001here here here here here thank youone to ask we stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation and justice for all welcome everyone it's nice to see many happy smiling faces in the audience for a change um I'm sure there'll be public comments we're looking forward to that but before we get to that part um Ella and Andrew welcome again these are for folks that aren't aware these are a new student representative for school year so what do you have for us tonight what's your student report about all right well we have a lot for tonight so starting off just kind of with some extracurricular things going on at Chester high school now that we're kind of a
002few months in a lot of our clubs are in full swing uh next weekend the best buddies Club is having their annual Spooktacular and all the students from chesher are invited to come around and get the candy and everything it's such a sweet event um all the political clubs are getting ready for election day um there are the school newspaper is working on their first print edition and the fall play through the drama club which we spoke about last time they're getting closer to their performance it's the show is called deadline it's going to be on November 16th 17th and 18th I didn't think we met before then so I wanted to get that in this week um speaking of the drama club the spring musical was just announced two weeks ago and our director
003was very excited to announce Mean Girls so that the high school version of course so that is an exciting thing at teser high school we also recently had the class of 70 70 something they came for their 50th reunion so that was 73 73 that was very exciting they came and watched the football team win big against Glastonberry and then they came for a student L tour and one of the people organizing it actually even emailed our assistant principal Mrs pels how touched they were that they were able to come back and that the students were so eager to really show them around and really see all the awesome improvements that have happened in this 50-year span of time so that was really nice um going back to some other things around the school Music
004in Motion occurred the weekend of October 7th and that is always a success you guys know our band is awesome and let's see tonight there is a hypnotist show at the high school it's a fundraiser for all four grade levels the student go representatives were able to reach out to the grade and advertise and people could purchase a ticket to come see this person uh kind of put on a show and like audience interaction it's a really cool experience for students uh and one of the last things on my end is that we have had the incredible opportunity for this past week to host German exchange students through the AP German class at our High School uh I'm not sure exactly how many but personally in my classes I've had one in at least I
005would say four out of eight of my classes and they all seem to be having a really really great experience at chesher they've been coming to not only the classes but also club meetings the football game on Friday and other things going around in chesher and now tomorrow will be their last stay with us before they head to New York City but they seem to really have a blast so I'm glad we were able to bring them here Andrew and um I'll be talking about the sports end of things at our school um so recently at Amity High School our unified soccer team um had a had an event it was an awesome experience for all involved um it provides opportunities for kids with intellectual intellectual or developmental disabilities um and it provides many opport
006opportunities for them they love it um similar last night at the high school the Middle School sports unified soccer tournament happened um the girls and boys soccer teams and the best buddies Club helped set um helped organize and run it um and the football team helped set up the Nets tables cones and other supplies necessary for it um on the um on the Varsity Sports Teams uh senior nights are coming up throughout um we've already had various um teams host their senior night um it's a very special night for seniors um as they are honored it's their final home game match or meet um mine is coming up soon against West Haven for football um I'm kind of sad about that in a way to leave uh leave football behind but there's other things in
007the future obviously um our cross country teams last night dominated the uh Southern Connecticut conference by wi the boys place third third place and the girls placed first place um we had two boys Dand Souza and Tyler Karen who placed on the all SEC team and all seven girls on our girls cross country team placed on the all SEC team um additionally at the Freshman race after the Varsity race two of The Freshman played first and second place so um the future is bright for cross country at our school um and overall chesher has 40 wins nine losses and two ties which is in my opinion pretty amazing so far um and and I speak on behalf of football as I'm a football player um that we're six and0 and we have the best start
008since 2014 so we hope to look uh for more wins and hopefully States and beating Southington um and yeah that's it thank thanks Al Andrew uh any questions from board members an yes hello I'm wondering if um either one of you could speak to um what the schools are doing with the chesher food drive we have a lot of parents and and students here and um so it would be just nice to spread the word here tonight while they're here yeah yeah so there are various sports teams and um classes that are hosting food drives um or sponsoring food drives they happen every year throughout the entirety of the year um I've been a part of many of them in the past they're an awesome opportunity to um donate to the food pantry as they
009are always in need of food items especially since Thanksgiving is coming up um so we are encouraging and um and advertising the food drive to get as many as of now Thanksgiving items in as possible thank you yes ma' please so will we be expecting one of you or both of you in the cast of Mean Girls coming up I hope to be in the cats of Mean Girls good luck and I think there's a leaf breaking of event too this weekend as well for connected to the food drive or no so I believe the leaf raking event is the one that is organized through Treasure high school will be November 11th so it's a little further off into the future and clubs are encouraged to sign up and get a group together and um
010senior citizens in town are able to sign up to have their yard as a part of the event and clubs are assigned to a specific yard to go to but that specific event happens in November yeah and I was talking to our assistant principal today about it um so there are 30 senior citizens homes and towns that we go around in rake leaves for um we encourage all sports teams um clubs and just individuals to go help out um and even like even out the work um amongst all 30 houses um and it's an awesome event um we do it every year and it it's a great turnout every year thank you Ella and Andrew I appreciate the update uh presentation puts us in a good spirit time you guys show up so thank you
011so much uh you don't have to stay you know I probably a lot of homework stuff to do but you're welcome to uh no pressure there yeah there you go yeah that's actually a lot more fun uh than our than us up here so thank you so much thank you you're very welcome you to enjoy your night as well up next we have a presentation at the school partnership award I believe Mr Martelli uh will be helping present that with you Mr jeffre Mr Jeff okay all right good evening everybody um Cara Scotty dargus and her therapy dog Chloe joined the Highland community in September 20121 and completed their service in June of 2023 Cara and Khloe are part of an organization called called pet partners disappointed she upside over the past three years Cara
012and Khloe have been coming to Highland School to visit classrooms throughout the building students have had an opportunity to spend time with Khloe during regular classroom visits on some occasions Khloe has enjoyed independent reading where students have enjoyed reading their books to Khloe there's an immediate response of Joy when the students see Khloe enter their classroom Khloe is a nine-year-old Shepherd Husky mix who loves to be around the students Chloe and her Handler Cara have dedicated their time to students and staff of Highland School and for that we are forever grateful Cara and Khloe retired this past spring your service to our community has left a lasting impression and positive impact on the overall climate of the school thank you so much thank [Applause] you this our you want to come [Music] over oh sit
013[Applause] thank you sure thank you so much for having us [Music] true that's the first for me on the board that's awesome yes Samantha I do want to ask Dr Sol if there's a succession plan to follow with this Scott you guys have support still right at the at Highland or are we between yeah we're between pets right now at Highland but we do have pets at other schools uh yeah yeah yeah but you can see the energy in the room change with the dog and we see that you know we have actually one of the world's largest rabbits I think at Dary uh is the Kim's here right what's that she'll be heing March so this is uh Animal Kingdom meets Board of Ed meetings this year so look forward to that that's awesome
014I think we need one for the board yeah so up next we have uh audience public comment I assume most of you here tonight to dress the board so uh the way this works our policy allows uh three minutes per speaker I think we have public comment is 30 or 45 minutes I don't recall in length but we could accommodate that as things go forward just be mindful that while the board we may not as exactly answer your questions or be able to take action we are listening I think we'll be able to respond in some manner if need would kind Soliz so anyone that wishes to address the board you're more than welcome to to come to the microphone and we'd love to hear from you all we ask you state your name and
015um address sure a Ben Paladino 25 the clerk AB cheser Connecticut do I I need to say or is that okay okay all right all right good evening I want to thank all school school community and board members who are present tonight for allowing us this opportunity to speak and for all the work that you do tonight you're going to hear from members of our community parents alumni coaches and most importantly student athletes my wife and I moved to this community because as two Educators we believe the Chester school system was doing it right we believe that Equity was system was Sy systemic throughout all portions of the educational system I was surprised when I discovered that fencing an Olympic sport was only a club our Fen has put in just as much time as
016other athletes who are recognized at the varsity level the fencing team participates in a league where most schools recognize their fenters as Varsity athletes in fact there's a leag champ chionship at top Spencers have an opportunity to be named first and second Team all conference last year Chester placed three athletes on the All Conference teams but their accomplishments were not celebrated in the herald the patch or even as a school Community because of their status as a club activity there's also a state tournament that encompasses all schools regardless of their size they recognize the top eight F finishers as all state and their respective weapons class it is embarrassing when I enter another school in our league and I see an entire trophy case dedicated to the sport of fencing and we have none it
017is embarrassing when parents and students need to carpol when other schools pull up in a team bus it is embarrassing when I enter a gymnasium they're going to away meet and fencing Championship Banners are displayed alongside their fellow Varsity equals but our state champions from 2011 and 2013 are not recognized in the wall of Honor with a banner in our gymnasium it is also embarrassing when as a parent when I see our athletes having to coach themselves because we have no paid staff living in a town like chesher educational budgets are often passed because we as a community value academic and extracurricular activities it is a mark on our reputation as an inclusive and caring Community when other schools in our league do not take us seriously because we are not a Varsity Sport remember
018what we permit we promote students and their families are disenfranchised because our failure to recognize the hard work dedication and commitment of these student athletes the time is now to act you will have the numbers you will have all the reasons to finally recognize these students as Varsity athletes one bus coed meets satisfying Title 9 one budget that Services 40 male and female athletes meets and practice held in the calf that do not conf they don't conflict with the gymnasium time plus by recognizing feny a vars fencing as a Varsity Sport you will not only affect the current fencers in our program but you'll also validate athletes and their sacrifices from the past and ensure that future fencers are not marginalized I thank you for your time and pray for the board to amend inequity
019that has existed far too long thank you thank you hello I'm hea can sorry Heather Von Fisher 428 cook Hill Road all right so hello everyone um I'll lead in I'm probably GNA talk fast so I'll try to slow down a little bit um my name is Heather Von Fisher I'm here to propose that the Fencing Club at chesher high be promoted to be a funded Varsity Sport that's our purpose my husband formed treasure fencing and we've maintained it since 2003 with invaluable commitment from so many others beginning in 2003 with a bunch of fifth graders the club evolved from Park and wreck and YMCA programming to a recognized Club at chesher high because those kids advocated for themselves they wanted this club to exist in the past 15 years at chesher high the club
020has introduced fencing to hundreds of boys and girls these fencers have attained state championship titles and consistently rose up as top finishers in novice JV and varsity state tournaments and we've seen dozens of students advance to compete at the college level as a member of chaffa which is the Connecticut High School fencing Association Along with 30 other uh plus other schools our club is recognized at the state level this the state of Connecticut is divided into three uh conferences we are part of the central conference which includes Guilford North Haven Daniel Hand Morgan North Branford and Simsbury we also fence cheser Academy and Hopkins the club Services 30 to 45 boys and girls regularly who have in incredibly diverse set of interests from music and arts to science and sports it's a broad scope last
021season we fielded all six Varsity squads along with some JB squads the greatest challenges come with the lack of recognition and the access to the benefits offered to other sports we don't have consistent access to transportation for our way events and this limits student participation because we're relying on Parental transportation we don't have access to gym space we make the calf work for practices and matches the students are not recognized at the sports Banquets I am responsible for um attaining The Varsity certificates the letters and the pins for the eligible fencers because we do recognize them internally because they are eligible we need to um and then also we need to re um we need the ability to retain paid coaches fencing coaches are not a commodity and there's only so long that someone can
022volunteer because of these limitations chesher runs at a disadvantage with the other schools this club has been self-funded for all these past years and has relied on fundraising donations and clubs we've produced procured thousands of dollars worth of equipment to afford students the opportunity to experience fencing we reached the ability to lend a full uniform and access to Club weapons for those interested in trying it out for for approximately $20,000 per season we estimate that fencing at chesher high school could become a more inclusive and stronger program that 20,000 would go towards coaches Transportation equipment and overall competition fees I respectfully ask that you consider promoting the Fencing Club to be a Varsity Sport at Treasure high school thank you thank you [Applause] he good evening my name is Kathy Paladino and I'll be sharing
023with you the testimony of a former CHS student who couldn't be here tonight to the chesher town board my name is semantha Bosque I attended chesher High School from 2016 to 2020 I was an epe women's fencer all four years and a co- Captain for two years I want to begin by giving my gratitude to Heather Ron Fischer as well as to my coaches and my teammates throughout the years fencing gave me structure and Leadership opportunity fencing gave me activity strength training joy and fencing to this day I am still in connection with members from my team and I am so thankful to have met them I unfortunately cannot be here this evening being the captain of the fencing team led me to the confidence in becoming a student leader and has inevitably been one
