Board of Education 10-20-22

001here thank you asked everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God good evening and thank you everyone for coming down to our meeting in this fine fall chilly evening um we have a lot of great presentations today we also have a very long agenda so we'll start getting through it uh we're going to start off with our student Representatives which is Monica and Michael all right um well thank you guys for having us again so just to start off um all fall teams all fall sports teams are recognizing their senior athletes at their last regular season home contests so as of now most of most of the Fall teams have had their senior

002nights and some are still to come but most of them most of them have happened the boys and girls cross country team won both both won the Housatonic division title this year for for boys it's been the first time since 2002. in addition girls cross country won their SEC Championship yesterday uh Championship meets have started for cross country and will continue for All Sports up to mid-november girls and boys soccer volleyball field hockey and girls swimming have currently qualified for League playoffs the girls soccer team is undefeated thus far into their season and I believe they have a 14-0 record as of now the boys cross country team did a trash cleanup and near the bleachers after September 30th home football game to help keep the campus clean in addition the cross-country team and do

003random acts of kindness Club organized a school-wide fundraiser for those affected by Hurricane Ian yesterday on the 19th boys cross country and the do random acts of kindness Club went around to advisory classrooms during advisory period And in the auditorium to collect a goal of one dollar per student as a school we were able to raise just under 800 to help those in need in Florida all of this money will be donated to the Red Cross for Hurricane Relief the future Business Leaders of America Club has a fall leadership conference coming up on November 1st in addition the club held a spike ball tournament back on October 6th to help raise money for the club and about 200 was raised to help support the club the NHS induction for seniors was held on Wednesday the

00419th and the one for juniors will be held next week on the 26th um the superintendent dinner will be held on November 9th and Mr Solon came to Cheshire High School to invite seven students there a financial reality fair was held at the high school which was sponsored by the business department and students from Cheshire and other schools attended to learn about finances coach Rob Schaefer has been elected coach of the year and Alexa Ciccone on the girls cross country and Samir dashnika on the boys soccer team have been nominated for athlete of the week also CCC sorry SCC scholar athletes were selected for the fall season um the Cheshire marching Ram band held its annual Music in Motion last Saturday it was very successful event along with some college bands performing as well including

005Uconn and the UNH College Band a student Senate collected bottles and cans on September 30th at the Lost home football game and plan to do the same at tomorrow's home football game the last game they collected approximately 500 bottles and cans to recycle the machines at Stop and Shop accepted approximately 347 bottles and cans for 17.35 which went to the student senate for future use also CHS bus took kids to a college fair in New Haven for those who wanted to go on Thursday the 13th and the scope tutoring program has started where students from CHS were paired with those who um who were in a course that's students are struggling in so basically it's like a one-on-one tutoring session on a Google meet with Elementary School students that's all we have for you guys

006tonight awesome thank you Monica Michael any questions from board members wow hey you guys are off the hook early thank you you're welcome to stay but you don't have to question okay oh sorry I didn't see it well yeah I'm in the peripheral here right um uh Michael did you say that the girls cross country team won a state championship or an SEC SEC Champion oh okay so it's like a division level I just wanted to make I kind of like went faster yeah so the the girls cross country team won the SEC Championship which was yesterday and the state L Championship will be held on October 29th which is next Saturday all right great well congratulations yeah anyone else seen that's it Michael Monica thank you please enjoy your evening and look forward to

007seeing you at the next business meeting now thank you very much and thank you for having us all right thank you so up next we have a few presentations we're all looking forward to um starting with the first one which is our teacher of the year yeah it's certainly uh an incredible honor to recognize our Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the year uh who will be also recognized at a state uh award dinner later this fall uh and I want to welcome Dr Mary gadd Cheshire High School principal to introduce our teacher of the year good evening all thank you so much and I have to say it is absolutely my honor to introduce our Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the Year Ms Dawn de Mayo Dawn is a rare and special teacher she uses

008every aspect of her life experience and deep academic knowledge to guide her Innovative and engaging instructional practices Dawn inspires her students at Cheshire High School where she's been an English teacher for the last 24 years from the leadership class she developed to her English classes to her many years directing our drama Productions and school musicals Dawn supports her students to discover their talents and she guides her students to discover their strengths under her wise and compassionate tutelage her students Thrive and go on to support and Inspire their peers Dawn creates the conditions for Student Success her English students demonstrate depth and skill as writers thinkers speakers and listeners in turn they impact our school by performing writing growing and collaborating with each other to create a more accepting and compassionate school and community Don is

009also a Seeker she wants to know more and she brings what she discovers to her students she has the talent and intellectual capacity to put new learning into practice from a classroom Innovation like routinizing a sense of community and belonging in her classes by shaking every single Student's Hand upon entering her class every single day to taking a large group of students to participate in a neighboring District's diversity day and working to bring those ideas back to our community as a result of her instruction and assignments our students demonstrate Mastery of our school performance standards complex thinking creative thinking collaboration Community contributions and self-directed learning I could go on I really could go on but let me close by saying as teacher of the year and I have to add a Fulbright scholar Dawn's voice

010should be and will be out in the larger world she has insight and experience that needs to be shared she's more than an English teacher she is more than our drama program director she is more than a club advisor she takes these incredibly important roles in our school and she uses them to move her students to discover their highest selves Don de Mayo is highly motivated herself highly intelligent compassionate and she is a consummate professional so it is again my distinct honor to present Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the year and Cheshire High School teacher Don DeMayo foreign day thank you an architect thank you [Applause] up next we have another wonderful presentation this is for our para educator of the year I think Ms solano's going to give the presentation [Music] foreign this next

011award goes to our para educator of the year and this is a write-up from the committee who has who had chosen her at the end of last year Cheshire Public Schools is proud to introduce cheshire's para educator of the Year Jody dutchesson Jody is a first grade para educator at Doolittle Elementary School prior to the last two years at Doolittle she was at Darcy school where she was critical to the success of many students Jody exudes positive energy and eagerness and creativity helping her first grade students she definitely celebrated the success of each of her students as they met their benchmarks not only does she make her students love to work with her but she takes the time and effort to make sure her colleagues feel special as well thank you to Jody [Applause] it

012does not appear that Jody is with us tonight so we'll make sure that we get her that award congratulations Jody and our final presentation also another special one is for the girls cross country coach and I think Mr trafone is going to give the presentation thank you Mr peragini members of the board I'd like to present to you Cheshire high school girls Cross Country Coach Rob Schaefer who's the our cross country team has had quite a year but for Rob this year he earned his 300th uh win as head coach um so again that's just the start of what this season began Rob is in his 34th year as our girls Cross Country Coach and it's amassed a career record of 309 wins overall this year and only 39 losses in that 34 in those

01334 years during that stretch there have been multiple undefeated Seasons as well to date his teams have won two state championships four League championships and 14 division championships and just yesterday let's add that fifth League Championship the SEC Championship so congratulations to Rob on that in the past Rob has also served as our boys cross-country coach and and he did that for 12 years in a master record of 115 and only 24 losses during that 12-year period and currently he also serves as our assistant coach for both indoor and outdoor track he taught English at Cheshire high school for 38 years and it's interesting tonight that all of the people we're recognizing our English teachers including our assistant coach in Cross Country Sarah Redford so thank you English Department so coach Schaefer also talked as

014I said English for 38 years before retiring in 2015. that puts him uh these past 45 years he's been part of the treasure High School faculty staff in various roles either teacher as a coach the good news for our current team is that he has no plans on leaving anytime soon I asked him he's going to continue the coach he says why would I not I work with great girls and by the way Rob was named the southern Connecticut conference Coach of the Year this year as well add to his accolades so congratulations to head coach Rob Schaefer and our girls cross country team Rob thank you [Laughter] it's just [Applause] yes absolutely you're very welcome uh at this point I uh invite the audience to make comments to the Board of Education if you

015do intend to address the board please feel free to come to the microphone and again congratulations to everyone that got the presentations tonight much much deserved [Music] yeah we're gonna move on to committee reports we have quite a bit of reporting due tonight so we're going to start off with oh I'm sorry yes please come to the microphone so I didn't see your hand raised [Music] uh since we have public comment I'm going to read our standard procedure into the record this is bore vet policy 25 persons designed to present the concerns raise questions or make suggestions to the board regarding the schools may do so at board meetings in accordance the following guidelines the public will be the chairperson shall have a latitude of structure public discussion basically we have 15-minute time limit three

016minutes per speaker no boisterous conduct shall be permitted to any Board of Education meeting persistence in boisterous conduct shall be grounds of some determination but chair of that person's privilege of address if necessary a chairperson may clear the room so the board members can hit the new meeting uh it is recommended that no oral presentation shall include charges or complaints against any employer of the Board of Education regardless of whether or not that employee is identified in presentation by name or by another reference with tense the lead identify individual all charges are complaints against any employee should be submitted to the board education under provision of orbit policy which is usually a general communication to the board sorry about that but we tend to structure but we do have 15 minutes and please go ahead

017okay my name is Sharon Hauck and I'm a resident of Cheshire and uh I just feel that Cheshire is a wonderful town in which to live the educational system is exceptional and the supporting Sports and activities are first-rate and the environment that we have created have made our town an enviable place to raise our families recently though a concerted efforts across the country to induce what have collectedly become known as awoke agenda has a prompted the board and some of our Educators to inject this corrosive Viewpoint in their curriculum an example of this is a list of books presented to our seventh grade Raiders at Dodd Middle School one ghost boys details the ghost of a black teenager killed by a police officer who then meets the ghost of Emmett Till another black teenager killed

