4/23/25 Board of Education Meeting

001stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we sit down, could we just take a moment? We lost Pope Francis this week and he meant so much to so many people and I think it would be right for us to just take a moment of silence in his memory. Thank you all very much. Al present. Terry present. Michelle here. Kate here. Glattis here. Floren here. Wanita here. Rich here. Julie and so moving down the agenda. Public participation. Huh? The board welcomes public participation and ask 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

002connected with Danbury public school system. Thank you. Would anyone like to uh sign up to speak tonight and then sign up on this sign up sheet? No. We move on down the agenda. Warren, would you do the consent calendar, please? I make a motion that the board of education approve consent calendar exhibits 25-64 and 25-65 in accordance with the I second a motion. Motion moved by Horn. Second it. I am. Are there any questions concerning the consent calendar? Yes, ma'am. I just have a correction. Um for 25-64, the curriculum committee, um it's listed via Zoom. That was an in-person meeting so we could just get that changed and corrected for the next meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Any other corrections? All in favor of the motion did I hear? I I motion so our educational

003staff, our students from DHS introduce yourself first. Hi everyone. I'm Hayden Rogers, vice president of BOG. And I'm Paulina Viscanti, secretary of BOG. Um, so first off, we wanted to thank you guys for setting our graduation date for June 11th at 5:00 p.m. You're all welcome to attend. We hope to see you there. Um, we will also have our cap and gown distribution on June 6th. We have the senior trip coming up on June 4th, Six Flags, which should be very fun. And we have graduation rehearsal on June 6th, 9th, and 10th. And then we also have some exciting peer leadership community change projects coming up. And peer leadership is a senior course that you must be accepted into and you help guide students around the school and help bring us more together as a

004community. And so some of the events we have coming up is culture day, which is May 29th at 2:45 p.m. There's a cornhole tournament May 17th at 1:00 p.m. There's a field day where they're going to be playing capture the flag and other fun games like tag and stuff, and that's at May 10th at 2:00 p.m. There's a color run on May 31st at 2 p.m. There's a 3v3 basketball tournament at May 21st at 3 p.m. a talent show April 30th at 6 p.m. The Powderpuff Girls juniors vers seniors football game and that's June 5th at 6:00 p.m. The fashion show is Wednesday, May 17th at 6 p.m. And there's actually a car wash tomorrow fundraiser for UNICEF in front of DHS at 300 p.m. And you're welcome to attend any of those events and

005we can email you guys the dates so that it's easier for you. Um, we also have junior prom coming up very soon on May 2nd, followed by senior prom on May 23rd. Um, we're also trying to plan a senior pep rally and senior spirit week um for the end of the year during prom week for the seniors. Um, we're planning to do Monday, uh, barbecue dad versus soccer moms Tuesday, tacky tourist Tuesday, uh, flower power day on Wednesday, and USA day on Thursday. We also have AP exams starting the 5th of May through the 16th and makeups will be later in May around the 19th. Um, and then we just completed a lot of testing at DHS. We completed the NGSS test, the SATs, and the LS links test for multil- language learners. And the

006sealed biiteracy test was today, and it went very successful. And college acceptance day is May 1st coming up. So, all the seniors will be wearing their college t-shirts. And then there's the DHS commits Instagram which showcases all the seniors and where they're going to school. And we can also send you that information so that you guys can check out that account. Um, so we also have our last day of school uh for all students on June 12th and for seniors on June 2nd. Uh, we just had our musical hairspray. Um, there were over 700 elementary students that attended, so that went very well. Um, Danberry Class Act also just went to multiple elementary schools and read and played sports with children, which was awesome. And then today we had the scuba tech um, come to

007our school and they set up a pool outside for submersible drones for the engineering students. Um, we also had Sean Osby, a celebrity chef who works with public and professional servicemies. Uh, he came actually today, I think it was, um, to visit as well. So that was pretty cool. And then we also had many bankers come in for the financemies recently. And then coming up soon, there's an FBI agent and he's coming in for cyber security and law for the service for themies. And then HBSA is taking their test soon to become certified nursing assistants. And OG grades has been rescheduled to Friday night because of impending weather weather on Saturday. So you are all welcome to attend OG Grady's. and the Kota Festival, which is a festival for arts showcasing elementary and middle school

008arts of all types, is coming up soon. And then there's the Junior NHS induction coming up May 21st. That's all we have for you. Yeah. How much is the car wash? The car wash is $5, I believe. Just $50 for you. I know. Are there any other questions? Did you give a date for the Kota festival? No, I don't have that. Kota festival, I believe, is in May. It's a Saturday in May. I'm not sure which one. We can send you guys the information once we get No other question. Just thank you for taking time out. Thank you. Thank you for having us. [Music] At this time, I'd like to call up Dr. Rick Rayi. Rick just completed and was awarded uh his doctorate title very recently. welldeserved course work and successful completion of some

009excellent work. So excited to have you. Um Rick is here tonight because um we tried to annually update the board on all things that are happening with adult education under Rick's leadership. We are growing the program immensely and providing a lot more opportunities that are very specific to the community and here tonight to talk about what those are. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me everybody. Um as Dr. Rick, as Miro said, my name is Rick Rayusi. I'm the regional director for adult and continuing education. Um, I know that I was supposed to be meeting with you guys back in March, which is why it says March 26th on the slide deck. Uh, we had to adjust that to today. Um, I was lucky enough to talk with you guys about a year

010ago about some of the new initiatives that we had uh started when I first came on board. Um, we've had a very busy year. we've we've grown considerably both with regard to staff and with students and with regard to a lot of the initiatives that we've taken on this year. So, I'm excited to share those with you tonight. So, for the folks that were here last year, um I'm not going to go through this in in great depth because we did that last year, but uh due to state legislation, we are required to offer certain adult education programming. every municipality is required to offer that to its residents. Um that includes some sort of high school completion programming in the state of Connecticut. That could include credit diploma program which is very similar to a

011traditional high school diploma. 25 credits that students have to complete. Um it's a teaching and learning program. Uh general educational development which is more commonly known as the GED. uh that is a preparation program to take four different tests one in each of the four core subjects English, science, social studies and math. And then the last one is NEP, National External Diploma Program. This is an assessment program. So this is a program that um if we have someone that comes to us with a lot of life experience and has a lot of academic knowledge, they are basically showing that they have the competencies needed for a high school diploma, proving that to an assessor and then they're awarded a high school diploma and that's through a number of different modules. Um 3 years ago we

012only offered CBP and GED. Over the last two years, we've been able to just getting over a cult, so bear with me. Uh we've been able to offer all three um which has been great because it offers another pathway to high school completion for all of our adult learners in the community. Uh the second piece that we're required to offer um from state legislation is our largest program here in Danbury, ESL, English as a second language. Uh and then the third that we are required to offer is citizenship preparation. So, those are the three requirements um under state legislation. The last two things on there, the family literacy programming and the jobs first uh employment services come as a result of two initiatives that we've undertaken over the last 2 years. So, we were awarded

013um a a pretty generous federal grant. Um 3 years ago, we were awarded about $100,000 in that grant. this year because it's the first year of the grant. Um it's a four-year cycle. Um and due to some of the outcomes, the increased outcomes that we've had over the last two years, we were able to increase that award to 185,000. Um so a very significant increase as a result of the work that our division is doing with the community. Um the second piece to that, the jobs first employment services is a result of a partnership with the regional workforce board. Um, so they actually contract out to LRAE to provide employment services to their adult clients that are looking for employment. Um, and that comes in a myriad of different forms, right? If we have somebody

014that comes in that hasn't completed their high school diploma, they might go through one of those programs. If they come in and they don't speak proficient English to land a job, we work with them on those skills to upskill them. Um it's very individualized for each client that comes into our door that's referred to us by the regional workforce board. Um that contract that we have on file brings us in an additional $70,000 for our programming that helps offset the contribution for you guys um as a board. So we've done a lot of work in terms of bringing external funding in um over the last 3 years I think um so long as the ask goes forward for we race um in total over the course of 3 years we've seen an increase of 1.25%