024of the reasons that I reside as Clark University's student body president overseeing our student council when I entered chesher high in 2016 I was welcomed with a warm embrace by my captains I never had the athletic build or experience but I was encouraged and supported to become a fencer from absolutely nothing I went on to compete in tournaments win points for our team and eventually become co- Captain for two years in a row and every aspect we were a sports team we held our senior night picked our captains had consistent practices and meets if anything we worked much harder than a varsity sports team because we were given no support by the school our coach es were so kind and dedicated to always bring equipment including uniforms and blades for anyone to try without needing
025to make a purchase they brought the electric strips to every practice in every meet we had to practice in the evenings throughout the winter semester because we couldn't have access to practice spaces as other sports teams did Chester fencing was run on sheer dedication and passion it is safe to say that the way Chester fencing operates now is not sustainable to put all the work on our coaches and especially Heather Von Fisher is unfair and unnecessary fencing is a fantastic sport that could be putting chure on the rankings as a sports team if we were fully recognized and given proper support funding and storage as much as I enjoyed my four years of fencing I knew that other schools never took us seriously because we were a club even with the top finishers in many
026tournaments chesher High did not recognize our accomplishments I had no official athletic records to send to colleges except for any tournaments I entered on my own as an individual I also had no guidance through chesher high that could have led to my recognition as a student athlete when I went to college it is a huge loss to any student to put so much work into an Olympic sport yet have no school supported records to submit to college I deeply hope you will all consider allowing students to show you how much success a varsity chesher team would bring to the high school I cannot think of what could be holding the district back from the success and excitement that a varsity fencing team would bring to our town thank you for your time Samantha BOS thank
027you thank you and thank you to Samantha as well would I anyone else like to please you're welcome to Kim O'Donnell 20 Mount Sanford Road um I my husband and I had two kids who fenced for chesher high school Jim also volunteered as a coach my husband did but let him address that um our daughter Jessica graduated in 2011 our son Nicholas graduated in 2015 um and I want to focus on Jessica's story because Jessica was a kid who was Raising her hand in kindergarten soccer saying can I have a break now can I have a break and never was interested after that in any ball sport right Sports were not hers she was not an athlete wasn't part of her self-concept when she was I think she was in eth grade and she was
028watching fencing one night and Scott Von fiser stood in the middle of the gym and chanted her name till she got up to try um and so she she just finally gave up and got up and tried and Jessica went on eventually to be captain of the chesher Fencing Club um and and thought of herself as an athlete in all forms of that word she also went on to be a division 3 NCAA fencer at haford College where she also became captain in her senior year Jessica regularly now engages in sports activities she you know she thinks of herself as somebody who is physically fit and physically competent her self-concept was formed by being able to fence and she never would have played LaCrosse or soccer or anything else she would never have thought of
029herself as an athlete our son Nick did not fence in college Nick was also a kid who never after I think he stopped playing soccer in second grade didn't think of himself as an athlete um but fenced all through high school after trying fencing he didn't fence in college but he did did go on to play rugby in college and Nick recently finished a 55 uh K Marathon in the mountains of Idaho and regularly scales 12,000 foot mountains and he wouldn't be doing any of that I'm confident if he hadn't thought of himself as an athlete but of course as everyone else has said they were never recognized as athletes as CHS and but I think what I want to speak to is that that population of kids who are never going to Play Ball
030Sports on a field and yet what it means to them to be able to find a sport and as everyone an Olympic sport where they can feel competent and feel successful and change how they think about themselves thank you thank [Applause] you would Mr oono like to come up next uh as as Kim will tell you I'm I'm Mr polling she kept her main name frankly she's got the Odon name I'd have kept that too uh it's much cooler uh I have the distinction of being uh one of the founding members of the chesher Fencing Club uh serving from 2007 to 2017 I think somewhere around there I was also the head coach during the wonderful run we had in 2011 to 2013 where we were state champs in epe uh 2012 uh second place
031I have not gotten over this defeat I'm sure that U some remember this um I don't want to repeat what everybody else is repeating because they're telling you all these wonderful stories what I do want to tell you is that the students certainly when I was there and I'm sure it's still the case are an underserved population within the high school there are students that do not participate in other sports either because they're too physical they're too intimidating it's accessible and it's accessible to a certain sort of student um for several years uh when we were at the at the club level I think 90% of the Honor Society was fencers uh I know it's a not a population that probably sees itself as a athletic but there's something about fencing uh the kind of
032physical chest that fencing is that no other sports brings and it is a gateway and an introduction to a world of Athletics that other students probably wouldn't have so I just want you to keep that in mind as we go forward and you're going to hear lots of other letters there's lots of letters out there uh and stories and everybody's got wonderful stories and it's worthy of your support so thank you Mr much appreciate [Applause] it good evening thanks for taking the time to hear us uh my name is Phil Newton 158 North Brooksville uh Road and uh I'm going to read a letter uh from my daughter uh my daughter Lauren Newton 2018 graduate um and is now in Washington DC uh my experience sorry wrong paragraph she texted it to me of course
033uh uh when I got wind of the opportunity to speak uh to the Board of Education I was ecstatic to share my experience chesher fencing was part of my livelihood from fifth grade all the way through senior year of high school my aunt and uncle beginning the group may have been part of the reason I began fencing however it was the sport and the people that made me keep with it she was also a lacrosse player so this was a great opportunity we talk about people that aren't you know playing ball sports but she viewed fencing as a huge opportunity to expand her athletic experience and she says my experience began in element Elementary School watching the high school meets in Middle School began to practice with them sometimes compete in Friendly matches once I
034made it the high school I was on a mission to support and grow the club as much as possible as team captain for two years I saw many students join our club at all levels we made bonds with one another saw personal and athletic growth this all did not come easily the willingness of other programs to put us on their schedules even just as a club and compete with our organization has a tremendous impact on our growth the Connecticut fencing Community respected our organization because they saw the commitment of the athletes and the accomplishments throughout the years additionally myself and many others participated in outside coaching this was necessary because as a club we had limited opportunities for practice due to the time constraints of volunteers and ability to schedule space within the school I'm
035immensely grateful for all of the volunteers and families that have kept Cheshire fencing alive for the past 20 years and I look forward to seeing the team grow as a Varsity Sport in chesher thank you thank [Applause] you hello my name is Ben Paladino I live at 25 ler Avenue I'm a junior at Chester High School I've been fencing since the second grade my teammates have awarded me the honor and privilege of being named epic Captain this year I've dedicated most of my life to fencing and I truly love the sport most of my peers do not respect the sport of fencing let alone the athletes who fence I've always tried not to let it bother me but at this point I feel that the school Community does not take us seriously beginning my eighth
036grade year I find myself not bringing up fencing at all and actually hiding my love for this amazing sport I was hoping that high school would be different but then I discovered that fencing was not a Varsity Sport and the disrespectful comments continued again this did not deter me from pursuing my passion nor from bettering myself that athletically and advocating for my sport I realized that despite not being recognized by the town I was born and raised in I was still able to grow my sport I've been competing throughout the New England region and uh recently have earned enough points by placing the top 20% of my tournaments to qualify for Junior Olympics and Summer Nationals I know where I can go with my passion and I will continue to chase down my dream of
037fencing at a division one program where I can further progress in college it is sad that despite our accomplishments as a team our school Community still does not take us seriously we are a co-ed sport we embody inclusion we train just as hard as any other Sport and we show up and represent Chester in a positive way even when Chester does not acknowledge us I invite all of you to attend a practice League meet or better yet attend the league championship tournament you will witness the Stark difference between a fund ADV Varsity Sport in a club without paid coaches consistent Transportation or funding you'll be surprised at our spirit and tenacity despite our challenges as club status I ask you to please consider making us Varsity Sport the time is now to rectify the Injustice
038and truly act in the word of quality and not just claim thank you thank [Applause] you all right you hear me great I'm John Pearson 1341 P Lane um been fencing for about three years now this is my senior year in high school and um I've noticed that fencing has brought a lot of joy to a lot of different people here met some great people never thought I'd ever talk to seen people from a lot of people from the marching band who I never thought I'd see again after our Nationals but um seeing them again in a whole different aspect was always a great feeling um after I'd see these people um after seeing like for months of training and practicing being recogn being unrecognized from um not as official sport I could see it
039weighing down people at our school you know after we went to other tournaments and championships or and even meets with other schools with less equipment having to share equipment taking longer it's pretty embarrassing to have to sit there and um you know swap out a jacket because we can't afford to have extra ones so having people my size even being like um Get Off the Strip take many minutes to swap and have people wait it's kind of embarrassing and chesh high school I know is really big on our presentation outside of school and big on presenting how we look towards other schools across the conference and um for us to have to go and put on the best presentation we can but still be not enough is um really I feel like dwindles how we
040look to other schools um I feel like with better equipment better transportation and um all that kind of stuff I feel like we could make it a lot better for other schools and how we look because um being unrecognized for being like big tournaments and winning achievements and not being able to present that I feel like it's also a missed opportunity for us because we like to I want to say gloat but we like to we like to show off how good our Sports is and with being not being able to represent and show how good some athletes have done is more of a missed opportunity and I feel like another Miss number on the SEC board I hope everybody considers this and considers funding this because I feel like um because seeing people being
041upset not being able to show up to competitions that are hours away because of parents being able to work because we're all working and we don't have hours to take off to drive to get our parents to drive us somewhere so I really hope you guys all consider this tonight and give us a chance thank [Applause] you uh I'm Victoria Nichols and I live in 35 cier way I've never been a fan of joining new groups or Sports because I've always been too nervous or too shy to go out there and meet new people and try new things until last year when I was a sophomore one of my senior friends told me I had the right personality to be a fencer and at first I said thank you but the second thing I thought
042of was fencing and ever since I joined fencing I realized there was a different kind of family at chesher high school that I could be a part of not only did I feel happier but I had so much fun and had so many laughs and I made so many new friends and I met so many different and new people at the other schools not only did I feel hold on that was saying the same thing my bad my friends always told me wow you're in a Fencing Club but like that's so cool but why isn't a sport and I've always had to tell them that I don't know why and everyone always talks in the Halls about whether or not they're going to the football game on Friday or the softball and volleyball games but
043what about fencing tournaments wouldn't that be fun to watch it would be something new for people to focus focus on and learn more about because as soon as I learned about it and now as a junior even though I'm still a new fencer I fell in love with the sport just like that and I think other kids who are nervous to try new things just as I was could fall in love with it too thank you thank [Applause] you sorry Iman Nui seven career way um hello everyone my name is Iman I am a senior and I'm one of the captains this year at the Chester Fencing Club here at Chester high school I just wanted to take some time up here to talk about my experiences within the treasure Fencing Club so I started
044fencing my sophomore year of high school and prior to me joining I never fenced before and so joining fencing was one of the first extracurriculars I'd ever joined as we had the p pmic my freshman year I remember feeling so nervous and scared as I never joined a community like this before to myself I still felt like I barely graduated Middle School however walking into that gym Chapman Elementary School gym my sophomore year and uh my sophomore year was one of the best decisions I had ever made through the club I made so many friends and built so many communities and fencing even gave me the conf confidence to Branch out and join other clubs and activities to try new things and meet new people to me fencing was more than just a sport or
045a club according to CHS it was a community I built I remember always feeling such a deep connection and love after every practice and every competition and yelling out Chester's name at the end of it but learning fencing is difficult it's unlike any other club in the Treasure high school or and it should be regarded as a sport we spend our Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. practicing our form technique and learning new skills and that doesn't even include competitions on the weekends with hours of practice and competition each week fencing is more than a club on top of that competition days are more than just competing for us treasure treasure fencers it means we have to get up and drive ourselves to places like Gilford or Madison which can take over
046an hour to get to um the students and especially our director Heather Von Fischer can't always get a bus available for competitions due to a lack of funding which if we were classified as a sport at cheser High School then we would not have to worry about driving ourselves for hours to get to a competition the treasure Fencing Club also participates in tournaments the novice JV and varsity tournament and we usually place in these tournaments meaning that and get medals meaning that most years we have fencers who are ranked in the state for all the skill and commitment it takes to be ranked in the state we should absolutely be recognized by the school for a dedication to the sport as someone who has been fencing for three years now my life has truly changed
