001here here thank you please stand for the pledge allegiance flag United States awesome up next we have two stars and I was just Star Struck when I saw News 8 I believe Dr Solen it was wow so I'm GNA pass it to our stars of the show Ella Paul and Andrew Elliott to report away please all right thank you so um there's been a lot going on in May so far even though we're about halfway through it and we've still got a ton ahead of us even though there's less than a month school left so first um the Career and Technical education classes have been going on a ton of field trips uh for about three hours during the middle of the day these trips were to Hartford Wallingford and most recently Waterberry they're very
002educational and oriented towards students prepared to enter a trade or career in engineering manufacturing or architecture on Friday next week British literature classes are holding the future Festival this is um which I'll be participating in a culmination of a year's Long work dating back to the end of last year when we were when students were given um a book to read whether it was 1984 by George Orwell or Al this huckle's Brave New World students were assigned to topics involving utopian and dystopian societies set in 2050 and the task was to show off what everyone's view um of society will look like in 2050 and connecting them to today's world and comparing the both of them in of creative way and various classes are invited to come throughout the day to view what everyone is
003doing and obviously all of you are invited to come check it out um AP exams have been going on since last Monday there's been a lot of preparation and anticipation for these as they can determine for some students college credit opportunities and finally on Monday May 20th uh CHS will hold the post High School shirt day uh this day is usually on May 1st which is the college deadline but since deadlines have been moved and there's been a lot of field trips exams and other scheduling conflicts we moved it to May on Monday May 20th and we also organized a picture of the entire senior class with their shirts on um these shirts can show whether you're going into a trade to college going straight to the workforce the military and um whatever else there
004is out there and this will be a good way to encapsulate the moment with everyone showing off their plans whatever they may be so like Andrew said first of all hi everyone and second of all there is so much going on at chure high school so much excitement um last week the unified classes had two awesome opportunities on Friday May 10th first we had an author visit she wrote the book planet earth is blue which is written from the perspective of a non-verbal student with autism and it was a really great opportunity for students in the high school to hear her perspective of writing this book to give a voice to a marginalized population and then the unified classes came in and did a workshop about building their own book character and practicing their public
005speaking skills and then that night there was the unified theater show which kind of had an out of this world theme and everyone got to they the groups wrote their own scripts and performed their parts and moving on we have had lots of field trips recently with it being getting close to the end of the war um the year the Italian group went on a trip to tra galinis a restaurant in New Haven the unified group went to downtown Cabaret in preport I actually went on this trip and lots of our teachers and administration came kind of as a recognition of all of the unified classes that go on throughout the year so any student that participates in a unified class was invited and we had a great group the show was Cinderella and the
006unified students loved it a lot of them fell asleep on the bus ride home it was a really really great event um moving on to some of the other ones we have our ECE health and education and urban communities class going to volunteer at a food pantry tomorrow to get kind of an inside view on what go goes on in communities close to us that might be struggling they did a food inventory at Big Y recently and now they're going to see the differences between what it looks like here in Treasure versus F food insecurities in the inner cities and lastly coming up the week after next the music groups are going on an optional trip to go see Back to the Future on Broadway I'm very excited to go on this trip um also
007we had senior prom last weekend which was so much fun we had the whole senior class and some very enthusiastic and awesome teacher chaperon come to be with everyone at Arya and it was a blast we also have a lot of other opportunities for seniors this week to recognize everything that we've been through at cheser high school and the accomplishments first of all we have Awards night on the 21st which is actually the same day that students for one of the first years in chesher are being offered to take a biliteracy exam in multiple languages so that's an exciting step that if students pass this exam they can get a stamp on their diploma which is a really great opportunity for future job Seekers and students to place into college courses for languages in college
008and we also have the honor cord ceremony on Friday the 24th which is another great way to recognize student accomplishments in specific Department areas and also next week we have B1 day which is kind of a really special event that's been going on at cheser high school for a long time to focus on bringing the Community together and participating in a lot of activities to kind of build that atmosphere and this year we're trying a new program where we have two days worth of kind of sentimental activities leading up to our culminating field day on the last day and those two activities will be one the video where people are talking about how to make chesher High School a more inclusive and community-driven place and the second one is focusing on ways to give back
009to the teser community so there will be community building activities like making tets for local animal shelters um bracelets and letters to send to people in nursing homes or in children's hospitals and planting flowers outside for a garden that will be maintained by the life student life skill student classes and that is about it wow It it's a busy time of year it's actually my favorite time of year but it's also an emotional time of year especially this year any board members have any comments for our student reps Mr gripple just wanted to say you guys look great on TV I know thank you thank you fabulous well awesome go ahead and do your thing and we're going to see you don't go too far right okay um but we'll see you again obviously June
0106 sadly last time all right on to well Dr son all your as you're presenting the cave student leaders y good evening everybody thanks for that warm welcome um the the suspense is getting everybody that's what it is so uh I am as uh Miss Rosenberg said very excited to share this evening with you some special awards that we have for students in our community each year the cab student leadership awards cab stands for Connecticut Association of boards of Education the cab student leadership award program includes seventh and eighth grade students along with high school students who exhibit exemplary leadership skills two students from each School in a cab member district are eligible to receive the cab student leadership award School principles are asked to connect with their staff and solicit names of special students