018by a white mob in 1955 which is a true story about Emmett in light of the recent Ambush killing of two Bristol police officers and many other tragic incidents of this nature across the country books displaying the police as the enemy only served to sow distrust towards those that we rely on for the protection of all our citizens another book yes I have read them boy 22 details the trials of a white boy in a predominantly black high school where the villains of the story is the Irish mob first of all I think that book is inappropriate for this age group because it is a high school area ice High School setting the list goes on stories of transgender teenagers lack of equality Equitable code for divisiveness wrongs by one group or over another etc

019etc aside from concerns that these books are inappropriate to our young children ages 11 and 12 for seventh graders they Convoy convey a picture of America that does not and should not represent our community Cheshire is becoming increasingly diverse in ethnic backgrounds and this tend a trend will and should continue we live with neighbors of all Races who strive to ensure that their children are raised with an appreciation and inclusion of all I see this especially during Sports in Cheshire books like these mentioned above deal with controversial controversial issues not always pretty but I would Hazard a guess that everyone in this room tonight would never dream of treating another human being the way that these books betray but we are picking at the scabs of these issues requiring our young people to read about

020them with no countervailing books about the goodness of the Cheshire in American 2022 and Beyond wokeness is about keeping us divided into tribes that are constantly at war with each other we in Cheshire need to reject this effort of division and past wrongs of yesterday and instead Inspire our youth to become good citizens now and in an increasingly diverse future both here in Cheshire and wherever their lives may take I congratulate the addition of two books that are required reading list as an effort to allow our students to celebrate the positive side of life though I haven't read these two new books however in light of the murder of the policemen in Bristol I ask that ghost boys be removed from the required reading list for young people any questions sorry Sharon I'm just taking

021notes okay this is Ghost boys thanks but we are at the three-minute market yes and there's a lot of different issues about racism and the uh you know negativity of policemen yeah yeah but also I want to thank you for attending the open Forum two weeks ago two years sites were very helpful I believe Dr Solomon probably getting some updates on some matches taken since that meeting as well so if you stick around I think it'll be worthwhile and what if you stick around for the meeting it should be worthwhile for your superintendent report thank you so much anyone else like to dress the board yes please hi I'm Alicia hippie I'm a resident of Cheshire at two children in the public school system I'm sorry I I don't remember your name from the other

022week I apologize I didn't hear you Alicia Alicia thank you 1761 Tuttle Avenue so I wasn't planning to speak so I don't have anything prepared um I guess I would just say that I appreciate um what the comments that were brought up but I guess I have a somewhat different view of things um I appreciate the life that our children have here in Cheshire but I think of them as citizens of the wider world and I think it's good that they be introduced to topics that are of importance in The Wider World in a situation where they're learning and they're guided um in addition to the guidance that they receive at home so it sounds like there was um an adaptation made to the list to represent some different View and I think that's great

023I just concerned about I get concerned about balance right and um making sure that when that happens that it's not disruptive to the existing lesson plans and curriculum and things like that and and I don't know how it worked out it could have done fine but I just wanted to make that other view you know Alicia thank you and I I was mistaken actually we're going to get into that sooner during the curriculum report so there'll be some details on what transpired me thank you thank you for speaking up awesome anyone else want to address the board yes please hello I'm Tina ready 168 sloper Lane thank you um I have three boys here and I apologize I just wrote this down I didn't get to prepare something um so the last meeting I attended

024was fantastic and I appreciate that it just the conversation was excellent and it brought up a lot of points um that I wanted to follow up on one that I was surprised by because I was made aware of something a situation in seventh grade at Dodd where there's a transgender person using the boys locker room during gym class and a couple of things caught me by surprise not that the surprising part was that um there was a comment made that we've been dealing with things of this nature regarding that very sensitive topic for about 10 years now and then a following topic made by the board that says we have no policy regarding that which I would feel after a decade we would have been down that road to figure out some kind of policy

025or adaptation considering we have sanitary napkins in the boys bathrooms at this point so this is something that's going to continuously come up and I was wondering if there is any policy being written on that for Dad or Cheshire public schools number one number two um will the policy be written by the Board of Ed with help of your lawyers I know that's a tough stretch with time but will it be ridden by you with the assistance of attorneys or will you turn that over to Cabe um how is that going to be handled and do we know if surrounding towns have any policy on transgender persons using a locker room of their current opposite sexual features thank you welcome yes Adam is going to talk about the policy formulation around that so which hopefully

026soon okay but thank you tonight as the meeting goes on okay okay thank you so much thank you and thank you uh by the way all three speakers were at the meeting open Forum two weeks ago which was awesome and I appreciate your insights yes yes if you're next please coming up thank you um Stephanie kilo 699 Country Wood Court I also have two students um in the Cheshire School System One in seventh grade at dad and then I have a sixth grader at Doolittle I have a son and a daughter my husband is a Cheshire police officer police officer of the year in 2018 so those books definitely hit home for us do not agree upon them my son was very vocal expressed that to the principal expressed it to the teacher she respected

027it was good about it they did come forward with a couple other books options for my child and other students and opened it up I think to every parent um I didn't come prepared either but I just feel that those books were not books that they should be reading in school those are things that should be discussed at home those are the critical race Theory discrimination um those habits are things that should be left at home at the discretion of the parents to talk to their children about if they choose that's not up to the school system in my opinion transgender is another topic my son is the one who has the girl in the bathroom that's how I found out I have a problem with that I have a daughter going to God next

028year I expressed my concerns to the principal I was on the phone call and saying Bridget saying should I remove my daughter from the public school system because that makes me uncomfortable having my daughter be exposed to that next year um I don't know like what we're waiting for something to happen to a student some something sexually to happen because it's happened in this country to other students why can't they go to a neutral bathroom go to the nurse's office um as an adult it makes me uncomfortable if I had to go in the bathroom and have a man next to me that is a man but wants to be a woman like and I don't think a teacher would want a student in their bathroom with them that's the opposite sex they're an adult

029in the opposite sex with them either so why do we have to expose the kids to this I mean Everybody Eats to their own do what you want but like I just don't think it's okay and healthy that these kids have to be exposed to that and a third thing is um and again my son comes home to telling me all this stuff was about the news that they have to watch during social studies it's the CNN 10. well if you're going to watch CNN 10 then we can watch facts and we can hear both sides of the story not just one-sided so again now my son will be removed and I have to watch out anymore um so I will say they've been very helpful respectful and um understanding our beliefs at home and

030not forcing it upon my child so I'm very grateful and thankful for that I just need to express how I feel I just it's bothering me that I'm like two months into the school system and I'm like I wasn't prepared for this already that it was going to be like this I don't know anything any comments questions well we typically don't comment during this stuff oh okay I'm sorry this is really your opportunity and we're all taking notes but all all your comments been taken at heart um you've iterated some of the things that were said at The Forum a couple weeks ago there's a lot of discussion tonight what's been happening in policy curriculum committee so it's outside so hopefully more information will be shed and I'm certainly happy to talk to you after

031the meeting and our time talk a little bit more about uh transgender policies being worked on the committee is working on that right uh and the title of mine applications that we have to follow but this is uh it's evolving uh just like you a lot of school districts trying to find out the best way to deal with it still abide by the law so stay tuned we're going to address some of that tonight no formal action released you'll hear some of the work being done and for everyone else there's also committee work happening as well which you're going to hear tonight where a lot of this gets resolved so I wish I had better answers for you but I think you'll see where be working on some of these things I mean the principal

032did tell me how to address it next year with my daughter and stuff but there's no guarantee you know what I'm saying and I mean God forbid something happens you know I just I don't know it's just very unsettling for me that that can understood and you know we've heard from others as well so you're not alone you know I just let's before something happens to somebody or something because my son could be there and the boys are joking around and say something that makes a girl feel uncomfortable well you know what then go when the girls you're still a girl at the end of the day you know like I don't get it and he tells me no she's not changing she just puts her shirt over it then why are we in there

033like I just don't I don't agree I don't understand and you know each to their own but just go somewhere neutral it makes everybody feel uncomfortable the students the parents I mean me as a parent does anyway so Stephanie thank you I yeah just taking in we'll work out those were my three topics that I wanted to address and you did great by the way thank you all right thank you you're welcome anyone else thank you everyone thank you for speaking I know for um first timers it's a little awkward at first but uh again this is not to belabor this but we welcome the public comment um that's how we learn that's how we get the feedback uh closer to the school district and take some meaningful action to address these issues so thank

034you for speaking and I hope you do come again and if you're not seeing progress please let us know so what we're going to continue on and there's a lot more information coming so that being said we're going to move on to curriculum which I think is a pretty lengthy report tonight so miss ham it's uh it's up to you and Miss Solano thanks I'm sorry I just wanted to check on something all right so uh yes we met on Monday um and the bulk of the meeting um well I'm gonna the bulk of the meeting was dedicated to the discussion of the Contemporary fiction book club let me go through the other items and then we'll come back to that if I could um just so we don't disrupt the flow of the conversation

035so um Dr Gad um informed us that they are they've convened a scheduling committee for the high school um it comprises nine teachers seven students uh it will be eight students right eventually um yep um two parents and three administrators and the goal of the committee is to review the current uh schedule 30 minute lunches uh to include which includes 30 minute lunches teacher collaboration time drop-in support those all have to be incorporated in the schedule that they devised identify what the committee is trying to accomplish through the schedule and consider the school Community feedback as they look to develop a schedule for the um 2023-24 school year um we also just heard about a uh the uh APUSH AP U.S history trip to Washington DC May 22nd through 24th um smaller group obviously than