047for the better through the the Fencing Club even more so that I'm considering fencing in college we deserve to be recognized as a Varsity Sport and I hope the Board of Education will support us thank you thank you good evening my name is Jim lebre uh 1289 Deer Run Circle and I have yet another letter from a former fencer my name is Barrett Le and I'm a 2011 graduate of chesher high school I started fencing through the chesher program in January of 2015 when I was in sixth grade I was terrible at it and I wanted to quit after two classes thank goodness my parents encouraged me to keep trying if not if not for fencing I never would have found my place fencing was my main extracurricular before and during high school and it
048provided me with lifelong friends who I view as family two former Chester fencers got married to each other I recently attended the wedding of another it also allowed me opportunities I wouldn't have gotten any other way I fenced on the Collegiate varsity team for four years at Boston College against Olympians and national champions and I'm very proud of my Varsity letter beyond that my teammates again friends turned family saved my life and not for the first time I know I have a Network because of this sport I'm sure many people will rise to talk about what the team is now the incredible sacrifices of the Von fisers and the hugely generous Gifts of time and expertise from all the volunteer coaches like John minardi and Jim poine over the years that family aspect is what
049makes this program so special but I want to talk a little bit about the early days in all that time we practiced and eventually competed wherever we could find Space usually Elementary schools sometimes having practice cancelled or moved last minute to accommodate other groups my freshman year of high school I talked about fencing so much that my history teacher who was also the softball coach hi Mrs dorbo I'm a history teacher now too convinced some members of the softball team to support us in our first ever home meet but we weren't a part of the high school yet so it was at Norton the other team was confused and thought they had shown up to the wrong place so we kept working at it fencing was on my high school class ring but I never
050got a real Varsity letter just the one Scott Von Fisher bought for all of us with his own money when we graduated I have fond memories of many meetings with longtime chesher High Athletic Director Steve trone working on a proposal to let the fencing team use the school in any capacity at all I thanked him for it when I asked him to sign my yearbook he was as always gracious I still remember the unrestrained joy when after many back and forth discussions on our proposal I could call the team and tell them we were a competitive Club the same as the mathletes who knew that was a thing it wasn't a big move on the school's part but it meant the world to us moving the team to the high school meant we finally had
051a stable place to practice and compete it meant we belonged at least a little we not the high school chartered and paid for a yellow school bus to drive us to the state championship the next year the first time we had ever traveled anywhere together as a real team instead of car polling and then we won and it wasn't our last when I checked a few years ago at least a couple of the trophies were still in the case I really only started fencing because there was a a demo one day at Chapman things would be immeasurably different now if I had even just been sick that day instead I got lucky and my whole life changed imagine how many generations of fencers won't need that kind of luck to get started because they'll see
052and hear about it at the I School while I no longer live in Connecticut I dearly wish I could attend this meeting in person and urge everyone in attendance to support the feny team in the culmination of their dare I say our decade plus quest to obtain official recognition as a Varsity Sport at chesher high thank you for your time and go Rams thank you thank you so [Applause] much good evening good evening uh I'm John minardi uh I was assistant coach of the fencing team with Jim polling and Scott Bon Fisher and and Heather and uh they were terrific uh and I'm grateful for all the work they did and I'm grateful to see that the tradition continues and Mike Michi and Blake are here they were both on the first championship team that
053uh that uh and Mike made actually decisive victory at the end but I'm actually here to read Scott bomb Fisher's letter he could not be here tonight he is in Houston and uh so I'm gonna read as if I'm Scott bomb Fisher because he wrote it in the first person even though I'm John monardi I live at 244 Crescent Circle in chesher Connecticut uh and my son also uh could not be here tonight uh he's with his daughter uh he's married now and but he was also a chesher fencer uh so here's the letter from Scott I am Scott Bon Fisher the founder of chesher Fencing Club and I'm excited to learn that the chesher board of education is considering recognizing the club as a sport it is significant that the words of support have
054come from the students in alumni and is their passion for the sport that gave birth and has kept the sport alive at chesher high school the club began humbly by a handful of young students requesting that I bring the sport to chesher in a few short years it was a completely different set of students that petitioned and gained Club status at the high school through that time the club was supported by an amazing set of volunteers that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere within our town fencers who were Olympians olyp University competitors chesher Sports alumni doctors Professor First Responders and of course with the uh Team of Cheshire Educators ultimately even the alumni of the program began to give back to the community and helped the club continue to thrive today over 20 years
055later yet another group of students has come before for you looking for a venue and the recognition to represent this town competing in the sport they love so dearly this means in which the club has grown is commendable but is not sustainable as a sport has grown within the state maintaining a level of competitiveness of which this town is known is difficult to achieve while being completely self- sustaining thank you for your considerations Scott I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to us tonight to everybody here who's spoken to you thank you thank you I just curious just quick show a hands how many more folks want to speak four of mine to go a little while longer do you good please yeah please um hi my name is Cadence Le
056France I live at 184 toath Lane um I will be speaking on behalf of sucha who couldn't be here tonight and myself um this will be both of our second Seasons fencing with the high school um treasure fencing is a community of people who enjoy the sport however with the restrictions that come with not being identified as a sport for example no busing becomes very hard for students to partake in the activity in the situation of No Buses students may not be able to get rides from parents which may cause them to not be able to participate at all by definition fencing is a sport that develops skills such as speed strength and reflexes it's even considered an Olympic sport um by officially making chure fencing a sport and offering the amenities that come with
057it our fencing group can grow and get even better in the future and um I'd like to add my own thoughts or speech um I am immensely proud of what myself and my teammates have accomplished throughout my past year in this sport um placing second at the novice tournament this past spring against schools with much better funding than I is something I'm incredibly proud of and while the difference in funding makes my achievement worth more in my heart I can only imagine how much um I'm sorry how well our team could compete if we were equals in the first place um I also believe that the current members of this club work so incredibly hard to improve our camaraderie with among our team and with other schools and just work so hard to make it
058a positive environment and if any like if anything I believe that our current members deserve to see the full potential of this club thank you thank you so [Applause] much hello everyone my name is Grace bian I live at 264 Higgins Road cheser Connecticut I am a junior at chesher high school and I'm captain of and a captain of the ch fencing team I first joined fencing my sophomore year because a few of my friends were members and I wanted to try something new however it wasn't long before I began to love the people the practices and the sport and going to practices became a highlight of my week fencing is a place where everyone can feel like they belong and after only a few weeks I had already come to think of myself as
059a CHS fencer and a part of the treasure High School fencing family I love every aspect of the sport both the mental and physical stimulation getting to learn something completely new is challenging but very rewarding these challenges have both made me a better fencer and an overall more confident and adaptive person I never could have imagined that I would be voted Tri captain my second year of fencing but I love the team and I'm so grateful for all the opportunities this club has given me opportunities to make friends be a part of an amazing community and deel develop leadership skills that while competing against other varsity teams another thing I appreciate about the team is that like me many students join as beginners and are able to advance their skills from there treasure fencing offers
060to fully fully teach new fencers the sport and prepare them for meets and state tournaments in order to continue doing this we need coaches throughout the years our coaches have been made up of CHS graduate volunteers and although we love these volunteers and I'm so grateful for them um they are no longer in the program and as a sport that includes blades fencing requires protective equipment as well as definite safety regulations this creates the need for experienced coaches and for this we need funding the fenon club already acts as a sport and is home to almost 30 members and has been established for over 20 years however as an active sport up-to-date protective equipment is essential to create reliability and decrease the risk of injury to students our director Heather Von Fischer who fully volunteers
061her time and resources has been amazing at providing most of our current equipment and although still usable it's not the safest um I would actually like to add a tiny story that I didn't write but last year I heard from a few of the older fencers that um uh first I would like to clarify that I am so proud to be a CHS fencer but I heard from them that the other schools would specifically put their senior nights on the nights that they had meets with chesher so that they would make sure that they would win and they would be a happy senior night right and although I'm not sure if that story is true the concept and the idea is is there and that's just disrespectful right okay uh continuing fencing is a sport
062that develops reflexes physical strength and strategic skills it's community that supports you throughout the winter season and Beyond and I'm so grateful for everything that this team has given me and all the opportunities it has provided I can't imagine the rest of my high school experience without this team and I hope you'll help us continue to success of this program and support us so that CHS fencing can reach its full potential full potential as a sport thank you for your time thank you hi uh Carol wonderlick 1257 Maran Road um I've been involved with the uh high school team for many years my daughter started when she was a sophomore and um as with many people in this room several of us parents decided to take lessons once our children graduated um I can it
063was a lot of fun too and as I can say today I still fence I train l i compete locally and nationally um for several years I was a coach for the team it was an experience that I found to be enjoyable challenging and rewarding the students who joined the team were diverse many had never participated participated in a high school sport fencing gave them an opportunity to have to have otherwise oh fencing gave them um the opportunity they wouldn't have otherwise it didn't matter how athletic they were how quickly they mastered the basic skills or how they performed on the fencing strip they were a member of the team they were on a squad and they all competed regardless of their ability I can't think of many other high school sports that can say
064the same fencing is a sport that requires both intellect and physical ability it is often referred to as physical chess you have to be disciplined and have self-control you must be able to plan ahead react to an opponent think on the spot adapt to a situation and change your strategy it is constant problem solving you are mentally organizing yourself as you prepare for different possibilities all while all the while you are being Physically Active on the Strip these skills techniques and thought processes help shape who you are and how you navigate Life After High School when you fence you a member of a very supportive community that Community includes all ages backgrounds and ability levels this is from personal experience a 12-year-old male can fence me and we and it is on an equal playing
065field it is a complicated game oh I also wanted to mention that it's an also a sport where an able-bodied person fences someone in a wheelchair it is a complicated game we are always learning the only limits to the sport is the one you impose upon yourself I'd like you to please consider strongly making this of our city sport thank you thank you hello I'm Javin Zang and I just want to share my thoughts on what I think and feel about defensing team uh five Bluefield Court hello everyone my name is Javin Zang and I'm a junior at CHS to be completely honest I'm pretty nervous speaking in front of everyone I'm obligated to support my team because as meant so much to me in my freshman year I didn't really participate much I didn't
066go to many practices and I didn't go to a sing s Le match in the whole season I almost quit this quickly changed in 10th Grade I went to the first game in my life and I was super nervous when it was my turn to fence this fear quickly dissipated after I heard the encouragement of my fellow fencers I didn't realize how fun fencing was before I started participating more I started going to every match I could I started to get be excited for practice to start most importantly I started to uncover the community that was def fening team if someone wanted to go to McDonald's it was the team that was going if Alexa mcpadden wanted to host a party at her house where we ate cake and watched movies and looked at all
067the stupid and funny pictures we took over the season the team would go if Ben Paladino wanted to host the best senior night ever you would expect patas confetti launchers and a parade of Bloons to welcome the graduating seniors this fencing Community pause for emphasis has truly been the highlight of my high school career so far thank you for listening to my thoughts and to another successful season of [Applause] fencing thank you so much well [Applause] done hi I'm gr Loa from Cher high school and I'm uh representing a speech from Eric a warts dear treasure Board of Education I hope this letter finds you well even though I am unable to attend tonight's meeting I hope that my input might still be able to Aid the decision to make chure High School Fencing Club
068into a official Varsity Sport I'm a CHS alumni from class of 2022 and was a member of the fency club for all four years of high school I also returned to coach last year but I was regrettably unable to continue this year due to scheduling conflicts I can however say with utter certainty that one of the best parts of my high school experience was fencing I was is I as in is the case with many students came to treasure High hardly knowing anyone and it was through the amazing community of the Fencing Club I was able to develop lasting friendships and make meaningful connections with other students the welcoming environment of the team still holds strong to this day with a focus on both improving the existing skills of experienced fencers and intr and introducing
