Board of Education 2-15-24

001going to call this meeting to order is 7:32 Mrs sininsky roll call please present here here here here here thank you could you please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all awesome favorite part of the night Miss Ella Paul and Andrew Elliott for the student representative report nothing better um so hi everyone hope you're all doing well um so now that midterms are over we are headed into the final phases of the school year Rec recently treasure high school students have been invited to be part of a delegation of students traveling from Connecticut to The jangu Province in China the trip is being coordinated with the

002support of our regional Educational Service Center area co Cooperative education center Aces the opportunity to be a part of this journey as honored guests the chance to create connections with students from across the globe and to have curated experiences in schools with peers as well as getting to participate in cultural events is very unique National Honor Society has held the annual Matchmaker fundraiser where students uh complete a survey and are matched with other students to get the results students must give a $3 donation during lunch waves with the last day being tomorrow and additionally for Valentine's Day CHS Drama Kids for Kids GSA and unified theater all sponsored candy grams so that's essentially just where people um or students choose another student to give a candygram to which just a little bag full of candy

003just to show their appreciation towards them so two two chesher students were recipients of the Scholastic art and writing award erua Adisa silver and Peggy Wang in honorable mention they were honored at the University of Hartford art building slipe gallery on January 28th the ex the exhibition was open from January 28th to February 2nd at Treasure High School Alan d varus's students have finished their house modeling designs for the high school competition that took place on February 9th at the Hartford Convention Center now moving on to sports our girls indoor track team were coach Champs of the SEC this has not been done since 2009 so big congratulations towards them so now we are beginning to wrap up the winter sports season and move into the spring Sports season skiing has had their or skiing

004is having their senior night tonight at Mount Southington boys basketball and cheerleaders are having their senior night tomorrow night and girls hockey co-op on Saturday additionally girls basketball is playing in the first round of secc's tonight Boys Hockey is on a rooll they improved to 151 in one with a win last night over North Branford completing their 13th in a row they have three more regular season games with the senior night being on Saturday February 24th additionally on February 24th we will have several chesher Public Schools staff members participating in the YMCA slow camp ER plunge to help the YMCA raise money that will go directly to helping kids in the Southington and chesher area I also heard from an anonymous source that Dr Solen will be participating on February 25th CHS sports teams clubs

005and teams of Staff staff members will be participating in the supermarket challenge teams of three to four members pay an entry fee of $100 and compete with other teams to buy as many Poss as many items as possible with that $100 all items are then donated to the the treasure food pantry hi everyone happy late Valentine's Day I hope you're all doing well so I have a few different categories of stuff for tonight and first would be the academic side of stuff at chesher High School uh just last week students that are freshman sophomores and juniors completed their course selection so they were able to kind of talk with their own teachers talk with their guidance counselors and stuff to be able to choose their courses for next year to stay on track with constantly

006updating graduation requirements and things like like that in our library they started a new thing where the guidance counselors are in the library every session there's one representative that can help students go and pick their courses and it was really helped alleviate stress for students who weren't sure what to do might have been having trouble with the online platform and things like that and it seemed to be a success uh next on a similar note would be the scholarship booklet that was just released on Wednesday for seniors graduating chure high school there are like 80 Pages worth of awesome scholarships that are just available to Chester high school students so it gives everyone a really great chance there's all kinds of different qualifications there's ones for specific Majors or specific types of extracurricular activities for

007students going to college students going to trade schools really like there is something for almost every student which is really a really great opportunity we also had the career fair recently where there were Representatives so many that we not only filled the C in Commons but also the gym as well for juniors to be able to come and meet with representatives from all different types of careers to learn about kind of the path they took to get there what their daily job might look like things like that and lastly on this note would be that senior language students that have been taking their language for a certain amount of years are able to take the biliteracy test and that will be coming up and this is usually something that a good chunk of Chester high

008school students do to be able to add to their resume and continue their learning of world languages in college on another note as we know February is black his history month and chesher high school has been doing a lot of exciting things to spread awareness of this one of them would be in the library they had uh certain things going on to recognize black leaders in history that was put together by our amazing Librarians and also by students in the POC people of color club there was an activity for all students to participate in in advisories on Wednesday and on February 1st misso and Miss griffi organized an in field trip for students it was called blues and Beyond and it was a band that basically was able to take students through some historical aspect

009aspects of African-American culture through music which seemed really awesome and moving on we as always have lots of stuff going on with extracurriculars one of them would be the inclusion catian that happened this week for Best Buddies we had over 100 attendees 30 peers with intellectual and developmental disabilities including from some other towns alumni of Chester high school and future Chester High School Rams from DOD and some elementary schools and it really was a great way to celebrate all of the inclusivity that the best buddies Club at the high school Fosters and the impact that it has on the community and spreading that awareness to everyone next our CHS chorus has their Pops concert coming up which is where they pretty much sing fun cool pop songs and all the seniors get to do a

010solo if they so choose and that is on the 23rd and 24th of Fe February next up we have a little bit through the student Senate have been revamping alongside collaboration with Administration what our B1 day is typically it would be just this one day of community building things Field Day activities but this year we're kind of switching that up and are now starting to plan a B1 week where we will have small activities going on every day to help Chester High School give back to the community and come back to the roots of the day and what it really means to be a high school community and how that will shape us for the future and then of course having our fun Field Day volleyball tournament on the last day but um just two

011more quick things one would be that again our Librarians are awesome and they scheduled a cute little Family Feud activity for students and teachers to get involved together and that happened today you can check it out on their Instagram and then um the peer Health students are now starting to visit do I know I mentioned in a past meeting how they would go to the elementary schools for re ambassadors but um they've now been starting to visit DOD to kind of help prepare them for the maturity level that is going to be needed when they get to jure high school next year and then my last thing I don't know I don't know am I allowed to come up there I brought you guys some copies of the newest Rampage Edition so I'll just leave

012[Applause] them so thank you thank you very much I at first I was like who's the editor I'm like dah hello Ella Paul any board members have comments Mr White thank you uh thank you for all of your comments tonight the career day did it include non what would typically be a non- Col career absolutely there were all kinds of different careers there were like trade careers there were more like traditionally like you mentioned some College Bound careers all different things thank you um is that is that just for students do any parents ever attend the career day this one was just for students okay so the a lot of the attendees who came to support the day were parents and Friends of students at the school this who got involved great no I think

013it's I I'm a broken record on this I think it's also important not just for the kids that students to see it but I think for parents to see it too thank you yeah that's why over the summer when we had our events at FF Hitchcock and Y um Richard Chevy uh East Coast mechanical there one other one I Marin manufacturing um we invited parents to attend those events uh really popular over the summer thank you Dr herrian hi thank you for your report both of you uh Ella any update on the musical yes I'm actually headed back to rehearsal after this but um we are so far doing well we just had last week our choreographer John was in from Florida so we learned all of our dances and now our awesome dance captains

014who are students that are in the show but very talented dancers they help us fine-tune everything before the show we're doing vocals tonight and we have been doing our acting rehearsals after school all of our scenes are blocked so now we're just working on really really getting into everything you want to throw out those dates oh of course March 21st 22nd and 23rd is the Thursday Friday Saturday of that weekend and I will give you guys ticketing information when it comes of course Mr um I just wanted to comment on the incredible quality of this newset that's not a newsletter it's an actual newspaper I mean that's on real newspaper for most part and it's uh probably the highest quality we've seen in in some time perhaps in this town thank you um so congratulations

015on that I don't know what sort of budget you had but U shout out to Mrs wellp and Mrs flood they help us with everything library media Specialists excellent thank you I have to say ditto to Mr gripple and I know Mr White is uh a fan of receiving one of these so you may want to autograph one for him as well too so any other comments from board members just calling in thank you I I really want to shout out the fact that the um these new office hours that the counselors are offering that's a really whoever came up with that amazing just to support you guys and the rest of the student body on class and course selection so that's awesome um and and Andrew took kind of a piece of my um

016chair report later on but I'm really happy to hear that Dr Solen will be plunging and I know Mr perini used to be my Polar Plunge partner and I'm hoping he continues to be my Polar Plunge partner I hear there's one coming up what later this month February 24th I believe I think we need a team building exercise yeah we do we do and we invite you all too as well to either donate or be part of the team thank you both very much you welcome to stay Thank you guys bye and then the next item is is oh we have the Darcy School partnership which is me so this evening's uh School partnership award will go to Darcy school um the recipient of tonight's um award will be Lori burelli Miss barelli oh really

017Jersey Jersey oh so according to principal dessert Lori brelli and her therapy bunny Jersey became part of the Darcy Community two years ago from day one Lori and Jersey became part of excuse me became part of the DAR Community by visiting classrooms each week and spending time with the children when Lori is seen pushing the stroll where's the stroller oh it's over there oh my goodness in the hallway children get excited here are some comments from the preschool and kindergarten children we get to pet Jersey Jersey is so soft we get to talk to Jersey Jersey makes me calm when children read to her Jersey loves to look at the pages of the book Jersey also entertained the children by dressing up in special costumes for the holidays one of the favorites was on April

0181 when Jersey dressed up in a skunk costume stinky Lori comes every week ready to spend time with the children Mrs desert said they are extremely fortunate to call Lori and Jersey their dear friends to Darcy's school oh my goodness can I pet you please guys it's not easy oh thank you she just has a train was [Applause] next item Dr Solen uh you're introducing Isabella P yes thank you for that hair raising Pres presentation Miss Rosenberg you know you could take the dad out of the whatever but anyway it's certainly my honor this evening to recognize our next Honore Miss Isabella paio she's a sixth grader at Norton Elementary School I know her reputation probably precedes her though because uh tonight she's being honored for uh winning the uh local uh Martin Luther King

019Jr essay contest sponsored by excuse me Senator Murphy's office but uh you may know her name from the person who designed our holiday card uh that was sent out in December uh so she is quite a young lady who's made already a name for herself in sixth grade but I wanted to share just a couple of quick points from uh from her essay where she talks about how Dr King believes education is the key to empowering the human mind because ignorance is a dangerous thing um and of course I thought the cutest line she had is um you don't have uh excuse me I moved to chesher in 2 grade at first I was hesitant scared to attend my new school you don't have a lot of confidence being small and short I'm a sixth

020grader now and I'm still small and short but thankfully I met very kind-hearted classmates who welcomed my arrival with open arms you may be small and short but you're certainly a Powerhouse Isabella so congratulations on this recognition we're very proud of you come on up and we'll take some pictures over we'll take some pies d she [Applause] congratulations um next item we um get the pleasure of um having representative Curry if you come to the mic we're proud to welcome the chair of the Connecticut General Assembly legislative committee representative Curry this evening thank you for joining us um we had invited representative Curry prior to this at the beginning of the school year to provide an update and couldn't make it last time but we are so glad you're here because we have questions and

021hopefully you have answers so representating Curry excellent uh good evening everyone uh first and foremost thank you so much for allowing me to take up some of your space today um I have had the pleasure of traveling around the state uh corner to corner to have this conversation a number of times the number of interested and affected parties uh so I appreciate uh being able to give that again tonight so with respect to right to read I think the first thing that we need to do is probably right set and hopefully clear up some of the misconceptions um some of the misunderstandings that folks have with respect to kind of where this came from uh so during my time on the board of education as uh the former chair back in 2012 uh we piloted

022at from the state um something called the ck3 LI program it was little pilot initiatives um that kind of started this whole uh initiative around the science of reading um there was one in my backyard in the elementary school literally in my backyard where we saw some great successes uh and this was an initiative taken on then uh by the black and Puerto Rican caucus um the then Commission on women and children and I think they had seniors yet we've find a whole bunch since then um but uh it it grew steadily from there and then in 2021 House Bill 6620 was raised in the education committee uh that bill did include the language that uh talked about the number of models and programs uh that bill did have a hearing 41 people provided testimony

023so uh just right at the onset I know some folks uh want to give the impression that this was done in the darkness of night and under you know and slid in here and there but this this went through the process the education committee did hear this they then jfed it which means they joint favorably passed it out of the committee and over to the Appropriations Committee uh because there was a fiscal note attached to this piece of legislation the Appropriations Committee then ultimately jointly F or joint favorably passed that out um within the budget uh that year uh their budget proposal um it then went uh to the floor um where uh it became part of Senate Bill uh 1202 uh which was the budget that year uh it is not unlike it is

024not unheard of that uh bills ultimately get swept into the implementer bills um because the implementor bills are what implements the bud budget and so anything that has a fiscal note often is tied into there uh so uh that was ultimately uh past that year uh there was a debate during uh the floor uh debate uh if you want to go back and look at the transcript you can see clearly that again this was discussed there were members in the chamber uh there was even an amendment offered by one of our colleagues which was then also discussed and voted upon uh and again this so this was this did go through the appropriate process people did have eyes and ears on this uh people were able to discuss this and ultimately decide on what that

025language would look like uh that year there was a Partyline vote on the budget Governor signed it and it officially became Public Act 21-2 Fast Forward to 2023 um some stuff happened between there we'll get into that in a moment but 2023 uh Senate Bill 1094 um did have a public hearing on March 1st that did include the waiver language uh because I think there was a recognition uh that that there were districts who felt that they were already aligned to the science of reading and so we wanted to offer them the opportunity to uh to show that provide the evidence um and so a number of districts did do that but uh that was ultimately moved into Senate bill one uh which is in section 20 which ultimately became Public Act 23 167 the

026Senate did debate this there were five amendments called uh there was one Democratic Amendment four Republican amendments this passed on a Partyline vote it then went to the house it was debated with one Republican Amendment called and It ultimately passed on a bipartisan vote so in between that the State Department of Education essentially created a waiver process uh for districts to prove uh that they were aligned to the science of reading because all throughout this process starting back in 2012 and up until now everybody was aligned to the fact that the science of reading is what the literacy program should be aligned to there was no disagreement amongst any of the people that had been working on this uh everybody had their arrows pointed in the same direction rowing the boat in the same direction

