001please here here here thank you can you please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance flag the United States ofer to the stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all great so our first order of business is from our student reps but I do see a new face that we did not see last time so Dr Solen if you can just give the introductions for us please sure as you know um excuse me I'm a little under the weather but I uh I know that last time uh we were able to introduce Lydia and Malachi was tied up and so I'm proud to give the introduction that Dr Gad would have given last week um Malachi is the epitome of a hardworking thoughtful and deeply caring student he exhibits High ethical standards
002and profound work ethic a dedicated student and leader maintaining an impressive 4.86 grade point average he is also a semi finalist for the National Merit Scholarship Malachi is often one of the first to arrive at school and among the last to leave he is president of our student Senate the National Honor H society and he is a co-editor and chief of the CHS newspaper Rampage from annual fundraisers to committee participation to be one day you can be sure that Malachi is in some way part of the planning and implementation of whatever is going on at CHS everything he does has a positive impact on our CHS Community his teachers comment that through his efforts High School events become more memorable experiences for his fellow classmates and he is a role model to his class classes
003if you ask Malachi he will share that he has grown so much as a student and person through his years at CHS and he wants the same for students following him Malachi plans to study aerospace engineering and he would love to work for NASA and one day actually go up to space I have no doubt given his history of hard work and fierce determination that Malachi will succeed his message to the younger students coming up the pike is to always go for it because why not we could not be more proud than to introduce Malachi baa welcome Malachi welcome welcome hello everyone all right thank you Dr Solen for the kind words and uh please extend my thanks to Dr Gad um so yeah good evening everyone I am Mal IA um all right so
004starting off with an update about our amazing sports teams the CHS athletic department was honored as one of 28 schools to receive the Michaels achievement cup for sportsmanship on October 7th this honor is based on athletes and coaches conduct on the field fans conduct in the stands and team's community service on that same high note our cross country teams had a very successful day yesterday for the SEC championships at East Shore Park our boys team play six and our girls team finished as Runners up yet the end of our fall season is uh quickly approaching the postseason has started for some for some sports and will continue through the last week of October looking ahead cheser High has several very exciting events happening in the coming weeks for example we will be hosting our first
005homecoming dance in over 10 years tomorrow night the theme is city of stars and it will be held in the CHS cafeterias and if that isn't thrilling enough for students they'll still have the PSAT exam to look forward to next Wednesday October 23rd the exam will only be administered to students in grades 9 through 11 seniors are expected to use the day as future Readiness day giving them time to visit colleges or to work on college applications the Halloween spirit is definitely alive and well us the the student Senate will be sponsoring their annual Halloween costume parade where students teams and staff will compete for best costumes in various categories along with this Halloween event is the affectionately called Trunk or Treat the CHS best buddies Club is hosting their annual spectacular trick-or treat drive-thru
006at the high school on October 27th at 6 p.m. the event is free to the whole Community speaking of free events for the community CHS will be giving back to the community through its annual community Leaf raking event for senior citizens it will be held on November 9th and CHS students will volunteer to rake leaves at 25 senior C citizens properties clearly CHS students are proud to contribute to the chure community so proud in fact that we just had to share it with students from across the world over the last two weeks CHS has been hosting several French exchange students who have accompanied their host students through the day throughout the day to learn more about American High School culture and last but certainly certainly not least is an update about CHS drama they probably
007as we speak are preparing for the fall play of Midsummer Night stream they will be perform they will be performing from November 21st to November 23rd so as October starts to wind down and we ease into November you can be sure that there will be always exciting always be something exciting happening at CHS that's all we have that's all we have so yeah thank you uh can I just ask how do you define senior for the uh senior riking that is want to double check those who can't do it on their own okay well you might get a call that's all anybody have questions willing to Dr harrion hi thank you both um for giving your report we always enjoy hearing from the students themselves is my mic on yeah um I'm wondering and you
008may not be able to answer this question and don't feel bad if you can't but if you can um are the students in chesher public schools involved in um the chesher food drive in any way yes and can you say anything about that I mean I'm not personally but it's uh there are lots of little food drives throughout the year um I know that NHS has one coming up I believe it's towards the end of November so you'll probably hear that in our November report but um at least for NHS students are given uh bags and then they drop them off at their neighbors houses and then the neighbors fill the bags with whatever um donations they have and then the students um either get service uh hours or what we call Project points which
009is basically like spe NHS specific service hours and um so they're both incentivized to get um the food drive because of those service hours and also because it's a it's a charity great thank you very much for that yes of course we also have a districtwide dress down on October 30th any other board members Mr White thank you thank you very much for the update um one point that you had mentioned about the PSAT day so I I may be misunderstood it but kind of what I heard you say is uh if you're a senior it's a Readiness day for going to visit colleges and stuff and I think that's great but I also just want to point out that I'm not convinced that college is right for every kid who's graduating from high school
