001Board of at business meeting to order on January 16th Mr jinsky roll call please here here thank you please join us in the pledge of allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation Li and justice for all all right welcome back you to so next item would be our student reps Lydia and Malachi to give us a report all right good evening everyone it's been a whole year since we've last seen you all and we've got some really exciting updates for you CHS just wrapped up its first day of midterms which means we are officially halfway through the 2024 to 2025 school year year midterms will continue until next Wednesday and the second semester will begin the following day students at CHS are already
002looking ahead and will be choosing their courses for the 2025 2026 school year towards the beginning of February and while our students are planning for the next year at CHS Treasure's 8th graders will get to experience our high school for the first time on January 29th at 6m CHS will be hosting curriculum night taking parents and their students on a journey through the high school starting at the John H Thorp Auditorium and making their way to the Caff and& Commons the eighth graders will get to see each of the subject areas as well as extracurricular activities including the multitude of sports and clubs that CHS has to offer but before we jump too far ahead into the future we have many accomplishments to celebrate with some of our sports teams after increasing their membership from
003only four members to uh during covid to whopping 25 today our wrestling team won the warrior Invitational on Saturday and set a tournament record of 23.5 points our fencing team also hosted teser High's first fencing competition last Friday in the west JY hosting Morgan school and Simsbury High School which turned out to be very successful with all these amazing events happening all around the school it can sometimes be easy to forget about those who work behind the scenes to make all of it possible on that note though it is with a heavy heart that I announc to you that we announce to you all that Dr Gad will be leaving treasure High by the end of January um as you all know she's been our principal for nine years and our school is all the
004better for it although we're sad to see her go we know she'll do incredible things at torington high school where she'll be continuing her outstanding career as director of humanities thank you all for listening tonight and we wish Dr Gad the best of luck thank you board members have any questions or comments for our student reps Dr heran I just want to say thank you for um giving us the updates on the wrestling and the fencing because we tend to hear a lot about the the bigger Sports and um you know we have some smaller that have grown and have become sanctioned Sports chesher high school so it's um nice to get the report on that so thank you Mr gripple um firstly congratulations to the wrestling team uh but the extra congratulations to the
005fencing team considering um all the time uh was that last year all the time we spent last year trying to get the uh fencing team and and uh submitting and approving uh policies so that future clubs can uh obtain status that the Fencing Club did so happy to hear that they had their first uh successful meet so congratulations to them comments no thank you both um good luck with midterms and all that fun stuff too um and yes we'll be you know very sad to see Dr Gad go but um Mr hanin is going to be your interim interim principal so we're excited to see him being in that position as well voice um did we hear also news about Malachi we did did you can yeah some really exciting news if you want to
006share it with us okay um to whoever's watching out there um about a month ago I was accepted early action into MIT congratulations thank you brilliant congratulations really exciting news thank you what are you going to study oh yeah hopefully aerospace engineering nice and hopefully come back to Connecticut with that aerospace engineering oh yeah hopefully one day but got to leave [Laughter] first okay you're you're welcome to leave thank you both again oh just want to comment I went to uh school in Boston as it uh someone else in the audience there great town so I just want to say go socks looking forward to it were you a terrier which school no I went to Bentley yeah so sort of outside of Boston but you know thank you have a good night but thank
007you thank you thank you all all right up next um Dr Solen we have a recognition for our um so this evening it's my honor to recognize Mr Doug Johnson uh from Maran manufacturing last month we U were able to recognize some trades partners that we have in the community uh and unfortunately Mr Johnson and Maran couldn't be here uh that night so we invited them to be here tonight uh as I told them plaques are in the making we have the proof back now and so any day now um I would have loved to bring it over to you today uh as Mr Johnson was good enough to invite me to tour maryan manufacturing and it was such a fascinating experience uh it's a nearly 80-year-old company in our community that um does an
008incredible amount of business the the parts that they produce are so intricate um and the skill and detail that the men and women who work there uh possess to be able to crank out those parts ship them all over the world whether it be India or Austria as we saw today um or our backyard it is really amazing and uh I think one of the things that we had talked about and we recognized from our student visits to the different trades um shops in town was that really there's uh the old perception that you know shops are dirty and um you know just Manual Labor uh that it's not really an intellectual pursuit or that there's not much money in it all of those things could be further from the truth um I felt embarrassed
009by the car I was driving pulling into the lot no I'm kidding but that you know there is really a good living to be made uh in this field and I think a lot of folks folks are under the false impression that it's trades or higher education and um as we talked about today uh many employers uh including many here in chesher provide opportunities for students to pursue higher education while they're working and making a lot of money doing it um so it's really uh an untapped opportunity and so part of the reason I was at Maran manufacturing today was to talk about a connection we have with uh the work that we had done around the anxious generation book club so uh at Norton school there's a lot of open space cleared in the
010front from the land that we acquired to expand the school and we're um going to Institute an Adventure Playground there where students can employ creativity build things forts um and we were looking for everything from pallets to parts to things that uh kids could engage with and be outside uh so I stopped by and um Doug took me around the shop with his uh son Tyler who who works at the shop and um we're working on what what can we build into that Adventure Playground as well as you know with some other local companies so uh I can't thank you enough for the time and energy that people like you and Tyler and Joe and S uh put in uh every time I see Doug he's always happy to tell me about how many chesher
011High School Employees he has there and uh we're hopeful to work together so that that continues so um again thank you so much Doug for everything that you do to support our students and Community very much [Applause] appreciated thank you guys I just want to say you know we talk about what's important to our company this partnership with the school system is one of our number one Partnerships we're celebrating our 79th year this year in chesher the whole the whole time and that pipeline that we're getting from the high school and the school system here will help us get through the next 80 and it's really important we have five kids that graduated chesher high some went off to college and came back to us some didn't my son is one of the graduates um