069new students to the sport sport the fencing community of Connecticut includes many high schools both public and private with dedicated fencing teams recognized as Varsity Sports by their respective administrative bodies one of the persistent challenges of the cheser high school fency club is transportation in the past students have relied upon their parents or carpooling with friends in order to attend fening meets and tournaments it is through these tournaments that fencers not only improve their skills but also form friendships with students from other schools with whom they compete due to due to the nature of the sport as is the case with many others there is a certain number of fencers needed in order to compete and even being one team member short can in many cases lead to immediate forfeit if students were provided with
070transportation in the form of a bus as is the case with to my knowledge every other school with the varsity fencing team it would lead to better attendance as well as make it EAS easier to know if the team is going to be able to fully compete at any given event now I know there's only so much time I so much time with which I have to speak and trust me I could go on and on about the benefits of the sport to students mental and phys physical health but I will wrap it up here so that you can hear from whomever will be speaking after me I implore you to consider the cheser high school Fencing Club of Varsity Sport AS it will give the team the resources it needs to live up to
071its fullest potential thank you Eric a warts thank you thank you so [Applause] much hey my name is Blake Wetmore uh eight pwns side place I was a student here back 10 years ago now I'm part of the group that kind of started this whole uh Club off I if the group started in 200 three I must have started in 2005 I think I watched on the sidelines at Norton playing in the cafeteria with some of my friends for the first couple years uh but I've been part of this group for almost my whole life and after fencing through my high through my whole High School career it was some of my favorite experiences of my life I still think back on the first year that we won but even more fondly coming back the
072year after we lost in the finals and and to reclaim our title probably my favorite memory all of high school but after uh going off to college and coming back I knew that the club was looking for coaches so for the past six years I've been I guess the head skills coach as we call it Heather was certainly the head head coach but I was the one teaching all the classes and uh teaching all the skills and as you've heard from everybody all the current and past students the passion for this sport is clearly there and the dedication is there um the hardest part has really been the on our side making the program continue whether from Transportation or really vitally having coaches there who know the sport and can teach them I like to
073think I did a decent job with the program um but I'm certainly not a Olympic level fencer um and if we could find a way to get professional coaches in people who have been trained for this or have fenced all through college would be amazing and right now the landscape for fencing coaches is so difficult where uh I've been a volunteer for the past six years and even this past year there have been coaches from other groups who have been trying to poach me to their Club offering me money to go there and pay me and just to be dedicated to this group I've been staying but if we're trying to go out and get coaches with no money and no funding I'm just worried that the club might not be able to continue for
074a long time as much as Heather wants to push forward um her being there alone isn't enough to run the program so if we could get money to go out and hire a coach we'd be able to consistently uh progress this club forward and really see amazing things happen and I just want to lastly say so proud of all you students coming out um it's been amazing to see over the past few years the growth in all of you and to see some of you standing up here after seeing who came to their first practice it's uh unbelievable to see you up in front of a group and talking so uh thank you all for your time it's been wonderful thank you so [Applause] much hello Michael micii from 1135 sper Road I started fencing
075in 2008 tagging along with uh my sister who my mom forced to go there to uh yeah she forced her to go fencing starting at Norton Elementary School which is kind of where uh a lot of the practices were taking place I tagged along in fifth grade uh fell in love with it picked up the the blade in the hand and never really stopped was competing against treasure Academy in fifth and sixth grade beating those kids and uh often through middle school and into high school um I played you know like I played football uh fencing track baseball all four years never stopped and fencing is the sole sport I wish I could keep doing and I coached for a few years with some of these athletes and unfortunately I cannot continue um but being
076able to get funding for this this sport would greatly greatly enhance uh uh the sport to come thank you very much thank [Applause] you Hello friends bear with me I just wrote this in a parking lot alen Nichols 35 C away so I'm here today to thank the opportunity to advocate for our kids chance to make you proud fencing has helped many high school students in chesher for the last years and last year our our daughter was invited by a good friend Ben to join in the fencing team and we are so happy she did um she really Blossom and she really improve in every area in school and sports um before she used to play softball and now with fencing the softball coach noticed that she improved in many aspects of the game as
077a catcher and then vice versa and when she came to practice fencing the fence the the coach noticed that the softball practices did help her with the fencing so in her first year um it's amazing where the quality of the training she received here because uh she placed third place in a state along with a good friend to place second place and that says a lot about the commitment uh and Ben plays amazingly out state so I'm I hope that you guys um give this kids a chance to make your proud because mark my words keep their names is going to be not only local State national and some probably International recognition um our coach Heather Miss Heather from Fisher has been a wonderful coach and has given so much of her time and dedication
078she and her assistant coaches have thought the kids discipline needed to learn this amazing Sport and good techniques that allowed many of them to succeed in state competitions joser High School fencers have qualify above many private and public schools and those schools with bigger and stronger support um some of our kids like you said qualifi I beat some of the ches Academy kids that have been practicing for four or five years um in other schools as well um this program has been growing year after year and we hope that this unique and elegant sport can receive the board of aded and superintendent um support So allowing our students to increase their presence in local State national and perhaps International um we do have many athletes and our cheser high fencing team with determination and refined
079skills enough to place cheser Public Schools names higher in the leaderboard we appreciate your consideration in supporting our fencers in making this official School Varsity Sport giving them the opportunity to make your proud thank you thank you El we uh we have time for one or two more so uh thank you please welcome to come up hi I'm Shan Le in 264 Higgins um thank you for all the Board of Education members um for giving us the opportunity to speak here on behalf of the cheser fencing team my daughter Grace joined the cheser high school fencing team last year she really likes it she has been very diligent in participating in the practice sessions several times a week asking me to purchase equipments a metal helmet other things which I did they also have regular
080meets and games with other fencing teams all across Connecticut he even won a medal in one of the matches of I'm very proud of her for me the fencing team is very much a regular school sports team surprisingly I found out that the fening team does not have a sports status in chure high unlike other sports they don't have a budget support from the school they don't have paid coach they don't have bus transportation to and from games out of town and they are really a second class sports team in cheser high school because it is not recognized um it is painfully unfair to the many def fing students you can see they should be treated the same way as all other sports teams I know other parents feel the same way please support our
081chair here fencing team with regular budgets bus transportation other benefits enjoyed by all the student Sports in in spite of all this second class status the team has been striving to be their best the captains the seniors put others in practice in providing Transportation with some parents and uh the volunteering coaches help the fers whatever way they they can this great team atmosphere does give me some comfort but it should not be an excuse for us not to support them let's treat the chur High fencing team just as other sports teams let's give our students the support they need and they deserve by making them a vasage sports thank you thank [Applause] you good evening um I'm not from chesher I'm from Prospect but I'm a local girl lived there my whole life um I'm
082here because I know some of these athletes students parents I've worked with them for years um I teach fencing I'm a coach I also teach at Quinnipiac University I've had been since he was this tall I've known Mike for a long time um my titles are state champion National Champion North American Cup champion Canadian American CH Cup champion world champion I work with athletes in high school I work with eight-year-olds I work with Olympians I have two going to Paris I had no idea ch wasn't didn't have fencing as a Varsity Sport I thought it was do you know there's 23 other schools in Connecticut that have fencing and it is a Varsity Sport um Madison Fairfield Greenwich uh greens Farms Guilford Simsbury those are a few I'm paid a lot of money to coach
083at some of the other schools Green Farm I can tell you these kids deserve this they deserve a place where they fit in they deserve a place that has opportunity and growth they deserve it chesher high is a fantastic school you have everything here these kids deserve this sport quite honestly I don't know what else to say I was shocked to find out you didn't have it they really do deserve it honest and truly and these guys work so hard some of them are at my I can't get rid of them they're with me five days a week they're working out they're eating right they're training hard they're not just looking at school competition which is where they start they're looking beyond that with their leadership skills that's what this teaches them confidence so I
084just uh that i' give my two cents thank you no thank you thank you for coming [Applause] out so we went we went way over our public comment period but it it's it's it's it's worth it again I know uh the speaker some of you thanked us for listening that's why we're here you elected us and you know we we hear concerns and the feedback and ideas um before I say anything else I just want to say thank you so much uh outstanding speeches tonight uh very professional with our students that are currently here you you shined uh you're making is very proud up here uh it's great to see the confidence the enthusiasm the well thought out arguments you're making I I think that's reflective not only our school system but the value of
085this club it helps build those skill sets so very well done I'm even even happy that we have former students writing in in some cases texting Dad to read the the uh which is awesome is that just you know explains the value of this and I so I I couldn't be more proud of hearing everybody tonight um I I know our board members probably feel the same way we normally don't do this I just want to spend a few minutes I'm sure we all have questions um but before before I get into that there's nothing on our agenda tonight that we're going to discuss this and vote on it uh this is the first I've seen and have people come out uh to raise this and I'll talk about process was that might help um
086move this forward um so me talk about that and I'll just turn quickly the board members for a few minutes if they have any questions since we have everybody here tonight I have one or two um but what normally happens is the superintendent prepares his budget and somewhere in that budget are additions and and you know it's usually teaching positions or not I I haven't seen any I'm not putting you on the spot I haven't seen anything yet for fencing to become Varsity Sport as many of you pointed out it's usually around Transportation coaching salaries certification that kind of thing so I uh I'm just wondering if you've had any discussions with and I I want to put you on a spot I'm not sure he's talk to Mr parisino or like in the past
087but have you taught anyone besides us tonight about moving this forward and who should they talk to uh to as far as I'm concerned this is an official request but uh I would expect to see something in our upcoming budget process which starts in January uh for this so the board can actually vet it ask questions and we went through this a few years ago with girls ice hockey and that I think at that meeting and if not mistake even prior to that there might have been a couple finance committee meetings where the group showed up and gave the committee some details such a number of students typical cost out of pocket for parents and and during the budget process that year they showed up and we actually went a lot of detail about it
088um before I turn over to the board what um sure I mean I can I can hit on some of those I assume some discussions have happened yeah absolutely you know I know that uh Mr Paladino spoke to Mr parisino he had sent um us after the open Forum board meeting two weeks ago kind of a a budget uh overview and to be clear I mean fencing hasn't been put forward nothing's been put forward yet like we haven't even started our budget process yet uh that'll as Mr paragini said take place in January for the 245 school year and at that point I would present this and I said to Mr Paladino that that would be part of that budget presentation so um you know right now is things stand we're in the process of
089pulling all of that information together and it would be shared through the budget process for the board to decide upon for you know the future yeah thank you again I didn't mean to to put you in the spot I don't want to assume anything before I turn over to the board really quick is there a even at this me we're gonna ask some questions and I uh is there a point to contact besides Heather is that you that we can send our inquiries to and collect them because uh you we don't want to wait till January to to ask some obvious questions but okay so thank and by the way thank you and to all the coaches all the volunteers for all your time and effort past present and future coaches I hope that continue
090to move this forward uh it's not lost on us that you do this uh not for the money because there isn't any but you know for love our kids and you know trying to get them to to be better so I appreciate that um any questions from the board before Samantha I do I have some questions a lot of questions actually and um couple comments I'm a little same as you Mr perini a little discouraged and saddened by the fact that I'm hearing this for the first time given that the program has started in 2003 um you know I my only knowledge of fencing is through friends and I am well aware that number one it's an eloquent sport it's very prestigious and I just said to my colleague over here it's chess but real
091fast chess as the lady back there had said so I'm I'm disappointed because we are reacting to a large comment public comment right now where and it's a process question you're absolutely correct what are we doing do we need to re-evaluate the process to catch this early because then my question extends beyond what are other clubs that are not being acknowledged in advance of you know we're reacting what is the proactive process to ensure that all of our kids are seen and heard before we have a not that we I listen I'm proud of all of you trust me but we're reacting to a large crowd right now so I'm a little sad I'm I'm very emotional it's it's way too long for us not to have recognize these guys and gals for a while
092so I I'm I'm hoping that Dr could answer some of these questions um I did get a little education today because I also didn't know that there were 23 other towns as well too so thank you for that um so I I myself need some clarification on the process I myself need to um also understand what is also the St sustainability of the program um given that I do not have knowledge of what the feeder system looks like because if we do eventually vote on this I'd like to see this continue as well so those are some of those mix the motion questions if we can answer them prior to taking any votes yeah thank you I just want to remind the board that this is not a discussion topic uh it's really the questions
