001e at this time I'd like to call this regular meeting of the CHL Board of Education to order at 700 p.m. Laura would you take roll call please on the phone dialed in yes here M Franklin here M here Mr Heisman here Mrs keer here Mrs here Mr here Mr zi here Mrs Arista Miss Barry here Mr Bano Mrs bton here Mr butwell here Mrs poo here Mrs jaro here Mrs tun Dr mrey here miss Maher Mrs o here Mr Shephard Mr shuttle M Tet WIS here Julia Bova summer Tatro Jack Migo Madison Striker Anthony Salvatore James Demetrius is there anyone else here from the town that we did not mention okay I think I think we're all set thank you all right move on to approval of our agenda and any additions and deletions
002and shar's review so tonight our agenda includes celebrating our preschool students and staff and we also moved our superintendent update a little earlier in the agenda this evening and it's pertaining to the racism concerns um we also have two items proposed for executive session this evening one for the purpose of interviewing and potentially hiring the director of facil sorry the director of um Finance not facilities and the second item is discussion and possible action concerning an attorney client privileged communication related to steps for addressing equity and Equity matters and that's proposed for executive session with a potential action to retain a diversity equity and inclusion consultant to help guide the district and administration and items related to our Equity work and as always we would have any actions out of um executive session and in
003our public session so are there any changes to this agenda Dr Macker no okay is there a motion to approve the agenda motion by Katherine second by Alan all in favor opposed extensions motion carries so as we're all aware Cromwell public schools has been the subject of several news stories related to allegations of racism and this has been at the Forefront of all of our minds and our leadership team has been working day and night on this concern Dr mcky has sent out Communications and our board also released a statement Friday in response and at this time I'll turn it over to Dr Macker in partnership with our our mayor James demetriadis who can provide us an update on what the district has in place how we've been working collaboratively with stakeholders and where we
004go from here okay good evening everyone and thank you for being here tonight uh to discuss something that is very important um first and sadly I'd like to um remind everyone that racism does exist in society and schools are a microcosm of society so there for we would be turning a blind eye if we said that it did not exist in our schools as I mentioned in my statement last week I am extremely saddened and sorry that students are feeling horribly and are experiencing incidents of racism and bullying in our schools it breaks my heart as educational Equity has always been important to me since the day I got into education 30 years ago now more than ever it is critical that we work together as Town officials school officials and Community leaders and partners
005to address these matters we cannot do this work alone I have spoken with mayor demetriadis and he will be speaking shortly um and he is here tonight um because we want the crell community to know that we have been working around the clock to develop a plan with additional action steps that require us to redouble our efforts as a school district we have done so much to address racism Equity diversity and inclusion and in the near future I will share all of those action steps with the community however we need to do more and we will as you know I am unfortunately and fortunately because every child deserves um their privacy I am unable to share private student matters but we can identify our core values and beliefs as a community and we can do
006everything to ensure these are not just words on a piece of paper I have spoken to Senator ler who is also here this evening and mayor demetriadis about the need for resources for us to hire a Dei consultant which we are in the process of doing and have been working with um since we learned of uh this incident and maybe in the future we need to look at hiring a Dei coordinator for the district and Community to help us navigate these very serious issues that are unacceptable and hurtful before I introduce mayor Demetrius I would like to emphasize that every child has the right to feel safe protected and valued at school and we are sorry that we have students that do not feel safe valued and honored because of their race we are committed
007to changing the school climate and I believe the community climate um and we will continue training all staff on how to respond to issues of racism and Bully bullying our children will learn that hate does not belong in our schools and every child deserves to be seen heard and valued in our school community and now um in collaboration I have been working with mayor Demetrius and I know mayor demetriadis would like to also share his thoughts and things that we have been speaking about as well so welcome mayor thank you doc thank you Dr Macker and members of the Board of Education indeed over the last few week days uh myself and Dr Mack and uh chairperson Selena Keller have have had multiple conversations multiple phone calls uh as we work together to try to
008move forward in a way that puts our students first and emphasizes love compassion and healing um so I have passed out to all of you some prepared comments which I'll Now read from um and uh I'll begin as you know last week a Courageous Courageous students shared their experience of racism harassment and bullying during their time at cromo schools uh I was heartbroken and horrified to have learned of their experience and thankful to the students for stepping forward there should be a zero tolerance policy for bullying discrimination or harassment and I reject all of its forms since these students have come forward I've also heard from other parents students and alumni about their experiences and incidences of again bullying harassment and discrimination these situations are unacceptable and we must and will work together to move
009forward so no child or family feels isolated undervalued or disrespected to that end we've had continuous conversations uh as a community about how we can do better and how we can be a more open loving and welcoming School District I've been in close contact with Senator ler with the Board of Ed chair and with Dr um enza mackery as we continue to be committed to ensuring that no student has to endure harassment bullying or discrimination consistent with our core values of equity and Justice I am proposing and presenting to you for your consideration a number of action items so that we can achieve the shared goal of equity here in our school and the superintendent has already taken some proactive steps before this meeting to reach and meet some of these proposed action items uh
010to ensure that the students are part of that engaged dialogue and that they're partners with us as we seek solutions to what is a systemic and Nationwide issue uh we will be meeting with uh the Unity Club and other student stakeholders as we move forward and those things have already been in progress So to that end our goal is to be collaborative and to have conversations to reaffirm our commitment to a safe inclusive School environment free from discrimination harassment and bullying to that end I'm proposing the following goals uh number one the super superintendent provide a community update on the progress made so far in Dei including steps taken over her tenure to address Dei and bullying as part of this commitment uh we're going to be or of to transparency I'm proposing creating a
