001United States. >> Can we have roll call? Al, >> Terry, Michelle >> here, >> Kate >> here, >> Glattus >> here, >> Mary >> Lauren >> Abson. >> Juanita >> here. >> Rich >> Julie >> here >> and I'm here. >> Okay, thank you. We're not going to do recognition. >> Okay, we move on down public participation. The board welcomes public participation and asks that speakers please limit their comments to three minutes. Speakers may offer 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. >> Do we have any speakers tonight? Seeing none, we move on down the agenda. Uh Michelle, would you ex
002do the consent calendar? >> Motion that the board of education approve consent calendar exhibits 25 through 147 through 25 to 149 in accordance with >> motion made by Michelle. Could I hear a second to the motion? >> Seconded by Louisa. All in favor? I >> no educational staff members coming through before the board tonight. >> No. Okay. Thank you. We move on down. No students. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. You want next to next superintendent report? Okay, this uh this may be a record this meeting. We we're breezing right through. Um good good evening everyone. Um so we had we had originally scheduled to have a curriculum meeting, a curriculum committee meeting um just before this particular meeting. Um but because uh there was not a lot of folks that were going to be present tonight,
003we decided to roll that forward until after the holidays um so that we have u full attendance because we'll be going over our accountability index and um going over our data uh sets um and what we know uh and having a little discussion about where our improvement efforts um need to lie. Um I happy to report though even though we're not going to be getting into the accountability index tonight um that we we are up two and a half percentage points over last year which is a good sign. And so there is um positive uh trends in our growth. We're moving in the right direction. We have a lot of areas that we still need a lot of work. Um but when we get back from the break and we have every we have a
004full board uh we'll review that that data with this with this group. But um some promising results there and um definitely some areas to continue for for continued growth. Um we have um some board membership changes uh that we would like to just make sure that everyone's aware that um first we'll congratulate uh the reelection of Almeida Rich Janelli and Louisa Britain. So congratulations on your reelection to the board. And I'd like to thank um outgoing members Michelle Coelloo, Teresa Busade, and Julie Milano. Um a lot of our a lot of times when board members um take on the service of the board, they don't quite realize what the commitment is going to be, how the community will um forever be knocking on your door for things that that they need and and messages to
005communicate. And it's a huge responsibility and one that uh we all take very seriously and um please know that you know we thank you for your service to date. Uh we thank you for being a public servant in Danberry and on behalf of kids. Um we know that folks like you, your service doesn't stop because you're no longer serving on the board. I know you'll be continue to be active on our behalf and um I feel good that you know uh what our work is here and where what our needs are and I hope that you continue to connect uh with our community um and and and help us out from time to time. You're always welcome to come back and keep us a breast of of how you've been staying active. Um but we
006thank you for your service and um we hope our all of our paths cross in the future. So, thank you very much on behalf of the board. We have something for here tonight, so we left it up in the office, but this is from Shell. >> You're welcome. >> And just a little something to Julie. We've all been through some pretty tough couple of years, so it's been a ride. Um >> Oh, yes. >> As um I don't like cutting between the superintendent, but as a board chair, Julie, I have enjoyed working with you and I know I will see you again and we will work together again. Michelle, I have enjoyed working with you. Your smile and your action. Thank you for serving and you know all the time we didn't agree but we
007came out making the best decision for the students to be there. Okay. Teresa, she's not here. She's visiting her family. I enjoyed working with her too. She brought a lot of understanding to me and I had to question some of the things that she did but we all made the best decision for the district. So, I just want to thank you all for working with us. Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. And with that, um, we'd also like to welcome our new board members. So, we have Cindy Henry, Sean Ratchford, and Sher Leank, who all happen to be present tonight, which is wonderful. We look forward to working with you. Um, and again, thank you for agreeing to volunteer to serve our students in our community. So, um, thank you for being here tonight. All right.
008Um, let's dovetail a little bit into the Cape Convention because we had Oh, I'm so sorry. >> I didn't. >> Oh, okay. No problem. Hun, do you want to do student? Come on up. Sorry. >> That's okay. Um, so just to reintroduce myself, I'm the treasurer for the board of governors this year. I'm Amelia Schwitzer. Um, so our November update, we just had our senior pep rally, which was a very successful. Um, we had a blackout neon theme. Um, the students were very engaged. The only true downfall was that we could have had like a better sound system to engage with students just a tad bit more and keep more of a flow throughout the block. Um, for football, we made it to states for the first time in 22 years and they have and
009they have their last regular season game on Wednesday. Um, the marching band won states and placed seventh in nationals. Um, Mr. Perie, one of our PE teachers, won the golf coach of the year award. >> Um, the spring musical was cast for Jesus Christ Superstar and will be performed and will be performed on April 23rd, 24th, and 25th. Um, parent teacher and conferences are this week, both today and tomorrow, which leads to our early dismissals. uh student ambassadors have been elected and the field trips are starting. So that includes going to colleges and kind of seeing what their career could look like in the future. Club photos were taken for all clubs on Saturday um November 15th. The SAT prep academy is starting shortly. Peer leadership host hosted a fall festival which is very successful.