027and so um the waiver process was created the State Department of Education brought in a third party do I Jeff Curry myself believe that this was likely the best thing to do probably not because I think good intent well there were good intentions of trying to make a neutral process and kind of not have it be seen as any sort of biases that uh they brought in folks to help create a rubric that the districts were then provided to then provide their um information to these folks for review some districts provided 80 Pages some districts provided 8,000 Pages um that's an exaggeration but not too far off um but I think it it also showed us that uh if had the waiver process been a little tightened we probably wouldn't have seen such discrepancies between

028districts in the information that they were providing uh the other issue that I think that we um can say was a definite uh definitely problematic was that during that waiver um meeting that they then had with the districts which lasted 30 minutes they were each given 30 minutes to talk about the waiver application that they had submitted now had a district done something in the time between they submitted that and that meeting they were not permitted to discuss that even if they had selected one of those five to seven programs um that were included in uh the the information that went out to the districts that's a problem um and which makes you know looking back absolutely zero sense but again they they kept uh very rigid um speaking of rigid there was some question

029around the five to seven programs and models that were selected um that ultimately during the waiver review process was uh raised increased to 19 because they found that the districts who were providing waiver applications actually were using programs curricul models that were aligned to the science of reading and so because of that uh SD being less rigid at that moment was going to increase the number of available programs that districts would have the ability to uh select from problem is is that they were in that waiver review process and couldn't go back and pick one of those uh now 19 to have any sort of stamp to say that they were now in compliance so so there's a number of things that were happening that uh were definitely not lining up as as far as

030a timeline goes to be able to provide districts with the ability to show that they were aligned with the right uh with the science of reading um so December 1st comes 2023 and the letters all go out to the districts it was a Friday night there was nothing about a Friday night dump as some call it in in the press it just happened to be Friday night that was the deadline for getting it out um there was then a rush for a number of districts to provide uh letters into the State Department of Education ask asking for a reconsideration um there were conversations that were had with attorneys about bringing legal action against the State Department of Education um there was so many conversations that it the director of our Center for literacy was accused

031with sleeping with some of the vendors that had been selected uh myself and my co-chair were accused of influencing the State Department of Education to provide our districts with waivers um this process turned completely nasty and it didn't need to come to where it is today unfortunately um but hopefully we can get to a point now where we understand that there is a path forward we recently met with the State Department of Education who after a bit of time had provided us with what they deem as the most appropriate path forward um there was a bit of confusion or hesitation on their end to uh move forward because they didn't believe that we as a legislature provided them with a an appeals process a reconsideration process and that they needed that in order to do

032anything post that decision um if you look back at the piece of legislation that ultimately passed there was a section in there that said uh if a district was not provided a waiver technical assistance and and the like would be provided and so they felt after uh further review that that particular line uh was the construct that gave them the ability to outline a path forward without needing us to do any sort of of legislation now what does that path forward actually look like for districts who are in the position of being labeled as transitional or limited also I'm not sure why they lose limited because limited just simply meant you were denied limited kind of has a different definition in most uh most usages so um so what's going to happen most likely is

033that districts are going to have the opportunity to spend some time with our friends at the State Department of Education and to fully go through the programs the models and the curricula that you are using and to be able to explain to the State Department of Education why what you are using is actually aligned to the science of reading which you have tried to defend in the waiver application that you originally submitted which again at the time was reviewed by people who were not sde in a 30 minute window where you were not permitted to talk about anything outside of what was in that particular application so taking away those use the word guard rails we enjoy that um SD now is going to have the ability to to sit with your folks to really

034get into it and to help them see exactly where they are allow you to defend if there are tweaks that are going to be necessary they're going to tell you that you're still likely going to have to make those tweaks but it's going to be a collaborative process not only with the State Department of Education with the center of literacy but also with the council that was stood up to work with the center for literacy um which is made up of a number of educational experts um none of which we are as legislators but that we heavily rely upon including folks such as your superintendent and other Educators in the system um and so that is essentially where that brings us to today and uh the State Department of Education is likely going to be

035rolling out uh with that plan forward to districts hopefully within the next week or so so I hope I was able to kind of clear things up level set but I'm happy to take any sort of questions that you may have on this and anything else and again I appreciate your time that was a lot white U thank you so much for coming tonight and you said you've already been around the state probably do dozens if not more than that of town so I appreciate all the time you're giving on this based on your own personal experience I'm just curious a comment that you made before about s um and they had refused to act in the absence of a statute or Direction I'm just curious based on your own experience have you ever seen

036that happen with the SD before SD before where they felt they didn't have something and therefore they could not act because I just find that implausible and I I don't know where this I appreciate what you said that this is hopefully resolved soon but if it's not I just am curious to know that for background because I find it difficult to believe that a state agency would refuse to act in this sort of situation uh with the absence of Direction I get it wanting that but I find it hard to believe in the absence that they wouldn't act anyway in good faith yeah so I'll say in my 10 years in the legislature I've never seen an issue like this have such a visceral reaction from folks on every side of the of the issue

037and I think because of that and because of the threat of litigation okay because of being buried under foi requests I think that they they took a moment to pause and breathe okay to make sure that they were charting that that appropriate course forward okay okay thank you I can I can appreciate that so my question is for the superintendent there was like like the chair just said there's a lot backed into this where are you right now based on what you know sure thank you and uh representative Curry again I want to thank you for coming here today uh for your work uh not only on this issue but uh earlier today I had the pleasure of being at the uh press conference for ECS and education funding uh very much appreciate that we

038need to do more for early childhood education uh but I also appreciate your advocacy and and those of all of the members of our delegation to make sure it doesn't come on the backs of K to 12 um so I just wanted to make that point with respect to Right to Read um I think this is what we've asked for um throughout the process is uh it it felt halfhazard and uh the point you made about maybe a little bit more clarity in the waiver process would have um a iated some of the challenges that we all Face bottom line is I think you know our team we're we're committed to looking forward um as you said I think all of us agree that the science of reading is the way to go I mean

039we've strongly felt that way for more than a decade and um the opportunity to sit down with other professionals uh and to go through the way that we employ the science of reading and receive valuable feedback is something that I think our team has been open into from the outset uh and I appreciate you illustrating how that necessarily wasn't part of the process uh so I I just again I want to thank you for being here tonight and in the work you've done uh to help you know kind of illuminate where some of the challenges might be and and address those things so yeah I mean anything that we do everything is relational and so it's a matter of just simply being able to sit down and have the conversation and allow people to just

040simply talk and better understand so that's what we've asked them to do and and luckily that's what they're going and and I do think you know Tim's um concern is probably Val valid his his hesitation perhaps a bit in the sense that you know there that that viscal reaction you talked about has been pretty uh loud since December 1st and it's taken a lot of time to get this sort of movement and we haven't seen anything in writing yet and you know I know you wouldn't be coming here sharing this if you didn't feel really confident but I think we'll all breathe a little bit easier when we see them put it to paper and and share it with districts yeah I'm sure it's a little drafty out on the edge of the limb there

041so yes I appreciate that I tell you I spent at least two hours of every single day talking about this issue I'm sure you do yes and I appreciate you you are always willing to listen he representative Curry has been to a number of the same meetings I've been to and uh not everybody stands up like that not everybody comes and listens so I appreciate you and certainly the members of our delegation that are here tonight that have also had to hear me uh and our team kind of rant on this issue with great frustration for the last three months so appreciate you guys being here too so much thank you yeah I just want to Echo the same and you know the Fab Four that are here that were here last time and um

042especially represented linan because I kept saying to her we need to talk to Jeff he's got all the answers so thank thank you very much representative Lan and um representative Curry for coming I do have one clarifying question if you're able to disclose you mentioned about um moving forward and I'm I'm happy to see that this the SD is putting into practice the design thinking process that they so much harp on for us to do um what is the timeline then now how long is this going to take for for us it's a great question and unfortunately I don't have an answer for you on that uh the conversation with the State Department of Education literally happened yesterday morning where they presented this to us so you likely and whoever's listening at home or wherever

043are hearing that for the first time publicly um but we're hoping like I said they put something out in the next week or so that'll help you and I will say so there's an implementation here that uh date here that we're all up against of that uh 2025 and so I think some of the conversations that we also had um was about do we push that out again for the folks who are going to have to go through this process to have additional conversations um we aren't there yet um but uh obviously we just started we're a week into our legislative session and we've got a bit of time to go to see if that's something that we're going to have to do okay and and we appreciate it you know the last conversation we

044had they finally brought in board members to be part of the discussion so that that's a most appreciated so moving forward you know I'd like to see that maintained Mr White did you have your hand up go ahead and then Dr herrian thank you madam chair yeah just I know you've heard lots of different complaints my own personal story is my son is in second grade I think his reading is doing great and the concern the number one concern that I have for him and for all the K through3 Kids is if a program is great based on the science of reading what's the likelihood that this improves the the reading the outcomes for those students and it just seems to me for me right here in the town of chesher great principal and back

045that's his principal Jody Rhoden um the the school uh I don't want those kids taking a step backward it just doesn't it doesn't make any sense and it seems to me that's the likelihood of what would happen with the results that they have right now thank you yeah yeah and I and I'd like to maybe push back a little and just agree that there is no like magic answer to any one program that's going to have everybody at 100% proficiency so I the fact that right now you know performance metrics were never a part of the conversation during this entire process at least so this is my first uh uh uh term as the chair of education so I was not sitting in on the initial discussions back in 2021 when this was first all

046created um but I do know performance metrics were not a part of that um having said that you know we have the districts who have you know 70% proficiency that means 30 aren't science of reading isn't going to solve that on its own there's additional resources humans programs that are going to need put in place for those students so I I appreciate your comments and agree that yes nothing is going to completely get everybody to that point but again if you are aligned already to the signs of reading hopefully that additional review process is a seamless one for you the points that were made this morning about Early Childhood Intervention I think are at least if not more influential in Reading outcomes but um you know the the one thing I think for us that

047was a little confusing was that in the legislation and in the waver process we were asked to submit data and so we you know uh were able to demonstrate that we've been uh systemically closing the gap for high need students students of color with the rest of our readers and was something we're really proud of um and I think it was a little frustrating for us to be asked for that data and then um have it not be considered but at the end of the day that's hindsight and you know for us I I think we look forward to moving forward um and learning what we can from uh other folks that are expert in the field uh to even better support the students than we do today hi thank you so much for coming

048tonight and uh talking with us in a very concise way you wrapped up the whole three years of controversy I think um my question is relates and I'm not sure you can answer this and I'm um I'm wondering if superintendent Solen might have some insights on this as well um you're still talking about these programs and having to follow a program in order to go through so whether it's seven programs to choose from or 19 programs to choose from if we have a program that we've built our own from the ground up over a dozen years but that follows the science of reading I mean are we going to just be still asked to um buy into one of these programs no not not if you are able to sit down and and show that

049that is aligned to the science of reading then you should be fine so that is part of the conversation oh absolutely yes yeah I mean we love when the districts take the time to to have that kind of organically grown within their their ranks I mean not very many districts do that um but when that happens I think we have to take a moment to celebrate that and if that is truly aligned then recognize that and allow you to continue on great thank you Mr per and Mr gripple thank you madam chair uh representative Curry thanks again for coming out this evening uh for those that don't know representive Curry came to our Cade board director's meeting last Wednesday night week ago and uh spent a good hour uh in a packed room of board

050of directors I wouldn't say about 25 or so and then more on zoom and yes they were there to hear from Mr Curry uh but they also shared a lot of feedback and uh he sat through the entire your discussion uh was very Frank with us uh like you are tonight we appreciate all that uh you did follow through on what you committed to C last week which was have those discussions with SD and I and I I I appreciate that so I just want folks to know that there is stuff happening outside of the headlines to resolve this I also want to acknowledge that um representative lhan Senator hell Senator Samson representative zupkus uh also attended our SD meeting back on February 5th which seems like attorney too and all asked great questions great

051gave great insight to SD at least when they were willing to listen to our feedback uh so I want to acknowledge all the time you're all spending on this I know it's not planned for you guys have incredibly busy schedule I thank you and uh I actually have cookies because last Wednesday night you gave me cookies you talk your behind off and I so I will hand it out to to our delegation tonight after you're done just appreciation we don't we thought it was for us but clearly no we we don't deserve it yet but you know so uh but I do want to say this uh there's other groups as you know Department education's working cab is helping caps uh uh CA trying to get to the right people I think that's what's going

052to solve this um I mean I do agree with the goals are right to read who doesn't want our youngest and most impressional students not become proficient with reading that's the former years for students is incredibly important it is about the execution um the only feedback I want to give is um actually a couple things one is throughout our discussions with SD and others chure success rate 74% seems to be mocked not celebrated as if we don't care about improving that we're resting on our Laurels we're not willing toward and and that can't be further from the truth this came up during our meeting with SD um and as much as Dr s and his team tried to explain that there's more to it I am concerned with some folks SD moving forward and how

053they're going to bring impartiality into reviewing our discussions on our program because one question that they could not answer from Dr Solen I believe was um and one of the questions no waiver was was our program independently reviewed we didn't have it reviewed but when Dr s asked what would be a legitimate source for reviewer they couldn't answer the question they couldn't tell us you heard from Seth who was the board chair from Madison last Wednesday night they had Yukon uh who SD relies upon review the program and they were still denied because it was not one of the handful of so I I'm concerned that our Administration is going to spend a lot of time getting ready for the next meeting and run to the same nitpicking and lack of Direction so I would

054implore the isolation that if you can move the data out it'll be more beneficial that way SD is not going to be rushed into reviewing all the districts that want have a second chance to talk and our Administration is not going to spend although they're going to do it anyway tremendous amount of time for not so uh I don't know where that would go if if it's moving date out if it's legislative action please take it and the last thing I would say there's a little bit of process problem too I know that this legislation was reviewed it was public uh hearing you know we don't pay enough attention unfortunately what's going on all the time in Harford but moving forward and I know it's not just you I'm not telling you just this this