093or any questions for the public we can get into the details other committees but understand uh while we have the audience here any any information the Board needs tonight from our folks yeah please AB um so back at the open form Mr Paladino came we sat right over here and I just want to say um um a huge thank you to you because you know we were kind of you were going through you were asking some questions about process and how things were happening and then finally we looked at you said like what is it that you want and you said you know then you went through the whole thing with fencing and these kids and so you know we sit in these seats up here and I've been on this in this role for
094four years and I honestly had no idea just like when the girls ice hockey I had no idea about that either and so we can't know everything that goes on in the district so when a room of people like you guys all come out I know you've had busy days a lot of you guys have been up since 5:30 this morning I have a daughter who's a junior at T High School I get it um and you speak before us it's not easy to stand at that Podium but if we don't hear people come we obious we don't know some of these things are even going on in the district so huge thank you to all of you for coming out and I won't be here because I'm not running again but I hope you
095guys vote in favor of this uh next year thanks you'll be here in spirit yes Tim thanks Tony yeah just two comments um first of all with to a feeder system um I actually I don't know that I really would look for something like that from a sport I actually think that as well as the the individual nature of it in my mind is a really good thing because so my kids are in elementary school but I can already kind of see like you know my son's in second grade but he's not in he's not in flag football yet and there's there's the feeder system and I could see a freshman in high school feeling I haven't done that for years so I can't do that so in my mind this could kind of be
096an opportunity for uh maybe I'm just thinking generally more introverted more uh kids who haven't participated in team sports to feel this is an opportunity for me to do something so I actually really that that sits well with me like a feeder system can be good but I think also the lack of one is totally totally fine I think there's a benefit to that uh as well as the individual nature more like a golf because I think most of our sports are probably team sports and that's a good thing but I could see a kid who hasn't played getting a freshman year and feeling they just they can't do it they can't jump into a team sport because everyone's experienced so just my thoughts thank you and thank you for everyone who spoke tonight thank
097you yes Ian yeah I just want to say thank you all for coming out tonight um this is what it takes to get this process started and um it was delightful to hear from all of you I did know that there was fencing going on um and I knew that it was going on for a long time because my kids way back when I'm looking at uh Mr Wetmore and and thinking I think you were just a year behind my son in high school so anyway um I did know it was going on um I'm glad to see that it's risen to this level of involvement and um I you know I'm interested in this go moving forward with this this uh topic and um I'm excited about it I it's going to get my
098support so um yeah we're going to be talking about it so thank you for coming out because this is how the process does start thank you thank you an so I I want to but I want to say thank you to to all you I know uh even our students who are here you probably have some homework to do and appreciate you being here at nine o'clock in a board of ed meeting but your voices are heard and you know for the record this is on the record it's going to be on our YouTube school it's yeah you're on camera it's a good thing it'll be on our school tube so I I think uh especially for our students you know please watch you look back on on your comments I think be very proud
099of yourselves for this evening and we are looking forward to reviewing this during the budget process as Dr s and committed we're expecting to see a proposal and you know and we'll definitely talk about how this can hopefully be made into the budget so uh Heather we're probably gonna reach out to you I don't know if we'll just CLI some questions some in your way uh I'll find your email somehow I'm sure um but I expect between now and January please expect some questions from us and to anyone else out there as well on the community if you're watching this please feel free to email us your thoughts on this our our email contacts are on the treasure Public Schools website um again so I I can't thank you enough on behalf of the board
100being tonight and uh you've been heard and clearly we have some things to work on again like people said here uh while we try to you know watch and see everything going on in the school district we can't see all the details uh but but we appreciate your feedback and I I do remember fencing being in place if not mistaken I believe might have been 2011 or 2012 way back then I believe there was a small group that showed up uh to move this and I don't recall there being that big participation clearly it's grown over the years and that's commendable to all your hard work and dedication even for those um who moved on from suppor this program so we'll definitely take the seriously and we'll let you know when we'll be talking about
101this but expect the January time frame um if it comes up sooner we let you know but thank you you don't have to stay but you're welcome to we we had a boring business thank you [Applause] we good to go you guys want a break or just keep going let's go okay so up next there's reports of our standing committees I give a second to clear out last okay yeah all right so a curriculum committee we do have a report as well as possible action tonight so I'm going to ask uh faith cannot be here this evening I'm gonna ask Anna Marlene to take us through the last meeting and fortunately I couldn't be there but I have to speed on the whole topic so I I we're gonna bring you up to speed Tony
102I am well aware but we actually talked about this in finance so I'm kind of curious to see what's coming out so Ann do you want to start sure uh so curriculum committee met met on uh Monday evening this past Monday October 16th and we really spoke about two things that Miss Solano is going to go into uh detail on she'll report on uh the agenda item first regarding legislation that changes the starting age of kindergarten from turning five years old by December 31st of a school year and that's going to be backtracked to uh the child being five years old by September 1st of the school year um so with with that I think I'll just I'll leave it to Marlene to um explain to us what this proposal is all about so in
103your packets each of you has um packet that looks like this talks about the public act 23159 that raises the kindergarten starting age and beginning July 1st of next school year that in order to enroll your child in kindergarten they must turn 5 years old honor before September 1st of the school year in the past that date has been January 1st so there's two couple of things that are that are happening there um the first one is that districts are charged with coming up with a process and making sure they inform families that um this is the new law and that they would need to make a written request if they wanted their child to start kindergarten um they would have to make a written request for early admission upon request then the principal and
104a team would need to determine um an assessment that would determine whether or not kindergarten would be appropriate developmentally appropriate for a child that age so what we really looked at was how many children are we are we thinking this will impact and so we ran the data of how old children are typically when they come into the district and so we looked at our historical data we're saying on average there's about 60 children who fall within that September 1st to December 31st time frame who would be four and could not start so we're thinking about the impact that would have to these 60 families and wanting to sort of meet them halfway because they may or may not have know about the law number one they may or may not have planned for an
105extra year of daycare or preschool Etc so we're thinking about starting a one-year transition program that would be for these children only those who fall within the this birth date range we would reallocate a kindergarten teacher and a par educator per enrollment we could we could put a cap on that um that would be housed at Darcy school and Kim desert is here with us tonight in case we have some questions for her we're estimating that to break even that the tuition that would need to be charged would be roughly $5,500 that would cover the cost of any any teacher and a par educator like roughly we're looking at that and saying that in to follow with our other Kinder other preschool programs parents would provide transportation those students who would be in that program
106would then attend kindergarten the following year they would not go to first grade they would go to kindergarten and the curriculum is something that would be based on the Connecticut early learning and developmental standards what we call CTS and the curriculum could be developed through um through our office in Miss desert this year and then those teachers who would be we would be reallocating would be given time during the curriculum writing Institute looking at the students who are coming in and tailoring it to their needs so we feel that this is um worthwhile because it addresses the immediate issue of these families we're meeting them halfway this would certainly be much much cheaper than daycare um it would be commensurate with a preschool program Miss dessert has met with other preschool programs and they're also
107reeling from the law because they may or may not have the space to provide for an extra room in their in their daycare facilities whereas we are able to with some of the reallocation that we've done with our um one of our special ed programs we we would be able to to house this temporarily for one year at Darcy I would also just include you know the space is available because the students are not enrolling in kindergarten because they're not age five yet right the other piece that I think is relevant here is that um over the course of the last several weeks uh the Connecticut Department of Education and office of CH Early Childhood have been kind of collaborating around guidance for school systems um that has been I would say significantly delayed uh
108the hope is that we would see it this week um but obviously don't have it as of today in that guidance though uh we were told that a substantial part would be dedicated to the rationale the rationale for moving the start date uh age five from January 1 to September one and I would be uh remiss if I didn't indicate that most Educators and the research pretty strongly speaks to the benefit of that um so knowing that it research Bears out that it's beneficial for students to wait I think this is our uh compassionate and reasoned response to provide access to Quality uh programming that through no fault of the community may not necessarily be available due to space uh at a cost that is incredibly uh competitive if you've had to put children through
109daycare lately um and so it also sustains uh importantly for us if we had 60 kids not show up um and we would therefore be looking at reducing staff more than likely so we would be letting go good people um who you know we may not be able to hire back the following year when the demand recalls and so um they would have recall rights uh if there is a reduction in force but they may have another job find go some place we have to try and find somebody else who may or may not be as good so I think you know this threads the needle this proposal in a lot of places and uh all it does thankfully is provide us another option to pursue at no C cost to the taxpayer but great
110benefit to many as I think I've just articulated so just a little more context from where I said yes question Sam I just want to go back to the numbers so I'm getting this right little linear for me right now so we have 60 kids for next year hypothesize that's our our average over the last five yearsin thatth doesn't this impact the ratio of pre required pre because they're technically considered preschool but now it looks like you have 60 kids in one classroom with this 1K teacher and Par educator proposal no we're saying that it could be up to 60 children approximately and that we would look at um one one one par educator and one kindergarten teacher per enrollment so if we had 18 kids it would be one in one if we had
111you know 40 kids we'd have two kindergarten teachers and two Paras we're not anticipating needing to Al move any more than three but I don't know that all those families are going to want to do this program they may say no we want to stay with daycare they may choose another option so we're we're just ballparking okay I'm just going back to because I believe the prek ratio is a 10 to one correct me if I'm wrong so yeah class size is question I guess we we would have two adults in the classroom so you have 20 kids to two adults okay because that's the ratio based on my knowledge of prechool requirements so again probably probably be less than 20 students I mean currently we have about 18 students in a prek classroom y
112it would be closer to that with the two adults with the two adults thank you thank you for this I'm not sure that I'm not sure that I uh agree at this point with the idea of uh the sort of loss of teachers because you have a loss of students and I'm saying that because the projections we've had for the whole school modernization from what I recall from maybe six months ago was we probably should be adding three teachers per year if we're kind of falling in line with enrollment growth anyway and that's at the elementary level so I'm just thinking if we don't have those students those teachers could Pro probably be moving to well expanded K first grade second grade third grade I'm not sure what the qualifications are requirements but that's I'm
113just putting that out there that that that didn't really resonate with me with that that one particular point because I'm thinking we're gonna have to keep all those teachers anyway do what we can to try to keep them potentially um our our our uh enrollment data is generally based off October one enrollment when we work with uh NASDAQ uh and so we don't have updated enrollments yet yeah it changes on a day-to-day basis somebody moves out of town I get that yeah but um I don't know that you know the the 60 I mean if it is indeed 60 students that's our historical average you know that that's a pretty big drop off um and I don't know that we're going to make that up in enrollment in other places usually is K12 enrollment that
114that has been growing um but yeah I mean that's certainly a consideration Tim Fair okay okay um yeah so being one of those relatively recent uh prek parents what are the hours you're thinking about because the hours for my perspective as a parent or key it would in school huh full day you say full day full day to me is 9 three or 8 to2 whatever it is but as a parent it's like seven to five for prek versus so no but this is a really serious question because in the other if they're at Darcy it's one thing do we have does does the why offer before care and after care at Darcy they do okay so this is something that you've had a quick chat with them and they'd be agreeable to trying to
115absorb that we currently have pre uh before and after care at from the YMCA at Darcy they sign they're just got a different label same number of kids in essence okay but just a different label on them now they're transitional kindergarten kids well they're also but those pre those that's kids from around town that are getting focused over there as compared to what they'd be losing if it's just ditt they'd really be losing five and picking up like 30 to 60 kids so I'm just saying just have that conversation hopefully with the Y sooner rather than later if we're going down this path um just to make sure they could do that okay um I think that uh and and so the idea here is this is fully self-supported that's the plan you know tuition
116that charging offsets cost of and you know we could build the first room we can and we can build a second room if we can and continue to open it and close it based on sure you know making sure that we can offset yeah yeah okay I get it because you want to hit 18 or 20 kids per classroom and you're not going to be opening up a class with 25 kids in it is what we would hit that's what we're budgeting off of yeah okay um and so you uh Adam have you talked about this in finance I don't want to spend you have I'm gonna comment after you're done okay I just saw it coming from curriculum so I wasn't okay all right um yeah I mean is uh I guess the last
