001my name is Marcelli Mr Genie here here thank you I asked that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance indivisible with liberty and justice for all so thank you everyone and happy New Year I know there's a lot going on and we were waiting for a couple of board members to attend Tim White who is the legislative committee chair is on his way Adam should be here shortly but we definitely have enough to get started I want to recognize our Representatives on the audience representative zubkus and representative Samson they get that right Center even better welcome senator uh thank you for being here this evening it's good to see you all uh just a note I did uh get a message from representative Linehan she could not be here this evening to do some uh
002something that came up so that being said I know Dr Sone has a presentation to hand out and just here we go and just for uh Leslie and if you mind me calling about your first name or I'm kind of informal um Leslie and Rob uh just a little background here this is the the first time uh I can recall that we actually have um a board of ed legislative committee assembled in Cheshire where um yeah I'm sure we'll be talking tonight you'll see this in the presentation but we have a committee made up of Faith ham Tim White and and Harrigan that collect input from the superintendent his staff Board of Ed topics that are affecting us locally from legislative other mandates other matters uh both you know opportunities and and things to work
003on and there's always a lot of that um about the team tried to boil it down to a handful of things that we would like Harford to kind of help us and not just us it's also other boards of education so we're gonna go through that this evening there is a presentation and I expect there'll be some back and forth some questions and clarifications but uh on that is a pretty informal process tonight so we're just happy you're here and I know there's a lot going on in Hartford and you certainly give our condolences to your colleague who uh unfortunately passed away I know there's a lot going on there it's pretty heavy heavy-hearted moment there but thank you for being here and this is Mr Tim White who's actually our legis committee chair that
004being said that to solar what do you want yeah you know what's a good point might as well do that now so uh before we actually get into the presentation do we have any audience members that wish to address the Board of Education and if you do please come up to the podium uh please state your name and address we have a three-minute rule but seeing there's not a lot of folks here tonight I think we're okay there we asked any comments uh while you're certainly can say what you speak please keep them civil and please no allegations to Personnel if there are issues that require administrative Insight we take that offline better than that I'd like to hear from you uh thank you my name is hap Jordan I live on Broadview Road um
005I'm here with a request for the superintendent and this body um a week ago in Virginia a boy found his mother's loaded handgun and brought it to school he pulled it out of his backpack aimed it at this teacher and fired a bullet into her chest she has survived physically but no one knows what the emotional trauma is to the entire class the school the community that event sent new shock waves out across our nation and they've reached Connecticut in ripples there are petitions being circulated throughout the state aimed at convincing superintendents of school districts to use this event as a reminder to parents perhaps send out a letter that Connecticut has a safe storage law on the books but it's only as effective as people pay attention to it and you can't even be
006certain how many people don't even know it's on the books cheshire's been a fairly safe community over the many years um unfortunately the shooter in Virginia was the same age as the 20 victims in Sandy Hook the boy was six years old um because it took place in Sandy Hook that brings it kind of close to home for many of us who have been around long enough to remember that but I'm asking the superintendent through this body if he would consider sending out a letter to all of the parents of students in the Cheshire school system just to demonstrate how aware we are the potential for something like this to happen even in a safe place like Cheshire where you at least expect it um every tragic Unthinkable event is unprecedented only until it happens
007that is the extent of my ask um I've put out a fact sheet on all the spaces up there with some information that I would ask you to ponder and there's lots more information where that came from a couple of you folks up there know how to get to me directly should you have any more questions or comments um but thank you for letting me speak and I look forward to your actions thank you and thank you so much for coming out tonight and sharing the fact sheet with us I'm sure Dr song will take a take a review of it and maybe by the next board meeting if not sooner you know we'll see we can do about that but thank you for bringing our attention and reminding us that safety is always important
008ah Mr Esposito how are you it'd be very brief um Maura Esposito I'm 30 Holly Road in Cheshire um but I am here as the Director of health and I am here because of Mr Jordan's request um as many of you may have seen in the Cheshire Herald chespercott and the Cheshire Police Department had recently um partnered with um pla uh plows what was it swords to plowshare um which is an organ a National Organization where we and Cheshire actually brought in 96 guns um and we actually paid we had to raise money to give these people money to for their guns that was phenomenal um and many of these people it's just about educating people on gun safety so I am in support of this I know Chester caught also it's about just educating
009people of how to keep their guns safe if they're going to have one so if there's anything or assistance that we can help you Jeff we're more than happy to help you yep I actually more I had a I'm sure the answer is always yes knowing you but um is and again just broader question is there besides what the church public schools and Board of Ed can do an awareness is there anything Trustmark and or the local our local police department can do on gun safety education and judging if it's just a couple of short Seminars the library or online just to reinforce right yeah you know about anybody else you know multiple Avenues communication will help reinforce the message um we try to whenever we do a big event we do the giant publicity
010St Peter's did a big giant presentation on their lawn so absolutely um and and usually we try to partner together so we all do it at the same so we kind of you know uh flood the market there so um yeah no I'll I'll send out an email um and include Chief drive and um you know ask if some things can put up on the bulletin um I do know that we are planning another gun buyback in the spring so we're going to be really trying to raise funds to to continue this effort thank you once you know the date I'm we'll try to announce it at one of our board meetings this is general public announcements I'll let you know thank you all right any other members of the board that I'm sorry the