011web page where all of the policies and updates on work that has been done and work that will be done can be posted I should note five years ago this school district did not have a single social worker or school psychologist that was full-time and we now have a a growing number of those support uh mechanisms for students uh town and school leaders will meet with the Unity Club for a listening session about their concerns again keeping students at the core of what we do and listening to the students and their experiences uh the Board of Education tonight is going to be hiring a diversity equity and inclusion consultant to help guide the town through the process of healing and strengthening trust with our families and our students uh consider hosting a community Forum on
012building allyship around issues of bullying harassment and discrimination and allowing members of the community to share their stories and for us to hear what the public feels needs to happen next now this will be a facilitated forum and the town of Cromwell has a Dei committee as well and we are ready and willing to help co-sponsor and collaborate on setting up that meeting so it's not just about the schools but about our town as a whole and how we can do better as a town exploring an independent climate and culture survey Guided by our Dei consultant for parents on issues of bullying racism and harassment to receive honest feedback on the perceptions and effectiveness of current policies in tandem with the input steps outlined above uh we need to work on making sure that our
013documents and policies are living documents we need to develop a communication strategy to make sure we spread awareness for our policies so parents and students who are experiencing discrimination or hate know where to go and where they can be supported and in to that end by creating a pathway to healing and inclusion we can continue to build on our Dei trainings that we have currently and present our courageous conversation future training plan and make sure that the public knows what the board of is doing and then on the town end what the town is doing for our staff and then finally expanding opportunities for mental health support for students with the town uh within the town and within the Bard ofed who are experiencing discrimination or bullying uh School social workers and psychologists maybe can
014have expanded hours where we can look at trying to get State funding to expand those positions because our students need the mental health support as well and I identifying people in each school who will be the point person for when there are instances of harassment or discrimination so students have a safe space within their building to express their concerns while as mayor by Charter I don't have any legal control over the Board of Ed I know that you are all taking this seriously and I know we are colleagues in moving forward together to make positive change fighting the Legacy and horror of a systemic racism is a national issue and the Insidious nature of bullying can be all too present and it's difficult it requires true vulnerability to admit mistakes dedication to to make changes
015and transparency to building a coalition for progress I believe in Cromwell and I believe we can do that work and I believe together we can correct old wrongs and build for a better future and I know you are all excellent Partners in that endeavor and I look forward to supporting you however I can uh from the town perspective so thank you and thank you Dr Macker thank you mayor thank you mayy Demetrius well said and thank you for all of your thoughtful um everything you've done over the weekend with maer and collaborating on this and we are hoping to bolster our efforts and we'll you know talk more about it later on tonight and hiring the diversity equity and inclusion professional to help guide us with that so thank you very much are there any
016comments from our board members okay any other updates we'll do them later in the agenda actually okay we'll move on to celebrating our faculty and staff and for that we have our ECS Preschool teachers and PA professionals introduced by principal Lucille duno good evening everyone I'm going to ask that our preschool staff come up and stand with me behind me is Kate latronica Elena Fates Sarah blendo and Karen Amer they're among the many preschool teachers and staff so in celebration of Staff it is my honor and pleasure to introduce the preschool team and I'm going to say them all by name because they all need to be recognized Kim Nei marusak Karen Amer Cheryl Conroy Jackie juel Moren mandville Sarah blundo our peras Carrie Ral Kate latronica Amy Pepe Elena Fates Jen ly Jen Salomon
017I'm sorry Salvatore Tina petrello Katherine d Miss Deo ly and Alisa Ferguson we are excited to share with you the news that the preschool program received the niyak re accreditation niyak accreditation is a rigorous and quality improvement system that uses a set of 10 research-based standards to recognize and drive quality improvement in in high quality Early Learning environments to earn nyak accreditation our preschool staff went through an extensive selfs survey and quality improvement process followed by an on-site visit by a niak assessor to verify and ensure that the program met each of the 10 program standards and hundreds of corresponding individual criteria what makes our preschool different and successful is the investment that these folks behind me and the ones that are not here tonight they come to school every day and work with our
018students it's the investment in the process that makes what happened the time the patience the nurturing the flexibility and the connections that our staff exhibit to support our little ones is outstanding and we are so proud tonight to present the preschool team for their commitment and dedication now while I stand here we're also celebrating students tonight in celebration of students at ECS we have a special video for you but before we show it I just want to share that sakib hosein a senior at cromal High created a video as part of of his Capstone project we uh thank Andrew cuckle Doug McGuff and SB for capturing the preschool students typical day so this video will explain to you why we celebrate our students [Music] tonight it's an interesting day full of a lot of play
019um interactions um it's just an eventful day for a lot of fun sometimes it's moment to moment um you know with the little kids there's a lot of things that go into full day that's a little moment and activity it's those little moments the little moments that change from those big moments those little interactions that you see take place um with children that might be more difficult for them to get married um but those little moments become those big moments for me my favorite thing um especially working with young children is seeing the excitement when they are doing new things when they finally get to do something that they thought they could do and they just discover this and how feel and just watching the and I just always kind of felt like I knew
020I wanted to work with children and um if I could make a difference in know lives [Music] my favorite part is watching the kids when they learn something new it's kind of like a light bulb goes off and they have a big smile and they see that they Le something it's really awesome sometimes we're learning new things and we make a big mess sometimes we have some behaviors we're trying to work through and that's okay they're all teachable moments I think it's magical I think that being able to affect your children as as little leers and also just being involv the F especially the has just been very rewarding it's a gift I think it's is just their energy their love and enthusiasm for and for um playing with one another I always wanted to
021be a teacher ever since I was a little girl and um so it was [Music] just I'm the preschool coordinator and a special education teacher here I think the vary of never interesting and fun to see um the Dynamics with the teachers in their classrooms and they bring to very forunate to have teachers and staff that collaborate every day and we justed reation through ni and ni is a rigorous quality improvement system it uses a set of 10 research based standards to collaborate with Early Childhood programs to recognize M quality impr quality EnV what we do [Music] here thank you thank you I'd like to just commend all involved in the accreditation process for our prechool program I know it's a very lengthy process and also commend all the teachers and the pars for the