011who exhibit leadership skills based on the following criteria willingness to take on challenges capability to make difficult decisions concern for others ability to work with others willingness to commit to a project diplomacy ability to understand issues clearly and ability to honor a commitment so high standards for young adults and as such we are thrilled to recognize four very special students here tonight uh and I would ask that after I read all the names if you could come up to the podium we have certificates for you and we'll take some pictures to share on social media so from DOD Middle School Armen Movic I hope I said that right and Shams aay God and from CHS Ella Paul and Andrew Elliot congratulations guys come on up spe [Applause] B [Applause] next item is our reports on
012our standing committees um oops hold on I skipped a little ahead it's actually our consent calendar so I'm going to pass this to Dr herrian I really skipped ahead before we go to the consent calendar are there any audience members that would like to go to the podium and speak congratulations guys have a good evening no seeing no audience members to the podium we're going to move on now I'm going to pass this over to Dr herin for the consent calendar I believe we need a motion right just a motion just a motion hold on to read just a motion you got it yep I move that the chesher Board of Education approves the consent calendar as presented you have a second Mr perini and then take a vote all in favor it's unanimous motion
013has passed and Carol has my signed copy with her okay next I'm going to uh amarie for the curriculum committee report thank you the last um committee meeting of curriculum was held on Monday uh May 13 2024 and we have three items to discuss this evening the first being an approval of an outof country field trip um this field trip does require Board of Education um approval because it's an out-of country trip accordingly the chesher high school teacher uh Miss Barker has requested permission to take students to Soul South Korea in November of 2024 the superintendent does recommend approval of this request and I'd like to give you just a little bit more information on it um there will hopefully be 10 students um in addition to visiting historical sites the participating students will present
014their research to a Korean team at one of the local schools um they will have an opportunity to visit schools in South Korea and obviously to do some sightseeing um the cost of the trip is $4,290 which right now looks a little bit um steep we have a few students who are interested um in it and we hope that once it's approved by the Board of Education parents will be more um in included to um allow their children to participate we're looking for 10 students and um there is possible options for for us to partner with other schools this again is a program as part of Aces International 2024 United States Korea research and education collaborative are there any questions that myself or Marlene can answer for you how many do we have now if
015what's that how many interested parties do we 10 well is itated for 10 handle up to 10 right now we have one or two um who've expressed some interest and here's some additional information if anyone is interested in viewing it um if you recall earlier this fall uh Miss Barker was here with students that were talking about their research and Vin was sharing some of his knowledge and um the that same that's the same program that wants to go to Korea any board members have questions comments no nope so we do we do the motion here first or you want to keep going the motion is that the chesher Board of Education improve the participation of Cheshire high school students in the educational field trip to so South Korea from November 16th 2024 to November
01623rd 2024 is there a second Dr heran all in favor of the motion it's unanimous motion passes thank you the second discussion at our um curriculum meeting on Monday um was a executive summary by the science chesher curriculum Council um they presented a summary of The Five-Year curriculum review that was shared with the full um CCC in March the theme of the presentation was to bring the Next Generation science standards into the now so they actually crossed off the next and put put now generation science standards the committee emphasized the overlap between the expectations and the ngss um and the district priorities around complex thinking social emotional learning um and the district definition of high quality instruction also shared some data with us around the ngss assessment um we showed areas of strengths and some
017areas of need so the priorities for future work include fully aligning Curriculum maps units with the ngss standards and including pacing guides um articulated content practices and Concepts and facing out the TCI as an elementary resource and reviewing Pathways into the courses that are offered um in the high school any questions it was a very um thorough review and Well Done by the science chesher curriculum Council questions from board members Mr gripple um before I ask the question our budget meeting from last week that was not executive session right no okay I just want to repeat before I ask the question because so um Miss Solano uh you made a statement about when we were talking about adding in the uh the stem program how there was going to be sort of a realignment of
018the science standards so this program that you reviewed sort of went over how that is going to be incorporated and how there's going to be adjustments made or is that sort of the gist of what happened um I have to say that the the presentation from the Department really did not touch on the science coaches because that was not something that was um a for sure while they were going through this process so they were they were really reviewing their curriculum their scope and sequence where the alignment was what instructional practices needed to shift what sort of resources they would need so the name change is it a name change or is it a new um I don't I don't I guess new curriculum or is it a new uh because you had you had
019mentioned that what we had before was sort of a stop Gap and now we're sort of moving into a more of a thorough understanding of what we need to do yeah I think when the science standards came out it took it's taken quite a lot of training and understanding to make sure that people not only can understand what those standards are but that can apply them I think um TCI is a resource that we years ago before I was in in central office position we had purchased um as a stop Gap measure teachers wanted a resource felt they needed something to get them through we didn't think it was the best resource but it was the best thing that we had at the time and so they recognize that and are ready to phase that