117or at least another point I'm thinking is what is the prek we we do offer prek right now and there's an enrollment cost that I thought was like n or $10,000 oh we are going to talk about that in Finance as well it's not close to that but okay we have multiple prek programs one is a Smart Start program yeah that's a um sliding scale State program our our prek program that is uh really it's an integrated pre prek program where uh typical peers join students who are receiving special education services half days and we have three four and five day options uh for those programs those are uh incredibly manageable price-wise as a matter of fact for the five-day program we're um seeking a a change in the tuition to $200 a year so
118that up or down up to 20 from 2700 it hasn't been adjusted in about at least 15 years is that is that is that funded with like Federal Smart Start funds no uh Smart Start is a completely different okay uh full day preschool program we have two of those classrooms uh and that is subsidized through a grant the the we received grant funding to pay for both of those programs okay I I I just want to say uh based on what we hear because I'm looking at this coming from curriculum and honestly I was like wait I think I just want to know a little bit about the money so based on what Adam says it's entirely possible I support this alternatively I might just want to get a better understanding of the numbers now
119they play out because do we have like you know you know one program is called prek and it's three grand another program is called prek and it's it's six grand I'm not really sure I just want to understand that a little bit better and maybe we've got all that but right now I'm hesitating in supporting it just to understand it before I vote on it and and with that I'll be done I can I can I just add something aren't we talking about different times though we're talking about two and a half hours for the well the time is different for the integrated prek program versus the Smart Start and this transitional prek program so tonight we're talking about the transition correct question I did thank you sir I don't think I've said a word
120since 7:45 so all right to see that my voice still works that's nice um so uh yeah we discussed this a little bit in finance not to this detail because I don't think we had it yet because it was before the curriculum meeting uh was a few days before um so was our understanding when we discussed it that this was going to be uh what's what's the term like a net zero uh cost to the district um so I I just wanted to have clarification on because where the the plan is to use current existing uh teachers and staff who teach kindergarten to teach prek normally the stand at least my understanding is that the certifications go k up not K down so how does that certification work is there going to be some sort
121of um waiver from the state to allow kindergarten teachers to teach prek or how is that work so that we can use our existing staff to allow for this plan to work we've checked with our folks over at the state certification office and our kindergart or current certified kindergarten teachers would be able to teach this transition program great um trying to think uh is there a question about being all day I think we covered that right day yes full day right uh I think that's it for now we would follow the chesher public schools calendar CH I I I thought they in finance uh so student would be there full day I thought there were sections or warning and PM so am I confusing that's for the so foret I'm good thank you y Andrew
122yes just you might not know the exact reason for this but why are they doing this is there I mean I looked through all of this I don't see anything as to like is this been thought about for years I mean why why are they changing the age here yeah I think there's been a push and talk about it for many many years we're one of um there's the majority of states have a earlier um require that five-year-old date before you could start kindergarten uh so this has sort of been in the works we've had uh even some folks from our staff over the years who worked at Darcy or part of the early intervention Center have been part of supporting the fact that children should be older before they start kindergarten not that we're
123not we are also supportive of you know preschool programming and making sure that everyone has access to education but having them be five before they started is something I think we would certainly be behind and it's it's been talked about but finally the legislation came out um first off I I appreciate this I just want to say kudos to you Marlin because um you know trying to capture these 60 kids and not putting the um the burden on families to now have to consider the cost of daycare like Dr Solen stated um is my opinion just a really thoughtful genius idea to do so um I just want to make sure that we're not absorb we're not absorbing any more costs now that we're talking about Finance because we did discuss it in finance the
124distinguish distinguish the difference of the programs and so forth so this is just a one-year plan we want to support the 60 students um and it looks like you considered the break even cost so I'm fully in support of this in this this has been years in the making Andrew as an educator I feel as though finally the state has done something that's developmentally appropriate for children um oh jeez I just had it uh the two our break caught up with you yeah it did oh geez what was I going to ask oh so the assumption that we're going on is that private daycares cannot absorb these kits that's a year from now so is it that they refuse to hire additional staff to cover the bump or they they can't they're not allowed to
125what what reason did private daycare give us as to why they couldn't absorb it a couple things I think I think some is just limitations on Space you know not having another classroom available for children that's not to say that some of our community preschools might not be adding that um in I think the other wrinkle to this is the cost for any family that was thinking oh maybe this parent is going to go back to work because the child will be in full day kindergarten and now that cost becomes prohibitive because of the cost of private daycare we're coming in to say okay what if we can offer something at very lowcost Break Even again for for one year this would not be a permanent thing and only for the children who fell into
126this age bracket but yeah I guess I asked that question because I guess I was one of those parents where my son went to two years of preschool before he went to kid so he was an older kid going to kindergarten like we had made that decision already so yeah so I'm just wondering yeah if it was not so it's it's a combination of an ability of attempting preserve staff because you continue to say it's might be 60 right could be 18 could be 20 whatever um and sort of helping private because I would think the daycare would welcome more businesses it really depends on the the provid I don't know what their tuition is anymore obviously my son's older so we haven't had to pay for preschool uh I know Tim maybe you can
127speak to it a little more but a few years years ago I left at $116,000 16,000 for year yeah so it's probably at least 18 or 20 at this point for one and that was that was a mid-range that was that's the other conflict right so we have that pre if you are uh three was it three going to four or we have a lottery system for a full day pre and for now one year basically anyone who wants it can now get it for 5,500 for if you're in that one age I want be clear that yeah right it's only those kids for one year but it's like you hit the you kind of hit the lottery for one year because normally you would be paying 16,000 or maybe well we are the one
128we went to is a little more expensive but you know the saying you know whichever one you go to um you know it's probably a lot more than 5,500 a year yeah okay sorry um yeah so I really I don't want to belabor this I do have one question that I'm just trying to understand in my head the tuition is estimated $5,500 to break even so the break even is key that makes it relatively I'm close to a yes on it because of that but I'm still wondering $5,500 what do we spend on the average student1 155,000 17,000 that's that's I'm just you know when you calculate a per pupil expenditure about 18,000 the difference here is that we're not covering all of the district overhead with this all we're really talking about I mean
129this isn't including keeping the lights on and stuff like that uh what this does is cover the cost of the teacher and Par educator okay and we wanted to make it uh financially accessible because it's $118,000 a year to go to to you know a private provider let's say not all but let's just throw that number out that's also the 365 days it's also 6:30 a.m to 6:30 p.m perhaps this price uh is not necessarily hitting the lottery I would call it super competitive because if you do want um you know after care that's going to be an additional cost uh it's not free but I think it makes it very accessible and it makes it very attractive to also entice people to do what we believe is developmentally in the best interest of kids
130which is if you're not five yet we think it's you know the research says that it's it's not just our gut that it's your best it's in your best interest to maintain a Trad a traditional a transitional program as opposed to jumping into K so I think all those things considered collectively that's why I say threading the needle to try and capture uh the benefit of many uh I think you know we work through this and find a real hard time finding a flaw um with with regard to the uh four-year-olds who enter kindergarten that had do we have any impact on that decision that was state is how I understood it they made the decision and we're just living by it we're just trying to figure how to work around to make people's lives
131easier based on what their expectations have been for probably several years right and I think that's why we did a one-year program yeah because this is in effect more or less the 11th hour for parents that had been planning go to kindergarten and you know to be able to yeah to be able to accommodate the one-year transition I think it's uh We've we've tried to design a a win-win yeah no and these are kids would have been in the school system anyway so I mean I get it I I can support this it's frustrating that the state did this and um I understand why but not having communicated better with parents but support how what what they did but not how they did perhaps is yeah transitions are difficult and you had a had a
132question earlier I want to forget about you sure yeah I understand I know you do so uh just I've been looking at a yeah no and I appreciate I think this is very clever I appreciate the pracon this I I um I guess it's a mix of blessings was thankly I don't have to I don't have this problem my kids are hopefully out of college soon off the pen payroll so um uh but if I were a parent today and I was impacted by this I think this is a really a kind gesture I I I don't see the the negative of this especially self- sustaining and and and this is not to compete with our daycares um because there might parents that want to use a daycare and get in there and but I
133think for um those families where even today even the lowest cost daycare is out of their range this may likely put them in a in in a Range that they can work with so I I support this but we don't have a motion on the table yet we just got the backdrop so if someone would like to make a motion would you like a motion yes please we can get into it I moved at the Board of Education approve a one-year transition program to accommodate Public Act number 23-15 n raising the kindergarten starting age great is there a second Sam seconds any discussion on the motion yes Mr gripple I would like to I would like to make an amendment to the motion to add a Sunset date just to sort of make it crystal
134clear to Sun um uh so it' be um end let's see onee transition program uh so at the end to sunset on I guess would be June 30 2024 would that be correct or you can specify for specifically 24 25 school school year oh yeah I wasn't sure yeah what would be correct there to so it be to to not my pen doesn't work no to Sunset the at the end of the 242 school year so the proposed amendment to the motion is to move to the Board of Education approve a one-year transition program to accommodate Public Act number 23-1 159 raised the kindergarten age starting age for the for the 24 20 25 school year yeah I guess that achieves the same thing sense yeah that's fine just in case school year goes later
135snow days on a specific date right sure right yeah yes okay is there a second to Amendment okay now the discussion is about the amendment on the table all right yes Sam can you just read the amendment for clarification so move at the Board of Education approve a one-year transition program to accommodate Public Act number 23159 raising the kindergarten starting age for 2024 for 2025 school year I might be word smithing a little bit it just it seems pretty redundant one year is one year if you want to just replace one year with the school year 24 25 and that outlines it a a little more spe spe you know what I'm talking about yeah I the reason I made the amendment because I was concerned that the one year isn't you don't know what
136it's spe specific to is it a one-year transition program or is it a one-year in duration program so if I can make a motion to yes modify that we moved at the Board of Education approve a transition program to accommodate the Public Act number 23- um 159 raising the kindergarten starting age in the 2425 school year with that for the 24 25 school year excuse me it's late help out Carol please oh on the linked motion oh okay so that's pretty high tech I know she's too fast for me right now do you mind Carol just reading it out please yes that's what my modification would be perfect is there a second if it's a friendly Mo Mr gripple Seconds thank you discussion is on the L Amendment motion is there any more discussion on
137motion awesome thank you this is great uh by the way um so let's vote on that well I don't have the motion vot on the amendment first then vote on the motion no this this is this is the amendment yeah so move that the Board of Education approves a transition a transition program to accommodate Public Act number 23159 raising the kindergarten starting age for the 20 2024 2025 school year all those in favor please raise your hands thank you as unanimous the motion passes I haven't seen that many amendments since budget like 2021 or something yeah it's been a while that's this is great record for this decade maybe team thank you that was uh that was good discussion all right moving on to finance committee yeah we gotta vote on right that's it nope
138that's it vote on the amend we just did we just did but but we have more curriculum but but wait there's more yes exactly um there's one more informational item that we um discussed in some detail at curriculum committee meeting last Monday and I will turn it over to miss Solano once again to talk to us about an overview of the smarter ballast assessment growth data thanks an and before we move on to that can I just let you know that in your packet there is also a letter about the kindergarten start age I wanted you all to know that um Jeff has on our website just if folks are curious about the law and if anybody's asking you know what's happening we try to put it up there to clarify thank you okay so
139um this was a followup on additional data uh referencing growth specifically growth for our high needs students so if you take a look at the first sheet that has two um data sets on it and chesher is highlighted in green this is a comparison of durg B districts very similarly to um the data that was shared the last time on achievement it looks like this if you're looking for it yeah this is the one and so on the left hand side are the smarter ground is the smarter balance growth report and that is for English language arts and this particular report looks at the average percent of Target achieved and I'll explain to you what that is that means that every student has a particular Benchmark score that they got the previous year on the
140smarter balanced assessment and there's a Target that they need to reach or that we're hoping and and we're working towards them reaching let's say it's um 100 points just as an example so if a student reaches 99 of those 100 points they're not making 100% growth but they're they're obviously very close so this report tells you on average how many of our the amount the percent increase or the the percent of growth on average that our students are making on both Ela on the leand side and math on the right so when you look at that this is the our ranking you could see Woodbridge who tests about students and orange that's probably in total but this is only grades four through five in Woodbridge right and only four and five in Orange as well
