001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I'm here. Kate >> here. >> Glattus. >> Dr. K. >> Dr. Cronin. >> Lauren >> here. >> Wanita >> here. Cynthia >> here. >> Sherry >> here. >> Sean >> here. >> Minnie >> here. >> Louisa >> here. >> Um so we did have Park Avenue School scheduled to uh present for Spotlight Your School this evening. However, Mr. Kick is unable to attend. And so we will we we will reschedu uh that presentation at a later date. So >> Lauren, can you um take the public participation? >> Sure. The board of education, the board welcomes public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to three minutes. Speakers may
002offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them. The board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about board of education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system. >> Thank you. We have nobody signed up. Oh, thanks. Sorry. Um, we have nobody signed up, but is there anybody here who would like to speak at this time? Nope. Okay, moving on. We have the consent calendar. Kate, can you take us through that? >> I'll make a motion that the board of education approve the consent calendar exhibits 26-09 through 26-12 in accordance with those with those exhibits listed. >> Second motion. >> Motion made by Kate, seconded by Al. Is there any uh questions or discussion? >> No. Okay. All those in favor? >>
003I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Do we have any educational staff representatives here today? No. Okay. Student representatives. >> Good evening everyone. I'm your BOG president Lori Fman and um today we're just showing just sharing notes of Danbury High School. And semester 1 just ended and semester 2 just started with a renewed emphasis on getting the class on time and ensuring that students Oh, I'm sorry. Just ensuring that students don't be using their phones during class. And winter sports have just started again. They're in full effect. boy swims, boy and girl basketball, wrestling, boy and girls indoor track and um seniors are getting their college um admission decisions as well as the National Honor Society fall induction was held in December. The DHS annual winter concert was held on December 8th. The music department did
004a great job and the students performed beautifully. Okay, DHS annual winter concert was held on December 8th. The music department did a great job and the student groups performed beautifully. Musical rehearsals has started for Jesus Christ Superstar. There's more to come on that soon. And L testing for ML students is starting on February 9th. NGSS science testing coming soon. And then at the end of March, we have the SAT testing. All juniors testing wid window window is from March 23rd to March 27th. Um the robotics team is continuing to win their through the CT robotics league. They are getting ready for regionals and then hopefully nationals. And then our food pantry which is organized by Miss Cole has been growing steadily since we started around Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. >> I have a quick question
005for you if you have a minute. >> Yeah. >> First of all, you did a great job. Welcome. Um I do have a question about how the cell phone policy implementation is going. So just based on your experiences, how how is that affecting students? Um how has class environment changed since we put that into effect? >> It has positively engaged students and everybody's been more engaged during class and teachers have been reminding every all the students during the beginning of class to put them in the cell phone like jailbox. Yeah. the chip boss. >> Okay. >> Um I feel like without the cell phones, it's a little bit easier to pay attention in class and I um at least in my classes and what I've heard from others experience it or it's never really been
006a problem for students to put the cell phones away or like lock them up. Um I think especially because we get them back at the end of each block, I feel like it's like, "Oh, I'll get it back at the end." So it's like like the whole day, I don't know. I just feel like it works really well the the system that they have. Thank you. In a couple months, I'm going to ask you both to give me your thoughts about dress code >> at the high school as well. Okay. >> All right. So, start talking to your friends about it. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Presentation. So, yep. So, the uh next item on the agenda is a presentation from our own Melissa Hanoquin, who's the executive director of Danbury Collective, and
007she's going to give us a little update on what the group is doing and the kind of the purpose of of what the collective does. >> Awesome. Thank you, Superintendent Casemiro. Welcome to our presentation about the Dambury Collective. My name is Melissa Hanoquin and I am the executive director of the Danbury Collective. I am also joined by Grace Molina here who is our vice chair for the collective. I'm very excited to be here tonight to introduce our organization or reintroduce for those who are already familiar with our efforts. I was here back in the fall of 2024 to present to the board and I'm here again today to give some updates and again for some of the new board members that I haven't had a chance to meet with so far, this is an opportunity
008to learn a little bit more about what we are up to. Um and I will direct you to some of the slides up here. Am I going the right way? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, what is the Dambury Collective? We were formed in 2023 by a committed group of community members interested in starting a collective impact initiative for Danberry modeled after other Connecticut partnerships like in Stamford and Norwok. We started as a partnership between the community and the schools and we have grown to having over a hundred community partners um in our collective. We are nonprofit placebased cradle to career collective impact initiative which means we are hyperfocused on Danberry. We are led by the community and we are a network of community members, organizations and institutions. We work to advance equity together by learning together,
009aligning and integrating our actions to achieve systems change. We share power, trust, resources, and an effort to achieve a common purpose. And that common purpose is to improve outcomes for young people in Danberry. Um, United Way of Coastal and Western Connecticut, which has deep roots of over 80 years in Danberry, serves as our backbone organization. We are also a member of the Connecticut Cradleto Career Coalition which includes five cradleto career initiatives throughout Connecticut that includes us the Danbury Collective, Samford Cradletoeer, Bridgeport Prospers, Norwok Axe, and Waterberry Bridge to Success. I'll talk a little bit more about our coalition in a moment. And then we are also a member of Strive Together which is a national network of over 70 place-based cradleto career organizations um with representation from states including Connecticut all the way to California,
010Texas, Wisconsin um New York, lots of states have these cradled career initiatives and um being part of the strive together national network affords us the opportunity to learn alongside those other partners um many of which are are communities that have been in place um for many years. So although we are new again formed in 2023, we are able to learn from those who um have been in their communities a lot longer. Um and again, if you're familiar with the work that we do, some of this will be a refresher. Um but I appreciate you taking a moment to reorient to what we are all about. So our mission is led by the community. We work collectively to foster positive, measurable, and sustainable life outcomes for Danberry children, families, and young adults. Our vision is that