020out I believe that the science coaching positions that we're going to put in um that is going to help phase out the TCI because these folks will be working hard at some other areas of incorporating the standards and so it will make it easier to not rely on TCI anymore thank you any other comments from board members Miss Lano what what's the acronym stand for oh gosh it's it's it's a company name um something teachers no yes it is Teachers College interal it's just the name of the company the brand yeah the resource we're using I'm glad to see well we're within the fiveyear review cycle anyways and then we're just updating and elevating our programming teachers curriculum curriculum okay I think what we saw um in their executive summary was a real through line
021from kindergarten all the way through to 12th grade so I think once the coaches do come in they'll be able to assimilate into the structure that was shared with us on Monday thank you well Mr will the uh the new program will that be an offshoot will it fit into the new curriculum that we're implementing or is it just going to be a separate its own entity no it won't be its own entity the vision for this is really to bring in two positions that serve as both a coach and a teacher and that teacher will get into the classroom and co- te with a current fourth and fifth grade teacher so that they'll be really elevating and helping you have somebody to partner with on science and the coach will be able to take
022some of the lift off doing some of the leg work and the setup and organizing those materials and really we're seeing this person as a resource to help with that so if we started in fourth and fifth grade and really build capacity around our fourth and fifth grade teachers to teach science we're not sure how long that will take but then we could move to a different grade level so it will be sort of like hand and glove with with what we've got it will will not be separate it will be in addition to um and eventually replace some of the old practices thank you you're welcome so there was no old business but there is some informational items yes so I shared with the curriculum committee that our um our evaluation committee met or
023was sharing with them on Monday that we were meeting yesterday and so the team the committee met and we really put into onto paper a lot of our plans for the evaluation for next year because as I've shared with this group before teacher evaluation in Connecticut is changing there are new guidelines part of those guidelines eliminate the rating scale of teachers and um there's also gives us a lot of freedom to really stretch our thinking and to focus on teacher growth around pedagogy and so we we've been in this process for two years I'm looking forward to the committee presenting at the next curriculum committee meeting our final product the curriculum committee with their blessing then would bring that to the board for your final blessing at which point we would submit that to the
024State Department of Education for approval the the group overall is very excited about the possibilities we have for growth the possibilities for collaboration peer feedback learning walks and really teachers driving their own learning and have having a eony about where they want to grow in line with our district objectives around complex thinking and social emotional learning and we see this as a way to truly bring to life our definition of high quality instruction across the district so we talked about um the um a teacher evaluation plan we also shared a little bit about our plans for CWI for the summer and lastly talked a little more in-depth about the science teacher science coach positions um brought everybody up to speed we did post those two anticipated positions this week and I I'm already Fielding lots
025of phone calls and emails from internal staff as well as external folks any questions from members of the board Dr heran Define Lots spoke to someone today yesterday or hundreds no not dozens not dozens I would say I've had probably five conversations um in the last in the 24 hours with internal people who had had more had more questions about you know certifications and what it would look like and what the schedule might be but but per the contract we're only allowed to publish it internally among our teaching staff for five days after that we can publish it outside so those responses are just from the people who work for us and we do plan to publish it outside yeah we have two openings it's uh when we want to make sure we cast the
026broad net for this great thank you anyone else anything else Amry great thank you on to our finance committee Dr herrian thank you um so I'll be reporting on our finance committee meeting of the whole held on May 9th so basically during this meeting uh we needed to Dr Solen reported to us that the Town Council had adopted a budget that reduced our budget proposal by 525,000 um and if possible we wanted to look at two scenarios and they were presented to us one in retaining the new stem program that we've been talking about tonight uh with the two coaches and um and one that didn't um after wow lots of discussion I would say yeah and um going over sort of those positions in some detail lots of questions asked and answered um we
027also looked at other line items that um Mr Mariana and Dr Solen had put together to um to you know different line items where we could uh see where we could reduce uh our initial budget a little bit more I think it's important to note to everybody listening that this budget process comes to us pretty early in January and we get a number that then goes over to the Town Council and has to fit into the town budget um a lot happens between January and April and um we expect some movement and we get more information as we do go through the months closer to the end of the fiscal year [Music] um we decided to bring to the full board a proposal that we will be putting forth tonight and I have a question
028does the proposal need to have the line items not for this motion not for this motion oh we were hoping Adam would read the line for us we did that at the at the budget meeting so apparently we don't have to do it tonight okay so um with that I would ask for the motion thank you um uh moved that the board treasure Board of Education approve an operating budget for the fiscal year uh 24 2024 2025 of $89 m542 69 as appropriated by the Town Council representing a reduction of $525,000 from the board of education's approved budget is there a second Mr Aki comments vote to approve all in favor of the motion it it's unanimous motion passes thank you everybody that was lots of good work to get to where we PA from
029January yes yes um next I am throwing some information over to Mr Mariana to report thank you if you wouldn't mind thank you Dr harrian good evening members of the board I I do want to say that the budget process begins in October for some of us so just wanted to get that out there and we have just one more revision to make to the budget book so so we'll be done in miday the finance report for this evening the board members do have it in their package the the finance report itself is pretty straightforward this evening not a lot has changed since we reported last month in the report through April 30th um we expect to close the budget in a in a very balanced format on June 28th that's when the board meeting