055is for everybody and all your colleagues on Harford when we're forming these task force work groups particularly on education initiatives please be more inclusive a school districts not exclusive I still can't find a school district in Cape that was consulted about right to read uh specifically about the programs Chosen chesher and others have some great things happening I think we could brought a lot of things to the table as part of that task force I think that would probably eliminate a lot of this noise you're experiencing so please move forward please have your colleagues just spread out the task force a little bit so be more inclusive we want to help we're not trying to hinder things so but I do thank you and the team being here tonight I know we're not done yet

056but um I am concerned about the execution moving forward not on your part but on SD so I I hope that well it's not your purview I hope the legislation will keep tabs and SD as we move forward yeah I mean I I have to imagine with the number of eyes and the level of passion that many people have with respect to this issue right now that SD is going to chart a path forward that is going to be hopefully the most appropriate and if it is not you have some passionate people sitting behind me who are going to make sure that they do Mr GLE thank you um Mr Curry again thank you for coming before us tonight and explaining all that has happened um I'm trying to process and absorb everything that you

057said um the the one thing I wasn't clear on is who is overseeing the resolution is this a resolution that is being uh that is occurred through conversation and that will be I guess an administrative solution through SD or are you um going to uh codify a resolution and legislation so that it's crystal clear as to what's supposed to happen and if yes um is the legislature going to be uh committing to more oversight because it seems like SD took a line and ran with it and uh you know uh made our administration at least here and it seemed like a lot of uh school districts to commit uh perhaps hundreds of hours to uh putting together um a defense of successful reading programs where uh our children are learning to read and can uh

058can learn to read before they read to learn right so um I just ask that perhaps that um you know we have a crystal clear steps forward uh and very tight oversight of SD because I think at this point perhaps they've demonstrated that um they need to be watched a little more closely I would love to offer you that John because uh I will say that uh Folks at the state level are completely underresourced and underst staffed that uh I'm not sure that everybody has the capacity and mower to micromanage things the way in which I think some folks would want uh at this point in time there is no intention for legislation to codify that resolution um we are waiting to see what that guidance and that direction looks like in writing from SD

059out to the districts uh once we do see that then we'll have an additional conversation um mostly are like most likely centered around the push out of that implementation date uh to provide folks enough time to have those conversations that they need to have any other comments from board members and if I could also Madam chair uh responding to uh Mr per pery I think I said your name wrong sorry Tony so um you know I I like I said this is my first term as the chair of Education I've been on the education committee for 10 years prior to that sat exactly where you sat in my community and I have committed to the folks on the committee and those behind me uh that we have will we will continue continue to have uh

060a very inclusive process in everything that we do uh 99% of our legislation out of the education committee was fully vetted was reviewed was compromised um Everybody in the education sphere had their eyes and their hands on our pieces of legislation which is why you saw some of the most impactful pieces of legislation come out of the education committee that you had in some time so I sit here and I again commit to you moving forward that we will have an inclusive process and that your voice matters and will continue to matter um in what we do thank you representative Curry I mean um I have to say Mr gripple is right we have been taxed on time and we do run on a a skeleton crew too in the administration office so thank you

061for acknowledging that because you know as much as uh csde I'll hold back my comments but I I personally believe that on the Chas side my day job is also an educator so I have the other end of the spectrum as well too um but with regard to chesher and the the curriculum we have a strong and valuable curriculum so if anything include our voices and consider the suggestions and recommendations that the Administration has put forward so that's pretty much all we ask of you but thank you again thank you to Senator and representatives in the in the front well back Leslie's back there thank you for coming back out to support us um it it's really really just I exhaled a little bit now that you said all that so thank you anything else

062I'm here you got me cookies all right excellent I appreciate the time thank Youk you thank you so much and next um part of our agenda is audience comments um and if there are any any audience members that would like to come to the podium to speak I do want to just read the disclaimer for public comment um the board does welcome public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to three minutes speakers may offer objective comments on school operations and programs that concern them so to protect the impartiality of the board we will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the chesher public schools such issues should be brought to the school administration the board will

063not respond to comments made during public comment except to clarify issues and when appropriate District administration will follow up at a later point in time so if any public members would like to come and speak please come to the podium state your name and address please my name is Tucker demin 230 Oregon Road so meritocracy is the goal here Excellence performance to the the height of Excellence that's what we want all of these other uh objectives that we want to in place implant into the educational system are distractions actually you know this is one more example of uh the crew up there in Hartford and our Federal rep Representatives their first impulse is to control to regulate this is it comes Downstream so what we want to do here is understand that this is one

064more tyrannical Movement by our government to suppress independent thought so it's time for people to speak up it's time for you to speak up to your to the um the state you have the power to declare what our town is going to do in this regard we can't put up with this it's just going to get worse put your foot down I'll leave you with a quote from voler it's difficult to remove from Fools the chains which bind them thank you thank you Mr Deming any other public comments so I'm PM Salomon 659 Cornwall Avenue I'm actually really glad I was here for um representative Curry's remarks because it solidified exactly why state government should stay out of local control um so I'm not really going to talk about the right to read program and

065explain the waiver disaster since everyone up here already understands it um I'd really like to talk about how dis appointed I am and our elected State officials this has become a very partisan um issue one-sided issue created solely by the Democrats I'm quite frankly appalled that representative linahan had representative Curry come here when we know how partisan he is and we know that he voted for this twice supported it and helped create the disaster that we now have to deal with and that not only parents here in town may have to deal with but y'all might have to deal with um Senator Samson and representative lovus zupkus do represent chesher they gave plenty of warning about the waiver problem with right to read law they voted against it not once but twice Senator zupkus spoke

066to representative Curry who assured her there would not be a problem exempting chesher from the Law's requirements so now that we have proven that they were right and in fact this is a very big problem why would we trust him meaning representative Curry or any of our Democratic legislators to fix a problem they knowingly created this is not a new issue for them they've known known about it for the last 3 years Senator Samson has presented a letter to fix the law but not one of our Democratic legislators signed on to it so much for bipartisanship now representative Lan is trying to do damage control because she is on the wrong side of Chester citizens this is a situation that is completely unacceptable it's time for our legislators to start supporting local control thank you

067thank you Miss Almon any other audience members good evening Doug Noble 30 Jesse Court um you know I have a my daughter's in first grade here so I'm in the same boat as you Tim um and this program will affect my daughter she can read a whole book and you know what I appreciate Jeff you sending out the survey that said you know what our programs are are spoton with with phenomenal uh reading program we have in town the teachers you know the Board of Ed here Dr Solen and the parents have a huge you know uphand upper hand any other school system in the state I think we're number seven I believe in the category if I'm not mistaken and I find it really unacceptable that the state would not give us a waiver

068but yet they give Meridan a waiver why would they give Meridan a waiver if the whole point of this is to get the kids up to speed up to code I'll call it for third grade then why would you give a city that's struggling and I'm just going to use that as as one example a waiver isn't the whole point that to bring them up to standard no no no no we're going to do it's a lot easier to just cut the top off with the program belit our program we work so hard for in this town why half the people live here is for the education system and then oh well then those numbers at the bottom will come up naturally that's what's going on here and then this the Democrats at the state

069level have basically screwed up and they're cya here right tonight that's why they're here and everybody in this room in front of me the parents of all our kids myself have to have to deal with this okay it's a waste of time we had a phenomenal program and they didn't even consider it thank you very much thank you Mr Noble any other I'm excited to see you up there Faith ham 633 courland Circle um I pretty much have to do this to my remarks but um because I was very surprised to hear um representative Curry tonight talk about a possible out um for this problem that we've been in nevertheless we still have 19,000 students in this state who cannot read at grade level and that is appalling we know where the problem is and

070we know the where the solution is and it's in districts like ours and I hope you guys fight hard to get our talented teachers and our talented reading um Specialists out in front at SD giving them advice coaching them wherever possible on how to um perhaps train those um those reading instructors in the districts that are failing give them the wisdom and um just the the professional um expertise that we have developed over Dozen Years and allow coach them find a way to get our teachers in with those teachers so that we can impart to them what we have done so well um so I I just applaud your patience and your diligence in what you've done and um keep up the good work I do want to raise one other topic though I know

071you're you're taking up um an first reading on inequity policy tonight you guys um my concern so much with Right to Read and I'm going to run into my 3 minutes is that what we were looking at was equity and and action with the wavers that were that were administered they were going to districts that were not doing well and the W districts that were doing well were denied were told you're just not up to Snuff and my our fear and the big question about Equity is are we really raising the standards or are we bringing the best down with whatever policy you develop for Equity please keep that in mind our goal has to be elevating those who are not performing well figuring out why um and all the while trying you know um

072just making sure that we're not also somehow bringing down tamping down success so when it comes also to funding um there's some interesting language in that that c policy that we're considering and I hope that you um do not um um in your bid to perhaps um what is it uh achieve equable equitable distribution you don't pull from the General Ed program such that those kids who are succeeding without the extra help are their success is tamped down so that's all I have to say thanks a lot you guys keep up the good work thanks Faith any other speakers good evening everyone Rob Samson state senator 16th District um three minutes is hard I can't even order a pizza in three minutes um I want to start by following up on on face comments and

073thank you for your determination and your patience in dealing with this uh problem and uh I also want to thank you for your um diligent effort to produce a very um Quality school system for the town of chesher and your predecessors as well uh because I know that uh everyone's worked hard for a long time to get where we are um I have a lot to say about this issue and I can't possibly wrap it up very quickly but I just want to say a couple quick things which is that um I certainly respect my my colleagues I certainly respect um the chairman of the education committee and I appreciate him coming here to to face you guys and explain what his uh vision is for the future um and I certainly respect my my

074colleagues that I work with here in town on the other side of the aisle but I could not disagree with them more about the path forward um we are in a situation where we are effectively having to beg a non-elected state bureaucracy uh that is not responsible to the citizens of the town of chesher you guys were elected for the purpose of making the education policy for this town and the buck should stop with you and your performance should be applauded and not questioned and that's what's so frustrating for me here I saw back in 2021 when this uh was attached to the budget and yes that does happen very often but it's not a good thing and it should never be justified we should vote on these individual policy matters separately but when it

075does happen uh many of us speak up and say our school districts all across the state whether they are run by Democrats or Republicans all want the same thing which is the state to leave them alone so that they can operate and run their school districts properly now I understand there may be school districts in the state that do need outside help but this is not one of them and for you guys to have to put yourself through meetings with SD and I did sit in on that meeting that we had uh on zoom and to have them jump have you jumping through hoops and explaining yourself and I thought that um you did an amazing job the superintendent uh was responsive to every question that was asked I thought your answers were incredible and

076I thought you dotted every eye crossed every tea and gave them exactly what they needed to be able to say you should be granted a waiver and they found a way to deny us anyway and what I heard tonight um from representative Curry is that there will be no change that the only thing that is different is that SD will come up with the next set of Hoops and they will make the next determination of what has to be done and to to sit and think that somehow it's a good idea that you get a 30 minute opportunity to defend yourself or that it's going to be a collaborative process but at the end they get to say whether you're approved or not is not acceptable we should be demanding that our representatives in both

077parties remember to rightsize government that local control is important for Education you guys were elected to do that job I I'm glad to be here tonight with you all I I appreciate the the opportunity to connect and see everyone but the problem tonight is that you had five State officials in this room you shouldn't have any you should be making the education policy not us and I'll just leave it with that thank you hi Christopher Affy 204 pek Lane I just to clarify something uh Meridan sington Wallingford and chesher all apply for waivers and Meridan did not get a waiver so that was incorrect info given tonight that's it thank you Mr aul good okay many other hi uh Leslie zupkus I represent Prospect chesher Bethany and part of Waterberry I just want to say

078as you know I sit on the education committee I'm glad representative Curry was here to answer your questions I will be in his ear to make sure that number one you are always included in legislation that affects our schools to push that you get your waiver um and to also uh make sure cuz I too would like to see something in legislation to get this process changed um I don't like Loosey Goosey so uh I'll commit to you that I will continue to do that and make sure that um you have to be included because you have the your feet on the ground thank you thank you leslee Rober Cado from treer most of you know me uh you know You' probably heard me before talk about new curriculum and how a lot of times

079it hurts our students uh the bureaucracy of Connecticut is trying to force a curriculum down you I hope you hold representative Curry and that department their feet to the fire that they'll let this waiver go through if we are in compliance with what they want I don't think we have to be like Senator Rob said uh what I empore you guys to do in the whole town of Cheshire is to find a way to get out of these State mandates this is a great town right people come to this town because of our education they come to the town because of the housing uh it's it's a great place to live let's not ruin that let's not let the state ruin this with these mandates if we have to find a way to fund this

080all ourselves we have huge budget for the Board of Ed let's do that let's take the chance let's look out of the box sometimes and say and and not be afraid to say no we're not going to do that let's see what you're going to do see if they pull our funding let's fund it ourselves we have a great education great Board of Ed let's keep that let's let's ignore them somehow you they don't if we if they go back on their word and we don't get this waiver screw them whatever pay the $700,000 buy their curriculum throw it in the garbage and let's stick with ours you know who's going to say anything because our kids are doing great my daughter's reading well my niece is reading well I haven't heard any problems with

081any of these readings let's not go backwards like Faith said because that's what's going to happen if you take this on or we're for not that you take it on but if it's forced upon us let's find a way out of the box to keep doing what we're doing in Treasure thank you thank you Mr Brado any other public comments I do have to agree with you Mr Brado we do have a great town because we have great passionate people coming out here tonight to speak thank you can just Dr Solen I just wouldn't feel right if we didn't make two very quick points I I know meriden's been brought up and um the professionals on our team spend a lot of time reviewing data sometimes it's not just our data but data from other