012we have three of those young men are 28 years old and they are our top managers for our company so that's a testament to the school system to put out that level of talent because if they come out with the soft skills and what they learn at the school system we can turn them into something and these young men are really lighting the world on fire it amazes me um what they get done every day I was telling marleene earlier sometimes I call them the three stoes because they went to school together their whole time here in chesher and they wanted to work together and they want to make things and now they're recruiting for us they're our biggest recruiter they're out talking they go to career day at the high school and they're trying
013to recruit for us because we know that these young people that are tied to our community are the people that we want working for us because they're going to stay here and they're going to raise their families here in our community you can tell by my accent I did not grow up in chesher but I've lived here 24 years this is my home I've lived here longer than anywhere else and we take a lot of pride in that and I just want to say thank you for the continued support of the school board and the school system and the sky's a limit for us so we really do appreciate it I apologize I'm not going to stay for your exciting meeting tonight I have a 500 a.m. flight but again thank you we really do
014appreciate the partnership [Applause] I'm gonna ask I will yeah but sometimes there's a Mis Doug do you mind before you leave actually can you specifically tell kind of the community exactly what Maran manufacturing um produces because sometimes there's a misconception um and once you go in and do a tour you're like it's more than just assembly line and trinkets beyond that so there's a couple things that we make that are pretty critical um the number one item we make is a small ring about this big round mhm that goes into a device that's used for uh rapid blood transfusion oh wow as an example if you're in an in a hospital and you need two pints of blood is probably coming out of a refrigerator it's got to be warmed up to your body temperature
015so these we make 12 for each device and it goes into a machine and the blood flows through that and gets warmed up to the proper temperature we make 350,000 of those a month the second item that we make this high volume that you everybody knows is a little washer that goes into the end of a cable connector for that cable that runs from the wall to your TV yeah and even though that's being cut and most people are Wireless I was telling Dr Solen today at the peak of the pandemic we were making 10 million of those per week oh my goodness 10 million a week and those that's just for North America and the most prideful thing of all of that is we won that business five or seven years ago by beating
016our Chinese competition by two10 of one penny wow two10 of one penny and turned it into a multi-million dollar account awesome we also make if you've ever had your heart monitored we make the little metal snap that when they put the pad on and they snap the lead wire on we make a small percentage of the World Market but we're we ship those parts to India a Australia or Austria and all over the United States and those are probably three the titanium that's in the the titanium right we make a titanium part that is used in the heat exchange for the Strike Fighter for the US Arsenal so um it's just a small plate but there's thousands of them that go into to the strike fighters to cool the Jet Engine and all the Hydraulics
017those are probably our four biggest items and we make other things we make parts that go in the soft top of the Jeep Wrangler as an example and the the mechanism for that we make parts that go in the steering column of the Grand Cherokee well we were talking about that item where you said that you know you're cranking out during the pandemic Millions uh a week one of the things that was F fasinating to me is I pictured in my head this massive machine doing that it's really pretty small but the the sheet that the parts are punched from runs through so insanely fast how like you were running we run that at about 700 hits per minute so we're making five at a time 700 times per minute so it's making multiple million
018of pieces per day and the tolerances that we hold are less than half the thickness of your hair so think about that that's and these are Chester graduates that are working on these tools that can hold that level of Tolerance on a part that small it's pretty impressive and and I will say just to stick on the the youth we are a unicorn when it comes to a company like ours to have a staff as young as it is when I went to work at Mary and our average age was 62 right now it's in the 30s we got down to 32 so that's a testament of what's coming out of the school system great thank you Dr her I just want to ask a quick question um actually it's not a question I want
019to to make a statement it's joyful to hear you speak about your company you are so enthusiastic about it I imagine that recruiting is really easy for your company and I would just put out put this out there please make sure that your three young chesher men who are recruiting are also recruiting some young women into your company yes we do that for me we've actually although she's left us for greener pastures we had we actually had a young lady who dropped out of chesher high school and went back and got her GED we picked up on it she was actually working at the wash here in town and just every time you went in there you saw this rock star waiting to come out and we hired her took her all the way through
020her apprenticeship which is four years 8,000 hours and turned her into just a wonderful employee but because she was a young lady larger companies were looking at her going we really need that and we ended up losing her but that is trust me I I I put a lot of effort into making sure we don't have a boys only sandbox because that is an issue are other women that work there oh yeah we have we have several that are we don't have a Chester grad I'm working on that yet but we do have um a young lady who's runs our business development she's 34 years old she handles all of our new cells all of our new accounts our big accounts um our two top people in our quality Department who by the way make
021very good money that's a another very important trade for us um young ladies that are doing a fantastic job for us so it is something we're well aware of and we work hard on that so thank you for mentioning that thank you for all you do for the community thank you thank you Doug any other board members have questions or comments thank you we don't want to hold you up to any longer but We Appreciate You adding to the the value of the community and opportunities for our kids and I'll say open door policy give me a call we'll be happy to have a young Chester grad give you a tour I didn't give the tour today did I no so a lot better coming from a young person thank very much I appreciate have
022a good evening thanks bye all right next item we're um audience members who would like to speak please go to the mic to address the board if you have anything but do not forget to say your name and street address no all right we're going to move on um committee reports first committee up on is curriculum Miss cenin will give the report thank you the uh curriculum committee met on Monday of this week under new business we discussed um the PE health program of study changes at cheser high school the move is from a traditional Health PE classes to integrated Wellness classes these classes will be based around building resilience in our students Healthy Lifestyles social connections will be key components in the course and the design will allow the department to be responsive to