011all Danbury children, families, and young adults have full and equitable access to opportunities to be successful and thrive in life. And when we talk about being a cradle to career initiative, it means that we are really focused on um putting all the pieces of the puzzle together from the moment that a child is born um as well as supporting families before their children are born all the way up to career and um affording them a life where they are not just succeeding but also thriving. Here is just a quick visual of who is part of the Danbury Collective. It's very important for us to share um how people get involved. And you'll see here that not only do we have nonprofit organizations and um city institutions who sit at our um quoteunquote table, but we
012also have parents and families, community members, and ultimately very excited to get students directly involved in the work that we're doing very soon. I want to take a moment to talk about our organizational structure again to give you a little bit of a glimpse into who is involved in the work we're doing. Um but most importantly how we work to shift power to community members as we um uh advance our efforts. Oops, sorry about that. So um first of all, we have an advisory council which guides our strategy and actions. serves somewhat like a board of directors if we were a standalone nonprofit organization. Um, this council includes key nonprofit organization leaders. It includes a proxy for the mayor, the board of education chair, the superintendent, as well as some other school leaders and um
013community members as well. And the reason I want to quickly highlight that is because we have three permanent seats for parent representatives to sit on our council who can ensure um that community voices really listen to when we are making decisions as a collective. Very excited to share that in 2025 we appointed our first two parents to our council. They joined in the fall and it has been a really great experience to have their voices um guiding the work we do. We are getting ready to fill that third seat in a few weeks, I hope. Um, and then we also have three educator representative seats available. We do not have any of those filled. So, this is also a little bit of a plug. If you have any educators that might be interested in a
014leadership opportunity and also the work that we're doing, um, we are currently seeking interested candidates and referrals for all three seats. Our goal is to get representation from a variety of grade bands and um, children's ages. So, keep that in mind. We're looking for early childhood, um, elementary, middle, and high school representation. We also have over 100, as I mentioned, general members, which ranges from parents and community members to nonprofit and agency staff. And something that's really excited about exciting about the work we do is that people can uh join into what we're doing at any moment. There's a lot of different entry points. So people can get involved as simply as joining our newsletter or they can also come to our working group meetings as well as our community events. So lots of ways
015for people to get involved and stay involved if they like to. Um I'll run through these pretty quickly. I know I don't have too much time, but I think it's important to mention our guiding principles and pillars of the work we do. Um you've heard me say some of these words already, but um they're up on the screen as well. And these are the guiding principles of the collective impact model for systems change. These um on the right hand side are strive together's pillars and you'll see they complement each other. But all of these guide all aspects of the work that we do leading to our emphasis on collaboration, sharing power, community voice and elevating lived experience of those who live in our community. A little bit more about the cradle to career model. You'll
016see up on the screen here, Strive Together's um seven cradle to career outcomes and it ranges from kindergarten readiness all the way up to employment with very important milestones throughout those stages. Um all with the end goal of economic mobility. So we are really focused on ensuring that young people um have the experiences to throughout their um education to really be on a pathway to economic mobility. We know that that opens up many um growth opportunities and future success for young people. So that is our ultimate goal. If we are talking about a systems change approach, we also report disagregated data to strive together annually. So on these seven outcome areas, we do submit data to them. Um almost all of this is publicly available data from eds site but we do compile compile all
017of it and disagregate it for um different populations and report it out to strive together. I do want to say that something that was really exciting that I saw when reviewing last school year's data was the yearover-year improvement in many of these student outcome areas particularly in early grade reading and middle grade math. Um, I really noticed that bump up from the prior year. Um, and really getting back on track to what precoid levels looked like of achievement for students in Danbury. So, um, kudos to the district and to the city on those improvements. In addition, I mentioned that we are part of the Connecticut Cradle to Career Coalition. Through that coalition, we engage in shared learning across the five organizations. Um, it's really nice that we can learn from other organizations who have done
018the things that we're trying to do and we don't have to necessarily reinvent the wheel for all topics, but rather take best practices and adapt them to our needs. In Danberry, we also advocate for policies that advance education, economic, and health equity. We currently have a policy and advocacy subcommittee which is made up of community members from our five cities. Um and those community members provide perspective on what our policy agenda should look like. Very excited to share that in addition to some parents and community members who sit on that committee from Danberry, we also have two Danbury High School students um who are currently participating. And thank you to Associate Superintendent Bry Johnson who has brought those students into the fold with our work. Um, and these are students who are aligning what they're
019experiencing with us to some of the civic engagement work in their academy. We will soon release our 2026 P uh policy priorities and I am happy to share those once we have those ready. Now, touching on our current priorities, you'll see here we have four priorities that um we generally focus on. So these are chronic absenteeism and learner engagement, early childhood education, youth mental health and civic engagement. These are focus areas that have been part of our work since day one. They came out of a community needs assessment as well as focus groups that we did with community members and students as the most pressing topics for um young people in Danbury. We have working groups that are comprised of cross- sector stakeholders who meet generally on a monthly basis around these topics and uh
020do everything from learning together, hearing from guest presenters as well as identifying actions that we can take that are coordinated that um will advance these outcome areas. I'm almost done. Sorry. Um three more slides. So, just a quick visual here to show some of the key milestones that our group achieved in 2425. Um, I'm not going to read all of them because some I've already mentioned, but I will highlight that we launched a communitywide campaign to reduce chronic absenteeism. We were also selected by the Nelly May Education Foundation to participate in a regional viability study to guide future investment. and we give a lot of good information to them across many many pages of research and ideas about what's happening in Danbury. Um and Nelly May has really been excited about the work we're doing.