010this year and so um I just want to highlight that and if kids are not going to college I'm sure there's plenty of other things that they could take advantage of with that day um I just don't I don't want anyone to think that success is exclusively equivalent to college and I don't think that's what you meant at all but I'm just highlighting it for anybody who might be listening that's all thank you thank you yeah of course it's completely V any other board members well thank you both welcome um I'm looking forward to hearing all the other highlights you know throughout the year as well too and you guys you know your perspective is really invaluable so thank you very much and you're welcome to stay for the whole meeting please but I know
011you have to prep for the PSAT so you know go home not this year yeah you're done but aren't you tutoring don't you guys have like a tutor thingy do but the other stuff you yeah right right thank you both thank you all right thank you see see you all next month absolutely um our next uh business item are presentations and the first one I would ask if Miss cullinan to present this school partnership award for Highland School good evening I'm honored this evening to talk about the recipient of the school partnership award for Highland School we will be recognizing them tonight Lauren grineer and Beth Rock have been the coaches for The Girls on the Run program at Highland Elementary School since 2022 Girls on the Run inspires participants of all abilities to recognize
012their individual strengths while building a sense of connection in a team setting Beth and Lauren worked closely with the girls on the run organization to get certified and prepare for their first group of girls in 2022 since they introduced the program to Highland they have coached approximately 15 to 20 grade three to six girls each of the past three years Lauren and Beth motivate the girls to do their best as they run two times per week for 10 weeks preparing for the annual 5K Mitten run in addition Lauren and Beth inspired the girls to select and plan a community impact project last year they conducted a b sale for St Jude's where they raised $1,000 Lauren and Beth Inspire the girls to always do their very best and recognize their individual strengths through lessons that
013blend physical activity with life skill development to enable all participants to adapt to whatever comes their way congratulations gives we're thanking you [Applause] all right and our next item of Celebration I think oh miss Robin an Cary if you will thank you good evening I'm honored to recognize this next group at tonight's meeting we will recognize ditt school for being named an outstanding chapter by the best buddies International the doitt program is led by Christina veu and Bri mangerini mangina sorry Matthews this past summer they were recognized at the annual leadership conference in Indiana in a letter to do little principal Amy O'Brien bestbuddies.org wrote each year the best buddies International board of directors takes on the difficult task of selecting outstanding chapters to be recognized with this prestigious honor award winners were chosing based
014on quality of onetoone friendships group outings chapter involvement Community awareness and chapter communication the ditt elementary school chapter went above and be Beyond in each of these areas truly living the mission of best buddies and when I say above and beyond they told me when I entered tonight and was speaking with them that they've had anywhere from 80 to over a 100 students participate in their best buddies program that's above and beyond if you ask me congratulations ladies Del [Applause] our do little principal Miss O'Brien wanted me to pass along how much she appreciates everything that our team does for best buddies and uh unfortunately she couldn't be here tonight because she's under the weather but uh is again very U grateful for everything that you do to support our school community so thank you
015thank you um next item would be audience um if there are any members of the public that would like to address the Boe you may approach the podium also when you go up there you have to state your name and ask address for the record just in case okay well we can move on then um committee reports first up Finance heading off to Mr M oh you're gonna just I was just waiting for the introduction thank you good evening good evening ladies and gentlemen the uh Finance report I think is pretty easy tonight out the board members do have the finance report through September 30th our budget this year is 89,500 so it's pretty smooth sailing right now and we hope that that continues the remainder of the Year I'll just jump right over to
016medical benefits and then I will answer questions if there are any the um report through September 30th for medical benefits is also in the board members package um this month our claims were 1.21 million so just a little above the 1.88 million that is expected each month this year um the good news is the the claims are trending in the right direction you know July was really high at 1.5 million then August was about 1.3 million September about 1.2 million for the month because we received about $150,000 in prescription rebates from sna uh which our ordinary course of business and expected our Reserve balance actually increased this month by 126,595 S million um about 1.64 months worth of claims certainly you know we hope that the trend continues you know downward with our claims back
017to the expected level of 1.88 million so you know right now we're holding um steady with the reserve Reserve balance and that's the medical and finance report for this evening thank you for that Mr masana I have a question about the the prescription drug rebates do those come like I know the stoploss comes more towards the end of the fiscal year but do the um do these reimbursements come throughout the they do they they're on a quarterly basis um this is um part of the program that we have with siga there's actually a guarantee every year for these prescription rebates last year believe it or not we we received about 600,000 in total prescription rebates which was a little bit below the guarantee so part of what's in this 150,000 is the estimate for what