082communities and I want to give Meridan a shout out those people uh are incredibly dedicated and have produced results that are far exceeding their peers um and so you know we even turn to them the same way they turn to us for insights on how to support reading so just a quick shout out to our our friends and Meridan uh for the great work that they do but um I know tonight some people acknowledged you know me and um I just want to be crystal clear that that you know while I'm the the mouthpiece and and the face of the organization Uh Kevin hanin and marleene salano and there's a a reading specialist Pat Castle are you know incredibly talented people brilliant when it comes to reading um I would not throw down with any

083of the three of them when it came to reading on my best day uh and they are uh the masterminds behind our reading success and I wouldn't feel right if didn't at least uh acknowledge the tremendous work that they do thank you any other public comment great thank you okay next item on the agenda we're going to committee reports first committee Dr herant no I'm Sorry Miss cinin curriculum thank you madam chair so tonight um I will comment on a couple of items um under new business and then turn it over for um more information from our assistant superintendent the first item is a new textbook recommendation that was reviewed um on our meeting last Monday it's a recommendation for the krugman's macroeconomics textbook for the AP course at the high school it came very

084highly recommended um we heard about details the book The course um the students what the teachers felt about it and at the end of the meeting we um did move to forward it to the full board for approval after the appropriate two- week period when it'll be available for public review the second item um our student rep Andrew spoke about it a little bit is our outof country field trip request for chesher high school during the week of April 7th to the 14th to China um again we received an overview of the planned upcoming trip the um students will visit schools engage in sightseeing they'll connect with a local um buddy during the trip and participate and cultural experiences from dining to calligraphy um we were very happy about the cost of the trip per

085student um and the advantages that our students will have by the ability to be able to train travel um to China so we did make a motion to send the outof country field trip um this evening to the full board for their consideration and hopefully approval now I'd like to ask our assistant superintendent thank you Miss oh thank you Miss cullinan so as part of our meeting on Monday night in addition to the things that Miss cinin has already described we also took a look at the recent pupil attitudes to self and school survey that I know we have talked about as a group at previous meetings and so I've included in the curriculum packet a brief overview of what was reviewed at Monday night's meeting and so I would I would uh suggest that

086you take a look at some of the materials in there and I will try to just briefly um review them uh every student K through 12 took this survey this survey is sort of a universal screener to get an idea of what our students attitudes are towards themsel and school as it relates to social emotional learning and we know how important that is if you take a look at page two of the document sort of outlines how the results are scored you can see that the green is high satisfaction with their school experience and it's in red uh red orange yellow and green and if you look at the K3 profile for our students here in chesher you can at Quick Glance see that the overall percentiles which are the standard measures indicate that our

087students in kindergarten through third grade have a positive feeling about school their preparedness for Learning self-worth and response to learning the um the survey reports on nine factors and the kindergarten through three survey really goes into four of the factors if you look at four five and six and I I know this is a a real sort of um 30,000 foot overview of the district's results we also look at those by school we look can look at them by classroom and we can look at them by student this was Baseline only information to give us an idea of where our students are based on our um continued emphasis on social emotional learning if you look at grades four five and six you can see across all nine factors that green healthy indicator the bars at

088the top are really specific to the mean percentages in the school and then the overall percentiles are how our students track as at with the standardization from all of the students in those grades who have taken the test uh not test survey and then if you look on the last page grades 7 through 12 you get an idea of the overall health of our students again in in that bottom in that bottom quadrant so what we did was to administer this in October our students have never taken this survey before we trained all of our administrators and how to look at this data all of our school counselors have also been trained and how to look at it but what I want to call attention to is the kinds of things we do with this

089information for example the first factor is feelings about school so if a student were to score low on his feelings about school we might look to see if he or she has a friendship group if they have a group that they feel comfortable with if not we would try to link them up and and help Foster some friendships we would also look to see if they're involved in school activities clubs extracurriculars and as well as things within School something that we might do under preparedness for learning would be to teach independent study skills within the school day and make sure that students had strategies to um help with concentration and revising materials we also have factor eight which is about attendance and students attitude towards attendance and so that if we looked at that even

090for a student who might be coming to school his his or her attitude might not be positive towards attendance and we would look at both that past data and his whole the whole child to determine what other information we might need to pull in to make an action plan for a student who didn't feel positively about attendance so I know this I don't want to go more into it than anyone has time for tonight I'm I'm happy to take questions about this I think what we are seeing is that the overall health of students is strong we will readminister this in the spring to see how students progress ressed and teachers are able to use this information within the daily instruction of academics to intervene for students where it's needed Tim thank you Miss Lana

091Tim yeah thank you for all this Marlene just speaking on my own experience um so first of all I appreciate everything that you and the chesh public schools are doing on this but from my own experience the parents have to be involved and making in making these things work they just absolutely have to be involved there's you um the kids can go to school and the schools can do a bit there but it's 247 in working on these things so just asking parents to be there for them thanks Mr grible um I appreciate the explanations of going through the fact s um I guess um my largest concern of course is grade 7 through 12 that's where we always have problems that's where or or more problems because I think at that point that's when

092um the students at least in my opinion more objectively can determine their own feelings and selfworth and that's when they're exploring those things and um I noticed a lot of 60s 60% I don't know call it percent I it's not percent 60 percentage 60 percentages or percentiles or whatever it is um in here um you know specifically regard you know self-regard as a learner um confidence in learning um and I I mean I guess at General work ethic like those are those are the sort of like those intangibles that you know determine whether you're going to be a successful learner or not and so um there seem to be an appreciable dip from elementary school and I I think of of of course they would because they're they're more on their own there's a lot

093less handholding obviously as they become more mature um so uh is there a a game plan are you using these statistics are these broken down by a class or by an age group or or how how are these statistics being used to I guess help um bring these numbers up help improve those attitudes yeah so a couple of things I guess I can respond to on that Adam um the first is that while you look across to all of those numbers St the standardized numbers um these are healthy numbers but you're I think what you're pointing out are relative weaknesses in certain areas and so what we've asked is for each principal to take a look at this and make a plan for how they would address their relative weaknesses what we're able to do

094is look at it by school look at it by grade look at it by boys and girls look at it by high needs we're able to disaggregate all of those all of that demographic data and we're also able to see individual student scores so that if there were a group or a class we can make a plan on how to tackle that and that's what's happening in the schools now okay okay so so you can break it down to the student on this so there will be you'll see so with particularly low numbers that's when you're identifying sort of problems and they'll identify the student and talk to them I don't know how does how does that go is that a like I know remember in elementary school's times you'd have that lunch with the

095uh school psychologist to kind of talk and you know that kind of stuff so is that sort of what you're suggesting a lot of these things can be handled by the classroom teacher because once they know that a certain student maybe has scored a certain way there are some group activities there are some things that can be done within the classroom it could be giving a a special job it could be looking at the rigor it could be of a of a of a of an example um encouraging a student that they do have the right answer I think some of the instructional practices that we've talked about rather than having a student have to raise their hand and answer a question in front of their whole class that activity that we did um at

096the at the U Elementary Board of edge showcase where you've got kids working in groups you might not want to raise your hand and answer a question in front of the whole class but you might be very willing to do it in a group of three so just restructuring some of those instructional practices could help really support students in a better way and so those are some of the things that um teachers can do by all means if we have students who have significant um areas that really are concerning we could go all the way to having them work with a school psychologist but again this is one data data element we have so many other pieces of data but this particular survey um this Universal screener was something that we felt gee we've been

097talking about social emotional learning for so long how do we know how we're really doing with that what kind of measure do we have to say if we're even close to um you know achieving the goals that we want so that that's why we chose to go forward with this and if I may add um when we reviewed um this data I I looked at um grades four five and six as compared to grade seven and eight and where the percentiles ranged and five out of the nine factors went up which is a good um to me as an educator um to look at students that are moving from that Middle School into the high school and really feeling good about themsel about the school and about their learning capacity um I mean that tells

098something about the district that these students are coming through elementary middle school and they have built determination and consistency and the ability to really feel um their perceived learning capacity is positive um there are a couple areas preparedness for learning um attitudes to teachers that went down so there's some areas um that we have to look at General work ethic went up I'm thrilled to see high school kids feeling that their work ethic is is up so um made some you know good points I think um our administrate administrators are really looking um at the data and as Marlene said a lot of this is is done in classrooms particular particularly on the Middle School level and as they they grow up so um there's always work to do but I I see the trends

099going in the right direction and those those people skills that executive functioning ability of our kids is really what we want to move towards and we see that over these um the factors other comments I I do appreciate this especially trying to prioritize our student social emotional learning um it be curious because this is the first time we're implementing this I'd be curious as a data junkie right now to see the longitudal and follow the cohorts and see if their attitudes actually change based on those um factors so when Marlin when is the next time you're spring spring y so then maybe by the Fall we get another now we have three data points to work with at least great any other comments from board Mr perini very quickly so thank you and I apologize

100I to current Comm can make Monday night I'm still overcoming a cold don't worry I'm not contagious um and I forget I know we discussed this the curriculum last year the past survey I think we got a chance to some of the questions so I know there was no issues there but is it just the students that takes the survey or the Educators take it too because what goes what goes through my mind is sure my if my daughter was taking this and she ranked herself as a High um work ethic I'm curious to know what the teachers are seeing you know maybe the students SE that way but they're not quite there m we're not serving Educators on their attitude survey towards this correct that's right and we went with this particular survey because

101we really wanted to know what the students attitudes were as opposed to some other surveys that are being used in the state that are all educator answering Educators answering the question without knowing what the student is thinking and I to Samantha's point the long the longevity of this I'm sure we'll probably hear feedback from Educators on what they're seeing right the reality and things are improving so I was just kind of curious but thank you you answer my question yeah yeah well I I'm as curious as you are to follow the follow the Trends on this and and see where we are by next fall after students have taken it for a third time and to look at those everything that you said the cohorts and the different um grade levels Etc and and we

102did have that discussion at the meeting on Monday around um input from parents and staff certified and non-certified staff I have another um another piece to our committee meeting from Monday night and in your packet you also have a page that looks like this and it's titled District educator evaluation committee update we reviewed this in in pretty lengthy detail and I I will spare you all of the detail about it and sort of summarize here that um the State Department of Education is revamping their educator evaluation plan and we knew that this was coming and so last year in January we had decided to take a look at our committee and we gave it a refresh and asked both our um EAC Union which is the teachers union and the cap Union to get us

103some representation on this committee we sent an email to every staff every certified staff member in the district asking for their participation and if they wanted to participate to complete a simple Google form explaining why they would like to be a part of this work we then met in March um we met again last May and during that time we've engaged in looking at different evaluation models one of them was himim Marshall we also talked at length about the current model that's in place through seed and we have uh in June and then again in September uh the csde had released their guidelines it wasn't their model but simply their guidelines of evaluation since then and you can follow along here back in the fall um both administrators myself Kevin hanin Jeff Solen we had

104attended different evaluation leadership conven meetings to really dig into this work we then attended a workshop at Cass followed up by um some some further discussion about this A letter came out from the csde in December with some more guidance and then just this past Wednesday the state put out their model to the State Board of Education and while I've had a chance to briefly review it I haven't had a chance to review it in excruciating detail but I will and so we have a small cohort going to another professional development session in March and then we'll have um a convening of the committee um let's see in April and again in May we'll be reporting on our progress to the curriculum committee and then eventually to the entire Board of Education looking for approval

105of a plan once we have it nailed down so that we can submit that to the State Department of Education for approval and we would begin the new educator evaluation program next school year so just to give you some highlights of what we're doing and there's certainly more detail in here including Representatives who they are what schools they represent what grade levels and I think when you take a look at that you'll see that we have representation from every grade level and every possible corner of the district so we have I think a really good representative group to work on this any questions comments Mr gripple I just wanted to comment that uh at least um the district is having some latitude in how to uh evaluate their our our teachers which was I think

106a little different than it was a few years ago so Kudos there I guess Dr herrian yeah my comments are along the lines as Adams um we heard a lot of complaints with right to read and and how SD is handling that but I mean here's an example of guidance that SD is giving to school districts that's really useful and so I just would like all of us to remember that sometimes things don't go the way that we want them to and we need to have some patience about letting our government agencies do their jobs and helping them along if if we need to which we are doing but um they're there for a reason we also get guidance from uh these state agencies that's very useful for us as we uh continue to improve

107our programs and this teacher evaluation process is one of those other comments thank you Miss Solano I I definitely recognize that the state did just publish their their motto was Wednesday at 12:35 I think it was um but I I did see that there is no single point rubric as a example so I did not see that in there yes so good luck but to Dr haran's Point yes this is an example of the CSD at least giving us some flexibility to build our plane while flying um and then allowing us to get you know approval as we we start to make some modifications so thank you um within this particular item we do have to call for a motion to approve the field trip I believe it is yes so if whoever has the

108motion Dr herrian I'm happy to make that motion um I move that the chesher Board of Education approve the participation of chesher high school students in the educational field trip to xanu China April 7th 2024 through April 14th of 2024 with the understanding that there is no cost to the chesher Board of Education second second it Miss cullinan discussion Mr gripple and then Dr herrian um several questions um normally when we have an international trip it's for a year out so why is it that this is I mean this is only like what two months um so how did this come together so quickly um do we have any security concerns and I guess do we even have a trip uh trip insurance considering that uh there could be a an invasion at some point

109that could occur I don't know whatever um that may uh prohibit our students from going to China I wish uh I could tell you any of what you shared was like far-fetched in terms of the insurance or whatnot but uh we do require that um families have to work through the insurance process as well uh because we have unfortunately historically had to cancel trips at the 11th Hour um but uh in this trip we are working with Aces um and we were able to secure a grant one week fully inclusive uh is you know 27 50 is is really a tremendous opportunity for our kids there's a $3,000 grant that goes along with each of our students so um and to be honest with you because it is relatively last minute I'm not positive that