015for our budget and I think what you'll see in the following slides it's pretty impressive for the number of people that we're serving despite that very very small increase. So, I talked a little bit about each of these three programs that we offer. Um, this just gets into a little bit more detail of each of those three. Same thing with ESL and citizenship preparation. Let's talk about our new initiatives. So, last summer, um, similar to K12, similar, take two. Yeah. Okay. uh similar to K12, adult education providers are struggling to find ESL teachers, right? Certified ESL teachers. Um what we did, um we actually kind of led the way and and were the first in the state to have a partnership with CT State Community College. We ran a cohort that trained and certified teachers

016at no cost to them. They signed a contract with us. Uh we partnered with the HR department. We were able to hire an additional 17 teachers as a result of that program. Um, which is allowing us to service roughly 600 additional ESL learners in the community. Um, and that's helping us kind of feed into the next initiative. So, uh, 3 years ago, we were offering ESL at two locations, the Danbury Library and Danbury High School. This year, we offer 13 different locations. uh six of them are at the elementary schools and what we've really done a lot of work in over the last two years is how that programming ties into supporting the elementary schools. So a lot of the ESL instructors that we have that do that family literacy programming are teachers during the

017day in the elementary school and then they come back and they teach at night. So they're not only having at times some of the kids that are in the K5 but also the parents of those K5 students, right? We've talen to a number of different uh adult learners that have said like I've left a note on my kid's desk the next day saying that he better behave or like that he has to do really well in the spelling. Um so that's been very very encouraging for us. In addition to that uh we've been able to start offering GED Spanish programming. Um we have a wait list for that. This is the first year that we're offering it. We have 30 students enrolled in that program. It's a hybrid program. Uh so in the state of

018Connecticut you are allowed to take the GED in English or Spanish. So uh that's something that we have not offered before. We've also um just recently started allowing people to come in and test at our location. Um we're hoping eventually that we will be able to be a official GED test location um which would bring in additional funding. The struggle that we have with that is we need to have a hardwired building to internet and a lot of our building is uh Wi-Fi based. So we do one-on-one where they set up with a laptop and they test right at our location. Um we're also hoping to get a pair of pro preparation program off the ground. We've cleared all the hurdles. The last piece that we need is for the testing on site for the

019hard wire for internet. Um and that's been in partnership with Kelly and Kim. Uh so that hopefully as students finish our programming whether it's CDP or GED um we are we're working towards a program that would allow them a guaranteed interview for a PAR position once they finish that parro. So um it's kind of a multi-prong approach to helping not only our adult learner but helping some of the initiatives that are happening in the district. Um I talked a little bit about our workforce partnerships which has brought in additional funding. And then last but not least, this is kind of big because it's also brought in some funding for us. Uh last year, um the state had for many years a um partnership with Charter Oak for adult learners that allowed adult learners to take

020their classes for CDP online. Last year, Charter Oak said that they were kind of through with that partnership. Um and it left a lot of adult ed providers high and dry. there were no online options for their students. We were a bit proactive with that because we weren't really loving the programming offered through that partnership. So this summer before that partnership had dissolved, we started creating our own online classes. We are currently offering four of those classes online to our partners. We're also offering to area providers their ability to enroll students into that program and pay per student into that program, which brings us in funding at no additional cost to us. So, that's helping to offset any additional funding from the board. I really want to take a lot of time tonight to go

021through the family literacy programming. It's something that I'm really proud of. It's something that we've spent a lot of time, a lot of funding, and I think it's the most bang for our buck. Um, so there are four components to a family literacy program. They're up on the board. The adult education is the first. Um, for all of our family literacy program that looks like ESL. So, we're currently operating out of six elementary schools. All participants come in, they have an hour and a half of ESL. The second piece to that is parent and child together activities. That could mean anything from learning how to read with your child at home. It could mean learning how to do certain math uh activities or examples at home. Um the second piece, the third piece of that

022rather is parenting education. So right now um we've done a lot of work on what that looks like. That could mean um effective communication at home. We've also had admin from those six elementary schools come in and actually work with the parents on how to understand their child's ready scores and the importance of attendance in school. Right? We're really trying to make this um a support for our elementary school and the goals that they have so that we can help support that because we're servicing the parents that night for these programs. The last piece to that is the early childhood and elementary education. So, the kids are actually getting an extra hour and a half at night of additional instruction from certified staff to help them with their developmental academic skills. I'm not going to

023read this out loud. Um, I would like you to take a moment and read through it. It will also give me a chance to drink a quick thing of water before I start coughing again. The student testimonials that we've gotten from these programs has been heartwarming. It's been powerful and it's telling us that it's working. So, this is a federal initiative. Uh it comes out of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. It's a bipartisan bill um that has been around dating back to the 1940s. Okay. Um it is centered around workforce development. Um so the idea here is that if we're educating the parent and upskilling the parent and upskilling the child, we are going to have a more positive and more effective workforce. Um the objectives for the program uh determined by federal government are

024right on the board. So helped more frequently with school, increased contact with the child's teacher, more involved in the children's school activities, uh increased involvement in children's literacy activities includes reading to children, visiting the library, purchasing books or magazines. So our goals as an organization, 50% of our participants will develop increased confidence in working with children on their educational needs at home. We told um the federal government in our grant application that we were going to service 180 participants and at least 30 of those participants were going to see an increase in their knowledge or their skills through the test that we have to administer. I think you're going to be pretty impressed with what we've delivered on. This is one more student testimonial. So we've serviced 601 parents compared to the 180 that we

025had to for the grant. Now, there are currently two providers in the state that have gone past their enrollment and retention goal. We're one of them. Most other districts are struggling with this number. Take a look at our statistics. 95.31% felt more confident in supporting their child's education. 94.7% found it easier to attend classes with a program offered in their child's school. 91.4% 4% felt more connected to their child's community. 89.06% were better able to communicate with their child's teacher. Those are great numbers. That's telling us that this program is working as of March. So, we were supposed to hit 30%, right? 30% growth as of March, meaning that we still have three more months left to test students. We're already at 27.9% of participants making skilled score gains on that test. That's a result

026of all the teamwork that our division has put in into revamping this curriculum, really trying to align our services to supporting and helping the public school system with the parents that are enrolled in our programs. So, this number is provided to us by the state who gets this from the federal government. Currently in Danbury, there are 14,783 residents without a high school diploma. There's 7,723 who do not speak English. Yes, please. How many in that total do don't speak English? 14,000. They don't break that down for us. Unfortunately, these numbers are provided to us by the state and they get those numbers from the federal government. So, if you take a look, I wanted to talk through this growth with you for a minute. Last time that I was here, right around this time last

027year, we were at roughly 600 individuals. Right? By the end of the year, we were at 835. This year, we're not even done with the year. Um, individual enrollments for our program surpassed a thousand. We're past where we were precoid. Okay. In the last two years, we've more than doubled our enrollment. Let's talk about who who we're serving. 90.4% are parents or guardians in Danbury. Just shy of 73% of them are employed while they're attending we race. So they're working while they're attending school with us. Just shy of 67% of them fall within the age range of 25 to 44. 25% of them as they enter us into enter our program read at or above an intermediate school level in English. That means that 75% of them are coming in with less than sixth grade

028English skills. 14 just just over 14% of them hold a postsecary or professional degree from another country. And the median earnings for our students falls at 36,724. The reason that that's important, you also have in front of you a fact sheet that I provided to you. Upon completion, our data shows that they get roughly, and this is this is an approximation, and this is an average, about $9,000 increase to their income. That's a huge increase compared to where they start. These are our programming locations this year. So, we're operating our family literacy programming out of Ellsworth, out of Park, out of Haztown, Morris, Shelter Rock, Sally Ruff. We're also holding programming at the library, at the high school, and then at our two locations at 10 and two Crosby Street. We also have our virtual