036the Middle School the 8th graders but it is these are kids who were in eighth grade at the time of covid and lost out on the opportunity to go to DC so this is their chance it's going to be obviously with a smaller group a much more extensive and um probably intellectually rigorous um trip than what they would have had in eighth grade so um going back to the seventh grade contemporary fiction book club we probably spent about 40 minutes of the meeting of a less than an hour-long meeting discussing the club and I I thought it was a really valuable um opportunity to kind of review what happened at the um at the open forum and um weigh the um the parents concerns but also look in depth at how the books were selected

037the purpose of the course um it's been up for three years what are the objectives the learning objectives we you have in your hands this little packet this is all information um these are documents to support that the that um Kristen Castellano and Kristen Shanley handed out to um explain why they selected the books that they did I would really encourage you all to take a look at the at the discussion that took place I'm not going to do it justice um but these were not these were not randomly selected um some May there are a lot in the community that do object to the content we discussed that all of us including Mike Wood um it was we um but um anyway I I know we won't make everybody in the community happy about

038it but um these as I said we're not selected there there was a method to the selection process and um the teachers adapted when asked um to change the list and added wink and forget me not um which you know at this stage I've only read the reviews but they seem to be positive and uplifting which is what the parents had requested and um and the teachers willingly obliged so um again I um you know the the criteria are summarized in the notes you've got the summaries of the books you have the learning objectives and um you have awards that the all the books have received so um and the Publishers as well so I open I'm gonna ask Marlene if she wants to add anything to this or um and then open to questions

039especially so Faith the I unfortunately cannot attend a meeting Monday night we had a competing construction committee uh selection process but this is recorded on school on YouTube uh so it's visible we watch as far as materials with members of the public want to request copies can they get access to it posted awesome we posted all of the Dodd website and uh if folks have follow-up questions can they bring them to the next Kirkland committee meeting which is when sure if they don't want to wait that long they could certainly reach out before that next meeting it's a giving but I I know folks want to study and we'll come back with some questions but I think it's November um sorry I'm sorry I'll get it later but the point being is materials available on

040the website recording is our school YouTube thank you it is November uh 14th and I'll remind I'll read out at the end of the meeting that's coming up number 14. yeah we as committee members Ann and I um did offer suggestions um possible questions to ask the students um timing of the course um and the they were very receptive to those suggestions which I found positive um it was not an antagonistic meeting um they and I think they understood where and appreciated where the parents were coming from I'm not sure if if what your thoughts were but it's my reflection I would I would just add very professional art teachers in Cheshire public schools and um the teachers that were at the curriculum committee meeting and and Marlene were there to give us um all

041of the information that went behind the selection process of those books um to assure us so that when talking to parents we can all of us can be um you know very secure that uh when curriculum is chosen throughout Cheshire Public Schools there's there's a lot behind it um it's not uh it's not information that's just thrown together willy-nilly these are professionals teachers and administrators and um I think we were quite satisfied that the materials are not inappropriate for this age group and um and they came with all their evidence and I think that the the one of the really nice things that came from the curriculum committee meeting was um I think it would I think Faith asked Marlene if we could get that information to the to the parents and um that's what

042came of you know we can post everything on on the Internet it's out there for everyone to see now um and and that's important to have that transparency in the in the process so thank you Marlene and thank you to the teachers that came to our meeting it was very informative uh one last question for me uh I don't think it was discussed but uh during the open Forum was a idea about possibly having parent representation and the selection process or at least being able to listen in so I could understand it is that something that can be taught about or is planning to talk about in a future meeting people we did not discuss that did not come up um but it's worth exploring okay so we'll have a future agenda okay okay thank

043you okay any other questions from the board members uh this is going on down the line so Andrew you first um so I think what I heard the other night was that parents didn't have the list of the choices for the students beforehand so they weren't able to see was there any discussion about in the future potentially giving the list of what the books will be so parents could look to see um prior to you know getting at the the Friday and they had the the students had to come in and select the book that Monday um like a lot of what I heard the other night was because of parents didn't know what it was so for the transparency for that then I can just jump in on that it you know there was

044inconsistency between the various teams about how much time was given you know some teachers had addressed it open house in September and then sent another email out and then others you know we'd one instance where it was as you said that Friday which we recognize is absolutely not enough time to provide the information so um we built that more consistency with better lead time into the equation moving forward because I just know that when my daughter has her summer reading list we get what the book choices are what they are you know who the author is and whatnot so then you could go and look at it before they actually have to make that selection so I think that would be helpful thank you Andrew Sam mine is not a question more so of a

045comment um you know I being a citizen in this town have raised black Jewish Asian children so I appreciate the high quality and attempt that the school system has done for the last 20 years to ensure um equity and inclusivity in the process it appears that was taken to chose this election I mean just looking at the awards that some of these titles have been given tells me that there was thoughtfulness put into it before presenting it to the teachers and even the teachers involved in making this election so I want to thank the committee for doing so um and I'm sure Mr Hanlon had a hand in this as well too because we moving to this town I understood this is not a diverse town but they recognize that and we continue to add

046so that our kids are exposed to other cultures and other events within like the woman over there said globally so I want to thank you for continuing that quality selection process Tim thanks Tony yeah um so with regard to the age-appropriateness I'm curious so I don't think this is going to work really well for any group any grade where it is appropriate for 100 of the students just in general do you have a guideline like what sort of percentage of the students do you look for to be appropriate for them not just specific to this but just in general when it becomes age appropriate is what I'm wondering about so there were there were a couple things that we looked at um one of those things was making sure they were high interest books especially

047for reluctant readers so that's a piece that we look at another piece that we look at is the diversity of the school and we look to make sure that we've got things that will appeal to as many students as possible another thing that we look at is the reading age and that we get from the publisher but in addition to the reading age as in the Lexile as described by the publisher we also use a rubric from achieve the core which we lay over whether it's non-fiction or fiction text and the rubric is in your packet and so we look at how complex that that text is and there are a number of different um criteria so we might look at the text structure the language feature the knowledge demands in particular for this unit

048in literary text you could have an exceedingly complex meaning you could have a slightly complex text structure so you're looking at the totality of it the other pieces that we have are we know what the reading levels of our students are so we can see in a snapshot where kids reading levels so we have a lot of information on which to to Target large you know a large group and the book clubs both the independent reading that we do throughout the two years and then the two book clubs in seventh grade and two book clubs in eighth grade allow the teachers to select texts that are going to you know address large groups of kids so that's where we're getting both the grade level the reading level the age level I hope that answers your

049question yeah I think so thank you um when the selection is made is it made by the student or is it made by the student and the parent where like there's some sort of sign off involved or something like that where the parent had a chance to review the material ahead of time so I'm happy to report that there will be information on the website for the dystopian book club coming up later in the seventh grade and also the historical fiction unit coming up in eighth grade so all those materials will be put on the website but as the teacher sent that out there's a Google form that went home that was sent to the parents I I don't couldn't say exactly which team did what and which teachers but as Dr Solon said some

050of the teachers reviewed this at open house sent the email let's let folks know that students would be making those selections and to my understanding they're doing that via a Google form so kids type in their name they type in their first second and third choice or First Choice that kind of prog process so potentially a student could make a choice without their parents knowledge I would say that's probably probably a high probability or right I mean because the Google form you know a parent may not necessarily see the Google form right and it may or may not be filled out at home or or you know would there be um at what point is there a um a stop built in where the parent is aware of the choice of book that their uh

051child could be reading uh in the book club because it sounded like some some of the parents at the open house were a little bit surprised by the material right number one um but also as far as the choice being made it sounded like some of the parents were aware of the material being reviewed and some weren't so I was just wondering if there is a a formal process built in where the parent is aware of what's going on because sometimes that's doesn't happen the kid's like oh yeah I got to read this book I gotta fill this thing out that's it yeah I can certainly look into that I also I also know that um so we have a lot of books in all of the classrooms too and we have books in the

052library and parents don't give the okay for every independent reading book that a child picks in the library either so that sort of makes me think about those the juxtaposition of those two things you know how how how yeah they're they're reading a lot of books that that they're choosing right that they're just making their own choice out of the hundreds that are there and there's not a circle back to Mom and Dad necessarily so that's something I think I can think about but I mean you would agree that these seven now nine books I think oh now seven I'm sorry now seven um they were made different by putting them in a list right so that they could be reviewed so sort of like by definition if they're different then they sort of put

053in a different level than a a student picking a book out of the library for in classroom reading or for homework assignment or something like that so I'm just I just think that maybe it would be better to have some kind of stop built in to make sure everyone's on the same page say this is what's going on because it sounded to me like there was also a bit at least for this group of parents that maybe there was even a a slight loss of trust or or or a bad communication between themselves and and the teacher there was some kind of breakdown there which could have been avoided with perhaps building in a stop of that kind uh before the the uh segment of teaching where to commence I get I guess I mean

054I I mean it is we're talking about uh 12 or 13 years old but you know just because of the subject matter is pretty heavy in those books um I think I would I when I when I was at Dodd I wasn't reading that kind of subject materials more like Animal Farm or which way the wicked Wind Blows or you know something like that which is a bit more you know surface level kind of stuff um so I don't know uh I just feels like at least with the with these parents it seemed like they didn't get enough of a heads up and you know we know it's difficult communicating with everyone it's just it seems like if just a one last time something where it were to have gone out or or something where

055um it was like no this is this is happening in the class and you should just be aware that your students are going to be learning some weighty material stuff that's outside of the nor the norm of what we think our children are learning I guess so I don't know I don't know if that's put correctly but I just want to just make sure we're of course right there we can't have a discussion at curriculum community business here however the next curtain committee meeting I implore all board members to attend if this is going to be a top and bring the ideas to the table I think this is something that might be covered there um but just to move along I just want to uh some good points made here more work being done