030is to make the the uh approval of the final entries we are in the midst of a meeting every two weeks as we you know get closer and closer to June 28th we have a long list of summer projects and request for purchases that uh we've received from the principals and the department heads and we're working through those and those will be entered in in May and June as encumbrances so that we could complete our summer projects and make our purchases over the summer just two things that I did want to point out that are in the body of the written report one is that special education outplaced tuition the we last month were over budget by 480,000 and that picture improved in the April report will be over budget by about 305,000 is the
031projection at this point and the reason is that we did have one student that was outplaced that actually moved out of district and so we were able to release the funds that had been previously encumbered so that that does help us um as we balance the budget and then for the Food Service program um as we close the year it looks like we'll we'll be at $20,000 that will'll pay to the Food Service program for the unpaid balances that we haven't been or haven't been able to col collect from parents of students um as I had been reporting you know throughout the year I thought that balance would grow more but with the work that our food service staff has been doing to just remind parents that they owe payment we've held it at 20,000
032so that's about what I expect will be closing the year out um and then we we can continue to try and collect those balances over the course of the summer the um I think that's it for this portion of the report before I move to medical benefits so if there's questions I'll be glad to take them and can I just ask especially for the food balance like some of our seniors that may owe is their process or any risk to them not participating in anything that because of it or no no okay there was nothing we could do to um you know you know withhold giving them their diploma as an example that is just not permitted you know so what we do is we you know take every step we can to try and
033collect those balances you know on the other side of the coin and it's not going to offset 20,000 but some of the graduating seniors that have funds left in their food service account we notify the parents and they actually can donate that money to the Food Service program you know which we then can use to help offset some of the unpaid balances just speaking from that parent who forgets to go on my you know impa there there's plenty of reminders so we won't let you forget for too long you know where I am anybody and Dr herri yeah I wonder if anyone can either you VIN or Jeff can you speak to um my understanding is that the legislature is has passed now um taking that reduced lunch to all of it being free lunch
034yeah that's my understanding that if through this latest budget process like I haven't seen the finalized Governor signed laws yet but my understanding is that if you qualify for reduced lunch that you will be now provided free lunch so what kind of an impact does that have on our budget do you think was 160 kids there's 130 kids in chesher it actually doesn't doesn't impact us doesn't impact our budget um because we get we get paid fully for those reduced lunches and there's a whole claim process but doesn't hurt us at all if if that well we know the legislation passed the governor has 15 days I believe to sign the legislation and if he takes no action it's automatically approved so we do anticipate that will pass um and then in line with that
035this year breakfast was free for all students that's not the case next year so next year the only funding that the state is providing is to take students who are eligible for reduced and they are now being subsidized by the state and they won't pay anything at the counter which I don't know to me it's a step forward so yeah and just as a point of clarification outside of the school lunch stuff that with respect to holding uh diplomas or anything like that the law does allow school systems to um impose sanctions against pup who pups who damage or fail to return textbooks Library materials or other educational materials but not school lunch money so if you blow out your Chromebook we can hold it you know but for school lunch money we can't thank
036you Mr gripple um I don't know if you just answered this question Vin or it jarred my memory but uh someone had asked me can parents pay additional monies into the um school lunch program to help alleviate the balance like to to make a donation because obviously the the people who aren't paying their balance are most likely suffering some sort of financial hardship can parents in the school system make a do make donations to help pay down the balance is owed for those other families well what I said that they can do at the end of the school year if there's a balance remaining they have a a positive balance remaining in their account they could donate that to the school and and we would use that to offset non-payment of other students but if
037they want to just send a check for $100 towards the Food Service program that's not something that we've done when that's set up for that just the donation of unspent funds in a students's lunch account but is that is that a matter of so let's say I had a $50 balance in in my son's lunch account is at the end of the here does something come out to say where I can check a box and say would you like to donate that is that how it would go exactly the way it works so that would all right that's and we do you know a lot of parents do donate the funds back instead of us writing a check and sending to that sending it to them from the Food Service program are we selective as
038to who we offset though well it we just take let's say we're GNA write 20,000 we're going to pay the Food Service program 20,000 um we actually would if there's $4,000 that food service program wants to allocate we would actually only pay them $16,000 but we don't apply to specific students student accounts well it just comes out of our operating budget correct yeah thanks man next item just as so just to followup so if someone wanted to do that they would have to do that before June 30th or like does that check box show up at some particular date no they could do it until they make a decision because that balance stays in their students lunch account until they tell us I'm donating it or until I want a check they just carry over
039until next year yeah right if they have a graduating student though they there may not be any use for the funds but if they don't spend it and they have a student in the system it does carry over okay all right thank you you're welcome minimum wage Vinnie do you want to oh no that's been in there I'm just I've just been carrying it that's that is built into what we've expended this year and Tim's not here to ask about the energy prices so we can move on anything else an beyond that I believe Mr Mr masan is going to go on to the um medical benefits yes I will so this month April the claims were 1, 281,000 so about um 81,000 higher than our budget of 1.1 million however if you're looking at