029action. the partnerships that we have this year. We're partnering with the American Jobs Center which is part of the workforce investment board. Um the Yukon Extension program, the regional workforce board, Milford adult education, Read to Grow, which has been instrumental in our family literacy programming, CT State Community College, and then the family and community engagement center. Where are we headed? So my goal is to continue expanding our partnerships. We know that those partnerships have not only brought us in funding, but it's built our ability and our capacity to service more people in the community. We're looking to enhance our family literacy programming and our workforce development programs. This summer, we're going to be doing a bigger overhaul of our family literacy programming to greater align it to the academic skills and the school improvement plans

030of each school that we're going to be operating out of. So that um while there will be certain core components that we will include in those family literacy programs, uh if there are specific indicators or measures that that a specific school is focused in on for improving for next year, we're hoping to tailor some of what we're doing in those family literacy programs to those specific schools. And then continuing to increase access to flexible high school completion programming. One more student testimonial. I want to just I'm going to read out that last sentence because that's what really gets me. This programming life this program was lifechanging for me and my family. How many times do we hear that from parents? I have a comment please. I was telling I was talking with some friends and

031I was mentioning you have to learn English to get ahead and they took offense at that. It was it was just so bizarre. So bizarre. It helps them. I find um for the for the adult learners that I that I work with on a daily basis um they recognize the importance of learning English. That's why they're there, right? Um, I mean, you saw the data about 77% of our adult learners are employed. That means at the end of a 8 or 9 or 10 hour workday, they're spending 2 and 1/2 hours with us, 3 hours with us. That's a pretty big dedication, right? So, um, thankfully I haven't had that experience. Um, most of our learners are very excited to be with us and, um, up until last year, we had a weight list that

032was pretty significant. Any other questions? Rick, thanks so much for sharing all this with us. Um, have you guys set a date for graduation? We have. We just did last week, June 4th, and it's going to be at Broadview. It's going to be at 6:30. Thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions before I just go to the fact sheet for a quick moment? Okay. So on this fact sheet um you're going to see that in total uh we race has a budget of just over $1 million. That comes from three different sources. That comes from state aid, our cooperating districts. So we currently cooperate with seven districts that pay us to offer that service. And then you guys put in $375,000. Okay. The board the board currently contributes $375,000 this year. So through March, this number

033has obviously increased because we're in the middle of April. Leave service 1,334 individuals. Our per pupil cost is incredibly small for what these adult learners are getting. And these are people in our community, right? over 80% of them are Danbury public school parents, guardians, people that are coming home to kids in our school. Um, so it's we get a lot of bang for our buck with this program and it's a it's a game changer. It's a community development tool and it's a really powerful tool for our community. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Before you leave the table, I just want to commend you on the work that you've done to increase the enrollment and to um really make the adult ed program a really friendly, accessible program that people want to come

034to. I think through word of mouth, people have um you know, the good word has spread about how easy it is to enroll. There's been a lot of improvement under your leadership that has made it more accessible and userfriendly. um particularly when we have folks who might have some challenges in in accessing particularly with language. Um so you you know have great reviews from from your staff and I just can't tell you how much I appreciate the efforts and your leadership on on the work that you've done. Um there isn't a day maybe a month or a week that goes by where Rick isn't sending me something to sign off on that's starting over there. So I have to you know which today was another example. So you're always applying for grants, you're always applying

035for the next opportunity and I love that. So, thank you very much. Thank you guys. Appreciate [Music] it. Rick, what just what are the other types of non-academic things that you offer? Just a brief summary of other sort of Okay, there we go. Sorry. Credit bearing. Um, credit bearing. Well, you know, a floral arrangement. Perfect. So, the goal last year was to start that continuing education um as a result of funding and the increased enrollment that we've had. That has not happened. The hope is that Say that one more time. Yeah, I'm sorry. I thought I might have missed No, no, you did not. So, um we hope to have that off the ground soon. Um, if I'm being very candid with you, we're currently operating, aside from the additional teachers that are part-time with

036us, we're operating with the same exact staff that we had 3 years ago when we were servicing less than half the people that we're currently servicing. So, um, we're working on that for next year, but um, we're very close to capacity, if not at capacity with regard to what our staff can take on currently. But it's it's on the radar. it hasn't gone off the radar. How long does it take to go through the program? Really varies, right? So, if you come in and you have um if you test in a pre-EST at second grade math level, you're probably going to take longer than somebody that comes in at 11 or 12th grade math level, right? It really varies. Um what we're consistently challenged to do is find programming that works for anybody that walks

037through our door. And that's really what we've tried to reimagine. And I think we've done it fairly successfully. Yeah. Anybody else? Cool. Okay. Superintendent report. Um we have a couple items uh tonight. Um I know in the curriculum meeting uh the last time that this group gathered um it was mentioned that we had a wonderful surprise uh in one of our King Street intermediate students become being named as a published author as a result of a submission and work for our program. Um so Logan Tibido in grade five has been awarded the American Reading Company Award of Excellence for his book Welcome to the Arctic. His work will be published and included in a future student collection which is an absolutely incredible honor. Um Logan also is not alone. We have uh David Pelomique from

038grade 5 as well who received an honorable mention for his book Journey into the Arctic. And the company is eager to see more of his work in the future. So we've um sparked a real interest. Um, you know, part of that has to do with some of those we have some one of the greatest things about the program is the rich text collections that are included in the program that really are inspirational and the non-fiction collections um and and as well as many other books. So, I think that there's just been a lot of renewed interest in some areas. So, we're very excited uh that this is ongoing. Um, we have uh oh, just a a small note and I'm sure I think Mr. Ro went through this the last time, but only fix 15

039books have been published by ARC in the past decade. And so we have Right. So this is quite an honor and quite an achievement. So um we just want to say congratulations to Logan and David and uh we have followed up with them and and we [Applause] absolutely a family member of yours. Okay. He's now a celebrity. You have to stand in line to meet the same spot. Okay, great. Uh I'm going to go a little out of order. I'll address some of the smaller things first. Um the DHS transportation update. So, as I have mentioned before, we were uh working hard with SDA to come up with a plan to reear and to readjust and bring on more buses to accommodate the splitting of the campuses, which was proving very complicated um and trying

040to um start Danbury High School and the West Campus at the same time and somehow be all over the city, traverse the city. Um so that um we were having some issues with the original plan which uh would allow buses which would ask the buses to pick up students from all over the city and then make stops at both schools but that would leave a super a very large supervision gap in the morning and in the afternoon uh where this the teacher contractual time was was not lining up with that. Um so with further pushing and further um maneuvering another plan was created that actually seems to be more efficient as the best plan and in that plan uh there was the idea to combine uh the two two runs that that are similar in

041the sense that they have to go across the entire city. So the students who go to Dbury High School, Dimbury High West, um will come from all directions as well as at the same time uh Westside Middle School, they have the same same type of scenario. So the proposal by STA, they thought that by combining those two runs together in the morning um that that would solve that big supervision gap, economize the runs um and also allow us to not have to to bring on as um nearly as many buses uh which we were going to which was a major expense on the academy side. Um so what that would mean is that um high school and middle school students um next year it would be 6th through 10 and ninth graders would be 10th

042and 11th I'm sorry 10th and 11th graders and then 6 through 8 you'd be combined on a bus. We of course would have middle school uh students sit up in front a little bit closer to the bus driver and high school students in the back. um it's not dissimilar. While it's a change in practice for us, it's something that we're going to have to you know, get used to um if we move in this direction. And again, we're still working on it. Um you know, that's something that um is not dissimilar to the way some of the surrounding towns operate now who have 6 through 12 uh bus runs as well because of the size of the district. So, it's just not something we've done in the past, but it will allow us to um