010And lastly, winter sports are starting up and coach contacts were sent out on Parent Square and are on our website. >> Great. Thank you. A lot of good things happening at Dbury High School right now. Thank you. Um to dovetail back on um talking about our board member, our membership. Um I'd like to talk a little bit about the Cape Convention uh where we just had an opportunity to spend some time. Um it was wonderful to have an opportunity to hear um some messaging about transformation work about the state of state of Connecticut and where uh education it and the landscape of education is heading. Um we were able to hear some keynote speakers um in particular former um secretary uh of education Miguel Cardona um spoke for quite a while on workforce readiness changing
011the paradigm uh of education and leading transformational work and what that takes and uh Danbury got a nice shout out uh for a moment with some of the work that we're doing which was nice to nice to get a little recognition there but more importantly there was unification around the messaging and an understanding. Um, I think that was shared uh between superintendent and some of the board members that were there and it was it was a good moment for me anyways to be in the same room and to be hearing some of our new board members who attended which was phenomenal. We've never done that before where we had new new incoming board members attend the CAB convention which which I think should we should have preceded in that as we move forward um because
012it was a great way to unite um around some some shared vision. So I don't know if anybody else has any reflections from the from the sessions or the work but um it was a nice experience. I enjoyed myself. So >> we hope the section and uh the board members that attended the the uh convention that we'll be able in January to finalize our reports and the conventions these different workshops that you attended and what came out of some of the workshops that you attended. So we look forward to that happening in January. >> So okay. >> Yeah. And just to the folks who attended was uh we had Guanita, Porcher Cooper, um Kate, Al Sherry, uh Mike Celig was also in attendance and Sean. Did I get everybody? Okay, great. And thank you for
013taking your >> I I thought I said Sherry. Okay, I'm sorry, Sherry. Um but it was it was great that you took time out of your busy lives to attend. Um cause update that's uh very similar to the last time uh that we were here. Um the cause which is the Connecticut Association of Urban Superintendent um are working very hard on legislative advocacy around the increased uh projection of where the alliance grant needs to um kind of position the alliance grant and and legislation around increasing the funding source for that. So, I'm sorry, not the source, but the funding. So, the alliance grant, as you know, um caps out this year. This is the last roll up of ECS. After this year, there'll be no more increases unless uh legislation, it's legislatively, uh changed to
014include some type of inflationary measure. So, um we're working hard on that. That is a concern of ours. And that is a group that is, um kind of leading some of the advocacy on that. and we'll give you some updates um when we when we get more and when we put uh forth our documents to to our local legislation um alliance monitoring. So um as you know we are an alliance district and a couple times a year we undergo a monitoring visit from the state and in preparation from that um central office teams um gather data and information uh that that the state is looking for with regard to our performance data interim uh data measures and um basically how we are using our alliance funding for the and what the return on investment is.
015And so we are held accountable several times a year to work with the state for those meetings and we engage with them. They've changed the process up a little bit um this coming year so that we're only going to be meeting in March and again in June um outside of our any kind of online work that we do with them. So the first meeting will be March 9th. They'll be coming to Rogers Park uh middle school. They'll do instructional rounds with us as a team and we'll get to see classrooms. they'll get a sense of our district, how instruction is playing out, and they'll understand the needs of our district um by being in the field and on the street with us as opposed to being in an office. So, we think that that's a
016refreshing change and um uh we'll do that two more times over the course of the year and then we'll provide the board with an update as to how that monitoring visit um went. And that's all I have under the superintendent report. It's a relatively uh short short agenda today and just some action items coming up. >> Any questions from the board members? >> You know, at at CA we had um a young lady young lady from Moheaggan tribe >> that talked about providing grants, different types of grants to school boards. Uh I would uh recommend if uh the team can look at the website. I I glanced at the website quickly and they have they have approximately six different type of grants to give out to to education in Connecticut. Um if we can tap
017into it, uh it's money in our pockets that we don't have. But uh one other thing she also um pushed out which is you know it's relevant to our American history which is uh American Indian history and they do provide um you know free bus transportation they provide lunch and overall to get our our students up there uh and visit some of the history of the American Union or Moheaggan and I forgot what the other tribe name was but anyway uh I think this something we should uh looking to and and look forward to it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We move on down to are there any standing committees that would like to bring some information at this time at the board meeting? >> Yes, Louisa. >> We had our sites and facilities