141because those kids matriculate up to Amity Middle School just underscoring our our ranking there and then on the on the right hand side is the same information for Math and that's the durby comparison so that's all students so if you skip to the next page you could see a bar chart that gives you the breakdown because there was um a question um at our curriculum meeting can we see the breakdown of Elementary in middle school so we start in fourth grade because that's the first grade that we have growth data for and that goes up to 8th so you can see the the information for fourth fifth 6th and seventh grade math in blue Ela in red and on the next page it just gives you the the percentages the same information just in a
142in a different format and I will add that to give you some context about this that in the state of Connecticut it we see a trend with students in the Middle School dropping their their growth their achievement dropping from elementary to Middle school so while you do see that here it is a state Trend not to say that we aren't focused on improving that number or improving that percentage of kids who are meeting their growth Target but it is something that is is not um different than what we're seeing in the state as a whole the last slide here or the last sheet talks about high need students and this is Statewide performance this is something that Jeff may have shared with us before but I wanted to make sure that you were able to
143take a look at it if we look at our high need students which includes our multilingual Learners our students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and our students who um receive special education services this is our ranking for our high needs performance so you can see the blue blue arrow is our math ranking which puts us at about 11 in the state and our Ela on is about 12th again you can see new Canan has about is first some of those other Gold Coast towns and Cheshire when it says total number that's that's the number of students served those are the number okay yes so well there's total number and there's count which what is um the total the total number give me a second 1869 is the total number of kids right and
1441354 is now that were [Music] tested have to pull that up okay good question how many kidss are in the district four 4,000 above who was tested in four through eight um be it'd be about that 89 or 186 1800 yeah 1868 you know that that would be the total number of students tested do you have that spreadsheet Jeff still I don't know if it would speak to that I think that's the number of nonin students to be honest with you 1869 the 1354 and then the differences the high needs but it doesn't show that that makes sense so so high high needs is not the student High needs is the study area no and I said say that just because I'm looking at two different numbers here just if these counts are 1354 and
1451405 it just seems odd to me 1869 versus 1868 I'll just ignore one difference that means nothing to me a kid was absent or something but 1354 changes by 50 kids between math and Ela so I'm just maybe get some we'll get you on that yeah thank you yeah every district has like kind jump like that yes um so this G be Mr Obvious here huge drop off in grades seven and eight um is that because the targets set in elementary school are too easy or is it it gets a lot harder in middle school I'm I'm guessing it's the second but again though is there is it because of the class sizes are different where the you know the kids were maybe used to more one-on-one attention in the elementary school and they don't
146they're more have to become more self-sufficient in middle school so that's why these drop or is there any sort of thought process as to why there's such a difference I think your questions are all all good ones when we look at the state we we obviously see this happening not just in chesher but across the state um there could be a couple of reasons for it adolescence big change in in school switching classes there's a lot of changes going on in the Adolescent the other thing that um we have looked at is our math program our math curriculum and wanting to make a change there so you'll remember last year we um went through the approval of a new textbook after a year of research and so we were really thinking that the rigor in
147the resource that we were using wasn't up to standard and so it is our hope that we see that number rise in direct response to teachers learning how to use the new resource and the rigor of the math program being increasing so we're hoping to see that change so then that leads to this qu so if the if you've determined that the rigor wasn't up to standard for seven or let say even grade eight so should we expect to see a rip now through high school as kids may be still a little behind than they should have been or is that something that we're going to see or are we starting to see or will we see yeah you know I'm not entirely sure if that will happen I I it's part of a hypothesis
148that we have that if they're exposed to more rigorous content and more complex thinking that that will they will be able to rise to higher and higher levels there's work happening at the high school level very specific and targeted to things happening at the high school and we're targeting this resource at the middle school so our our hope is that we're we're targeting those right things and that we'll see that change but yeah I think the high school folks are also um of the mindset that students having a higher level of rigor at the middle school again when I talk about the rigor I'm really talking about like some of the questionings some of the way the questions were posed just when you're using one resource and you have to constantly be retooling it to
149make it a little harder that's a lot of work on the teachers so this should level things out a little bit thank you Mar what's the um support then because obviously glaringly obviously we need more support in the middle school so what is the multi-tier systems of support middle school going into high school you know we take care of a lot of our little kiddos K to 6 we have systems built in there what what's the system in the secondary yeah that's a couple of different things um we were look we had a universal screener that we were using um we changed that Universal screener it's changed again now with our new resource so that's one thing that's one way that we're identifying those students the other is over the last year and a half
150or so we've gotten a little more targeted and teachers have gotten more support with identifying students who need support in math and looking at the interventions that we're providing them the third thing is that we have now looked at the roles of some of our Math teachers and we have moved one of our teachers into a role where he has additional time to help with coaching and he's also helping to coach for the new I ready program in addition addtion to that with that bounce forward money we sort of retooled some things and we have a teacher who's dedicated to providing intervention at the middle school so those along with some structural things where we've structured some um regular meetings and regular look fors from through data team meetings and through identification of students I
151think that pronged approach is going to help us catch those kids before you know on time rather and then later so I mean there intervention adjustments there are curricular adjustments with the math resource and then there have been instructional adjustments as well around you know teaching for Visible learning you know that the Math teachers have really embraced that so uh this really I want to say full scale change but there have been a lot of changes in terms of how we tackle math in particular at the middle school thank you and is there anything else in the curcum report that wraps up curriculum excellent thank you and uh I think we're sending out uh committee agendas to all board members but certainly be on the lookout for curcum committee agendas because I we do talk
152about this routinely there so we'll make sure everybody's lopped in uh finance committee Mr gripple back to you asking you shall receive I suppose Mr chair um okay since Mr massana isn't here I I get to give the uh uh Finance report this evening so I'll I'll just uh read the summary that he prepared um as reflected in the above summary above uh or the the above summary through September 30th our budget for the 2023 24 fiscal year is 84 m993 429 We have expended and or encumbered 60 million uh $718,000 during the first three months of our new fiscal year which includes most of our payroll incumbrances for the year but not all our transportation incumbrances which should be entered in October at this time there are no variance concerns to report but do
153note the following items related to the 2324 budget um Connecticut minimum wage increases or qu Connecticut minimum wage increase um which went from or will go let's see yes will go on January one on jary one uh from $15 per hour to $15.69 uh per hour uh as a result as a result of the state's first ever economic indicator adjustment um let's see in line with this we will need to adjust salary of approximately 40 employees who are in positions that pay at or above the current minimum wage uh but are below the new uh the new wage on January 1 um the impact will be minimal uh energy price locks energy markets continue to be volatile as we have been monitoring prices and working with our consultant on best course of action we were
154able to lock prices on below energy Commodities uh for uh heating oil at uh $258 a gallon propane at $22.29 cents a gallon uh Transportation diesel uh at $269 and electricity at 11 almost 12 cents a kilowatt hour um and that is the end of our summary uh are any questions on that summary report okay I'll move on to Medical benefit trust Mr massian will be very proud [Laughter] um medical benefits looks like it was uh below the uh 1.1 million uh budgeted for the month um we claims came in at $97,900 051 leaving us with a a claim reserve of 1.78 months not like the good old days of three to five months but you know it's better than going down um so that's what I have for that I have no knowledge of
155claims history or any of the other stuff that been with um but any questions or comments there okay um let's see we will move on to the approval of prek tuition rate which is unrelated to the previous discussion just so we can clarify that um so I would like to uh make a motion uh that the finance uh a motion that furthers the motion that we made in the finance committee um moved that the chure Board of Education approved tuition increase for the part-time preschool program as follows three days per week current tuition $1,635 annually to a proposed increase to $1,735 annually um four days per week uh from $2,190 to $2,350 uh five days per week uh $2,700 to $2,900 and these are all annual figures um is there a second for the motion
156Sam seconds um discussion on the motion yes an I have a quick question um so I'm assuming some percentage increase was decided upon what what would that have been based on um it wasn't a straight percentage increase um and what the increase was based upon was a review of other preschool integrated preschool programs and it varied I mean I think Sam and Adam could tell you I mean we looked at a variety of different programs um in the area and we intentionally kept these low to continue to entice families to participate but um they do reflect a slight increase as you can see it's it's a $100 for the year I mean in percentage wise I appreciate that it's larger than that but um you know we try to be competitive and again we haven't
157addressed these in more than 15 years sure any other questions or comments on this seeing none I'll uh call for a vote all in favor it is unanimous of those present thank you and that concludes the finance committee report thank you Mr gripple but don't go anywhere because policy is next thank you Mr chair um for uh policy committee uh that I pull up the minutes here um we had a uh discussion on um a policy uh policy 2134 uh for to change the um the title of assist superintendent for instructional services so this um we it was um a different title I forgot what it would say what does it say here it was in assistant superintendent for instructional services changeed to assistant superintendent yes thank you Dr s um and so we um
158we uh pass that for let's see what's that is that for a first reading or second because it's a regulation require notifying the the board yes so it's a regulation so it does not need to proceed any further it was just for um uh for us to review and for the board to be notified uh that we uh concurred with the uh change in title um I don't think we needed to I don't think there's any further action that needs to be taken unless there's opposition to that of course um um seeing n will move on um and then uh finally uh we move for a third reading the uh survey uh surveys of students policy number 61625 uh all of the changes are on our website uh for public review um and let's see
159I would uh like to make a motion that the uh chesher Board of Education give a third and final reading to policy 6162 51 surveys of students student privacy and direct the superintendent to put said policies into immediate effect is there a second Tim seconds is there any discussion seeing none all in favor I it is Ann are you in favor are we talking about the 61625 yes um I'm going tostain okay so uh all right so all in favor we have uh five against abstain okay one abstain all right the motion passes and that concludes the policy uh well actually no not yet I have one question um so that that motion passes um so so not to be a I guess I'll be a wet blanket so uh going back to the public
160discussion we had here before for emphasis yeah pause pause for emphasis um so while they're talking I'm thinking about procedure right I'm thinking about um do we have a policy in effect how this board and or Administration considers how a club sport becomes a Varsity Sport it's a great question we do not but I pulled one okay because all I can think about is great testimony this evening but I'm thinking there's probably maybe five or 10 other sports that would like to become varsity as well how do we cons how do we weigh all of that and how do we consider that so that I just wanted to know if there was a framework that we had in place already um that we could consider it analytically or unemotionally perhaps uh to to know whether
161or not you know was it do you have to be a club sport for 20 years is that enough but what is enough to become a Varsity Sport great question we asked the same question uh that hasn't happened in my memory I mean even the hockey thing was it's not necessarily making it a CHS vars City sport we they were a co-op and we just paid the co-op fees now right that's a distinct difference I never became a Varsity Sport at least not you know I mean it's a Varsity Sport but it was just a much different scenario um so I did pull a model policy on that and we'll review that with your blessing at the next Meek I I I do bless that and know we should definitely yes uh that concludes the
162policy report uh okay I would also ask the policy committee I'll send a formal email but to uh we do have a policy in our Board of at 9000 bylaws I don't remember the number but it's around self evaluation um we can actually do a self- evaluation of the board we haven't done one in some time uh we'll take it up this this year nothing urgent but you know if we're valuing the superintendent and students we might as well valuate ourselves so it's that that don't think was touched since 2014 and C has a model policy I think it's pretty close to it anyway it's a nice positive thing so you know per your committee's or the committee's perview let's talk about it this year correspondence Dr hergan do we have have any correspondence we
163do awesome uh we have a nice email from marinaa soel of who is co-chair of the chesher food drive dear an and members of the chesher board of education on behalf of the chesher food drive board of directors I want to publicly thank Chester public schools for its upcoming participation in the 50th and ual townwide chesher food drive we are especially thankful that each of the chesher public schools will participate by running schoolwide food drives starting next week through Friday November 3D we are fortunate that our kids have many opportunities to help others the 50th annual chesher food drive will be held on November 4th and 5th from 9: to 3 on the First Congregational Church green we invite all community members to join us at any time during those hours we will also be