043to not have a complete total disruption across the school system. um with the tiers. Otherwise, we were looking at changing all the elementary times and pushing out further those um elementary those PM elementary schools which are already cutting it very close. Their PD days Tuesdays get over I think at 510 um which is which has been very difficult for for many of our our teachers and their families. Um so with that, I wanted to make sure that the board was up to date on where we're at. Um it's something that once we are able to kind of finalize uh we'll be communicating with families so that they're aware of it of course uh and we'll do our best to answer those questions they come up and I'm sure you have questions as well regarding this

044contract regarding the just the concept of combining these runs so that we can fit it into our tears. So, are you considering like we had some people make some public comments about not being able to access certain courses like music and arts if you're one pathway or I'm assuming campus? How is that getting worked out? So, this is about the transportation runs um and combining the middle school students and the high school and the DHS West Academy students. Um so that's a that's a separate um situation but so right now um there you know because we're opening up a second campus I know there's I've had some questions around whether or not the academy model itself would be a reason why students would be able to access some courses. So once you choose an academy,

045once you get selected into academy, um the goal is to to that you you've elected to participate in an academy with certain pathway courses um that are of interest and that allow you to achieve perhaps a credential at the end. And so those electives are are kind of programmed in by design when you um are you are enrolled in an academy. So that's one little one sort of electives. We have a lot of AP electives um that we offer at Dan High School, probably more than anybody in the state. Maybe I think we offer all but maybe one or two that AP the college board even offers. Um so those will be enrollment driven. So if there's are if there is enough interest and if there we have the teacher trained um we'll enroll in

046the same way that we continue to enroll. So if we have a need for 10 sections of something um what we have been done what we've done in the past is we've offered 10 sections if we have the teaching staff to offer those sections. The same will be true over at the academy um at VHS Academy on the west campus. Um we will not where we're going to run into trouble are things like AP calculus where we typically only have to remember members maybe seven or eight students max. that will be way more difficult to try to accommodate and run a class when there's not the demand and the enrollment. Um so as we transition through this um we're going to find out where the demand is and the enrollment and do our best to

047accommodate but we're not going to be able to offer every single class at each of the campuses. Um that's just not going to be feasible. It'll be based on student demand. Um, for example, I think uh someone brought up the idea that can I take the culinary I still want to do the culinary even though I'm in the business course. So the culinary unfortunately we have one kitchen setup and that's at DHS main campus. So that might not be an elective that a student would be able to take. Um not to say that in the future might we might not be able to figure out how to possibly do an ADB day run where we have classes but that's very complicated at this time and Mr. Donovan and his team are working extraordinarily hard trying

048to develop a master schedule that straddles two campuses and with with existing staff that need to be in certain places. So it will be challenging. Um the caveat though I will say is that we are bringing on a multitude of other opportunities. So for example, we've had hundreds of students enrolled in the post university taking advantage of the online courses. So students are earning college credit. Um it was so successful with the number of students that were and they could this is cutting across allmies. All students have access to this um that they were able to um run another um another six or 8week course um after this one that that that will conclude. So it was very popular. So we're going to be able to offer a lot more opportunities on the university side

049and we'll continue to offer a majority of the AP opportunities. Um, I do think over time and and I think folks will see this down the road, the university credits that will be lining up are going to be far more valuable than an AP course. And I say that because and people like AP courses because it's traditional and that's what everyone knows. Um, but when you have a a child that can, let's say they take the AP course and they get a two or a three on the exam, I use my own daughter as an example. um she got a lot of fours, but she didn't get any fives. Yukon didn't take any of those AP courses. So, had she taken a college course and completed it, even with a C, she would have gotten

050university credit for that. So, those college courses are like cash, right? You can go anywhere with those and transfer those in. So, we're going to continue to offer the AP courses, but as we bring on more more dual opportunities, I think you're going to see the interest start to shift over time, which is ultimately we'd love to see that happen. How many credits are most three credits? Three. Three credits. So, are you balancing that public comment? There was the conversation that there were less AP. So, we might offer all of them, but we may not be offering them or available. Right. Right. So, in other words, you're saying that we might be kind of not offering as many AP, but more of the it'll be the college both. Right now, we're trying to bring out

051the co the university credits. We're trying to grow that side of it, make it more available to everybody. Again, a AP right now is open enrollment and we want our college courses to be open enrollment as well. And what that means is that just like an AP course, it might not be the right fit for everybody, but they get an opportunity to try it um and test it out. You may not be an A student. You don't have to be an A student. If you have a passion for science or environmental science, you're really into it. Chances are you're going to do pretty good in that course if you have a passion for it. So, we do have open enrollment there. Likewise, we want to do open enrollment with the university courses. Um, so we're

052going to make that widely available to all students. Um, I can go back to a couple board meetings. We have a we had a a listing of all the courses that um we're offering through post right now and we're continuing to build those partnerships with universities to continue to offer more. So you can be completely in your pathway, be able to take several college courses that are aligned specifically with the pathway that you're in. So you get high school credit, you satisfy your credit, and you're going to get college credit. So that's, you know, we're going to grow that. We're in a transition period. Um and we are, you know, it's going to be bumpy for a few years. We have seniors in coming next year that are not necessarily in the cohort, if you

053will, but are going to be placed somewhere. So, those are the those are the kids I think I feel the most for because they're really the ones really caught in the transition. Um, looking for certain things that that they've known traditionally to be there that may be a little and then I'm sorry, back to transportation, sports. I get a lot of calls coming in here because of the sports and the busing and the fact that they can't make it to campus on time or whatever. Is this part of of the solution as well when you're talking about the two campuses sports? How do they, you know, just clarify getting back to campus on time? What? Yeah. In other words, but our high school at Danbury High School Danbury sports like certain schools that will be

054you know in other words how are sports addressed um in the district and then outside like if you've got private schools those are the ones of but in in other words you are considering sports and so so the stu so we're going to run buses with this proposed model and again we're working out depends every year it'll it'll flux by based on where the students are But we'll have buses that come back to Tambury High School if you take the if you need to come back for sports or after school activities. There'll be a section of buses that will stop there like a transfer station, let kids off, pick kids up and go. Whereas the DHS West buses for kids that are not involved in that, we'll just Yeah. We'll just carry on. And there

055were four buses. Was that what you were adding to the budget? So the original the original plan we had 28 buses in there that was like a two 2 million2 something million dollar ask the buses this model will need about only half of them. So it's I think you it works for a lot of reasons. Yeah reason. Um I have a question. So, we'd be putting sixth graders with 10th and 11th graders and are we planning on putting somebody on the bus? I mean, you just I it concerns me there's a big big age group chain, you know, between that and so I'm I'm having a little trouble with that mixing up with that. Yeah. And and I completely understand that. I think when when the idea was first proposed that that would be an

056efficient solution but also make the most sense in terms of our meeting contractual obligations supervision problems that we were struggling with and then having to change every school district uh every uh school um don't forget too when we make that shift it's the lunch waves have to change and then Kim has to go and open up contracts and renegotiate all different types of u movement that happens with supervision custodial everything so it was going to be very complicated to shift all of those contracts That aside, as a parent, u my first brain went to, you know, yes, middle school and high school students. Um it's just something that we haven't done here. Um and many of our surrounding towns, you know, when we started to talk about the idea a little bit of cabinet, you

057got folks who live in the surrounding towns and they're like, "Oh, yeah, that's what my town does." Were there any issues with it? Not really. Kids are pretty good. They treat each other well. Mornings are quiet usually on these on these bus runs. The afternoons, those bus runs get a little bit more active. And I would say that if we had experienced a problem, and we have experienced a problem with just current situations where we had sometimes been monitored, um but that's something that we could could consider um if there's a specific problem with that. Oh, I'm sorry. Um so you said 6 to 11, right? So not nine. Um which is actually a good thing, right? They're our most active. Right. Um because they'll be at Dbury. They'll be at Dre High School. So