018we'll receive based on that guarantee which is 30 about 35,000 total for the town and board of V and we've received about 2third of that so yes they are expected and and regular unlike stop loss which occurs as the gear progresses great thank you anyone else hi Vin um so the uh 1.21 in claims is that net of the rebate of the rebates no that's actual that's actual gross claims yeah and I we want to report it that way because we're looking at where are we against the 1.18 million expected in claims okay that's why we break it out on the report these are the claims and then up at the Top If we have rebates or stoploss payments that increases the balance but claims are full gross claims thank you yeah um so with
019regard to the discretionary uh being limited to 50% right now if I recall correctly part of the reason for doing that relates to write to read and not to get into a big discussion about that right now but I'm just curious do we have are we at this moment in time expecting costs associated with right to read coming down the pike and say the next 12 months or it's totally uncertain I'm just there is the potential um okay you know we had a productive meeting with SD uh continue to maintain dialogue there and um we hope that they'll favorably review uh the information that we have there won't be a an additional cost beyond what we've already incurred so we're just working with them still but hopefully to be resolved obviously before January and the
020budget season starts so for the for the time being at least we're just holding it at 50% at least in part due to right to read and the uncertainty associated with that not necessarily due to that that is a potential um impact but at this time of year we would probably be holding it 50% anyway yeah uh given the variability that can occur particularly over the winter season so I I wouldn't uh attribute the 50% to right to read but it is certainly a consideration that we have in the process okay all right thank you the board MERS Ben can I just ask a clarifying question um on the bottom here it reads that we're paying for natural gas at market price versus locked in what's the you would think locked in would be a
021bit more attractive because isn't it a particular amount of time that you buying in bulk so to speak I guess so the way that all these Commodities are priced are based on what the market is in the future and we have a consultant that we use to help us with the decision making right so natural gas the forward Market the prices don't look attractive enough to lock in we've been running um at market price for the last four maybe five years right and it has not hurt us by doing so so same way we look at electricity if it makes sense to lock we do based on the forward price ing natural gas has just not been there for us so you know I know again that's always a risk yeah but it's worked in
022our favor the last few years the price of natural gas doesn't fluctuate quite as much as fuel oil or you know diesel for the buses heating oil Etc is there a potential in case something does happen that we can jump into a locked in price pretty quickly and not have to wait for any window to open so to speak no we could lock in at any time yeah we we would just there's a bid process that we use a consultant to to give us pricing gotcha thank you you're welcome I think our next um committee was Personnel um we actually had a very small um not even a quorum so we did discuss um initially some of the superintendent contract items and actually this evening we're going to defer to um the executive session to
023further with those discussions so um not much to really um report out on that we just had preliminary um review of Dr Sol's proposal for his contract and then I mve to policy Mr eki if you can give us some synopsis on each of these policies that you guys had a meeting on okay so we spoke uh on October 7th uh we had a first reading of couple of policies and regulations uh 4.1 42001 51 4544 sexual harassment and title line these um are updates as well as 5114 suspension and expulsion to keep us in line with state law and we don't have a lot of input on those the lawyers have written those and we are going to just push those along those were the uh those were given to us we also uh
024are bringing forth third reading of Transportation um that Luther and Vin and put a lot of time into and we are going to put that forward tonight any question a motion do we have qu questions on any of those all right so I yeah we do need to call for a motion and did you have a question Mr I just wanted to comment before we oh absolutely um on uh Title 9 that's been revised various times and so for those who follow along this is probably the what the fifth Revision in five years or whatever it is and yeah it um where we in what did they call it this time a final rule final Ru course regulations are never really final but anyhow yeah so we're we're definitely uh that this was uh reviewed
025and approved by our attorneys um so this is pretty much a final final as far as it goes right now um and it's cleaned up since the last time which is good um and the suspension expulsion we went through that in pretty good detail um was um a lot of process in there which wasn't there before um and I as Dr Solen uh expressed that the most of it is pretty good except for there were some aspirational parts that we're going to review um next time because I think Dr s you and your staff's going to look at it I suppose um and yeah that's all I have thank you in one brief addition um we are still reviewing a Dei policy that we were uh working on language on that we are when we
026put it together we'll bring It Forward great so the first um I I'm just clarifying that the first the first policy you spoke about sexual harassment title9 and suspension we don't need to have any action because because it's the first read and then this one pertaining to transportation we do need a motion so Dr herin if you like to call with that motion third and final reading to policy 3541 transportation and direct the superintendent to put said poity policy into immediate effect there a second Mr grippo any discussion on the motion Miss cullin discussion on the motion no go ahead Dr I just I just want to say the amount of time that Luther and Vin put into um really efficiently pairing down that um policy I just want to thank you for that all
027that work that went into it and um I feel really good about voting in favor of a policy that that was so carefully gone through so thank you thank you appreciate that Mr White did you have a comment yeah no I'm just wondering did anybody I'm just looking at the list of the five items that I mean I'm aware of it but did anybody read that if I missed it just so people who are watching know what we're talking about with sorry am I jumping ahead we didn't make a motion yet did we I apologize we did it's on the floor yeah okay so I'm trans just a transportation one so has anybody read these bullet points just so people are aware of what's changing rather than just saying it's Transportation policy yeah yeah yeah