040the report and you look at the top section you'll see that stoploss reimbursements year-to date are 337,000 and that increased from last month's 67,000 so we received an an additional 275,000 in stoploss for large claims and so the net result is for the month of April our Reserve balance actually increased 78,000 and so as we end April our Reserve balance is 1.999 million about 1.82 months worth of claims so I know I've said this you know to the board members before but I'm always happy when we receive stoploss reimbursements because it helps increase our balance the problem with that is I'm currently on the board of CT Prime and we're going through the renewal for next year and the renewal is not looking very good for the other for all of us that are CT
041Prime members which includes you know eight other municipalities and Boards of Ed so it's always Bittersweet for me we're getting stop-loss reimbursements but then you know we have to pay in terms of higher premiums in in the next renewal and that's what we're in the midst of the renewal for CT Prime this year our performance has not been um negative at all but we do have quite a few of the members this year that their losses exceed the premiums that they paid and that's not that unusual that's happened to us in several years since we've been with CT Prime but it is a you know a trend that's not only in municipalities but um in in corporate plans as well where you know we're seeing extraordinarily High claims you know increasing those stoploss payments and
042increasing the stoploss premiums and you know there doesn't seem to be anything that we can do other than shop um look at our plans make adjustments to the plans the the cost related to Services when someone is very sick um or has some kind of surgical procedure or is having some type of joint replacement is it's that cost continues to rise so we're dealing with it as best we can you know we did build a 15% increase into next year's budget for a stoploss premium increase I think we'll be above that but we're not done negotiating that that'll take place through the rest of this month into early June and sorry for that bad news but that is the medical benefits report you got to tell it like it is yeah well I was thinking
043though maybe we can have L Paul do the medical benefits report in the future because she makes everything sound really happy and bubbly I I just can't do that singing well you know I think that's a fabulous idea uh anything else Finn that's it thank you very much thank you that's it an I just can I just make one more comment Y if you want mind um I uh neglected to make this comment during our our uh motion for Budget reduction but I wanted to thank Mr masana uh Dr Sol and your staff for being able to find those uh reductions but also being able to uh fund that that stem program that we wanted from the beginning uh because we know that's that's important to do so uh thank you for that yeah I
044think I didn't make that very clear so thank you for bringing that up Adam um Miss Solano Grant activities for yes so in your pack sorry thank you in your packet you have a listing of all of the yearend grant reports there are two columns one for last year and one for the 2324 school year so I'm going to walk you through that and give some examples and a general overview of what these Grant funds are used for so if we start with Title One funding that supports K through One support staff at Darcy in dittle that is mostly used for salaries and Staffing we also used $110,000 this year in Reading supplies which the teachers were ever so grateful for in title two teacher support most of that goes for salaries including defraying the
045cost of a curriculum coach we spent about $1,000 in supplies we also spent money on Consultation Services around getting social emotional learning into academics you've heard us talk about um Mike Anderson as someone who we respect and teachers value getting coaching from title three which is about English language Learners and there's also an immigrant portion of that Grant about $10,500 has been spent on professional development and coaching from an ases consultant who's provided both teachers and administrators with um learning around helping multilingual learner students but also on culturally responsive classroom practices about $1,000 has been spent on multilingual learner supplies you know novels and books that students of different languages um might be reading um translation dictionaries things of that sort to help support them we've also defrayed the cost of the summer multilingual learner
046immersion program that we offer here um in the summertime within title four which is for student support an academic enrichment Grant we have defrayed the cost of some of the consultation for the curriculum writing Institute and we're able to pay for a a number of teachers salaries to attend that in the summer in the Perkins grant money is spent on training and conferences we did send a teacher to the inovative School Summit in New York City this year pays the cost of the stien for the FBLA advisor and the DECA advisor also supports the business department with curricular updates and some curricular revision we have sent folks to professional development courses we've spent about $3,500 on transportation for field trips you heard Andrew Elliot talking about the many trips that students have been on recently
047around town for um well not in and around town but outside of town as well both for the trades um and for career related activities we've spent a great deal of money on supplies and equipment things for the digital media course like Nikon cameras and Equipment um for robotics for Motors and sensors lots of money spent on manufacturing equipment and supplies we bought a 3D printer um supplies for the engineering and CAD course we've really that that's a very nice Grant and um we've really gotten a lot of mileage out of that it's really helped afraid a lot of the cost of the um expensive equipment that we have in use at the high school um let's move on to the idea Grant as you can see that's one of our larger grants at over
048a million dollars we probably are spending nine over 980,000 on salaries in that category we spent about 13,000 in inservice training if we look at the preschool handicapped grant that is paying for a prek special ed teacher it also pays for consultation evaluation for things such as speech and language services that we need to provide for parochial and private preschools if you look at the transition Support Services money in that category is spent on field trips technology equipment we have um residents dorms at qu that we help our students who are in that transition program and it def phrase the costs associated with expenditures there if we look at um adult education that includes funds that we pay to Wallingford now that Wallingford is providing our um providing for our mandated programs and in the