011public that want to address the Board of Ed thank you so much both of you and for those of you we're gonna or so we're gonna move on to uh the presentation yes done just a quick question on the gun safety have you ever Jeff or Marlene uh Adult Ed has ever been anything with respect to gun safety in there I'm not aware of anything related to gun safety in Adult Ed but that doesn't mean it didn't happen before my time but I did want to make folks aware that we do introduce safety related to firearms in second grade where there's a unit that all of our second graders participate in and it tells a child what should you do if you find a gun and that talks about you know telling an adult and
012you know that it should be stored that kind of thing safely so our kids are are getting at least that message the story I've heard from my mom is so I'm 50 my sister is 60 when she was probably three or four years old so 55 years ago she was over my grandparents house and my grandfather had left the gun on his dresser and she walked into the kitchen holding it and it was loaded nothing happened but yeah just uh need to be careful that was a long time ago but I suspect there are certain situations probably like in Virginia where this sort of thing happened where I don't think any adult is expecting a kid to do that and it's good to uh keep people aware of those situations to avoid it which begs
013the question you know second grade really something like this happens you recognize that we could be doing that even earlier something a point to take um thank you as chairman peregini said to our folks who were here for public comment tonight I have distributed to our legislators that are here this evening and of course the board has reviewed some of the items that were of particular interest to we felt the Cheshire education community that I just wanted to touch briefly upon and certainly as Tony said I want to invite more time out actually dedicated to any sort of questions that we have for each other and more conversant than just me presenting to you because I could have just sent you this you know digitally and and saved you the trouble but it's really about
014having the conversation and and building some more perspective on on either side of the equation here excess cost reimbursement just to jump in for one second sure um so the quick background on it legislative committee we met unless you said this before I got here Tony yeah okay thank you yeah so the legislative committee Matt and if I recall correctly the three of us agreed that the six items that the superintendent is bringing forward was something that we all agreed on in a bipartisan fashion committee level um so just that background on it yeah I agree that's a good point to make Tim that this is something that was uh universally endorsed um through the board and you know if if you're lucky enough to get a seat to the 7 30 meeting where I
015present my budget it's usually pretty popular but um you'll notice that our you know special education costs have been climbing and I I know that you know I'm not alone when I I suggest that you know that's a an issue for Connecticut honestly I think that the at the heart of that issue is the burden of proof in mediation and um that's something that has been addressed multiple times is you know you guys are neither of you are new to the process and I know you're familiar with it but the burden of proof and mediation that we didn't really talk about much at the board level means that when there's a dispute between family and the school system about what's the appropriate path forward for a child the processes that it goes to mediation and
016Connecticut is only I believe one of two states in this in the country where the school system has the burden of proof and that's there's a lot of lobbying on the other side of this issue to keep it that way and it it really tends to drive up costs and doesn't really necessarily support positive outcomes and when that happens we are more much more likely to exceed the cap the threshold for excess cost reimbursement that's four and a half times the per pupil expenditure um and when we do that we are supposed to receive the difference between that four and a half times the per pupil expenditure and what the cost is um unfortunately we've never been able as a state to budget the full amount for that so it's just a a flat grant
017that is divided up among towns and while that's beneficial it certainly continues to fall well short of what we're actually paying and these aren't um necessarily costs that you can easily predict and so it has a greater impact on budgets we're a pretty big school system the impact on us is significant the impact on a smaller school system Leslie and I were talking about some of the other communities she represents being significantly smaller is disproportionately impactful on those people so and those taxpayers and that you know that school system so just something that you know if you could be conscious of as we go through this process in this next session right to read is something that I already had the benefit of speaking with these guys a little bit about too um like I
018said to you earlier I think legislation um really wasn't terrible legislation in my opinion it was really about the implementation of that so as such you know we'd be hopeful that perhaps clarification could be provided in this next session um oh please please later please do so I on the right to read uh only because it's very fresh for me I I serve on the cave executive committee at Connecticut Social Security Board of Education I'm also one of the regional directors now and we had a webinar with the state department education on this last Friday roughly 300 members you know representing boards events throughout the state of Connecticut or folks attended we had folks in the state department education explain uh the process and uh I think faith is also on the call I'm not
019sure else is on there it is recorded um after about 45 minutes of pan installs in the back and how this came to be and how to shoved down to the boards of its throats we were left with two things one is as a perception in sde that school districts that are scoring 70 percent 80 percent it's stop there and don't look for the extra 10 15 percent of kids to move into proficiency levels there's also suggestion that most Boards of ads don't know what they're doing what's funny about and this is I'm paraphrasing but if you did watch that webinar and hear the back and forth it was it was appalling my point of view there's a little bit of out of touch on the imitation of this so what's happening is out of
020six or seven programs that sde is mandating school districts to adopt they're mandating Cheshire and others exactly which programs to adopt that's a problem it's a problem because the program itself is a great intent we want our kids to be proficient in Reading we want to help them every child I'll tighter a lot of superintendents and District officials in that call that were you know disappointed by the thought that the Department of Education thinks we're not looking out for every child this is not the case the challenge here is some of these materials that are being proposed are not helpful they're just not helpful and there's a waiver process that they talked about which is also a bit flawed because essentially have three options for a waiver one is you need more time to be