110we'll have enough students to actually go I won't know that really until tomorrow um but there has been good interest we had 18 parents express interest in having their children go and uh there was a meeting with families and representatives from Aces who went through the itinerary and security which I'm happy I'll send to the board um so you can see what the presentation was like and because that just happened I think two days ago a day ago um and uh yeah I think I I covered the few questions you asked yeah I would just add that we had a very thorough discussion on all of those points during curriculum committee meeting and um the main reason that it has gone through as quickly as it has is because of the the partnership with Aces

111and all of the work that they did I was quite frankly amazed at the cost that our students are able to take advantage of this trip through it really levels the playing field for um families and participation um so I hope that it does go through I hope that uh we get enough people to to make this trip cuz this the way it's being subsidized through Aces is is pretty amazing actually so thanks for your questions if I may ask what is the risk of not moving this forward limiting a number of participation then we wouldn't be able to attend I mean the bo what's the minimum I guess it would be the question oh the minimum for because you have 18 here number of students so so we only get five do we move

112I think we would have to look at what the costs are okay so there's cost implication if we with with 10 students it's 2750 okay um and we'd have to look at you know if we don't get to 10 do we still go I mean prices can fluctuate on some of our international travel uh relative to the number of students who attend so um you know it's not like DC trip where I could pretty much guarantee the number every year uh from eth grade that are going to Washington uh this is like a some of our other trips to Europe that you know the price is basically set on a on a certain number of students and can go a little up or down based on the number of students who actually enroll so we'll

113see how that plays out okay thank you Mr White thank you I I think this is a great opportunity for the students at the same time I want to just just uh Circle back to Adam's point I think the point that he was making about security and the world is different so tensions are rising particularly with China as between the China China and the US I recently saw an article I think it was in the Wall Street Journal that said it's been in the last couple years not just North Korea and Russia but countries in general are arresting Americans and using them as trading chips for diplomatic relations these people could be criminals for all I know the people who got arrested I really don't know the way that the journal was sort of explaining

114it was they're not and it really is just a diplomatic tool being used by countries um so I before we do you know do you know are the parents and the students high school students so they're not adults but they're aware of what's going on are they aware of the tension with China and risks that are involved in going overseas and again I love it I love to travel overseas and I'm personally willing to take those risks but we're putting this on the chest public schools and doing and and approving something like this so I just want to make sure people are aware sure actually you know many of the students who signed up are of Asian descent okay and are really pretty familiar with relations uh the I know that security was a significant

115part of the conversation okay when they had the meeting so people are well aware of the global conditions I mean um there are certainly risks inherent in American Travel and Y fortunately but um you know I I I know I appreciate the concern I think our families appreciate the concern and uh that's been addressed and ultimately you know if enough families decide that you know this is a a great opportunity for them and then you know that's their decision I I I feel confident with the involvement that Aces has the history that they've had the work that they've already done there um to feel comfortable enough to send one of our employees there too two because Mr May Russell at least one at least one it depends on the number of students perhaps that that

116sign up I'd love to send to but we'll see what happens thank them both if they do get to go with the kids Adam Adam yes um yeah just uh one last uh question so because it's Aces it's not just our students I'm assuming that it's a group of students from Connecticut or from the United States or right there there were other uh districts invited I forget I want to say old sa Brook um and maybe even Cho that were invited to attend as well Mr AI Asus has a history they do this on a annual basis so this this trip I don't know that they've done this trip on an annual basis I know that their people have been there okay um but uh I I think they've done a lot of trips to

117different places all the time there when I was talking to Jason who oversees their international travel stuff uh the other day he was in Portugal um South Korea they they go all over the place um last year I attended a trip with them to Singapore there are regular relations that exist this wasn't a cold call sort of situation um they they've been to the to China on several occasions many occasions okay that I can vouch for I don't know that they do this trip every year but I know that they have regular ties with China okay okay any other discussions no okay so the motion is on the floor which has been seconded um call for a vote to approve yes to approving the trip to China One Two Three Mr gripple yes I'm sorry

118I didn't hear all in favor oh all in favor it is unanimous thank you thank you Miss cullinan um up next Finance Dr herrian yeah thank you [Music] um so our last fine I'm sorry I'm sorry um so you'll find in your packet um the financial report for the 2023 24 Board of Education budget reflecting expenditures and encumbrances through January 30th of 2024 and with that I am going to throw the discussion over to Mr Mariana for because he is much more well-versed in words like encumbrances than I am thank you Dr harrian good evening ladies and gentlemen uh yes you do have the report I I will highlight just a couple couple of things most important that the budget for this year is 84.9 million through January 31st we've encumbered 73.5 million 86.4% which

119typical for this time of the year so we have seven months of the budget completed I do not have any concerns about being able to balance the budget this year there was some accounts that are under budget and two accounts that I wanted to just highlight tonight one is special ed out Place tuition which um I reported in the last two months that it is trending over budget as of January 31st will be about $286,000 over budget in that category you know this is a a result of students that need services that we cannot handle in District and they have to be outplaced the second one is a new item and this is not a budget busting item but I think it's important to highlight that this year we've seen quite a a large increase

120in the unpaid balance for student meals it's not just chesher in fact there was a an extensive uh article in the Hartford current this week February um actually was February 12th so what um couple of things that I want to point out one um this year is um student meals only breakfast is free through the p pandemic years as as the board knows all student meals breakfast and lunch were free this year the legislature approved funding and made breakfast free for all students all districts so our students are receiving free breakfast lunch however is not free here in chesher about 15% of our families qualify for free or reduced meals so the inverse of that 85% of families are expected to pay for their students meals this year year the um what we've seen as

121of January 31st is we have about $119,000 of unpaid meal balances and just to put that in perspective the highest year we've ever closed with an unpaid meal balance was $4,000 at the current rate if this continues and we have lots of measures in place we're trying to get that balance down if it continues we can be um in a position at the end of the year where the unpaid lunch balances is is $40,000 and even though it's not our budget it's the Food Service budget under state law we are required to repay the Food Service program from the board of Ed's budget so the budget implication is whatever unpaid meal balance we have at the end of the year in food service we have to write a check from the board's operating budget to

122pay back the Food Service program the one related item that the board um knows about because we asked our legislators to take it up is that in Connecticut the threshold for free and reduced meals is seemingly too low at this point we've increased minimum wage you know over the last five years but those thresholds have stayed the same so for a family of four to get free lunch meals their household income has to be $39,000 or less so we know from speaking to some families that you know they're above that $39,000 but that doesn't mean that they can afford to pay for all the things that they need including paying for their students lunch meals so we um have quite a few measures in place you know we regularly send emails alerts through parents Square

123we do have one person that is making phone calls now to families to ask them to pay for the student lunch meals and just to put a little perspective around it you know we're talking about you know balances between $50 and $100 that are owed but there's you quite a few of them so it it adds up to 19,000 the other thing I want to make clear is that this is not a student issue when a student goes to buy their lunch they get their lunch meal they are not aware that there's a balance due the lunch staff does not know if there's a balance due it's it's something that only the parents are responsible for and we communicate through our food service program to parents children are never denied a meal there's no such

124thing as ches sandwiches anymore um we do not hold back report cards or prevent students from going to prom so I just want to make that crystal clear this is not an a student issue at the counter um it is a parent issue and and we are following up we're hoping to bring the balance down we think that you know there are certainly some families that um should be paying maybe they're just not paying attention to all the notices they get from us and they do get a lot besides the notices from our food service uh program so wanted to give you that update again it's not a budget Buster it's something that we've never experienced before we are not alone we've been been um talking to other school districts we had a meeting with

125the school business officials and the uh School nutrition Association food directors to work through and share ideas on on how we can make this better it's problem and we're dealing with it the best we can um so that is the financial update I do not have a medical benefits update this evening we didn't get the report yet so we'll report on January and February claims in our March meeting and so with that if there are questions I'll be glad to take them questions Mr gripple Dr herin um so uh Vin along those lines does that mean that you cannot restrict access to um not parent Square the uh is it P no not no you get the grades and everything no the one where you can pay stuff where you would pay School my school

126bucks the place where You' if you have to buy a t-shirt or go on a field trip can you strict restrict access to that system because that seems to be the lifeblood for payment for anything that's extracurricular and it's also the place where you pay your uh school school Lune balance um is there a way to uh restrict that or is that go along the lines of not affecting a students uh experience we can't do anything that will um inhibit student participation in any way and you know that is a that is legislatively um been changed in in the last three to four years it's you know lunch shaming is not allowed and and we don't do anything that we would put student in an odd position right I understand Lun shaming but if you

127cut off someone's act if you cut off a parent access that certainly gets their attention to paying uh a bill right there's no there's really no way to to do that that I could see that wouldn't potentially adversely affect the student right so because the students you know they do use my school bucks to pay for meals and that doesn't necessarily have to be a lunch meal they could buy an all cart item like a bottle of water and so if we we shut that down then they can't buy that bottle of water how do they how do they buy the bottle of water if there's no money in the they could buy it with cash oh mean with cash don't they could use cash right okay but I mean if if they if they

128used no but if they used their lunch card what I'm saying is if they had access right you could still use cash but if they wanted to use their card for food they're not cut off obviously but what I'm saying is for other activities yeah just can't I just don't think there's a way to do it because that would certainly get a parents attention that's all I'm saying as I said we're trying to um make phone calls you know and that we've done that in the past this is not the first year this has happened it's the first year it's ever been this High by far and it is a phenomenon that's happening across the state I will add and I and I know you know that school lunch is very highly regulated every district

129is different you know there are about 40 school districts in Connecticut that um have meals that are free all the time for students we are not one of those and we're among the more affluent school districts but and those are the school districts that are actually mentioned in the article so it is um something that occurred it's it's post pandemic I know there there was certainly confusion created over the last few years where meals were free they're not free well this year breakfast is free so I'm not saying they aren't valid reasons why this is happening but it is something that we take seriously and we're going to continue to work at it but we're going to work at it so that we're compliant with the law and and not embarrassing students in any way

130yeah I would just I would just comment on that and say you know I'm not into parent shaming either um this is a legislative issue that we've known for years and it's been accumulating that um that school lunches need to be available to more families than they're available to right now and I know that you that our staff here is working with the legislature on that and that is an issue that's happening this time around right uh it's been presented yeah to the legislators yeah the the governor's budget uh called for the inclusion of breakfast sub subsidy uh for students I mean our position has been to rather than provide free meals to all is to um raise the threshold for free and reduced lunch access exactly and I think that would help yeah so

131that that's what we've been advocating for um whether or not you know that that is embraced by the legislature we'll see but that's our position and and you know we're not certainly not trying to shame anybody but um the we contact parents when Balan is Rise uh via telephone and if there is an issue where maybe uh the ridiculously low income level that is expected for somebody to receive free and reduced lunch I think it's like something like $40,000 for a family of four to qualify um if somebody's close to that threshold we um Avail them of other services in the town to support them because I'm sure that the needs extend beyond our lunch programs but um for those who where it's not necessarily a financial issue um we do encourage them to pay

132thank you very much and thank you for advocating for that raise that threshold a little bit thanks Vinnie is there if I may any Trend to like to Adam's point about using my school bucks I know it's more digital an easier way to pay I I don't know what's easier I mean parents can pay cash check my school bucks okay just thinking I don't know if there's do you know if something maybe that's maybe I just didn't know if if in the past when you've called is there some sort of trend where parents are saying well I can't really access my school bucks and I don't have any Trend like that to I mean there are some things that we're hearing from parents you know one has been that you know I I used to

133qualify for free and now I no longer qualify for free because I'm making more money but right it's not enough money that you know I could cover all my family expenses so you know that's where that's where it gets really painful you know for us and our food service staff is very kind you know including when they're making phone calls to parents so we do try to help but what I'm reporting is something that's really you know that that type of thing that we've not experienced before so it's really odd for us the fact that we're alone not alone makes us feel better but it's still an odd odd place for us I also just hope like the the food insecurity hasn't increased either we saw it during Co you know what's happening after the

134impact of covid and so forth so just as we go forward if I have anything you know that that we're hearing from you know families I'll I'll certainly report it back to the board but we are um doing what we can and I I think it's important that I don't want to walk into the financial meeting on June 30th and the board is going to say well you know gee that sounds like a high number so I did want to not a red flag I just wanted give little messenger Benny I'm not worried about the messenger thank you thank you for um for the information you're welcome because I I honestly I just worry about the families because families we may think the pandemic is over and maybe it is but people are still reeling

135in a lot of different ways and um I think this is clearly one of them so thanks for the information thank you Dr herrian I think Finance is it yeah that concludes thank you um next committee would be planning Mr eki reporting on our meeting just earlier todays ago yeah um so we met earlier this evening um to speak about the uh uh The Five-Year Capital plan um and we are bringing a draft forward for uh $5.1 million for next year for the for year one of the capital plan Vin would you like to go over any specifics I'll just give you a two-minute overview so the planning committee met on January 9th to review an initial uh 5-year Capital plan uh at at that meeting we discussed and reviewed in detail all the requests

136uh the planning committee asked us to make some adjustments uh we did that we made some further modifications the uh request that you know is over five years is is 55 m845 th000 that is in line with last year the um all important piece of the of the board's work this evening is to look at the 5-year overall plan and I will state that everything that's in the capital plan has to do with required uh maintenance around our buildings its roofs its Windows its cafeteria improvements it's fire alarm control systems for the buildings that are staying there are no funds being requested for Chapman Norton or Darcy which we know that in 3 years those buildings will be going offline um the capital budget is what we use to plan for future expenditures to keep