021They've also invested in the um Danbury public schools for many years as well. So um Danberry is definitely on their radar. We provided a six-part civic engagement training series for community members that attracted over 100 members uh participants, excuse me. As part of our first state policy agenda last year, we coordinated written and public testimonies on 22 bills across the five cradle career organizations. One of the things I'll say when we are training community members in civic engagement, we are really training them to be civic leaders and get in front of um places like the board of education and feel confident speaking about things that matter to them. So, it's really about giving them the tools to then speak up on issues that are important to them. Um a quick visual here which many of
022you will be familiar with. Um this is just a a snapshot of what chronic absenteeism has looked like in Danberry public schools over the last three years. So you will see on the right hand side some of the great progress that's been made um by the district and the community in reducing the number of students who are chronically absent. Something that's really exciting you'll see in school year 24-25 at the start of the year um that percent of chronically absent students is miles below what it was at the start of the 2223 school year. And um as you heard the last time I presented if you were here about a year and a half ago, we have communally done a lot of work to train community members and families on what chronic absenteeism is as
023well as how to get support. And we believe that our offers have complemented, sorry, our efforts have complemented the work that the district is doing to combat chronic absenteeism. And we are looking forward to transitioning that group to not just be focusing on chronic absenteeism, but to also look at learner engagement and how we can um improve that in the schools here in Danbury. So with that, my last um notes here are just about what's next and how you can get involved and community members who might be listening um how they can get get involved in the work that we're doing. So these are just some of the um things that we have coming up next. We are growing our own organizational infrastructure and capacity. We are also moving our efforts, as I mentioned, from
024chronic absenteeism to learner engagement and really doing both of those things. Um, we're also looking at improving our efforts around kindergarten readiness in collaboration with many of the early childhood stakeholders in town. We are continuing our civic engagement work. And most exciting I think to share tonight is that we will be launching a youth civic influencers program um in a few months which will be a small pilot cohort of youth ranging from ages 16 to 24 who will go through this leadership um academy if you will with us and hear from guest present presenters and really guide what the curriculum could look like for future civic engagement efforts. And then finally, something that we are working on um I think in uh collaboration with the district is really bringing attention to the great work that's
025happening here in Danbury public schools, particularly themies of Danbury. Um we've been excited to bring a few guests to tour the space and also feel that um we have some ways to tap into state and national networks and I think it's a hidden gem um the work that's happening with the academy. So we as a collective really want to draw attention to that and put it on the national um stage what everyone is doing here because it's certainly um an effort that could be uh done in other places. Um so with that you'll have my information up here. We have lots of ways that you can get involved um even again from an awareness perspective um on social media as well as our newsletter. So, I thank you so much for your time today and
026for all you do to support children and families in Danbury and also happy to answer any questions if um you have them for me. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Does anybody on the board have any questions? Kate >> Melissa, thanks so much for presenting to us again this evening. Um always good to hear from you. Um I had a quick question about the policy and advocacy committee you were talking about which is in alignment with the sorry with the other um uh the other four or five uh cradle to career groups in Connecticut. Yes. >> Um can you talk a little bit about what the advocacy looks like? Is that a state level thing? Is that um federal? Is it local? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So we do um a little
027bit of all of those. So at the local level that looks um less the work that we do as a coalition and more what we are doing specifically as the collective. So we do have those um touch points with the mayor and I do hope that we can get a little bit more um involved in that local policy advocacy. Most of the work we've done has been at the state level. And what that looks like is meeting with our local delegation um and coming up with this legislative agenda that will not only serve the families in our community but across the state. Um as you know, we're collective impact. So we do believe that bringing people together um and and aligning efforts will lead to greater impact. So that's what we're doing at the state
028level. We are also going to be having um a legislative breakfast in March that will kind of reintroduce the coalition um because it's been in existence for a few years, but it's really right now being reinvigorated. So that is happening in March and all of our um elected officials will be invited to attend that. And then finally at the um federal level, last year we did go to Washington DC um for a policy summit through Strive Together and had the opportunity to meet with both um federal delegates, so both senators offices to just talk about the work that we're doing and elevate some of the issues that we see in each of our communities. Um so Danbury was certainly included there. >> Yes. Thank you for the question. >> Anybody else have any questions? Minnie.