021able to adopt them into the program that's another problem because this was passed last summer and has to be in place a year later in July leaving districts excluding no time to get this in place if there's a financial burden that's also an option for waiver and I could tell to our school districts in cave that are looking at 1.1 million dollars and higher that they don't have to do this and there's no funding for this and the other one is to completely not participate at all and that one to me is a little weird because folks want to support this legislation we I believe are going to follow waiver because it's not that we disagree with the legislation it's because the materials they've adopted will adversely affect our student body uh how they're collecting
022this feedback will not show that it will show that either districts are adopting it or need more time what's happened is whoever process took place to identify as materials it did not include local school districts and only through this process of the waiver well now they learn what's out there and what could have been used for you so it's there's a fundamental flaw in the implementation of this and I can tell you uh this is going to make even more news because again a lot of coffee reporters a lot of folks in that conversation it's a problem um I think one of the things you'll see coming from Cabe uh there's a state agenda we put together things that we you know and this is for all boards to look into was when we when
023things like this are pushed down at least give a year to local school districts to study and come back with a plan to Future adopt this not training so it's it's a problem um there's a fundamental disconnect from what I've seen in my time here and serving on Cabe between the Department of Education and local school districts there's almost no more two-way communication and it's a shame because we all want this to be successful this is not going to be successful so um I could talk to you more about it um but again we I don't want to I don't Tim and team have stuff but this one that's more fresh and uh we're just on a call today with some boards and you know it's something that we're concerned about yeah keep a microphones
024yeah I'm sorry you can just sit there or go up to what was comfortable for you and talked to as you said uh part of my district um which is you know Bethany down in there but also I was at a Woodbury I mean I'm sorry Waterbury Board of the Ed meeting and the same thing came up and their complaint is we're always brought up as the shining star of these great examples and yet they're mandating this program that is going to not work at all in our school system and the amount of money for all the reasons you you just stated um so I actually just put in a piece of legislation regarding this because first of all I don't believe any Board of Ed member or any of you were at the table
025when they were talking about this whole piece of legislation I think they just enforced it um and I was told by some of the superintendents that there were a couple of schools using this program and that they are not going to be using it anymore because it had a reverse effect on the school well I know one of the school districts Leslie I'm sorry to cut you off but this you should be aware of this that uh one of those school districts did alert the Department of Education they won't be using it and uh something happened where now they can't file a waiver anymore so they're going to have to use it so there's there's going to be some some back and forth but anyway I just want to let you know that thank you
026but they did so I've heard I didn't hear specifically from those schools it was through another superintendent that those programs were not working so um what I have done is put in a piece of legislation to kind of Benchmark so if it because we all want our students to read right I mean that's our goal we want them to be successful and I think every one of you and these other schools are doing everything they can to make that happen my point is we should be looking at the schools that are below and the students that are below and how we can help them and not just the state mandating so hopefully something will come of that um and we'll see but I hope that the superintendents speak up in the board of EDS I
027hope that y'all come and testify and really make some noise about this because I haven't met one person that and I've only talked to my district uh and some outside but I know one person has ever said this is a good thing yeah again the principle of it is a good thing you know and make sure all students that are reading proficient but the implementation is where things kind of fell flat just curious I apologize getting here late did they get did you get to introduce them okay the so my question is uh are you on the education committee Representatives upkis I just got on wonderful so a great place to start so it's new it's new very happy to do what I can um so I I like I said I've never that's one
028committee I've never served on but you'll be now well thank you I know it's uh Myriad of the journey there so thank you for doing that thank you well it might be useful for us to to do a tiny brief introduction so the folks that are on the the board um and anyone watching you know has a little better idea where we're coming from um forgive me I had a little bit of a frog in my throat tonight but first off I want to thank you guys for inviting us uh I think Cheshire is the only town that I don't do this kind of on an annual basis with already so I'm glad to see you um you know taking on a legislative uh you know initiative to the um the lawmakers in the district
029um what's really interesting to me is just listening to the the conversation I've been in the legislature first in the House of Representatives starting in 2011 and then uh in the Senate since 2019 and during that period of time I have been one of the strongest advocates for local control and the prevention of State mandates on towns but I do want to point out that if you take a look at this list um you can understand why these things happen um and that is because these bills are put before the legislature and there's always this understanding that if you don't support any one of these Myriad of items somehow you were against these things and a lot of legislators are bullied into uh voting in favor of State mandates on their local Boards of Education
030even though they might not even be inclined to to want to do it that way because of the subject matter you know G Senator Sampson are you against adult education G Senator Sampson Are You Against Child Abuse reporting gee Senator Sampson would you be against the the inner tent internet protection act for children and so on and so on and that's how they happen um and you know what we've got to do is we've got to combat that mentality that exists in Hartford where we get more and more mandates every year because they sound like good ideas um the best idea is to let sound well-performing school districts govern themselves you should be looked to as a model for what other schools in Connecticut should be doing your success speaks volumes and for you to