023the needs of high school students and each of these Wellness courses will meet on a semester schedule for a half credit the other new business um we discussed the safe School climate surveys which are administered by annually to students staff and parents at each grade level band the questions um have remained consistent since 2018 um the information is reviewed by representatives of each building that's the data is looked at um based on the answers to the survey questions and plans to address any areas of need are addressed through uh School climate plans for each um school and a district plan to look at the district holistically based on the data um The District in accordance with State guidelines will communicate the com the administration of the survey to the parents and will include a pdf
024version of the student survey so the parents can preview it um and they will have an opt out availability to them if they choose not to have their student participate in the survey then we moved to informational items and I'm going to ask the assisted superintendent to just update us on some of her areas thank you miss Colin one of the items that I briefed the committee on was that kindergarten registration will begin on February 5th in the evening from 2: to 5: parents can register online or in person if they prefer to come into the school to ask any questions on April 28th we will be conducting screening assessments for families who are seeking early admission to kindergarten our district science coaches I was giving an update on how they are moving off of
025the robotics unit and into Agro science so that will be starting this second semester in addition Kelly gillo the principal at Chapman School along with Kristen Shanley who is our Ela department chair and Kristen Castellano who is the reading um teacher for the middle school gave an overview on a reading assessment called aadience reading for grades seven and eight since the sunset of the previous reading inventory which was our Universal screener the district has been looking for a replacement and we're going to be moving in the direction of using aadience which will also be a nice continuation of the reading assessments that we're doing K through six currently so DOD is going to try out this assessment it what's nice about it is that the measure includes reading passages that include a science passage a
026social studies passage and and a Pros passage so it's really more appropo for the middle school because students are doing a lot of reading in those three areas we had an update from Dr Gad on the master schedule at chesher high school the team is in the final stages of vetting that schedule where they're looking at having five sessions per day and those um blocks would be 68 minutes which is a reduction from the current schedule um and also is a little bit longer than the previous schedule preco which was 55 minutes students would meet for five sessions on an 8 day cycle so both students and teachers have provided feedback on that schedule and there are plans in place to make final adjustments in the rotation before the end of the month lastly we
027discussed the outof State field trips which are to Nature's Classroom for this year that's an annual trip that many of the elementary schools engage in this year DD I'm sorry dittle and chat um Chapman's going to Deep River while dittle and Norton are going to the Charlton campuses and those trips will be happening in May the trips are relatively the same price Highland in the last couple of years has um engaged in some local options that included team building and Hands-On science related activities and that concludes our report thank you any board members have questions Mr per J uh thank you uh I forget during Monday night's meeting we talked at the very end uh whether or not we wanted to print out the survey questions or bring to the board and we said no
028right can we can we send those questions out to the board members so they stay aware you know what absolutely when you get around to it I know it's not going on right away but sure awesome thank you I also have them here if there were any questions but we I will certainly send them out Z thank you Miss ginin oh Mr GLE do you have a question um yeah firstly um when looking through the minutes I I figured you guys were there for like three hours considering the subjects and I saw it it took 43 minutes is that right to go through all of this stuff uh so that was very very efficient meeting I I suppose so congratulations um so um on the the climate uh survey um does the I forget does
029the board approve those questions or is it just it's reviewed and then uh just applied the board has the opportunity to review those questions which we had done at the curriculum committee meeting and then it comes before this board in particular because there had been some some changes to the law about surveys that were asking students to complete so when that happens I believe the law was put in place since the last administration of the safe School climate survey so for example knowing that we were surveying students using the pupil attitudes towards self and school those questions came before the board and also an an email is sent to inform parents that this assessment will be taking place on the pass and we will be doing the same thing with the safe School climate survey
030okay so so just to review when you say the board you meant the committee and not the board it's like we're not voting on anything right we're not reviewing it the board as a whole we did not vote on it at curriculum it was it was new business but we did not bring it to a so is a draft like is this to be applied next year or it would we would conduct this survey in March March it's typical that we Pro we produce this survey every other March so the survey is every two years so did we approve these questions already or am I am I confused on something these questions have been the same questions we've used since 2018 oh no change okay no so little history so remember uh I if it
031was a year or two ago I believe we had discussed the then board about the survey should it be reviewed by the board Etc I think we left and I don't think a policy came out of it but I think what came out of it was a curriculum committee would definitely review them uh I think the board has a chance to review them that's why I asked a s of the questions if folks have a you know issue with them we can certainly discuss it but I don't recall anything that requires a vote on the board I could be wrong but didn't you hear that last part Tony it's only thing I I remember anything requires a vote on the board for survey questions I we did add the layer review for the survey and
032the reading list at the dod school but all I say is if any board members have questions reach out and and yeah we still have two months so we can bring it back yeah absolutely if there's questions I'm sure and Mar and I will definitely be happy the very least great thank you um next committee would be Finance Dr harrian hi so we had our first um budget Workshop uh on Tuesday evening where we discussed certified salaries and benefits and non-certified salaries and also medical benefits and um I'm going to let Mr Mariana take it from here and talk to us about medical benefits oh and our next one is next Tuesday um January 21st at DOD Middle School join us thank you Dr haragan good evening ladies and gentlemen um Dr haragan you don't
033want me to give a recap of Tuesday night to you okay good so the finance report uh the board members do have in their package the financial report as of December 31st I will just tell you briefly that the budget is looking Rock Solid at this point there are no um areas that I have um any large concerns over I will talk about medical benefits which is a minor concern at this point um I'll talk about that in a minute but the budget is in good shape U part of that uh that what we do every year is we put a cap on our non-payroll expenditures until we've gotten through various points in the budget so we're halfway through the year that expenditure cap has been at 50% we're going to raise that expenditure cap
