Cromwell Board of Education Meeting, September 9, 2025 7:00pm

001Sorry. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the first board meeting of the school year. I'll call this meeting to order at 7 o'clock. And Lisa, can you take roll call, please? >> She'll be absent. Mr. Franklin >> here. >> Mrs. >> here. >> Mr. >> Here, >> Mrs. >> Here >> Wow, that's awesome. Mrs. Bennington >> here >> Mr. Butwell >> here >> Mrs. Dearo >> here >> Mrs. Mr. M >> Dr. here. Mustache here [Music] >> complete. Okay. Thank you, Lisa. Moving on to approval of our agenda, additions, deletions, and a review of our highlights. We have our accountability report um being presented this evening. We have also information on the Kreml High School track, an infrastructure update, and I would like to just move um new business item K up to new business item

002B and that is the board of education self-evaluation overview process. We have Nick Caruso from CABE who's here early and I'd like to respect his time and get him out the door if we can. So with that, is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> Kelly, is there a second? Alicia, all in favor? >> Opposed? Sensions? Motion carries. Agenda is approved. Moving on to correspondence. I have none. Do you have anything, Dr. Macker? >> Okay. Public comments. Before I read the rules for public comments, is there anyone here that would like to make a public comment? >> Okay. Hearing none. Reports of liaison from the town council, Board of Finance, building committee. Um, and you have your building committee report in your packet. Um, we did have our ribbon cutting ceremony which several of

003you attended, so that went really well. And we have on the 24th the open house which is open to the community and they'll be doing tours. Don't have anything else from the board of finance or town council. Did you? >> No, you have nothing. Um and we'll introduce our new student representative this evening. Um we have Marcel returning. And would you like to introduce your new student representative? He's a junior, correct? >> Okay. >> Uh yeah, I'd like to introduce Jacob Brightman. >> Hello. I'm Jacob Wrightman. Junior Board of Ed rep. I'm glad to be here. >> Great. Thank you for joining us. Welcome and thank you for returning, Marcel. We appreciate it. We'll have our CMS student reps in the October meeting, I believe. >> Town collaboration updates. What would you like to mention

004there, Dr. Mackey, if anything? >> Nothing. Um, >> no. >> Okay. I can't remember if I mentioned at the last meeting that there will be a public hearing for the facilities group that, um, Mayor Demetrius is putting together, which Claudia would like to join. So, that's coming up as well and it's just um solidifying what we have in place um and making it um more official for facilities. Other than that, I have nothing else. Superintendent's updates and responses to board vet comments, action items from our prior meeting. Dr. Macker. Great. So, we had a great start to the school year. Um everything went really well, including at the middle school. There were a few bumps in the road, but they've been figured out. A huge thank you to Miss Coiola and Miss Middlebrooks. Um they

005really just continued to work at the process of what that was going to look like as far as drop off and pickup. Um and uh I did have the pleasure of being at the door when the kids came in for the first time and they were just besides themselves. The bunch of the kids who were the first ones were like, "We're the first ones in the new building." And then this little girl stopped and she looked around and she just took it all in and she said to me, "Is this really all for us?" And I said, "Every last inch of it." So it was really pretty awesome. Um they were so excited. And thank you to Dr. Mlan who set up a steam um kickoff for the kids. I sent some pictures. Did you

006get them? I sent them in a second email. I know I couldn't get them to download. Um so uh they had a wonderful time. We went around and spoke to the kids and it just it was a really nice kickoff. So, so far so good. Uh we went around to all the other schools. Kids were happy to be back. It was wonderful. Um we're we're just off to a great start. So, I'm very happy about that. Um another uh we'll get a little deeper as Carrie uh will talk to you a little bit about later about our data, which I'm so excited to share with you. Even though we have some room to grow, we have moved tremendously. Um and then Clauddio Bazano will share with you updates about infrastructure and Mr. Butwell will share

007with you um our financial situation which is very positive. I also um did we did receive the uh letter from the federal government saying that our funding for IDA has been approved. So 461,000 is approved. I also received um we received a letter from the state department of education that shows us all of our title grants um the ones that we were in fear of losing and as of now we are on the books for receiving them. We actually are going to receive looks like seven about $14,000 more um in uh our grants. None of them have been put in the EMGs system as of yet across the state. So, there is still that possibility that ours may not be dropped in there because of our OCR situation, but it's looking pretty positive and it

008looks like we're not going to have to worry about that. But I don't I'll let you know for sure when it's in there. Um, so that's was good news. I was very happy to receive this packet from uh the consolidated grant allocations award year. Um, and we were in there, so it was great. And then we met with ESS for our kickoff, Siri and myself. And we of course are always talking about ways where we can apply for grants. And we haven't had much luck with grants. There are many grants out there at the state department of education level that we're going to apply for. However, there are some grants that are being funneled for social emotional supports through Matt Lesser. So right now, Matt Leser is supporting the districts that he supports and obviously

009we're one of them. and we are hopefully going to get two more um clinicians through ESS and those will be paid for from um the state. So, it's not 100% yet. It looks pretty good, but that means we would add one other another clinician to the middle school and then we would add one to WIS um which will help tremendously. >> And that'd be a first for WHIS, right? >> That would be a first for WIS. Yes. Nice. >> It would. I know. So, um, I'll I'll keep you posted on that. None of this has come to fruition yet, but it's good news. >> Okay. Thank you. Any questions on any of that from our board members? No. And and of course, if the principles would like to share anything, I don't want to pressure

010you, but if you'd like to share anything that was missed about the opening of schools, feel free. If not, just relax. All right. If not, we'll move on to presentations and reports of administration. We have our budget update. And Mr. Butwell, if you'd like to come on up and you have the packet reference be in your packet, the explanation and also the spreadsheet. >> Hi everyone. Um I left at your seats um we had to just update the budget memo slightly um in a positive way. Um, but we are in very good shape as we close out the 2425 year. Um, the new memo that I left for you today uh had a slight increase of about $35,000 due to um a reimbursement that we received late in August uh for the CHS uh stage

011repair after the sprinkler incident. And so our department realized that um although the money had been uh deposited, it hadn't been logged into our software. So, we just wanted to make sure that all of our numbers were accurate. Um, so the new surplus for the end of the year is uh $575,379 representing a 1 just 1.5% of the budget. >> It's good news. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Questions for Mr. Butwell. Kelly, >> just can we expect to see the 2526 fiscal look at the next meeting? >> Yes, absolutely. Okay. Um I can just summarize quickly and say um you know things are off to a very good start. Um August is always a flurry of July and August as soon as the new year opens are always a flurry of ordering

012for the schools and opening lots of POS uh for the supplies that the schools need. Um one um one sort of unexpected situation that um we have had at the beginning of the year is just making sure that we have enough support for our students. So, um, we have had to hire some additional, uh, pair of professionals at each of the schools, a total of, um, six across the district. So, that's about $125,000 that, um, we weren't anticipating. >> Any other questions? >> Is that one from Steve? >> Yeah, I just have a a comment um, so everyone's aware. Uh, so I received responses from all the board of finance members. I'll compile them, summarize them, and get them out this week. I just got the last one on Sunday. So, just want everyone to

013to be aware. >> Yeah. >> So, okay, you guys, the last meeting. So, we I reached out to all the board of finance members after meeting with um Chris, Dr. McCary, and Dr. McClean about the budget process to get feedback how to make the process smoother um when we're doing the budget budget presentation. make sure that like we're answering questions hopefully ahead of time so there's not as many questions and that whole process will just hopefully be a little bit smoother the best we can. So I got feedback from all the board of finance members for you know four or five bullet points of improvement. I'm going to compile them cross reference them and then get them out to everybody here. >> Was that something that was part of the meeting that was directed by

014Dr. Mackery or Mr. Butwell or just something you're >> well to do on your own? >> We talked about it and I brought I brought it up the last meeting as well. Mhm. And is board chair um Ireland involved Yep. in that as well? >> Correct. >> Okay. Just as you just keep him in in the loop, please. >> Absolutely. >> Um we don't have currently have that on the agenda, but we can talk about adding it to the agenda or if you are thinking just emailing it to all of us. >> Yeah, I'll email it out and if we want to add it as a topic to discuss before I probably the next meeting would be ideal so that way if there's any impacts that Chris can address them with with everyone's approval. >>

015Any comments, questions? Lori. >> So, was this discussed at the August meeting? >> No. >> This was this was um Steve had asked to meet with Dr. uh Mri and Mr. Bwell about the budget process overall. >> Yeah. And I did bring it up at >> and in the comments and updates. Yes. He did say he met with them and he would have some recommendations for the board. He wants to see some different things in the budget presentation >> coming up. >> Okay. Cuz I haven't missed the the only meeting I missed was August. So this is I'm not familiar with any of this conversation. >> So >> okay. >> Yeah, I'll compile like you guys will get all the emails that went out. I mean it only went one email went out single email

016to every board of finance member asking the same question. So I will give it >> shouldn't it be coming from the board as a whole? Did I mean is this something we >> generally that's how things work? Yes. >> And then I would communicate with John Ireland but this is what we have. So, we will look at the recommendations and go from there. Any other comments or updates? Okay. Before we get into the line item transfer, I just want to go back. I'm really sorry I didn't really I skipped over your student reports and you're probably sitting there all nervous waiting to say them. So, if you'd like to get over get that over with, that would be great. And then we'll move on. >> Uh, thanks for having me back on. >> Sure. >>

017Um, everyone had a fantastic first day on the 27th. Uh, and things are running smoothly except for a few lost freshmen who still might be wandering the halls. Uh, leading up to the start of the school year, uh, seniors got creative with impressive shed painting with an impressive shed painting. Uh, and they also had the opportunity to personalize their parking spots. Um, initially the phone policy was met with a lot of skepticism. However, it's proven to be a huge success, helping students stay more focused in class and encouraging better social interactions. Mr. Cuckle has been busy keeping the phone rule breakers in check. Uh, even the teachers are scared. >> I'm scared, too. Me, too. We have to put ours. >> Last Friday on the 5th, our seniors participated in the senior sunrise. It was

018great to see everyone so early, even if there was no sun. It's the thought that counts. Um, open house took place last Wednesday, the 3rd, giving parents a chance to meet their teachers and get a glimpse of the exciting school year ahead. A lot of tardies should have been given out. Oh, student council also hosted a bake sale during the open house to fund raise for senior scholarships. And finally, the seniors are excited for the upcoming Washington DC field trip. We just wrapped up the first Guardian meeting less than an hour ago. Overall, it's been a fantastic school year or start of the year. >> Thank you. >> All right. I don't think I'll be as funny as him, but this is my first meeting. So, I'm the new junior board of ed rep and

019naturally, as someone who does not play any sports, I was given the role to tell you about how the sports teams are doing. >> So, makes sense. >> So, overall, the fall season is off to a great start. On Friday, the boys soccer played Old Sabbrook and came in with a two to1 win. They are in North Brenford this afternoon looking to extend their win streak. On Monday, the girls volleyball played at Hadam Killingworth and also won with a three to zero score. They play at Morgan tomorrow. On Monday, the girls soccer team played against North Brford at home and got their second win of the season, winning six to zero. They're off to Val Regional on Saturday for their next game. And after a great season last year, the football team has their first

020regular season game on Friday at Koganog. After that, the first home game is at Pearson Park on Friday the 19th versus North Brford. And finally, the boys cross country team has her next home game on Saturday, while the girls cross country team looks forward to Monday the 22nd at East Hampton. So, with all these wins, the rest of the year looks pretty promising whether you're an athlete or you're watching from the sidelines like me. Thank you. >> A thank you so much. Great job. And we always let our board reps know you're welcome to stay for as long or as short as you'd like to. I know you have homework to do and other things. So, thank you very much. >> Any questions for our board reps, actually? Oh, Matt. Hi. Sorry. And then Lori.