049PEC Jones funds you've I know heard us speak often about updating classroom libraries with appropriate texts this year we were spending that money on grade two and grade three classrooms and then in our Smart Start program that is paying the cost of the uh salaries associated with the Smart Start program so just an overview for you I'm happy to take any questions questions from board members Mark and an this is my first time through this but with the number of salaries that we're paying with these grants are these grants recurring this is something that we're going to get year to year that's going to be there for us these are very common grants these are year-over-year grants we're not always using them for the same salaries but they they certainly hope to fray the cost
050yes yeah are these worked into our operating budget this is outside of the operating budget thank you just off of what Ann was asking do we take like we have the 3D printer out of one of the grants but the consumable items come from where though to replace especially with the ink and whatever you know we need yeah that the when I look at that Perkins Grant it is inclusive of so many things so it's everything that goes into the the use of the 3D printer when that is expended either we would need to pay that of the operating budget or we would need to request it from Perkins the following year so it kind of depends Sam on what the things are and yeah thank you sure any other comments from board members no
051so I have a call for a vote to approve the grants no oh okay I'll just add that these are entitlement grants the ones I've talked about are not the ones that are competitive grants that we look towards so thank you Adam um so the grants um that you that we have that are recurring do you have to make an application every year for these yes every year so good job to you and your staff for making sure we keep the money flowing right thank you it's a team effort for sure yeah you do have to trigger it with like an intent to apply early before the new year though Perkins at least yeah Perkins you have to trigger intent to apply yep thank you um we're on to policy Mr Aki thank you um
052policy committee met on uh May 6th we spoke at length on our equity and diversity policy we are we have a we're value winning uh a lot of the language and implications of that language um that Dr Solen has shared with all of us we're still in a first reading on that because we changed uh I believe we changed a significant part of it so that is still uh on our first reading um we have a transportation we spoke about uh changing our transportation policy policy updating it eliminating some some sections um do we want to spend more time talking about that or Dr Solen could you just tell everybody where they can read all these updates sure so if you log on to the Board of Education page on the chesher Public Schools page
053um there's a policy section directly at the top of that section right in the middle it says policies under consideration for the 23 24 school year and then it's got each month's agenda so you can click on things if you want to go early in the year things that have already been adopted or if you want to go on to our most recent um reading the meeting the various policies are linked right there so you can see really where we've made changes in them strike out everything is right there very publicly available for folks to read thank you and uh we spoke about the adult continue education policy in the second reading um again clarifying some some of the language in there um but no major changes since the first reading questions or comments from
054board members Mr gripple um I first wanted to comment on the the transportation policy I think a lot of the changes there were are worthwhile and that um perhaps uh um new and current parents should probably review it because there's some decently big changes in there some simplify a lot of things and um some may have an a direct impact potentially um I don't know if we'll have it in well we might have it enforce for September or I don't even know how that would work EXA if that would take take effect for next year but because we'll have the the second meeting for June June so should yeah we might want to just publicize cut I will I will add that the policy changes I don't anticipate it's it's going to change anything that
055we're already doing so we're not going to move you know the lines of Transportation that's not the intent we just want the language of the policy to line up you know with with some reality so I don't anticipate if that policy pass is changing any of the routes or the any of the walking distances so I just I did want to get that out there so for for the most part because since we're changing everything to one mile essentially at least for K through six um that's sort of in practice already for the most part so it just sort of alleviates conf confusion and conflict that may arise for next year right right all all issues sent well years over basically so they've all been s solved already I guess and the thing the the
056policy those are maximum walking distances you know so a mile for elementary a mile and a half for middle and high school those are maximums just generally speaking we're well below those maximums and we apply the policy you know quite reasonably for all parents so now just to clarify were you guys sending out postcards cuz I know that's a big change right that we're going to email we haven't been sending postcards for a couple that still policy we're doing them correct yeah we've been sending emails the last probably three years at least instead of doing mailed postcards but we would put in the Herold social media things that the emails coming so people know to expect it um yeah and lastly uh the equity policy uh we spent a significant amount of time probably I
057don't know at least 45 minutes an hour at our last meeting revising the policy and uh I know that um uh we uh did pause the uh first reading for additional feedback from the board and I wasn't sure if there was any additional feedback I will say I do like that you did spend a lengthy amount of time on the discussion and and I appreciate too that especially like Tony gave us suggestions on where to go to for clarification from cave um so I like thus far what you guys have done Amry did you have anything else add so that one you guys are going to moveed for a second read is that where we're at with that after the next policy committee okay yeah Goa any other comments Mr Roy for policy oh I
058think we're good hey thank you thank you we're on to outstanding committees um Mr perini do we have any cave announcements uh not really uh I had mentioned informally couple meetings ago that uh there's a Foya case uh being uh discussed uh ruling has been made there's going to be a um a case I guess court session on May 22nd long story short um it may have depending if the foil ruling stands it will have implications for Board of EDS and how we enter into executive session when we invite a superintendent uh it's it's a really weird situation it was so weird that um both cave and caps wrote a joint Amicus brief and have petitioned to be a um intermediary in the case so uh we'll we'll by time we meet in June we'll