137our buildings in good repair and as Mr eki pointed out the request for next year which is the only amount that would be funded um assuming it's approved by the council is year one years two through five those funds are not appropriated by the council but they used as planning for future years I think that's summary Mr REI thank you motion so we do have a motion to approve if you have it Mr Aki I in front of you uh move that the planning committee recommends the Chester Board of Education approves a 5-year capital expenditure plan and budget improve for improvements to current buildings in the total amount of $ 55,8 45,000 with $5,100 th000 to be funded in year one with annual allocations as follows 20 2425 5,00,000 25261 16, 425,000 2627 13, 650,000

13812,285 th000 and 2829 8,385 th000 call for a second Mr White discussion on the motion Mr White thank you um so I I support this motion the moving forward with the particularly the first year capital budget the important piece a couple reservations I just highlighted during our meeting number one we're still in the midst of school modernization so particularly with in my mind DOD as because we're talking about student enrollment increasing so so as a student enrollment increases at the elementary it will next get to DOD and so to be mindful of what we're doing there in terms of spending money on DOD Renovations one item in particular I'm hesitant about which is $75,000 for a study of window replacements which takes school modernization out of it I'm fine with it it makes sense but

139in the context of school modernization I've just I asked Vin to just be cautious think about that and hopefully come up with a recap for us for me of how the first phase of school modernization played out and over how many years because I don't want to spend $75,000 for a window for a for a plan for window replacements that we don't do for 5 years and then we renovate dot in 5 years so basically just get an idea of the timeline and how those things could come together and that's just generally speaking with all of our schools obviously to just be mindful of that um any renov any maintenance that we're doing how it could fit in with school modernization and then the one other point that I mentioned to him is just my

140own little energy uh concern he knows what I'm talking about we've been through it for years generator at Highland um and the thought that crossed my my mind actually is if you could have you gotten the demand data for Highland School we do have it you do have it okay so as long as that's part of the conversation with the contractors that's really the important thing yeah anyway thank you and I'll be supporting the motion thank you Mr White I had the same um concerns as you did but Vin if you can just speak to the fact that how we are going to prioritize um for year one and then subsequent years so a couple of things to to pick up on the questions some of the items if you look at the $5.1 million

141that's being requested 500,000 of that is for design work for projects such as do windows um some of the Roof Systems that need to replace including at Highland window replacements at Highland so these this is designed money to not only understand what needs to be done but get a cost estimate you know for the future so these are projects that we anticipate having to do getting the design work done helps us understand what the costs are when you look at a building you know like Dot and that that's you know this is a dilemma that we've had you know even with the elementary schools before we approve D replacement of those buildings there's maintenance you had to do windows may not be something we want to do at Todd um and I think it's on

142the planning committee actually to start looking at what phase two really needs to be and I know dot is high on the priority list of you know if not renovation it's eventual replacement but this is going to be our challenge the next you know few years as to what things do you have to do to keep the building maintained and what things don't you want to do like invest not only 75,000 in dods study for Windows but2 to3 million replacing the windows and do we want to invest the other $8 million that we have as a quote for um making DOD fully air conditioned which by the way we wouldn't do until we had windows in there so there's this the you it's a valid concern and I think the fact that's in the 5year

143capital plan gives us a great opportunity to explore and and discuss and have in hand you know we know these are the costs to get the windows replaced the air conditioning and the roofs replaced that uh do we want to invest in that or are we better off with a renovation or a new building and we would know what those cost would be to offset that we don't want to spend because we're going to do something better thanks Vinnie any other Mr gripple thank you um so I just happen to have a a chance conversation this evening with a uh a mom from the high school who see would that be out here if I said all right so I'll just say this we had a a conversation about Laboratories and I couldn't help but

144notice that we have $400,000 uh for laboratory upgrades um and I'm wondering if there's anything in here for uh prevention I know uh when we had our um our student representative last year who had the that the enforcement Brigade or whatever that was for bathrooms and we we discussed uh security implementation at the actual bathrooms to to sort of tell maybe who's coming and going to perhaps lock down uh uh you know enforcement of uh vandalism uh in inside the high school and uh is any of this for uh for that type of uh system or uh are we just going to just sort of is this money for just continued replacement of Flushed Vape damage and stuff like that it's really not for damage it's really to replace the dated you know the dated

145bathroom so this isn't even for any of that that's just coming out of our maintenance budget essentially yes but we did talk tonight about if we're going to renovate a bathroom can we renovate it in such a way so that you know we have like an airport where you don't have a door you know you have a sheltered access so you could hear sounds and and have a sense of what's happening in the in the laboratory which you know we would hope would tend to prevent trouble from occurring at the rate it's been occurring lately and you know I will say with the issues that we're having at the high school right now tend to e and flow um I just realized what I was saying intended that wasn't intended but um yeah we're having

146a a bad spell right now you know with you know stuff being dumped in into the toilets at cheser high school and we did have you know group of students last year that were really aggressive that helped you know we need another group of students you know to help on that side again to prevent some of the things that we're dealing with on the main inside I could just add a piece there real quick I I think last year's issue was a little bit different in the sense that it was more General vandalism um and you know our our talk to our kids they took ownership of that they don't like the vast majority of kids don't like that situation and so they did a good job of taking ownership of this the more of

147the problem that we see today is you know you can go into a stall with a vape pen and nobody can go in there after you and it's often odorless and you know kid'll use a vape pen not want to get caught with it and drop it down the toilet and flush it and you know we don't Frisk every kid who goes into the bathroom nor should we and so it's uh an incredible Challenge and uh Dr Gad met with the PTA last night because really it's Community issue you know we're not handing out fape pens at the door obviously and so you know we all have a vested interest in trying to address this issue um I know one of the things that we've bandied about in the past is you know treating some

148of our restrooms where it's feasible like hi traffic restrooms at say the mall or the the uh airport or other places where the door is not on the hinges um to support security you can hear things going on in there it's more hygienic on top of it I know like when we toured high schools North Haven relatively new high school they don't have doors on their bathrooms um and so we're trying to work with other communities who are dealing with this uh CT Insider just published this really long article the other day about Stamford High has a a app the kids go on they can see what bathrooms are locked and unlocked and they don't like it either and other high schools in the vicinity in Fairfield County are running into these issues too so

149it really is a community issue that we want to work to address um I mean first and foremost I mean we're we're treating the symptom the problem is the vape pen and why 17year olds have them and 18year olds have them you know it's really uh super unhealthy and you know that's a whole another issue love to go to the source stop kids from getting them um the same way we would stop kids from getting other things that are really harmful when you're 17 but um we are closely looking at this I know Mary wanted to hold a special PTA meeting next month to bring more parents together with our school resource officer um Mike Khan at chesher high and you know see what we can do what we can collectively do to improve the

150situation uh not just I mean I mean the bathroom cost is one thing and it's a problem but you know the health costs the aggravation for the 95 plus percent of kids who have to deal with a bathroom issue you should be able to go to the bathroom at school during the day and um so we need to we need to work together to figure this one out any other comments Dr so wasn't there a prevent I thought we had some sort of preent ion workshop for that specifically too for Vaping yeah yeah we do offer different uh workshops and you know if students are caught with vape pens they you know engage in um an educational program through Youth and social services and stuff the problem is it's it's really hard to catch people

151with Bap pens and it's and it's become popular enough you know I was a a high school coach and know you know even athletes are engaged in this so it's it's really concerning from a public health perspective and it's really a problem and we need to continue to focus on it and I think we'll work with our parents to figure out strategies to attack this okay thank you so the motion is on the floor to approve um so we're going to call for a vote motion to approve two three all in favor it's unanimous sorry Adam thank you fig it's getting late sorry you're a fast learner uh next committee report is policy still back to Mr eki thank you um we met uh January 23rd and February 5th um the we discussed on the

152in the January 23rd meeting uh several policies including uh the status level of sports program the transition from a club program to a Varsity Sport um and on the February 5th meeting we discussed at length uh an equity and diversity policy um and we decided that it would be best to bring to the full board for comment and discussion before we we took any direct action are we are we reading that policy in for first reading yes we in first reading huh for first reading okay you don't have to polic okay all right so first reading of policies um number six 645 point21 instruction status level sports program and number is 0523 Mission goals and objectives equity and diversity Madam shair do we do anything with that or we just move on to the second

153readings we're moving on to the second reading okay second readings number 2132 Administration assistant superintendent for instructional Services number 5111 instruction admission placement number 5112 instruction ages of attendance and number 9230 bylaw new member board orientation great thank you any comments questions okay we're moving on to the next item is the calendar um Dr Solen or Dr herrian I guess if you can report on the February first meeting thank you I'll give it a start and then I'll pass it off so we had um we had a um meeting of the calendar committee on February 1st um where we discussed and um are sending along the calendar for 20242 calendar year uh school year I'm sorry um Dr Solen shared the drafts of the calendar and um it was decided that we make December 20th

154an early dismissal day to allow more flexibility for families who are traveling for the holiday days that falls on a if you're looking at your calendar um that falls on a Friday before the um winter holiday um in addition uh we are looking to change the name of Columbus Day to indigenous people's day and that is on the proposed calendar that you have before you um some important dates to note the first day of school will be August 29th 20124 convocation scheduled for the 26th so put that on your calendars because that's always a fun day for Board of Ed members to attend as well and then um teachers will have professional development for the August 27th 28th and then first day of school will start August 29th um cheder Public Schools will be closed

155on the following days of the 20242 calendar Labor Day September 2nd rashash Shana October 3rd indigenous people's day October 14th Thanksgiving break November 28 29 Winter recess including Christmas and New Year's December 23rd through January 1st Martin Luther King Junior Day January 20th February recess is Feb 17th through 18 of 2025 spring break will be April ail 14 through 17 of 2025 Good Friday falls on April 18th and Memorial Day will be May 26 of 2025 so with no snow days which probably won't happen the last day of school for students is projected to be June 10th 2025 and the last day for teachers would be June 11th uh snow days will be made up June 11th through the 30th and additional snow days Beyond those uh will begin April 17th and that moves um

156backwards in the Spring Break um do we vote on these calendar motions separately yes yeah we do have uh we need to approve we need the motion to approve the 2425 calendar so with that I will put out a motion that the um that the cheser Board of Education adopts the 20242 school calendar as presented all those in favor is there a discussion oh sorry a second is there a second second is there a second Mr eki thank you all those in favor or discussion excuse me I'm losing it it's 951 discussion Mr gripple um I couldn't help but notice that there was a significant change to the 2425 school calendar uh so I'd like to ask um what is indigenous people's day and why is it replacing Columbus Day do do you want me

157to take that one sure um basically Columbus [Music] day has been outdated language for quite a long time now I I don't think our our students in schools have been have been taught that Columbus discovered America for about two decades now um and there's been a movement towards uh showing the respect for the indigenous peoples of this country uh instead and so um I think following the pattern that um many other towns school districts schools certainly higher ed uh has adopted the indigenous people's day instead of the Columbus Day language would anyone want to add to that I mean I I definitely agree I did make that proposal when we were in the committee I believe it is you know respectful for us to also honor and celebrate those that were here and established um

158this land um and given that we have tribes within Connecticut it's right that we only honor those as well too so that was the proposal to change it um and I think you know from this point on that our um history courses and teachers hopefully will take it from here and just allow indigenous groups to be seen and heard as well too any other comments Mr peren so I'm uh very disappointed with how this is being undertaken so indulge me for a couple minutes when the kellerer committee met last year we set the 24 25 Pros calendar a year in advance this is done and we've been doing this for years since know of the board so that all stakeholders can view what's coming two years out be able to give us feedback full transparency

159I love the public comment the calendar we published last year did not include replacing Columbus Day with indigenous people's day it didn't come for conversation fast forward to February 1st was some reason in this committee's haste change a draft calendar to replace Columbus State for up school year not two years out in several months with no notice before the public no notice to the Board of Education I didn't see until I got the packet back on Tuesday or Wednesday thankfully the communication came out to explain what happened and the CPS website still shows to propose calendar for 2425 showing Columbus Day so so the public is largely unaware the other issue here is there's no minority representation from the board on this calendar committee it's basically an and Samantha so Tim and and myself we

160to ask the Serv the committee I think this is an oversight but in my time under this Board of Ed we always have representation in all committees just the right thing to do so all voices are heard had I been asked and I know if my colleagues have been asked they would asked for you guys to pause think about this and follow the pth putting this two years out so the public digest this because it is a major change the issue I personally have with this and I'm going to separate my personal thoughts on this for what's right for the district in a second it's it's alienating the atan American stakeholders in treasure for which as many of us many of us being a first generation in my family I have difficulty elimin clus day

161all together like many many others around Cheshire I come from from Italian background go figure last name is perene I use my hands a lot even when I'm not eating right so my Bor my parents were born and raised in it they're incredibly difficult times they had nothing but their hard work ethic and were barely getting by at that time in Italy they literally lived in cramped farm houses with dirt floors and no bathrooms I can't possibly detail what they and many of my brothers went through to get to the US but nothing but hard work ethic wanting a better future for themselves ully for me is what they had in mind and people find it interesting that if you trace my anesty far back enough in my bloodline you know that I have ancestors

162that were surfs at some point in time that they were allowed to live in a makeshift Villa if they worked the land for no pay for nobility in Italy I'm telling you this for a reason my daughters will never know how difficult it was for my parents and like many many ethnic groups I'm not the only one that has this story but I hope my my daughters never have to live that life but I credit them because they carry the values my family carries and I carry which is to be thankful respect others regardless of ethnic background and I guess that's where I get my fighting Spirit to be equable for everybody I don't be political I don't alate groups I try to fight for everybody to be fair this is not fair taking this

163away is a slap in the face for Italian Americans treasure which also includes Italian American students and treasure Public Schools why do sit home for tresure did you know that one of a longtime Farms here in tresure provid a work for T immigrants as far back as 50s and 60s and even up until recently my uncle came here in the early 50s he was desperate to find work he ran into this Farm here in Treasure and he had day labor work in the fields he survived another Tian immigrant set up a greenhouse operation here in treer many years ago he too did the same thing in fact my uncle and this G gentleman rolled the bat together from Italy when they immigrated to the US I wasn't going to say their names because I don't