021Just just a comment. >> Okay. >> I've always enjoyed our student reps. I'm really gonna like you, too. If this is how it's going to be every time, you better you better prep some comedy for these things. That was awesome. >> We will. >> We could use the comic relief, Lori. >> Yeah. I was just to echo that. I was just going to say what a great job you did, especially for your first time. Both of you did a great job. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we'll get back to business now with um >> Sorry, just one >> Oh, I'm sorry. That's you. >> How much did Mr. will pay you to say how that you really enjoy the cell phone policy because >> I'm being so genuine. We've like talked to teachers and they

022have told us how like this year it's going to be a lot like where he's stressing taking phones. There's a little competition going on I heard on who can get the most phones. But yeah, >> I think >> Did he say he's going to win? >> Oh god. >> I think who you really paid was at open house. the student that gave the the story about his forgetting his lunch. That was hilarious. >> Yep. >> Great. Well, we love it. Catherine >> question. >> Do the parents see the impact of it? I've seen a lot of push back um not necessarily from Cromwell, but just in general about parents being upset and angry and they want their kids to have their phone so they can reach them whenever they want to. And is there a

023lot of push back from parents? >> Oh, good. >> I mean, maybe on Facebook. [Laughter] >> Okay. >> A lot of people coming up. Thankful. We appreciate the support here. The reality is our kids. Right. Any other comments? All right. Thank you all very much. We'll move on to the budget line transfer item. Um doc, um Mr. Butwell, did you want to go over that? Obviously, we have um this amount that needs to be transferred out and every year we do vote to move it into a different account. This year's a little different because it is now still a board of ed account, but my understanding is it it sits with the town but overseen by the board of education. Is that correct? >> That's correct. Yes. >> Okay. So, the amount we need to

024move over is up for discussion or are we moving the entire amount to that item and then we discuss from there? >> That's that's up to you. The the amount is $575,379. >> Okay. So, we can move it there and then decide from there. Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. 739. >> Okay. >> That $40. My apologies. >> So, is there a motion to move $575,739 to the unexpended account? >> Kelly, is there a second? Allan, all in favor? >> Opposed? Abstensions. Motion carries. Thank you. Um, and we'll call you back up in a little bit. >> Thank you. Um, if I could just make one other unrelated comment. Um, at the last meeting we talked about um, we were talking about the lunch balances and someone asked if it was possible if we could link

025student amounts to um, P school and I did some research and I found that that we can. Um, so I'm working with our um, Power School person to to get that set up. >> Great. Thank you for doing that. >> Okay, new business item A. Welcome our new staff which we had a reception out front and we're so glad to have everyone here and that they've chosen Cromwell. So, we are thrilled and thank Michelle Demorro for all of her hard work in getting everyone here. Next up is item B, the grounds. Oh, sorry. No, next up is um our representative from CABE. We have Nick Caruso and he is going to give us an overview of the board of education self self-evaluation process and he'll be handing out a copy of what CAB's um evaluation

026looks like. I also emailed the um digital copy. >> If you could just make sure the mic is still on. There should be a red light. Is there Is the mic on? >> We should be a red light. >> Red light. Y Okay. Thank you. Um pleasure to be here tonight. Uh my name is Nick Caruso. Um I still have to get used to my new title, associate executive director for field service and technology. Um my primary role at CAB is working directly with school boards. The last time I was here, unfortunately, was 2014. I'd like to increase that if I can, working with you more directly if it's possible. I was also here in 2004. So, I've been around a while. Um, board evaluation. Um, I took very short notes here just to remind

027myself exactly what I want to say and then I think I handed that paper out. So, >> ah, here it is. It's been a long week already and it's only Tuesday. Sorry. Okay. So, um I guess to start with why why do we do self-evaluations? I know that was one of the questions asked uh to for me to answer. Um there's a lot of research now, but originally there was no research on what effective school boards did. You know, there was no definition, no research that showed if boards did certain things, then student achievement would improve. And about 20 years ago, the Iowa School Boards Association came up with their Lighthouse project, which was a really deep study on what do school boards do that's different in high achieving districts than in districts that are

028challenged. And we're talking about like districts. So, they might have the same exact demographics, but something's different. And so they did a really deep dive. Uh this it was funded by the National Science Foundation. I believe they had some Gates money. So this was a big-time deal. And out of that they found certain characteristics that high achieving districts have with their boards of education. One of those conditions in this lighthouse study which was the name of it was that boards of education that spent time challenging themselves and looking introspectively at how they worked were more effective. And so self-evaluation is a very big part of that. Also um our association cape and the superintendent's association caps about uh 2016 wrote a joint white paper on effective governance. Um the governance statement which was um voted

029on by both boards of directors. That's still a very important document. Uh it's available on both our website and CAPS's website. I believe we could also get you copies if you needed it. Um but in that they talked about what are the effective roles, what are the best practices between the way boards and superintendents worked together. From that they then decided let's do the same type of project on superintendent evaluation. And so there's a best practice on what superintendent usually use for their evaluation. Um and included in that document was this also included the document you have in front of you because they realized both organizations realized that before you can effectively evaluate the superintendent, it helps to understand how you're working together. So they typically recommend board self-evaluation followed by superintendent evaluation. My experience

030and I'm well I was a board member 42 years ago and I've been doing this work for 32 years. So, I I think I can claim in my experience um I've seen boards do self-evaluation for two very different reasons. One, they're good and they want to get better. And two, they're highly dysfunctional and they just want to survive. Um unfortunately, a lot of the boards that aren't working effectively don't even think to have a self-evaluation. So, it's that board where it gets so bad that we better do something because we're not getting, you know, students are suffering because we're not making decisions that help children. And so, um, those are the two reasons why boards typically do it. A lot of boards actually have within their policy that the board shall do an annual self-evaluation.

031It's not a bad idea to think about that if you don't already have it. Some boards have it in the policy manual and don't do it, but um, that's not good practice. Um, so I want to talk for a second how we developed this tool specifically and then how we could help you do this process if you want to do it. So going back about 20 years ago, periodically we had a stack of board self-evaluation tools from different districts around the state. I I think we had one for probably half of the districts in the state and every once in a while someone call would call up and say, "Do you have a form?" And we'd go through the pile and this one looks good with you know or this is a like district or

032something and we'd hand it out and then finally I decided to really look at it because it seemed foolish to have all of these different tools. So I went through and I categorized and basically all of them asked the same questions. They did it differently and they did it in different order but all districts really were looking at the same characteristics of high performance in their evaluation tool. So we compiled a list of best a best practice of all of those ideas which was the precursor to this one. Then as Connecticut got involved in the lighthouse project because out of all that research came a training program and Connecticut was one of the district or one of the states that got involved in that and we were doing lighthouse training. We decided if we really

033wanted to put our money where our mouth was and if we're talking about what's best practice for good board leadership it ought to be reflected in our evaluation tool. So I think around 10 years ago we redid this to align it with the lighthouse work. So this in our mind is what boards do. If you do any of this, you're more likely to affect student achievement in a very positive way. So that's how we got to the tool. How we offer it because there's boards that use it in different ways. Some boards just take the general categories vision, community leadership, which could be exchanged for community um engagement. We chose the word leadership deliberately because it's up to the board if it's not happening in your community. It's up to the board to figure out

034how can we engage other like for instance town council boards of selectmen finance boards etc. will accept some responsibility and leadership in that board operations board ethics board superintendent team. Some boards just take those major categories and say how are we doing? Just have a conversation. Some boards will fill out the form and we work with boards. I was in a district last night doing this. Um, you fill them out, you can send them back to us, we tabulate them, and then I can come back and meet with you, go over the results with you. I'm not the board cops. I'm not the anal an analyst of this work. I mean, I'll draw some conclusions, but I want you to look at the data and say, I thought we'd do better here, or this looks

035better than we thought it might be. It can trigger some areas that you might say, maybe we should spend a little more time on this area. for instance, community uh leadership last night, they were almost all twos and ones and they're like, "We really don't do enough of this." So, part of the outcome of last night was to have a goal of the board to say, "How can we try to raise some of these numbers?" You know, can we do a little more with the town finance board? Can we do a little more with parents? Can we do an outreach to maybe some of the businesses in our community and get feedback from them? So, all this is is an opportunity to reflect together. I end up being just sort of a facilitator. I try

036to get you to do the talking, not me, which is hard sometimes for me. I apologize for that. Um, and then from that try to again come up with some goals aligned to maybe do for you. This isn't something you don't want to dump more on your administration. These would be things as a board. If we can do these things, we'll be our evaluation next year should see an improvement in some of these areas. Yes. >> I have a question. I'm just curious because we will refer to the board and people are call me as you know the board for certain reasons such as for example I would say that we have a vision and a mission statement placing students first is our mission statement. So when you say the board has a vision and

037mission for the school district with a primary focus on student achievement, if you're asking me, I would say yes. But is is that something separate that the board the board >> like are we talking about the same vision and mission or Okay. Oh yeah. So like for example, our district improvement plan or our strategic goals of how we're going to improve student achievement. So you're talking about >> the same. I >> I am one and the same. But that's one area where sometimes there's conflict because you're as the person implementing this, you're fully aware of it and what's going on. There are some boards that don't even for instance realize what's in our strategic plan or there are goals up on the wall in a nice frame, but if you ask anybody on the board,

038they really don't know what they are, right? So, >> so if they're inclusive like so for example in in my evaluation and I include them as a big part of my evaluation for example the district improvement plan and these are my smart goals and they're included in there then it's we developed it as a as a district I share it with the board um there used to be more of a reciprocity um when we first started I believe Lori was our represent represented us on the district improvement committee that a district leadership committee which would be nice to have someone from you know the board do that would that be something that you're talking about like that would make us more cohesive >> yeah I think basically that the goals are driving not just your