029So I did have a question about the kindergarten readiness. Uh so what is it different you plan to do going forward? >> We've seen a lot done but what what is it >> something different you decide to do? >> That's a great question and Grace if you if you want to chime in feel free. Um I will say that what we have um talked about in our early childhood working group which is comprised mostly of early childhood providers and leaders in the community um we have been really focused on identifying what the issue is. So, we've been hearing from preschool providers and educators what challenges they may be seeing with their children um right now and then we're trying to really grow that relationship between the providers and then going at um the school level.
030So, once it comes time for kindergarten but Grace want to add >> Yeah. No, I mean I think that's that's been the bulk of the work till now. um really just creating connections and opportunities for our daycarees, Head Start, school readiness to collaborate with the schools, with the registration office, with the office of family partnerships and and a few other departments. Um just to have an understanding of what kindergarten readiness is, what that really looks like, how parents can support that, how providers can support that. So that itself has been really the bulk of what's happening now and just finding kind of those connection opportunities. Um, and like I said, really defining what it means to be ready for kindergarten. And now that we have our kindergarten early entry process um, under way for the
031second year, um, it that's really given us a window to parents that are interested in um, early entry for kindergarten to have those those conversations with their kids. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, thank you many for the question. >> Um, any other questions from the board? >> No. I just want to say thank you to the both of you. Um you know the collective has allowed a whole another networking level um access to a networking level level that we didn't have before um you know prior to joining and prior to to this um being something that we're we're doing together as a community. So I appreciate the work that you're doing. I appreciate uh how you keep me informed on on items that I uh might not have other you know wise been exposed to. Um
032but also again the network that we're building and uh there are we've been exposed to philanthropists and lots of other folks that are very interested in what we're doing um and have experience to that can also help us. So it's a it's a wonderful group of of people that have been getting together and thank you for your leadership and Grace you're like everywhere these days. So you know you're you're you're just about on every committee. We appreciate the work that you do and what it brings to the district. So, thank you both >> and thank you for your collaboration. This has been great. Thank you. >> Thank you so much everyone. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Casemiro for the superintendent report. >> Okay. Okay. So, a
033couple items, not too many items uh on my side, but the first one is is a really important one. Um um as you know we have a a board workshop scheduled for February 5th where we'll get into digging into the details about the budget. I think it's important to talk a little bit about what we've been doing in the background to get ready for that workshop um and how we're maybe building a different budget than we have in the past. Um the group, many of the folks who are here in the room at this table have been in long long uh arduous somewhat at times painful meetings um to continually scrutinize um our budget, how we budget um and how we're going to continue to grow the Danbury public schools with uh in a in
034a fiscally responsible manner in collaboration uh with the city, but also that that moves us forward. Um the last couple of years have been I'm going to use the word tumultuous in the sense that we've had ups and downs with one-time money. We've had esser money, ara money. Um we've had a a a quick increase, an acceleration in our ECS funding of $9 million. So there's been a lot of volatility and a lot of opportunity uh in the budget. We also know that we've turned up um surpluses in the last couple of years uh repeatedly and that that needs to be analyzed and scrutinized so that we are uh making sure that the budget is being used in the most efficient and effective way possible. Um certainly being behind three years in audits uh played
035a role into that and um the team has worked incredibly hard to uh catch up uh with the city on those audits um to create um you know a place a little bit that feels a little bit more stable in terms of the vision and the picture that it paints for how we're going to move uh forward. Um we have been scrutinizing some areas in our budget where some of those surpluses have occurred. Um in some places it is uh persistent vacancies. Um and and when I say persistent vacancies, not all of our vacancies are persistent. There's a small category that seems to be persistent. That's in one bucket. We have hard to fill vacancies. Uh vacancies that you know are just a little bit more difficult to fill on a regular basis. Uh and
036then we have the normal churn of a large district where people come and go and at any given point uh we can have uh just general vacancies across in our system. um on an annual basis. And so in looking at some of our surpluses and looking at some of those staffing areas um and also more importantly considering how we're budgeting for benefits across all areas. Uh we're doing a lot of hard internal scrutinization about our practices, how we account for those vacancies, but also um understanding our patterns at a much deeper level. And then as you'll find when we get into our budget workshop, how we're going to account for those um responsibly as we consider what our ask is to the city. In addition to that, um our we're down almost 600 students. Um
037it was about 500 at the at the mark in October and it is going down and that seems to now be trending a bit. So, we're very much watching those numbers and again analyzing what the impact to that is across the system incrementally and making some adjustments. Um, on top of that, we've just negotiated how many contracts, Kim? >> Right. And we have an executive session tonight to talk about the one of the last ones that have come in. So there's been a tremendous amount of movement um in the last couple of months just on those uh accounting for those contractual increases, but then also um you know what that looks like rolling forward. So um I think when we get into the workshop, I think the board will be maybe pleasantly surprised at how
038we've scrutinized that and what our ask to the city will be. um maybe not as uh maybe as large as as it has been in the past, taking into consideration some some new ways that we're approaching our budgeting process. Um but also um you know the idea that we need to sort of stabilize our budget. Uh it's been uh in great movement over the last couple of years um so that we can get a clear picture and then incrementally move forward um to continue to build. We opened up this building this year. we're still understanding the patterns of um all of our expenses even just related to this this very large campus. So that's coming into into picture. So we look forward to presenting that to you next week uh on the 5th uh for