022work they do day-to-day are proud that our program is full day that's not typical of every town and um that we receive nyak re accreditation is is really unique um preschool is unique in itself because these students have never been to school before so you're really molding them and I think you have to have a true love for young children to to do this job and it's very clear that these teachers and parents do so thank you sure of course again thank you um we're always anxious when it comes to any accreditation n accreditation um as miss tuno explained and the teachers explained um it's very rigorous process and we are scrutinized to the nth degree um and our teachers did an amazing job um and Mrs naggie marusak uh is the head and leads
023this team um I'm exceptionally proud and I also very when I walk into the the the kindergarten classrooms because I wasn't a principal with had prek I would say everyone should be a kindergarten teacher before you teach anything else and I really believe now that everyone should be a preschool teacher before you teach anything else because that is where they truly learn how to be good people and it is not easy people uh may think that we have three four five six kids in a classroom but it's very difficult because they need a lot of support but then when you go in for the beginning of the year to the end of the year you just can't believe what these kids are doing um because the teachers have nurtured them and um believed in them
024so I thank the teachers and the administration and everyone who has participated in making sure that we get this niak accreditation because we never want to lose it and I know how hard it is to get so thank you for everything you've done and the kids of course are the best part any other comments from our board Kelly I feel weird not looking at you guys but my son went through the prek program last year and just with the most heartfelt thank you for everything um everyone who works in the preschool does um it did mold him he would wake up in the morning and say is it a school day and get bummed if it was a Saturday or Sunday so um special shout out Mrs Amer you are amazing but everyone on the
025team is amazing and thank you guys so much for everything that you do thank you anything else Steve again I just want to say uh thank you like Kelly said um as a father of a special needs student it all begins with you guys and um making sure that he's a member of this community and that he's respected and loved by all of you and we appreciate that thank you thank you Steve anything else all right then we'll move on to public comments before I read the rules for public comments is there anyone here that would like to make a public comment okay um I saw jessam you can come up and then we'll go from there do we have a list no okay read them um I'll read the rules sure individuals are welcome
026to address the board of education for up to 3 minutes each during the public comment portions of the meeting board members will generally not engage in dialogue The Board of Education chair may his or her discretion extend the time for public comments speakers must come to the podium and share your name and address to facil efficient sharing of your comments we encourage you to share any comments you may have about instruction discipline or learning materials first with your students teacher then principal and followed by the superintendent before bringing the comments to the board of education however if you do not believe your comments have been addressed appropriately or if you believe they should be shared with the board of education for any other reason please feel free to do so any complaints or concerns about
027individual Board of Education employees should be directed to the superintendent and the Board of Education and writing rather than in public comments at Board of Education meetings all comments must not include personal taxs and comments cannot be discourteous threatening vulgar or otherwise inappropriate the board chairperson May at his or her discretion curtail any public comments or terminate any such individual's privilege of address at any time if they violate any of these rules violate reasonable reasonable standards of decorum or boisterous or repetitious the Board of Education reserves the right to limit public comments to particular topics the Board of Education values the well-being of our students and families and those electing to make public comments at a Board of Education meeting are strongly discouraged from sharing identifiable information of their children and such comments including but
028not limited to name age and learning learning ability and are also reminded that any comments made during a chomal Board of Education meeting become a permanent matter of permanent matter of public record that may be accessible by individuals in the future as such any person making public comments during a chomel Board of Education meeting is solely responsible for the information they choose to share we kindly ask that you consider the privacy of your family and your children while making comments so if you could state your name and address please thank you yes I will and I just ask that members of the media don't use any of my personally identifiable information if possible so my name is Jessica lamb I live at 12 highd Road and I use she her pronouns um I'm here tonight
029to be an ally for our students and families who experience racism in our town um I'm here because it's not fair that we ask them to come and speak up for their experiences we should all be here for each other so I'm very glad to see um and hear the discussion about adding a de Andi consultant I'm glad to see that there was a topic added to the agenda this evening and I definitely agree it's the right approach to get an expert opinion in this area that being said I encourage you to rethink the deliverables for this consultant and mayor Demetrius had some great ideas I definitely support those um if we bring in a consultant that is solely focused on looking at our policies and procedures and where we've experienced areas of harassment and
030bullying that's I I fear that's a little too closed I have some ideas that I can share as well because what you're not going to find is that it's any one person uh causing acts of racism in our schools and once we Dole out the consequences then it's done that's not how it works the problem is actually much harder than that because unconscious bias exists in every single one of us and acts of racism aren't over sometimes I think that's what people believe that it's an an action that you can point to that you can see what happened but but quite often it's subtle um it might be small comments it might be small non-verbal actions that are taking place and I recognize the job in front of you is not an easy one and
031your next steps won't be effective unless each of you individually do the work to understand your own unconscious biases and what you truly believe Equity inclusion and belonging to be Jessica is your mic on I'm sorry I thought it sounds like it was okay all right I'll Stand closer um so it's I do think it's important that you all set the tone for our next steps be visible say thank you when someone has the courage to speak up celebrate when an ally has the courage to step in and model humility and correct yourselves publicly when you make a mistake because none of us are perfect and in closing I I challenge you to design a a multifaceted program that celebrates diversity and organically helps us achieve Equity inclusion and belonging so please when you engage