039work but the work of the board so they're looking at for instance aligning your agenda to the strategic plan or to the district improvement plan so item three on the agenda relates directly to the area of student achievement or infrastructure or whatever. So drawing those correlations so that the board actually feels like our work is directly aligned with our vision. >> Got it. >> The other part in this case is that we we want to keep emphasizing our role is to improve student achievement. So do we focus our goal work on the outcome of student achievement versus task oriented where we said we were going to develop this program? We did check off. Well, no. Did the program actually cause improvement in in instruction? Then we can check it off. Yes. >> So that's kind

040of where that goes. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> As so I would just say that as a and this is all part of your membership at Cape. There's no charge to this. You know, we can collect these. I asked for a couple weeks lead time. I last night's we got the last two of these Monday morning and we had to collate it and and our our receptionist had been out all last week. So the first thing on her desk this morning, you got to help me out. Um, but she did it. And and the other thing that's really important, there's a comment section in the in the back for each of the categories. Those are really most critical because a lot of times you look at the numbers. You could have half fives and half

041ones and you have an average of around three or you could have all threes and they that's still an average of three, but there's two different stories there. So, we look at this together. You draw some conclusions. I thought we'd be better here. I think we can do better in this area. Um, and from that we again try to look at what might the board think about doing to make this better. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I think if we can all take a look at these in the next day or two and then just reply to me whether yes, you're interested in completing this. If there's consensus, we can um I'll send a message to ask that you complete it and then we'll invite you back. Um, depending when we get them back, maybe

042at the October meeting. >> Yeah. The best thing would be, you know, when when you know you want to do it, we throw a date together sometime in the next three, four weeks, for example, and then you give everybody the form and say you've got a deadline. We love to have a couple weeks lead time. >> Sure. >> One week lead time will work usually. >> And you did mention to me earlier that you prefer the paper copy versus electronic. It's just easier for tabulating. So, if we're okay with that, >> well, the problem is because we've we just did one where the district actually did it in Google Docs and then we had to translate that because there's the the results in Google Docs really didn't they weren't very helpful. So, we had to

043take the raw data from that and then we put it into this document because it's easier to read, it's easier to do the analysis. Um, we're still working on a better way of doing this. um maybe through Microsoft forms which we've started using but so far this is the easiest for us but you can get it as a spreadsheet an Excel spreadsheet type it in email it to me and or fax it if you have to some people last night were actually taking pictures of the page and emailing the picture that was the hardest to work with um because again the comments it's really nice if you can just copy and paste them right in because we just come up with one document of all the comments no attribution to who did them because we

044want you to feel comfortable with anonymity. So, um you just see the aggregated results and sometimes you can kind of know who said what, but hopefully not. >> Kelly, you had a question. >> I just had a comment. I think it just coming from like the corporate world, information can be really, really powerful. And if this is a service that's, you know, free with our membership, I personally do think it's important to take advantage of this just so we can have conversations about making sure that we're operating um to the best of our ability, too. So, I thank you for your time. Thank you for your explanation. Um I I would be in support of doing this. Okay. >> Well, I want to have a chance to digest it. So, if you could all just

045reply to me and let me know that you're okay with it, then we can go ahead with completing it and I'll let you know as soon as um >> Okay. >> The only thing I would add is that if there's a certain question because sometimes board members will say, "Well, I'm not sure what this question means or you know, like this came from a sort of general look originally. Um you would have the ability to adjust questions if you wanted to. We just have to make sure we get the correct one when we do the, you know, the results." Um but and I don't know that you have to fine-tune it. So that each and every question as long as it gives you a general sense of the category. The results form that we come

046out with also has little charts for each category. So you can see in colors you know where our strengths and weaknesses are. It's not a real well-defined chart but it does give you at least some visual to help you look at where you're succeeding and where you could do some more work. >> All right. Okay. So, then I'll add to that that if when you're looking at this there's anything that's unclear and you want clarification before you fill it out or if there's something you feel should not you don't want on here at all, um just let me know and I'll work with >> Nick. My email address should be on there. So, if you have questions you want to just ask me directly, I can I can do that too. >> Okay, Matt, >>

047just responses are >> they're um anonymous I assume. Right. >> So, like you're not going to know that you know >> was saying terrible things about me. >> Well, I'm I'm kidding. I'm kidding. >> But but there's a we had to specifically state that in there because at one point there was always an assumption that we would do that anonymously and then one person wrote in their uh comments our meetings would go a lot better if so and so didn't talk so much and so so and so was in the meeting got a little angry. >> That is that is I did I just walked face first into a brick wall. Thank you. So now we're very clear these are anonymous and we don't share with you the originals. We hang on to >> I

048I survey in in the different roles I have in education. I have to do a lot of surveys with people and the first biggest concern is if people think it's not anonymous if they think that they can be identified. They tend to be less honest. >> Yep. >> That's why I asked the question. I'm just concerned about getting hardcore honest answers. >> Absolutely. >> Everyone knows that it's anonymous. That's all I'm looking for. >> I agree. I'm not looking for comments about people who talk too much and make >> I'm sure the comments will all be very respectful. >> So So just to confirm, we're voting on this via email and not in the meeting. >> We can vote on it now if you'd like. Is that Are you ready to I thought you'd want

049to read the questions first. I don't know if everyone had a chance. >> You said it. You sent it to us >> last night though. It was pretty late. So are we ready to vote on it? >> I didn't have a chance to read it. >> Okay. >> Sure. So when we fill it out and we're filling it out on this paper, keeping with the idea that it's anonymous. So are we like putting it in an envelope and giving it to Selena? >> Not to me. No. >> So we're giving it to you. So you're going to come said what? Because if you email it to me, I have your email address. >> We don't we don't put that information in the results and we just put it in a file and it gets buried

050because it's a cave document basically. Um, >> we haven't had a problem with that in the past, but I I'm going to know because I'll see you email them to me and I keep a folder with the emails to count make sure everybody gives us their copy. But we don't put that information in the sheet that we share with the board. >> So, I guess we're completing them online then if we're emailing them. >> You could do it on an the easiest way is do it in an Excel spreadsheet and then email me the spreadsheet. >> You want us to change the Google doc into an Excel spreadsheet and then email it to you? Google Docs. Again, we've had a hard time translating from Google Docs. I was just asking for clarification. Okay. >> So,

051that would that would be my preference. We will do whatever it takes. So, if you decide we're going to do it through Google Docs, we will come up with the the appropriate response. >> No, we we can do that. All right. So, everyone's comfortable with Lori. >> I haven't had time. I was working today, so I didn't have time to read through this. But >> I'm fine with doing it, though. So, I'd be I'm fine to do the I think that I agree it's a good idea to do it. So, um >> if it makes you any more comfortable, this is the my main reason for using the form is to generate conversations. And so, if you even don't like the question, that could be part of the conversation. Well, I I'm uncomfortable with the

052way the question's written because here's how we do it. And then everybody could agree or disagree, but it allows you to, you know, you might have a best practice that's not the same as the way the format works. So, >> so if we have a problem with a question or we don't think it we don't want to answer it, should we contact you directly or we go to Selena? >> It's a not sure category. If you're not sure, the last line over is not sure, >> right? But then if I put not sure, don't you want to know why I'm not sure? >> Can she add it to the comments in the back? >> You could add it in the comments. If you have a specific question, by all means, email me and and ask

053what does this mean? >> I'm just trying to figure out who the go-to person is. If we have questions, we should come to you. go directly to >> and do should we CC Selena on it too or just go to you? >> We don't need to. >> Okay. >> I would say just to me some districts the central office collects them all and then they in some cases they tabulate it and send me the results but we're happy to take care of it either way. We'll again we try to be very flexible to meet your needs. >> Okay. Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Well, thank you so much. Any other questions? >> All right. Well, thank you for being here. We'll be in touch and we'll get these back to you timely. Promise. and then

054we'll set a date for you to come back. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to our grounds and infrastructure update. That's now item C under new business. No, >> we just agreed. Okay, >> so can we have Mr. Bazano come on up for the presentation or I'm sorry, the um update on the grounds and infrastructure. I think that was to include everything over the summer. >> I don't think it's an item we need to vote on. It's not like Right. Lisa, do you see a need for us to vote on that last item? I mean, you know the rules so well. That's why I'm asking you. Sorry to put you on the spot. >> Okay. I'm sorry. Can you just hold for one second, Claudia? We'll go

055back to Sure. Is there a motion to um complete the CABE um self board self-evaluation? Lori made the motion. Matt seconded. All in favor? Opposed extensions motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. >> Well, good evening everyone. Welcome back. >> As you all aware, um little over a year ago, almost a year and a half ago, we began to undertake the replacement of the track over here at the high school. We we did a complete walk through an evaluation of the track with myself and Josh Lameé, the athletic director, and saw that it was breaking, pieces were falling apart off the edge. Um, we had a professional come in and we discussed with him what he saw of the track and what the best course of action was. That professional determined that the asphalt which holds

056the integrity underneath the rubber was intact. What had failed was the actual rubber surface on top. We went ahead and procured an estimate of what the cost would be at that time was approximately $400,000. We included in our capital improvement plan in our five-year plan and requested that funding from the town. As you're also aware, that funding was not approved. We were asked again to reach out to the company and get an updated quote. Almost a year has elapsed since the last quote and overall the cost has increased by about 15,000. The cost is $382,500 to replace the rubber surface and an additional 20,000 to put in the track exchange zone. And if you for those that don't know what the track exchange zone is, the area of the track where in a relay they

057exchange the baton. Having it a different color, it's about 30 mters long gives a better visual to the runners to determine to stay within that area to pass the baton. Tonight before coming here, I spent about an hour over at the track. And I had the pleasure of kicking out probably about a half a dozen kids on ebikes. One kid came over with a go-kart on top of the track. >> So I proceeded to kick them out. While I was there, I walked around. I've been having conversation with the athletic director, Josh Lameé, over what is the best course of action for this track. We also reviewed the long jump and the high jump. Though it's not included in this quote here, we are going to go ahead and at least reach out to this

058company, this vendor to get an additional quote for that area. There's a cost savings associated doing it now because they don't have to remobilize and bring all that equipment over while they're here. It's the same product that they're going to be installing. So it's just an additional product with much less labor. So as part of this process, we are going to move forward at least get the quote and then ultimately um between the board and the town and make a determination whether we should proceed or not. >> Any questions? >> I have a question. So we have the quote in front of us for the piece you mentioned, but now there's another piece that we will need. And I know tonight we were considering whether we were going to use some of our unexpended money

059toward that and then if there's a remainder the town is interested in potentially picking up the difference. So I'm not sure how we can accomplish this tonight without knowing the rest of the quote unless we want to just base it off what we have. What if I may? >> Sure. >> Whatever cost in addition >> if we are to replace the high jump and the long jump area, it'll be very minimal compared to this overall. Mhm. >> If this is an opportunity to have a conversation whether we move forward, I I would recommend that you still have that conversation regarding the quote that we have on hand for the areas that we already have on hand. And that the additional quote once we receive it, we can have that discussion. It could be around $10,000