164accepting food and monetary donations in front of Stop and Shop that weekend all food donations will stock the shelves of area food pantries as the student um reps mentioned and monetary donations will fund the town's food voucher program so for more information you can always go to cheser Food drive.org many thanks marlina thank you up next is superintendent report Dr Solen thank you very much Mr perini point of order Mr chair uh approval of minutes oh s Tak so in our packets we do have minutes uh for last two meetings so I'll make a motion that the Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on September 21st 20 23 and October 20 October 5th 2023 is there a second Adam seconds any discussion or changes on the minutes see as there are none
165uh ask for those on favor of the motion to raise your hand I'm sorry yes Sam um I would like to abstain on the October 5th so the fact that it's clumped together how do we we have to modify again Carol yeah so can you separate those two make I guess you need to do two motions then for two different dates yes Mr grippo I'd like to make an amendment to the motion go ah you were Smith this um I moveed that the Chester Board of Education approved the minutes from meetings from the meeting held on September 21st 2023 I second the amendment okay all those in favor of the amended motion it is unanimous Mr chair I'd like to make a motion yes sir uh move that the Cher Board of Education approve the
166minutes from meeting October 5th second t uh 10 seconds any discussion changes there are none uh all those in favor there are one two five in favor and asens extensions there one exstension motion passes thank you thank you for catching that uh all right Dr Solen on you all right thank you very much uh we'll start with the school modernization update uh really exciting that we've uh had many meetings over the course of the last several weeks uh many with the community uh in addition to our standard meetings that we hold as a Next Generation School building committee and uh the the tekon architect team has worked pretty diligently to take in community feedback uh that process has been ongoing and you if you've been following closely in the community have seen adjustments to some
167of the designs the North End uh was pretty dramatically adjusted after a lot of feedback the committee um really worked through a lot of uh constr around the the new Norton school design and I know that tekon is is currently trying to update update that design and taking a lot of feedback into account I know I think Adam pointed out the fact that the field the soccer field and the initial design was up near brooksvale and is there any way to modify that some other folks pointed that out I know they're uh actively working on that so I would say stay tuned if uh you haven't checked the chesher Public Schools website I would encourage you to go there on the bottom left hand side there's a link that says big link that says school
168modernization and it's got all of the recent presentations and all the information you can see some of the designs and things unfolding uh throughout the process so um just a a shout out to our committee on the amount of time and energy they they've been putting into it is really commendable and and appreciated from where I said um just a a quick update you know as we were talking about some of the growth scores and some of that distinction between um you know the the middle school and the uh elementary school performance a district Who Shall Not Be Named because I don't want to do that but uh super high achieving durge Fairfield County school system that we generally remain competitive with um their grade for ELA per growth Target achieved 79.6 grade 8 was
16960 uh math grade four 89.3 grade 8 69.6 so as Marlene was saying it is really a a trend that we see Statewide um doesn't mean that as you heard we made substantial adjustments anyway but um it is really something that you see across the state that middle Elementary to Middle School transition um at the request of the board uh recently we have uh solicited our local Representatives uh in Hartford for uh some dates to meet and uh we'd love to collaborate with them and give uh each other the opportunity to to hear um concerns and and goals as we enter this next legislative session so uh I have shared with the board some potential dates at that we we' shared with the legislators and uh hopefully maybe after the meeting if if you could
170check your calendars real quick we might be able to square away some dates and hopefully put this on the agenda sooner rather than later uh in advance of the I believe it's February 7th that the legislative session begins but once we get into January we're pretty inundated with with uh the budget so we're shooting for December um I want to notify the board that uh if you recall last year you put a lot of time and energy into reviewing and approving a survey for our students the pass survey that is designed to uh provide Insight on how our school system is growing in respect to our social emotional goals and um we're excited that that survey will kick in uh starting uh probably late next week and I'll be sending home a letter to all
171of our parents again that's the survey that you reviewed and approved last year uh so we're excited to try and get some data around that and we'll look forward to sharing it with the curriculum committee so that's it for me any questions for Dr Solen on his report the comment um that is great to see PA in all the meetings i i attended several I was able to hop on the uh virtual one was a couple nights ago you got like 24 people not all of them were staff they were actually there's citizens there which is great um but I also encourage um people to if they want to get a real deep dive into what's going on is to watch the Next Generation meetings because just the one that I watched um on the
172uh geothermal presentation and how it was sort of discovered in mid meeting how it would would have been a good it's or I think it has become a good idea to have both schools go hybrid um geothermal electral and the heat pump comination allows us to save significant amount of money to I'm guessing probably direct somewhere else not actually probably not actually save but to direct somewhere come on budget right yeah make sure we come in on budget right so yeah there's a lot of those details a lot of minutia if you if you like that sort of thing that sometimes when I'm in the mood I do like to watch that stuff um that uh there's a lot of detail there so if you want to get caught up on what's going on watch
173those meetings available on the town of Cheshire YouTube awes put the link make sure the Link's on our website too great yes Sam yeah please I mean this is not an an item that the superintendent spoke about but I do want to just take a personal point of privilege to um thank the superintendent for his immediate resp response to the crisis that's happening overseas in the Middle East um I thought your messaging was very thoughtful um and just very compassionate to our community and providing those resources to help um our families navigate through this so thank you very much thank you likewise I I did share your parent School uh not out to one of the forums only because you know there's uh for for uh citizens that don't have students of school system you
174know unless you're really plugged in you don't know how um you know that's being um communicated but I thought it went over very well you should know so write Sam comments it's crazy world we live in um yeah Tim thanks thank you um yeah so as as Adam had alluded to uh there's been some the school building meetings go on a few weeks ago there was a discussion um regarding labor agreements that I don't think we've really touched upon here so I just wanted to acknowledge that there's trade-offs with any decisions that any body makes um the body being the building committee Board of Ed whoever um but there were a couple of votes taken that likely from my understanding of the discussion likely led to saving several million dollars within the project budgets so
175I just wanted to thank chairman perini as well as Council chairman Tim slokum for the leadership that they've shown on this throughout um then getting the right people involved to to do things like that so thank you for that Tony uh Tim thank you very much I I appreciate that but uh you know let's so but the this the school building construction committee is doing some phenomenal work too and yeah we were involved in the selection process quite a few folks were and I think there were over 30 people that volunteered honestly I think we could have selected them all so I uh uh appreciate that um but also want to thank that committee for doing a lot there's a lot of people involved this whole you know this whole project from start to finish
176start it takes a village and it's awesome to see treasure throughout these years step up and get to this point so uh yeah I'm feeling really good about it but but thank you much appreciate it um yeah you're absolutely welcome I I mean it um and also uh going back to the building um there again as Adam was alluding to there was some great discussion about Net Zero Energy buildings um it looks like that is likely to happen as we move forward I think that's great and I also want to thank the board specifically for I don't know Jee do you happen to know when he voted on it sometime a year and a year ago or something the board voted to support the idea of serious consideration of Net Zero Energy buildings I think
177that consideration has happened and it basically has demonstrated that looking at life cycle costs when you take life cycle costs into account for the energy consumption of buildings it makes a lot of sense to do this it costs a little bit more up front and you save a little bit on the back end so anyway thank you to the board for uh supporting that idea because that was part of the discussion when they were talking about life cycle costs of the building thank you it's awesome good work all around thank you Tim for you know being a strong opponent and constantly keeping every educated on that it does said does take a village so good things happening can't wait for the show to hit the ground that project when is that going to happen again
178it will start breaking ground next winter okay so there's no old business uh chairperson's update very briefly uh I attended a School Board Association weekend conference a couple weeks ago it's basically scuba associations from New York uh Connecticut Massachusetts on up hey long story short uh it was great to get insights from other school board members that you know the good news is uh we share a lot of the same problems and challenges folks are working through the fiscal cliff with the SR funding running out uh in other school districts um you know everyone's talking about shes of teachers uh and Educators leaving districts and states for other states uh Connecticut was pointed out as one of the states that's actually learning teachers away recently this one reoc reciprocity that's been the place that uh
179Dr Russell Tucker has been to other states the point being is uh we're not alone in of of our challenges the the one humbling moment for me was uh I think I shared was Dr Solen as we're going around talking about some of the challenges in the district that um I know we look at our rankings and I know those don't tell the whole story uh but you know I uh I came back with just a renewed humbling that uh as far as I'm concerned treasure has it pretty good compared to some other um school districts and so we count our blessings uh because the town put emphasis on education but I was humbled on a discussion only in the state but there's one state that has some very rural school districts um and some
180uh you know High poy level so a school district in a very Lal location can have 45 total students that you know need to get back in school that don't have uh you know food for lunch you know there's not a great deal of funding that's said happening in New Hampshire are struggling to get um funding so it's in you know treasure I really had nothing to complain about that kind of joke that you know most recent issue was a moldy grape in one of the cafeterias you know so uh the point being is I I you know sometimes we get caught up in a lot of the uh the negativity but there's a lot of good happening in in Connecticut school system so uh felt pretty pile that at least in chure you know
181I think we're heading the right path but anyway uh it great to meet other folks and we're not alone uh I've been asked by cab to represent uh represent cab at the National School Board election in Washington in January and I'm going to be representing cab at Congress and some public testimony January so just just they asked me I didn't ask them so if I go to Washington and break it I uh but it's it's all good so I'll talk more about that yeah I it's it's it's kind of funny I say you sure you want me to go to Washington because I'll probably make it worse I can't I can't stand politics uh but anyway it's all it's it's it's all good just just know that a lot of boards in Connecticut are you
182know I'm not sure yet they won't be open for business yet in January well it's the end of January so there's there's some session happening yeah I know yeah okay uh and that's really it so uh that being said I know it's been a long evening and thank you for sticking around this evening you've been you've been great as well Christ Bruno my can I well actually can I just make one quick comment before weour um you the your your comments on on teacher short just just sort of clicked in my mind we had a Town Council Forum a couple nights ago right where there were at least three or four Board of educations asked to Town Council um incumbents and Challengers and all I thought was that our to our Board of Education candidates
183our incumbents and Challengers do not have their own for to be able to answer those questions accurately because a lot of the answers that were given were not correct and there were some of us in the audience that could have given the correct answer ERS and they don't have the opport opportunity to and that the candidates are going to have to find different ways of getting their uh information and message out so that the people know what's actually happening so I just wanted to comment that if anyone's listening that there should be a townwide forum for our Board of Education candidates and if not for the next time around so that uh somehow that we're we're treated less than uh even though we control 69% of the budget so just say and thank you for
184that I know uh you talked about it I there was a couple candidates to reach out to me um some of the new ones is great but um thinking that this Board of Ed was responsible form we're not um in the past it was a town white PTA and I did reach out and uh was told there's no plans to have one that's s was me mistaken so I reached out as well yeah and I I'm not sure what why or or how but yeah it is um I I hope all the candidates particularly the board of candidates uh find a way to get their message out and if there are listen if there are questions uh all candidates should know that they you can reach out to Dr Solen uh to get some ideas
185you can reach out to Board of Ed you know we're not shy with anybody we're helpful all of us are really good to get information out there but if there are yeah if you heard some weird responses the other night please feel free to email us we'll we'll help you get some answers but I don't know if you have more to add Sam um I'm asking about um yeah caves caps conference coming up and are we leveling up this year Dr Solen we didn't meet all the criteria to get to the next level thankfully we met the uh at least in our estimation the criteria to be recognized and I can't remember what committee meeting I was in where we discussed this but um we did submit everything a few weeks ago Carol and hopefully
186we get acknowledged again in November when we go did I put in for an RSVP I don't know even remember if I did yes so thank you for that I remind board members uh as we're all welcome attend the conference uh please do if you can it's it's it's Friday and half a Saturday I know it's tough on a on a work day um and you should have in your emails from C uh the delegate assembly packet which is all the legislation that we think uh the next session is going to dis discuss and cabes Collective stance being from all boards so if he's I will take take a look through it out one yeah I'm trying to get electronic copy of that I just have a paper one so I'll get it out but
187um uh there's going to be that Thursday night um yeah I represent treasure so we have one vote on this but we can certainly amend this and make changes but I know it's a little wordy but um and yeah that's anything else on the conference yeah okay so to not continue this meeting I add I call for a motion to adjourn I motion to adjourn you second all those in favor it is unanimous thank you team it's thank you for speaking out