Cromwell Board of Education Meeting, March 11, 2025 7:00PM

001e e I told JY to be fast we don't need a meeting on the 25th by the way we have nothing got that okay anything else mommy meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. um Lisa would you please take roll call here here oh she'll be a little late potentially absent here she's here somewhere here mrol mrso duno m thank you all right we'll move on to approval of our agenda we don't have any additions or deletions and our agenda basically consists of um reapproved we have an increase that we'll talk about later um and also an executive session at the end of the meeting other than that anything else you needed to change no no okay is there a motion to approve the agenda as it is by Lori is our second Allan all favor

002opposed extensions motion carries the agenda is approved correspondence do you have anything for correspondence Dr Macker actually um I we received a letter and I will just read it to you um I got an email uh couple months ago from Mr David Butler class of 1970 from cremel public schools and David Butler and Ruby uh smally charitable Foundation they live in town um they wrote to us and said they wanted to make a donation to all the schools and they want this to be something consistent um so we talked Mr butwell and I talked about well how could Their donation reach as many students as possible with something that doesn't necessarily come from the Board of Education and and having that conversation we talked about um putting These funds into the Student Activity fund um

003so we're like wow this is pretty cool so he wrote back um and uh to the director of financial services my wife Ruby and I recently decided to add Cromwell public schools to our Perpetual charitable Foundation after discussion with Chris butwell director of financial services we decided that the money should be divided equally among the four schools and deposited into the respective Student Activity account the foundation will be making quarterly donations in March June September and December and then just told us about where future checks would be coming from uh our foundation was set up to support organizations our parents or grandparents founded especially Eva L Butler John Henry house and Norman Calbert SMY as well as Habitat for Humanity doctors boarders and local organizations so um we will receive a $1,000 check every um

004March June September and December um and it will go directly into um our uh Student Activity accounts for fun stuff for kids to do so thank you to the Butler and so this is just really nice and we uh I sent a card today and um we're going to have the students write cards to the fam and the board would love to include a card in that as well if you want to get me the information that's very generous of them we'll for this too thank you thank you yeah so nice I love nicey I was like what this can't be a real email nice surprise yeah it was a nice surprise all right anything else for correspondence that's it okay I just have one item not sure it's exactly correspondence but I was reached

005out to by D doxy from covenant living and she had asked if any of us would be able to attend she invited us to attend um their :30 meetings every I think it's every first Thursday of the month um they do follow all of our activities and they're interested in the school system um so no one was unfortunately available to attend but come to find out Alicia gudi ended up at one of the meetings so she represented us and one of the things that um they mentioned was that they would like to re-engage with our high school so I know you spoke with someone I did after that so um where did you go with that um Dr McLean is working with Mr cuckle and do you want to give an update do you want

006an update oh okay sure okay because I think in the past students used to go in and help them with technology and things like that right oh and they used to have like their launches before Co it was really nice so they um they want to start resurrecting all of those programs we did talk about the um technology piece and the breakfast I mean right the lunch the lunch program um there's a new person there not so we've your mic on sorry is your mic on so sorry yep okay just talk quietly I guess um so there's someone new that we're partnering with there and um he basically said I'll get back to you when I have more information about the kids using the kitchen and things like that um and so it's in the

007works okay great we good to get that started again and if anyone else is interested in attending it's the first Thursday at 9:30 I know it's a tough time but if anyone can just let me know all right and from here we'll go to public comments before I read the rules for public comment is there anyone here to make a public comment all right seeing none we'll move on to celebrating our faculty and staff and Dr Mack would you like to introduce this large team here love to um I will call out Miss tuno we have a team of amazing teachers who make sure that all of our students feel included um in everything that they do and for those of you and I think all of you I don't know Alan did your kids

008go through ECS years ago yeah all of you have either have kids there now or have gone through and um I don't need to tell you how dedicated the staff at ECS you know how dedicated they are to me you know I say it all the time when I look at graduation and they're against the fence watching their kids graduate it's pretty awesome um so Mr tuno is going to talk to you about a small group even though they're all amazing and then our students um along with them hi everyone um this is one of my favorite times when we get to actually celebrate our staff and our students so I'm going to ask the staff that came here tonight um to come stand with me Rea Cohen Julia Carroll Amy Carta and Elizabeth Gino

009so tonight for celebration of Staff we honor some teachers um some that are a part of this group are not here tonight I just would like to acknowledge them Sarah uh Sarah blundo Rashida Edens Peggy La Cheryl Conroy and Michelle Courier this group of teachers created a project dedicated to supporting and serving our community of students and staff and families um so that we have a safe safe inclusive trusting and positive environment at ECS the goal is to empower students to be their authentic selves through communication collaboration and the celebration of their unique backgrounds and experiences so at ECS we're very lucky to have this group of teachers that build relationships and multiple perspectives of ongoing learning in order to grow stronger in our school Community um we're very lucky I feel very lucky to

010have these teachers they'll come to me with these ideas and what do I always say go for it all the time even the poster maker that they just got um one recent project that they did was called there's only one U um what they did was they asked if they could purchase the book there's only one U it's by Katherine healing and Deborah hambrook they read it to the students and they created a project um where each student was asked to write and draw one or two ways that they are unique um a photo of the student along with their writing piece was displayed here at Cromwell high school at the africanamerican Showcase on February 27th so um we are going to go on to celebrate students in a second but I would just like

011to acknowledge them right now for their hard work thank you to the whole committee I'm sure you all do excellent work and thank you for tying it into black history month and bringing the um artwork to crl high school I think that's nice I would love to sh out toed goe it was really it was really Rashida Edens who inspired us to do it and it was her vision and she had a vision to have everybody be participate in it and be in the auditorium and she made it happen and I was proud of our students who sat there and watched the whole thing they were so enamored by everything and they were perfect audience so it was a great night good thank you any questions or comments from the board on this part oh

012sure so some of these teachers have been teaching for quite a while um our some of us have college kids at they taught and you've always worked hard to uh create a positive community and provide um self-independence and self-confidence in these students and this is just another remarkable way that you've done that so congratulations we're really proud that you're still working hard and strong even after our your former kindergarteners are moved on and they remember you thanks so moving now to celebrating our students what we'd like to do is um share with you the actual product and so we have a video no one else like me because I wear circle glasses no one else Circ gles [Music] like Aug being unique is being able to dance without getting stage and without a teacher showing

013me or an older kid hi my is Emma I am un because when I practice my cheing it puts a smile on people my name is Grayson name being unique is having passion for Legos because I am a good person I say to some people hi my name is being unique is having a creative mind inory such as a cardboard [Music] house because I never get H in my life is being unique is being a creative writer I can express myself I because I can throw things very high sure the hi my name is being unique is being able to do really hard math like fractions adding subtraction telling time money multiplications solving story problems and measurement like feet yards in good evening my name is I am unique because whenever I go somewhere I

014TR to spread Joy my name is Zoe being unique is feeling proud because I was playing when I had to do a handstand at Master hi my name's being unique is being able to draw without stoping because I have a passion for art hi my name being unique is being shown so that I can be confident on test and get better at soccer hi my name is noan being unique is being proud because I can keep hooks out of the hockey net good evening my name is I am unique because I am beautiful and [Music] kind my name's I am unique because I make sh in the snow with my mom to make her happy I love charl my name is being unique is feeling PR because I was part of a domestic show my

015name is is being able to do math and having a passion for those my name is being unique is being able to not be scared of anything and to be brave so that I can go on more Adventures hi my name is Eliza being unique is is when you have something that no one else has like me I have a special hand and I call it my baby hand hi I'm Josh being unique is being able to play a bunch of different sports like soccer golf skiing and basketball let's give them a round of applause they're so cute am I the only one clapping here no I was crying you're crying but I was there they're so brave to go up on that stage oh my goodness so thank you for viewing that with us

016um rashita Edens is right here H as previously mentioned she plays a huge role in helping us to put all this together again it was her idea um she's consistently working with our students and finding ways to engage our families in the school community so big round of applause for Rashida thank you for all that you do did you to say anything or good evening hi um I just came to here to support uh ECS staff don't feel pressured because they did a really good job I mean I understand that um I started the Black History Month showcase but um I have to give my flowers to um the ECS staff for actually doing the project with the kids in the classroom and then having the kids um be on stage to actually um show

017what they did and be proud of what they did so my flowers go to the ECS staff because you guys deserve it so thank you very nice thank you for being here and thank you to the whole team so since rasid is here I was going to do this in my updates but I don't want you to stay the homie um one of my highlights um it was our uh Black History Month showcase and truly Rashid is never going to take the credit she's just so humble and kind we've always done a little something here in Cromwell but since Rashida has arrived um she's just taken everything not just black history month but everything to a different level her relationship with students is just remarkable kids that we do have time a hard time connecting

018with sometimes as Educators um Rashid doesn't have that problem um and she doesn't have the problem with connecting with all of us either and the Educators that she works with so just like you heard she gives her flowers to the team at ECS she engaged ECS with the middle school and the high school in that evening and it was just such a beautiful display and the kids the voice that the kids had um and Rashida allowed the Miss Edens allowed them to just be who they are and they were pretty awesome I mean it was just so impressive they planned the whole night obviously under uh Miss Eden's care um but they were just was spectacular so everybody had a huge part in this evening but it would have definitely not happened without these amazing