018meeting uh last week and we had um Dr. Dr. Celig was sharing some great information both on possible uses for our old building, our old home and also for reaching endeavor. Um, and if any board members who were unable to attend, uh, reach out to us so we can get the information to you because there was a lot of good information on the work that's starting conversations that are beginning to find a home for Reach Endeavor and for the adult education. >> Thank you, Louise. Uh, Kate, do you have anything to report? Uh, I have no updates at this time. Uh, just a reminder that the next policy meeting is January 7th and the next community relations meeting is January 28th. >> Thank you, Kate. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Janelli is not here for
019the uh finance committee. Uh would our finance director have anything to add or mention tonight concerning our finances? >> Uh just a piece of good information. Uh we were able to uh uh last week have our meeting uh city hall completing our 2024 audit. >> Um so we're one step closer to being on time. We anticipate the next uh audit which will be for the fiscal year 25 to be kicking off in a few weeks. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And you and Mr. Janelli are start still communicating with each other. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments concerning any of our committees? Okay. We move on down to action item. Uh Kate, could you do action item A, please? Thanks Anita. I'll make a motion that the board of education accept for second reading
020and adopt policy 5141.4 reporting of child abuse, neglect, and sexual assault as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with exhibit 25-150. >> Kate made the motion. Could I hear a second to the motion by air? Any questions? Shouldn't be any question. The minutes are in our package. Seeing none. All in favor of the motion could I? >> I >> oppose. >> I. >> Okay. Motion so carry. Okay. Julie, could you do action item B? Motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adopt policy 5145.15 directory information as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-151. >> Thank you Julie. Motion made by Julie, seconded by Michelle. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor could I? >> I oppose. I >> motion so carried. Harris, could you do action
021item C? >> Motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adopt policy 5145.42 discrimination as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with exhibit 25- 152. >> Motion made by Wanita. Could I hear a second? Second. >> Seconded by Kate. Any question concerning the policy? Seeing none. All in favor could I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> I. >> Motion. So carried. >> Al, would you do motion D? I make the motion that the board of education accept the second reading and adopt policy 5145.5 exploitation sexual harassment as recommended by policy committee in accordance with exhibit 25-153 >> motion made by Could I hear a second >> seconded by Louisa any question concerning the policy? Seeing none. All in favor could I hear I >> I >> oppose. Motion so carried. >>
022Louisa, could you do E? I make a motion that the board of education accept the October 2025 financial report which includes the 2025 to 2026 alliance budget allocations as recommended by the finance committee and in accordance with 25-1454. >> Motion made by Louisa. Could I hear a second? Seconded by Wanita. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion. >> I oppose. >> Motion so carried. Michelle, could you do our final motion? >> 2025-2026 >> superintendent district goals motion that the board of education approve the 2025 through 2026 superintendent district goals in accordance with 25-155. >> Thank you, Michelle. Motion made by Michelle. Could I hear a second today? seconded by air. The um minutes and the material that you need is in your package. So, we anticipate everybody have read the information that's
023in your package so we won't have to go back and forth to our meeting. All in favor of the motion, could I hear I? >> I oppose. >> I motion so carried. Thank you very much. Okay, move on down. Superintendent, you have anything else to add? >> Okay. Board chairperson report, which is very short. Uh, we talked about going to the Bushnair Theater on the second. Do you have that finalized? >> Uh, sure. Um, let me get that paper. Um, that's okay. Okay. I just going to pull it out to make sure I have I have all the information for you. >> So if anybody want to >> Yeah. Oh from the last week the >> second. So the Connecticut teacher of the year event is held at the Bushnell. It's on December 2nd and
024so all board members and actually anyone in the community is is able to attend. Um, I'll be up there uh rather early, but the program starts at 5:00. So, if you'd like to attend, um, I'd get get a seat for 5:00. And the more the marrier, and we will be there in support of Brian. I'll be presenting Brian, but um, plenty of seats for for all who want to come. >> Okay. all our committees and chairpersons will be lined up and we hope that we can do that uh probably the second week in December because I think it's very important that we get started when we come in January we know which committee is assigned to who. So um that's the only thing that I have. I hope that everybody have a safe and wonderful
025Thanksgiving and enjoy your family. Yes. Wita, >> at our last meeting, uh Carrie, you were able to give us the 2526 allian um alliance budget allocations. Would you be able to do the same thing for the uh priority allocation? >> Yes, I could do that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? I just want to say uh Miss Cooper, thank you for your leadership in the last two years as a as a chairperson. Uh I personally like learned a lot from it and uh uh again, thank you for your service to our uh uh public education and to our children for everything which you do. Thank you. >> And thank you. Thank you. >> I need a motion to adjourn. >> I make a motion to >> Thank you. All in favor? I have a