031be told that somehow you've got to follow some State mandate that says You must use a different curriculum at Great expense to the taxpayers in the community and probably at a net negative to your students is just ludicrous so I just wanted to give you a little background on that that you do have allies I am guilty of voting for a couple of the mandates on this list but I will tell you the ones that I am guilty of I am only guilty of because the alternative was much worse there was a mandate on here for sexual harassment training that is required for uh employees of the district um that was part of a deal uh to ultimately mitigate the damage that would have been done had we not uh as uh the Republican Senate
032went along with um the ultimate product um but for the most part uh I'm a very loud voice in Hartford saying no I I trust my locally elected School Board closest to the community closest to the parents and children uh that are affected to make the decisions on what's best for them and um we've got to send that message loud and clear to elected lawmakers across Connecticut um that you know the local government it should have the authority to make these decisions and that when the lawmakers overstep their bounds that they're going to be held to account for so I would ask just one favor of you guys and that is to stay informed as much as possible about how people vote in the legislature you know Leslie and I we come before the Town
033Council on a regular basis too and they always have a group a lot of asks for us and uh I without fail every year and I know Leslie the same we put in those requests for those asks every year because that's what the um the town government is asking us from the town in our district but sadly um you know serving the minority we don't have the power to make those happen things necessarily happen um but it is very important to me that the local government officials are paying attention to what the lawmakers that are in their districts are doing and how they're voting on those things so that you know when I come back to you and I say I'm not voting for mandates I am defending you every chance I want you to
034know that's true thank you you know I would add with respect to the mandates I I don't think anybody here would say that every bill that influences education that's passed is passed is a bad one and there are some you know certainly things that make sense sexual harassment training from an employer perspective isn't the worst thing that you could ask of us but I think you know Tim mentioned this when we had met previously and I I appreciate it I think it makes sense is at least to revisit some of these things periodically to see if is this still necessary to carry forward rather than it's on the books in perpetuity and you know we'll toil away at things that I'm sure people in the legislature would be like they wouldn't want to mandate this
035any further so I think there's got to be some sort of um you know reciprocity in terms of who's responsible for this stuff we have to own some of it to get the information to you and then um your end if you can try and when things are adopted put a period of time to revisit them that would be great too go ahead I was going to say uh and I listen I know it's it's obviously a lot more than just the two of you but uh you know there's a lot of folks to work with and I but I've all of us that are engaged you know I'll work with anybody in Hartford to before Things become law or before under being drafted just have folks spoken to or reached out to their local
036bodies to get input on how things would be impacting them I could tell you in this reading legislation that didn't happen it was done outside of Connecticut with outside influence outside experts bought to Harford and then you know and I not trying to be harsh on our education but you know I got the sense from them but they're rushing to move on this because it was forced upon them and here we are so maybe take a pause I know you two will but uh my rents out there is take a pause uh make sure you do have folks engaged and if you're not seeing um and this is for any representative any Senator if they're not seeing enough folks from the communities out there put the word out um well so anyway thank you for
037reminding us to pay attention it's uh we're gonna have to you know more so than ever so thank you for that I'm sorry that's on Tim yeah uh Jeff could you uh with regard to this and the any of the further items that you will discuss could you associate a dollar figure with them when appropriate do you have a dollar number for the read to write to read I don't because for the right to read um because we haven't gone into enough uh trouble to you know fully vet one of these programs the dollar is associated with that in terms of time and Manpower um you know we I could tell you it's significant and then once adoption occurs the professional development time is also significant um we just didn't feel that it made sense
038to invest that time when we weren't going to pursue that in the in the first place yeah I I want to just make one more point in general which is if something so an idea for me is if something's going to happen maybe you could at least influence influence the decision to the point where a transition a thoughtful transition is considered because just railroading it through and saying hey do this tomorrow is just ridiculous it's transitions are even when something a program is good the transition can always mess stuff up I remember correctly we would think they said just for the software was 785 dollars a child it's often priced based on the number of students you have so right you know in a smaller District include the training and all those other things that
039you just mentioned but for some reason that sticks in my head yeah that sounds fair Leslie you know yeah it's a good chunk of change before you worry about the the real work of implementing it um the next item is teacher shortage and I want to be respectful of your time and so I don't want to spend forever on this but anything that can be done legislation legislatively pardon me to um make the profession more attractive support uh candidates to become teachers there is this uh real concern in Cheshire um we've seen smaller applicant pools um thankfully you know we we do uh I think still have a strong draw and we do have applicants for most positions um but across the state this is becoming an issue and I feel guilty when other teachers
040leave other districts and come to Cheshire I don't only feel guilty but now I'm not hiring kids out of college at 50 Grand I'm hiring seasoned people at 100 Grand which there is a financial impact for us in that respect too you know sometimes we rely on turnover where we can get talented young people to come in um where we have that cost differential and that's part of our budget process when that no longer really exists because of the pool being um not quite what it used to be so anything we can do to support a path to certification and drawing new people into the field is great teacher evaluation um this is there's a committee working on this right now so when you know this ultimately comes forward we would want more District control