019people um kindergarten first grade second grade it's hard to get um them to just stay up that late and yet they were up on stage and they were doing their thing and then all of the other students um in the in the district and the adults uh I don't did we I think we had over a hundred people definitely um attend it was really well attended um but uh and Rashida had her dad where her dad even volunteered his time um it was just awesome so you know where rashita came from her dad is pretty awesome as well so thank you to miss Edens for everything you've done since you've been here and I just I love working with you and I know everyone else does too and thank you to the entire ECS team

020um that was really hard to do to have that age you know the kids stay up there and U Miss Carol we said I said Miss Carol do you need anything and she goes yes prayers I said you guys are GNA be fine and they were fabulous they ever did it was fantast it was really they practiced at ECS first no not in front of a crowd they they were just beautiful I love how they were supporting each other too they were like helping each other like open up their their pages and everything so cute it was it was a great it was a great night so thank you to everyone all right so we'll move on to reports of Le hold on we have to celebrate somebody else oh we do yes you guys

021it's Board of Education Month March is Board of Education Month so um we obviously appreciate every single solitary thing that you do I actually wrote you a letter so that I don't ramble on um dear crl Board of Education members on behalf of the crl public schools Community I would like to express sincere gratitude for your dedicated service during Board of Education appreciation month and throughout the entire year on behalf I'm sorry your commitment to the students and families of crell is truly commendable the decisions you make the policies you enact and the time you invest directly impact the quality of Education our children receive we recognize and appreciate the countless hours you dedicate to ensuring a bright future for the students of Cromwell Public Schools we thank you for your leadership your dedication your

022advocacy your service and your good Hearts we are grateful for your hard work and dedication thank you for the vital role you play in shaping the lives of Cromwell students I know you always put them first so happy happy Board of Education Month and so we have some treats the kids made you gifts we got you a little chocolate to get through and then this year we got you a nice little prize that you can use I don't have one of course I don't um that says crell Public Schools placing students first so you can actually when you use this proud um that your board of education members because we sure are lucky and blessed to have each and every one of you on this board of aded so thank you and then we made

023you some a fancy book central office participated as well we gave you a report card and then every department has their own little thing and then of course we made it a competition because we all have to be better than each other each department and Selena can share this with you and then some of the kids directly asked to make cards for some of you when it was just funny some of the kids really like Mr schuman's last name um it really funny so but it was really nice and there's cards for you guys to read and enjoy and thank you for everything you do this is over the top thank you so much I can't believe you did all this everyone thank you I'm blown away this is so official looking beautiful and so

024slipping through it you guys can all take a look after um we have a big card from CMS here and we all have cards some of them are even like you said addressed what Spanish H Society okay wow yep Spanish hotor Society brought you donuts and muffins thank you Marcel and we appreciate you student reps as well we celebrate you just along with us so thank you to everyone and I can't wait to look through all these tonight it's my favorite time of year not that I expect it and I actually forgot completely but last year I remember looking through them all after the meeting and it's I had tears in my eyes so thank you and our whole theme was you are the hardest of public schools and you really are the we love

025to support you all thank you so much that was so much work appreciate it okay um reports of liaison from the Town Council Board of Finance CHL Middle School building committee which you have a reference in your packet um I do have one small update from our mayor demetriadis and he just wanted me to let you all know that they did approve the $185,000 worth of um Capital requests that came through Us by clut clo bazano and he also wanted to thank you claudo for all of your hard work and collaboration um and then he also mentioned that they've been applying for State bonding for the track through Senator lesser's office and if we could work together to um Lobby a little bit and maybe get a writing campaign going um and sending it to

026ler would would help get support Senator ler sorry um and I believe that is all I have four Town Council and they meet again tomorrow night so I'll give them an update from us at that meeting all right any questions move we'll move on to the report of student Representatives we'll start at the high school summer would you like to begin um I'll start with yeah the Spanish National Honor Society members and adviser Miss William she's amazing um would like to thank each board member of education for your volunteer time and energy in ensuring that our schools are providing quality education for our students thank you during national board of education month and that's with those brown bags will have some letters from us members and some International treats to enjoy please let her know

027we thank her too because I know she's also a member oh yes yeah another town but yes yeah Weathersfield um and then just notes in general quarter 3 is fully in swing and students are working hard CHS recently hosted their Black History Month Showcase with the help of Spanish National Honor Society and many staff members and students the captains of CHS sports teams took a trip to Woodside on Friday to read Across America and read books for the students the CHS drama Department performed The Adams Family this Friday through sat Sunday and they rocked it special shout out to starring performers Lori M McLean em Bea Joshua sta Jillian Morgan and Brody Young on March 25th CHS will be having their annual career fair where over 50 presenters will be available to answer questions and

028give a glimpse into the possible career options for the After High School and art National Honor Society is currently having seniors vote on their senior M mural that will be painted in the band hallway with options including Great Gatsby theme and a graffiti design nice and Marcel uh all winner Sports have concluded uh student athlete leadership visited whis last Friday reading to students for read Across America uh girls basketball uh end with a record of 913 the boys record was 116 uh indoor track ended uh up winning or yeah indoor track ended up winning shorelines congrats to linal for coming in first for Pall uh and Dylan bck for breaking the class s State uh state record in 1,000 meter uh wrestling concluded with Matt Gish taking home the Class M state record and spring

029sports are starting soon with the spring concussion meeting being this Thursday at n at 5: great thank you in the middle school Ania would you like to start for the Middle School across CMS students are working hard as a third marking period will draw to a close draw to a close at the end of March and CBA preparations wrap up um in student council sneaker donations continue to pour in um thank you to the CMS Community we have collected and donated three large trash bags of shoes the CMS student council will be encouraging students to promote kindness with the sale of Lucky grams students may send one another a positive message for $1 trinkets trinkets may be purchased to be delivered with a message for an additional dollar students enjoy celebrating a week of kindness

030and organiz ized by Mrs Humphrey and Mrs asteroids students showed the source characteristics of respect by performing acts of kindness throughout the week participating in a group dance event and creating countless Smiles the yearbook Club has completed the final layout for the yearbook the students are also working on Advertising to the student body the band jazz band and select choir are all preparing for the fantast Fantastic festivals at Lane compounds this may 30th this this is close enough to me the CMS select choir is deep into their preparations for their spring concert on May 21st we are all looking forward to it after months of hard work our culminating event is upon us cromo Middle School proudly presents Steven Sanam and James sleppin Wim School classic into the wood Woods Jr don't miss the show

031Friday March 14th at 6 PM Saturday March 16th at 2 and 6 pm and Sunday March 16th at 2 pm our clubs colorful murals continued to brind the hallway the hallways walls of CMS under the direction of Mr glowa polar bear running club continues to grow in numbers and spear as our Runners Traverse Frozen terrain together the girls volleyball team had a successful season with 22 girls playing in the short season with six games in just two weeks the girls won all but one contest boys volleyball also had a great season winning the majority of their games while giving nearly 30 students the opportunity to play and develop their skills all right thank you any questions for our student reps all right thank you all for your report and for being here and feel free

032to stay for as long or short as you'd like um okay Town collaboration updates do you have any anything in that category I was just going to add it to my superintendent's update okay and I just want to quickly add on to what I communicated about um the town approving that amount for our projects obviously that's the first step and it still has to go to board finance and ultimately referendum so obviously spread the word um okay now we'll move on to Super superintendent updates it's literally an extension of what you just said um so we um I have um claudo bazano here who has been working with um the town and he could give you an update if you want the projects uh that we listed as a priority um through the facilities committee

033and working with claudo have been approved I think there's just one project that has been put off for a year um and that's the light yeah come on up claudo I'm got to want to try to remember it's too much to remember and you can ask him questions um but everything was approved that claudo had on the list except for one thing good evening everyone as you know we started out with 20 projects totaling about $2.8 million um of all those all those projects have been approved by the Town Council um we took the LED of this high school we moved that back one year the total cost was that was estimated at over $670,000 so the fact that we have 19 other projects to deal with and do um it might have presented a

034little capacity problem so it made sense one to move it back one year so that we can do all the other projects and also to come back and do some fine-tuning on the numbers um we're able to do all of whis for about 400,000 and that included interior exterior and controls and so we're looking to get a little better numbers and move it down um there was some discussions concerning Auditorium and Auditorium light um there was some emails that went around all I did was take last year's request and separated the stage and the auditorium um the stage upgrade LED lighting and the entire Auditorium upgrade the LED lighting and both of those projects were moved forward as you mentioned the track was a big is a big piece of that um and there's a

035request for a grant subsidize that project there the basketball court over at whis that was turned down last year or not funded last year um that has also been moved forward to the board of Finance so we're making great progress we've got 19 projects um if all come through the board of finance and referendum we have 19 projects to take care of last year and we're actually finishing up the last project from this year um hopefully have it done in the next month and we'll have completed all the projects that we were funded for last year any questions we are incredibly grateful for our partnership with the town um I hope the kids are listening you have a lot of people who care so much about you and this hasn't always happened so this is