164want them getting negative pressed about this but I do respect those gentlemen are Mr Alex arisco and Mr Mike tradina I cannot tell you how many families they've helped out over the years not just Italians all immigrants and the late Mr tradina died a few years ago but he was helping people to his last breath and there's more Rich history in this town you can trace many of our businesses back to it that is not always taught in schools and contrary and I the last 10 years my daughters went to treest Public Schools yes they thought about Columbus but they also talk more importantly about the tian's Heritage and impact on history in a positive manner too that is still being discussed but I can put those personal things aside and I respect the fact

165that we're trying to do the right thing I know you all I know the intent of this is not to alienate or be inequitable like Italians all our ethnic groups all our students in our schools want to be respected for who they are not for what the politics tell us the indigenous population especially do respect and recognition and I'm not getting into that history but more well overdue but the way we're pushing this change through and the way we're doing it is what it telling our children the tidings don't matter and for some students they don't matter either the history is not relevant that cannot be the intent of this board there's a better way of recognizing indigenous people without marginalizing others and still be Equitable this approach is not Equitable any way shape or

166form the state of connectic itself recognizes Columbus slash indigenous people's day as does a town of treasure so why aren we following our own State guidance on this when a board any board operates in a manner such as this it creates distrust not just with us with the public the reason there's no public outrage tonight is because the public doesn't know about this I don't know why this is being pushed through I don't know why we're not being transparent about it with the community but there's a better way of doing this this is not it the uh what I would recommend to this group I'm not going to vote for this motion but this motion should be postponed indefinitely the calendar committee should get back together with proper representation from the board revise his 2425

167draft to include as intended Columbus Day if it so chooses it should keep the draft of 2526 to include Columbus indigenous people's day or indigenous Columbus State however you want to order that because that puts it a year out it gives the ample notice to the public to discuss and in that time period we can teach ourselves why we're doing this we can also teach Public Schools why we're doing this it's just the right thing to do respectful for everybody and I know we're going to talk about the policy this is not an equitable way of doing it the whole point of that policy is to not have this situation where you're being inequal to one group versus another maybe we do need the in place to avoid something like this again I know you

168are I know this is not your intent I know you're trying to do the right thing but my opinion is not the way to go about it there's a way to be respectful both groups and respect everyone and I put that information before you but I will not be supporting this motion tonight thank you for indulging me this evening thank you Mr perini any other comments Mr White thanks for the comments Tony um I based on what you just said so first of all I want to say I history is complicated and it definitely has um the history I was taught here in the Chester Public Schools I'm 51 so 45 to 30 years ago uh it is definitely through a particular lens and history is much more expansive than that I completely get it

169that you're limited in terms of time in the classroom um nonetheless I do share Tony's concerns and so if it's okay I'm going to make a motion tell me if this is in the spirit of what you were saying make a motion to table this and ask the calendar committee to reconsider exactly what you said what the state said Columbus indigenous day indigenous Columbus Day that's my motion to send it back to to the calendar committee so for a point of order and this obviously our chair will will lead this next but if whatever so again I I don't I'm trying not to be that board member that's been around so long that they feel that have to teach the board everything at every second I'm not trying to do that but we have some

170new board members so procedural order is an order um when there's a motion on a table you can certainly table the motion which means it gets discussed it later at time but the motion sits on the table so any point in time you can bring it back up when I said postpone indefinitely that's a way to completely kill the M the motion so it cannot come back up this is in Robert R order um because if the board so chooses whether you po postpone a motion or kill indefinitely if something changes in the underlying calendar you have to make a new motion the next time so maybe postpone maybe give the calendar time to discuss if the board choose it that way revisit later but I I appreciate what you're saying but there's a couple

171ways to do it Mr gripple point of information um Can the uh board uh unilaterally make changes to the calendar without reconvening the calendar committee I don't believe so but I'm going to call Miss jinsky to clarify I don't know the answer to that either quite frankly I that that would typically be an amendment to I mean I think the way that yes you could do that is via an amendment so somebody would have to propose an amendment to the uh calendar that's been presented that would have to be seconded uh discussion and then vote on the amendment that would be the adoption of the revision um just like any other motion would be and that's no different than we do a budget or other motions that can be done as someone offic you can

172also obviously withdraw the motion and make a new motion before we do so can I get a first off a clarification from Dr Solen um specifically to the point that Mr perene made about the two-year um draft calendar and then the makeup of the committee um it is my understanding that we we called for the um members how the assignments were assigned pretty much yeah typically I'm sorry um I know that the policy requires certain representatives and I want to say historically it has been just one person that represented the board on that committee but I don't recall if there have been others in the past I you know I yeah so last year was an and I year before that was two or three other board members year before that was two or three

173other just how we did it traditionally yeah the chair you certainly would sit on there uh I think it says the chair and one other board member so we did satisfy the required makeup of the committee um and having met when we proposed this the full committee didn't um would was not against this at all they moved it forward as well so um at this moment in time it's I guess I'm going to ask are you proposing an amendment Mr White so first of all I'm totally comfortable withdrawing this um but no what I actually would like to happen would be if it was returned to the calendar committee I don't know who's on the calendar committee I've never been involved with it um but just returned to the calendar committee with a basically a

174request saying please consider what Tonia just mentioned a change to the same name which the state uses Columbus indigenous day or indigenous Columbus day so I'm going to leave my motion as is I'm happy to withdraw it if anybody says anything differently um about all the different rules but that's where I am right now um I don't think that was Tony's no those are those are mine in the spirit of what Tony was saying it was my motion in the spirit of what I thought Tony was saying you didn't officially make a motion I oh so then I make a motion can't to I can't we're still on the motion oh sorry an amend it an amendment I make you can make an amendment to the motion yes okay sorry I apologize on the on

175the language I I make I offer an amendment to the motion to refer this back to the count no no didn't do that either to table the motion you can amend this motion that's on the floor and that's it oh that's it yes so is the floor still open to questions the floor is still in discussion at this moment in time well I think we I think we need to have a second or no second and put my thing to bed well you didn't make anything so I don't think so the only option you have right now is do nothing and vote or you can amend the motion to modify the 2425 calendar to include Columbus Day okay I make a motion I make it offer an amendment to the motion to change the name

176to Columbus State the way it is for 2425 and then for 2526 to we're only on 245 right now yeah it's only okay so to return it to Columbus Day as is and then change the 2526 to Columbus indigenous day that's going to be a separate motion separate motion sorry okay we're still on the 2425 yeah so the motion on the floor is to amend the current motion to rename the holiday on October whatever that is 14th is it to Columbus Day and so I guess there would have to be a second for that a second discussion and then any discussion on the amended motion Mr White yeah I just I just want to reiterate history is complicated and I'm not I'm not I it has been told through a particular lens and I would

177love to see a more complete and robust history uh taught in our schools and understood by America at large but I also agree with Tony on the process and about how there's there's a lot of italian-americans who I I do think will could very well be upset about this including the process and not that we could make everybody happy not that I plan to try to do that but just simply the the way we go about doing it I think matters and that's why I'm saying this for this particular year but I'm open to I'm open to changing the name in the future and adding it similar to what Tony said the state does so this time I R voting on the amended right so you vote on the amended v motion if it passes

178it's adopted if it fails it goes back to the motion that's on the floor okay so all those in favor of the amended motion that is currently on the floor one two three all those oppose the amended three exstension Mr a are you abstaining no I got okay all those who are opposing if you can for thank you and then the motion is failed so it goes back to the original motion which is the calendar as presented yep the cheser Board of Education adopts the 2425 school calendar as presented Mr gripple I would like to make an amendment please present your Amendment uh amend uh the current motion to uh add or yeah to add uh to change the um indigenous uh uh people's day uh what was that October 14 14th uh to read

179um Columbus day/ indigenous people's day as uh that reflects the uh calendar of both the town and um I don't even know if it reflects the state of Connecticut I think the state of Connecticut only still recognizes uh Columbus Day uh so at least recognized that would be in uh in uh synchronicity with the at least the town calendar as it currently is formulated second is there a second to Mr gle's Amendment Mr perini so all those oh I'm sorry is there a discussion on the amendment the motion that is amended Dr herrian yeah um so what is it that the town calendar does because I in consultation with uh the town manager the the town calendar lists Columbus day/ indigenous people's day but I think as Mr grippo said the state is exclusively Columbus

180do you have another question Dr heran no I'm thinking so next steps would be to um vote on the amended motion that presented by Mr gripple and seconded by Mr perini all those in favor of the amended motion one two three all those oppose the current amended motion four no extensions the motion has failed I would actually entertain if I may and if I may present an amendment to this in the spirit of inclusivity and um really to respect the um Italian population is that the we adopt the calendar that states that October 14th would read indigenous people's day/ Italian American day that is my proposed amendment if anybody would like to second that I'll second that Mr perini discussion on the amended motion nope so all those oh Dr herrian discussion yeah so I

181feel like it does exactly what we what Mr perini was saying we don't want to do which is just singling out a a one particular ethnic background so I I guess I won't be supporting that Amendment St Patrick's Day if if I may not official holiday I I really appreciate that everybody on this board has come to this from a really genuine place um certainly not wanting to uh alienate but unite all uh members of our our cheser community I I found it interesting the history of uh Columbus Day which I I think supports this amendment that I'm not sure that everybody I didn't know actually uh I'm sure a lot of people don't know that um Columbus Day was the Genesis of that came from uh terrible Massacre that happened to Italian-American immigrants uh

182back in the late 1800s in New Orleans of all places where um you know Columbus Day was really a kind of a minor New England type recognition and when um this terrible incident happened where uh a number of Italian Americans were arrested for uh just kind of indiscriminately accused of shooting the the sheriff in New Orleans or for killing the sheriff in New Orleans um the the folks just stormed the prison and hung 11 Italian Americans which actually cut off all diplomatic relations with Italy at the time there was a lot I mean so um this Columbus Day was actually established uh as a holiday to uh recognize the Italian-American Community even more so I think than it was Columbus but because Columbus was a a figure in the Italian-American Community was acknowledged you know

183as Columbus Day um and so I I think you know that uh this represents a sensitive uh proposal uh that's clearly recognized by both parties um and nobody's going to be perfect on this um and I I think this represents a a sensitive and uh important effort to acknowledge everybody in our community um in a way that that makes more sense in contemporary hindsight just my two cents thank you any other discussion Miss cullinan so interestingly enough um knowing this was was coming um I asked my grandson tonight what he knew about Columbus Day and he said well it's not called that anymore he's in school here in chesher um and he explained to Great length about IND indigenous people and um no no animosity towards Columbus that wasn't part of the history lesson that

184he had learned here in the schools but he went into great detail about it um I am interested um being half Italian um that some of Tony's perspective I'm I'm a bit dismayed that um the word that there wasn't transparent in the discussions around it so I'm concerned about that because I think this is um you know is is a delicate topic as our history Tim that you alluded to is very um in increasingly difficult to meander through um so I would be comfortable in the Nuance that our chair recommended around indigenous people's day slash Italian American Italian amican American um I I do think there should be more discussion for approval of the 2526 calendar in line with um other districts the state Etc but I would be comfortable with um that recommendation this

185evening thank you Miss cullin and any other comments Mr gripple um I won't be supporting the motion um because the uh reference to Italian-American day does not exist it's Columbus Day thank you other thoughts so the motion is on the floor to um approve the 2425 calendar which makes a change to October 14th indigenous people/ Italian-American day all those in favor of the amended motion one two three four five in favor all those opposed two the motion as amended passes the next item would be um the 2526 draft calendar Dr herrian you want to take that as well um the 252 or 2526 calendar is a little complicated and I'm going to throw it to Dr Solen talk about because it involves adding time to the summer because of new school buildings going up after

186so thank you Dr heran so um there's been a lot of conversation as a matter of fact even today I had with om who was our Builder and um arcadis who was our owner's rep for our school construction projects that uh they need and we need frankly as a school system as much time as we can possibly Garner during the summer of 26 uh we will be consolidating three school buildings into two that summer um finishing uh hopefully things are done before uh June but still moving all everything that we have our resources from uh our three buildings Darcy uh Norton and uh Chapman and some of Highland probably some of dittle when we are redistricting into these two new buildings so as such um they've asked that we kind of clear the deck as

187well for their construction purposes um because don't forget not only are we moving stuff but demo has to happen at Norton so we'll be taking that building down um at that summer as well to the greatest extent we can before school starts so as such we're starting the 256 year a week earlier we don't have it in front of us today obviously but the 267 year will actually start a week later um to build in an extended summer there now we recognize that this has a lot of implications for our community you know for vacations and for people that are working and everything like that we you know I'm sure by the time we get there we'll have some alternative plans the the way that we always do to try and accommodate our our community

188but um I just wanted to provide some of the backstory as to why it looks so different than what we typically experience just a full week off uh starting earlier and ending earlier in this particular year for construction thank you Dr Zen um so there is a a call for a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar year if Dr herin you can read that motion I move that the chesher Board of Education adopts the 2025 26 proposed draft school calendar uh recommended by the calendar committee second there is Mr per oh miss miss Colin in second we're going into a discussion for 25 26 draft proposed Mr per jany for sake of consistency I like to make amendment to this motion that we change I just had it for the 2025 2026 cop calendar

189proposed draft and it is a draft that we change October 13th indigenous people do it day to indigenous people's daytin American day this way it gives the board and calendar committee to get feedback before it's formally adopted next year great is there a second to the proposed amendment Mr White discussion so the motion on the floor is to um amend the language of in indigenous people day on October 13 2025 to to indigenous people's day/ Italian American day all those in favor of the let me pull back Carol the initial motion has to be voted on first it's no no so the amendment is on the floor it got seconded and um now we every discussions occurred y all in favor if the motion carries that's the what's been adopted if it fails it goes

