've done and for the example you've set. Your impact will be felt here for a long time to come and I hope you take great pride in all you've helped accomplish for our school and our town. So, thank you both gentlemen. >> I really appreciate all that and you wrote it down and uh uh likewise I I I you know I'm not a talker. I'm a doer so I don't have much to say. My record speaks for itself. certainly hasn't been perfect, but uh I've had the pleasure of working with some incredible people. Um too many to name and uh we have an incredible staff here. Uh Dr. S and his team. Um this board's been amazing.
121Uh we have some differences in past boards, but it was always over doing trying to find the best way to do what's right for kids and never personal. So I I I got to thank everyone. um uh past and present because I've learned a lot. Um I grew a lot on this board personally. Um I think if you guys met me in 2009, I was insane. I mean, well, Dr. S probably saw some of that during the But um I I I will miss you all of most. I'm not going to be gone. I'll be around, but you know, um I will still be involved in Caves and Cassidy. I'll know more next month what that is. I will be teaching at least at one university starting the spring as an adjunct maybe two u
122part-time and who knows you know maybe I'll help out the town in some capacity in the future but I I I'd be remissed if I you know if there was one regret I have as a board member um it was probably back in 2018 where at that time we were facing some um perception otherwise uh bullying uh feedback from the community. It was kind of a hot topic for the board and I think that was at the time Marlene was being appointed and you know in my in my zealousness of trying to fix that. I probably took out Marleene uh by not voting for her as assistant um superintendent which had nothing to do with Marlene. It had more to do with that board. So, I've apologized to her in the past um privately, but
123uh Marlene, if I could make the decision over again, I would. I I would just say you've been um incredible. Uh I don't think folks uh even these meetings these meetings are just meetings but the work you do the time you spent with parents that you know I've tried not to walk over to you because there's always a line but Marlene's always taken the time to uh be transparent everything on curriculum and I you may not realize it but that's made a tremendous difference um in the community. So, I want to thank you and I certainly apologize for back then. I can't take it back, but you're just amazing and dull and you have a great team. So, um you guys will be great and I appreciate it. I appreciate your dedication. Matt, congratulations. Have
124fun. Um you know, we'll be around. We'll be in touch. But thank you, Mr. >> Yeah. You didn't think I'd leave here without saying anything, right? I did not want you. >> So, um I wasn't expecting to start my speech with an apology, but I think I'll apologize to Marlene, too, because I think I voted against you as well. So, I apologize for that. You've certainly proven to be an excellent addition to the team. Um uh for me, uh uh these past eight years have been incredibly rewarding. Um think, uh Dr. Harrian and Tony. Uh we've seen some stuff and Tim too the last eight years. Uh certainly the first well let's see the certainly 2020 or 2019 through 2021 it was a pretty crazy time. Um but uh overall again it's been uh greatly
125rewarding and um it's been great uh working here and and making the schools a better place. Uh I always like uh when I'm involved in organizations like when I was uh you know chairman of the Republican party for six years um I I made sure that it was you know it started out a little rough and but when I left it I thought I thought it was a better organization uh than when it started. Um and I like to think that um this board is better now than it was when it when I started. Um so again it's Dr. So, it's been great working with you and Marlene and Vin, of course. It's been great working with you. I guess I didn't know we were going to go out at the same time, but here
126we are. Um, Emily, I wish you the best of luck. Um, so, um, yeah, again, uh, thank you. Thank you, Cheshure, for allowing me to serve and, um, I'm holding you to that brick. >> And, uh, hopefully we'll get, uh, asked back for the ribbon cutting because that school is, those schools have been pretty great. So, very exciting to see those open. So, thank you everyone. It's been great. Thank you, Dr. >> Thanks, Jans. >> Yeah, I I just wanted to uh Oh, yeah. >> What do we got from Dr. I I just wanted to uh you know kind of quickly add two cents and that um you know I've had the the pleasure of working with you guys for you know eight years I think Tony I think it was 19 Tony when you
127started on the board. Um so yeah and uh you know the opportunity to to learn and grow with you um has been incredibly valuable. I appreciate not just the support you've given me and the school system over the years, but the challenge you've given me and the school system over the years. I think that's a big part of why we've become better over that time. And, you know, um your leadership, your friendship, uh I find, you know, very professionally and personally valuable. I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for our kids, uh, for this board of education, for this community, and and for me personally. Um, you guys have been tremendous. Uh, really proud to have have worked alongside you and the things that we've accomplished together. Uh, again, you know, you you
128see it in our student achievement, but you literally see it in buildings coming out of the ground. and uh you should both be very proud of the hand you played in that that process. Uh on behalf of the trees public schools and the board of education, we have some gifts for you uh to say thank you for your service uh to our community. So thank you gentlemen. >> Picture Vin picture. I'll say it off, but I don't understand how And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn. Will you do the honors, Mr. Perigini? >> Yes. >> Madam Chair, I to >> And I assume, Mr. Gripple, you'll second. Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of journment, it is unanimous. Meeting adjourned. We will