028no but you're welcome to if you like I'll do it quickly just yeah thank you uh so the items just some bullet points here with regard to this Transportation policy change the items are clarifying ages for eligibility for school transportation updating walking distance so it is consistent one mile for all elementary students deleting language regarding hazardous walking areas the was not clear for parents it was too broad updating bus route notification no longer mailing out postcards and clarifying available use of seat positions so a student cannot be assigned to both a bus and a daycare at the same time that's it so I I support this um I just wanted to make it clear for people what we were talking about and it just um because we're no longer sending postcards everything's either going to
029be me emailed or posted somewhere on our sites and so forth and it's available to parents on power school as well they can see their students assigned stop in time no save postage thank you any other comments on the five items awesome so is there any other audience um no so um I am going to call for a vote all those in favor of the motion that is on the table it is unanimous thank you motion passes uh next item is there board members who wish to report on any other standing committees no M go oh yeah just uh the possibility of holding a legislative committee or Board of Ed meeting with the legislators do we have a tentative date Dr s or we do not uh that was going to be my report uh
030to talk about that but that's you know that's something that there's an election so it's almost difficult to schedule till you know but I I understand that completely we're going to do that right after the election um because it is good to have as we've done in the past connection to our representatives in Hartford um so we'll we'll try and schedule it for right after the election but uh hopefully we could get on the book sooner rather than later yeah I I guess in my mind I'm thinking about whoever gets elected right exactly whether it's all incumbents or new people coming in that's really the target market exactly from my perspective the people who will actually be there yeah thank you we'll send invites after great thank you any other no okay next item would
031be the approval of minutes from the business meeting held on September 19th as well as the Boe joint meeting with ngbc and that was held on September 26th then we had another joint meeting U with Boe and Town Council on September 30th um and then the open Forum meeting last week on October 10th so if I can please have a motion to approve Mr White please moved at the chesher Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on September 19th 2024 September 26th 2024 September 30th 2024 and October 10th 2024 is there a second Mr grippo are there any additions or Corrections that you may need to make Dr heran yeah U I was just reading over um which one the meeting uh The Joint meeting with the Town Council on September 30th MH
032um there was some discussion from the board of EDS side um about putting together committee and um for naming the new school or possibly schools and I'm just wondering if have we made any formal moves in that direction and how is that going to be done oh we haven't made any formal moves in that direction um I've had some conversations with uh Town manager Kimble about that process but we don't have anything scheduled yet to do that through I don't know if we'd prefer a planning committee um meeting to to do that or if I recall correctly that was the discussion in the joint meeting one of the follow-up questions I had for Mr Kimble was when we would have a subsequent meeting with the council because I don't know that you know it's not
033necessarily our purview to name buildings and to create a process so we wouldn't be able to unilaterally decide that so anything that we came up with as a proposal would still need to be approved by the council anyway so um he and I have had those conversations uh hopefully to have that finalized soon thank you for that because I'm I'm just really in interested in involving the community and especially the school communities in um some of this decision because really I I think the community has more at stake and I just would like to see people get excited about naming a school and um and even having the students be excited about naming the school so um I'm interested in that process really uh taking off but I understand that we have to go through
034the channels so thank you for that I did I did provide Dr s um a suggestion um right after the meeting and we talked about it during the meeting as to what the composition of that the committee members should look like um and also Mr talba is well aware of it so I'm hoping that you know hopefully it can make a couple phone calls and maybe we can kind of expedite at least the establishment of the committee whether it's when our purview or not I would like us to have the voice as well too at the table thank you thank you Mr Right did you have a comment well yeah just to point out if I recall correctly the time frame we're looking at is 18 months so it's definitely move it along but although
035V emphatically said we technically don't have 18 months thought it was 24 he knock it down to 18 months we need six months to make up a sign and put it on the building so you have a year so we got to get going Emme yeah I just I've have have a question um we had some discussion on the parking lot for the school remember we was what $400,000 so the right now I know you were going to check out some other ways that yeah it's funny because um Tom manager Kimble is at a meeting downstairs with the council texting me about a follow-up conversation around that um so as as it's projected in this moment um given the timing of when we're going to open the school and then demo the existing Norton this
036um Miss cullin is talking about the Norton school we would need to put up a temporary parking lot to accommodate everybody at Norton uh till we can do an asphalt parking lot where the existing Norton is now um so there are different strategies that are being considered uh St Becket across the street is um likely to be sold uh Mr masana Mr Kimble myself met with uh father Romans to tour the building um to look at you know would it necessar could it be a potential use for the town Andor District um and so that's what Sean was texting me about now is a potential meeting with the Council next Tuesday uh so we'll talk more about that because that lot would certainly accommodate um but I don't know that we could spend you know