032the dni consultant consider defining Pol uh policies that promote Equity across all dimensions of diversity lean into courageous and often uncomfortable conversations demonstrate inclusive behaviors every day and hold each other accountable to our actions I heard that we're going to set up or we're going to include additional supports for for students that need it but we also need to teach the students um who don't necessarily need those supports to understand what inclusive Behavior looks like and how to act partner with families the town and businesses to take action and make it stick and ultimately help us become a model school system for allyship so as I've as I have before I will again I offer my services and my time to support this important Journey thank you thank you okay I saw several hands so
033why don't we just go across that that front row if there was someone else in the front row that wants to come up next and state your name and address good good evening my name is Shannon Hughes Brown my pronouns are she her and my address is 7 Court Place I appreciated the district's timely notification to the community when a concern was raised last week but I was disappointed in how the letters did not represent a proactive approach to build a culture of inclusion but rather relied heavily on existing statements policies and Report reporting procedures the current approach expects those being harassed or discriminated against a self-report our current reporting process is arduous contains many steps those steps are not clear nor is the policy translated in addition many of the documents referenced are not
034easily accessible I could not find the safe School climate plan on the website in an email search or in the school's handbooks the response also ignores why self-reporting may be difficult distrust in the system from failed previous reporting attempts cultural expectations that further marginalize certain groups of people and Trauma associated with reliving difficult experiences the district currently requires individuals to understand confusing procedures and navigate a very complex and tiring legal landscape and is that is likely silencing people we know that families and parents have concerns around bullying and harassment others have been raised this week others can't be raised because the complexities surrounding reporting and some have been shared with you at other points of time is clear that it's time for us to re-evaluate and take steps now to move from a reactionary culture
035for issues surounding racism bullying and harassment and to move to a proactive culture I strongly support the action on tonight's agenda to retain a consultant to help us navigate these subjects and begin the next phase of the journey I also agree with Jessica's comments about how we need to look more broadly at what we're doing to create a more inclusive and Equitable culture I'd also like to offer my time and resources if they can be helpful to you as we continue on this journey and while this does take the whole Community it also starts with you thank you for your time thank you anyone else good evening my name is Dr Leela Latoya Jarrett and although I don't have anything prepared I did want to speak about my own experience with um Cromwell school system
036I'm sorry can you just State your address I missed it 11 seater drive thank you I wanted to speak about about my own experience with my own children um over the past year we have experienced several incidents where I have felt that my son was bullied we experienced several incidents um where I felt that my son was minimized only for him to test and to being the 1% of Cromwell gifted um because my family has not felt safe living in Cromwell I have removed my son from the district and he will now be attending on full scholarship a private school uh because that was the genus that was in him that wasn't recognized by Cromwell school it was disheartening to me to see 500 plus comments of parents of um past alumni and students and
037then to receive two letters that were uh so full of political jargon there was no apology no recognition that this stuff happens um I remember this summer coming to the board of EDS several times and feeling minimized because my son's packet wasn't even on the table and being asked if I was coming there because he was suffering in math when in fact he tested above math um above his grade level and above the school level um so there are plenty of things that happen at the school level there are plenty of things that happen at the board level and when you call above you feel dismissed and minimized so it's one thing to get a Dei consultant but that can go a as well when I'm sitting in this room I'm only seeing one other
038um person who I'm assuming is African-American this is a huge problem in 2024 and to be quite honest um it feels embarrassing to me to be in a town in 2024 when there aren't a lot of people in the education system that look like my son who look like me especially since uh my son's parents both doctors my parents both doctors and it is baffling to me that we would get to this point and my son won um would be minimized um and it just feels it doesn't feel great so I wonder about what's going to happen outside of a Dei consultant is there a call to hire uh more um Hispanic and African-American professors what's being done I know there are systems like Teach for America who you know actually float those teachers into
039different places um other than uh Black History Month what happens throughout the year it's not something that's I like isolated and localized to one month or one time so I just want to know what is going to happen and when you hire a Dei consultant I've been in plenty of agencies who have done it completely wrong um are you looking at people who are looking at ethnic minorities who are the people who are dealing with issues with racism because it's one thing to deal with issues of racism and to be an invisible minority so that doesn't work either so I just you know I'm interested in what the plan is going going to be um I would rather not receive emails uh that are um evading blame or evading um apologies or anything like that
040and I would rather see something personal that's done with the children all the way from preschool all the way to high school thank you there any other comments this evening Senator ler uh good evening uh chair keler uh Dr Macker members of the board of education for the record I'm Senator uh Matt ler and I just want to thank you for doing the work and taking this seriously um as I think most people know I uh last week I uh read a uh disturbing Reddit post uh and afterwards met with uh two students uh at Cromwell High School who shared their experiences which were um heartbreaking uh infuriating uh and uh uh really unacceptable and it was important to listen to that and hear their experiences of racial bullying and um since then I've also
041heard from other students concerned about bullying uh students and former students concerned about bullying in the school system um I've heard some specific concerns about confusion about how and when to report bullying that I think we could uh address I think we all agree that cromal schools should be safe and they should be safe for all students including students of color um I think most importantly my priority in this uh I'm not on the board of education you all are is just been to listen uh is to make sure that we are listening to students and we're listening to community members um and to continue to listen that this shouldn't be a one-off but until we get it right we should uh continue to uh make sure that we are soliciting input and making sure
042that we're taking the steps that are necessary to ensure that uh all students uh in our community are safe um and then to support the town on the school district uh where you need help to make sure that we're plugging those holes repairing the damage and making sure that we're uh doing the work necessary to to ensure that you know all of the things that we're hearing tonight uh are addressed over time um I support fully support uh the plan that mayor demetriadis uh outlined I think it's great um I do know that that's going to take some work I also think that we're not going to have all the answers here tonight and I and I think that we should uh have some humility in that and understand that that's okay and not get