060to do those two other areas on a on a project of 400,000. I don't personally and I don't believe that 10,000 is going to sway us yes or no whether we're going to do the the track itself. What may come out is we may have to wait for a future time to do those areas even if it costs more. But the track is critical only from the from the area of we've already lost one summer >> as conversations have gone back and forth to determine how we were going to proceed. Um >> yes. So that was my concern is just I don't want to waste any time and in talking with Mayor Demetrius, he was open to working together on this and pending what we decide to do tonight, he would be willing to put

061on his agenda for tomorrow night's town council meeting um to potentially approve the difference of what we need from what we decide to put toward it. We talked about using some of the money o left over this year toward the track. Um kind of just to show show some good faith to the town. Obviously they've supported us and now we can help. Um so there that's where I think the discussion needs to go tonight is how much of the unexpended do we want to all lot to this and then if we do approve that then it'll be on the agenda tomorrow night for the difference hopefully. Alicia >> sorry I have two questions. one and I don't know if this is a procurement question for Mr. Butwell, but how many quotes do we we got

062a quote from one company. Do we have a requirement over a certain dollar threshold where we need to get multiple quotes from multiple vendors to just to give some efficacy to the one that we got? >> Um, we procured this quote from from a correct consortium which falls under the category of we don't have to go out to bid even though the amount is 400,000. you don't have to vote the bid because this there's several consortiums that we use um both the town and the board of ed that already vet these u contractors out and the pricing is already determined. So >> we wouldn't have to go out to bid. That was one of the reasons why we chose this this vendor. Also >> typ typically what's the threshold where we have to go out

063to bid if we don't go through a consortium? >> 12 um 12,500. Okay. >> For the town. >> All right. Second question, what other measures are we going to put in place to assure some of the things you saw happen tonight don't happen when we replace a track and spend all of this money and then we have people riding go-karts on it. So, I feel like there's this is missing a security component to it that is essential to support our investment. >> I agree 100%. And we've been in discussion both with the principal and with the athletic director on how to improve that. One of the things that we we saw was initially when we inspected the track back a year ago, there was metal bleachers on top of the track because the parents wanted

064didn't want to look through the fence and we only had three level bleachers and if you put them outside the fence, they were definitely below the fence line. So, one of the things was it didn't make sense to have metal bleachers sitting on top of a track. plus the proximity to the field, whether it's soccer or whether it's um with lacrosse, a ball sent in the wrong direction, could injure someone. >> So this summer we through the town, we procured the funding to install bleachers. If you go there now, we already poured the pads. We bought um 10 raw high bleachers. They'll be secured and anchored on concrete. So people be above the fence line and there's two sets and each one fits about um 150 people. So not only we got rid of those

065little little bleachers that we actually had an incident um so this will eliminate that problem and it'll also be a better viewing area and we made sure that um has handicap accessibility to that area. And so we're going through all those details and um we hope to have the actual bleachers delivered on October 1st. So we hope by midocctober to have them assembled and installed. >> As far as securing um >> so >> we've continued that discussion where sec we're going to be securing the fence line and make it much more difficult especially for a go-kart. You can't re fence only keep honest people out. Let's be honest. If a kid wants to get over that, he can lift an ebike over. Um we've had conversations with the police department about this. Um and we're

066going to continue to have more conversations. The world is changing when it comes to ebikes. It's a new phenomenon and everyone hasn't decided exactly how to deal with it. We're going to increase the signage to make sure that at least the police have some some recourse to say you saw the sign, you're not allowed here. Kids can't say, "Well, I didn't know. I didn't understand. Nobody told me." So, we are trying to put some additional barriers in place to prevent anyone from damaging the truck. >> Is there surveillance there? >> No. >> Okay. >> We don't have I think the tennis courts have surveillance. I was just curious. I saw Alan then Matt. Go ahead. the question in timing of this. Well, we I'm one I'm concerned that we have, you know, we still have

067that possible lawsuit. All things look good on that part, but when would this have to occur? Could not this >> that has to be during the summer both from a weather standpoint and from um athletic programming standpoint. >> So, we can't fix this until >> we won't be able if we put all the pieces in place. We want to hit the ground running as soon as school is out and all the sports have completed so we can get it completed and done before school starts before actually kids stop. >> All right. So this is 10 months before we even start this project. >> It 10 months before started construction but if you work the timeline back you need to start making decision whether you're going to do it soon so that we can get the

068contract in place have the materials ordered and ready to go. That's one of the challenges we faced last year was while they were discussing how it was be done. >> How much of a time frame do you need? >> Um I would recommend at least four months before the start for had the contract in place which is about 16 weeks. >> Okay. >> To allow for the procurement of the of the rubber and the scheduling. >> All right. So we could well we could earmark a certain amount but we don't have to spend it and see what the town does >> and then we can wait and see by that time we should know what happens with this >> we go ahead >> lawsuit but >> so I just would like to advise you that

069always with the exception of this year we have had incredible special education costs. We also have a situation with um DACO that we're going to discuss later and we have the OCR case that we still don't know about. Um I still see that we should be providing some of our this funding for the track because our kids need it and they've waited long enough. Um so if this is a way that we're going to get it, I think that you should consider putting some money toward it. Do I think you should consider putting all of it toward it? I think that would not be um I think that would not be beneficial at this time. Um but you're correct there. These are things these are all the unknowns for this year and and Mr. Butwell

070just told you we just hired uh six more pair of professionals at a cost of over $130,000. So, we have to be careful, but I also think that it would be um I think it would be a good idea to do this so we can get this wonderful track done for our kids and for the community, but most of all for our kids. So, keeping these things in mind and at the end of the day, um none of us want to go over budget whatever we budget. uh it if something was to happen legality like this situation was to get worse um we would have to go back to the town if we were spending the money um either way. >> Matt, did you still have a question? >> Yeah, I mean, you know, I

071know we need a new track and I support getting one. Um, all the things that were mentioned as far as a lot of these unknown expenses that could be floating our way are they're they're what caused me they're they're one thing that causes me to hesitate a little bit. The other thing is I'm not getting a sense that we have in place any kind of a comprehensive plan to keep misuse and trespassing on the track which could cause damage. You know, not just ebikes. I mean, I was out here walking with my family and someone rode a gas powered dirt bike across the track. You know, there need we need to have, you know, a way if we're going to if we're going to put up this money to to put a new track in,

072there needs to be some kind of a comprehensive plan to prevent that. And I know that I know that it's being worked on, please, >> but it's not there yet. And I would want to know more about what that is and have some more solidity there. Um before I would really >> I'm sure we can update you as we do a step-by-step process to do that. The challenge is you want to it is this is funded by taxpayers. You want to allow people the benefit of walking on the track. >> Absolutely. >> Get off the streets. People afraid to get hit by cars. People are distracted with their cell phones. So, especially older individuals want to use the track. It's it's more even. They're not going uphill, downhill. So, it's a balance of you can't

073lock it up. And if somebody wants to has bad intentions or wants to do something wrong, it's almost impossible to stop. It's it's an open area and there's only a fence. I am open to if somebody has a better suggestion other than making sure that the openings only allow for walking people, the gates are kept closed. The police are aware to keep an eye out and we're all dealing with this ebike phenomenon that's happening. If someone has additional >> recommendation, I'm open. I am in conversation with um Jess Ritter, our attorney, regarding ebikes and what's been happening and it's just kind of blown up and I'm sure you see it everywhere as well. Um when are we within our jurisdiction to say um you're allowed to ride your ebike and when are we not? And

074the first thing we're going to be doing, which we can do, is move forward with um the middle school and the high school as far as saying this is the path for you to ride your bike. We're going to outline it. We're going to send it home to parents. This is where you if you want to ride your bike, your ebike, whatever it is to school, this is the path you will take, not through the track or whatever, you know, they're used to. Um, so that much we're allowed to do. We have to be careful because it's a form of transportation for kids to get to school. So, I am in conversation with Jess Ritter as far as how far can we go, but like Claudio said, just like the school, um, it's funded by

075taxpayers. So, they are allowed to use it, but what are we going to do to surveil maybe perhaps, but and then a discussion with the chief of police of how much do they get involved? Um, because they do get involved when the kids go up on the shed or things like that, but this has to continue happening. I don't think we're going to have a perfect answer for a while. Yeah, it's a tough balance between leaving it accessible to the community and keeping people that shouldn't be um riding bikes or any motorized equipment on the on the track. It's just trying to make those openings tighter so it's harder for them to fit through. But like I said, I can pick up an ebike with one hand, throw it over the fence. So if the

076kids want to circumvent that, they can. That'll that problem will never go away. All right, it's uh Katherine, then Kelly. >> Um, so a couple things. Well, to Matt's point, I I do understand your concerns. People are on all the time. That opening is rather large to be able to get through, but if we add signage, um maybe potentially a phone number for them to call to report if you see somebody. We need the community to help out with with monitoring this. It's not a Cromwell problem. It's a problem over all the towns and the track is in horrid shape. So, I I support this project. Um I do have a couple of questions on the proposal that we have here. Um are we adding are proposing to add just three gray exchange zones and

077how many lanes will the track be? >> Same as it is now. >> Okay. But we're only proposing three exchange lanes. every baton exchange, right? So, it's full width, but one, two, three around the circle. >> It's not just three lanes. >> No, the whole the whole three zones, >> but zone like switch zones for the baton transfer. >> It's a baton trans. >> I see what you're saying then. >> Whatever. >> Um, and the last piece is only if that the 139,000 is related to if you were going to potentially put turf field in. Is that correct? >> Correct. When we started this endeavor, um at that time there was a >> conversation regarding >> redoing all that the entire facilities, the all the fields and one of the conversations at that time was

078of putting in a turf field. Um but that led to lights which led to it went so far in one direction. So at that time that was included in the price that if we were going to go to turf then it made sense to do that that edging that support edging now rather than trying to do it after the track has already been refurbished. >> I mean I'm in support of this. I'm I'm really not into support of the the ex the gray exchange zones. Many schools don't have them. Um even colleges don't use them. students, athletes know their markings on there and they know how to read them. If you're a track runner, you generally know. So, I don't really see the necessity for the gray exchange zone. >> Can we just pause right

079there and we have Mr. Lame here. If you have any anything you'd like to say about that because I I can't say I know much about exchange zones. >> Sure. So, um, just briefly on the exchange zones, can you create a new track without them? You can. Um, it is a safety measure. It it does help with the exchanges. Um, that's when athletes are running at top speed, sweating. Um, so it helps them time it out kind of perfectly. Gives them the visual. Um, it on most new tracks, if you do them, you know, if you're going to do everything the right way, the exchange zones do help a lot. Um, and three is the the number you would need. You wouldn't need four or five exchange zones. Um, but I guess that's something for