039the workshop. We'll have another finance meeting uh during another budget discussion during the finance meeting on February 9th. Uh February 10th is our board meeting where we hope to have all of that buttoned up. If not, there's a little bit of uh room in there, not too much uh for some more discussion. Uh and then our budget number is due to the mayor um by I believe February 15th, but we've got a couple holidays um on the city side before that. So, we'll try to get that over. So, um I just wanted to kind of point those things out. Um I know you're maybe you're hoping for a number tonight. Um, but it's a it's a complex plan that we're moving forward and we we think it's the due diligence of walking you through that
040in detail um is best served in the workshop next week. >> I just want to let my board know that the amount of work that they are putting into this is is amazing and I want to thank Dr. Casemiro, Mike, and I saw Joanne pop in and the whole finance team between the city and the district that have been working till all hours and the cabinet too um in in putting this budget together. Um so I look forward to seeing the presentation and everything that you're doing. But make no mistake that there is a lot of work going into this and this is um it's something very different and I really appreciate all the work that everybody's doing. >> Yes. And like I said, the cabinet team, we've they've I've held them hostage for a
041while over the last couple weeks. Um, and everyone is scrutinizing all of the department budgets uh and staffing and um Joanne is in the back there. Joanne, I I would normally say you look tired, but you do look tired and that is because of us. Um, so thank you for your help and um it's been it's been helpful to, you know, have different eyes on on our budget. Um, and you know, again, we've had a lot of folks, um, we just have been very collaborative across the board with our team and and with the city as well, um, as we, you know, work to kind of put the final touches on where we think we're going to nail this down and button it up. >> Um, Dr. Casemiro, I we we were copied on an
042email that um, went out about a survey to uh, parents and and guardians and families. Um are there any insights you could share with us about that um prior to the >> Sure. Thank you for bringing that up. Um so so I I would have to say our uh the survey didn't look too different than uh the responses that we've received in the past. Parents um always are one of their top priorities is always safety and security, making sure that their children are safe. Um after school programs, parents really like afterchool programs. Um you know class size, the the survey was very mixed. So, we sent it out to families. We sent it out to staff. We sent it out um you know, kind of communitywide um you know, teachers want smaller class sizes and
043more supports. Parents want more after school um and programming. Um and uh you know, operationally across the system, people want more operational support to uh to be able to to work the programs that they're responsible for. So, it's it was really sort of balanced across um but again, not too different than what we've seen. But um you know the good news is that you know folks have engaged and they've they've they've you know shared their voice. Um the safety and security you know uh is is is very important. We also are trying to move the school system. So we're trying to raise the uh level of expectation. Uh we no secret Danbury will be the best urban district in Connecticut. I'll say it many times. Uh we're going to go probably nationwide soon uh if
044we keep this. uh but uh we you know to do that you can't just maintain status quo. So you have to push on the system academically that takes resources that takes training that takes skill building that takes capacity building um and uh it takes sustained effort and leadership across multiple systems to move the needle even incrementally. Uh we did move the needle heading into this year. Um but you know to keep doing that you have to keep that up. So, it's not a one-time uh one-time thing. Um our students need supports. Um but our district is changing a little bit. We're seeing a little glimmer of some changes and um we'll we'll adjust to those changes. Uh we know we want uh to increase support and resources. Um but I will say this, you know,
045I was I think uh you can all quote me on the number of kindergarten paras that you know that I believe we need. I think last year I asked for 45 or that was one of the goals, but right now we can't hire 45. We can't hire the ones that we have on the books now. And so part of our ask and our staffing plan for heading into next year is the res is a responsible approach to incrementally um you know gradually bringing some of these folks who are sitting in vacancies on over time. The good news is that that's starting to happen, right? We've negotiated some of these contracts and I don't think you know Maybe I thought the floodgate was going to come in, you know, within a couple weeks and we'd have
046a hundred new pair of professionals that we've had vacancies on in the past, but that didn't happen. But Kelly just I think 20, right? We just brought 20. That's a lot. That's good. So, we're making, you know, there's a lot of effort behind the scenes in bringing people in. Um, and it's going to happen slowly over time as we just renegotiated contracts, made them more attractive to folks. It's not going to happen overnight. as word gets out, we'll stop maybe hopefully losing uh staff and slowly start to to attract uh staff into the district. So, um you know, asking for 45 PARS this year um and expecting to get those and then having those salaries and benefits sit on our books um only to be, you know, only for have that turn into a surplus
047or something is is not productive. And so we're just we're just approaching it slowly and more incrementally uh over the next couple of years um and we're taking there. So so yes um lots of supports are wanted and needed and uh we'll address those in the budget over the next couple of years instead of one swell swoop fell swoop. Can you just uh let people know who Joanne is for those of people on the board who don't know where she works and those people that are listening to talk about that collaboration that's going on? >> Sure. Joanne is an assistant finance director for the city. uh Joanne Sturk and she has um a guru, quite the guru over on the city side. And then as we have been a financial guru and then as we
048have um kind of worked through the audits um the relationship has started to build and um the support for helping um both sides really to get out of this big audit hole that we had on both sides. Um and when you're doing reports and in the audits there's there's reports and collaboration needed on both sides of the aisle. So Joanne really served as the bridge between all of that. Um we also have um a lot of new folks in our district and the finance office. We've been Mike is now our fifth CFO in just a short couple of years. Um we have a new finance business team in the background. Uh I'm still relatively new at my job in in this role. And so having added supports and connections in city hall with um some