036pretty awesome there's 19 projects on the books to make this your school system in your town better for you that directly impacts you so it's pretty cool um you just I just want you to know that sometimes you don't always think that the adults are thinking of you but we are when we make decisions and with these decisions you have a lot of adults making great decisions for you so we're just incredibly thankful for this partnership and it's been going great and um claudo has been handling it so nicely so and and thank you to the mayor and yeah we've improved our partnership with the town and collaborating on projects um there are three projects out of that 19 that are actually going to be done by the town instead of us Outsourcing they have

037the resources and the manpower to do it we'll cover the U material cost uh to get those projects completed within that $1.8 million thank you so much for all your hard work I know it sounds like this just happened but it's been a long time coming this whole year he's been working really hard on it and all the committee members and everything so thank you so much this is progress like we've never seen before so thank you well thank you okay so just quickly um the new Middle School we're on schedule um we met today with the moving company um so we're going to have um a little bit of training of how to actually pack efficiently and we getting all of our materials on March 27th um and then getting our little training on

038March 26th so that we do everything that we're supposed to do at central office and um I know we we need training on how a pack so that we do it efficiently it's and it's very important because it's really expensive so the more efficient we are the less we have to pay for it um so that'll be happening uh starting pretty soon uh we'll be packing our boxes the school um will be closed as of uh June 13th central office will remain open for about a week or two after that then we immediately move for on June 27th to the new building the following Monday um and power goes out on July 7th and we don't get to go back in there ever again and then it'll go away and we'll have our brand new

039building um we're working with the building committee on um doing an a ribbon cutting ceremony thinking more along the lines of something small at the beginning of the year and then waiting a few weeks so that a teachers can unpack their boxes get situated and then have an open house for the public um so we're in the uh trying to figure that out um and besides that um I think everything is going really well and the science fair was awesome for those of you that weren't able to attend it was just a great night um and thank you to all the PTA ECS and West PTA for everything they they really do a lot to make that night successful so it was a great evening um executive orders um I try to update you as

040much as I can last week I solely I hours endless hours on reading everything that keeps coming out because it's coming out so quickly so there's a resource um through Shipman and Goodman where we get updated so um I think it's just going to be we're going to get an order um how does this impact schools how does this impact Connecticut schools what is the state saying what is the State Department of Education saying and then how does how do our attorneys um interpret it and then how do we move forward um so I am doing the obviously the best that I can to make sure we're in compliance and we don't lose any federal funding um as of now some districts have been notified about of loss of federal funding or and we're not

041any we're not there so if there's anything that comes up I'll let you know all right thank you okay any questions all right move on to presentations and reports of administration the budget update reference be in your packets and for that we'll have Mr butwell come on up Director of Finance hello everyone um so our budget is looking we're looking good uh at this point in the year as I expressed in my memo um we're watching the special education costs um carefully and that uh picture for us is starting to develop a little bit as we received our first um excess cost uh check from the state which is um going to be 75% of our reimbursement and so that really helps us uh understand better what you know what that amount will be um

042as you know this year's been sort of a roller coaster with um the reimbursement story um from for special life from the state um earlier in the year we um it was projected that our rate would only be about 60% so we um you know really uh tried to adjust for that uh potential and then you may have heard uh in the news within the last week or two that the um the governor um approved the um additional $40 million to support um that excess cost Grant so that is going to move our percentage back up closer to where it should be into the into the 70s so um we're actually now uh projected to be back about what we budgeted for um in terms of reimbursement so that's good news um any questions on

043that it's um what what percentage is that that we originally projected uh the new percentage it's um around I think 72% they're saying any other questions Lori so when we did the budget that was before so were you budgeting at the higher number hoping that we were going to get that amount or for for next year yeah we budgeted um at a very conservative 60% reimbursement rate for next year yes right okay any other questions on that all right you can stay right up there for the next action item which is the adopted board of education budget increase which Mr butell will go over with you but you have in your packet sure so if you had a moment to look at um reference C in your packet um you see a sheet that's called

044budget options and um it sort of over revews all of the changes that we made to our original budget plan the last two items um on that list you might recall at your last Board of Ed meeting you approved the budget of 4,516 219 which was a 5.81% increase over last year's budget um since then we've had discussion around uh the solar panels for the new Middle School um the panels will actually not be in place by the beginning of the school year and it's my understanding that they will will have to go to refer rendum in order for them to be uh in order for them to move forward to be installed um so the amount budgeted for electricity at the new middle school next year was uh just $18,500 um with the anticipation

045that the solar panels would um support that cost um however since they're not going to be in place uh for the beginning of the year we would like to increase that electricity amount for CMS by uh the amount of 9,887 uh bringing the total budgeted amount for electricity to $318,400 so that was the first change can I just stop you right there for one quick second so even if it passes the referendum they're saying it they wouldn't be in place in time for the opening of school so basically when I spoke with um arcadey uh Jack buckus John um I specifically point blank asked that question I said okay the uh heating the HVAC person gave us this number this is what is estimated for the bill to be if we did not have solar

046panels and I said to him what if we get them and he said the chances really of us getting them then being installed then actually seeing a savings because it might not be spring until that actually happens is going to be minimal so he said you you should budget for the entire of course and even and if it didn't pass you need to budget for any oh yeah exactly and if it does hasn't passed yet but so I don't know how quickly they will move I feel like we really have zero information to give you and I don't think the building committee they're not sure either no so that this is the safest bet okay sorry car problem at it's okay so um that uh increase for the electricity would bring the budget increase up

047to uh 6.36% increase um but then we took uh this opportunity to make another adjustment because in between the time where the board approved the budget and um this meeting uh we got um a uh more specific number from the town about what our share of the pension would be and so our estimated amount that was in the budget was on the high side so we were able to reduce that by $ 44,6 so that will reduce um the budget increase to 6.25% any questions what's the 7.63% in the blue box I had confusion over that too didn't it make you think that we approved that amount that's where we we we did 51 that's where we started that when we started the budget process that's where we originally were and then if you going

048down this list kind of travel down this list that's our the history of our um changes so we're going from and ask 5.8 to 6.25 that's correct yes that was you're you see my brain work from that 7.63 you could see my brain work all the way down to the 52 I got Steve did you have a question yeah I do um so right now our current budget we're projecting a surplus of roughly a million dollars right well yes and no special ed understood yeah as long as I mean but there's still some balance there so my suggestion would be that we find 165,000 worth of goods from next year's budget that we could buy with this year's money and keep the budget as proposed actually cut it 45,000 I still comments anyone else have

049any input so you're saying based on based on the the savings your savings from yeah I'm saying there's there's got to be 165,000 Goods we're going to purchase next year that we could purchase this year and take it out of next year's budget and then adjust for that savings or the hit in the in the solar panels so where's the 165 coming from out of the million dollar Surplus this year but isn't that only if we get reimbursed the whole amount I don't I don't know what what other factors are in there right we're anticipating Chris it looked for reimbursements and we have we still don't know 100% about every sing agree but 165 is not I'm not saying use the whole million oh sorry we haven't seen it until we see it we you

050know we don't know what's going to be there I don't I don't know who's going to be walking in the door um between now and June and we also have to be careful with what we purchase in advance to because we're supposed to buy what we use from one year to to the next that doesn't mean that there isn't stuff that we could we could purchase um especially um a couple things that we talked about that we never had the money to buy um a system called Red Rover for human resources um that we're going to move ahead and purchase which requires a lot of training so we will be making that purchase this year um will be a huge help to bring all of our systems into one um I'm reluctant because I don't

051know if the board of Finance is going to cut us again I don't know what's going to happen I still stand behind um my my recommendation is to is to stand behind this number since there's so many wh ifs yet but obviously that's up to you to tell us what to do any discussion from anyone else so I I like the idea I think it has I think it has a lot of Merit um I think the thing working against it is there's so much unknown we don't know we could have you know special cost out placements and if we I I think the problem is it's difficult to plan on how to use that money not knowing what happens between now and June because there's there are things that can pop up but I

052do I do like the idea of taking care of a out over that budget for next year I'm just thing that we talked about too um I put a freeze a light freeze on spending at all the schools and today I told them to go ahead and order everything that they have not ordered um we've never been able to do that ever yeah but is that can I make a com like that's needed there like we are grossly under where we should be in a lot of these classrooms there are teachers funding things themselves there are parents bringing rightfully so but like there are massive amounts of supplies that have not been available to the staff that in into a way that I find unacceptable so like it I'm happy to hear that you're doing

053that I think that that's necessary I don't know if it's a million dollars worth I I completely understand where you're coming from my gut is to trust what you're telling us and to not take this year Surplus into consideration especially given that we're not the final say I think that we I personally would rather ask for more and be prepared if we have to cut then cut and then put our teachers and our students in a more vulnerable position moving forward so just thank you I don't know if you live in my head or not um so two things I have Frozen the the budget since I've been here so this is year six so I think what sometimes people forget is that you just don't unfreeze and you go without and then you go