056I know a lot of things came up there and I'm on communication on open foreign communication the only thing I want to point though you know I am a numbers guy uh and I like the metrics so I thought the song did share something with me on the enrollment um in the fish and book club I I'm not sure these numbers are recent or not but since those two books were added um just yeah okay just to um put in perspective uh the one I have I think this was a Friday you know ghost boys now has 50 students enrolled uh the two new books um wink has 24 and forget me not as 26. so it's more than just a few parents that showed up but they'll conform it goes to speak that there

057is more diversity and topics in community and I think that enrollment reflects that so thank you for adding those two books um so I'm going to stop my my uh comments there is there any other reports out of curriculum okay I just wanted you know these were controversial books in the time um I think we all very much want to make sure that our kids find something interesting to read but we're not feeding a narrative and um I would point out one of the things that we suggested was that the students be asked will this book stand the test of time will your children be reading this book as a classic when they're when it becomes their time and I'd also like to put out if these guys came home with Charles Dickens or Victor

058Hugo or Jonathan Swift I know I'm um or George Orwell no one would raise a question and yet every one of these guys Jonathan Swift urged eating of babies in an Indecent Proposal uh Charles Dickens um Oliver Twist is a violent cruel book um Les Mis is just tragic and you know a mother gets her teeth pulled out um and Animal Farm is brutal it really is um so my hope though is that we are expanding at the edge at the educator level into other areas of thought and I raised this at The Forum there are um other black intellectuals out there who are pushing back against some of the themes that we're seeing in ghost boys and others and they are prominent and they've got the net they also have places on the national

059stage I hope are at the adults making these decisions are considering some of their thoughts also um in looking for literature to include and that's all I'm going to say so thank you thank you faith we're gonna move on to finance Mr gripple you have a porn update normally Finance we always think it's boring but it always ends up being exciting so we'll see how it goes um uh so I'll uh hand the uh report over to Mr maciano thank you Mr grippo good evening everyone I I will tell you they have nothing exciting to share tonight the the September report is is kind of boring which I'm happy about um board members know and have a document in their package our budget this year is 80 million 664 420 through September which is the

060third month of the year you know we have entered the encumbrances for payroll and for transportation our largest accounts we just have some final adjustments to do but we've encumbered or expended about 73.8 percent of the budget very normal at this time of the year we don't have any major variance concerns to report it's no different than last month always a little cautious until we get through the first half of the Year about our expenditures so we still have a 40 percent expenditure cap on our non-payroll expenditures in place and we'll keep that on probably until December the one thing that I did want to point out in this month's report is that we were able in September to lock some of the Commodities that we purchase heating propane we locked at 253 a gallon

061heating oil number two which is in some of our schools 381 a gallon Transportation fuel diesel for our buses is 366 a gallon and unleaded gasoline is locked in at 2 80 a gallon that's through the rest of the year so at least we know what our budget is going to how it's going to be impacted by those prices which are you know pretty good considering in my opinion electricity as I mentioned last month that's still pending we are working with the vendor to see if it makes any sense but we will not be locking anything long-term electricity prices are just too high on the long term we're waiting for eversource to report out and tell us what their standard rate will be effective in January when our current locked pricing for electricity ends and

062then natural gas is not mentioned in in the report but we've been on a market based rate for the past three years for natural gas because long term locks for natural gas just not attractive and they haven't been attractive the last few years that's the grant money is still intact and and being used this year good through 2024 that really concludes the finance report um firstly uh congratulations to you and your staff for locking in those um fuel prices those are pretty impressive um I hope I hope I continue considering what's going on yes considering yes are we like exempt from from some of the taxes that are imposed on yes oh okay yes when we well when we lock you know the fuel prices in particular um we do not pay tax in fact

063that's why the contract that we have with our bus contractor does not include fuel because of the contractor purchased it they would have to pay tax and then pass it on to us that's like two dollars a gallon almost looks like in taxes clearly helps yeah um any questions on this report okay um there was no medical benefits report tonight okay because we don't have it available not because I'm hiding it well we kind of went over it at the last thing you have sort of a double report there was it was it had one extra week you know part of the reason we don't have tonight's report is that the we went through a significant conversion of our financial system over the last weekend and so the finance department is still working through that

064the conversion went just fine but there's a lot of work that has to be done um to get the conversion complete and everything in order so we'll have it for next month we will forgive them the financial transitions always can be a little tricky so um I guess before I conclude uh we did have a uh Finance uh committee meeting um on when was September 21st uh it was an attempt to um as uh I had mentioned for what was it six months ago I think that we were going to try the finance committee was going to try and meet to try and get a head of uh potential issues that are issues that we can examine before we get into the budget season to sort of have a better handle on things um and

065so uh in the meeting um Mr Messianic just uh discussed our our uh Esser II and RPS or grant funding and uh how it's being expended um which it he has has discussed in previous reports um let's see uh we uh we're looking at um uh some of us looked like there are some support staff that was being uh funded through some of the grant expenditures and so we were discussing um what would happen after 2024 and what those costs would be um right now it would be uh 80 000 for each for the for each of the two positions um because they are um hired they would be hired as I don't know if they're Consultants right now or if they're they're current full-time positions but right so they would transition to I guess

066a basically a teaching position at that point um so we'll have to accommodate for those and those are um uh primarily what was it math coach coaching for both at the high school both at the high middle and high school okay and I know there was talk in Washington about some I guess funding about that sort of thing from uh commissioner Cardona so maybe we'll I don't know get a little help in the future I guess um let's see we also we discussed Energy prices and uh let's see uh we discussed the the wish list that we always talk about uh every year um and that um we're trying to be fiscally prudent uh again this year we'll see how that goes um and we also discussed our food service uh meal prices and um

067you know uh what that what the uh funding that we received from the state um how that's going to how that's affected our budget so far and how uh how long that uh the uh funding may take us through um according to the notes Here we may be able to get through the beginning of January right now because the of the revised participation rate um which is uh great um so that gives us a little more at least gets us through the holidays for the most part for uh lunch costs would kick in again um and that I think that was it right we didn't did not discuss trailers or anything no oh it's so weird yeah yeah you're gonna do that uh so yeah so that's uh that's the report for uh our finance

068meetings or any questions so may I just add an update you may uh of course uh because we've talked about it in the finance committee and we've talked about it um at the board level we had applied over the summer for a federal stop grants a school security Grant offered through the federal government uh unfortunately we did not receive that grant that was um something I believe the only District in Connecticut to receive money was Bridgeport but um that was if you recall we talked about Mental Health First Aid being to a degree part of that but that actually ultimately got picked up by the town through their Federal grant money and then uh the other significant item we applied for was for a district security manager so you know then may talk more about

069that as we come out on wish list items perhaps at the next meeting that we have in December just wanted to update everybody on that Grant thank you are you you get this background well we didn't get the stop Grant but that would have been a proposal had the stop Grant come through we would have that's something that the board had actually recommended as part of our operating budget I want to say 2017 ish 18 and um yeah definitely pre-pandemic and uh we thought this might be a vehicle to you know transition into that role but uh unfortunately like I said we we didn't acquire the grant any other questions all right that concludes the finance report uh thank you Mr grippo and again thank you Mr Massena for locking in the fuel uh prices

070I know it's uh it's uh sounds of it is a bit of a win in today's economy uh that being said speaking of additional items coming up planning committee uh Mr Martelli thank you so uh last evening my colleagues to my left and I uh had a planning committee meeting over at hummerston school um you know we are in the throes of beginning to plan for the state mandate for 2035 whereas All Buses need to be zero emission or need to be alternative fuel and then 2040 for zero emissions for those of you who are watching at home um so we're trying to get out in front of this now and start the discussion there'll be a lot of this as the years progress here but last night um daco who is our bus provider

071did a really nice job of kind of walking us through um what it means where the kind of the industry is and where where other districts are kind of going with it um he did compliment to us for beginning to start the planning now a lot of districts aren't even thinking about this yet um so we saw a PowerPoint which was entitled transition to electric and alternative fuels again 2035 zero emission and then all electric by 2040. so looking at the infrastructure over at our bus spot I'm on sandbank road and what that could mean as we move forward there's a lot of grant money that's out there now and into the future and you know these buses the electric buses are about 375 000 per unit versus a standard bus which is about a

072hundred thousand dollars but their long-term operating costs and their fuel costs um are a lot less so that PowerPoint will be posted we received it today I think it will be posted so I I'm not going to go through every detail a lot of we spend two hours on discussion last night um I just want the board to know that we as the planning committee are looking into it and we're starting the initial steps to move forward towards that state mandate um so I'm going to leave that at that I'm going to kind of run through what we talked about generally and then we have um potentially some motions to move forward with HVAC projects there is a program for indoor air quality to the state of Connecticut through osc gr for 50 reimbursement so

073we heard about nine different projects nine nine different projects that we're going to be looking to submit to the state for reimbursement for the district which will be excellent because that money has already been allocated by the Town Council for construction and some of the projects have already been done so I've then get back into that a little bit more detail as we progress here um we put out an RFP request proposal for architectural engineering firms to take a look at our four elementary schools and start planning for trailers for student enrollment um depending on what happens with modernization it's not going to matter because we're going to need them in the short term if the project is approved but then in the long term if the Project's not approved making that into a more

074permanent solution to deal with increased enrollment um we did not the the meeting ended whereas we are going to have the three of the four firms who submitted come into our next planning committee meeting in November and present to us what their overall plan is for the proposal before we actually move forward and bring a contract to the board um I think that's talked about Field improvements I talked about school Field improvements um for those folks who have noticed over at Doolittle and Highland School the the ball fields have been improved um so we're not going to be hiring an outside contractor to do that work Public Works and the Board of Education have kind of combined efforts where it was being done over actually at dot today I saw um to kind of deal