049additional expertise has been beneficial to all of us. I know our staff has been um thankful for the for the added support and communication and um we've been you know actively running things by one another uh as and as a team now for a good couple of months at least in this school year and then last year with the audits as well. So it's been it's been helpful and appreciated. >> Questions. >> Okay. All right. So that's that is it on budget um family engagement update. So Ann me could not attend tonight but she did send um some items that she wanted to make sure that we all heard. Um so there is a save the date for family university on Saturday April 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a focus on farm
050to school and our school gardens. We've been doing a lot of work on that. It's been so much fun. Um a series of workshops will be held for families uh in K for kindergarten and grades five through six five to six transitions. Um the parent seeking educational excellence or PC PS and more information on themies. There's a community evening event Tuesday February 10th from 6:00 to 8. We have Laura me. She'll be here to talk a little bit about uh that information at Western Connecticut State University in the ballroom. Um, and I'll wait till uh Laura comes up to talk when I call her up next. Um, the Connecticut Food Bank food truck is at Ellsworth School every other Wednesday and then next date it will be February 11th. It is open to anybody in
051Danbury. And the last food distri Oh, for the last food truck distribution, we had over 275 families attend. Uh, those food trucks are a lifeline uh to so many. Uh the office of family school and community partnerships um partnered with the with looks re uh realy discovery danberry and candlewood lake yardscapes and the clothes closet. They were able to provide warm coats, gloves, hats, mittens, socks and sneakers for over 300 families. If families need further warm uh clothing or food, the care closet is also available to families and the center is open from 8 to 4 daily. So that is Ann's update and report. Okay. And then lastly, under the other general information, I'd like to call Dr. Laura Meade up to talk to us a little bit about something very exciting that our team
052has been planning in the background and Laura has been leading. >> I could have passed them off right earlier. Sorry. and I will be very quick. So for those of you who don't know me, I am Dr. I have been in the district for over 33 years. Um I was born and raised in Danbury. My K through 12 in my children all went K through 12 in. My husband went K through 12 in Danbury. Um so we are very committed to Um, what I'm here to speak to you about tonight um is very exciting. I put together a little little packet. If you take it out, I'll just kind of go through the pages. I'm not going to read this first one to you, but the first one is really kind of a briefing of
053what is happening. Super super excited. The space foundation has reached out to us after Dr. Cro and she passed it on and we have just taken it and run with it. my boss and I Melissa um they do and um it's just it's so exciting. So with the pet the pedit family foundation this is all coming to our district free of charge which is also you know always good to hear but a super super exciting um experience for our kids. So on this first page you see the highlights. Um we actually have an astronaut um Captain Winston Scott will be coming. They are spending the week here with us. We'll have three educators from Space Foundation in addition to Dr. to Captain Scott and he has a very very packed week. Um the there will
054be eight presentations at the elementary schools, eight different elementary schools. We unfortunately couldn't go to all of the elementary schools just due to um timing and the amount of uh time it takes for these presentations. So for the three schools who cannot attend for second through fifth grade, we will be busing the fifth graders over to one of the schools because that um this is actually in their curriculum. So it's really just such an awesome experience to them. So they will be having a presentation from um Captain Scott and then afterwards the fifth graders will actually get to do a hands-on lunar colony design challenge. Um they are bringing all the materials and we are just like I said so super excited about it. Teachers will be engaged with this. They will facilitate with all
055of us this week. I will be sending out lesson plans to the teachers so they can see. And then um as you can see, just in case anyone would like to participate, I kind of put a brief schedule in there, but you can always reach out to me if you need any further details of um where Captain Scott and the Space Foundation will be throughout the week doing the presentations. And on Tuesday, February 10th, we have it will be a high school leadership and mentorship experience. The uh Captain Scott will be doing presentation for about 50 high school students and And afterward we are doing a um called speed mentoring mentors will be set up very much if you had come to the um dome when we did the um when we were launching themies
056and all of the partnerships were there was a great experience for adult high schoolers we are looking for and this is where I'm going to kind of plug for a little bit of help. We are looking for local um businesses companies partnerships anybody preferably involved in STEM fields to come and help mentor. Right now we currently have 10 mentors that are set from the space foundation in Colorado. We've actually become very good friends over this and she has 10 mentors so far. Um I actually asked I reached out to Mr. Dr. C to help us out with that. So hopefully within the next weekbody knows any reach out to me and I'll I'll get to them because the more mentors we have better for our students. Um and then the really exciting um piece as
057Dr. Casero was talking about we have an evening event at Western Connecticut State University. They partnered with us and it will be from 6 to 8. Uh Scott will be there give a presentation then there will be several activities for all the community members to go to. We inviting our robotics team who was we will be inviting them to do a little demonstration at the um at west at the ballroom up at West and also after his presentation there'll be a meet and greet so kids can take pictures um if you if you actually go to the second little packet I gave you this was the press release that's gumming many of the names. So, this press release went out to several locations and is out there and um and Grace have been helping me
058also get the word out to our home community. Uh you can see the page with Scott. This is him and a little bit of his bio. And then the last piece is outer space. I would be remiss if I didn't mention um Mr. Ian Wendell, who is a fifth grade teacher at Park Avenue, absolutely amazing, jumped on board with me. He and I were the only two public schools on the meet with with the space community on Monday, which I might show. So, this is the event at Western. Please, please, please, it will it will be going out right here. It says click here because we know for our parents who get things on the phone, you can't do a QR code and So Ian was really upfront thinking and um put the link here.