059prob some clarinets uh but nothing we have to necessarily worry about just it's makes things a little harder for us for executive session which I don't understand uh and I I didn't attend the legislative wrap-up session yesterday from cave so I expect Patrice or um someone will send us a summary Everything Has Changed Jeff that someone probably already knows but other that no it's been kind of Qui since legislation kind of died down but thank you for asking thank you um actually Dr s I was going to see if there did we have anything that came out of the Personnel that we discussed um uh no we would items no nothing that would uh come here we have a we need to schedule another um meeting for my evaluation and then hopefully there's a motion
060that comes out of that okay great thank you hopefully hopefully I get welcome back to be determined um okay approval of minutes if you can take a quick peruse and then we will call for a motion to approve the minutes of April 18th and May 2nd 2024 meetings any edits revisions I know Carol do we have to split up or can we clump oh we can okay so I would make that motion Dr herrian please I move that the chesha Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on April 18th 2024 and May 2nd 2024 is there a second an Marie um any additions or Corrections that need to be made none all those in favor are approving the minutes or the motion as read unanimous thank you purple tunnel over here yeah I
061know awesome Mr gripple are there any correspondences sir I have received no correspondence well thank you and then uh I'm going to move it over to Dr Solen for the superintendent's report a little disappointed that our large crowd left I know this exciting moment but um I you should amend the agenda next time you know people are they don't want to wait for it so I'm going to go home and get comfortable and watch it at home but um couple of really quick things speaking of watching from home uh I know Mr grippo already mentioned seeing Ella and Andrew on a special report Channel 8 did uh regarding social media and Adolescence it's actually really well done Vin and I were talking about this earlier today too but um if you want to check it
062out if you just go on the channel um website and type in Google or Evis in the search bar Evis is a reporter there or social media maybe chesher it comes up and it's a two-part series that they did again really good Worth to watch um we even talked about showing it to our students because it was really that informative uh so there's that um if you are chomping at the bit to get more chesher public schools and the media uh on Tuesday the 21st of May channel 3 did a special on the Darcy circle of security program those of you who've been around a while have seen that at our showcases in the past uh that will be Tuesday afternoon next Tuesday 4: to 6:30 sometime in that window they'll be airing that uh
063piece so something to look forward to last but not least uh I just want to take a second to shout out um Marlene salano uh Kim desert jod Rhoden Christina Sherwood our administrators and a team of folks who completed the kindergarten uh versus transition evaluations uh if you remember that's really been a a Hot Topic this year you probably seen that in the news recently as well um Marlene uh kind of brainstormed uh and came up with a a really neat plan to provide transitional uh opportunities for kids that were on that cusp and she just that with that team completed the evaluation process U Marlene you want to talk at all about that I just want to tell the board and and everyone here how what a wonderful opportunity this was this committee was
064made up of Moira hoo a recently retired speech and language therapist Christina Sherwood from special ed Su and disio also newly retired from Special Ed and and the folks that Jeff mentioned everyone felt so good about this process we completed the early application to kinder early admission to kindergarten screenings process today and we utilized three really important sources to support decisions um we these decisions were made with the greatest of care and the best interest of each individual student and I think that that was because of what you all allowed to happen and and pav the way to happen for what was in the best interest of each individual child so we analyzed the results of the early admission screening that was conducted in person at Darcy school we studied the parent input every parent
065was given input into this um we reflected on the details provided by the child's preschool program through a standardized questionnaire on self-help social emotional skills which really gave gave us a true picture of the whole child after meeting and reviewing all of this information placements have been determined and today um individual phone calls have been made to every family if they weren't made today they'll be made tomorrow I think the key takeaways are we had 31 students that requested early admission 39% were granted admission to kindergarten and we feel really solid in in our our placement 15 of those students about 40 8% were identified for the transition program and we had about three who were so on the fence that we needed to have further conversation with families to to make that decision so
066it was just an excellent experience and one that everyone feels really good about and I I feel like here in Cheshire um I'm really grateful to have had this opportunity and I think the kids are going to be in a great place yeah just the idea that we made personal contact I mean these these are families with probably their first child uh in many cases entering our school system and to see the care that they received and the uh painstaking efforts that were placed in providing great information for families to make the best informed decisions uh is is rewarding um can you describe the question or the instrument where you got it from yeah yeah this is a tool that is able to both look at child find through special ed to identify students who
067may be of concern and those conversations will be happening it also sort of identifies that gifted range so those were students who certainly um were above you know where they where the cut scores needed to be um and we just didn't look at that one thing we looked at their gross motor skills their fine motor skills um ability to count recognize letters how they um separated from parents the kind of conversation they had their speech families were asked about language development um they were asked about you know can they tie their shoes can they put on their clothing um what what are their peer relationships like how are they around adults the schools were asked similar questions about their social emotional State you know um and and how they are with other children at school
068there was also an area on on each of those to write additional information that families thought or and schools thought that we should know about those um those questionnaires for preschools were hand delivered by Kim dessert um so this was really a very high touch so have we used them in the past I mean where did they come from they're they're a standardized measure it's a it's a tool it's a kit that we actually purchase that we use in District for um our preschool screenings but we as I said um in the in the past months we looked at a lot of different screening tools and really came to know that this one was going to be the best for our needs great thank you we haven't done that every year obviously I mean just