080for you all to to discuss. Um, I know Kaggen Chog did a new track that has the exchange zones, it's not only does it look visually appealing, looks great. Um, it is an added safety measure. It's not a required added safety measure, but it is is something that helps when the athletes are are running at full speed. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Lame while he's up there? Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, Steve? >> Uh just curious if we're going to have a warranty on this and what that would be >> from the manufacturer. >> Expect that everything we purchase has a warranty on there. I >> I didn't see it in here anywhere, but that'd be something to definitely keep track on as we move forward. >> We'll make sure that that we

081get one. >> Yeah. And then uh when was the last time the track was actually paved underneath? >> Don't know, sir. >> Okay. Cuz if if the pavement once you take that track off and if the pavement is damaged, um I did a quick estimate today. Um you're about 175 to 210,000 to repave that track. So just just something to consider that. >> Are you saying to redo the entire track? Like if if you rip that topping off and the asphalt is bad, we're in it. We're at that point we're in. And that's that's a risk that we have to think about. That's all I'm saying. >> But Mr. Bazano, they did they did check on that, I assume. Right. >> You can't see it until you take the track off. >> They did a

082walk through and they didn't see any. Normally, if the asphalt is separating, um, because it's rubber and it tends to hug the ground, you'll see the wave or you'll see the slight step occurring. As um, Stephen said, you don't know until you lift it up, but according to the people we had inspected, without lifting it up, I've been assured that um, there isn't any problem. And that was someone from this company that inspected it. >> But if there is, they're not paying for it. >> Kelly, >> I just had a couple things. >> Okay. Um, I agree. It would be beneficial to make sure we know what the warranty policy is. Um, going back to the high jump and low jump or long jump, long whatever, >> long jump, high jump. >> Um, I I'm

083fully in support of moving this project forward. I think it's great for the school. I think it's exceptional for the community. Um I'm less concerned about security risks cuz I do realize that this is just a function of like how we're living right now and we I I think signage, fencing, all of that. Um but with that being said, what are the extra cost of the signs going to be? The changes in fencing. Um I know you said maybe 10,000 here or there for the high jump. If those costs aren't in what we pass forward to town council, it is ultimately going to come back on us. I don't want to go to town council twice to ask for something. I'd rather ask for it right the first time. So, I would just say if

084we are going to move forward with that, I would caution to maybe benchmark at least another 30 or 40,000 in these funds to stay with us. I know we're not, you know what I'm saying, to cover those because I don't think it's I don't think it would be in our best interest to have to go back twice. I'd rather go one time with the correct numbers and all of the information um just to increase the likelihood of it getting passed and getting the numbers that we need from them >> based on what's happening already those measures we can't wait for the track to be completed to begin those measures. So whether we proceed with resurfacing the track or not, we have to proceed with the signage and securing and make sure that the area is

085locked up really to make sure that this track doesn't get even more damaged than it already is. It's already precarious situation. We don't want to make it worse. So we are going to start working on getting those issues resolved and having conversation with the police chief and the police department. Um, I'm also on the board of directors of Connecticut School Buildings and Grounds Association. I'm going to reach out to my colleagues to find out if they're how they're dealing with this problem with ebikes to get some feedback on how they're working to resolve it. >> Lori, what is the typical life expectancy of a new track? >> Well, I believe this one lasted about 20 years. So, it all depends how you use it and how you take care of it. We'll change how long

086it lasts. >> Kelly probably knows the answer if Josh says it. >> And that's the same as with resurfacing or probably not. Right. >> I'm sorry. >> The warranty would be different if it's just resurfacing versus doing the whole track. >> I don't know until I ask. >> Yes. I just want to make sure I understand what we're ask what we have to do and what we're asking town council to do so that I'm clear on what we're actually going to voting on. And I have all sorts of numbers written down and I'm totally confused as to what we're actually >> being asked to contribute. And I I will say I think it's a great idea that we do this for the community, but I'm also worried because every year that I've been here and

087many years before we get hit with unexpected costs. And so I'm a little nervous about what some of those unexpected costs might be and if we are already allocating any kind of cushion that we have towards this and we have a couple more special ed students or we need more pair professionals. I don't want to be here in six months and say gee we made a decision and now we're in a big hole and what are we going to do? Yeah. I don't think any anyone is recommending that we give the entire amount to the town, but if there was a certain amount that we felt comfortable as a board saying we can flag this for the track, um whatever that amount might be, we have to talk about it obviously. And then um from

088there, town council would consider approving the additional to get to the amount that we need here, which I assume is the 382 800 plus these other amounts at the bottom. Um looks like it comes to about $545,840. My recommendation is not doing that. Okay. >> Is these two basically 42,000 >> and the long jump and high jump. >> 403,000 whatever. >> 43,000. >> 402,000. >> Okay. >> 849 if my eyesight >> 900. >> We don't know yet about So, so we don't know yet about the high and long. >> We don't think it's that expensive. The rest of it is about $400 and $2,000. I'm just going to give you my two cents. Uh, you can start wherever you want. I would not go higher than $200,000. I would stay with that. That gives us

089$340,000 or $70,000 as a cushion for a district that has never reaped these benefits before. And if later you go back and we can contribute more, then we can contribute more. Um, but I would I would advise you as your superintendent to not go above that amount of money at this time. Um, and if you want to play it safe, $150,000. Um, but at this time I would not I would advise you to stick to those numbers, but that is completely up to you. >> Does anyone want to begin discussion of the dollar amount that you're comfortable with? Matt? >> Well, I mean, you know, it's definitely a benefit to the whole community and it's definitely a benefit to the school. So, if you kind of look at those things as two different entities who

090are going to use it, then splitting it down the middle seems kind of fair and reasonable. Um, so I'm I'm more on the side of of saying I'd like to see it under 200 200,000. Personally, I'm very concerned about what, you know, what what kind of financial uh barriers and unknowns we're facing for this year. Right. right now there's a lot of hope and a lot of supposition that hey it looks like we could get but we've seen that before and have the rug pulled out from under our feet. So, you know, I'm I'm inclined to be a little bit more conservative. Um the I think the problem with this equation is we don't really have an idea of what the the town council is thinking on this, right? Because they're the ones that that

091also have to have this discussion. So, I mean, from my point of view, I would I would rather kind of see town council and and this board have a conversation together about about what we're both thinking or even if it's separately so we both know kind of what we're thinking. But, um I think this this is this is a decision that needs to include the town council or at least need to know where they're at. >> Well, I think that's the purpose of adding it to the agenda tomorrow and I have spoken to Mayor Demetrius. I know he's very much in support of this. I know board of finance chair John Ireland, this is one of his things he really wanted to see done and we've been waiting for it for so long. So I

092do think there is support I think to to move it along. We need to come up with a number tonight to get it to town council tomorrow night. >> Okay. >> And from there it goes to board of finance. Kelly, >> with that being said, is anyone attending the town council meeting tomorrow so they can collaborate and answer questions if they have any if it's on the agenda? >> Do you mean from the district? >> Like from board of ed? >> I can go if if need be. >> I'm just You want to go? So you can have Alan usually goes. Alan, were you planning to go >> tomorrow night? Nope. >> No pressure. But >> no, I'm just wonder like in terms of you saying you wanting collaboration or them to be able to,

093you know, have the whatever. >> Well, they do they do have James did have the agenda which included this proposal which he was going to share with town council. Got it. So I don't know I don't know that we'd be the best person to ask details about the proposal. It probably more like Mr. Mr. Bazano, but I'm sure um I can ask Mayor Demetrius if he wants someone at the meeting to explain and then if someone from the district is available, I think that might be best. >> Um I also I'm I am in support of it. I'm a little bit hesitant at the 200. Um but okay, >> which way? >> I would feel more comfortable around 150. Um >> I think at the end of the day, it's all the town money. I

094say 50/50. say we split it halfway down the middle and call it a day. >> I agree. I think um 150 might seem like we're not pulling our weight a little bit. So at least 200 in my opinion, but we'll see what everyone decides. Lori, did were you going to chime in that I saw you? >> That I was just going to say I think we all are in agreement that we want to move forward on it. It's just sitting here trying to pick a number seems kind of I don't really like this process. Um, I'm not comfortable with it. I like I think we all are in agreement that we >> can do a vote and see. >> You know what I mean? >> We've never had this problem before with having extra money.

095So, >> no. >> Doesn't happen. >> Sure. Matt, >> I I think do do they need a a like an absolute okay, we're we're willing to to go with 200 or >> Yes, I think they need% a clear direction so that we would propose to pay 50%. Or we won't go. >> Yeah, >> I wouldn't I would >> that's a fair point. >> I'd be more comfortable with two than doing a percent. >> Okay. >> Anyone else have any thoughts? And the only reason I suggest a percent is if we add in the other areas and the price goes up. Two 200 is 50% right now. So, >> but it might not be it might not be if we add say we take out the gray zones and use that money towards the long jump

096and high jump. >> Agreed. >> I don't I don't think the gray zones are necessary. >> I agree with that. >> Yeah. I think it's hard to do that because we don't have the quote yet to know like I don't know if they're going to approve something without a quote either. >> Well, they have this, right? But if we're saying approve this, but take out the gray zones and add like a like a line item of what we think that will be. I do you like >> Well, because we don't know what the high jump and the as Kelly said, low jump. >> But Mr. Bazan, you thought that be >> that was going to be something smaller you thought, right? the it's it's not going to be a large amount. I think we can

097cover it with the rest of >> I would venture to guess if Claudio called these people tomorrow and gave them a square yardage. I'd give you a number. >> Alicia, I have a hard time taking out the gray zones given the recommendation from our athletic director around safety. I feel like that's we have to trust his perspective. I I'm I'm I wouldn't be in favor of taking that out if it's something that Mr. may feel strong and keeps our athletes safe. >> I agree. >> Okay. So, what are we comfortable with? I heard the number 150. I heard the number 200. >> Why don't we say 200? >> Someone want to make a motion% >> of extras? >> I would just say two. I'm comfortable with 200. >> 200 period. >> All right. Are you

098making a motion, Kelly? I'll make a motion. Okay. There's a motion on the floor for um allotting 200,000 of our unexpended toward the track project. Is there a second? Matt. All in favor? >> Opposed? >> Wait a minute. >> Sorry. >> With Can you just clarify the track project as stated in >> Yes. As stated. So that's the 382,800 plus the three gray zones which is 20,340. It totals 545,840 and of that we're >> Oh, no. 400. >> Sorry. 400. >> I'm looking at our unexpended amount. I'm sorry. >> Do you want to add the high jump and the long jump? We won't have >> No, because we don't know it yet. >> So, what is the total of those two? >> 42,000 about >> 43,4. >> Thank you, Alan. 43,140 and we we are