043defensive about that and just understand that we have more work to do uh we're not going to solve all of the issues tonight but we can take some some important steps forward uh and continue to work together to dialogue and to make sure that students know that their voices matter uh the parents know that their voices matter and that we're going to keep working at this until we get it right thank you thank you Senator ler good evening my name is Anita Ford Saunders I live at 14 Brookview Lane in Middletown Connecticut and I'm the president of the middle sex County NAACP I'm here this evening to speak about the hate crimes we learned about recently from two students from Cromwell High I was not surprised at their experiences unfortunately experiences like these are part
044of the Cromwell school system history and it has to stop to the two young women who shared their truth I thank them it took courage to expose these ugly facts about the students who hurt you there should be an investigation and once the perpetrators of these crimes are identified they should be dealt with swiftly now you may be shocked by my terminology but if you look at Connecticut Law the definition of a hate crime is clear intimidation based on bigotry or bias they address certain actions that intimidate or harass another person motivated in whole or in substantial part by his or her actual or perceived race religion ethnicity disability sex sexual orientation or gender identity or expression there are four more criminal statutes that addressed hate crimes but the one that rises to this occasion
045says ridicule on account of race Creed or color first second and third degree intimidation based on race the fines are very Hefty between three3 and $10,000 and if it can it can accompany jail time so let's just sit and let that marinate for a second these are hate crimes it's also my understanding that the current superintendent and her staff have mve the needle a bit towards educating students teachers administrators and staff about the real meaning of equity without these trainings and deep consistent authentic courageous conversations students education will be stifled they will enter adulthood unprepared to interact respectfully and realistically with others our world is not one color ethnicity or race and to parents who have mustered up myths created by unfounded paranoia take a breath take a look at these little girls down here
046yeah as a parent of two now phenomenal adults I had to learn to take a step back and not let some of my fears prevent them from learning and living their best life their worlds are much bigger than mine were at their age finally I represent the middle sex County NAACP our branch is only one of 18 in this state representing close to 3,000 members we are here and we will be here to support and protect marginalized students in Cromwell thank you thank you are there any other comments this evening please please come on up Kim Liber 14 Elm Road Cromwell Cromwell alum grew up in cruml cruml is not a racist town we're a close-knit town bound mostly by our athletic Traditions um and everybody knows everybody uh I deplore the incident uh there
047have been several I've been through some of these as a on the coaching circuit um there um proaction is better not retaliation you have many resources available these days people from all walks of life only light can quench the darkness and I think you know who quoted that quote um I also do as a coach a black history month thing on my Facebook page so we are not all closed-minded okay what we must get a hold of is this tribal Warfare It's toxic look where our country is it was not like this growing up I would try to address this thing also in the parenting is it lack of parenting parents who are too busy too tired unaware or is it because government has usurped that role from the parent the destruction of the nuclear
048family that's dangerous I think this is rehab a good resource is the course on diversity big brothers and big sisters uh I think it's in Hartford it is run by former uh representative Andrew fleshman Senator or representative I um there I didn't find anything political about it that that that's a good place there's lots of literature and our histories and ever remember country's greatest resource not machines it's the are at war with each other it's frightening it's an I want to go back to when I was in high school cool thank you thank you any other public comments please come up oh not you okay good evening my name is Christy douly I'm a resident of 15 scotlan I am here tonight along with my colleagues to support a student centered budget that respects the
049experience and contributions of all of our teachers and support staff We Care strongly about how the budget is allocated and feel that every member of our bargaining unit is vital in their current role thank you thank you is there anyone else here for public comment comment tonight okay hearing none we'll move on to reports of liaison from the Town Council Board of Finance building committee and Fields committee mayor demetriadis did you have another update for us I did thank you all um so as you may know I am um going to jump into the role as liaison uh moving forward to the board of education so this is my first meeting here as liaison uh from the Town Council uh last week I distributed a um letter to uh that was signed by uh the
050chairperson of the Board of Education and the board of Finance to update you all on the work that we've done after the tri board meeting of ear I guess now February I was going to say earlier this month but that was last month now um so what we have done is I think pretty revolutionary uh we after our meeting uh for those of you who weren't familiar with what the tribe board met on the board of Finance the Board of Education and the Town Council met together to discuss the gordian report the gordian facilities study identified up to 60 mli um 6 50 Mill milon doll worth of Renovations and repairs that our remaining three school buildings require in the next 10 years and I think that it was a pretty candid and uh fluid
051exchange about the Investments that we need to make in the infrastructure here in town and to that end uh myself the superintendent the chair your chairperson the board of uh Board of Finance chairperson John Ireland and myself and the town manager met and we discussed the pathway forward and so that pathway forward is going to have two phas the first phase has already been acted upon by you uh it's moving those 11 Capital non- reoccurring expenses that are over $112,000 from your budget uh to be presented to us and it will be presented to us in about a week and a half at a after a public hearing um for those 11 items that need to be addressed this year uh moving forward we're going we the Town Council has adopted and then your body
052will need to adopt and the board of finance will need to adopt a new CNR policy for one-time capital expenditure non- reoccurring EXP expenditures that are non-curricular technology or um I'm losing the other word but non-technology non-curriculum and non-operational in nature uh to be over $122,000 to come to the Town Council and then the board of Finance for funding this has two uh effects number one it allows you to focus your attention on the operational technological and curricular needs of your students and it also allows us as a town to have a larger dialogue and conversation about the continued upkeep management and improvements to our facilities uh additionally to that um after we adopt that policy and we deal with the immediate present of the 11 items for this year uh we are going to