069for the transition program this year but um and that's it for me no but we we've not done ever done screen SC before we've done screenings but not looking at uh transitional versus K that came about when the state law moved to you had to be five before school started as opposed to January 1st and the law required that a screener be done for for students if they want understand that I was just yeah that's there is just to clarify there is a kindergarten it's called the Kei that we do once students are here but we have not screened kids for entry previously this was just to comply with the law also I have a question about the smartphones going back to what you were talking about earlier do we have do we have a
070policy on cell phone use or smartphone use in schools or do we need a policy on that do we need to start thinking about that I think it's something that we're um ever more conscious of every day day um and that schools right now dictate and teachers dictate what um cell phone use looks like in the classroom but uh or not cell phones are not in the classroom you know so um you know whether or not that moves into a a board policy uh I think that's something that we could explore probably over the summer yeah what I think what I think about is maybe the teachers would like some backing for making policies about because it's not easy we have it at the University level and yeah you know it's we had a a
071conversation with our administrative team about this today and some of the challenges not not only that teachers face but parents face right um and the idea that well the questions they have about Safety and Security in a contemporary world the challenges they face um well I don't want my child to have a cell phone but every other kid has one so I don't want to be that guy um right and then there's also all the research on you know what it means to have back on young ladies and everything else adolesence around social media there it's becoming increasingly more difficult to find positive uh you know support for cell phones and kids thank you something for us all to think about I started with only one comment now I have more um so uh firstly
072I definitely support uh examining the uh a uh cell phone policy after hearing that statistic of what checking your phone 450 times a day or whatever it is I don't think I check mind that much but maybe but you know we talk about vaping we talk about drugs in school and that dopamine hit that you get from checking your phone is just as potent as uh doing drugs potentially so it might be something that we shouldn't look at even you know going up through through high school because um I'm sure that kids are you know we used to you know pass notes in school and now it's probably I don't know whe they air drop or text or whatever they're doing all day you know that might be definitely something to look at um though
073I'm sure it gets more complicated the older student gets um secondly so the transition program this is the kindergarten transition right so I thought we weren't going to I thought the whole point was to not assess kids and that we were just using that hard cut off and that anyone below that age or whatever was going to be in the transition program so when did that change so the law DET the law dictates that any parent who wants their child to be considered for early entry to kindergarten that we must come up with they call it an assessment I would prefer to call it a survey oh okay oh so that so that never changed we were hoping that was going to change yes in the legislation there was a lot of movement to make
074it just a hard cut uh that didn't pass the legislation um so we're still required to screen okay well then that was Yan's work then definitely to come up with something because I know you guys are really hesitant to have to do that and it looks like we need lemon lemonade out of lemons yeah yeah and then so Jeff said you uh you said that your your report was completed right for ask write the read what happened uh don't stop um nothing in short nothing happened legislatively um so I guess now it's on to next steps with sde and you know we'll work with them and I'm not aware of a path or a process that's been delineated to move from either limited or partial um to full compliance um so you know it's a
075it's a common question and concern among superintendants across Connecticut and you know like most things we'll figure it out um to steal from Marlene we're we're still really I can't find enough sugar to make lemonade yet but we'll figure it out well again as I've said all year I I believe that we've already figured it out we're doing a great job so that uh I don't think there really is anything to figure out any other board members comments questions thank you Dr Solen there's no old business on here we'll move on to new business um uh Chairman's update I really just have a comment um I I just want to thank board members technically this was kind of my first Finance uh budget year as a chair and um I do appreciate the the structures
076we have in place and um the Lively debates Adam spreadsheets um definitely help in the end um so I just want to thank you all and you know hopefully we did get what we needed for our students in the end um so thank you all of you um up next we have upcoming meetings so June 3 we will have a policy committee meeting at humiston boardroom at 7 o'clock um we do have a Personnel we did not set the date right Dr ToBD humiston also June 6 our regular business meeting excuse me this will be our last and hope and the two student reps are coming back so this is a celebratory meeting yay um June 10th will be 7 pm. curriculum committee at humiston and then June 28th 7:30 a.m. Boe fiscal meeting at
077humiston boardroom and then we have morial Day weekend off so the district offices are closed Dr her you have a comment I have a burning question fiscal meeting I know the question Donuts yes we will provide Neals as customary it's in my contract with drinks don't push it oh Disney World awesome um then we have the 2024 promotion graduation schedule and I believe we did get an email about tickets earlier from Lori Bron from the high school from the high school yeah so if you have not responded to Lori I think um please attend um it will be very emotional for me I'm going to hold back and not cry um and that would be June 11th for Chapman 8:30 a.m. do little June 11th also at 9:30 a.m. Norton Elementary at 11:45 a.m. Highland
078at 1:15 p.m. humiston School 1:30 at St Peter's church and then DOD Middle School at 8:30 a.m. um at the Chester High School field and then Chester High School 6: p.m. that evening so if um for those of you that are connected to a school if you can attend that'd be great to support the schools as well and that's it if um there's a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Rey second Mr gripple all in favor to adjourn unanimous we are adjourned