054without and you go without and so today when I was able to tell my administrators this is the first time I've ever been able to say it to them order what you had asked for because I'm I'm unfreezing your money it felt pretty darn good and then also things that we have gone without um that are completely deteriorating that we thought we were going to have to wait longer um I was able to say to Mr cuckle today that $55,000 for the weit room that we keep saying we had to cut him so that he couldn't improve it and it's not necessarily it's safe enough but are we nowhere near State of thee art can I just update it by just giving Mr cuckle an extra $5,000 which I approve today um this is what

055I'm trying to alleviate from the teachers who have to put in their own money from some of the stuff that is old that we had to just freeze and never move forward so in this particular situation there's never it's never just um you know spend spend spend it's it's very much calculated on what we need based on exactly what you just said and then having to freeze over 6 years and I believe you may have Frozen before I even got here so yes that is why I would like to be able to leave it where it is and I still have some unknowns I'm being um Frugal with what I'm selecting I'm looking at things that we know we need um and I'm talking to my principles another thing is calf tables we have some

056calf tables that are so old and could potentially be dangerous so and they're very expensive so can we make the commitment to buy five this year because we have money that usually they can only we can only replace one a year and we shouldn't really be having to think about this in in Cromwell that's um I'm here obviously to advocate for getting the best for our kids all the time and that's what I'm ask yes I'm asking you to trust me to be able to do while we have a little bit of wiggle room Alan you you said You released you know go spend how much you know what what number I mean literally just happened we just did it today so we haven't even calculated exactly how much they're frozen at right now Chris

057will go back and work on that starting tomorrow I think that has a big to I mean Steve's Point there's you know there looks there's money there's there's variables it's not all going to come to fruition but you know we talking 50,000 you couple hundred th000 you mean I don't know what your I don't even want to give you a number I don't think Chris you would feel comfortable off the cuff no so what this looks like next month what I'm like you could well I wouldn't I would we need to get it to board of Finance by when I need we need to start making the binders tomorrow oh can't hold we need to get this information you know them and another thing so here's another thing for example that I approved with Miss

058coacha Mr um particularly with coola and with Mr cockle um we have students who are lagging behind um with their academics we were able to they asked uh can we have an after school program so we have to pay teachers to stay in obviously tutor kids um we have the late buses so we have kids who are participating so we looked at some more cut scores our students took more Assessments in the winter we looked we went over the data at the district leadership team spoke to Mr cockle and miss coola and I said can we take a handful more of kids who may be slightly almost like needing that help but we don't always give it to them because we don't have the money to help them and support them um and they said

059that would be awesome so today I said go ahead and try to find 10 to 15 more kids that we can offer after school support and then we'll hire teachers to tutor them at our $45 hour a rate so these are like some of the things that that I'm I'm trying to do with some of the money which we've never been able to do before comments questions oh did you want to I just wanted to add in response to alen's question um if you look at the projection sheet you can kind of get an idea of the the balance amounts that are sitting in the different um object areas and our you know obviously our big negatives are um the Services the special ed services um are the numbers that we're worried about and then

060you can kind of look at uh the other categories to see what kind of money is sitting in there do you think you'll have a better picture of those expenses by the time you present to board of Finance because I'm sure they'll be asking that question oh yeah so yeah sure whether it's approved or not I would probably yeah like outline things that have been in the budget before that we haven't been able to do because of budget freezes and how money is being reallocated to cover things that have been supposed to be done like the last five six years yeah and a perfect example is how many millions in just fixing our buildings I mean that can has been kicked down the road for so many years that this is where we're ending up

061with millions of dollars of projects that have to be approved had we just done them all along we wouldn't be there there can you be there instructionally academically with resources yes that can happen overnight um yeah to add to that point that million dollars is not in our budget so if you add that into this budget what's that increase look like you know we've taken that money out we put it on the town add another million to this budget what's that increase if that was still in our budget this this is a large increase for the town so I do have um we do have uh I I don't know if we brought them with us we're actually middle if not lower I could send this too than other towns in our not just in

062our dur did I give you access to the latest you sent us a link I believe Steve requested it and I think it was sent out right it's through casbo it keeps getting updated so like East Hampton is at an 8.9 Cole uh chesher is high up there North Haven's at a 10 point something um our Flatline was 5.1 our kids have gone without things for a a long time we are nowhere near the top of um our ask and I could share those numbers with you um and I'm sure Carrie could give you a list of items uh we're just finally purchasing after N9 years with the same math program with big holes in it uh a new a new math program um we have said we're not going to buy the extra resources

063because we can't afford it well maybe now we could afford to buy the resources that go along with the program so these are things that was that what this next presentation would be relying on funding wise well the math one we can't oh yeah that the math presentation on that and we have to be careful because I can't go ahead and buy it right now because I don't I I really don't know where we are going to fall with special education I could say no one's going to move in I could say we're not going to need to transport I could say we're not going to have any homelessness we review it every single day but I really don't know to me this is an opportunity to get perhaps um some things that our students

064have gone without without getting further behind another thing that we talked about was um getting out of that technology loan remember we talked about getting out of that technology loan and then Steve's Department taking a hit and we said can we make this work so that we don't have to pay that 80 whatever ,000 which is crazy um in um oh my God interest right would this mean that we could stick to our regular plan and not push it off an extra year would that make our technology program stronger yes it would we we were thinking worst case scenario now we could think best case scenario if we have this money we don't have to fall back and then take a chance we could just move forward as if without skipping a beat so these

065are the things we talked about it would never be um you know let's just and I know you guys know this but you know let's just buy all this stuff that we don't need it would be what could we do so that our kids are not falling behind so that our teachers are not spending money so that parents are not being asked to bring in materials um and yeah I know no and you shouldn't there's certain things I mean I have this conversation all the time that you shouldn't even happening to me I just think yeah teachers listen my first year I spent $3,000 on never forget it because it was the first time I opened up a credit card and it was so I could teach reading um and that was 32 years ago

066so I know this happens often um if we could alleviate some of that and then get back on track to me this is we got you know the Stars aligned this year we don't know if this is ever going to happen again and we still don't know because we're not technically done um this is a year where I can give as many kids services and support after school I've never been able to do that before how awesome is that and we just talked about that today so I just want to one one more thing sorry cut you off if you put the million back on top of this increase it's 8.8 8% so that's effectively what the school district what the border of ad is asking the town obviously the funding is from a different

067bucket but it's all our all our wallets so just so you guys know but the million from million Capital Improvement correct that was historically in our budget if we were budgeting as we had previously this would be an 88.8% increase we would we never put that stuff in the budget we would have never gotten that we would have never gotten it and I would never put it in there I wouldn't even think about putting in 1.9 million either either way we're asking for 8.8% increase from last year's budget for everything including the school's dollars yeah because they let it go for 30 something years they they that's an argument that could had for a different day whether we let it go or they let it go but but it we I really want to make

068sure we have Apples to Apples conversation none of that money that claudo put in CNR none not one penny would have ever ended up in your ask ever none of that because we couldn't even fund projects that were five6 $10,000 everything got cut and every time we had to cut smaller projects it always came out of facilities so this CNR that we have now this agreement that we've made with the town we made this agreement because nothing was getting done and the town was falling apart and it was never meant to be part of this budget anyway that CNR Capital Improvement is the responsibility of the Town always has always should be should never be counted into the school period because these buildings belong to the the town and they also don't want it in

069the MDR either so yeah that would increase our budget every year I I would have had if I ever put all these projects in from day one you're right Steve I would have been coming forward with a 10 11 12 15 18% from day one that has never been the way we budgeted in since I've since I've been here when we looked at moving it to the S method most SS around us were using it if I can recall it's the right way to do it it's um but I I understand the point that Steve is trying to make um but I think the town is trying to reallocate funds at their level to cover these Capital Improvement costs um so I don't know it's and I also understand the point of netting the the

070165 um and keeping it but we don't know where we're going to be we never know where we're going to be um this is a tough call for us to be in this position where we have to make a decision without really having enough information in order to get everything to the board of Finance in time so um new Middle School strikes again so I feel like it's the The increased cost from the new middle school that's that may or may not stick with it we don't like people have and the board of Finance has asked there's no way we could ever give a again and Apples to Apples like what are the savings that we're going to have because we have a new middle school and that we've been asked this question and it's

071it's it's it's absolutely absurd for us to even think about how we could calculate that we have the professionals telling us that the electricity bill is going to be $300,000 the building isn't even up yet how the heck am I supposed to know how do we know what the rates are did you expect your electricity bill to go up to 500 mine went up to $530 this month did you expect that this year this month cuz I didn't so I'm being asked to project the future like I'm a Genie um and so I will come right out and say it is absolutely absurd for me to try to project an electricity bill for the new building when it is not even here yet so I'm being asked to do some of these things um that

072are asking well I've been asked like how much do you think you can you tell us you know how much money are we saving as a town because we went ahe ahead and built this school nothing you actually said nothing you're spending more money you know why cuz your building was 100 years old and if you want to stay 100 years old and be in the past and that's where you want your kids to go to school okay then we'll keep it and we'll we'll hopefully keep it going without it falling apart so some of these questions that that I've been asked and I might be asked I can't answer well the building isn't even up but we haven't even gotten our first bills from any of it so there's a lot of wh ifs