037probably a million plus to just get a parking lot for a temporary basis another um accommodation we were exploring is there's like an auxiliary parking lot near the football field at chesher high school and running a shuttle um for people on that temporary basis until the lot is established uh it's one consideration probably not super popular but a consideration then of course the $400,000 temporary lot which is a lot of money to spend on the temporary parking lot so we're trying to explore I mean that money is built into the budget of the school um but we're trying to explore the most economical and efficient way to get this squared away thank you Mr W did you have another comment yeah just one thought on that that crossed my mind um in terms of St
038Thomas Becket having a parking lot the town I don't know if Sean's considered it but the town could probably start using that next week because my understanding is early voting is going to happen here and it cross my mind that's probably a disaster in terms of parking I could easily see people getting really annoyed if there's not sufficient parking and if something could even happen in relation to that there could be a benefit there just a thought yeah the you know father Rens has been pretty gracious about allowing us to access that lot um and you know you'll see any every day pretty much during dismissal there'll be plenty of cars queued up in that lot waiting for students and stuff so um they've been really gracious about it so hopefully that'll continue There is
039a motion still on the table um can you just read that one more time U Mr White yes okay that's the one you read not sure how we moved anyway uh moved that the chesher Board of Education approv the minutes from meetings held on September 19th 2024 September 26 2024 September 30th 2024 and October 10th 2024 and then I have Mr gripple you seconded the motion thank you no other comments um all those in favor of the motion that is on the table unanimous thank you uh Mr secretary are there any correspondents I have none thank you thank you sir we move on to Dr Solen superintendent report thank you so much Madam chair um there are a lot of items on the agenda for me tonight there's always a lot going on in our
040school system and I just wanted to apprise you of a variety of highlights chesher high school I know this um we've heard you know throughout last year a number of uh conversations about vandalism in bathrooms and um we are trying to clear that up uh the high school is now piloting What's called the securely digital Hall Pass system um other high schools use this in the area Amity Southington and hamon to name a few basically students sign out preferably uh through their Chromebook we're trying to dedicate a Chromebook in the classroom they sign out and they're assigned to the closest bathroom which the system knows how many other students are already assigned to that bathroom who they are you know if we know that you're not supposed to be in the bathroom with another student
041who is aign there it delays your um your trip or um it notifies Hall monitors that who's out and going to each restroom we're trying this in a um small number of classrooms at the time this year we've dramatically limited cell phone use and students aren't permitted to bring their cell phone to the bathroom um in part the hygienic issue and then you know in part um it's really cut back on a lot of meetups uh in time out of class uh all of which has been beneficial so it it's something that we're trying um hopefully to get more feedback from students and uh staff about how that process is working but I'll keep you posted on that one uh just a um effort to improve uh the experience for all of our kids at
042tresure high school keep our bathrooms all open I wanted to pass along some a nice uh email I received from Mr Talbot um Our Town Council chair who was coordinating the class of 1974 reunion at chesher high school and uh he said that I just wanted to thank you and your staff uh who made this such a memorable event this uh uh Friday we had a group of over 20 classmates were greeted at the entrance by Dr Gad and taken Chester High School Tour by Coach Lee and a group of CHS student leaders my class M had a wonderful time seeing the changes uh what hadn't CH and what hadn't changed swapping stories and catching up from there we went down to the football field where athletic director parisino had provided us commander of tickets
043and a coupon for food at the concession stand Dan Le and uh former ad Steve trone helped herd the cats and got us on the field for recognition before kickoff from the public address announcer John also arranged our Tri captains Paul Bowman Joe Hardy and Jim laber to be honorary captains for the game and participate in the coin toss truly special night and I praise uh and the praise I heard about the staff and students was glowing uh several people were commenting on what a great time they had Friday at our Sunday event thank you for kicking off no pun intended our reunion weekend in such a special way um he went on to acknowledge our students um on behalf of his classmates as well as uh recognizing assistant principal Kristen pels for orchestrating a
044lot of this so seem sounds like a a really cool event that they had they had a really nice time I wanted to share that uh earlier today you know Timmy mentioned the trades before uh we've established a relationship with Han Aerospace whose North American uh headquarters are right here in chesher over the last year or so uh this past summer we had students who had had an interest in engineering and Manufacturing uh we had about 20 students tour at Hana so today was really cool um our visiting teachers U from Republic of Korea Mr Yang and uh his counterpart Miss Young they uh came and joined us in some expats uh exp Patriots from um uh hanoa and that are from South Korea is part of that that work uh that they're doing there