058it would only be your 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. Okay. So 12th graders, correct? Not next year, but the year after when they roll up the 12th graders. Okay. Got one. And so couple of things. You want to talk about the AP, but the bus. We will be prepared as a board to um respond to any bus issues that may be created with those populations being put together. Do we see any of those buses already with the route that they are going to be taking um be um a large number of students on any of the be what? A large number. Oh, a large number. That's the part that only STA will figure out as we we've just provided them the address of the students that are proposed that we know of that are going

059to DHS West, the incoming sixth graders from the lottery and the current sixth and seventh which will roll up to be your seventh and eighth graders. And so they're taking all of those names and addresses and then working up a scenario um to see where all where all these students live, how many buses, how many buses exactly we would need. So, that was kind of an estimate around the 14 buses and they're going to kind of confirm what we would need. Um, we've got special education students that need many buses between those buildings and so we'll have to figure out how that might change. So, we're still very much in the process of working through the the the technical logistics. We're um kind of moving from the conceptual idea of it to now let's run

060this through um and test it. Let's push on it and see what what it actually looks like when they when it comes to fruition. So they're running they're going to be running tests through them. So with our collaboration with our bus company, I want to see us be more proactive instead of reactive to situations that may come up. So we want to be very um uh informed. The on the ground are the bus drivers through their communication with the bus company supervisors. if they're hearing anything, we want to be able to um do something about it before it becomes a big issue or it may not be, but if we're hearing it, yes, then we want to and it would be something that we'd be very sensitive to, but you want to get it and

061course correcting early and frontloading what those expectations are would be important. Okay, thank you. So, Mr. Jan, could you just a minute? Did you know it? Could you hold just one minute? Okay. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Um, quick question for you, Cara, about this in thinking about sort of the logistics here. Um, with the 10th through 12th graders, once once the 10th graders have chosen their nth graders have chosen their academy. So when you give this information to the bus companies, you have to divide it by whatever academy a student is being selected into. Not not only address but the academy. Correct. Right. So so once we know who's going to be on which campus, those addresses will be what the bus company's interested in to then plan out the runs in

062conjunction with the students who are who are going to a bus site. So they want to look to see how those how those runs would juxtapose one another and then how many more buses they would need to handle the rest of the students going to Dbury High School for the other fourmmies that are there. It's complicated. There's there is everything that we're doing now between the schedule busing there's a lot of complexity in it. Can I ask one one quick followup to that please? Um the the other thing I just want to ask about is if you had a student who's switching, will we have enough flexibility in our class situation to accommodate a switch of campus? Maybe. Uh more than likely we'd have to work through those challenges, but that just you have students

063who have to switch buses during the year entry school for one reason other guardianship. So we work through those issues. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Carol, I would love to know what at this point what's the estimated number of additional buses that you plan to pay for the new facility. So, right now it's TA ballpark it be about 14 buses plus or minus a number of minis to accompany that as well. I'm sorry, I didn't get the number. uh about 14 buses was the kind of first run at this uh and that's kind of a wholesale look based on numbers and then once they start to plug in real time um and logistically geographically across the city where these runs are happening um it might we might need to add a bus or two. We might

064need to reduce a bus or two. uh we budgeted for uh in the current budget 28 buses which which we anticipated at the time as enough to serve sort of the 1400 but by economizing the runs uh we think we could save quite a bit of money um but then again also avoid all that supervision and disruption across the city supervision issue and disruption across the city. So we we initially I thought the number was about 20 bucks and we're down to about 14 or 15. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, we we budgeted for 28 um 28 buses. I have to go back and I'm looking at Mike Weaver. Is it 28? 28. 28 was what I believe at this point as well. [Music] You know how many buses it 28 buses, Mr. Janelli?

065We budgeted for 28 buses. We think we'll need at this moment in time around 14, give or take. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. The audio is just tough. Yes, it is tough and we have the door open so that doesn't help on your side of the room. Um, so I have two questions. Um, what are the start times of the middle school and the high school? And then my follow-up question is where do we stand with the transportation coordinator? So, uh, we think that we can, uh, that the high school time can be stay relatively close to what it is now. And we actually initially when we first started thinking about this, we thought that the that the middle school would have to shift to the Danbury High School start time, but um

066after reworking things more um Kelly Watson has been still been supportive even though she's uh working at another STA location. She's been extraordinarily supportive. Um we believe we would be dropping off at DHS West and then making a stop at at Westside. So, they would be starting around the same time, not too disruptive. So, within probably 15 minutes of what they would be used to, what they would normally be doing. Um, but we're still going to keep massaging those runs until we see. So, um, there would be the least amount of disruption with this model. Um, but the only thing I'm going to keep my eye on is how long students would have to stay on the bus in this model. So, that's something that I think we'll know a little bit more as we

067get closer with the details. and the transportation. We have interviews. We have interviewed. We have a couple people that we like and um we'll try to move it forward. So, will not be the same as Kelly Watson. We miss her terribly. Are there any school district? We do. Uh I believe region 15 was one that we talked about. Um Kelly, we talked about is New Town. New Town, Brookfield, they run a little bit separate, but they run at the same time. Um, and I I believe uh it was in Fairfield as well. Some lots of smaller towns are forced to combine. We've never had to do that because of our numbers. Um, but this is a little bit different situation. So, this will be a new challenge. It will be um to particularly to communicate

068with parents that you know the change and understand the change and um you know, as a parent like myself, I I understand completely why they be concerned. I think uh we have due diligence to ensure that the students that are at the bus understand what the expectations are and that we really do a good job at the beginning of clarifying what those are and um holding everybody accountable for for good behavior. K I can just add and certainly as the parent of a middle schooler myself, I understand the concern. I will say in talking with a lot of the districts that are currently doing it, they are reporting that it is very successful. Um and in fact in some cases we have even went as far as reporting that high school students serve as models

069role models positively to some of our middle schoolers. So certainly will be a transition with some bumps and challenges. Um but I do think um you know overwhelmingly the feedback from surrounding districts was very positive regarding us. So they were able to kind of alleviate some of our concerns and answer questions. It is a concern and you know I graduated a long time ago and we was at the elementary kids sit on the the front of the bus high schools children sit in the back. So I think you have to be very clear and let them understand you know this is the way it's going to be and there's a penalty for you to step out. [Music] I agree. We'll keep you posted on that as we continue to work through it. Okay. And also

070continue to happy to answer any questions on um AIS. So we have some our AIS staff that are here in the back and we just spoke with them on Tuesday. Uh we did travel up to AIS to kind of give them an update as far as where we are with the the status of um AS operating as a magnet school. I'm happy to report that after working with the state um we are going to continue to operate as a magnet. we're going to be able to um and I may have provided this update a little bit in earlier but um we'll be able to um continue to to accept students although uh even if it's at a reduced out of district rate that could um interfere a little bit with some of our percentages we

071would still receive magnet funding for the number that we don't receive. Um we might be on a corrective action plan indefinitely um but there's no penalty. Several years ago, there was a penalty if you stepped out of that that ratio. Um, they removed the penalty and it's really more just about the work that you have to do and and paperwork. So, we can continue to do that. Um, but the school still is underenrolled. Um, and we anticipate that if we would keep moving forward that it would continue to be underenrolled. Um we talked with the AIS staff uh just Tuesday um about um potentially moving some special programs into the school, maximize the space that is there. Um and pending enrollment um needs. We have a big uh enrollment meeting coming up uh next next

072week uh in the middle of the week. Um we have enrollment meetings uh several times a year to check in on where we are with uh you know schools that may be experiencing an increase or a de decrease. Most often we're dealing with the increase um opening up another section and determining how to divert students if a grade or a school is full. Um and so as we do that process, we often uh that when when we so for example when we formed the budget um we added three elementary teachers in there kind of TBD um because at the time that we had our enrollment meeting earlier in the year there was some indication that we would likely need that. Um that changes rapidly in this district. we our enrollment tends to fluctu. Um so