034I feel very comfortable doing that we're going to 70% and we'll hold there till April till we get through the next phase so that really is a long and short on the finance report I'll go to medical and then if there are questions I'll answer on both also on the board's package is the medical benefits update through December claims for the month were 1.2 million so up a little bit from November and just above the expected monthly claims of 1.19 million um that left the balance at the end of the month in our Reserve at 1,461 662 so it's 1.23 months in claims Reserve a little lower than we would like to be but I will uh share with the board that even though it's not reflected in the report yet because I've not gotten
035the final report we um will be receiving about $417,000 in stoploss reimbursements and that does add to our reserve and also I was notified earlier uh late in December that we would be receiving payment of about $200,000 in prescription drug rebate so that the total of those two is 617,000 if we add that to the reserve that would take the reserve to a balance of just over $2 million that would get us to 1.7 months of Reserve I'm you know certainly not surprised that either one of those uh reimbursements coming through um and so that'll get us closer to the goal which we had this year and I know I talked about this at our presentation Tuesday night we had budgeted so that goal is that at the end of the year we would have
036the same Reserve balance that we started with we started with 2.3 million you know with these reimbursements will be back to the $2 million Mark we're moving into January claims which is the beginning of the new HSA plan year so you know if we see just a little bit of an easing in claims over the next 3 months because people start a new plan year and they have to meet their deductible before claims are charged directly to the board um you know we in my opinion look pretty good for the remainder of the Year ending with a Reserve balance at a close to that two million to $2.3 million that we sought to achieve um so that's it on on medical benefits and Fin Finance I'll be glad to entertain any questions members have questions
037can I just say I think we asked a lot of questions on Tuesday night and if you were to recap everything that we did Tuesday night then nobody would come to the exciting meeting that we have next Tuesday so thank you we'll leave it at that then this might be a little off topic but um the uh decision on the MU increase can you just clarify we were going to increase the price on which increase the meal price increase we discussed last time um mid year and then notifying the parents I don't know what was the consensus there was no vote taken so we don't have to make any announcement just yet but you know certainly if we if the board does approve an increase we'll bring it back to the board in May May
038typically Carol May okay um and then we would announce for the following school year so we parents will have plenty of notice okay thank you there is another question Miss Rosenberg yeah I don't on the meeting on Tuesday did you give a brief update on the performance contract moving forward I did not just a brief one so we did receive the um proposals from three firms in response to the RFP for new energy performance contract Honeywell Johnson Controls ameresco the company energia that is our owner rep is reviewing those proposals they'll provide a summary which I uh intend when we have our planning committee on January 21st we'll give an update then so much work lies ahead of us but all three firms have presented proposals that would enable us to engage in a contract
039that would allow us to increase or improve our infrastructure and reduce our energy costs which would pay for those improvements so looks like we've got viable Alternatives you know and with that being said the only caveat is we still need to get through the review process um so it's good news and just one last point you had mentioned raising your cap on I forget non payroll expenditures yeah non-payroll yeah um just generally speaking as you do that when you're talking about spending at Norton Darcy and Chapman you're having a conversation saying you're really do you really need the desk type of thing like just being mindful of the reality of that's all I wanted to hear thank you VIN yes sir thank you um next committee would be policy committee Mr Aki thank you we
040met on uh January 6th and discussed uh several policies that are all getting us uh in line with state law is that's correct Dr s so we talked about non-discrimination sexual harassment Title 9 um which you know hopefully doesn't change in two weeks and did it already did today published so um the there was a court case in Kentucky that struck down the current Title Nine so we're now to revert back to the 2020 version and so the next policy meeting so it's not the final version or whatever what was it was the final vers it was the final version um a little premature perhaps on nomenclature there but um yeah it's changed again so we're back to the original final version I guess and uh who knows it may change again but we'll have
041to revert back the this policy is going to have to change and we'll go back to the beginning with that there we go um we also have three policies that were uh bringing for four po four policies that we bring more bringing forward for a third reading uh again all stuff that was done by the lawyers for us uh Security check fingerprinting right responsibilities and du duties and social networking uh FASA completion which is a state mandate and alternative education program do we want to do those motions now yeah okay so we will call for a motion uh make a motion that the ches Board of Education give a third and final reading to the policies 12.5 212.5 Security check fingerprinting criminal justice uh policy 4118 .51 rights responsibilities and D duties social networking 6148
042FASA completion program 6172 alternative education program and direct the superintendent to put set policies into immediate effect there a second for the motion Mr grippo second um discussion Mr White and then Mr kble yeah I was just hoping to get a quick um recap at least of the first two the security fingerprinting and the social networking so the security fingerprinting piece is um a reform that came out of a committee that I served on in Hartford probably like five or six years ago but this is all about really how are how is that data handled by school systems it was it's really much more regulation heavy than it is policy heavy basically who has access to the sensitive data who um what happen happens if it becomes compromised who who receives training so like we've
043all received training online that was required as a result of this law about uh who monitors that data that's all this fingerprinting one was the rights responsibility duties of social networking was an existing policy that we had um after the incident in the fall uh we had our attorney review that again um with limited updates uh to that that policy uh FAFSA completion is a law that's been on the books for some time requiring districts to have graduating students complete fafs fuff forms uh the state almost annually pushes back the implementation date on that because a lot of people push back on the implement the idea that we're required to complete fafs forms so um that's what this is the law just pushed back the state so we updated the policy uh law pushed back