045and we had lunch together uh which was really great to connect people uh from the other side of the world with each other but also uh Marlene and I took the opportunity to talk to uh Jamie Rochford who's a treasure High School grad and their HR Director about uh continuing to have more opportunities to visit um we talked about specifically our maybe a middle school trip uh to expose students to the opportunities that exist here in our community and hopefully um Enlighten them about those opportunities before for their selecting classes for high school so that was really exciting today um on October 4th um Mr maiana joined our food service director Erica bietti uh to provide a presentation on our composting efforts uh you may recall that Chapman school was engaging in a pilot CH
046composting program last spring well midwinter to to the end of the school year all schools are required to have composting by July 1 26 and um there is a cost to composting um but thankfully the Town Council and sustainability committee have helped uh fund that it's uh $21,000 for us to engage in this composting program but it's been wildly successful last spring and this year we are also doing it at ditt school and so uh they gave a pretty comprehensive presentation uh I have the Powerpoints here if you want to take a look at them and I'll send out a copy of the PowerPoint um to you via email uh Vin anything you want to add about the presentation or just that it was made to the school business officials at our Workshop meeting and
047the goal was to give them a sense of um what it costs what they need to be prepared for in July of 2026 because all school districts are required to comply if they generate 26 tons or more of compostable material so you know we got good reviews the really the highlight of the presentation has to be the fact that and the reason that the state is doing this is we have a tremendous garbage problem in the state of Connecticut we um have only two incinerators left in the state the others have been shut down and so every day we are hauling garbage from Connecticut down to Ohio to dispose of it at5 $586 cents a ton I I believe so the person from Quantum biodiesel where we're sending out compostables he spoke at length about
048the issue and and what they do it's it's pretty amazing so the the PowerPoint presentation is kind of self-explanatory about what we're doing and and the benefit it does have you know for the environment thank you uh you you want wrate on the compos thing or you want to keep on the compost okay the 21,000 is that per school as we move forward or is that a total so it's for Chapman and doitt this year the bulk of that cost is the ongoing cost of hauling we use blue wart to come and pick up the compostables and deliver them um also included in the 21,000 for doitt is a one-time expense to purchase all the containers that we need and we purchase I believe we're purchasing um seven sets of containers for dittle because the
049key is not to slow the students down when they're ready to leave and we don't want to cut into their lunchtime so efficiency of process becomes really important from a food service perspective but the costs are broken down in that PowerPoint I I like the part where you and I would like to emphasize the part where yeah it costs us money but we are um saving money on the other end where if we're not making as much garbage to haul off then there is some offset there there is thank you thank you yeah just for some context on that You' mentioned it's probably $5 a ton to dispose in Ohio do you happen to know what the costs are is is one of the two incinerators ours in Wallingford when I say RS there's like
050a multi- toown Consortium I I think that one's closed oh that one's done okay and yeah do you happen to do you happen to know what we're paying per ton right now for either of those incinerators here in Connecticut I what I do know Sean Kimbell told me we um cost us about $100 per ton yeah for the trash portion plus we use AJ waste I think everybody knows that we also pay at the schools for each of the pickups that occurs at the school but the that cost is $100 per ton that's what I that's our Offset you know so the alternative cost that we would be paying yeah no and I appreciate that because I hear this about composting and I'm like that sounds great for the environment but it sounds really expensive
051the alternative is also expensive I'm not sure if it's more expensive or less expensive but those prices will continue to increase I'm sure in relation to the incinerators just getting closed um fuel rates can go up and down but we're also talking about Labor driving what 8 hours at least probably one way out to Ohio eight hours coming back the costs are the costs are real and they're significant um but yeah that's what I was guessing it was probably about 100 bucks a ton and I think the town probably about 10,000 tons I'm not sure probably at least 10,000 tons a year um but yeah no I mean I I like I like exploring this because the alternative costs are also really significant thank you it's in the PowerPoint but um at Chapman for um
052a half a year it was almost eight tons of I of um waste stream that went to composting instead of the trash so and that's a school with 380 students so dual little is over 500 so there'll be more the what we will do is continue to report out the cost the amount of waste it's about a half a pound per student per day is what we saw at Chapman we did have free breakfast last year so it'll be interesting to see how those Dynamics change this year and you know that that trekking is really important blue earth does that for us they're the hauler so the items that were going into trash are now going into composting and the the trash cost if we know that's $100 I mean there's a saving inherent well
053that it's about four times more expensive to compost right now but the bulk of that is hauling so if there's we can figure out a way how to get the hauling cost down right right we still won't be comparable but you know it is it is a better outcome the quantum what they do with our compostable materials and they service a lot more than our school obviously servicing a lot of the universities companies BJs they have a whole list but um of the compostable materials about 80% of the compostables are used to generate electricity through the methane composting it's kind of fascinating it's happening right in Southington and the remaining 20% is actually compostables that they sell to Scots so if you buy any kind of compostable materials or fertilizer from Scots it could be