053be creating a subcommittee of the three commissions uh two members from two members in an alternate from each board so uh 222 I'm bad at math so I think that's like nine um total that will work with uh claudo and the superintendent to develop a larger five-year uh investment plan for our buildings so that way we can see what investments do we need to make over the next 5 10 years so that our facilities are successful for the next generation of scomo students uh this is a I I don't call it revolutionary for nothing this is a huge and radical change in the way that business has been conducted um this board has been a a cheerleader for uh improvements to our existing facilities that's why we're getting a a brand new Middle School um
054and we have an elementary school a high school and an intermediate school that needs continued love um so I'm excited for this continued partnership uh and I'm excited for the opportunity for us to continue to have dialogues about a larger strategic plan for the town and so uh this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship and uh hopefully we will continue the work that we need to do and uh after our budgets are passed in uh May or June I imagine the subcommittee would start getting to work so that way next December January February March you we have the large capital expenditure items that are ready to go I'm happy to answer any questions on that if anyone does have them are there any questions hearing none thank you guys so much I look forward
055to being your liaison thank you okay there's no one here from Board of Finance building committee did um submit a report reference a in your packet oh I'm sorry about that Shannon no that's okay um yeah everything that we need to say is in the report but I did just want to take a moment to thank all of you for participating in the groundbreaking ceremony for your continued support of the project it was such a great moment for the town and to celebrate and I hope you've all made it by the site and got to see all the dirt that's moving around out there so thank you thank you something happens to me Shannon because I have a heart attack from all the noise and all the machines and I actually feel the whole my
056whole office can you come save me I literally was hiding under the table I told you but it's been an interesting week with the machines um I'm like what's going going on out there we're going to die but it's still exciting and Katherine do you have anything on the fields update I do not we are still waiting for um Town Council to provide us with what our going forward charge will be so we are kind of on a hold until that we're not quite sure which direction they're going to take okay thank you all right we'll move on to at long last oh wait sorry first town collaboration updates although I think we covered that with um Town Council unless you have anything further on that front no Dr mck Town collaboration it's been covered
057right okay oh mayor demetriadis did you have something else to add I'm still here um no um I think it's been I think it's been thoroughly covered um but if anyone has any any comments on it uh happy to address them and then on the fields I do have the fields standing on the agenda for the next meeting which is tomorrow I'm going to wait until we have some further discussions on the gordian report to see how we we stack the infrastructure projects with the capital Improvement project for the tennis courts and the track and the restrooms um but we will continue to have that conversation it is on the agenda tomorrow so I do anticipate some discussion about how we want to move forward with it but I don't think there'll be any final
058decisions until we have the opportunity uh to have a larger conversation with the subcommittee great thank you any other questions on that aspect from anyone okay thank you um we'll move on to report of our student Representatives Jack and Madison thank you so much for bearing with us and I should have moved you upe I thought it would be you know this lengthy so sorry for that and who would like to start we'll go with Jack starting hi um no worries about no worries about that it's not that huge of a deal um so our third marking hold on I'm sorry um our third markting term will conclude on March 28th and we have is this there you go I'm sorry um um so February was Black History Month and to celebrate our advisory classes
059has have decorated classroom doors to celebrate black black history the students researched prominent black figures in American history and and created a display based off of influential or just any like African-American no to that um uh in February student council hosted two fundraisers one was a pet supply Drive which yielded over a 100 items to be donated to the local in oh I'm sorry yeah don't worry you're doing great there you go okay sorry um so in February student council hosted two Supply drives one a pet supply Drive which yielded over 100 items to be donated to local shelters and another one for a Valentine's flowers sale we did that during our multiple laun CHS and we earned a lot of money from that thank you um in March um we are hosting a St
060Patrick's Day spirit Spirit sale of Lucky grams and Beads to benefit schools and students in need of financial assistance for field trips um the boys and girls volleyball season under Dr Bosworth Mr glowa Mr Miller and Mr Nino ended the the season last week the girls varsity team went undefeated during their six game season the boys also had a great season with ath athletes improving and learning to play as a team the ski club enjoyed their final run down the slopes on Monday March 1st the band is learning the music of Beethoven for their spring concert and beginning to prepare for the Memorial Day Parade under the direction of Miss sales the 26 member jazz band recently celebrated their last successful concert with the pizza party and members of Select choir are looking forward to
061perform another day of Sun at their Spring Concert the Unity Club under direction of Mr saaj organized the spirit week to honor black history month during each Spirit day's theme students learned about the achievements of Americans in the field of business civil rights entertainment and music through trivia contest held during lunch this week's curriculum is a day this week accumulated in a day of connecting inspirational black leaders to our own sore character Matrix under the direction of Mr glowa the art Club completed the their mure in the main hallway yearbooks are for sale and the Yearbook Club is organizing the layout of many photos that we have collected the drama club is producing the little Meri which will be presented the weekend of March 22nd 22nd and the CMS Sho crew under direction of Mr
062dagul is successfully correcting us ches to be recycled thank you thank you both are there any questions for our CMS reps all right Catherine yeah Little Mermaid Little merid all right thank you both okay superintendent updates and responses to board Ed comments and action items from prior meeting Dr Macker I just wanted um congratulate the um students at crell high school for Freaky Friday um it was a great play it was really interesting to be with two little ones a three-year-old and a six-year-old I brought my nieces and they were so confused at the switch and um we talk about moments when the light bulb goes off and the light bulb went off mid Midway for the six-year-old she was like wait a second they're switched bodies but they're wearing the same clothes right so
063that was the confusing part um and last night when her mother was putting her to bed she said I don't want to go to bed I don't want to go to bed and her mother said well you have to go to bed it's time to go to bed she was you don't understand my life at all you don't understand it if you could just be in my body for one day so it was really cute and it really made a nice um impact on kids and I love that it was uh a play that all and everyone could participate and watch um even the little ones so uh Kudos I'm sure everyone's exhausted to Mrs Nelson um um Mrs White Hill and Mr Schmidt I know there's a lot of other people involved um those