073there's a lot of wh ifs in March period every March just a lot of wha ifs in the past where I've crossed my fingers and toes and didn't buy things no one bought things um Matt sorry can I of course uh I apologize for making your repeat but can you repeat your comments from earlier um that you made about the budget after Steve spoke do you remember what they were just trying to take into consideration yeah I just said that there's there's too many unknowns between now and June it's just it's it's a tough call I absolutely am in favor of finding ways to to save the money and use the the apparent savings we have now the problem is we're we're saying we expect a savings but we can't guarantee that and and that's

074where I'm stuck when when the special ed cost I know they can arise any time but historically I mean this kind of come in the home stretch of the year I think is it is it a lot of people start to move so for example a lot of um because of heating issues right so Apartments if you're living in apartments or condos and you're moving usually stay that doesn't mean everybody who lives in an apartment or condo as a student with special needs but there's more transiency um come April 1st so we do get a little rush of kids moving in and out because people start to move more because I've seen students come in three days before the end of school you just never know and we're expected to pick up the cost for

075so I could have kids that cost I hate putting money on students I could have services that a student could be 50,000 I can have services that a student may need 200,000 I I don't know it's there's too there's too many unknowns we have an opportunity to maybe get ahead instead of always be behind this is the opportunity um I just told you a few ways of how our conversations that we had today of like how am I going to help kids that are falling behind right now today um and what we're going to be doing um talked about the wait room talked about a few other things that I already started talking to my administrators about you let me know if you think that the things that I just mentioned right now are out

076of the question for and by asking for too much for Cromwell public school students to have that while we have some extra money I I don't think that I am but if you feel that way I'll pull back on all I would just caution to say extra we don't actually know if we have extra money so I would just putting a finance hat on we we don't not Market it that way well I'm being I mean you guys could see I I have this listen I I view this is very black and white which it's not and Steve I really appreciate everything that you're saying and bringing to the table and everyone's insights I personally feel like we approved the 5.81% increase and hashed all of this out and this is this is additive due

077to circumstances I would not be coming to you no I understand and I appreciate the cost savings that you found I'm trying to view this solely as the additive cost of the electrical solar panels and not trying to go back and pick apart the budget good point that's my own personal opinion I agree Matt were you going to add something yeah I'm I'm just thinking um do we look at this from another point of view just as as kind of a an exercise in problem solving this where what are the possible repercussions if we don't add this money because we're talking about adding $229,000 if we don't what could go wrong what what would happen then we are we going to we're going to have an electric bill that comes that now we can't pay

078and we have to go to the town and ask for it two things can happen one I could go to the town and say we have this electric bill which or I could say as a responsible superintendent who you a board uh the Board of Education voted on a budget and you told me don't spend more than this money I'm not going to spend more than that money so I'm going to cut programs and resources because that's what you voted on and that's what you told me to do and that's what I've done for the past six years and I've done it really well so but your kids went without stuff our kids went without stuff Katherine so um I agree with Kelly I understand where we stand with our current situation our current year

079the electrical costs we're estimating at this much but there's a lot of volatility to that going forward based B on the new tariffs cuz we do get a lot of our electrical from Canada so that can be getting slammed for us we don't we don't know what's going to hit um so and the money that is in our current budget that the million dollars my guess is that by the end of the year it's going to fall under the we get to keep the money and put it into a recurring um fund to to continue with our purchase services that we need um remember you have we have that we up to 2% which is $800,000 which is is Never Gonna it'll never happen it's gonna come down I mean we've been doing this for

080long enough to know that um so I do I do understand that that that number is not going to sit there so pretty so um I I think it's only going to get worse for us with as soon as I release the money we released it today as soon as Mr cuckle didn't waste much time he already had some purchase orders already started going in his sheet um you know they can't wait they it's it's not like we're waiting on thing like they're waiting he legitimately I was like cracking up looking in there I'm like here he goes I could see it happening in a Google form um yeah so I like what you mentioned Kelly let's not go backwards and rehash the whole entire budget so the ask tonight is the 6.25 so that's

081what we should be deciding on and how do we feel about um so the ask is to go from the five 5.81 to the 6.2 6.25 mhm and that will be the that would be the amount that is presented to the of Finance the board of Finance on April 6th third fourth third uh third third thank you I got my threes mixed up I've been multiplying too much lately yeah that it was awesome awesome let's put April let put them on the math curriculum committee yeah you're not kidding I put it out and see it's either going to pass or not okay I just have one more comment before we vote last year end of February we were at a a deficit of 371,000 and broke even for the year so would anyone like to

082make a motion for what's on the table I would like to just make a comment before that okay what did we have to cut to break even what did our kids have to go without to break even is that a rhetorical question that's just okay so I had a motion from Kelly cluer is there a second I'll second Kelly Franklin all in favor raise your hand opposed 6.25 yep okay all right everyone else was a a okay motion carries and the budget increase passes so we are at 6.25% we'll move it forward to the board of Finance I would like to make a comment though I do appreciate all the input and all the discussion I I think there there was I think we had a lot of good valid points here and I and

083I absolutely appreciate Steve bringing up what you brought up and I think it was definitely worth consideration and I absolutely appreciate your your input as well I think it's it's a problem that's difficult to solve and I I'm going to trust that we made the right decision thank you for your hard work and thank you Dr Macker I know this isn't easy okay can we move on to the math program so for our math program update we have Dr McLean and um Julie Shepard is there Erica Bal is here too or no Erica is not here Erica is not here okay and that is reference D in your packet yeah go ahead okay is this on yeah that's on good evening everybody um we wanted to present for you tonight um a little bit of

084where we are with our um program review and evaluation of our um we're hoping to by the end of this school year be adopting a new K5 math program um so just to fill you in a little bit on What's led up to this um Julie can you speak a little bit more into it I'm sorry I know that one's really quiet okay as um Dr Macker had mentioned um briefly that we've been we have been using the same K5 math curriculum now for just about nine years and that's our bridges um let me go back here that's our bridges math program um and after you know the last couple years we've been really reviewing the data um across the district um after the utilization of this program and we've been analyzing the newly release

085State model curriculum and just analyzing the um really at in depth the bridge program and we have been finding that there are some gaps that we are having to supplement um into you know lessons that we're supplementing into our current curriculum and the great news about this is that teachers are actually asking for this at at all levels from grade K all the way to grade five the teachers are really excited about looking at new programs they're ready to move on from um the bridges program so we have begun this process officially this year to narrow down um a few programs and we have developed a K5 math committee as as well so I'm just going to talk to you a little bit about that process tonight um you can see here on this first

086slide that these are the members on our K5 math committee so Dr McLean and myself and then we have uh representatives from each of the grade levels um and both of our um Elementary buildings so you can see who's represented there as well as our um math coach and K5 math facil facilitator Erica ballis so she's been playing a crucial role in this uh process as well so really the goals of our uh committee this year we're spending a lot of time um you know with our hands writing the materials getting online meeting with the different Publishers of these programs um we're talking to other districts that are uh using various programs and we're hoping that through this it will be piloting as well so I'll talk a little bit more about that in the

087coming slides um we're trying out several of these programs in in classrooms with students um to get some feedback from teachers so our goal go is to really by the end of this year as I said adopt a new program um that supports our rigorous math instruction and that's fully aligned to our uh curriculum standards and that's consistent across K5 so here's where we are um over the next three years this is what our process will look like just a little breakdown as you can see this year we have teachers in grades K through five reviewing evaluating and piloting the program however we will only roll this program out in grades three through five at whis starting next year whichever program that the committee decides on uh the reason for that is as you know

088we've been very literacy focused with um adopting a new reading program in grades K through three and we really feel that teachers need some more time at ECS to get to know that that new material that new curriculum and to become uh comfortable with the implementation of that so this year we will have all teachers participate in that review View and evaluation process um that we will roll out year one in grades 3 through 5 next year and then the following year we will roll out the new math program in grades K through two can I ask a question or do I have to wait till the end just this is more just a curiosity so the year one implementation will be 26 27 is there like a projected impact so say students like entering

089third grade that year but they haven't been taught based on this curriculum so it's being changed kind of like halfway through on them well it would be changed so if they if they came in say that one more time I'm sorry like sorry so like say you have somebody under like the current curriculum now right and so they're not starting fresh they're like halfway through and then you're and I could be making this a lot more complicated than is you're changing like the strategy and how you're teaching them yes it is is that going to impact like the way they're learning do you know what I mean in a in a positive way yes I believe so it is an instructional shift for teachers this and for students um The Learning is more problem based

090with any of the programs that we're looking at um but it's still fully aligned to Common Core to the state model curriculum so they're going to be getting the same standards just really presented in a different way got it we're we're currently supplementing with some of the materials now and so it's not going to be like brand new foreign to them got it okay thank you yeah we've had we've found that because of the gaps in bridges that we've had to supplement with some of these resources already and teachers and students are responding very well to those lessons so and you feel this program whatever you choose would cover what's in bridges as well it would completely eliminate Bridges beyond what we're finding that it's not Bridges is not going in depth for some grade