044to date so we updated the policy to reflect that uh the alternative education program basically says that we need to offer alternative education opportunities for kids and that you can't like basically banish kids who need these support so uh it's something that obviously through humiston we are very engaged in but we also provide opportunities through our adult education program and uh relationship with Wallingford for other courses like um GED credit diploma programs and um English acquisition and then some elective courses through that so just to be on the second one the social networking yep that is exclusive to staff yes there's nothing okay and so anything to do with social networking and kids or phones is still in the hopper we're in the process of updating our phone policy oh sorry yeah there's more yeah
045we're going to talk about the yeah two different things just want to be clear thank you yep um yeah I just wanted to comment on the uh social networking policy um uh we did have a uh I say a decent discussion I don't want to say robust that might be too much of a yeah description um but uh my because my concerns or hopes would that was that the uh policy was going to be perhaps more restrictive or more punitive or give uh the superintendent perhaps more leeway than is in the policy but as was described by Dr Solen and through his discussions with our attorneys the language that is in this policy if you were to read it is intentionally vague I guess due to of course you know my personal concerns or all
046of concerns is naturally uh First Amendment rights of uh of individuals but and how that relates to uh your duties as an employee for chesher public schools and how that all intermingles and that's why the policy exists the way it does and why we moved it forward from the policy committee so I just wanted to make that comment so when you read it it's you know yeah it's definitely fair there are different sets of rules for different sets of circumstances you know our um employees and students for that matter uh have freedom of speech rights that um when they're not representing the chesher public schools are pretty vast and um when somebody is apparently or looks to be representing mentioning uh chesher Public Schools they they are much more restrictive um so there is a
047pretty broad swath of how to manage these things and I've as you can imagine done a lot of reading on free rights Free Speech rights of Staff this year and um you know understand where our attorneys have crafted this uh policy as a result uh I read through the policy I saw the changes I am encouraged um and I understand uh you know why it's certain the way it is in the chain but uh there is a section where you do have some discretion um which you know is good so I thank the policy committee for working all these policies but I'm glad that that one was U tweaked as best as I could thank you any other board members we did we did have some there was a lot of questioning about why we
048couldn't put certain things in there and why you know why there's a reason we ended up with what we ended up with Mr White thank you um yeah I just wanted to uh add Echo the concerns about Free Speech but also add the what I feel is really important which is superintendent you I think you maintain pretty good relationships with our unions and the reality from my perspective is not being a lawyer is that whenever something comes up with a me a union member the union will become involved and having a good relationship with the Union is really important for difficult situations yeah and I want to acknowledge them too because um I've had the opportunity to work with a variety of different L uh excuse me union leaders over the course of my career
049I was the union president for the administrators for a decade you know some are much more reasonable and grounded than others um and they this Union leadership that we have has a a very clear interest in supporting all the teachers and maintaining a positive reputation for all of our Professionals in this District um and they keep a great eye on that certainly they uh represent their membership vigorously uh but they're also um you know very reasonable in that process so it's it's definitely a two-way SE Street there thank you though too any other board members no so we do have the motion on the table that was second um call for a vote all those in favor of the motion that is on the table unanimous thank you and I believe that concludes policy Mr
050real quick we did uh we have been uh discussing a cell phone policy the the current policy still talks about uh pagers and uh we're in the process we did have a survey conducted are we going to get into that Dr Solen or yeah there is a link in your packet for the survey that we conducted uh we asked feel like starting off few we asked a 100 people questions about cell phones we asked um we asked the parents students and staff across the dist District at all three levels their perceptions of the impact of cell phone use but also the um existing practices that we have in place uh as Mr II mentioned the the policy that we have is super dat you know talking about beepers and pagers and whatnot um and so
051that just hasn't been updated to reflect the time the times in the survey that the link that's shared with you it's a pretty heavy packet um it outlines what the policies are at each building so they're developmentally appropriate we think you know at the Elementary grades um there really is no cell phone access cell phones should not be out and about um at all period anywhere uh at the middle school pretty much the same thing you know that cell phones are not out about and at the high school level there is limited use um during quote downtime like go study hall or um lunches and things like that but uh uh because we've been much more restrictive in the classrooms at the high school what I've seen just walking down the hall this year at
052cheser high school the kids are so much more engaging um when I walk down the hall they'll say hello you know you can say hi to them they used to be earbud you know zombies um you don't see that anymore uh it's it's really refreshing uh to see that uh I had a conversation today we talk to all of our principles about you know I know six weeks ago you said you know it was much improved how is it today and um Kelly gillo at the middle school was the first one to speak up and say amazing it's so much better um and they've done a great job of reinforcing expectations there at the high school the biggest concern expressed in the survey is that my neighbor doesn't enforce the policy well out um so
053we talked a lot about you know making sure that teachers are all on the same page about enforcing that policy in their classrooms um so that it makes it easier on your neighbor when they have to call you out for a phone that the student is saying yeah but next door I can use my phone um so I think it's it's more of an Enforcement issue of course developmentally high school students are going to be more inclined to you know Lobby about their freedoms and um and and they should should have more freedoms no doubt uh but uh basically the gist of the administrative team and what you'll see in the surveys is General support for the existing practices not Universal but pretty good support um given the topic from the three different stakeholders and
054just to clarify when we're talking about policy that is those are building policies or building guidelines right we not District policy yeah so we need to update that yeah our goal is to update that policy so we have something more robust right and just getting back to the whole idea of beepers I use the word beeper in my freshman class today they said what is that they had no idea all I know is from caddy [Laughter] sh all right I think that's it that concludes policy thank you Mr ay um another item we did have a a legislative meeting and we want to thank uh represent linahan um who came to um address the board but also um Dr Solen you know um we appreciate you just um basically outlining some of our concerns and