041the standards just like with teaching and and you know the uh standards are defined by the state I I think that's a good thing the standards defined by the state for teachers is a good thing how we evaluate people that work for the Cheshire Public Schools we want more control in that process I think the state CSD is moving in that direction but love to have conversations with you guys if if that or as that draws closer as it relates to what we do and our beliefs and how we evaluate our teachers um virtual learning this isn't the same as you know some of the legislation that went through last year around dual teaching but um we would appreciate the flexibility if we had unfortunately a mold issue in one of our buildings and had
042to close for several days or we've had other issues that force a closure of a school for multiple days rather than tack those days on to the end of the year just to have the flexibility to say all right we're going to do three remote only days to address this issue to make sure the buildings you know safe to return or at a building I know that you know geez we have an absentee rate of 48 percent at the peak of flu or whatever it's probably within our kids best interests and our staff's best interest if we close this Friday and do a remote day instead of bringing everybody back in to spread this virus some more so um we'd just like to have that flexibility we're not suggesting that it you know be it
043um in perpetuity that you know would do as many days as you want but you know maybe up to three days a year um the other thing that we'd like to have is uh Regional uh collaboration to the point where you know like Aces could run a Latin class this dovetails with our uh shortage area issues we have two tremendous Latin teachers in in the Cheshire Public Schools um finding a third would be like you know I may as well put a posting for Sasquatch I mean the likelihood is probably better that I hire him so you know if we can regionalize areas that still support our student growth but also make it accessible you know we would we would appreciate that educational cost sharing um as you know we're in in the beginning of
044a phase-in of an adjustment but there's always legislation I see that there's already introduced legislation this year to revisit that um the uh the share of Education in Connecticut has remained static for probably 25 years around the funding level to the local community so round number we've received about 10 million dollars forever um the local share has increased substantially just an opportunity to to look at that again as we go through the process um you saw you know Rob mention the list of mandates which is voluminous but um again not everything here is terrible I we're not suggesting that but um in totality it can become overwhelming and so to re review it I know that uh what is it about four years ago guys that there was a task force that that looked at
045some of these mandates and took a few off I think uh uh cyclical commitment to doing that is beneficial um that if there's a committee that can be formulated maybe even on a five-year basis to look at it again and shave down what's no longer relevant or necessary um it just helps kind of to pull the weeds from the garden if you will finally our chief operating officer Ben massiano uh he can certainly follow up but uh HVAC improvements in terms of the the go forward it's the legislative requirement CGS 10-220 says in 2024 and every five years thereafter a local or Regional Board of Ed she'll provide for a uniform inspection evaluation of the heating ventilation air conditioning system which the last which should be pretty easy for us because we don't really have
046air conditioning but anyway um within each School building under its jurisdiction uh the list of requirements the assessment for this this is just just the cost of the assessment in Meriden was 375 000 so I mean you can have it you know cut it in half for Cheshire um because they have 16 schools we have eight you know still looking at two hundred thousand dollars when we go to to do this pretty sizable clip certainly every year we're inspecting in our heating ventilation air conditioning units but this new addition just something that we'd like to to revisit uh and a certainly been Messianic and ask him to reach out to you guys with more information on that that was the I think that was what we had gone through um and I you know before
047I wrap up my little piece here I just want to personally extend my gratitude for you two coming out this evening I know you know you have long days particularly now um to sit and listen to me drone on is not the highlight of the day but I hope it provides some perspective and I appreciate you know the constant open door that you've provided and I look forward to more conversation in the coming weeks thank you um it's interesting because all of these were the exact things that the other superintendents hit on I mean everything HVAC all these things special ed costs all these things and before we left the room this one small town the superintendent was already at like an extra two million dollars in his budget so I I know the pain
048I I feel it for you guys um so hopefully we can get something done to help but I would encourage for the superintendents for the board of ed for Cabe all these people get be vocal you have to be vocal appreciate it so you know I I'm I'm going to turn back to Tim and the rest of the team I'm sure there's some questions back and forth you know on the cave side of things um cab is trying uh I again I've been here for probably too long 14 years uh I first the last um three or four years uh prior to it used to be that cave wood uh be able to approach the governor whoever was in the governor's office uh or Department ahead or in some cases certain committees on the legislator
049that's uh or are you in the Senate that doesn't happen anymore um you know cave is um and we're trying to figure out how to re-establish some Communications now I can't speak for Liz Brown Liz Brown's our president she's actually the chair of the Waterbury uh board of education but uh we are working to be there and try to open lands communication uh Leonard's also one of our committee members trying to you know so uh it's not for the lack of trying um so that being said is I would extend invitation to both of you if you want to chat with the kids committee we'd love to chat with you and see how we can better help you help us and everyone else and to your colleagues you know please let them know that we're
050willing to talk to anybody um you know we're everyone here's we're here pretty create political Souls cave or just want to get the right things done and we just need to find people that want to be you know hear us but we want to help not complain so but anyway Tim turn it back to you yeah thank you yeah with regard to I totally appreciate where you're coming from about being vocal to me I normally think of the legislature or the governor with that the elected officials do you have any suggestions on how to influence a state department like sde and it's a serious question I I really have no idea I mean you can write a letter but yeah well there's so much I could say about all of the commentary on on the