075with some of the loss of fields over at bartland Park and we talked a little bit about the um installing solar at some of the schools we still have a little bit more work to do on that and we're going to look to move forward on some of that planning as we continue on so with that that's pretty much you guys want to have anything from the meeting yeah I I just want to thank Mr White over here because his passion I learned a lot last night about buses when I've been in education for quite some time so I appreciate his passion and um then bringing Dak Cohen and now I know what datco stands for um and in the whole history of daco yeah and so I think we're we're definitely like they said

076we're moving in the right direction we're being Progressive um and Innovative to really plan ahead so I appreciate you really sticking to it Mr White thank you thank you yeah just yeah I I just I it is I personally feel it's very important uh I have asthma um and it's environmental factors that uh often affect uh affect people I don't want I want as few students I want to minimize it as much as possible reduce the number of students who end up you know um breathing in those bad fumes sooner rather than later uh I my takeaway from last night was that electric buses are more theoretical than practical at this point they are on the road but not in massive numbers and making it happen um probably will take some time but it's entirely

077possible that we could move forward on alternative fuels also complying with the state law in the in the near future I mean I think they kind of jokingly said yeah we could do it tomorrow that's not about to happen but um yeah we could transition in that direction sooner rather than later so yeah thank you Sam thank you Andrew for putting out the agenda all right got a quick question um so the to be all electric by 2035. oh okay I'm still on the board then I shouldn't be but that's all right I'm glad we're moving this direction I I so I was gonna say that we know what the cost would be to average taxpayer today that's a little too premature I do realize that the cost will come down as more adoption happens

078I am concerned about the impact the taxpayer getting there but I know this number of Grants to offset this so looking forward to analysis when we're ready um I know a lot of people are behind this so thank you for working on this hi Andrew so it says here in the minutes that Cheshire could have propane fueled buses very quickly if desired what can you tell me about Propane fuel buses so sounds unsafe to me but what can I tell you about the actual see if you have them I can't really speak to the safety of them but I can say that please tell me that there's not a propane tank that's like hanging off the side that could be bumped and explode into no I would I would think that they would be engineered

079to provide safety for the actual fuel source but um currently at our bus depot we don't have a propane filling area um so I'm using it though there are some districts that are using it yes um there he actually meant there was a couple districts that are fully propane so that is that is a change that could be made um but we would have to you know and we also talked about at our bus depot there's an additional about acre of land that we're going to be securing so if we want to improve that area for installing a tank or for electric charging stations um as we continue to plan moving forward with that but we don't own the buses for those of you who don't we learned a lot last night we don't own

080the buses DAC owns the buses we pay a per root fee and then the town pays for the actual fuel so we pay for the diesel for every bus so if you remember when we were going through with kova when the buses weren't running we that was a lot of where our savings was within the district the money that was returned so so they so Deco must have propane fueled buses yes available interesting thank you so the big thing with planning too with this is that um I also learned this last night is that buses kind of have a 10-year shelf life so a useful life so this might seem like it's far out but as these buses start needing to be replaced but then we should look to see you know what we're replacing

081them with are we going propane are we going to be going electric because we have 17 new buses in the fleet now so those are going to eventually start need to be replaced uh and with regard to uh timing of it I just Googled it quick uh the town of or City of Torrington 2013 was an article I just found on it I know that it was at least a decade ago the Articles dated 2013 when they are using propane buses and I haven't heard of any problems with propane school buses and I think we probably would have heard it about it in the past 10 years I think it's it's totally normal it's just not as well used kind of because it's a legacy system you just keep doing the same thing over and

082over Adam um you mentioned the ball fields um I know I attended the the last meeting and you know you were looking at the vendors to help with that now it seems like there's been a solution found this wonder if you could speak to kind of what the solution was sure so um the public works department um rented some equipment and went out and re-graded um stripped some of the fields regraded and then um raked installed new bases at both Highland and Doolittle and then today at Dodd they actually with help of Board of Education actually redid that whole field and actually sought it at fair play for next year I think that's good yeah the only thing I'll add is that the um dodgeball field is being resotted by an outside vendor and was

083splitting the cost of that with the town so we couldn't do everything but certainly what was done at Highland and Doolittle improving the infield um made a huge difference and I think it solved some of the safety concerns at those two fields in the dot softball field will basically be in the same place after this work was done although the dot softball field will now be closed off until the spring so that that sod will root there's also you know obvious concern about the fact that bartlem uh there will be several Fields there offline is they renovate that Park and expand um so I know that there are concerns from some of the Youth Sports League about leagues about and adults actually about having access to athletic fields and so um the town and the

084board are you know working together to see what we can do to make sure that you know we have plenty of accessible Fields during that renovation or the expansion process as well so will this restoration be sufficient to absorb the the loss of those fields during the construction and this is where you know it's a little bit outside of mine and in Vince wheelhouse because uh it falls really into the park and rec we we maintain our Fields throughout the year that are used for athletics so that's Dodd in the high school we don't get involved with the elementary ball fields the town does that and so we're working together on coming up with Solutions as Andrew mentioned to try to make sure that we can do that but um that's like I said kind

085of outside of our typical wheelhouse when we're meeting with John Golic and um the folks from the town side uh tomorrow actually I think tomorrow to discuss that so thank you sure Ben do you want to take on the next yes at the energy thanks thank you Andrew what what I have um what I'll do now is explain um prior to I suppose the motion being passed the HVAC grant program that the state just announced um sort of recently the the grant was announced by the governor that there would be funds forthcoming for schools to improve their indoor air quality and specifically all their HVAC equipment and so September 30th the um office of school construction and Grant review released the guidelines gave us a deadline of December 1st to apply for these grants the

086good news for us here in Cheshire is that we we do have nine projects which I'm going to summarize quickly in a minute we do have nine projects that funds have been appropriated for through the capital budget already that we were not anticipating receiving any grant funding for and so by having this grant funding available it does give us an opportunity to recoup on a reimbursement basis the cost of of these HVAC improvements so it's positive in that the grant funding is available we have to do a little bit of a Mad scramble to get all the pieces done that are required under the particular grant program very similar to the school construction grant that we just filled out for the two new schools we have to follow those same criteria so tonight we'll be

087asking the Board of Education to approve the educational specifications for these nine projects their all nine and they are in the board's package they're all the same except for the summary of what each project is and the summary is a brief description so just as an example for Highland Elementary which is the first one on the list it's a boiler replacement this project was actually completed and the project summary is that the purpose of the project is to improve the efficiency and quality of the heating provided to our students and staff throughout the school building by replacing the existing boilers with gas-fired condensing boilers the project scope includes replacing two existing dual fuel acquired segmented cast iron boilers and convert both to a gas-fired condensing boiler system a part of this upgrade will be to

088replace the two domestic hot water holding tanks this change in technology will result in significant significant energy cost savings so that's just an example of what the each of the nine different projects entails as far as the projects Highland Elementary boiler replacement Doolittle Elementary boiler replacement and A Dodd Middle School rooftop unit replacement those are three projects that were completed the way the grant parameters that were released read allows us to include not sure we'll be approved but it allows us to include any HVAC work dating back to March of 2020. these three projects were all completed in October November and December of 21. so those three qualify they total 941 thousand dollars what the grant percentage finally is based on eligible costs I I don't know for sure but it could be up to

08950 percent of that 941 thousand dollars there's six other projects um I'll read them quickly Cheshire high school replacement of unit ventilators energy recover energy recovery ventilator installation at Cheshire high school and also at Cheshire High School mechanical tunnel improvements at Dodd Middle School and at Cheshire High School there's projects that are separate for the systematic phase-in of cooling air conditioning where we can and then a DOT at Doolittle there's another project for the replacement of the unit ventilator so all of those We Believe are qualifying projects those six that I just read are not yet completed they're actually in various stages from being in design and the last three projects the funding was just approved in June so we haven't even started working on those so the the total of the six projects that

090are new that haven't been completed total 1.33 million that's based on what was appropriated we won't know what the final cost will be until we go out to bed and then do the work so really what we're doing here is backtracking so that we can get this a grant documentation done the boards uh the request of the board tonight which the planning committee is recommending is approving these Ed specs as they were written The Next Step that has to occur is that the Town Council at their meeting to be held in November tentatively November 15th is the date they have to pass three required resolutions just as we did for the school construction they have to authorize the superintendent to apply for the Das Grant establish a building committee and authorize the preparation of at

091least schematic drawings so again soap pretty cookie cutter stuff that we have to do worth doing worth the time and effort because the reimbursement can be significant if we got 50 of the total what does that look like I know you gave the two numbers outram down fast assuming the 1.3 million appropriated for the new projects is actually what we spend the total is about 2.2 million so it's 1.1 million but I would not count on that no just nope nope got it if we got a hundred thousand dollars we're you know we're a hundred thousand dollars ahead of where we thought we would be and certainly we'll do everything we can when we apply for the grant and get the work completed submit the paperwork to get reimbursed okay complaining but how is it

092that that we appropriate six hundred thousand dollars but the cost comes in at 3 30. I mean that's happy but um I'm happy too it does well I mean I'm clearly the state will only look at that final number but um how could you just give me an overview how that happens when we when we asked for the capital appropriation you know we do it on a best efforts basis and until we hire a design professional to look at the details of the work that has to be done that's when we really get a better estimate of probable cost so the fact that 600 000 was appropriated by the Town Council doesn't mean that the town borrowed that money right but these are all bonded projects so that that's one where the variance was very

093favorable you know the Doolittle Elementary um you see that was a 600 000 appropriation we came in at 5 11. so that was was a little bit closer to reality we like when you know we were able to complete the projects under the appropriation because that means we don't have to go back and ask for more money or take you out of the operating budget but yeah that one was it's a big Miss but in a positive sense yeah exactly you're welcome Miss Martelli do you have a motion I do I do so then am I reading this whole I'm I'm happy to I just all right um move to the Cheshire Board of Education approves educational specifications for the following nine HVAC Improvement projects as recommended by the planning committee of the board at