099recommending allotting 200,000 toward that project. I'll make the >> You made the first, you made the second. Let's just go around and see. Um, all in favor, raise your hand. >> One, two, three, four. Opposed. >> Two. Three opposed. >> I abstain. >> And an abstension. >> Isn't there an opportunity for discussion after the motion's made? >> Yes, >> we can. We can. Sure. >> Okay. >> So, can I of course I I would like to make a friendly amendment to reduce that 200,000 down to 150,000. That in that case, I would be much more comfortable voting for it given all the unknowns that could be hitting us later this year and what we've seen historically. I think 150 shows a good faith contribution from the towns. I understand it's all town money, but ultimately

100we have to balance the board of ed budget. And if it's 50 short, it means I keep thinking back to Dr. Mackery, what are we going to cut? What um textbooks are we not going to get? What are some of the awful decisions that we've had to tackle? So, I still think $150,000 is a lot of money that um we're putting out now to show real support of our athletes and of of this project. So, it's my >> So, is that a motion >> friendly amendment? Uh, I guess >> second motion for 150,000. So, let's take a vote on that. >> Okay. Is there a motion? I mean, sorry. Is there You're making a motion. >> I'll make a motion. Is there a second to the motion >> for 150,000? Okay. All in favor? >>

101One. >> Well, you're changing your opinion now. >> You could change your vote if you want to. has. >> You got to pick 150 or 200. >> I'll go 150. >> Okay. So, Kelly, Lori, Alicia, anyone else for 150? >> Matt. Okay. The 150 wins. So, all in favor, opposed, abstensions. You're abstaining on this one as well. >> Yep. >> Okay. Motion passes. 150,000 toward the track project. And I will let Mayor Demetrius know so he can put it on his agenda for tomorrow night. So, thank you all. Sure. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. Is this not working? You're on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just um Well, I'm sure you're going to do this, but just reiterate that it's our, you know, the second week of school and we don't know what's going to happen,

102so we're we're just being conservative. So, it's not >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Understood. Okay. >> I just want to voice my opinion again. >> Sure. that I strongly disagree with paying $20,000 for the gray zones. >> Lisa, can you add that to the minutes? >> Thank you. Um, so we actually went out of order on that one. So, Mr. Bzano, there is an item for a grounds and infrastructure update that was just before that. I don't know if you'd like to do that now, too. Um, like summer work and and things that went on over the summer. I thought this was the meeting we were going to be going over that, but if you're not ready to, we can Push it to October. Okay. Okay. All right. We'll move on to at long last

103item C now, which is the district accountability data reference D in your packets. And for that, we'll have Dr. McClean come on up and give our presentation along with um are we having Julie come on up and Amy, I assume? Um Julie and Amy's are going to um present the data to us tonight. Um, I just want to start off by saying that there has been an unbelievable amount of work that has gone into what we're finally seeing um, in terms of results that we are now showing. Um, these two ladies in particularly have worked tirelessly um, to evaluate, improve, help to support, implement, um, you name it and they have been working on it. Um, and we've been doing it since we got here. And so to see results at this point is something

104that we are really proud of. Um, additionally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention our coaches that have been working side by side with teachers in classrooms and really helping to support them with implementation and planning and um really just giving them tools so that they could be better um, educators. And so I'm really proud of this data. That's not to say that we don't have work to do because we do. Um we still want to make sure that we are in the top of our DURG always. Um but that growth that we are seeing is something that's very promising and um we're very proud of it. We're very proud of all the work the teachers have done. Um and the entire um the entire staff really this is a this is a group

105effort. So um I'm going to let these ladies present the data um and you can let us know if you have any questions. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Um as Dr. McClean said, we we do know the work that we still have to do and we know our focus areas moving forward, but we're really excited um because we have a lot of great growth to celebrate tonight and to share with you. So, um I'm going to start off with our our math data, our district math data from last year. So, um up first is our Smarter Balance data for grades three through five. Um, you can see our overall district data from 2024 to 2025 had an increase of 4%. So, if you look at that last column there, it's going to show you overall

106um district data and then it's going to show you our increase at WHIS last year was a 6% um increase for WIS overall. And this is an exciting slide as is the next um one that's going to show you the cohort data. Our grade um actually Steve, if you go back one more, sorry, real quick. Um for grade three we had a 4% increase. Grade four with an 8.4% increase which was huge um last year. Substantial >> grade five as well. >> It is. >> Is that better? Okay, let me slide over. Um okay, go ahead, Steve. Thanks. So this is our cohort data. So if you look at grade three, obviously it's their first year taking it. They were um they came in at a 61% last year. If you look at the fourth

107grade row, you can see where third where they were in third grade, same group of students were at 45% and had an increase into fourth grade, the same group of students at 57%. That was an 11% increase last year for the same group of students moving from um grade four to grade five. And the fi the last row there for fifth grade you can see um the increase from students in from fourth grade that same group of students in fifth grade with a 12% increase um in their smarter balance. So that was really when we see the cohort data like that it's very exciting. kids that we have been educating, the exact same kids that we've been educating through the cohesive curriculum that this incredible team has put together over the last six years. Here's

108our Smarter Balance data um for grades six through eight. Again, the slide is set up the same way. You can see the overall district is still at 4%. CMS had an increase um of about 1% overall. Um grade six with a 2.4% increase. and grade seven with a 5.9% increase. Um grade eight we have a little bit of a decline and we know that that's really an area of focus for us um as a district. There's been several challenges that we faced in grade 8 um and it continues to be a focus area for us um in the area of math. Here is our cohort data. So if you look at our sixth graders um over the last that's again this is the same group of students from fourth grade to fifth grade to sixth

109grade and if you add up those two columns the last two columns it's about a 12% increase for students in grade six since grade four. So over the last two years about a 12% increase for that same group of students. Um for our grade uh seven students from fifth grade to 7th grade altogether had about an 11% increase for the same group of students over two years. So that's pretty exciting. Um and as you can see, as I had mentioned, we have um grade eight with our cohort data showing a a decline there, which is an area that we're addressing. So here is our and with those great gains and growth overall, here's our um DURG data. This is where we stand for this is grades three through eight combined. Um, even though we are

110falling in about 16th place from the top of our DUR, we did move one spot in the right direction this year as a district for grades three through eight combined. Um, but I do have to say that um the only dis the only grade that did not increase in the DUI, we have this data by grade level as well, is grade eight. So, for example, um, grade three moved up three places in the DUI as a grade level. Grade four increased eight places in our DUIRG um in the right direction. Grade five increased three spots in our DUI um towards the top. Grade six stayed the same this past year. Grade seven moved up five spots in our DUI from last year to this year. And um again, grade eight went down which sort of

111brought down our overall spot in the DUIR. Yes. >> So what's the explanation for grade eight? the why it continues to be a focus area, why it's why they're going down. >> Yeah, that's a great question. We're taking a really close look at um the curriculum in 8th grade, both for grade 8 math and for algebra 1. Um we have also been working very hard to support we've had um a little bit of turnover with our staffing in 8th grade. So, we're working really hard to support the teachers and and build capacity for um teachers in our eighth grade math department. Okay. So, our next um data set here is our PSAT uh data for math. Um and our SAT data is on this slide as well. So you'll see that for the first two

112columns, we just have the fall of 2022 and the fall of 2023 because last year we began um giving the PSAT two times a year as a benchmark. So you'll see the column that says uh fall of 2024 to spring of 2025. Last year was the first year that we took this approach. And you can see the increase there of our 9th graders from the fall to the spring increased 4%. Our 10th graders went up eight% from the fall to the spring PSAT. And in grade 11, from the PSAT in the fall to the SAT in the spring, um our students increased 6%. It's not noted on here, but we fell at 39% this year for the SAT. Last year, um grade 11 was at 38%. The state this year was at 33%. So we

113are so a little we are in discussion with um superintendents are in discussion. We actually have put it on one of our agendas for teaching and learning committee. There's clearly something wrong with the test. Um if you're looking at how students are performing and if you look at our dirt there was I think two maybe 2% proficiency. It's your mic. >> Um I'm sorry. Um of a difference which isn't a lot. So the we believe obviously the test is flawed. We always want to believe that. Um, but if you're seeing this across the state, even in high performing districts, which we are, uh, I believe, um, to throw Avon out there, I think they were at like 64%, we're still not at a high level of achievement, a proficiency level at the state. So there,

114that is a discussion that we're having >> and that's um, Dr. Macker and I talked about it uh, I think just yesterday or maybe even today. They're blending. Yeah, they're blending. Um, but one of the things that Julie and I have have talked quite a bit about it is on. Yeah. >> Oh, I don't see the red. Okay. >> Um, >> one of the things that Julie and I have talked about um quite a bit is we really need to take a look at our crosswalk in terms of what is what is the SAT assessment expecting and where are they getting these concepts? And so we have a meeting um very soon Monday. >> Yeah, Monday um to kind of go through that. And additionally, um, you know, really thinking about, all right, how do

115we do things? You know, we we have geometry in the middle of algebra 1 and algebra 2. Is that a smart move? Um, some districts have switched to do algebra 1, algebra 2, and then geometry. Is that something that we want to consider? These are all things that are sort of on the table for us to think about how we can um improve the overall percentage of students that are proficient in math. Um, but like I said in our DUR, >> yeah, if you go to the next slide, Steve, that >> you can see like the highest performing district is at 57%. To me, that's still very low achievement. Um, and you can see that there's a plateau there between the 39 and the 42.4 of East Graanby. Um, and so that's negligible difference. We're

116talking about, you know, 2% difference over those those districts. >> Um, this is not a Cromwell problem. This is potentially a curriculum problem where we have to really take a good look at how and when are kids getting the information that they're going to need to be proficient on the the SAT. The other thing that we took a close look at was um those students that are because you'll see soon that our AP scores are off thecharts amazing. We've got some kids that are getting fours on our AP tests, but in the yellow on the math SAT. So, what that tells me is that those students can access challenging curriculum, but that math is in particular a problem. So, we're really looking at this from all angles and we're really trying to get creative and

117I know uh Mr. Kok and I have had some discussion about this too just to see what we could do to try to push the envelope a little bit with our our math percentages. >> And if we look at the data, which we don't have tonight, but um when the the assessment did change two it was two years ago and the data across the state dropped significantly when that happened. Um and the test became adaptive. Um we put a lot of great things and and worked with uh Mr. cuckle this past school year to put a lot of great things in place and we are going to do that and more coming up this year. So, we're excited to see um you know what results that will bring as well. Um here's our district NGSS

118data. So, in science, I'm going to share with you how we did. We're pretty excited about um our growth here in science as well. So, you can see as overall as a district um we show a 2.8% 8% increase but in grade five we show a 6% increase and in grade 8 um a 9% increase from 2024 to 20 the spring of 2025. Um I am going to talk for a second about um grade 11 because that number might look alarming to you that we had um a decrease. Um we as I was saying that um you know Amy and I worked really closely with Andrew this past year um to put some a very strategic plan in place for our SAT and getting the buyin for students and the PSAT. We put a lot