051panel and I'll try not to break the microphone or the uh the desk here um from somebody who is very vocal and uh I am I'm noted for um speaking up probably more so than anybody else in in the uh in the state senate and the house before that um you know it's it's very difficult in a place like that I can see that this board operates in a very bipartisan way and you have the best interests of your um uh constituents at heart as well as the school district um I I wish the legislature was more like that uh sadly it's not it's a very very political place and there is a very distinct difference between the political parties and the direction that they want to take um the state and the country uh
052it's just it's just a matter of that um you know you guys talked about trying to intervene on some of the mandates and maybe put a sunset or a time limit we have tried and tried and tried again um you know it's when you have and again I'm trying to be as non-partisan as I can I mean it's not because I I um I did I simply just have different world view I guess than the people that are in charge on a state level and they believe in a centralized government they believe in a centralized bureaucracy and that the State Department of Education is going to have more talent and knowledge and experts uh to make determinations about the best direction for education in the state and I disagree and I would imagine that almost
053anyone in either political party that serves on a local Board of Education would disagree too um because government should be close to home and that's where the decisions should be made that are most effective um as was pointed out Mr superintendent I mean the mandates they are good things and I was I was trying to make the point although I didn't think I did a very good job of it when I spoke the first time to say that's why they pass because it's hard to vote against these things they are good ideas but these are not ideas that I think should be implemented by a state government without the cooperation and um buy-in of the local government that has to implement them and that's the problem so um I have fought more mandates than I
054care to count and I've paid the price because election time it's good fodder for campaign mailers that you know Senator Sampson or representative zubkus is against whatever that mandate was because it is a good thing and it's not so much that we would be against those things it's just that we would think that they should be implemented by the town uh rather than the state so all politics is representative government is the answer to my to your question uh Tim I think which is that if you want to see change you have to make that change happen in the hearts and minds of the people you represent because ultimately the government that they get on a Town level or state level is who they chose and um if you don't like the direction things are
055going uh and this is what I live by I think it's incumbent upon each of us to try and explain the better way to do it and try and encourage people to come over to our side and elect us to make those changes um it's been tough for me serving in the minority my entire career in the legislature um I long for the day that I can be in a position to actually make real change so um I envy you guys on this board because I think you can work together and make that happen um and I don't want to speak for Leslie but but I know she's agreeing with a lot of what I'm saying here especially on the part which is that not not they weren't burden you uh the policies that you
056need Cheshire enable you in every way possible um the each one of these asks is pretty strong simple to me certainly the um you know Direct Portage and the teacher evaluations you guys should be able to make the determination it's on your own set of calculus the state ring uh utilize that and that's always been my Envision for the State Department of Education which is that they ought to be there being the experts that they are producing whatever they want but ultimately the final decision ought to be made by local communities on what they take from them there's a real danger and I don't mean to go on and on and on there's a real danger to Central planning and that is when you have Central planning of anything particularly education you lose the ability
057for individual school districts to improvise and make change school districts are all different you know you mentioned Waterbury I mean Waterbury and Cheshire couldn't be more different and therefore the policies in which they approach their schools and their students ought to be completely different too and a one-size-fits-all approach is not the answer and once one school district excels the other school districts ought to look and say hey what's Cheshire doing is that something that we can model ourselves after or that won't work here and that should be their decision and you lose all of that when you start centralizing the uh the state government making those decisions anyway I don't mean to go on and on I just I I can't say enough that we are with you 100 on this the last thing I
058want to do as the state senator representing this district is to um interfere with the policy making of the people that were elected in those individual towns to do it I you know I'm a firm believer in individual liberty and then local control next I think that the the federal power should be the least the state next lease and so on maximizing power back to the individual and you guys are closest to home you should make the make the calls on on what happens um basically oh sorry um thank you for coming out tonight you guys it's uh cold and rainy um you know I just thank you for what you're doing and um I as a one-term board member I want to say that um probably my biggest surprise when I got on here
059was finding out that as soon as I took the oath I became a state agent um and that by law I have to act according to the interest of the state and our families not our students and not our voters so in a big world I would love to see someday legislation the legislation of Education legislation of Connecticut turned on its head as you said Rob and we get our Authority back and I talked about it I think what we're seeing with this right to read Act is the manifestation of um of what you're talking about Central planning and it's a scary scary thing because we have some great people here and it really frustrates me that someone is trying to tell them how to do their job um in the meantime practically speaking because
060I don't know that that day is ever going to Dawn um please call me I'll come up to Hartford if need be I'm happy to testify at any point and I hope my colleagues on the board will do the same um I don't care what time of day it is I'll be there so thanks hi um yes I reiterate thank you very much for coming out and speaking with us tonight I just want to um be a little cautious about what we're asking for because I feel like we as a board of ed and board of EDS for all towns are not asking so much for specific things we're asking that when decisions are made that we be included in the decisions so that our viewpoints come across and um the same would be with