094their meeting held on October 19th 2022. bear with me project number zero one two eight two and zero one three zero one three seven zero in the appropriation totaling six hundred thousand dollars project number one three four seven with an appropriation totaling one hundred thousand dollars project number one three six nine with appropriation totaling six hundred thousand dollars project number zero one three four eight and zero one three five nine with appropriation totaling four hundred and ten thousand project number fourteen Seventeen with an appropriation totaling 175 000. project number 1418 with appropriation totaling one hundred thousand project number fourteen fifty five with an appropriation totaling 120 000. project number fourteen fifty six with an appropriation total length two hundred and twenty five thousand and project number 1463 with an appropriation totaling three hundred thousand dollars

095further moved that the Board of Education authorized the superintendent of schools to apply to the HVAC grant program administered by the office of school construction and grants review oscgr for the HVAC Improvement projects and respectfully request the Cheshire Town Council passes the three resolutions required as part of the Grant application to one authorize the superintendent of schools to apply to das for a grant for each project two establish a building committee for each project and three authorize the preparation of at least schematic drawings for each project is that it that's it I mean I could keep going I'm free again is there a second uh Samantha's barely beat Tim on that so Sam seconds any further discussion by the board then did you raise your hand earlier I'm sorry please go thank you so one

096thing that goes to my mind is when money when the council sends money across the road to the schools it gets spent that's what we do um this money let's just say we got a million dollars for it does that come to the schools and get spent it goes back to the town however and and the town it's at the town's discretion to do what it needs but in the past we have asked for uh reimbursements that have come back to certain grants like school security we've asked the council to reappropriate it back to school security accounts so that we can do additional improvements but the answer to your question is it goes back to the town that that's basically what I what I wanted to hear because I think it's we're you know we

097try to do our part to be good Community citizens and not just sure spend money and when there's an opportunity to you know get some money back even though it's not coming to the schools it's going to the council if they choose to give money back as you know as part of a broader relationship that's their choice but the point is is that the schools are trying the school system is trying to do its part here rather than just spending money and the second question I have is the renovation uh the rate for renovation rebates or funding that's normally 46 percent you keep saying 50 here well because the legislation that was passed okay um the way that legislation was written it applies to all reimbursement grants from oscgr to that new legislation for this

098project we were a 46 reimbursement okay uh 36 percent is the number you may remember that's for new construction but this would have fallen under the 46 percent Grant opportunity which is now 50 by the legislation that was passed so we're just getting kind of Lucky and because of this new legislation that passed that was kind of designed for Treasure um we end up getting a little bit potentially we end up getting a little bit more uh funding back because of that legislation so correct thank you yeah I just want to thank you Father work on this uh Vincent team and I just want to add that a lot of school districts um were not prepared and will not make the December 1st deadline for submission because as you said Vincent you just got the

099guidelines from CGR September 1st and unless a school district already had a project approve and funding ready for it um they're not gonna you know they can't say well next year I'm going to have a project it's not going to qualify so in some ways I'm I'm glad that we have these projects I know that we have old buildings and they're on their way to plan for that builds Wall Street reimbursement other school districts are you know we're scrambling to get started and it's kind of sad because HVAC um idea was talked uh as far back as sashir and Harford and you know so it just goes to show how things move so thank you for moving on this and I know um you know hopefully you have enough information to prepare for the projects

100to submit on time uh so I will definitely be voting a favor of this um that being said let's uh any other questions from councilman board are there any comments from the public on this motion before us if you're still awake thank you seeing as Arnon I call for a motion call for a vote for the motion as presented all those in favor please raise your hands it is unanimous thank you thank you team it passes anything else Mr Martelli I think I'm good thank you very much we have the RFP you sure there's nothing else the RFP were well or just business I mentioned it already and um we are going to have the three firms come in and present to us at the next planning meeting so there's gonna be no action tonight

101by the board thank you thank you Mr grippo policy update thank you Mr chair um I'll begin before I discuss the uh policy meeting that we had on uh September 28th by uh discussing or by addressing the concerns brought by the uh speakers this evening um and um Mrs Rosenberg I missed my big speech at the uh open house uh but I'll just sort of reiterate that is that um on I think it's November 15th right November 15th we'll be having our uh policy meeting uh this one will be in person I guess at the humiston boardroom um there are different um so I I welcome the public uh to come and observe and comment um at that time it works a little different than a way a board meeting Works uh subcommittee meetings um

102are a little bit more restrictive as far as public comment goes but we'll we'll all have um guidelines ready uh at the beginning of that meeting so everyone will know how how it's going to work but um but basically the plan is you know through my years on policy um I've come to learn well when I first came out I thought maybe oh we're going to you know get the right policy whole cloth right gonna start from scratch and shape it however you know we wish and it turns out that's not really the case um uh and a lot oh almost all policy is shaped by state law um and uh any uh there really can't be a lot of uh difference between state law and our policy except for perhaps operational uh implementation um

103and so because of that we're going to be having our attorney um from uh if it were from brooksman Moses attend that meeting to be able to discuss um uh House State law applies to how uh things work in our school system and pertaining to particular issues such as trans rights and Title IX and uh all those kinds of laws that kind of dictate um how students and employees are treated within our school system just so that everyone really kind of has a real clear uh basis as as to how and why we do things so that's what's going to happen on November 15th so uh you know please bring your questions and um but we will be having a presentation and then we'll we'll see uh what you know what we can do if

104uh folks can't attend or watch in real time can they submit questions ahead of time yes they can thank you Mr chair I don't know what the email would be um because we switched it a few times now yeah treasure Boe contact at cheshire.k12.ct.us so a very easy email to remember yes we'll have that posted in the announcement um along with the link to uh YouTube because uh usually people can watch along right live right okay great so that's sort of my Spiel there for the big November meeting um uh so let's say that's not that uh for uh on September 28th um we uh held a meeting which was um uh much less exciting um but we did uh review um several policies um some of which uh we moved for a first reading

105but it wasn't with without the intention of moving it along uh as quickly as we wish to because we we want to we want to get them in the pipeline but we still want to give them a full review um those policies were um uh the Student Activity fund uh which uh has been reviewed by the Auditors by our school staff um it got the the sign off uh from uh the audit team that that came in and and looked at our accounts and uh Vin's staff are and was it the staff and lawyers I forget who did it but was able to kind of Pare down uh that very old uh policy from 1996 and was able to revise it um so we just wanted to take a little more time to be able

106to go through it and read it um and so uh and then uh we moved on to our nepotism policy um because of a a public hearing that we had here for an employee raised questions as to uh which parts of our nepotism policy were still applicable um because it seems as if uh attorneys have had a chance to interpret our policy and have um made decisions that were I guess in conflict of our original intention so we're um going to be reviewing that policy again to to see if we if we need to make changes because it kind of sounds like we do uh to I guess sort of lesson it's yeah well we have a little bit more flexibility yeah um and so that's one of the other items that our attorney will

107address on the 15th right and then of course uh Title IX uh which has been in constant flux uh certainly since 2020. um and uh again the the uh our attorney will be uh reviewing Title IX which uh I guess kind of broaches a lot a lot of the subjects um uh that uh people are interested in uh nowadays um so we'll also be reviewing that again uh with our attorney um and then lastly uh was a was a bylaw for electronic board uh Board of Education meetings um that was made into uh passed into law at the last legislative session um and that um we all agreed uh you know looked good but we're probably just going to put one more eye to it um uh but we did move that along for a

108first reading to begin the process because uh bylaws are a little different than policy uh those can be fast-tracked um but uh as of right now um you know we've decided we're just going to go at the usual track so it'll be you know in effect for next year essentially or well maybe before next year but three readings yeah so by the end of this year um and so uh so the the uh policies was removed for which were moved for first reading were um school activity fund 35 43 uh electronic uh Board of of Education bylaw 93 21.2 and oh okay it looks like we took no action on nepotism and Title IX so we just gave them sort of a look over which is a good decision on our part um uh for

109a second reading we reviewed the food service charging policy um and we that is in a second reading due to again a change in law on the main the main revision was in order to sustain the district's Food Services Program the district cannot permit the excessive charging of student meals therefore if a student account reaches a balance equal to 30 days of a student charging negative the balance in student information will be referred to the homeless liaison um so in in years past we may have had to have called parents and asked for uh to pay their bill or whatever and now so he'll handle a little differently now according to State well we may have been doing that already a lot of times we're ahead of state law and these types of issues um

110so we moved that ahead for a second meeting um for a third reading um was so we've been discussing this now for uh several months is uh distribution materials to and by students this policy provides guidance on the distribution of Flyers to parents it also prohibits during the course of summer school hours the use of students in activities that are not part of normal educational and planned curriculum process um and let's see next was uh Advanced courses or programs eligibility criteria for enrollment um and let's see legislation was passed uh requires each local Regional Board of Education to adopt the policy concerning eligibility criteria for student enrollment in advanced course uh or program um and then uh let's see last no not lastly um Posse 6141.52 challenging curriculum uh policy criteria for identification of eligible

111grade eight nine students uh this again is uh legislative changes um instruction for gifted and talented students program again legislative changes um so I have a motion if Mr chair if I guess they're entertained um let's see where is it here there we go uh move that the Board of Education give a third and final reading to policies one one four zero distribution materials to and by students 6141.51 Advanced courses or programs 6141.52 challenging curriculum program and 6172.1 gifted and talented students and directs the superintendent to put said policies into immediate effect um think there is what is this what is there a type illness this needs to be something is it it seems to be a duplicate in here or something yeah 61 61 46 that one is that so see uh okay all