119of emphasis on that last year for our 11th graders. And to be quite honest and in talking to our department facilitator and all of our teachers at the high school, we really truly believe that it is um a motivational buyin issue that we're having with the data, not having to do with the instruction or the content, but really that students in 11th grade um they really took the SAT seriously um this past year with all the things we put in place and we're going to replicate tests. Like we have a really high percentage of students in 11th grade that take AP tests and they have SATs that are >> meaningful to them. This test is not necessarily meaningful to them. So if anything is going to kind of go by the wayside, it's it's this

120assessment. Yeah. >> When is this given? >> It's it's given in this the spring. It's given when the Smarter Balance is given. It's not ideal. It's not an ideal testing time either. So they're they're hammered with assessments >> because the APs are end of April through May. >> SATs were just in March >> window. >> Y >> we're talking about doing it in early March this year before the other assessments because really what's happening, you know, for math or for reading SAT. We don't want to do that because we want all the time we can get to teach that content. But really this is content that's covering since grade eight. So those that extra month if we can get the kids tested sooner >> the qual they're speaking but qualitatively we have some of our

121highest performing kids that are flying through this in 12 minutes and putting their head down. >> They don't care. So that's what we need to do is get them to actually care. >> We have we talked about incentives >> but they also need to intrinsically care and that's something that we've lost. I would never want to be a high performing student and getting uh you know a score of 10 which has happened for some of our students. They we need to teach them um you can't give up you need to give it your best and we did not necessarily see that this year which is frustrating to me as you can tell >> you know we we focused on SATs which we saw great progress right and Dr. Machi always says where you put your

122effort is where you'll see your results. >> Y >> so we're going to put some effort into this and I don't think it's a curriculum problem and I don't think there's a pervasive problem in grade 11. I don't think our kids are not not graduating with a a solid science background as we can see in our AP tests. >> I think it's just an overesting situation and a and a really a motivational buyin problem that we have here. >> Isn't it? Can I just mention the SAT scores? For a while there, schools were saying you didn't have to submit them and now they are. So, we're also seeing that they're taking those more seriously. >> It's coming back around. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, I would love it if they would say take it in

12310th grade, but that's not my call, unfortunately. So, >> go ahead, Steve. Thank you. And so, this is where we fall um in the DUR overall for NGSS. Um, so we're 13th in the DUIRG. We went we dropped a couple of places, two spots in the DUR for this, but um that was mostly due to our our dip in grade 11 because our fifth grade um moved up four places in the DUIR in the right direction and eighth grade I'm sorry, yeah, eighth grade moved up six places in the DUR. So, we saw a ton of movement at the other grade levels and um we're pretty confident that the strategies that we're talking about will we'll see the same results for grade 11 this year. So, I'm going to pass it over to Amy unless

124anybody has any questions. Okay. >> Hi everyone. We're going to look at some um reading data now. Starting with the Smarter Balance looking at grades three through five. As you can see, these numbers are fantastic and we're super excited about the amount of growth that we made last year. WIS did a a wonderful job. The administration, the teachers, the coaches um did so many different things last year in order to make the needle move. And as you can see overall, the um the school went up 9.3% as a whole. And I'd like to bring your attention to grade four where we spent a lot of time walking to the classrooms, working during curriculum meetings and um 137%. It's a fantastic growth. Just so you know, the overall score for the state u for reading was

12550.3. So we are well above that as a district. Moving on to the next one. This is the cohort data over time. So >> that grade five number still impresses me every time I look at it. >> So the grade the grade five number what you're talking about. So they were in grade four they were um 20 at 40% then they went to 63%. So that those teachers the fifth grade teachers last year brought those kids up 22.7%. And now those students are walking to sixth grade and I'm getting emails from the sixth grade teacher saying how well prepared they are, how how good they are at writing, how focused they are. So she she complimented the work in the curriculum at the fifth grade level. So we're excited about that. All right, let's move

126on to middle school. We also have great news at um for CMS last year. Even with all the packing up and getting excited about the new buildings, still um academics were at the forefront. um fantastic growth and I'd like to point out the grade eight scores. We are over 70% which is the only grade level that hit that and um they did a fantastic job um with their instruction last year. Moving on to cohorts. Um again, lots of growth. We are definitely moving our students every single year growing in reading and writing. So, super excited about that. Sixth grade, when they were fourth graders, they are now um they were at 44%. Last year, um they were 66%, now they're seventh graders. So, that's pretty exciting. And we see all kinds of growth like that.

127All right, moving on to the DUR data. We had um we are very excited about this DR data because last year we were 16th in the in the DUIR um DUID D and this year we are 10th. We moved up sec six spots in the in the positive direction. So that is great. We're top 10 in the DIR. Woohoo. Right. I'm excited about that. And um every grade level made growth and was moved up in the dur and grade eight moved up to third in the DUI. So we are top three for our grade eight students which is really fantastic. Great job to those eighth grade teachers and the coaches and the administration everything. All right let's move on to PSAT. This is these are also great numbers. We are seeing 72% for our ninth

128graders in the spring over that 70. We're close to that 80 which is really great. And then at the the bottom there we're seeing our SAT scores 69% which is we were at 68 last year. Um this year the state is 58% so we're well above that. And moving on to the DUIR. Um we basically stayed the same in the DUIR um where we were last year. So I'd really like last year we made a jump. We really got ourselves back to where we were 10 years ago. And now I'd like to see us continue to grow um and keep keep going up the the the timeline there. All right, the data there. All right, moving on to AP data. I'm going to do a little summary here. Uh fantastic scores. So many teachers did

129such a great job last year. I can't name them all because I will miss someone then I'll feel bad. Um but the next slide, the last slide here has um if you see highlighted in green, 88% of our students taking the test hit a three or higher. That's so many college credits that these kids earned. It's just amazing, amazing data. To give you a little bit of background, I went back to 2019, which is the first year you were here, Dr. Mackery, right? Um and Carrie, uh we had 63% of our students were hitting that three or above. So, in the time that you've been here, we've gone up 25% for students who are earning credit. Yes. >> We used to pay for all of the tests and every student took it, but now it's

130optional. So, are we seeing because that that also skews your data because not everybody who's taking the AP courses are taking the AP exams. I would agree with you, but I think we've um have an uptick of kids really re-engaging and taking those exams this year. Would you agree with me, Mr. Conle? Um because we had 229 uh exams taken and in 2019 we had 212 exams taken. So >> yeah, >> English for example, they can't get any more credit. they got the junior year. >> Yeah. >> See that? >> Well, and >> less and less colleges are taking AP exams and they're pushing more for a minimum four or five on a lot of classes. So, that's >> the other issue with, you know, students taking them. They're like, well, what's the point? >>

131And some schools do though take them. >> The state schools Yukon does not take all of them. I can tell you that. So I think I mean they are getting there is a benefit for them to take it in in many cases. >> Yukon I thought Yukon was part of that consortium that takes the AP credits four or five. >> They only take four or five but they >> they only take a certain number of them. So you have to apply for >> Yes. I think >> they don't take >> all of the ones that you've taken. You're better off taking the the ECE for Yukon >> then. Yeah. The good news is in five years like I asked you all to be patient and let us do what we needed to do with curriculum

132that we would see huge improvements and we have especially in this area. Um this is nothing to like turn our heads to and pretend this isn't the most important reason why we are here. We are here for our students to achieve to feel good about themselves and to make sure that they're socially emotionally well. And when they do that they can actually achieve. So, a huge congratulations to our kids first and foremost, to all of our teachers, and to all the support that they've had um so that they can get here, and I just look forward to seeing this these scores go continue to make progress every single year because we are on the right trajectory. So, thank you to Dr. Mlan and her team and all of our teachers, our students, and all of

133our families who are incredibly supportive of Cromwell. We are not at the bottom anymore when we're not going to be at the bottom. um we're just going to continue to uh ra rise to the top. So, I look forward to the future. >> I also want to say that um normally we would have our principles present this data, but in the interest of time, we thought we would kind of get through it with Julie and Amy, but there has been such an incredible partnership um with the curriculum and instruction department in our principles. They have been such an incredible presence in their buildings in terms of supporting student achievement. Um it's been a wonderful, wonderful partnership and I think we all have the same goal and vision for our kids. We want to see everybody

134succeed and we're finally seeing some fruits of our labor. Um but the principles have played a really important part in all of this in terms of of helping and supporting and our teachers and um even you know our curriculum supervisors and our coaches. So, um, not, you know, normally that's they would be the proud, you know, people that would present this, but just it really was just an interest of time, um, to make it go a little bit quicker that I had Amy and Julie do it. >> Can I ask another question? >> Sure. Sorry, we have questions. Go ahead. >> Um, so yeah, I mean, it is great. We our scores are definitely did a great jump and a great increase. I'm glad to see we're focusing on the grades that are apparently the

135eighth grade can read really well, but they are struggling with math. I'm not sure >> what's going on with that, but um >> we're working on the math. >> So, and it is impressive. I like to see I'm hoping that more and more students will engage and take the AP tests. Um I'd like to see a higher percentage of them take it. But are we I know that we offer central credits now. Did we do we still offer Yukon credits or is it only central? We do both >> early college experience classes several of them >> for both. Okay. So, we do it for both schools then. Perfect. Thank you. >> So, this is probably a good time for me to say that we have had so much coaching support and pushin and it's actually

136worked with ELA and we actually decreased the support in math. So, guess what you're going to see in the budget and you could cut it because I don't want to listen to Carrie or Julie for one more minute. >> Math coordinator position. We do not have a secondary math coach. And it does >> I question that every year. >> I question it every year. Why did we not have We pulled it out when wonderful uh teacher got the position. I mean that position was caught and we didn't have the money and we're never going to have the money. But and people don't necessarily always believe in coaches, but now you can see the difference of what happens when you have so many people supporting teachers. um especially when there are so many changes and assessments.