091levels with some topics that we would like it to so it would cover Bridges and more so that's sort of like our three-year plan for the rest of this year I kind of laid out for you what um what we've been doing as a team um we started meeting as a committee uh in February and we will meet all the way through May um as I had mentioned we are diving into those materials we're we have those in our hands we're looking through those there's online components to all of these programs um and we're hearing from the different Publishers of uh each of these programs are presenting to us they're we're getting some training for some of the pilots that we are going to be implementing coming up and then we'll be continuing just to

092review and evaluate as we hear from the Publishers as we try out the lessons as we try out these units and hoping to make that final program choice in May I got a question for a non- educator what what's the underlying factor of well we had this program and it doesn't work I mean is it the students what yeah what classes these shifts yeah so that's a great question uh we look at a lot of different things the first thing that we start noticing really is data right when our data we're not seeing an increase in um student achievement at various grade levels then we start really diving we've been doing a lot of curriculum writing as well over the last couple of years taking materials like Bridges and um which is just a program

093and putting that into curriculum documents on wrapping those standards seeing how much time is being spent on um certain Focus areas for each grade level and when we start looking at the data combined with gaps in the curriculum and you know teacher feedback it starts to tell us that we may need to start looking somewhere else cuz we're not our students are not achieving where we'd like them to be okay but is that because you're focusing on reading or something else or is it the students different or what's I don't you're not getting the scores well why aren't you getting the scores that's that's also that's a great question as well so illustrative again it's that problem solving so it's not it's not um like direct algorithmic instruction in math it's really problem based where

094you you've got collab abative problem solving stations and kids are wrestling with material and trying to solve things on their own with some more Independence it's it's a shift in the way that we're instructing it's a shift in the way material is presented but on our state assessments this is what is we are seeing consistently that problem solving is our lowest category so that's where we need to increase our I think this will help Alan there's so many variables right in a classroom with a student and why they're learning why so many I could give you we could give you litany there's I could give you a really great book to read John Hattie and what really helps and doesn't help and what are over 25 years of methodologies of what works what doesn't what

095gets you the best results how quickly and all of this but the big picture is you're looking at an individual student right and then you have 20 kids in a classroom and there's all these different variables different teacher different materials different data different this different family different demographics all of this put together so I think the most important thing that we look at when we're looking at programs and Carrie explains this beautifully and I'm going to let her do it instead of doing it because I love doing it but I'm gonna let her do it because it's her job um K can you talk a little bit about tier one so that's where we start tier one instruction is for every student and it's usually we what we try to do is give them as

096much grade level content as possible tier two is for our students that are struggling a little bit and need an extra a little bit of extra support for tier three are for our kids that really need some some intervention and some extra time with our teachers so we really have to strengthen our tier one like whenever you see a dip in or a stagnant Trend in your data you have to start looking at two things right you have to start looking at your instruction and you have to start looking at your curriculum curriculum being the first thing and when we're looking at this we know we have some instructional shifts to make we can do that internally but this is really about are we presenting kids with material that they are going to then be

097able to be successful on the state assessments on what it is that the state is expecting them to be able to do sometimes one is low for your scores from from tier one all students and it's consistency low two three years which we started to notice that tip which was I why I was screaming from the top of the roof of curriculum curriculum we needs to start writing and doing this we knew that we were going to start plummeting because when tier one you start to see that dip with tier one meeting everybody and then you look at students in one that are like districts as us and you know like we do when we compare durs we now know we have an we have a we have a problem and it usually starts with

098curriculum and instruction and materials and that's the first place you go to then when you start looking at we can compare and we do um students classrooms teach uh teachers where kids are performing and then you look from teacher to teacher and if you start seeing a big discrepancy then you're providing more resources and supports to how you teach to those teachers does that make sense okay the other thing is is that sometimes there's just a a you you're growing out of it if kids have the same math program from kindergarten to fifth grade they've had the same instructional strategies theyve had the same games they've had the same like you grow out just like we did with ir ready like I ready served its purpose but then we it didn't anymore so we had

099to move on to something else I mean it happens with any programming that kids see year after year after year it's like that I think this is so hard when education and especially with curriculum and instruction because you can't pinpoint every single solid it's so hard to learn curriculum and instruction and all and I just relate it to the medical model all the time like we're always constantly researching growing learning changing adapting and that's what happens in medicine the same thing happens in education we're never going to say we are done with curriculum and call it a day cuz the next like K is talking about is going to happen so I assume you have data from other districts that are using these programs and they're being successful there okay this is and it's also

100rated by the state as as the most effective math program and then my only other concern is that I know we're trying to get conceptual and word problems and everything to you know get on the scores but we won't lose some of the basic math I hope sometimes that can happen the nice thing about all three of these programs it does take this problem-based approach but the idea of that is that you're putting students in a real world problem-based scenario that they slowly move from that conceptual piece to the more abstract right we're not starting with the standard algorithms and the procedures we're starting with a concept that they can then shift from that to and do you find that's accessible to all tier students I mean that concept is can be hard I think

101so I'm just curious if that's I mean I'm assuming you think that's easier to start with and then build there and um I was actually at a workshop yesterday we're we've been actually strengthening tier one quite a bit this year in our K5 classrooms aside from keeping Bridges however um I went to a workshop yesterday that was talking all about um differentiating the needs for our students and how we often assume as Educators that our students need direct instruction and they need this I do it you practice it with me and then you go do it um and you know our students who need more support we assume that that's the style of teaching that they need but they actually need and Thrive more in a in the conceptual understanding first and move to the

102procedural later where they can put it into a real world context and hang on to the concepts to have a better understanding thank you I'm sorry Matt I did not see your hand up apparently it's been up for a while it's fine this hand didn't eat all that blood anyway I'm I'm just thinking like I I I deal with this in my own job too and trying to trying to explain it to someone who's who is not in education is a difficult thing education changes like you said use the medical example the the easiest way I can do this is when you and I learned math as younger kids we were primarily taught this is the formula these are the math facts memorize them kids what's up yeah wait a minute now it hurts a

103little if I had feelings I'd be upset right now um but but we that's how we were taught we were taught primarily memorize memorize memorize and that's what we did and then we would we would apply that memorization kids don't work that way anymore so now there's a lot of exploratory having them kind of figure it out on their own first and then kind of jump in and correct where correct me if I'm wrong but kind of come in and and correct the the spots that they missed or the errors that they made um because that way they're kids don't have to remember anything right now they have this okay I don't even remember my wife's phone number don't tell her I said that is this on camera um it it that's just where we're

104at so now what we're finding is when we have students explore the concepts on their own independently even when they get things wrong at first there is more learning and they remember the skills and they remember how to on their own otherwise what's happening is they're they're we're we're forcing them to remember they remember they take a test they show that they remember and they do well on the test and then six months from now when they take when they take a state exam they don't remember what they learned 6 months ago so by having them explore on their own and then correcting mistakes that they make it's actually embedding the information in them as opposed to having them shortterm remember through what what you and I remembered for years kids don't have to remember

105anymore so it's we're things have to change that way is that is that fair I'm just I'm just trying to for for someone who's not in education I get it it's a hard it's a hard concept like I couldn't understand half of what your job is I'm not even sure what it is I've heard but I especially if you don't have kids and like you see what's coming home right you see what's coming home with your kids you're like what the heck what are they teaching like this and Cena and I had the conversation about algorithms that's what we learned that's what we know our kids don't necessarily remember how to divide when they're in algebra if they don't need it like they don't remember the algorithm um but we're trying to teach them number

106send so they can apply it to the world and process yeah and process so and I hope I'm not wrong about everything I just said because I don't want to walk in tomorrow and be I can't teach math anymore no you're absolutely right we're trying to create students that can tackle a problem and and problem solve together and collaborate I what's happening too that we're finding in you know higher level classes and we we start leveling our students in math and we provide them with a non-routine problem in context and they struggle to solve that because they can't quickly pull they're not thinking about what's wrapped up in that problem they can't they can't quickly pull an equation that matches that problem so they're really unable to even in higher levels of math be able

107to solve those problems because they're not really thinking they're they're good at memorizing they're you know um strength is working with those numbers but they're not able to tackle those problems that they're not used to seeing and just problem solve so okay I'm going to talk a little bit more about the um the structure of all the programs we're looking we've narrowed this down to three programs so far and they're very similar to one another so I'll talk a little bit about that the first one um is open up resources and as I had mentioned before in our K5 Bridges we have had some gaps and we don't feel like student students are getting um certain topics skills Concepts to the level that they should be and so we've already been using open up resources

108it's a free resource um it's actually the same uh publisher that we're using for our bookworms program um but we've been using a lot of their resources because it's free online to access those lessons so wherever we've seen gaps we have our teachers specifically in grades three through five this year um trying out some of these lessons uh specifically we supplemented a ton of our fractions units at grades three through five because it students were not were not finding success with fractions it's a very uh difficult skill and concept for students and bridges was not hitting that in the way that we needed it to so we've been supplementing there the next program that we're looking at um is our Amplified Desmos program and we are using the good thing about this um I'll just