190back to the original yes you're right all those in favor of the amended motion one two three four five all those oppos to the amended motion passes great um so we're going to go back to the calendar for um am I reading the same item here I think we're okay because I think yeah we're fine the amendment's been adopted the amendment's adopted we're good we can we can finally move off a calendar off calendar just kind of a clarification so Dr Solen this is draft so it's going to go back to the committee uh to review and then will'll be brought before us again right so this isn't final the 256 calendar is not final until next year at this time when we vote on that calendar um I would suggest that we consider given

191the substantial shift that will occur for that summer that we take this item up maybe in the late fall rather than waiting until February because uh we will certainly you know all already start now telling people to be prepared for this for next summer but you know I think we want to formally adopt the calendar in the fall rather than waiting until February to because of the change not to mention that we will put out a draft at that time too for 67 um so just my recommendation thank you and to Mr perin's point I know there were a couple parents that asked to also participate in the committee as well too so if you can kind of speak to how we're adding on members now to the committee well I don't I don't know

192that we're adding me members per se the board policy says that uh the calendar should be drawn up by a committee composed of the superintendent or design chairman of the board a member of the board chosen by the chair a teacher who may be chosen by the president of the EAC administrator chosen by the president of the treasure administrator personnel and a parent chosen by the president of the townwide PTA but you know like any other meetings that we have certainly the community is welcome to come the other thing is Marlene and I can look at you know putting out a survey like we've done for guidance on other things we put out a survey for the calendar um for early uh dismissal PD days versus delayed days for um for professional development we've done

193different things to try and get community feedback the biggest challenge I'll tell you right now that parents feel in this the calendar is the number of early release days we have and that was part of what was was negotiated into the contract and I think it was a really good idea and you know you try things and we try and evolve I don't know that it played out the way for families that maybe Elementary age families perhaps more so than high school and middle school families but you know we'll talk about that when we go into negotiations you know with our our Union this summer um for our subsequent contract great thank you yeah I know there's a couple parents that would like to voice their um concern and feedback for the upcoming 25 26

194Calendar so thank you Mr gripple and then Mr per J um Dr Solen that uh composition statement you just read for the calendar committee is that a policy yeah 6111 because I'm just wondering if it should be revised because I'm wondering what the relevance of the townwide PTA is to anything right now yeah I think it it this should be maybe representatives of local ptas or something like that but as far as I know they're not a relevant organization anymore yeah it's it's um I don't know I wouldn't I don't know that they're not enrolled but I would hard to hard to call them active so we had a a local PTA member sitting in on that committee but I fully understand and appreciate what you're saying and you know we I think it's worth

195taking a look at in policy to to be more inclusive maybe of different parent groups groups Mr just want to thank thank uh my board my colleagues for entertaining the feedback and making the adjustment I will certainly go with whatever the board decides for next calendar but my purpose is not to put one ethnic background over the other respectful to both but more importantly if we're going to talk about an execute equity in thei we have to be transparent and give folks time to chime in that's all so thank you thank you Mr perini uh board members with any other standing committees comment on Mr gripple um I was just curious I I guess that sort of slipped my attention before um so back at the policy meeting um uh it was discussed that the

196equity policy was to be distributed to the board members for comment and I was curious to know if there was any comment there was there was yeah uh I I received I think the board received comment from Mr perini um I received comment today from Mr White who certainly distribute both of those I think Mr perene went to everybody but uh maybe not no I I was worried about it becoming an legal meeting if I emailed everybody but I will forward and you all be surprised about my input I'll forward I I want to give Mark an a else is on the policy besides and the background of this policy how it came to be and why it is put in perspective so so that's why I sent I'll send to the rest of the

197committee thank you and I'll I'll forward on Mr White's uh email too yeah I'll I'll do it right now yeah thank you Mr perini it was a pretty lengthy um really some good points though no but it was some really good points so if Dr s could full all that to the committee um next item is approval of our the minutes from January 18 2024 and January 3r 2024 or if we could take a second to look at both if you have not so the motion is to approve minutes for both of those meetings is there a second Mr White is that a finger out there okay uh are there any additions or Corrections that we need to make at this point no so we are going to vote to approve all those in favor

198of the minutes for January 18th and January 3rd 2024 um please say I oh it's unanimous nobody opposes minutes are approved thank you Mr secretary are there correspondences that we need to be aware of yes there is oh um I guess I'll read let's see so this correspondence is from let me see if we have a name here is it signed is it signed Dr Solen or is it is it Miss stingo stingo yeah okay so I'll read uh just reading through it I will read her response from February 6th because it seems to summarize her previous email and then sort of come sort of expands um so uh hello Mrs Rosenberg and Miss herrian thank you for reply to my email I appreciate the feedback you provided about a timeline on the school calendar

199however the email did not answer many of the poyant questions first how does someone get invited to a Committee for chesher Public School I have inquired about this in the past about being uh a part of the calendar and curriculum committee next uh what variables are considered Dr Solen sent a survey to the committee last year and then this I'm assuming this is meant to be read into the record or no you don't have to read the whole thing it's it's added to the record okay if people want to access it all right well so then uh basically she is um commenting about the um additional was it I guess the early early early dismissal days or the number of early dismissal days and then she makes reference to other school districts is that is

200that what that means 24-4 is that like 24 days out of something I don't know um but anyway she makes reference to that and um that was a general commentary there we go this will be in the in the minutes for review thank you Mr gripple um Dr Z do you want to respond to that I know you yeah sure um basically I there was another email late today um later today the one I I received but I basically replied to her and her husband both had the concern about disrupted weeks which frankly in I explained to her is a function of that contract issue because elementary teachers have eight collaboration PD days throughout the year in addition to our regular PD schedule um and and that like I I think I just explained earlier

201is is challenging for a lot of people so you know I know different communities do different things West Hartford has a early release every Wednesday I'm not I'm not suggesting we go that route by a long shot but um I think it's something that we do need to take up in our uh negotiations this summer with the teachers union and look at other strategies can you also kind of explain the process we just approved a calendar for 2425 so when at what point do we insert those PD days and so forth now that the calendar has been approved we have to look at all of the days the only date I could tell you definitively that will be a PD day is election day because we close down our buildings really for uh the uh

202registar as of Voters the election to happen and then uh what we'll do now is try and overlay the multitude of required days onto the calendar and that's it's a laborious process um and Miss Solano like basically shelters in the bunker for days on end and tries to make it so that we're not messing with all the various things that are on our schedule already like Board of bed meetings committee meetings Etc bless you great thank you next item is back to you Dr Solen for the superintendent's report thank you thank you um I know that you guys heard earli I got a bunch of things to cover today so I'm going to try and rifle through it I know you heard the high school play will be the 21st 2nd and 3rd um so

203I think I'm going on the 21st or or 20 well I probably have a meeting so the 22nd the CF trivia contest is Saturday March 23rd I know a number of folks um Adam has had good fortune in that event U many years uh nothing to do with luck Dr s I think that's your team name um then uh you know Dr herrian and Company have been there with her cast of former board members uh always a good time I encourage you to check out chesher education foundation.org uh if you're interested in signing up it's only I think it's only like 80 bucks and it's a great time it is so so much fun uh probably my favorite fundraiser it's not even 80 bucks it's like 60 bucks it's like 60 for four people chump

204change really for the the cause that it goes to and the fund that you have it is well worth it $60 for the total for the team of four um I excited to announce that signno recognizes uh employers for their commitment to providing um healthy programming and options for their employees and we were recognized as a gold healthy Workforce uh U I guess gold healthy Workforce uh employer and so that was pretty cool I want to commend Tim or excuse me Tim I want to include commend Vin take three it's like late at night here but um thank you VIN and your team for all your work to help make that a reality you might remember that earlier this year we were recognized by the American Heart Association as a a gold recipient uh for

205the programs that we have through them as well so uh congratulations to Vin and& company uh quick update on K transition program I know that we talked about that during the budget process and curious about enrollment um we expected at least uh two sections at this point we have uh a section filled at 18 and another section um at at least eight um right now that was a few days ago so um we look well on our way to two sections there um quick update on school modernization uh Vin and I attended the Planning and Zoning meeting on Monday uh there if you recall there were a lot of concerns about who's getting a bus and sidewalking uh Vin did a great job of walking the uh Planning and Zoning through how we determine who

206takes a bus so just because you're within walking distance doesn't mean you're automatically a walker we assess for safety and if it's not safe you get a bus so even though there are streets um right across from the new North End School doesn't mean you're a walker because you're that close if you have to Traverse uh uh Maran Road or something so we went through that process and I think the planning and zoning committee really appreciated uh the presentation um the uh other things that we have coming up I I know I've mentioned in March we have our meetings with the um Department of administrative services to go through the plans the uh Architects are you know moving right along in that process uh today was kind of exciting I met with om and uh

207arcadis as I I said and we looked at Norton school um and it looks like they're going to try and do some work in uh the summer to prep for the December like groundbreaking and really hard start at that point but um when we looked at it we thought it'd be uh safer and less of a distraction to do certain things closer to the building it in the summer when students aren't there so uh look forward to sharing more about that when plans become finalized uh so we're we're moving right along it's really exciting um uh earlier today the US EPA and Connecticut Department of Public Health uh completed their asbest management plan inspection um they chose two buildings that were audited um and one was the Norton Elementary School and the other was DOD

208Middle School uh we passed both with flying colors Real Testament uh to our maintenance team and our administrators in those buildings for keeping everything in order uh I'm excited that to announce that we recently received a $50,000 um Connecticut grown for Connecticut kids grant for fiscal year 24 uh the state received 73 applications and we were one of a few to receive a a significant Grant like that um we're excited as you know we put in the greenhouse and uh that was a a tremendous um you know move forward for us and we're looking forward to you utilizing that more with these resources and getting more kids in there uh and you know you know that we in our budget included Agricultural Science I think this will be a really helpful resource toward that end

209so uh very excited we're moving in the right direction there last but certainly not least um yesterday uh the Connecticut Association of schools was on site at Highland Elementary School to award them for their outstanding culture and climate award uh in recognition of the school Community shared success in building an environment where all members feel valued engaged supported and safe uh so they were the elementary school that was recognized for 2024 and we're really proud of the effort that they all put in to make that sort of environment possible for their kids there so uh congratulations to Highland School that's it for me comments questions for Dr Dr Solen awesome job for oh Mr gripple go um Dr Solen um are the uh revised plans for the North End School are they posted anywhere so

210they aren't necessarily revised plans the the school is the same in terms of the design what's I met the yeah the the property layout because I'm sure there were changes not not really uh a change to the property layout um it's just when they're going to start doing the work so the the real change is if you're familiar with Norton school um in the back of the school there's a little bit of a roadway that pathway really that curves around to a lower asphalt area and um the fire I'm sorry I was referring to the North End the pnz I'm sorry I I had the Norton one on they haven't done Norton yet right cuz I got him confused they pnz has not met on Norton yet um that's their next meeting that we'll be

211going to that but um in terms of the Planning and Zoning uh for the North End there were some um Minor Adjustments that I I will have to solicit the architect to make sure that I have that updated plan and we'll get that on the website I'll get it out to you guys I'll ask Justin and Jeff and we'll follow up with them tomorrow to get that that revision thank you sure thank you thanks Dr s is there any um comment also where we are in the budget process and know we obviously moved it to the town yeah sure thank you uh the we just had communication that the uh Town manager will be presenting the overall Budget on March 12th we don't yet have a date for education but uh it'll kick off on

212March 12th so probably shortly thereafter great thank you uh next item new business uh chair's update although Vin just a little challenge can we get a Blue Zone award next time just saying what kind of Zone Blue Zone what Blue Zone where the whole area is like at a certain level of Health oh for I think I'm right by saying Blue Zone but Andrew asked her this last time too aspiring to the next level so whatever it is I'm sure we'll be there next I don't remember that I'll send it to you it's something to to earn we'll try I'm just I'm channeling uh Andrew right now I remember him asking for that last time um I don't have much for the chairperson's update I just uh kind of reiterate that if at all possible

213um we can join the Polar Plunge um especially this year since Dr Sol's participating um and I do want to yield some time to Mr perene because he had some um information from cab if he want if he could please oh just one item oh just one item okay CU you heard enough from me this evening so uh I think it's good news so the Attorney General of state of Connecticut finally approved a contract between cab and a state education for C to provide the board member professional development training that was passed in legislation last year for new board members elected starting 2023 so the new folks uh cab just got that news the other day uh so I gave it a few weeks I'm sure we'll be getting information what that's going to look

214like and what's required but no one C they're going to make it as painless as possible so it's a I think it's a good thing other thing I learned too is apparently there's a number of contracts held up with the attorneys General's office because cab NSD nego negotiated this about a year ago and just now I got approved so nd's defense they're also suffering from some backlog of uh contracts too so that's it just for clarification would their participation in the uh orientation count as that or I hope so I don't know the the K board hasn't got the details yet gotcha because they're they're not just not working out those details W Ste okay so we'll know in a few weeks great thank you um other than that announcements of um upcoming meetings we

215have Monday March 4th 7 PM policy committee will be meeting at humston boardroom Thursday March 7th this is 202 3 which I'm going to change Thursday March 7th 2024 7:30 p.m. will be the Middle School showcase meeting at dad Monday March 11th 700 p.m. curriculum committee will be at humiston boardroom and then Thursday March 21st 2024 7:30 our regular business meeting will be held here in town council chambers um we do want to recognize that February 19th to the 20th um schools in central office will be closed for the February break yay um March 14th will be a professional development day so there will be no school for students and then March 29th is Good Friday so both schools and central office will be closed um with that I do want to wish everybody a

216happy February break and um pres day as well too and the last item is a motion to adjourn Mr White second M Jackie all those in favor of adjournment it is unanimous thank you we are adjourned