055areas that we need support in from the legislative body um session did commence last week so some of the items that were addressed or brought forward to rep linan to at least um also speak to her uh her colleagues would be the educational cost sharing discussion and hopefully and it I don't think this is a treasure problem um all other districts are also seeing the reduction in educational cost sharing so that clearly impacts our budget here um the other item would be to support us in trying to elevate the profession as a whole um because obviously it's very difficult to hire um talented professionals um or influence um younger uh Generations to come to the field um and then just I think you guys mentioned this at the budget review meeting the other day just
056the excessive list of mandates that we have to follow um and I really I personally like the fact that you brought up the strategy of possibly reviewing it every five years I mean we have curriculum cycles that we review so there's got to be a process in place that at least puts some consideration to determine relevance in offse impact of costs too so for those of you um oh and the other point too um asking the state to make a decision on you know we love the flexibility of the kindergarten age but really just follow the research and make a decision on you know September one that's it for um entry into kindergarten so hopefully um she could bring that back I know that there was going to be a follow-up with Dr Solen to
057at least um go to the capital or Lobby yeah so I appreciate the time that the legislators have given um actually this afternoon I met with representative zupkus uh we've had some email communication with um U Senator Samson uh R Vino has uh emailed back and forth representative linan is obviously was here last week um but I am working um with Robin and Cary uh and Miss Cullen and to actually get up to um hard next week to have some face-to-face conversations particularly around special education excess cost Grant we saw a significant dip in reimbursement rate on that which uh with the rise in costs as I said last week uh is is uh important that we address those things so uh the the items we discussed last week as long as everybody's fine there
058I'll be honest with you the one item that we didn't talk about that uh We've contemplated adding to list and I would love your feedback on is uh the state just uh last year revised the law uh outlining sick time for employees uh we provide sick days in excess through our collective bargaining agreements of the um what the the law directs people to provide unfortunately though the logistics of record keeping that are are required and some of the out you know some of the um directives like we can't ask uh an employee for a medical documentation until they've been out more than five days um things like that uh are very onor and concerning for us um but you know I and given the fact that I also know that there has been more talk
059in the legislature about that the implications of this law on Public School Systems I think Vin would like to see it included you know it's it's up to you guys if if we want to include that I didn't want to do it without you weighing in appreciate your thoughts yeah and I just want to add I know there's other boards that are um advocating for this and trying to address it so I I would personally be on board with um you know Dr s moving that forward but if there are any board members who would like to express Miss col and Dr Solen correct me if I'm wrong but I thought included in there too I thought I read something about um employees could actually take an hour of during the day or two hours
060during the day and you really can't ask them for any kind of documentation as to why in in a school system that's almost impossible for us to be able to allow that yeah we don't have a Dugout waiting to fill in for an hour uh or something like that so so uh thank you for bringing that up that is one of the things that's more honorous about this you know current law you know if you're um in a shop or something um and an individual leaves for an hour or two that's you know got different implications because you don't have to cover a room of 28y olds you know so that's uh one of the things that we are concerned about so if if you're comfortable with adding that to our legisl of priorities I'll
061certainly do so and send it out to all the legislators Mr D white I'm comfortable with it thanks yeah comfortable with it yeah um yeah I think we can probably move forward with that with Dr Ran but there's uh Mr per was there a a legislative I know K publish there's a legislative meeting also coming up you can kind of uh yeah well we could talk about it during uh after your update later oh okay yeah all right great I'll give some more detail gotcha awesome um next item is the approval of minutes for two meetings a meetings held for December 19th and January 9th so I do need to call for a motion to approve the minutes if Mr White can you read the motion please move that the treasure Board of Education approve
062the minutes for meetings held on December 19th 2024 and January 9th 2025 is there a second Dr herin um are there any additions or corrections to be noted no okay all those in favor of approving the motion to approve the minutes of both meetings please raise your it is unanimous Mr zeny thank you um Mr secretary are there any correspondence to be read there is no correspondence thank you thank you sir and then we move to um superintendent report so I'll hand it over to Dr Solen for any updates thank you so much um I guess in no no particular order here um the first item on the superintendent's update is that we've been working closely with the Park and Recreation and um uh the YMCA to design a phone free fun event uh for
063grades 5 through 8 that'll occur next Friday uh from 7 to 10 p.m I want to thank John gock um Doug Levens from the y v masana for helping plan that event along with our treasure High School peer Health Educators who will help supervise that event with me and those other two gentlemen from the Y and the park and wreck next Friday uh Kristen Shanley former teacher of the year who's our library media specialist be running our Creation Station um in the library uh with all sorts of activities for kids to do uh there'll be activities in the gym in the calf and the uh technology room we have instruction zone with Dr OD day uh so the the goal here is not to provide all structured activities for kids to do the goal is
064have you know multi-age engagement with each other to come up with something to do um which I I kind of hypothesize will be awkward for our kids who aren't used to just showing up and playing together um so I really appreciate the chesher high school peer healthed Educators they read chapter 3 of the anxious generation about like how do we get kids engaged in that stuff um both Doug Levens from the Y and and John gock from Park and wreck have read the book uh so we're really trying to provide a catalyst of an opportunity and I I it's a little bit of a social experiment I feel like um low stake social experiment where we'll see how kids engage with each other and if they can create activities to do with one another without
065saying all right I'm going to help you pick teams to play basketball together you know it's it's not going to be like that and so uh it's really fun uh to to Branch out and say hey here's your resources come together let's have a good time uh we've put a a 100 student cap on it um hopefully we get there and we'll see see how it goes so that's kind of exciting uh stuff that we're doing I wanted to talk to you about open Choice enrollment project ctions um we have worked diligently over the course of the last five or six years to substantially increase our open Choice enrollment and it's been great um Malachi is an open Choice student um the challenge that we're running into is seating at K through 8 at this