109highlight a couple things about each program that um that's a little bit different because they have a lot in common is that this has a interactive component so when teachers are presenting the lessons they can have um not just a Google slide presentation up but they can you know manipulate um yeah visuals to show students how a certain concept is working students can also get online if teachers want to choose to do that to manipulate themselves so that they can understand a concept you know dragging you know a DOT along a number line to see how that changes what an equation might look like for example um we are also using this program in grades 6 through 8 right now so that would have a nice if we if the committee decides to go with

110this program we'd have a nice alignment for grades k through eight um the other piece of this that the teachers really like so far is that it has a differentiation component that the other programs do not have so for every tier one lesson there are three uh differentiated lessons that go along with that to meet the needs of different levels both students who need extra support with that concept and students who need enrichment uh the last program which is probably the most popular um out there right now is illustrative math um through Kendall hunt we are looking at their newer version of this which is called IM 360 they've really just made some upgrades and they're shifting their whole program eventually over to the new the new program um so this one is very similar

111to the openup resources and the structure of the lessons is the same they're they're both um they follow the same illustrative math programming so very similar to the open up resources so um all three of these programs have uh some similarities we talked a little bit already and uh Matt described very nicely the um problem-based approach to learning so that all three programs really have that structure and that approach to teaching and learning um they require a deep understanding of mathematical Concepts and reasoning versus the procedural skills the fluency which is another important piece but it doesn't start with that um there all aligned with or certified partners of illustrative math which is being used across the state um there is various different programs there one other program that we're not looking at um also

112that aligns with illustrative but it's very costly compared to the ones um that we are diving deeper into they have the same that same lesson structure the same scope and sequence throughout the year the same emphasis on uh the major work at the gr each grade level and they're aligned to um our common course standards of course this all three programs will have the same instructional shift for teachers and the same really like um I say receiving of that instruction for students because they'll be put in that problem-based approach and teachers will need um significant professional development for to make that shift in instruction that's not how bridges is um really structured right now so um one of the ways that we other than the piloting and getting feedback from teachers will be doing that

113um the amplifi Desmos program we're going to be piloting a full unit for that the other ones we're just trying lessons here and there and supplementing into their current curriculum we are also using um an evaluation rubric so these are the pieces that our rubric looks at so as we meet with Publishers as teachers are you know flipping through the teacher edition and seeing what that looks like looking at the online components they're evaluating each of these programs with a rubric that looks at these different areas um which is the alignment to our state curriculum the model curriculum um the major work of the each grade level the opportunities for differentiation that are provided to teachers and to students the different assessments that are um embedded into each of the programs teachers are most interested

114in looking at those teacher materials and the ease of use of those and how the lessons go um they're very interested in what homework opportunities I I keep getting the question of what's available for homework um looking at the student materials to make sure things simple things even if is there enough room on the page for students to do their work um we have a component of our rubric that looks at Equity diversity and access so are we making sure that um the materials are accessible for all students I'm happy to say that this all three of these programs have a um a udl Universal Design for Learning built-in to each of these programs which provides more access for all students and then we're looking at the technology components so two of programs of sort

115of basic technology that teachers just have access to the online materials and there's the one that has the more interactive piece which is the Amplified Desmos program okay so that's an overview of what we're doing from now till the end of the year um our our curriculum department and our K5 math committe is they're very excited um they're working really really hard and they're going to be they're willing to try out I mean we had told the kindergarten first and second grade teachers that are on the committee you don't have to Pilot any of this we know you're busy with the reading program and they're just taking it on they want to try the lessons they which is fair because they want to see how it works with students before they you know really kind

116of overall vote on which program I would feel comfortable with our committee choosing any three any of these three programs um so any other questions for me at this point we can update you as we move through the process this year I just have one you're talking talking to other districts are you talking to like end users are you talking to teachers are you talking to someone in a similar position that you're in um a little bit a little bit of both actually um I just sat with a group of uh teachers from um and administrators on uh Monday of this week like yesterday and they were from Shelton um talked to them about their use of the program I just talked to a couple um a teacher and a math coach uh in Berlin

117who they're using illustrative math um there's various districts the only program that districts are not currently using that is up here is the Amplified Desmos because it's coming out K5 brand new but there are districts using 68 Amplified Desmos like we are at our middle school right now um but there are various districts um using o both openup and illustrative math um the Kendall hunt version you know across the state right now so the other thing we look at is Ed reports is a uh resource that really puts teachers um in a position to review and evaluate programs at a really deep level and then we go to that resource and we look at um which programs are the most top rated according to to teacher so we're using that as well and so you

118said open up resources was actually free but that's one of the options would you couple that with a one one of the other two or it's not really free if you're looking to implement it got it okay for for a grade level it's free if you want to download a lesson but you can't really like download all of materials and okay I mean we we could print all the student pages and it would probably cost more than you know to buy the student books as really where you're spending the money or you want to buy the center kits or things like that so open up is actually a free resource and so is the Kendall hunt they claim that they're free um if you don't want to buy any of the you know materials the

119teachers want the teacher manual in their hands and um amplifi Desmos is one that we actually would pay for the platform itself because it has that interactive component okay any other questions thank you so much for sharing all of this with us it's really interesting and good luck with your choices you're the experts I'm sure you'll make the right decision thanks how how much is that platform out of curiosity the the the okay thank you for those okay now we have a couple of action items for our district calendar for this year and next year so reference and F in your packets okay so you will notice that you have another new calendar at your seat that was distributed tonight because we were really trying to figure out there's three things that we're really trying

120to do and we just need a little more time with one other thing so we might be bringing this to you again which is parent teacher conferences um it's an ongoing discussion of when is the best time to do them but um as you all know we're moving into the new Middle School and um teachers need time to pack they'll start getting all their materials by the end of the month um but obviously the their planning time is met for planning and their prep time is to meet with others and so forth um so what I'm proposing to do to to give some time to teachers to be able to pack their things um is to dismiss students on the last three days of school so hopefully if there's no snow it would really just

121be two extra days because the last day is always a half day anyway um dismiss uh students from CMS on June 10 and 11 in addition to June 12th um at half half day all CMS staff must be out of the building cannot enter into the building at all after June 13th so that's not like they could come back and pack and that's that day they're done whatever's you know so that's my proposal for for this year and then also um for the beginning of the school year so that affects the 25 26 school year I this is what we'd like to do um the way it works is uh August the 1 two days um are 20 I guess sorry um yeah 20 yeah are so what we do usually is have convocation and

122then go back to the building and have U professional development mandated professional development by the State Department of Education would take takes about six or seven hours sometimes um so we give them first day usually to get all that done and then we do other professional development that we're um doing in regards to what the teachers need to implement like so for example the math program would most likely be what we do at uh at the school for CMS what we're asking is for the first two days doesn't impact students at all so I'm going to um have convocation let CMS go back to their buildings and start unpacking and doing what they need to do they can't get into the building until the week before and that's if everything goes perfectly so just to

123make it presentable for our kids to arrive um I would give them that whole day while everyone else is having PD and doing their mandated PD the second day quick faculty meeting the rest of the day to the staff to unpack and and set up their classrooms so the third day then they have to make up and do their mandated training so the third day we would have students in the morning release students we never everyone else will be in a full day this is just for CMS um Wednesday students would come for a half day we would release them then our teachers would have the mandated training Thursday release students half day teachers would have um the professional development that they missed and the same thing on Friday so three half days that at

124the end of the year two one which is already here and then three at the beginning of the year and I just need you to approve that and then um we'll come back to you with parent teacher conferences it'll be a small change but we really want to try to get this right um and it works with busing and everything those half days yes this and it works beautifully because um CHS is they take U um their assessments and so they have half days anyway so there's buses coming but what about the start yeah it's perfect oh no the first day the first day it will be uh the first days is it's easy I'm talking about June they actually will go home at the same time with the high school kids so it's actually

125less run less runs the what about the beginning of the year yeah that'll be fine because they're leaving earlier then they'll come back and get CMS and they'll go and get Elementary so it works out fine Matt saw you this time all right so I just want to make sure that I that I understand before I before I ask my second question of the night for those of you who are counting um shoot so what we're what we're saying is the the first day convocation CMS teachers will just you'll do your convocation meeting they'll go back to CMS they'll have the whole data on pack then the second day kind of the same idea then you're going to have half days at CMS essentially the rest of the first week so that the teachers can

126then address the PD the school has to ready for the kids the other thing that that you know I'm thinking about here as a teacher is the teachers will be able to get into the building the week before just a week before just a week but you're also you know are are there teachers are then volunteering their time they're not they're not paid to be there for that week we know that our teachers many of them are going to voluntarily come in and get set up because they're anxious about the new building in a good way you know they're they're they're excited to have their students they want to be ready I have no problem with this plan I know half days are are can be you know contentious with some folks Middle School I

127feels a little bit different if it was elementary I would probably be bling at this yeah same thing um Middle School is is a little bit different I do worry um about some of our our families who have to support students who have more significant um special needs and what that means for them in those half days I don't know if there's something that can that can be found or consider Ed just throwing that out there something to keep in mind and maybe maybe there's something that you know that can be done to to extend the day you know for those students I don't know but part of it is out of out of respect for the fact that I I know that a lot of our teachers are going to put in the extra