137So that'll be in the budget. Uh you can look forward to seeing that. >> We expect you to move up like >> 10 spots since we have a new middle school. So >> yeah, at least that you say that because I was like, "All right, guys, now we really have to beat ourselves. So we we've got to work for us. >> Yeah. And there's a few conversations I had to have a few years ago with some of our uh juniors and sophomores and remind them that their neighbors are kicking their rear end and they don't like that conversation. So, I think we have to have that conversation again to remind them they're so competitive on the field, be competitive in the classroom. >> Are you making that a full-time position? Because usually it's part-time and

138it's hard to get people. >> Okay, great. Any questions about the presentation? Kelly, >> I just wanted to make a comment specifically about the math data. Um, thank you for outlining per grade and the grades that really did grow um in the DIRG because that's very very impressive and I know it can look a little bit misleading on the paper. So, I just appreciate that extra slides to cut it down for you. >> Very much appreciate that too, but um that was great. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? All right. Well, thank you both. Thanks to everyone and I'm so glad we continue to have this focus on curriculum. It's so important as you can tell and I can't even remember the last time we've had a meeting with such positive results. So that's in

139many many years. So thank you. >> Yay. >> Okay, we can go home now. That's all I care about. >> Should we table the rest? >> Just table. >> Okay, moving on to our budget calendar. It's reference E in your packets. We do this each year and we just need to approve this. Are there any questions on it? >> Oh, it's justformational. You're right. >> Okay. Well, any questions anyways? >> Okay. End of year policy committee report reference F. Um Lori, thank you for that. It's in your packets. Appreciate that. It's very well recapped. And thank you for chairing the policy committee. You're welcome. >> All right. The next action is the approval of our minutes and motions from the August 12th regular meeting. Reference G. Is there a motion to approve those minutes? Motion

140by Kelly, second by Alan. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstensions? >> Alicia and Lori. Yes. Thank you. Item H, action item H is stipen approval reference H in your packet. Any questions on that? I just have one question. >> Sure. >> Uh track and frisbee are different seasons I assume >> with the same employee leading them. >> Did you hear that question? >> Do you want to come on? Had a question about track. >> Ultimate frisbee. >> Yeah. Are they in the same track? They're different seasons, I hope. Right. >> Ultimate frisbe. >> It's just a club. So, oh, right. Is that is he going to be able to devote enough time to that? >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Is that popular with students? >> That was brutally honest. >> It is in

141other districts. I love it. >> Any other questions on this? Katherine made a motion. Unless there are other questions. Second by Matt. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstensions. Stipens are approved. ational human resources personnel activity reference I in your packets there are a lot of new hires as you can see um a few resignations I don't think we have any retirements and then we have some openings listed any questions for Miss tomorrow okay we'll move on to principal reports reference JKL and M anything there okay board committee reports policy committee. None. We canceled this evening. We'll meet again at the next meeting or is next meeting facilities. >> But if you need policy first >> because we missed it. No, >> no, we're all we are really updated on policy. There was a lot of

142legislation that's come out. We're waiting for model policies to come out from shipment. So until we have those, I think we're in a hold >> updated on policy. Good job, policy committee. 500 years. >> It happened. I know. But look how aren't you proud of yourself? It's done. We're caught up until they changes. >> Right. Until until we get the change. >> Yeah. >> Um facilities and technology committee. I have nothing there. We'll meet at the next meeting. Um topics for future agendas. Possible action to approve additional topics. We obviously mentioned the um self whatever it's called the cave self-evaluation. So we have that. Anything else? >> They just asked to remove ESS update for October. We just met with them. They really would rather um wait because they don't have enough data to share

143with us really in October. So sure. Okay. >> They're on for December. Yeah. Anything else? Okay, moving on to comments, updates, and announcements. We'll start at this end. U Matt, >> yeah, just um you know, there's a lot of times where where Steve might be talking about something from the the construction environment that I it's his area of expertise and I totally don't know. So, I'm just going to say this from the from someone who's been in education for 20 some odd years now. Um, when you see test scores rising like that, it's not something that happened because of something that was implemented a year ago or two years ago. That really is that's from curricular developments that took place five, six, seven years ago and have been stuck to. So, I'm really happy to

144see those scores rising. I'm really I want to see eighth grade do a little better, but um I'm not going to throw it in there because that was, you know, definitely kind of an outlier. But um it's just really impressive to see that all the hard work put in by by the whole team, by everyone involved um really kind of start to show um some some serious progress and I'm hopeful that we'll see not only continued progress, but continued jumps like that as as we go forward. So I do want to thank you for all your work on that. I know it's a labor of love and there's a lot of um stress and a lot of at times disagreements involved in how curriculum should be designed and implemented, having been kneedeep in it myself

145at times. So, I have a true appreciation for what you folks have gone through for the last couple years trying to get this in place and get buyin from from everyone who has to do it. I know as a teacher I've been asked to make curricular changes that have not been met with uh with glee, let's say. Um, so I know I know some of the stuff you guys have gone through and I appreciate all the hard work. It's good to see it. It's good to see it paying off. It is hard to get curricular buyin, but I have to say um that our teachers at some at certain times were doubtful, but for the most part they were amazing and then they saw results and the trust just continued to grow. So success breeds

146success and um I'm just so proud of everyone for staying the course and thank you all for continuing to support what we're trying to do here. Um which is make just Crl be the best town that it could be academically and uh in every way. So thanks a lot Matt for that shout out means a lot. >> Dr. McClean I didn't mean to pass you over. Did you have anything you wanted to add? It does say and administrator. So just offering. Okay. Um Alan >> happy to see that scores are up. >> Great. Kelly, same. Okay. Lori, anything? Catherine? >> Alicia, I just wanted to compliment anybody that was involved in the open house at the high school. I thought it was fantastic. You have some amazing teachers. Really enthusiastic and excited to be doing

147what they're doing. So just super impressed. Students were amazingly happy. I live in a neighborhood where there's probably more more kids than adults and I talked to all of them about their first few weeks of school and I don't know if this is normal in most communities but kids are actually excited to go to school in Cromwell. So I that was pretty cool. So kudos to everybody that helped make that happen. Um I loved that we got to meet the new staff. Thank you for doing that. I don't know if other districts do that but that was just really nice. And I will make a plea because I have to I can't leave this meeting without asking this question. Dr. Macker knows exactly what I'm going to ask. If there would be some consideration of

148possible cell phone use during study hall, not in the hallways, not during class, but in study hall. I have to put it out there. I have to make the ask. Ellen, would you like to respond to that? Just during study hall? >> No. >> Just during study hall. >> All right. Thanks, Alicia. Steve, >> uh, just had a question. Um, really we were looking originally, you know, grounds of infrastructure tonight. Was hoping to get an update on the gym floor at the middle school. Um, primarily because a lot of parents are reaching out and saying asking why they can't schedule, you know, other practices and things in there. >> So, Claudio, can you give an update on that? Uh, regarding the in the middle school >> the middle school gym for >> Yeah. >> Um,

149>> yeah. come up to the microphone. >> Any mic is fine. >> I've heard so many um things about I don't want to speak. Claudio knows better. So >> think about settling. >> So two things regarding the use of the gym floor by outside groups. We restricted everyone from using the middle school until November. It takes us us ourselves some time to get familiar with the building, all the nuances, all the equipment in there. Even with all the training, we knew that as soon as you build a brand new building, everybody wants to use it. Nobody wants to use ECS anymore or and there's not enough of a gym over at WHIS. And even the high schools has expanded some of its programming that's taken up some of the time that normally went out to

150the outside groups. So right off the start, we're intentionally not allow even if the gym floor was perfect at the middle school, we still wouldn't allow anybody using that gym. We decided November because we know that come November comes the indoor basketball season. So we didn't want to close it off. It would give us about three, four months for us to get familiar with the building. >> So So there's nothing wrong with it right now as far as use. Well, I know there's something wrong with it. As far as using it, we can still use it as a Oh, yeah. As the school can still use it. >> Oh, the school is using it. Normally, we do know that there's something wrong with the floor >> and the con the new field construction is working

151on that. >> Yeah. >> Um they're working with the flooring company, they're working with the contractors, and they're working with the manufacturer to try to resolve what the issue is. There's squeaks on the floor that shouldn't be there. Not. So, we haven't accepted the floor in that condition. I wouldn't accept it in that condition. It's a we spend that kind of money on a brand new school. We're not accepting it the way it is. So, they're working to resolve it. They haven't given us they haven't given us a solution yet because they're still working through it. But again, regarding the use the I I bounced the basketball. One of the first things I thought was, okay, the squeaking on the floor, does it dead in the ball? I can bounce the basketball on and you

152wouldn't notice it, but when you walk it, you can hear the squeaks and it's throughout the floor. It isn't just in one spot. It looks great, but when you walk on it, it squeaks. So, they're trying to figure out what what the problem is. So, I guess the only thing I would request is, you know, if the if the whoever's scheduling people to use the facilities, if they don't need a basketball hoop, can we try to find an alternate spot for them? Like, I know in the past, cheerleading has moved to the high school cafeteria and brought mats there. So, if there's an option for, you know, the community to use different spaces, if we can try to shuffle around as best we can until we have facilities available, that would go a long way.

153on on our end we manage the use of the facilities and now our first priority is our students um before we we understand outside groups that want to use it >> the outside groups are our students as well >> I understand but I'm talking about the programs >> just if if programmatically if our students have something programmatically in school they have the first rights to it but it is correct it's all of our students who are using it. I do believe there's been an increase I heard. I don't know for sure there's been an increase in student usage in teams having longer practices. So, um I think that has been a little bit of a hold up as well. Uh we need to look at other, you know, ideas of how we can open up

154some other spaces for them. Um I literally just heard about it I think yesterday. So we'll look into that. >> Steve, I deferred to the to the district programming. I'm familiar with the conversation that you're bringing up and that was one of the recommendation by that group that wanted to use the um the gym at WIS was the fact that do cheerleaders need hoops? cuz if they don't need hoops, they can use another gym or another space like ECS rather than WHIS. So that group can use that gym from >> Yeah. I mean, there's cheer like my daughter's cheering at WIS right now in the evenings. I mean, maybe they move to a different facility, >> you know, it's not just students. >> So, >> I don't control the programming of of the district. Um,

155but we can look into it and see what options we have. >> Okay. And then I just have one other question for you, Claudio. The pavement at WIS >> um for the basketball area. >> I just want to remind everyone this is just comments, updates, and announcements. >> This was this was an agenda topic. I know he was prepared for so we can do it next month >> if you want to hold your question till next month or email him. >> I mean, this is a safety concern, so it's up to you. >> Go for it. So Claudia, what uh what what's what's your thought process on the uh paving at West that they've been that the town completed recently? >> Do you think it's acceptable? >> It's not it's hasn't been completely finished around

156the edges to make sure there's no trip hazards. >> Okay. So just to make everyone aware there is an issue that needs to be addressed there. That's all I was trying to do. >> Thank you. >> I'll give it right on it. >> Thanks, Claudia. >> You're welcome. And I just want to have everyone be aware that um the CAB journal was handed out to you. I believe it comes to Lisa and she brought it to the meeting for us. I would really urge you all to read it. I actually highlighted a lot of things within it that were important for how a board should be run. And I think it's important that we take time to read it. Um I'm also going to see if they can be mailed directly to homes so that

157we don't have to wait for the meeting. You do? Oh, some of them. Okay. Because Mr. Caruso said some of them come to the school, some of them go home. >> No, I do. If you don't then can you email Lisa and she will get Nick. Okay. Your address. Thank you. All right. We do have an executive session this evening. So, good night everyone. Thank you so much for staying. Is there a motion to go into executive session? Uh for the purpose of let's see um discuss a discussion concerning an attorney client privilege communication related to the legal terms and conditions of the board's transportation contract. >> Need a motion. >> Yes, please. Thank you. Is there a second? >> Okay. And that's with the invitation of Mr. Butwill, Dr. McClean, and who else? And

158oh, and of course, Dr. Macker. Yes. Let's take a two minute or five minute break.