059So that will be going out to all of our families in public schools for them to sign off. It would be wonderful to see you there. Although I did hear you say, >> please feel free to join us at one of the schools and please feel free to reach out to me with any other information. All good though. Laura, listen. Thank you. Every time I've passed by the Melissa's office, you guys are in there hard at work on planning this. There's just so much that has gone in to developing all these activities and the coordination logistics. So, thank you so much. And I just a shout out to uh President Bernal. uh we've had a a great uh start to our relationship since he's come on and uh we've been opening doors with each other
060to for access and so they they're definitely partnering with us on this one. So they were very gracious. So thank you for all the hard work and we want lots of pictures. >> All right. Thanks Laura. All right. So that is it under the superintendence report. Thank you. Um, okay. So, we're starting to get into our uh committees. Um, so I'll open it up if anybody who's had a committee this month would like to give any kind of reports. Anybody? Go ahead, Sean. >> The sites and facility meeting in March 17th is going to be moved to March 25th at 6 o'lock at Hasttown, at which point As I I speak right now, uh Rich Jalbert and Sean Hanley will take us around the school to point out stuff and we can see and hear
061about the process and learn about the process of how work orders get done and how it gets separated between the city and the uh school system. >> What time is the meeting? >> 6 o'clock. >> Six o'clock. Okay. Thank you. >> 25th at Haytown. It's in conjunction with our meeting. >> Perfect. Perfect. Anybody else? No. Okay, we will move on. Um, action item A. Lauren, could you read that for us? >> Sure. I make a motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption policy 5144.1 physical restraint seclusion exclusionary timeout as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 26-13. >> Motion made by Lauren. Do I hear a second? >> Seconded by Al. Any discussion or questions? >> None. Okay. All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion
062carries. Um action item B Cindy >> B policy 5145 14 onampus recruitment motion that the board of education accept this second reading and adopt adoption policy 5145.14 onampus recruitment as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 26-14. >> Thank you Cindy. Motion made by Cindy. Do I hear a second? >> Second by Lauren. Any discussion, questions? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Action item C. Sherry. I make a motion that the board of education accept the second reading and adoption policy 514511 sexual abuse prevention and education programs as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 26-15. >> Motion made by Sherry. Do I hear a second? >> Second by Al. Any questions, discussion? Okay. All those in favor? I >> I >> Any opposed? >> Okay, motion
063carries. Uh, action item D. Sean, can you do that one for us? >> Motion that the board of education approve the 2026 2027 school calendar with 26-16. >> Motion made by Sean. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Sherry. Do I have any questions or comments? Kate, >> um I just wanted to bring forward, we've had um in the past couple years some students that have come into uh have come into the boardroom to ask for consideration to make Eid uh a recognized holiday on our calendar. Um Dr. Casmir, can you just give us some feedback on that? I'm just wondering where we are because I don't see it on the calendar here. >> No, it is it has not made it on the calendar. We have um had some discussion about it um
064along with other many other holidays that have kind of um come forward maybe not as prominently as as Eid has been has come forward. Um one of the questions that we had around the holiday in and of itself was the the fact that it does move um with the moons as well. So it it is um is a little bit harder to to plan um Eid, but also um you know the discussion around um some other holidays. Um particularly I had a a a mother um parents of a a Jewish student. Um there was two other Jewish holidays uh that was requested to be recognized. Um I'd have to go back and look at what those were again, but um and if they weren't recognized, if there could be some the request was around having
065some sensitivity um culturally around when certain holidays happen across the year and if we can be more sensitive to tests, projects um and field trips and things that we schedule. So, we haven't moved forward on acknowledging further additional holidays. Um, but I think it's something that as we take that into consideration, you'd have to look at the school calendar, the length of the school year, and how adding one um and also invites other discussions about other holidays that have been requested. And so we would have to really be thoughtful about what that would what that does to our calendar and you know at what point do we um while trying to accommodate all of the requests um put con severe constraints on the school calendar and the system. So I just don't think we're there
066yet. Um we've we've had uh three kings come up. We've had um a few others as well and so we'd have to take that into consideration. And so, you know, if that was something the board wanted to study very seriously at a much deeper level, then we could we can certainly do that. Um, we just haven't uh made moves on that because it's not just Eid is a series of others as well that you'd have to consider to be fair and equitable. So, just as a followup, when you talk about um you know, the cultural sensitivity piece and and what we can do um within the district if we can't formally uh you know create a day off for for students, which I I understand those those other concerns, um are there um internal policies
067or um regulations that we could follow that would offer some consideration to students who might be fasting or um you know, going to religious um events or or things of that nature. >> Yeah. Um and you know, we could certainly um pull any particular policies that might apply to this, but it's that's really more about regulations underneath. Um and I do believe we have excused absences for religious holidays. So, that's never been been an issue. Although it's more about the sensitivity around academic expectations and planning um events around those holidays so that all students can be included and um that could come through a different format. We could certainly talk about that in policy to help in to help um inform you know how we lay out um communications to the schools around those areas.