066point um are we're adding you know multiple Portables Highland we've added you know the the we're going to be redistricting uh come the end of this year uh as much as it pains me to say it it's my recommendation that we don't add seats k through eight frankly we're super close in seven and eight from needing two more teachers there uh it do uh so I'm anxious about that so um in calculating it you know we do have one freshman next year I'd like to add um five seats or six seats for freshman I I think that's your best opportunity for you to come in as a freshman we can add limited seats for sophomores and juniors we already have nine sophomores it's not like they need a peer group The One freshman I'd love
067to have more students on the bus with that student um we're losing six 12th graders so if we can add you know to keep that number at Treasure High School a little bit more robust I mean that's my plan uh to communicate I don't intend on adding any seniors um that are just new for the senior year at ches high school so um that's that's the plan with open Choice enrollment and then finally new schools update um Vin and I met with um Jody Rhoden and uh the full cast of characters who represent om and arcadis yesterday at Norton school if you haven't been to Norton yet uh it's it's pretty shocking to look at the back and where it is already I'll send you guys some pictures because it's like you can't believe already
068where we are and it's it's pretty exciting stuff um as Mr grippo will tell you uh nothing too sexy going on at the North End yet we're just moving a little bit of dirt around but there's some hammering going on today yeah hammering yeah so um that it's really exciting to see that just so people have a sense of our timeline now uh this spring will be uh consumed with laying you know foundations and concrete um all spring the uh structural steel should arrive at the end of the school year uh and you'll start to see you know the frames form over the course of the summer um so we're really excited about that uh we had a request which is is fantastic from uh Norton they're you're drilling the geothermal Wells so uh we're
069trying to get some of the folks who know about geothermal Wells to speak to the students about it get the kids out there if if you uh saw my Instagram post earlier this week There's a great picture of a group of like 15 kids all glued to the construction they're all standing outside watching what's going on with their teacher um and so we want to incorporate the kids as much as we can we've talked to Luther uh our transportation director about getting some buses to Chapman to run kids up when we're ready to do geothermal Wells at the North End so we want kids to experience this to like Doug's point from earlier you know making that awareness and um it's really exciting to see it happening so that's where we are with school construction
070I apologize uh my wife was out of town for work this week and I had to take my youngest to physical therapy um um and missed the naming ceremony or not ceremony excuse me the meeting that was held V I know you were there can can you provide an update on that uh yes I can thanks there there were um several names that we knew about already that were presented this evening uh Harvey C baram was one and that that did get um a lot of you know recommendations and people that spoke at the at the turn this evening also schaer Farm uh the site of the new North End was schaer farm that house that is being used as a construction site belong to the schaer family the Tuttle name came up Edge view
071was a dairy farm in town that was suggested Frank J papandrea longtime resident of chesher uh another suggestion that came in um by email was Darcy Chapman Elementary or DC Elementary uh and also there was a an email to name the school after M Richards uh who was retired from the treasure public school so those are the names that were um mentioned this evening the Town Council um and the committee that's formed by the council you know will take action uh in the future um and the goal is to do it you know relatively soon you know before the the tentative you know June 2025 deadline is when the the name is needed by The Architects so that they can work through the process of Designing everything you know including the signage for the schools
072I mean the the work is coming along it feels like Breakneck Pace now uh Vin and I met with uh rich that our director of facilities and Anna petronio from um pwn this morning about ceilings and stuff so you know it's it's a lot uh that we're trying to to juggle but at the same time you know there was a long period of time where we put a ton of work in never sure if it was going to amount anything so uh it's at least you know you know it's it's it's there closing in right Mr White and I don't know Dr her you had a comment yeah my understanding is that with Norton you've put together a a committee of playground professionals so we have students weighing in who could not be more excited
073about uh this Adventure Playground that we're trying to do um you know I have a lot of pressure in my job but that like meeting the expectations of playground for little kids is a different sort of pressure so um hopefully it meets their their expectation I I am confident it well they will they will give plenty of feedback oh yeah yeah it'll work out in the end thank you a quick question are you hearing anything about um problems with the noise level at Norton school with the building going on not yet um not yet ad Adam's complaining yeah about the hamers the folks that work from home on the North Ender really been out of shape and I can hear it so I know you can hear it too but uh no complaint though I
074will say that the volume was probably a little bit more intense last week when they were cutting down and clearing a lot of trees it happens all during the day at least um so I would assume if you're working from home it's a little bit more problematic but uh one thing I will credit om on there's been a lot of effort made to communicate with the neighbors um and so um yesterday the gentleman um who's kind of the pivot person over there is Brian at Norton um he's got relationships and other gentleman Colton over there they've connected with neighbors they know neighbors by name they uh are working really closely I mean it is important for us to be good neighbors uh hopefully you know it's kind of like doing your kid and over you
075know there's uh a lot of aggravation but at the end of the day you know you're left with a really uplifting and beautiful place and I think that will be the case at Norton for our neighbors too great thank you any other important members comments for the super um I have a question unrelated to the schools is that can I um uh it is now January is there any update on Staffing I'll just leave it at that sure um it well we have a few um Staffing updates first of all um we had a teacher resign before right at Christmas um before right at the the break at Chapman um we're excited that uh we have extended a offer to somebody today who will start on um January 24th um at the building and then
076be in classes on the 27th um at chesher high school um as the our student reps noted uh we and I know I've shared with the board in December we sent out uh information to everybody who holds a certification for a building administrator certification in Connecticut uh it was a video about that our kids made about why it'd be great to to work at chesher high school um I know Malachi was in a video Lydia may have been in there as well but uh received over 1300 views on YouTube most of those are Marlene but we know a lot of other people watched it too um and so we publicized the position in January and have over 45 applicants so far so uh I think we'll have a really uh good pool to select from