064are the three main and uh they did a great job and our kids are pretty talented so with that being said we did have a budget change um to 5.88% and we have been working um diligently to get all the budget books prepared and re um do our budget um so that we can have everything ready for the board of Finance which will be delivered on March uh 25th to them so that they can start looking at all the information besides that um everything that we have been doing um has been to address the issue um at hand um and I do feel without being defensive uh that we need to do a better job at letting everyone know uh what we are doing in our schools we lack resources um we should have and
065we will have a diversity equity and inclusion page on our um um on our our website um we've been talking about it and talking about it and we just it just never it's something that just gets shifted to the side and um we have so many things to celebrate that we do and and we don't um so that will be happening um and we might call Shannon and Jessica in to help us with it because Shannon's really good with websites Dr McLean um so we're going to get that started and to and to be shared um with everyone and I think everyone who really had the courage to come up and speak tonight because uh this is and speaking with Anita today Saunders this is a marathon and it's not going to be solved overnight
066even though every single one of us want it to be if I could have snapped my fingers a long time ago um it would have been you can ask my parents at the age of five when I started to ask questions they were like oh we don't know how to answer these questions um so we're going to work together we have to our kids deserve it um and I'm looking for forward to doing uh a lot of work that um is needed um and I applaud the woman who came up Miss Liber was it Miss Libera um because this is a pretty awesome place and we need to figure that out we need to figure out what's in the way um and we need to fix it or at least do our darnest to try
067so we're going to do that together and I'm committed and I'm very happy to hear others um committed and uh I don't believe that there isn't anything out there that we can't do when we all work together so thank you thank you all right we'll move on to the presentations and reports of administration and we have the 2023 24 budget update reference B in your packets Mr shutle if you wouldn't mind coming on up take over it with us thank you madam chair at least the the news this month is a lot more positive than it was last month when I reported on a projected $371,000 deficit as I had said last month we start looking at outstanding purchase orders uh see which ones can be closed uh we started doing that in all departments
068special education is no exception but we did find two large outstanding purchase orders that we could close for outside tuition um one a student had left and the other a state agency is going to pay for the students uh that has outside tuition so that was hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost savings not only with tuition but also with Transportation as well as I said in my memo to Dr mree uh special education is is variable uh month to month day to day week to week and so this month I'm much more positive much more happy uh about we're looking at right now minus 11,000 so that's good news but again that can change not only with special education but I would say the second largest variable would be facilities with maintenance and repairs
069because we never know when something large uh can go wrong uh repair or a maintenance item uh but again I'm I'm much more positive and I start on nothing's breaking right cludo you better start promising we need some good news around here so that's um as I said I'm much more positive this month than I was last month all right well thank you we can use some positive news and I'm glad to hear that there was some money found um any questions for Mr shuttle from our board members Steve the noncertified salaries the deficit there what what is making that up uh I say the largest factor there are more pair professionals based on IEPs for students and and more specifically one to one one to one pair of professionals any other questions none all
070right thank you thank you all right we'll move on to new business action a approval of our minutes and motions from February 13th regular meeting is there a motion to approve the minutes by Steve is there a second second Katherine all in favor opposed extensions motion carries minutes are approved and then we have an informational stipended approval um 2023 2024 reference D in your packet um it's listed as an approval but there's nothing listed so these are just res uh resignations and it's for informational purposes um but I I did have a quick question for either miss tomorrow or Miss Maher just related to um looks like girl softball at cruml middle school is open it's posted I assume and um it's upon us so I'm just wondering if we have any interest in that
071or what what's going on with that because both positions were posted so we're just waiting to see if someone applies and we'll go from there if there's anyone interested that hears this and they want to apply definitely send your application in but those are still pending still open andn could apply I did um email with um Jim vet and I asked them to be on the lookout for anyone that would could possibly be interested because we do have students who are interested in it we want to offer it we just can't find someone to coach Shar oh good oh great yeah see I don't follow social media for mental health reasons so I'm very happy we even uh placed it on our the CAC website so it's even on there and there's a lot of
072open coaching positions on there too so yeah for spring Sports yeah okay all right thank you any other questions from Michelle no okay we'll move on to the informational principal reports reference F G H and I and your packets any questions on those okay we'll move on to our second read hopefully you have access to look at them on your laptop or brought the packet from last month and we have items a through P um we had them on for first read at our last meeting are there any questions on any of those or do we want to go through them individually just let me know I'm on the policy committee but I would recommend that we go through them all in one shot but if anyone wants to do them individually please let us
073know but Kelly Lori and I are all on policy so we know we're looking and sorry Al didn't see you sitting there I'm sorry so uh yeah I would vote that we do it all in one shot May okay sure um just because it was um we are so embedded education has become so embedded in policy everything has a policy so as frustrating as it is to um families the policies uh for bullying for all our non-discrimination policies I we are following uh the statute and the model policies that are are provided to us from Shipman and Goodwin and we have to include all of that and it is cumbersome um and believe me my administrators don't like it either because it is very cumbersome for families it's cumbersome for them it's very timec consuming
074but I just want everyone to know that these policies um are not prepared by us for barriers they are legislative and they are statutory and they are mandatory um we will continue to look at them and do the best that we can end but they are statutorily uh expected that we follow go ahead cther just because there's been a lot of comments regarding our policies and and how how difficult they are to follow what can students and families do and maybe we need to communicate this if they're unsure about policies and they need some assistance going through some of the policies that we have that our state mandated but we but they are they are cumbersome um but what is what can we offer families to who can they go to if I have yet