073we're going to have one more meeting which really kind of dictates sort of what we end up deciding um that we need to do for this for the fall of next year. We also take things like that in like with our budget. Um but then also um things like uh the fact that we may be overcrowded in some places or in some programming and we need to disperse and so there's a potential that we would do uh move programs over AIS. There's another school that we're looking at as well. next week's meeting um when we put all of those moving parts together, program need, overcrowding, uh the staffing requirements and budget, uh we make final decisions and lock that in. We'll come back to the board with those decisions and communicate that and we'll also

074be communicating with AIS. I know that they're very concerned. Uh they lost a grade level last year, they lost a staff member and they're very concerned about losing more family members at the school. Um and it is very much a family and so we are very conscientious of that. At the end of the day, we'll make the best decision that we can for the for the students, for the district, uh, as a way forward. So, and again, thank you for coming. Okay. Um, the budget update. Okay. So, this week was a big budget week for us here, as many of our board members already know. Um we I did get an opportunity to present uh our school budget for the most part last night at the uh at the council. Um and why I say

075for the most part um that is because we spent a good amount of time talking about the audit. Um the status of the audit, the 23 audit and potential for another surplus in 24. Um as soon as we um started to realize, you know, that there that could be another repeat issue during the 23 and 24, we wanted to bring that to the attention and kind of tackle that head on. Um as a district, you know, this is this has been challenging for us. Um, you know, we took uh over at a challenging time of fiscal uh challenge and um we're working our best um as city collaboration, board collaboration and also our administration here to correct some of the issues that we're now seeing that plagued us in terms of um our ability to

076accurately forecast and to maintain up. Um, and I want to thank um, you know, I want to thank the current finance team that's in place for the hard work um, that's ongoing um, as well as our city partners. Um, our ability to be able to see the bottom as I've been saying um, is only uh, as a result of the acceleration around the audits which were outstanding since I believe 201 um and that are only now being caught up. Um, as a district, we have a lot of work to do to continue to correct um, systems and structures that uh, have not been uh, done have not been implemented with fidelity and we'll continue to to work on those. um as of today and as of the the um the proposed budget that the mayor

077um has indicated and where we believe will end up landing um the mayor has proposed for us um against our $34 million ask a $12 million increase um as well as our ability to continue to use the ARPA funds $4 million worth of ARA funds uh heading into next year. We also believe that we're going to be able to take a percentage of some of the surpluses that do exist because we now are able to withhold um we have something called a 2% account and the 2% account is um allows us to uh withhold any surpluses on the board of ed side versus the city side. So for example, when there is a surplus um that money that money stays on the city side and then the town council and the mayor decides what they

078will do with that money. So, we don't hold the money here. That that goes that goes back to the city or remains with the city, I should say. Um, however, um, as of last year, legislation was passed so that the boards of ed may withhold 2% of any surplus, um, 2% of the of our budget max. And so those numbers um, could be should be around 3 million and 2 potentially 2.4 million. And um so we'll be using those onetime funds to help us offset and responsibly close down the budget that we will um that we'll need to operate effectively next year. Um those combination of one-time funds and the funding that the mayor um and his team has has proposed would bring us to about $190.5 million. And our original ask was 1945. So,

079um, you know, we're pretty close and we'll make some decisions about how to close that gap. Um, we will have to, you know, be concerned with, of course, with onetime funds and that leaves us for 26,27. Um, but we're going to be exploring every opportunity to increase um increase revenue, to pursue grants, to continue to work with the city. There's a lot of folks working behind the scenes to increase uh some of our numbers. In fact, um Oh, I missed the 9.1 million in Alliance. um that's how we that's how we get to the 190. So um you know that funding in particular the alliance grant was originally set to be $5.7 million and there's been a lot of talk and advocacy around uh changing that formula. Um some of which our own legislators here

080in Danberry were part and parcel to helping to get those formulas changed. Um along with many numerous superintendents who were through their advocacy as well. Um, and so I think I believe that the formula included increases for the accounting of multi- language learners, special education, and high need students. Um, so with that, our number shot up to 9.1, which helps us out tremendously. Those are sustainable funds as opposed to onetime funds. So we can continue to rely on that moving forward so long as that alliance grant remains in place. Um, but that is our carve out of ECS. um when we have an alliance, the alliance grant requires us to there's a lot of constraints in it. So, we have to get creative in how we program staff and the work that we do um

081among all of the other grants that we fund a myriad of of our staffing needs uh with. So, it's a it creates a complex picture um for us to jigsaw all of those pieces together. Um but uh once again, I will never turn down onetime funds. um we will um continue to work towards sustainability in the future. Um the of course the mayor will give his final number uh on Thursday and that is at city hall and that is 6 or 7 o'clock 6 7 7:00 sorry getting the different meetings getting the different meetings council chambers. Thank you. at 7:00. Um there'll be a public session, so uh we'll be in attendance at that and uh you never know. So hopefully um again, we're prepared to move forward for next year with the funding that

082we have uh responsibly and we'll continue to seek out sustainable funding sources. So just wanted to give that summary update. Teresa, just want to commend uh Dr. Casemiro on three things that were brought out at the meeting. um first the uh that it was a surplus that we have left over. She uh as opposed to a negative. So in a way it's a positive. So that was good. The other thing is is um the list that they created of uh new procedures to go forward with the budget uh things that they need to do a check off list. And third, uh, mention of a three-year plan down the road. So, it was, uh, a very positive evening, I think. Okay. Cara, do we have an update as to uh, the actual total dollar amount of

083the alliance grant? I can't recall exactly where that lands. I know overall like the whole thing, I think it'll be 30 million. 30.0 now. Yeah, 30.0 now. It'll go up at 9.1 to that next year. Okay. Yeah, that should stick. That's it's excellent. I'm so glad that we're getting that additional funding, but you know, it does to your point complicate things when you have such a large amount of money that is restricted, very restricted funds. Thank you. That's what you're going to use for staffing for the best. Yeah. So, the preponderance of the new staff will will be will be programmed in there. I already this year major strategy was around themies and the staffing for that and it was accepted as an innovative innovative strategy. Um and so now that that's accepted I feel

084comfortable and I had to get pre-approval to do that. I was very nervous heading into this year. Um but I did get pre-approval and so what that says to me is that other staff that fits into the same strategy would be be accepted. So Mr. Janelle, you have questions everybody. Yeah. Thank you. the car any calculation of of coming up and meeting the need of of the proposed budget of $194 versus what we were given in that calculation. Uh I understand that the unit utilizes the full $9 million of land. I I believe that's going to be capped this year and so going to be frozen as we discussed before. If you max that number out in future years because of the large quantity of salaries in there, we're going to be short the cost

085of living increases and particularly the contract coming up in the summer for the teachers uh to uh provide you know for those those of contract increases. Um, are we short selling ourselves in and saying that we're going to use the full 9 million or is there a way that we can say hypothetically seven maybe or 8 million we're going to use when we keep a million for future cost of living increases? Yes. Uh, that's a great question and absolutely. So, we absolutely need to create a cushion in alliance for those contractual increases. You did that heading into this year as well. Um, and you can project that out a couple of years at a basic percentage rate of of a typical uh typical contractual growth. Um, what that would mean is that it would squeeze

086out other things that we have programmed in alliance materials, resources, training, professional development potentially, you know, the amount of subs that we can can utilize in the district. So um the staffing will become sort of a central focus to maintain our staffing levels and we'll have to get creative with how we fund some other things. Um it does c it will cap out. It is scheduled to you know we spent a long time trying to get that acceleration and being fully funded in our alliance. Uh we're here we now you know we've arrived at that fully funded uh accelerated number in ECS and so then it levels out from this point forward. So um it will not continue to grow. However, there is a lot of back back channel. Um districts are quite panicked about

087that as you can imagine particularly ones like ours and we you know people are asking for at least cost of living adjustments and you know typical incremental growth over time not the large increases that we have but certainly um there's a lot of superintendent talk on that topic. Yeah, you know, it the only thing that's happened and I think although I wasn't there last night, but I was able to get a pretty good narrative to what happened is once again it shows that the city continues to underfund us. And the only thing that's demonstrated again last night and as you're talking now is the ability that the district has had over the years to make do with what we get. By that I mean we have that money in alliance and we're using it pushing

088the envelope for stuff that it's really not supposed to be used for. And when you look at that, the calculations that we're coming up with now to make do with $190 million, there's some eight or $9 million one time money that's in there that really burdens us because we keep kicking a can down the road on that particular issue. So, and the I was glad that the the comment of the three-year budget was I've been paying for that for a long time. But if there's no discern on how to meet those numbers in the three-year budget, then it's a waste of exercise. Again, this entire process that we went through last night is a waste. I've been dealing with that for 18 years and nothing has changed. The scripts continue to come with a script.