061mandates there are mandates that are there for a reason but we are saying there are also a lot of mandates that haven't been looked at and haven't been re-evaluated in a very long time so I guess my ask for the two of you because you're here so thank you um would be just to every time you're in the room when and you are a lot because that's what you do that's your job right when decisions are being made just to remind your colleagues have we spoken to the people in the ranks down in the ranks have we included their ideas in these decisions and that would just help a lot thank you very much I'll just say and thank you I totally agree um I I don't serve I'm not the ranking member or the
062chair on education but I have been on other committees and whenever legislation came through we had everyone at the table and sometimes we agreed and we could agree to disagree but we had everyone at the table I haven't seen that lately and so you know being on education I I'm just learning uh and coming in but what I have seen so far is everyone is not at the table in the education committee so when the chairs of the Committees we they have what's called screening and they go through all the bills they're not bringing people to the table and so that that is part of the issue um because these items that I've heard from other communities none of you have been at the table so that's um that's really a committee issue and I
063will bring that up because it's important whether I agree or not or disagree we can all learn from each other and you're in it and that's what you do all the time so that's important Leslie so diplomatic all the time you you are unbelievably diplomatic I I no I refrained in my earlier comments and and I I think my colleague here is also by telling you in much more detail exactly how the sausage is made in Hartford which is that a great um portion of the time nobody's in the room and we're not in the room having the opportunity to challenge them on a lot of things uh the vast majority of bills um you know that pass uh through the committee process don't look like they do when they finally pass in fact when
064bills pass out of committee uh it's you know it's a title of a bill more than anything else and ultimately the first thing that happens when the bill comes to the house or Senate uh one of the members of the majority will stand up and say um you know Mr Speaker I have this bill and the very first thing I want to do is a strike all amendment to completely erase everything that was worked on at the committee level and replace it with something else entirely um I served on both the Appropriations Committee and the finance committee over the years both sides of the budget making process and I will tell you that a tremendous amount of good work is done in those committees on a bipartisan basis I served as the um chairman of
065a subcommittee on transportation and Corrections both for Appropriations and we had members from both parties uh working together to find Savings in government and smarter ways of doing things and we brought in uh loads of people we brought in the guy that repairs the cameras in the prison for example and he would say I need this form and that and we would come up with a plan to solve that problem but the sad thing is that ultimately all of the hard work that is done on that committee level is often ignored at the end of the day the budget that ultimately gets voted on by the legislature is an entirely different document that was written Behind Closed Doors by the governor's uh people and a few lawyers and um most of the hard work is
066not even taken into consideration um I don't want to just simply be uh partisan and point my fingers at the Democrat majority and say they're doing it all wrong I don't know that the Republicans would be better but the problem is you have one party that has such a significant majority that they don't have to and they don't generally bother care with them caring with the minority says the only way we get anywhere really is to challenge them hard and fast enough that they understand that public outcry might be a difference I mean that's why you know tolls is a good example um the majority had the votes and they wanted to do tolls it took getting the public involved to push back on something like that and I I just can't remind people enough
067that ultimately representation is is the key if we keep reminding our constituents that they've got to be the voice for the change that we want um that's how we'll eventually get in there one question to that may I ask yeah Leslie yeah I'm just uh I think there's a few more well ask your question and we'll go around well my only question was so to the point that we're talking about do it and maybe Tim it might be you do y'all watch the bills that are being proposed and do you and you do so like like when the reading program was being proposed or all these other things do you see that and and reach out or well the reading bill was not necessarily proposed that was that was it in the implementer bill yeah
068that was just so you know and that's us and the implementer bill has been uh a blessing and a curse so I I can't swear on the implementer bill but um you know I know other people had thoughts before we wrap up yeah I just want to thank the representative and senator for coming to listen to us so mine is going to be really quick because we're running out of time um I know session just started it's pretty early but um you've heard our action items and asked I just want to get a sense from both of you as to going into this legislative session what are some of the agenda items based off of this list too that you're already um considering or have made moves to edit revise and you know push forward
069he put in a bill in a building one right on the other side so that was what I've done so far Senator yeah tomorrow is actually the bill deadline for individual legislators that's why I asked yeah so we we are really up against the gun I I certainly have quite a few bills about mandates not necessarily education mandates in particular but I put in bills every year to reduce the number of mandates on town government uh in its entirety and to make it more difficult to pass new ones I put a bill in every year to require a two-thirds vote of the legislature to put in new mandates uh I think that would go a long way to limiting the number that happened um I don't know I have 157 bills um and some of
070them may or may not be related to these items directly but they're all about making government more efficient and taking into consideration the fact that we may have a surplus right now um but I don't know if it's going to be long-lived and the money's got to be spent very wisely over the short term some of these could go into they have what they call Shell bills which I don't really like are aircraft carriers which I don't like so there is maybe a little bit of other time um to see what is going to happen and I don't know if anybody else has put in an HVAC deal you know so there's those kinds of things too right because I am aware of the deadline and I just wanted to get a sense just like
071my colleague we're we're obviously willing to go to um the capital and support but if we don't have an idea of what you're putting forward that doesn't help us either another suggestion is maybe get to us earlier and not in you know now we should be talking about this in November or December so just a suggestion that would be helpful yeah we tried unfortunately with so much going on especially referendum no but you know what this this year yeah this year will be a little more ahead of schedule I would simply ask is there a straightforward put a bill in that says X um because we still have the time to do that I mean if you want to have us put a bill in that says something about uh repealing or or modifying the