075to not respond to anyone I believe that and if I didn't respond it was by accident including two people uh that have spoken tonight about coming in and meeting with me about things I would be more than happy to sit with anybody and review a policy um Laura manao and Dr Carrie McLean are very well um versed in it as well and our principles our principles are excellently versed in them especially bulc it's more um they are cumbersome and um they keep changing them the state keeps modifying them as you've seen we literally changed one that was we approved a few months ago so State said we had to and the the student discipline one we didn't even get through the second read with you before they made another change so then I had to
076put that one through so all of our administrators um are trained they know where the policies are they understand them um if they don't understand them we're in constant communication um and we are all happy to answer any and all questions because they are not easy um and we try especially with IEPs ppts um we our teachers do a great job at just trying to put it in terms that everybody can understand because if you read those documents you it I'm like what does that mean you know we we even question what some of these things mean so we are available to anyone who has questions about our policies always they can reach out to princip any administrator um at any time okay thank you sure and just to mention we did cancel policy for
077this evening um but we do obviously have a lot of policies to push through so I was just going to throw out there that maybe we flip-flop facilities with policy because our next committee would be facilities so um we can talk about that later but that was just something I thought of we could move that to March 26th and then hold facilities on April 16th April 16th but we'll let you know okay okay all right so with that if are there any other questions on the policies or is someone ready to make a motion to approve items a through P I'll make a Motion Kelly second by Allen all in favor oppose extensions motion carries and policies a through P are approved can I just add sure we do also have a public comment period
078at our policy committee meeting so if people do have input ideas thoughts to inform our policy you're welcome to come and provide us some feedback and and um insights thank you true all right policies we have none on for first read board committee reports I see we have none at the moment topics for future agendas the only thing I was looking to move up is the board evaluation of our superintendent in line with her contract it should actually be in June so um we would have your self-reflection in June and then our board evaluation in July is that how um the contract reads so do we have I'm sorry do we have two meetings in June or only one I can't remember I'm sorry ideally we would have my um I would have my evaluation
079by June um 30th so that because my believe it or not my contract reflects a lot of others um so Lori would have to go into it it's really actually was a pain last year for we only have one person in payroll so it was really difficult for her um so I can provide my we can either have a second meeting in June if you would like that and I could provide my update at the first one and then you could provide me with an evaluation um at a second meeting in June or I could provide my my uh self-reflection um in May it doesn't matter to me whatever you would like to do as a board um I just would um advise us to go back to having it done by June 30 so
080whatever you whichever way you want is okay okay we just need the two sure you can think about it about that yeah plent of time all right so we'll just go around quickly for comments and updates Alan do you have any comments Kelly Dr Macker I just did want to say one thing that when we did hire Dr Macker in 2020 one of the strengths that she did have was her experience in diversity Equity inclusion and so the district has developed a lot since then and I just want to recognize that she's done a lot of hard work and this has been difficult for all the the administration so um just want to let you know that our board does support the work that you've already done and we'll continue to do Katherine yeah I
081just wanted to say that of course there's nobody no news media or anything to here to quote us all but anyway um I we did listen to we do listen to everything people have to say um we are completely heartbroken over a lot of what's been happening there are a lot of conversations happening among current students former students um all of us and their and parents in town and families in town and I think the most important thing to remember is that we we listen to the the comments from from tonight and I've read things online and some of them feel really horrible love to have conversations with some of those people but just want everyone to know that um we are listening and we are asking everybody to help out in this in a
082positive way and not attacking because we need to work together to make this better and you are correct we have implemented a lot since Dr maer's been here there's a lot that's happened since I started I have three teenagers and one who graduated from cromo school last year um there are a lot of things that were implemented student driven some of them didn't go very well and they made a lot of adjustments but we also need families to encourage their current students to participate in what's being offered at the school because that was one of our biggest problems is that kids were not students were not participating so everybody needs to be a part of this solution so I think that we can get there if we work together um and I I also know
083that we've had issues in the past and um one one individual or one incident doesn't Define a school system we are still dealing with children people make mistakes adults do students do everyone does and we just need to work together to come to a good resolution and I think we're heading the right direction but we are listening to everyone thanks Katherine Kelly do you have anything to add um just on another note um I got to see the great play that the KL high school did um it's amazing the tal that these kids have and look forward to the Middle School play next weekend Alicia right so on another note around diversity equity and inclusion Friday was International women's day and so I just want to recognize that uh nationally less than 30% of superintendant
084are female so I'm very proud that we have a female superintendent and very few Board of Ed chair people are female so I'm also very proud that we have a female Board of edge chair I think it says a lot for our girls in school to see women in leadership positions so just appreciate you both Steve nothing all right so next on our agenda we have an executive session for the purpose of inter interviewing a candidate for the director of financial services proposed to be held an executive session with discussion and possible action to follow once we're out of executive session um and then we also have um let's see possible action for discuss sorry discussion for this is listed really awkwardly Sor let's see the second part is possible action concerning an attorney client
085privileged communication related to steps for addressing equity and policy matters and that's to be held in executive session with a potential action with three steps to it following when we come back in public session um we'd also need to invite in Dr MRE uh Mr Morrow uh anyone else interview candidate or you'll bring you'll bring them in okay for the first part and for the second part since we won't go back in public session we'll also invite in Dr Carrie McLean Dr macre anyone else okay motion yes is there a motion Catherine I saw Alicia all in favor opposed sorry do you mind if L leaves and just y I talked her about that exensions motion carries we are now in executive session at 8:15