089They don't change the script. In many cases, it's been a very contentious meeting. Uh well to me it's waste of time. I'm extremely upset about the $12 million fund you know allocation given to us particularly when we're looking at giving back $20 million and we've been talking about a opening a new school for the last three years. You know this is an election year we can understand the mayor doesn't want to raise taxes during election year and can we get them done today. So that's my editorial comments and I do plan to talk about that last night. I think the city can give us another four $5 million to close that 190 194. Thank you, Mr. Janette. Okay. Uh I can certainly understand the frustration with the process. like we sit around this table and

090we do our work to try to bring forward the the most responsible budget we can as far as meeting the needs of our students. Um, you know, I think tomorrow night is an opportunity for families, for community members to come in to the public hearing and share their thoughts about what is happening with um the city budget and with the school budgets um with the council because they're the ones that have the final say in this. Um, so that's that's the opportunity. 7 o'clock tomorrow evening at city hall on the third floor in the council chambers. Um that's a great chance for folks to come in and share what they think about what's happening with the budget process. Thank you. Just add to that. Um I think one of the key slides that we um

091talked about in the past and has been presented um got a little short changed last night because the conversation ran long on the audit um is is really around the services that we're able to provide students which has always been something that we've um we really centered on. We we've gone a long time without uh having all the resources that we need in terms of the hard material supplies, but there's nothing more important than the actual uh teacher and pair professional, pair educator and people service contact that with students. And so that's something that um you know that came up a little bit last night. I talked about people services uh in understanding that we can we have gotten by um but what what does that mean uh for kids and you know there's a

092there's legal compliance, there's regular compliance and then there's actually meaningful meaningful connections, there's meaningful support services. Uh and that's something that we'll continue to advocate for is that we may have um x amount of social workers, but that doesn't mean we don't need x amount more to meet the true needs of our kids. uh reactive uh you know reactive support as opposed to getting out there and doing proactive planning with kids, running groups and getting to kids in different ways. That was just one example that was brought up last night. So um there is still absolutely an opportunity to come and advocate for the budget. Um you know the parent parental involvement right from our PTO and staying connected is is extremely important. Um you know when we put the budget together we knew this

093was I knew this was a great ask. Um this was something that I don't think we've ever done before here in terms of really just asking for what we need. Um in years past I I witnessed um very marginal asks knowing behind the scenes that oh we really need a lot more and you know there's a there's a give and take um between understanding the needs of the city and what taxpayers can bear and but also articulating what the school system needs. um this budget laid out what we need and um people can't say that we didn't put this forward. We're going to continue to work on this. Um I think people know um that we do have needs here. Um next year we'll be able to survive and cobble together sometime funds, but heading

094into the year after that, you know, the same concerns will remain um for us and will still be a challenge. So, while we next year will will survive again uh in the future we're going to continue to work on building sustainable funds. Um the caveat to that is I I do think that there is uh we're being heard um you know between my personal conversations and feedback that I'm getting um you know I feel like there's there's a good will behind behind the work and I'd like to continue to keep that bridge um going strong and uh but we do need we need to we need to close down this gap uh dramatically. So, it's going to take a lot of effort and work uh and and relationship building, but also got to start thinking

095about revenue streams for the city and for the school district. Okay. I have another comment there. Carrie, you use the words and I think we've got to get out of survival mode because that doesn't help us. All that does is allow us to keep a head, you know, above water and treading treading water. We've got an issue in the district where we have a retention issue on personnel. We have a hiring issue because there's a lack of of bodies out there as well as perhaps a competitive thing. And so in addition to surviving, we continue, like I keep saying, is put the burden on our staff. And at this point here, I think at some point this staff has to be supported and shown that there is a willingness to support education. And all we

096do every single year is to for all the years I've been on this board, whether it's been zero increases or whatever they were, um it is able to adjust and makes do with what we're given and we get the pat on the back that says you guys do a great job. Everybody's got and we we've got to change that thinking. Thank you for your comments. We're going to put that down on the uh agenda. Okay. Yeah. Um I completely understand what um Mr. Chanel is saying, but that said, we've been in survival mode and we've had 21% backto back asks from the district and a $20 million surplus. That is where I believe we need to restore the confidence and trust of the community because we have been as I call it in Stockholm syndrome

097like we're 160 I think 8 out of 169 but we had been running at 180. In other words, we had the money and didn't know it. And so we've been in survival mode and we're still going to have to move accordingly because of the situation that we've gotten ourselves into. based on for finance, you know, directors, new programs, uh, you know, financial programs that weren't aligned properly. We've had a lot of reasons. CO, there's so many different reasons. But that said, we're asking the community again to look at it. 21% ask and that is historic. That is not the norm. And so, you know, as much as I think we all sit here and we try to figure out and forecast, again, it was made clear because of the audits and where we are today

098that we're we don't have the ability or the luxury to go back and try to predict what next year is going to look like because we have really no idea. We're figuring it out. So, with that said, I do believe that everybody needs to work together, find revenue streams. I think we've been talking about that for quite some time, all of us here. Um it's just it's in front of us all tomorrow night and um you know we're asking for a lot. We're we're basically going to continue down the same path of a shoestring budget to try to make the the you know the the makeup that ground and that is asking a lot. That's $20 million that is in this city's hands. We still don't know where it is but it did not come

099back to the board of education. So in that regard, I do agree. We need more money from the state and we need the money that was supposed to be allocated for the board of education back to the board. So while we're getting 12, there's 20 there sitting somewhere and we still don't know that. So I just want to say that, you know, we're asking for a lot of the community standing committee relations. I have no update at this time. correctly. I have no update either. Finance, Mr. Janella. Um we had a meeting Monday night uh where first I want to thank Mike and his team for the tremendous amount of work that he's been doing cleaning up not only the the information and providing the year 24 but also the financial cleaning that uh issue

100up for the current year 25. Mike presented the statement for the period ending March. Um, surprisingly the big take away from that, if you recall, I think there was a unarmed balance approach to $2 million as opposed to last month. I think that number was $9 million. And so that was a shock. Mike went on to say that there was a tremendous amount of adjustments that had to be made for charges for individuals that were charged erroneously to different I'm going to say rents and could have been charged against the operating account. So it's a continued process to get these patients that they are in in good order. The other thing on the agenda, we asked Mike to give us an update on the status of where he stands on the 24 work. He took

101the initiative to start working to clean up those balances until the actual audit engagement letter. I think at Monday night you said there was a surplus of about $11 million and I understand if I'm correct that today that number is down to $9 million and and Mike made it clear that the number is a COVID number because you continue to work on that. The the other issue on the agenda that we talked about is a particular closing statement, a monthly closing statement so that the board is aware of the different functions that are necessary and that we can hold the financial accountable for so that we don't have any surprises of I can get them going back. So where you know Mike is making a tremendous amount of headway. We certainly appreciate the the work

102done and I think if a short time we'll get down to ground zero where we can start to have a tremendous amount of confidence in the numbers going forward to enable us to then work on and truly a threeyear budget. So that's April policy and I can see uh the policy committee has been at work. We have all these action items that we want to hit up tonight. We sure do. We're trying to keep up that momentum and I just want to thank Kelly for her uh her partnership in that work. She's really uh she comes to every meeting uh prepared beyond uh anybody else's capacity and I really appreciate it. Um our next meeting is going to be May 12th and as Mrs. Cooper said, there's a bunch of policies on here for second

103read uh that we hope will pass this evening. Thank you. Thank you. We um just had our meeting uh prior to this meeting. Um we have uh two um items that are on the agenda tonight. Uh we have um the Ellsworth Avenue uh school roof replacement and a new elevator edition at Hasttown Avenue which is uh really exciting that we've got these two projects going. And also want to thank uh Dr. ceiling for a great presentation. Um gives a really great um background on how the facilities works in our district and the work orders and just gave us a better understanding, you know, so we can better kind of um when somebody comes to us and says, "Hey, this isn't working." We kind of know what you guys are running. So, thank you for that.