068We can certainly do a better job at that. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? No. Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Action item E L. I make a motion that the board of education accept the the November December 2025 financial report as recommended by the finance committee in accordance with 2026 2027 school calendar in accordance with exhibit 26-17. >> Motion made by Al. Do I hear a second? >> Second by Kate. Any questions or discussion? >> No. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Thank you. Okay, motion carries. Action item E. Minnie. I make a motion that the board of education recommend to the city hall to update the members of the school board um building committee to reflect new board
069leadership members, Louisa Britain, board chair, and Sean Richford Ratchford um sites and facility committee chair. Motion made by Minnie. Do I hear a second? >> Second by Lauren. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay, motion carries. Okay, we're going to go to board chair's report. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Uh first thing I want to talk about Kate and I attended the DSABC mentor breakfast um which was uh for mentors, new mentors and it was a great experience. Kate and I are new me new mentors now. Um and it was great to just hear the guest speaker that was there and just kind of connect with other mentors and and um it's a wonderful program and if anybody has the opportunity to mentor, please do so. Okay. Uh, a reminder that
070we have some changes in our board meetings for February. So, don't look for Wednesday meetings. First one is February 10th, which is a Tuesday. The second one is February 23rd, which is a Monday. Okay. Um, we are going um into full board budget season. Um, just a couple of things. Um, you know, we're going to have some really indepth spirited discussions. um moving through the workshops and and finance and we may not all agree on um you know things that come up, but that's okay. It's all right. Um I only ask that we be respectful of each other, understand that everybody around this table has a voice. We should all be heard. Um and that we just take the time to be courteous, to be um you know, self-awareness of our tones when we speak
071and just be uh respectful of each other. Okay? and our opinions. Okay. Um uh I also had a question uh brought up about attending non-committee uh committee um meetings if you are not a member of that committee. Um and I will say when I am not on a committee I still attended those meetings. I think it's really important to kind of listen in on what's going on. A lot of information comes through committee and then we vote on them during our board meetings. So, it just makes for a more educated approach to vote your votes and uh the information. A lot of the ones on Zoom are recorded. So, if you can't make that meeting, go back and you can play it at your leisure. You, you know, you could just have it on in
072the background sometimes and you could just listen to what's happening. But, I always feel it's important to if you're not a member of that committee to still kind of log on and and and find a way to kind of get yourself updated on what's what's happening um all things board related. Okay. Um, and that is it for me this week. So, I am going to move on to the next part of our agenda, uh, which is board communications and comments. So, I'm going to open it up to board members if they have anything that they've been doing the last couple of weeks that they'd like to share. Anybody? Go ahead, Kate. Um, I went over some of this at the uh, community relations committee meeting, so I'm not going to belver the point, but I
073just mentioned that um, last week on Thursday, Sher and I both attended the CABE legislative breakfast over in New Town. Um, and it was a great opportunity to talk to some of our local legislators about the issues that we see going on and the support we're looking for as they go into session. uh session is opening February 4th. So um we should look to use our our um our voices collectively and advocate for our educational goals uh now until the end of session. Um and then uh there was also the school and state finance hosted a state of the student day on Saturday and that was a great opportunity to hear from um both the students and educators around the state um on the issues that are important to them. Thank you. Anybody else? No.
074>> Okay. >> Yes. Oneanita. >> Hi. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I just want Thank you, Wanita. And I just want to let the board know, Wanita is our officially our CABE liaison. Um, as we spoke of it, uh, Cab reached out and all the boards of education are, um, delegating one board member to be that liaison and Wanita uh, was gracious enough to accept and be bring all things CABE back to the board for us. So, thank you, Anita. Um, okay. If there's nothing else, we can move on to the next item. Um, I need somebody to make the motion to go into executive session. Who would like to make the motion? >> Oh, you want to make the motion? Okay. Thanks, Lauren. I'll make a motion that the board of education recesses
075into executive session for the purpose of discussing the negotiations of a successor agreement between the Danbury Board of Education and United Public Service Employees Union Local 424 unit 94 with possible action in public session. >> Thank you. Motion made by Lauren. Do I hear a second? >> Seconded by Al. Any questions right now? No. Okay. All in favor? >> I posted. All right. Okay, we're in executive session.