128time and volunteer that week beforehand I feel like it's kind of doing them a solid to to do this and honestly pretty nice to teachers I used to be Wonder honestly um you know the the I guess the other side of that is as a teacher I know that the first few days you know the first two or three days of the school year there's a lot of getting to know each other establishing routines establishing rules doing you know ice breaker type stuff that can easily be done in half days at the middle school level not again not so much at the elementary but um that's that all sounds fine to me that whole start of the year so there's there's my two cents any other questions or comments okay well I that's something to

129consider but we're just voting on the calendar right now so who would like to make a motion to approve the two the this year's calendar and next year's calendar Mo Lori second um Cali cluder all in favor opposed exensions motion carries they are both approved thank you and moving on to the approval of the minutes and motions from the January 28th regular meeting reference G in your packets would anyone like to make a motion to approve those minutes if you're able to Katherine is there a second Allan all in favor opposed abstentions Kelly Franklin all right motion carries minutes are approved and our minutes and motions from the February 4th special meeting reference H in your packets is there a motion I think there might be an erir I don't know how big of a

130deal it is but it says that you adjourned the meeting and I'm pretty sure I adjourned the meeting for refer for the special meeting for the facilities meeting oh for facil this isn't facilities though this is regular it's a special meeting just because we changed the time oh I have the facilities one down below oh okay just ignore me that's what my comment's for okay so was there a motion to approve reference H the special meeting minutes Allan and then Matt all in favor opposed any extensions Lori all right motion carries those are approved on to item G stip and approval reference I do you have in your packets any questions on that is there a motion to approve it oh you have a question I just noticed it seemed like it's all the Lacrosse

131positions I was that just stuck out at me I was just curious let's the turn over in Lacrosse position yeah is there what what was going on with that we just happened to receive resignations uh for those positions and so we were able to post them that's all no further explanation so it is what it is would you like to approve it I just have a quick question too go ahead sure as far as these positions are we receiving a lot of interest in you know when they get posted internally externally is there a lot of interest and are we picking necess the best candidates for each position yeah uh we do normally get a lot of interest um so many of the STP in position well majority of the STP in positions is located

132in our teachers contract so when normally WE Post like like in May I I post the whole contract and you know the most popular ones usually go when I say popular they the ones that usually go every year usually go first and there's some people that decide not to come back you know they they might say I've done it for several years and I'm not returning um and then we'll repost those positions so I end up posting positions for stien positions throughout the whole year um so and it could be for various reasons they could have got a full-time job because some the some of these people that were in these positions are not our employees they're from the in what I see mean by that they're from the outside so they could have got

133a job a full-time job and they were doing this on the side and maybe they have another commitment it could be anything um but they do you know they're really responsible and they always give us notice and let us know that way we can try to post again and our direct director of Athletics uh Josh and Andrew are excellent and so as Ann and trying to find someone to fill the position and many times we do get internal candidates from the teachers union or internal candidates from um the school district so it's your question do we prioritize School Employees over outside I mean I guess like Sal Morel love him great guy but how much does he know about lacrosse has he ever played let's try to keep names out of it though it's what

134we're approving here right yeah I and is there other people that applied for the position that may be more experienced on any of these I'm just picking that one as an example right I know when um they interview for candidates they always pick the best qualified candidate for the position I do know that and and I know Andrew and Josh are always looking for the best quality coaches for our students that's our I'm not I'm just picking that one nothing against him particularly great guy don't get me wrong but our teachers it's in their contracts they do have first rights so if they have coaching permit and they have experience they definitely yeah they do it's in their it belongs to their contract so those ipens are all theirs so if nobody wants it in

135that Union then it goes out to the public now if they have someone that has not much experience and they have someone from the outside that has a lot LW experience they can interview at that point and then they'll pick the best qualified candidate is there anything that I might have not have captured that you want to share generalized yeah yeah go ahead I mean just generally speaking very few adults want to be coaches so are and and you can't blame them um based on a lot of what they have to deal with so we typically have less than a handful I would say of applicants typically on average uh the jobs that you would consider let's say coveted job a a really good job Football let's chuse that one for an example um same

136thing less than six applicants so it's not there's just not a lot of applicants out there to pull from um lacrosse just use that sport as an example is one that there's not there's not a huge pool so even that one is even less um tennis another one super low applicant pools it's really it's us in out as much as possible who do you know who do you who can help us here um you know again if you have like a big time job baseball something like that you know you you'll pull a little bit more but even then you you still won't even probably hit 10 um whereas in teaching very different the number of applicants is just so much higher so when it comes to Athletics it's it's hard it is very difficult

137to fill positions even for Cromwell being a very desirable location you know I think a a very popular site that you could actually go to and look at and you'll see all those uh openings for coaches is the CIA website you go on there there's just so many vacancies um with school districts across the state of Connecticut that are looking for coaches so that's a great place for people to take a look at in case anybody is looking for a coaching position um it's just huge need across the the state yeah it's after school weekends I to I totally trust the I'm just curious what the process is sound like Mr Heisman has just volunteered I know nothing about it I'm not qualified for that super quick but Steve just to heads up um my

138son's High School sent an email out to all the parents of the program for lacrosse saying if you're aware of any lacrosse coaches please refer I mean that's unheard of that's how desperate they are and our lacrosse programs are fairly new especially the women's lacrosse so um it's and we don't have youth program and the youth program we us to partner with it cost took a huge hit during Co um was Rocky Hill and they now shut their program down so I mean it's great a lot we still have a lot of people participating in it but you're getting a level of play that's significantly different than what a lot of coaches are used to seeing okay are we good with the stiens would anyone like to make a motion to approve them I'll make

139the motion oh so mat first sorry second Kelly all in favor opposed extensions motion carries stiens are approved informational Human Resources Personnel activity Jay in your packet any questions comments on that yeah I just think retirements oh yeah yeah is that okay of course um we have a couple retirements um we have um Fran Allen who was a math and reading tutor with us since October 2012 13 years um that's a long time to dedicate her and she is awesome to crl Middle School um and we are going to miss her and we are incredibly grateful for her service and we wish her well in her retirement and and um Michael unin who is our custodian he's been in crell for 32 years he's an awesome human being um a really hard worker and we

140are really going to miss him um and but we wish him so much suc so much happiness in his retirement he deserves it the Andrew is going to cry Fran Allen oh CU she's under resignation not retirements she retirement oh I I believe oh I'm sorry I thought it was a retirement Oh either way okay we still it's okay all right and we thank them for their service as well okay we'll move on to principal reports um reference KLM and N any questions on those all right policies we have none on for second read none on for first read committee reports policy met tonight Lori is there anything you'd like to update us with from tonight's meeting uh just that Dr Macker informed us that we're almost completely up to date on for the first

141time and yeah and congr toally up to nice work it's our policy committee so we're all done on policy we're not meeting anymore K's like nope that is not true not what she said I don't remember that part all right and then we do have reference o for facilities and you had to change to reference o from facilities we don't approve it but it's just Lisa if you want to note that that the Jour was made by Kelly and not me thank you um topics for future agendas before we get to that I just want to mention you had requested that we um well we could cancel the March 25th meeting yeah we don't have anything that's pressing we've gone through everything I don't have any we don't really have a reason um to have

142a meeting if you'd like to cancel it it's always on uh we have two in January two in February two in March because of budget motion okay I think that's unanimous um and then facilities was supposed to be that night but we are good with facilities too I believe right Kelly okay I heard you were looking for another date we can it already it's already been voted on all right any comments updates announcements from board members I'll go around start with Matt um I just um my daughter and I went to the the Black History Month showcase uh here in this building it was fantastic oh so you saw those second graders uh no I missed them we we came a little bit um towards the towards the second half but um I don't know

143who it was that was doing the traditional storytelling on stage that was amazing um that that young person I assume was a student did such an amazing J job had such a great presence I actually was talking to my 9-year-old daughter about timing when storytelling because the timing was perfect so it was that was to me was a highlight but it was all awesome all the artwork that was displayed in this room um there was just so much good there and there was just so many people I was I was really impressed to see the turnout it was a great job thank you for attending nice alen anything Kelly super brief just a huge thank you to the PTA for um the science fair it was amazing and then huge congratulations to everyone that was

144in the play this weekend it was every year I'm like it's not going to be better than last year and it was it was amazing yeah super great job thank you Lori anything yeah just real quick so I attended the um Cromwell in Berlin had uh the transition Academy had like a a a night information night for families in both towns so I went to that and it was it was good they had all different agencies there and information for family and it was it was good so thank you um Dr Macky anything else no okay I said um Katherine nothing Kelly I was just going to say the same thing Kelly was saying that the the high school did amazing on their whole drama production of Adam's family it was amazing I don't know

145how those kids can just stand on stage by themselves belted out and remember every single word but it was amazing and I look forward to the School play this weekend into the woods all right thank you see if anything okay then we do have an executive session for the purpose of discussion to review the assistant superintendent position job description and for that I'd like to invite in Dr Macker and Mrs deoro so is there a motion to go into executive session by Matt second by Kelly all in favor oppose extensions motion carries in executive session at 900 p.m. e