112right so um I will uh restate that the um oh I'll just read it again okay yeah yeah you know right where I had it it policies into immediate effect on the portion here period that's it do I have a second Tim great uh is there any discussion on the motion seeing none oh call for a vote no is there any public comment oh sorry yes [Laughter] Michael's waiting for you to say something at some point today but thank you that's right first of all thank you for still being here so anyway uh being that there is no comment on the board and there's no comment from the public um is there a vote on the motion as presented if your favorite please raise your hands it passes unanimously thank you thank you policy team

113I know it's uh these are um uh if you've ever been attending policy meeting the team works very hard going through a lot of language you know it's a process so thank you I did have a question for policy I just want to it's like one of the public speakers mentioned earlier this uh earlier this evening um there was an Act passed July 1st that took effect September 1st that his uh substitute house bill number 5272 is an act concerning menstrual products uh and long story short it was it was passed and made effective literally in the same month July 1st and the states that honor after December 1st 2022 each public institution of our education I'm sorry it breaks out higher education but essentially also calls for public schools to make set products available

114in all bathrooms are we in compliance with that at this point the the actual effective date is 9123 I know the law and there was some confusion around that but we're preparing to comply with that and we we are on it we do have to provide those products you know essentially in all bathrooms from grades 3 through 12 female bathrooms non-gender bathrooms and then one boy's bathroom in each of the school buildings so work in progress but 9123 is actually effective yeah I pulled up something that was a work in progress that was awesome I could find but I wasn't sure okay thank you and that's something I think policy will be discussing uh if you're done with policy but wait there's more um is there any other reports of standing committees from the board

115members I do have a quick one um Samantha and I are representing the the board on the School construction selection committee this is an anticipation of if the referendum on school modernization passes in November by Town Charter state law that the town is obligated to have a dedicated construction committee it's a Bonafide Committee of the town uh Mr slope uh Mr sloka chairman of Town Council has been working uh through attorney on that and I'm not very short the charter has been drafted for that committee um you know with us with his tasks and uh there was a call for volunteers uh later this Summer that went out I think we received 23 or so folks we're in the at you in the process of ending all of them we just had a first two

116night synthes this week and I just wanted to say that uh really really impressed and proud of the folks that stepped up every single one of them uh wants to give back and Cheshire in some way it's just great to see folks getting involved and bringing their expertise which is uh from education from construction architecture from grandparents parents it's just refreshing to hear the folks interview with us so uh I know it's going to make our selection down the seven very difficult but I do want to thank folks for stepping up I know Santa Fe anything to add to that or not but no I just want to Echo everything you said it was it made me really proud to live in this town and to see such high quality citizens just stepping in and

117saying I want to volunteer my time to ensure that this process is done right um and appropriate for our future children so um thank you if you're listening out there we have one more night to go right Tony yeah next week and then hopefully yeah and it's a three-year commitment so yeah yes Tim yeah just you rattled off a list of uh qualifications that people have offered and I'll just add I believe the number I've seen is about 80 of the total costs of the lifetime of a building are energy costs so I just hope that that is part of the consideration in the list of people we have lead certified people great but uh yes I jump off your chair so again should the referendum pass the Town Council will need to establish a

118committee right away and they want to get to work right away any point being that's uh not a committee that's visible but that is something that is happening uh moving on uh next item on the agenda is approval minutes in our packets we have uh meeting minutes from our last business meeting which was held September 15th uh 2022. it feels awesome it was a month ago but uh are there first of all is there a motion to be made Mr gripple move that the Cheshire Board of Education approves the minutes from the meeting held on September 15 2022. is there a second uh Andrew seconds is there any edits or discussion I have none seeing as there are none um yeah there's really we do public comment on the motion all right no we don't

119okay never mind um the motion is that the Board of Education approves the application for submission uh the Board of Education approves the minutes from meetings though on September 15th uh 2022 all those in favor please raise your hand it passes thank you uh one extension thank you yeah glad you're feeling better though uh speaking of which Miss Miss check secretary do we have any correspondence that's uh needs to be right into the record I have received nothing but I'm double checking over here to my right no request my boss thank you Carol and um we are now on to the much awaited superintendent's Report with Dr Solon thank you very much Mr peragini um start with uh not so exciting topic of covid-19 uh at the beginning of the year I had notified our

120parents about the protocols that we were taking into effect I mean we have the district covid spreadsheet available on our website that I update daily with the number of new cases the point was back in the start of the year that we were going to ultimately kind of wean off of this but I think there was a lot of anxiety about um you know what would the start of the Year bring so uh just to give you a sense over the last three weeks um and I don't want to jinx anything but the week of October 3rd we had 24 total cases this is students and staff that include substitutes IAS excuse me para Educators administrators everybody who's in our interns so we had 24 total cases the first week of October last week again

121a four day week because of the holiday we had only 15 total cases so far up through today we've had 24. those constitute less than a half of a percent of our student population alone just our student population and let alone our entire population so with that in mind I consulted with our nursing supervisor Nancy Stanton and with our administrative team we're going to be sending out weekly updates about the positivity cases not necessarily a letter that goes home each day when there's a positive case just to kind of reduce the burden a little bit will sustain the uh the update the dashboard on our website certainly you know is Tony said earlier we're kind of data driven and you know if things change if things you know unfortunately if they they get worse or

122something we can always go back and provide more updates but just in the interest of efficiency we're just going to be providing a weekly update from here on out um I wanted to site Darcy school they're often in the the staff there often recognized for the tremendous work they did this time around it was in education week which is really kind of the Educators Bible if you will of of um you know periodicals and information they were recently cited by edweek for the work that they've done through the pandemic to support the identification of students with different needs there's an app that the state uses called Sparkle it provides parents for anybody with young children at home kind of Developmental Milestones that students you can evaluate children against as a parent and when parents do

123that they can send that information to us our school system and the professional staff at Darcy reviews that data and can support early interventions for children so it was kind of cool I can forward the link to you to kind of give you an indication of what we're doing there at Darcy the other thing I wanted to mention earlier today Dr Gad at Cheshire High School sent out a notification to families that are our students and staff certainly share the the grief felt across Connecticut with the passing of the horrible tragedy in in Bristol two officers losing their life you know as the the son and nephew of police officers that's always personal but the Police Department here in Cheshire has tried very hard to extend support to their peers and colleagues in Bristol and

124so we wanted to extend support to them and invited Cheshire law enforcement in to when available to uh you know just spend time with our our students in some cases that looks like a breakfast or you can come and join us for lunch or you can go to a culinary class and we apparently flag football was pretty popular with our law enforcement we had a number of officers playing flag football I'll send you a pass out here the uh the notice that was sent out you can see it's a picture at flag football with several officers participating so that's uh you know uh nice to see our our community coming together in that way and we certainly appreciate the relationship we have we talked about park and rec today I think maybe the fire department

125is one of the few people we didn't mention today but uh we have a really close relationship with all of our our partners across the town so um I'm glad that we could be there to try and support law enforcement that's all that I have any questions from the board Yeah Tim yeah so probably two weeks ago I went to Norton for parent pickup early dismissal for my son who's in first grade and I waited outside wasn't raining or anything it was nice out but one of the things that came up in curriculum committee meeting a couple weeks ago um was not just these particular books at Dodd but there were other concerns specifically parent pickup in the rain um you know where we used to where parents before my time as a parent but

126parents pre-covered um could sort of gather around not for early dismissal but just parent pickup in general now I know covet changed things obviously and there's school safety issues but I'm just wondering um knock on wood we move past the pandemic I think the Spanish Flu was two or three years so hopefully we're moving away from it and I just want to know um do you think that you know in a measured way in a deliberate fashion in conjunction with your public health officials and stuff you're going to be steering the schools back toward a sort of pre-pre-covered situation where there is some of that Community camaraderie where parents could meet you know just chat with each other and you know finding out about what's going on my daughter tells me everything my son tells

127me nothing you talk to parents and other kids I already see it I'm only a couple years into it where there's a real benefit to knowing the other parents then there's definitely a lot of parents of young kids who don't really know that many other parents do you feel that you know as we hopefully move past covid you'll be able to steer the schools back in that direction sure I think in a lot of ways we've already you know tonight is just another indicator of uh covid um you know relaxation if you will uh that we don't have to abide by some of the same restrictions that we had and you mentioned not only covid but school security you know Uvaldi is not that far in the in the rearview mirror and I think there's

128still a lot of concerns around that each building has some kind of unique needs you know I I talked to some of our elementary principles all of them actually about this independently and we need to have still come together collectively and discuss some of these things but you know if if you talk to Scott Jeffrey at Highland you know with the increase in their enrollment of a hundred and change over the last year and a half there's uh there are logistical challenges you know things like coming into lunch which might have been an option before we don't have enough space we're trying to push more lunch waves in there now um so yes is the the short answer and we'll be getting together collectively in talking about you know what are some discrepancies that exist

129across the district why do those exist what can we do to address those instill maintain you know security concerns but also you know strike a balance how do we do that well um and like I said you know Chapman is and just a little more than a third a large you know a third of Highland in terms of student population so how do we address some of those discrepancies and I look forward to sharing more on that at our next meeting thank you yeah I just I think it's really important we'll have another sense of showcase actually is our next meeting it's a good time to talk about some of that great thank you sure just out of a couple of things first is we still have the um PPE supplies readily available to students