054coming from Quantum and they also they provide some of it for our Greenhouse right now but they do sell the compostables so it's kind of a fascinating you know way to deal with with garbage yeah I'll send you some pictures it's really pretty cool uh the kids know uh there are different color bins that the kids bring their trash and compostable food to they've been educated as to what goes in the composting bin what doesn't and um so they really self sort like we have some good pictures of that we could share with you well that concludes our composting intermission um I just want to make a note compost pictures make sure I don't forget to send you that so um this it feels a lot like uh Republic of Korea weak here at at
055the board but um we are excited at the high school that our science team if you recall last year they came here uh we have a number of groups of students who are engaged in science projects collaboratively with high schools in uh South Korea and um only suu will know if I pronounce any of these things wrong but uh we're they have a cool t-shirt um that they have this year it's the US Korea science partnership and it's uh with chesher high school anonia high school New Town High School hung Science High School Honan Science High School and deu Science High School thanks for not laughing it's got a thumbs up got thumbs up for thumbs up all right I'm in the neighborhood but uh they're really uh thrilled they're EXC we're excited for them
056uh they meet regularly virtually uh with their counterparts from uh the Republic of Korea and it's been a a great you know cultural learning experience and as I mentioned earlier you know the world is is shrinking uh there are a number of folks from Korea who work right here in chesher and uh our kids might be working with them someday so that's kind of cool um I want to remind everybody that we have a community conversation around the anxious generation uh coming up on October 29th uh from 7 to 8:30 at Thorp auditorium at Cheshire High School among the panelists are Dr Allison Bell a pediatrician Dr Penny Ling a q Professor Clinical Psychology uh Kristen Shanley and anmarie winberg to uh chesher Public Schools teachers of the year uh Doug Levens the executive director
057at the cheser Y and I'll be facilitating that uh there's been a lot of interest in this New York Times bestseller um so we're getting perspective from some professionals in our community about that I hope people can make it on the 29th um last but certainly not least I am proud to announce to the Board of Education that we are once again C board uh recognition award recipients uh for this past school year uh so congratulations to everybody on their um the work that they've done as a board of educ to earn that acknowledgement that concludes my report do you have new schools um I could say you know just very quickly with respect to new schools unfortunately we're still waiting on Department of administrative services to uh issue what's called a bid approval letter
058so uh once as far as I know they have everything that they need um we're just waiting on that was the last text I had with Rich synik the other day um waiting that for that to be issued because we'd like to host actually we have a tentatively planned pre-bid walkth through uh at the North End for construction bidding um so that'll be here before we know it and we're about two weeks away uh then from the Norton pre-bid walkth through uh but we're still waiting on those letters from the Department of administrative Services any com comments questions for Dr Solen Mr gripple and then Mr thank you um yeah I mostly just have a comment um so it turns out that people do watch our meetings um their correspondence no um specifically the September
0595th meeting uh where I asked Dr Solen a question and apparently he had the audacity to answer it um um I won't go into much further detail except that it caused a bit of uh excitement in the community and with others and um so uh and Dr suen you don't have to respond to anything I'm saying but I'm glad that you answered the question so that's all I have to say about it thank you any other comment yes thank you um questions probably for Vin uh energia potentially getting a looking at a performance contract getting some work done on our non new schools just any update on that yes um on Wednesday I think it was Wednesday we issued the RFP for the energy performance contract 2.0 as I call it y the um and
060so far we've gotten three firms that have resp responded that they're looking forward to um we have a meeting on October 23rd with all the interested proposers the three firms are ameresco ESG and Johnson Controls and there may be others that um are going to be interested so the RFP is just massive it's online the amount of detail that eneria which is is driving this portion uh the amount of um detail that is being requested by the firms is mindboggling it is available online at our it's actually not on our website it's at the town's website so I was pleased to see that you know three firms responded pretty quickly hopefully there's few more than that amorisco is the firm that did the last energy performance contract for us about 10 years ago so we
061finally did get the ball rolling on that one I know it's taken a long time but we're going no thank you I appreci proposal should be back the due date is in December I forget the exact date okay and just for people who are watching in TV Land the idea is um with a performance contract there's no cash outlay and correct me if I'm wrong on any of this but there's no cash outlay and the basic idea is they give us a light bulb for free and instead of us um paying the electric bill we end up paying them for the light bulb and you take the these measures these energy conservation measures across everything to consider that has an impact on energy which could be light bulbs it could be Windows it could be
062uh solar panels it could be just about anything the proposals come in and we could have thousands tens of thousands of items that are up for discussion about whether it would get incorporated into it and what would make sense but the idea is one of the key Parts is we basically don't have to put money out spend spend money they do it without that um and just to be clear on it the town is the town's on board they basically put their 200,000 square fet into it and said tell us what you tell us what you offer us it's all Town buildings and all school buildings except for the three buildings that are coming offline will be included as part of the study okay uh and obviously one of the components that is spelled out