104Thank all my committee chairs. Thank you uh for really working hard to bring um this information to the board. I I certainly I I couldn't stay the entire meeting um on Monday night when we had finance committee and I just want to thank um our finance director. He brought information to us, put it to us so we could understand it. And and when what I missed out was he started moving accounts, people, putting them in the right spot or account that they need to be listed under. And I and I saw some people saying, well, you know, we move people and move around. They're going to constantly move around. But I think that we as a board asked for this to be put in order so we can at least start out and know where

105everything is listed. And I I want to thank Mike for doing what he needed to do and the superintendent and the lady from the city. Oh, Jo. Joy help. Thank you for all working together to make sure we bring that information to to action item a one meeting. Motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption uh policy 5114 suspension and expulsion/due process as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-68. Motion made by Wita second. Uh any questions? Excuse me. Could I hear all that statement? Can I hear I I Mr. Jill do policy B. a motion that the board of education accept for second reading and stop the policy item. Five student records confidentiality as recommended by the policy committee um and in accordance with the 25-69 exhibit

106motion made by Mr. Janelli. Could I hear a second? Second. Seconded by L. Any question? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion? I motion so car. Okay. Policy C. I'll make a motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption policy 5125.11 health/medical records as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with exhibit 25-70. Motion made by Kate. Did I get a second? Seconded by none. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion. I I motion so car Louisa policy D motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption policy 5131.1 bus conduct as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-71 motion made by Louisa seconded by any questions All in favor of that motion and I hear I I oppose motion.

107So car none E. I make a motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption of policy 5131.6 Six, alcohol use, drugs, and tobacco, including performance-enhancing substances as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-72. Motion made by Lauren. Could I hear a second? Seconded by Kate. Any questions? All in favor of the motion? Can I hear I? Opposed. Motion so carry. Um Teresa policy f policy 5131.7 weapons and dangerous instruments motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption policy 5131.7 weapons and dangerous instruments as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-73. Motion made by Dr. Teresa. Could I hear a second? Second. Seconded by Wanita. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion. I I motion so chair Michelle she

108motion that the board of education accept for second reading and adoption of policy 5132 dressing and grooming as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-74. Motion made by Michelle. Did I hear a second? Second. Seconded by L. Any question concerning the policy? Seeing none, all in favor I I oppose my motion. So carry a M H. Uh, I make a motion that pursuant to Connecticut General Statute section 10- uh 215 Athens in Foxra, Henry Public Schools certifies that all food items offered for sale to students and the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempt from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with Connecticut nutrition standards during the period. period of July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. This certification shall include all all food

109offered for sale to students separately from reimbursement reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises. premises uh sponsored by school or nonchool organization organizations and groups in accordance with exhibit 25-75. Uh I made this motion. Did I hear a second? Second second by one. Any questions? Seeing none. All in favor? Oppos? Motion. still here. Louise I motion that the Danbury public schools will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutritional standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day

110or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverages beverage sales in accordance with 25-76. Motion made by Louisisa seconded by L. Any question? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I motion so car. Oneita J.

111Motion that the board of education accept the March 2025 financial report as recommended by the finance committee and in accordance with 25-77. Motion made by Wanita. Could I hear a second? Second. Second by Louisa. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? Could I hear I? I oppose. Motion car. Lauren K. I make a motion that the board of education approve the final plans, contract specifications, and cost estimate for the Ellsworth Avenue school roof replacement and authorize the chairperson of the board of education and the superintendent of schools to sign that SCG042 form for submission to the state of Connecticut for approval in accordance with 25-78. Motion made by Lauren. Could I hear a second? Second by Kate. Any questions? All in favor of the motion. I I oppose. Motion so car. Um motion. I make

112a motion that the board of education approve the final I heard. Okay. Go ahead. I made the motion that the board of education approval approve the final plans, contract specifications, and cost estimates for the Hasttown Avenue School elevator edition. And I'll authorize the chairperson of the board of education and superintendent of schools to sign the SCG042 form for submission to the state of Connecticut for approval in accordance with an exhibit 25-79. Okay. Motion made by second. Second by Louise. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, could I hear I? I oppose. Motion so care. Oh. move on down the agenda. Okay. On the Are there any discussion or anything new? Board members would like to bring to the board. Okay. Uh I just want to apologize to Kim Thompson because I did

113not mention her vital role in the policy work that we're doing. So thank you Kim for your support. kind of a little tidbit um just that the April 26 family university is going to be rescheduled. Uh there's we believe there's a lot of just competing interest on that day and so the normal signups were up were down so they'd rather uh maximize the time. So yeah, it was so it'll be rescheduled. There was just multiple things happening in the community at the same time. Um the other thing is Mike uh Dr. if you just want to give us a quick two second update on our teacher of the year. Sure. ceremony and process. So, everyone should have received a save the date a couple weeks ago. It is May 7th from 5:30 to 7:30. It

114is not at Broadview this year. It is at Danbury High School. And the reason for that is we've expanded this year's celebration to uh incorporate the PAR educators of the year as well. So, we'll have more attendees. We need a bigger stage and more seats. Um it'll start at 5:30. There'll be a little reception in the uh lobby area and we'll all go in 6:00 it'll start uh and uh the festivities will proceed from there chair personal report um I don't have anything new I'm going to repeat about the meeting tomorrow night city hall superintendent evaluation committee on April the 29th and I hope everyone that have received invitations to come. If you haven't filled out your form, please take time to read the form. I don't want to be here till 9 till 10:00

115going over that form. Okay? And if you have any question concerning that form or anything that you want to ask the superintendent versus me, you can call her up before we come to the meeting. What form is this? Um the 29th, Monday, Tuesday. Oh, coming Tuesday, right? Tuesday. Sorry. You can. Yes, we can. If you forgot to, we don't want to get here and, you know, kill a lot of time. Okay. And if you filled it out and you, you know, you want to drop it by here, you can leave me. Okay. So, just a quick note on negotiations. Um, thank you to I think we heard from everybody um to volunteer in one way or another for one of the myriad slots we have for negotiating committees. Um, and so I will work with

116um, Cara and um, Mrs. Cooper on making sure that we've got everybody at least one on every non-certified contract and two on our teachers which will be coming up starting in July. Um, the other thing is without I can't talk too much about it but we did reach a tenative agreement on Monday night with the PAR educators. Thank you to Kate for your time on that. Um, and so we are just awaiting the ratification date with them. And then I'm hopeful that I'll be able to bring to you a motion to ratify that agreement at your next meeting and we'll be able to move forward with that big hurdle surpassed. So um, but again, thank you to Kate and to the whole team. Um, it was it went a little longer than we had thought,

117but I think we reached a good deal. Anyone else? for the meeting dates. It says May 15th for the superintendent valuation and regular board meeting. Should that be that was a backup date? Yeah, it was a backup date that was then we wanted to do a little sooner um going into the spring. So I think it clear we're not going to be here. We're going to be in Vermont. We'll work out those somehow. Okay. Okay. So, just be careful if you're thinking about it. If you're not, just put your name there. Okay. Nothing else. I ask for a motion to adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. Motion made by AB. Every night.