130in the event that they feel sick and they want to at least put a mask on because I know my daughter walked out of the house the other day without one and she had this nipples and I said be cautious um so I'm hoping that they can just grab one not just going to the nurse's office but at least still in the classrooms um some classrooms have them more readily available than others they're available in the in the uh buildings and we can certainly send out a reminder we should have I mean certainly ample testing availability if families have that we if somebody complains to a nurse about symptoms we provide tests things like that but uh you know basic PPE like masks I can't tell you we have masks in every classroom at Treasure

131high for example but they're certainly available throughout the building thank you the other uh thought is really similar to uh Tim's comment in that have we kind of gotten a post of the ptas within all the schools to see what their take is and maybe have them be part of the planning moving forward when we do try to get more families into the building and so forth um not yet okay but you know it's certainly something that we would communicate with them about I was a um two PTA meetings actually yesterday alone I mean I've been at many PTA meetings um that issue specifically hasn't come up but certainly that that communication exists and we can you know Forge that it's a good suggestion in my last I know the I believe the funeral is

132tomorrow for the officers this is our flag half mast tomorrow we follow the uh State directive which is half thank you Sam uh anyone else yes so um there is something floating around um that um is pretty nasty but it I know because it hit our house and um but it's not coveted so I see you know I hear that the numbers are holding kind of steady for covet are what's going on with absentees though are are these kids getting hit with what I assume is just the flu that's been held off and I don't even know that I want to ask this question what do we do about this now yeah I mean covet is certainly different than um Regular cold and flu season uh in terms of our management of that but I

133think it's really important for people to know if your child or if you're a staff member and you have a fever you must stay home and we ask that you do not return unless you've been fever free without the aid of medication for 48 hours um because as we do enter the cold and flu season a lot of the old uh recommendations like washing your hands regularly covering your mouth with your elbow when you cough and um you know certainly if you're feeling sick you know staying away from people all good recommendations whether it's covet or just standard cold and flu season but uh to answer your question about absenteeism we haven't seen a spike in absenteeism at this point and let's hope that continues foreign so I sent a pretty passionate email after our

134the dot showcase to uh the administration and I just I'm looking forward to hear what the plan is about having the community come back into the school buildings moving forward um I just want to make sure that you know as the adults here and we can't lose sight of these little events that always took place at our schools and how Monumental those are for our kids um like for instance something as simple as it might be you know easier not to have the sixth grade dance at do a little school this year but I just want to make sure that we as a decision makers in this community we know what that means to a sixth grader to know that they're going to have that dance or to have the field trip or go to

135Washington DC or whatever those things are so looking forward to hear what the plan is moving forward because I just know that you know those are the things that you remember as a kid maybe not the math test and all these other small little things so just want to make sure we protect that for our kids so thanks of course Tim I just wanted to thank you Andrew for your my comments a few minutes ago were about me and my family but you had inspired me to actually think about that so thank you um yeah and and seconding or echoing your comments I know last year I was hearing it uh from a couple of kids about Nature's Classroom I think Nature's crowd this is a Norton sixth grade my daughter was in second grade

136I think it was some of her her and her friends they were asking about Nature's Classroom and some kids like at the bus stop I think Nature's Classroom at least one near us closed because yeah was it only for one year is it is it open again there are different Natures classroom sites in terms of our attendance we didn't go during covid but you know we we've been really I think as a school system well beyond what our peers have done in terms of ensuring that our kids have as many typical experiences possible I went on the DC trip myself a couple years ago to ensure that that was a great experience so yeah that we we do plan on continuing with Nature's Classroom okay I actually thought that it closed because no but there

137are some they okay some that have others that haven't the Nature's Classroom it's it's almost like um you know going to McDonald's they're all over the place kind of thing and some are still functional and others aren't yeah so I didn't mean to see the pandemic I didn't mean to say that you're not doing quite a bit or doing more than other schools but just there are certain things that just are oh sure big deal Milestones yeah and that's all thank you I just wanted to piggyback on that uh nature classroom is happening at least at Norton this year uh so I know my son's excited about that yeah I just wanted to say two words it'll be a personal mission of mine homecoming dance we're gonna work on bringing it back I'll tell you

138I mean we're gonna bring up having been the Principal there when we were trying to sell tickets and just couldn't like we just didn't have enough student interest there might be more parents or maybe we should have a parent homecoming dance Adam you could go to but yeah thank you any other questions for superintans report seen there as a there are none uh thanks again uh moving out we do have small business uh this is the K board recognition award Dr Sonny of a summary sure um we did talk about this at our last meeting uh the Connecticut Association of boards of Education put uh uh issues criteria to Boards of Education across the state to as a way for boards to reflect on their uh activities and their participation in professional development on their

139goal setting on the functionality of their meetings and um in talking to Mr paragini and reviewing that document we thought that it would be something worth pursuing as a as a board I issued if you recall a draft of that document at our last meeting asked for any feedback on that um and there you know as a general consensus that we had fulfilled the criteria for recognition and that we should submit a application 2K we uh have to formally make a motion to submit that application and pending said motion uh Carol send that on to Cabe we will hear about whether or not we receive recognition at the Joint meeting of the Connecticut Association of boards of education and the Connecticut Association of public school superintendents which which happens annually about the the second or

140third week in November um I don't recall the exact date of that this year it's always around my anniversary November 18th my wedding anniversary so wonderful right good times I can remember both events yeah I should love it I Can't Get Enough uh so I move that the Cheshire boy education approves the application submission for a keyboard of Distinction award is there a second thank you any discussion about the board I know we discussed this again since there is none uh is there any public comment on emotion yes oh uh as soon as no public comment uh the motion is that the Cheshire Board of Education approves the application submission for a cape board distinction award all is in favor please uh replicate your hands thank you it is unanimous and full disclosure while I

141do serve uh as an associate director on the cave uh the board of directors for Cheshire I have no involvement whatsoever with this process I couldn't even tell you um you know the application so I will not be involved with any of that uh so just the full transparency there uh one last thing uh under the new business and chairperson's update we don't have much to add uh other than there is a cave caps convention uh November 18th and 19th for a general public it's uh representatives from all boards in Connecticut attend this conference uh Friday's a day-long event of a lot of different topics in-depth discussion uh I could tell you this year there's quite a bit of discussion on Title IX transgender issues uh policies um uh it runs a gamut and every

142year I think Pullman and Conley a major Law Firm or get one of the other ones I'm gonna go and do uh very long two or three hour q a with board members on what is going on and what it means so uh so if members did register uh that's great I will be there I'm actually gonna be moderating a few of those forms actually one of the interesting ones I'm moderating is um the session on how to help make a superintendent successful I'm not saying you are I'm just saying I am you know what you should be giving the presentation right I seem to be learning this moderation thing but the point being there's it's a great learn it's a it is a great learning Avenue for boards we'll report that um afterwards um

143from the open Forum two weeks ago there were a lot of takeaways I can tell you I have spoken with Dr Solon and board members uh have also shared their thoughts on uh the meeting which by the way I felt was a classic example uh of how this town can come together and have a great discussion on some uncomfortable topics without it being name calling or you know yelling and screaming which typically does not happen here believe it or not a great bunch of adults and parents and grandparents um really from all facets of uh where people stand on things it was great to see that we can actually talk like that and have some meaningful actions that being said I haven't uh in touch with a number of our committees uh there's some ideas

144of that meeting about some parental representation uh and the selection process to what the curriculum Community gets better and making Books available ahead of time there were ideas around the communication or too much communication coming out of schools if you're a parent with multiple kids in schools you're getting tons of emails uh parents scoring alike so we're all going to be working through some of those things actually all of them Andrew the board taught a lot of things what was Dr Sean and you know the whole staff about you know uh the community feel at our schools and some things that are lacking since covid and even since we put the uh security measures in place and parents traps planning policy work into some of those uh so as I read off the curriculum committee

145meetings coming up I do that not because I want everybody to go to these meetings but that is where the work actually happens those committees will work on these topics they're open to the public they're recorded and eventually they'll make recommendations for the full board to discuss and possibly take action on so I do expect some of these ideas to materialize and want to communicate when uh he stops being addressed but uh so I just want to note that because uh there was a lot said that evening I could tell you basically Communications I've seen from Administration are taking it very seriously I've seen some action but there's more to come um and you know this board welcomes everyone's input don't be shy and that's one last thing there are folks that did reach out

146to me after the mean that were not there some folks just and it's perfectly understandable not comfortable having a discussion in public I was one of those folks years ago so board members are available uh if you want to talk to us email a call we keep things confidential but so please reach out to us but there's more to be done uh beyond that uh the construction committee selection team I think has one meeting next Wednesday night for further interviews and I think working with the rep Sun Town Council we're going to try to narrow down um the 23 candidates to the seven and barring what happens on November 8th referendum that committee will be established by the Town Council so there's a lot happening um just want to put that out there uh so

147before I call to it during the meeting I just want to read out the meetings that are coming up November 3rd at 7 30 there is Elementary School showcase have we determined the school yet we haven't identified which school it's going to take place we'll post that as soon as available on Monday November 14th there is a curriculum committee meeting uh faith and team are formally in the agenda that usually gets posted about a week before the meeting uh if you do have topics for us please let us know on Tuesday November 15th is a policy committee meeting that is the meeting whereby we will have legal counsel come and really get into enough discussion about Title IX transgenderism other issues it should be a very informative meeting it will be recorded and as Mr

148gripple noted earlier there will be an opportunity you cannot attend their watch you'll be able to send questions ahead of time I think um yeah believe that that email address will be on the agenda and we'll post that on Thursday November 17th at 7 30 PM is our regular Board of business meeting at Town Hall here and uh that should be enough for November so um that's all I have so I will call for a motion to adjourn wow Faith first is there a second since the second is uh all's in favor please raise your hands it is unanimous thank you team the the meetings adjourned and thank you for sticking around this evening everyone much appreciated