063in the RFP is that any con School Construction Grants or any other grants any funding opportunities from ever source as incentives and also any uh opportunities from the IRA the um inflation reduction act those would all be considered as part of the overall financing package thank you any other questions or comments for Dr San okay we're going to move on U there aren't any old business do you have old business can I bring up something that has we've used uh this platform in the past to take a minute to just remind people of the chesher food drive coming up can I just do that um reminder for the food drive the 51st annual chesher food drive is the weekend of November 2nd and 3D uh from 9 to 3 on the First Congregational Church green
064everybody knows where that is everybody knows we have this food drive and uh I just want to encourage everyone to parchas ipate in this townwide event by donating food for the pantry money for the food voucher program or time spent on the green over the weekend helping to organize donations any questions go to www. cheser Food drive.org thank you and that's usually facilitated by former board member um Marina Soo right thank you Marina wherever you are great um again no old business I do just have a couple comments in the chair's report um first I do just kind of want to piggyback off of what Mr gripple said about the the Genesis of why we had the meeting um with the joint meeting with the Town Council and I I just want to say I
065did appreciate your questioning and appreciate your response Dr Solen I think we were in a position of there was some miscommunication out there or misinformation and we were left to not have some sort of response to the public and and obviously that meeting I personally learned you know the appropriate way to ask certain questions um and I learned a few things like there's actually a stairwell over here somewhere so um again I I understand where you're coming from I had the same question um so I think we've clarified enough at this point how do we move forward if we had those particular types of misunderstandings or questions so I I think the town counc and the chief and everybody that was present um to provide us with the information um the other item I just
066want to and he's not here and I wish he was but we had a quite a celebration for Mr Jeff right if you can kind of give us a quick what happened seemed pretty awesome yeah well uh Mr Jeffrey the principal at Highland School is the Connecticut public schools uh principal of the year and he was uh recognized in Washington DC this past weekend um if you follow my Instagram account which where's the membership up to is it super chesher chesher super something um sorry um and that's something I've it always mix it up because the Twitter one is reversed that I don't use anymore but anyway um there are pictures there of him in DC he was talking to our admin team about it yesterday that you know he had to give a just
067a quick speech to the group on how exciting it was and black tii event and it was really cool down in Washington um and he deserves all of that recognition now next Thursday we have a special dinner in his honor hosted by the Connecticut Association of schools along with uh other administrators being acknowledged for their work across the state uh so we're looking forward to celebrating him there I think we have a pretty large contingent I think it's 31 people going um supporting him so it'll be fun um certainly he's earned that acknowledgement we're we're excited for him thank you Dr son I just want to say congratulations for the record to him he's not here I would not be attending that so um again definitely welld deserved and you know his dedication and Leadership
068have obviously truly made a difference in the school and just in our community as a whole um the other uh I I want to also officially congratulate uh Emily welcome aboard thank you for being here being our one of two audience members for us so welcome um any any comment for your first couple weeks not yet not yet the honeymoon is still in effect that's a good sign good job man so just want to say welcome that's all um and then lastly we have some meeting dates coming up but I do want to our next meeting is until after election day so I just want to say to the public please please vote um don't forget I think early voting starts next week on the 21st October 21st yeah so if you can't do early
069voting please definitely show up to the traditional site um and call the town to figure out where your um where your voting sites are um because election is just your opportunity to make a difference so so definitely um come and cast your ballot for sure and then our upcoming meetings are um Monday October 21st which is also early voting day we will have a curriculum committee meeting um at humiston boardroom and then Monday November 4th we have a policy meeting both of those are at 7 o'clock actually all of these um up until our business meetings are at 7: November 7th we have a high school showcase at chesher high school and then November 11th is another curriculum meeting at homon boardroom and then our um Boe business meeting is on November 21st here at
070Town council chambers couple dates for the public schools in general November 5th is professional development um because it is election day so no school for the kiddos though um and then November 19th is the superintendence awards dinner and November 28th to 29th is Thanksgiving break and then we move to December 23rd to January 1st 2025 will be our winter break and then January 20th um Martin Luther King Jr day um I believe that is all for meeting dates and um I just want to say to Tim um I feel as though you know behind the scenes I want to thank marleene because a couple weeks ago I actually bumped into her at a manufacturing Summit and I know that she's working hard just the administration's working hard to find alternative Pathways for our kiddos so
071outside of college you know there are other careers and I know we're we're working to add those into our um package of offerings so thank you Marlene and I was excited so I know you had yeah it was it was awesome day and I learned a lot of how much was made in Connecticut so we're we're working towards you know building more opportunities so thank you all of you um and with that we are um I need a motion to adjourn into executive session to discuss the superintendent's evaluation as well as the EAC contract Please Mr gripple um motion uh make motion to go into executive session to discuss superintendent evaluation and EAC contract to include Dr Solen and anyone else Mr maiana and that's it okay is there a second Mr eki second um
072is there any action to follow no action to follow thank you for the clarification all those in favor for adjourning into executive session unanimous we are adjourned thank you