077um that's not what I was asking about but thank you um it was more about the uh the issue that we had the beginning of the year trying not to um draw the social media oh oh oh that Staffing update yes so um yeah the uh sro's uh first of all I want to thank Mike Khan publicly Mike is one of our SOS um unfortunately we communicate pretty regularly uh and that guy is always there to pick up the phone I don't care what kind what time of day or night it is he is incredibly responsive uh his partner Oscar Rivera our other um our other school resource officer as we know is the reality in our community took another job in another town um got a better deal and um so he left the
078uh shortage that our treasure Police Department faces is still reality um the memorandum of understanding taking people off special duties has been extended to March 1st however uh there is a carve out for uh sro's so they should be returning soon um that's optimistic it's good news for us I I'll email you with more information when I have thank you for that update appreciate it that's good news yeah absolutely is there actually to Dr haran's question you know I remember being a teacher and our school was being constructed is there any impact right now because the noise level is I used to have to yell so that the kids can hear me so are there any um concerns coming from the classroom we haven't heard that yet sorry about the pun but uh that hasn't
079been expressed yet I think I think the uh enthusiasm you know probably tempers that the other thing that's kind of nice is that the structural steel which will be loud um occurs over the summer when we don't have classes in session the vast majority of it so you know hopefully we kind of Dodge that issue to a degree but um certainly we'll pay attention to it thank you Dr Solen any other board members um next item would be any old business seeing none uh we'll move on to new business um again I just want to thank Dr Solen for um the legislative meeting and bringing that forward um and to that I just wanted to see if uh Mr per can kind of update us on the next um cave legislative breakfast or the intent
080behind that meeting yeah thank you uh Madam chair so uh there's a area legislative bre breakfast I think January 29th it's at Seymour High School I I'm not sure if every gets to C emails I forward it to you any everybody anyway thank you um I I haven't talked to the a directors yet um but it's typically board members um uh local Representatives uh superintendents you have Educators there and and it always tends to focus on some topics that are about to be discussed in Harford uh I don't know what those are um I'm not even sure if our Representatives such as uh represent Lans upus um or or the rest of them have been contacts I'll find out but once we have more information I'll send it out probably next week uh other C
081again because I am your Lea on the C just some stuff's going on so yeah with the session kicked off in Harford um I think we all got our legislative agenda from c a couple weeks ago um we're gearing up the executive committee uh and C leadership to be out there in Harford given testimony on a number of items I'll definitely be out there so um as you have your summaries prepared I'll be happy to give those to Patric and team so that and um I foret miss Mackie so that they can uh and I also have direct access some folks I'll be um meeting with them whether they like it or not in Harford so it's it's all good um uh for what it's worth cab was awarded um an award for leadership I
082think from the national Schoolboard Association uh this past week simply because I think we're we're we may be the only Board of Association I think in the country that has partnered with the state department of Ed I'm not sure folks realized C has a contract with SD to provide professional development for board members and that's been utilized very well so every conference every webinar every thing you see from cave is if you attend that it goes to your um credits as a c member but also uh meeting that legislation that we supposed to be you know trained so uh that was a good thing and um last item T night uh just for folks aware there was a opening on the State Board of Education uh C nominated uh four folks I am one of
083them so uh it's an appointment by Governor uh it's a long shot because you have to lobby at this point and I am not a politician like Lobby and I just like working so uh but if it works out we'll let you know if not we're trying so thank you and I do recall reading something that you did satisfy all the board credits too so congratulations on that [Laughter] so um and the other item I did get a notice from um speaking of the YMCA there's an upcoming plunge um so I'm just uh it is an awesome team building Tony and I did it once so I think we need to add on to this and Dr senen I believe your name is on there too good seat still available just say I I uh
084I've done it multiple time many times Kevin didn't you do it once too oh this year I forgot he is yeah thank you for volunteering to do that unfortunately in the audience directly behind Kevin hanling is Kevin buono my intern and when I said Kevin you know I could see the fear shoot through I'm like dude I am an intern I am not jumping in ice water trying toing some Kudos points here so um I think you're the captain of this okay so we'll post the okay just talk to the administrators today awesome thank you um that is it for and can I add something so Kevin Dr Sol's intern you can just do like I do and just say I'll write a check because as much as I like the cold weather and the
085winter I'm not jumping into ice cold water it's good for your muscles awesome so we have again some upcoming meetings um as mentioned before we do have a planning committee meeting on the 21st at 6m at D Middle School um and then we have the Monday February 3rd policy committee meeting at humston boardroom as well as the curriculum meeting on February 10th at humston um Thursday February 20th will be the Board of Education business meeting at Town council chambers um and I also want to um I'm sure you're aware that Monday January 20th uh we will be um there will be no school both schools and offices will be closed um in honor of Dr Martin Luther King Jr day and then Monday through Tuesday February 17th to 18th it is President's Day um February
086break so schools will be closed um just to remind everybody again the budget review um meeting schedule as mentioned the January 21st is the next one at 700 p.m. at DOD where we're going to review minist ministrative accounts and then January 23rd is also at dot 7 this is the public informational meeting um and the board responds to superintendent and hopefully adoption of the board budget if at all possible last date on that schedule will be January 30th at 7:30 at DOD if we need it um for a special meeting of the adoption of the budget and with that I will take a yes Mr gripple I said uh two questions sure um firstly is the uh planning committee meeting of the whole or is that just a planning committee my understanding Vin we was
087just a planning committee planning yeah okay um yeah I wonder if I have to go you know um yeah yes and then what was my second question um I forgot never mind thanks find us I know and with that i' call for a motion to adjourn all those in favor of adjournment yes sir uh the executive session part oh this is a typo oh it is over sorry sorry about that we can if You' like I'm not sure what we'll be talking about news of the day yes so it is a typo as you noticed earlier sorry about that because I thought we did that we did it we did it I mean yeah in December right we're good unless you want to stay okay okay all in favor okay all in favor of adjournment
088unanimous thank you we are adjourned