072HVAC requirement or these other specific mandates we can certainly do it whether those things uh you know Garner the uh the attention of the majority and we we get anywhere with them that's a different thing but we can certainly try uh Adam had a question I'm going to turn it Tim I assume Andrew might want to say something because we're uh we're bumping into the next meeting which is okay thank you for everyone being here this is a very worthwhile discussion Sam do you have a question um yeah I just I just wanted to know well firstly thank you for coming this evening senator representative um and we certainly all do work hard work together and pride ourselves on on listening to the community our parents and of course our Administration on how to best
073govern our own our own school system and we think we do a pretty darn good job of it as as much as we can as chairman of the policy committee we also know that the uh I'll say the tentacles of state government reach in very far to our school system and many times uh our own policies uh are dictated by state law essentially um not essentially they are um so but that being said for the right to read is the lever and I don't know maybe you all know this already is the lever Financial if we choose to not participate we we have to submit a waiver that indicates how we're already uh addressing the needs of students and applying the the tenants of the science of reading to our reading program the waiver itself
074is really complicated and robust um in one wonders if you know that was intentional as a deterrent but um we are going through the process and we have a lot of people working on that you know from a financial standpoint I know that somebody's been allocated to provide um to the districts who adopt these programs um but that's not where we're at at this time thank you true yeah 10. So based on the way you describe the process the strike all Amendment and let's just put in a new bill uh keeping that in mind I have no problem with uh shell bill and if the superintendent if you think something like that could work I don't expect it to I wouldn't expect it to go anywhere but what I'm envisioning is it could start a
075conversation maybe with other legislators who are thinking about it who may not have gotten this because maybe legislators around the state in the next few weeks will hear about the HVAC improvements and then be wondering oh what can we do about this oh well we got the shell bill in there we can do something so that's what I'm thinking not to gum up the works or do anything crazy but that is the way the process seems to work so I think that could make sense even and you don't really even really need to put any weight behind it or any effort into it just sort of see how it what happens yeah first off I I think I can speak for Leslie when when I say we will put tremendous effort in trying to make
076things happen um there's always the amendment process there's a lot of ways to do things um to have members of the minority putting an individual uh Bill proposal to eliminate a mandate it's more or less going to get ignored more than likely there's probably a better way to do it and as a matter of fact there's probably already vehicles in place that can happen and what I would suggest and Leslie being on the education Committee in particular is that we keep track of what's being heard now and we find a related Bill I'm quite certain the education committee is going to have other bills on mandates that's a great opportunity to to you know invite you guys up to testify and say hey look you know we have a problem with a number of mandates
077including this one or that one uh and that could be the moment with which you know a sentence is added to another bill that corrects one of these problems so if y'all will send me language that you want specifically then we'll work at getting it and I will send it to all the Cheshire delegation because we're all here to work for you uh as and for Cheshire so it's not just Rob and I or other people we're all here to work together so send it to me I'll send it out to the delegation and we'll get working very hard on it thank you thank you and uh um just uh thank you all board members Administration for helping us get here today like I said this is the first time doing this will the board
078will get better at each year and Talk Sooner and you know hopefully we we I don't think we want to just there's more mandates um so I don't think we'll get a lot of language for new things but we'll certainly help uh put language for it that can help you um that being said uh you know just one last thing Adam mentioned something very important you know we are you know like it or not in Journeys are usually a pretty positive thing we are considered agents of the states because it enforced SD regulations and rules and a lot of these are laws these are laws that we can't uh necessarily choose which ones to enforce or not enforce we don't have the ability to choose which mandates to enforce enforce we have to abide by
079this I bring us up because uh over the last couple years as you've probably seen um I don't know why Cheshire was one of them but we were bombarded with parents and folks shown to our meetings in a very destructive manner and that stems from Harford in part National Politics the bologna goes out there with the number of things and when those folks are being told to come to your board of education and complain to them because we have the option to choose what we can and can't follow that provides for a very uh contentious meeting so I'm asking whether it's a representative a legislator a senator your colleagues out there um putting the focus of their decisions on Boards of EDS to deal with when we can't change decisions it causes a lot of
080contention in community I don't want to see that happen again that's happened the last two years you've seen the stories about treasures and things that happen here and uh if we're not sending the right example in Hartford we're not centering example here we're not saying the right example for students so please spread the word we're not looking for a fight no board is looking for a fight with anybody we're just trying to get things done and work with the confines of the law so we're looking forward to working with you anybody else out there I will certainly be out there and you know if you have a lot going on I'm sure Dr Solon or even Tim may know we'll keep an eye out for upcoming committee meetings uh discussions and we'll do our best
081to be out there and we'll spread the word so hopefully we'll see some of us out there by from behalf of all the Board of Education and even the talent Cheshire thank you so much for being here this evening uh it's a pleasure to have you and thank you for your time and good luck with everything out there thank you uh may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting seconded uh all those in favor thank you the legislative committee meeting of the whole has been adjourned we're shortly start the regular business meeting about