001let's see the whole stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Allegiance [Music] which is famous one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice Lord so roll call please Teresa Michelle president okay here Gladys here Lauren here Bridget absent Julie here Ralph present Albert here Luisa here all right yeah please the Board of Education welcomes public participation and asks the comments be limited to three minutes the public may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or dissemitory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor any against any person connected with the Danbury public school system okay it doesn't look like we have anyone for public participation tonight okay just kidding all right so just like the Lauren said there's three minutes
002per person will give you a 30 second reminder um to wrap it up and the first person so it looks like it says move to the end so Jody see us that's where I sit yes um hello everyone thank you for letting me see tonight um by now you're all aware of what's been happening at Pembroke and I'm sure a lot of what I'm gonna say is going to be repeated tonight um but we as parents are worried heartbroken angry and concerned and I speak to you tonight in hopes that you can somehow help I could address many things regarding the situation including how these threats could possibly be the red flags that contribute to the increasing amount of school tragedies in our country the help the student obviously needs to be able to make
003these threats and keep the secret the city's resources that this takes away each time they're called to the school the disruptions to our schools I mean to our children's learning and the mental health of our school community the most important thing in this situation though is that this person needs to be identified and these threats need to stop I know protocols have been put into place after the first redirects such as taking a bathroom sign-out procedures the buddy system or the new classrooms only one student using the bathroom at a time adults outside of the bathrooms and finally cameras installed around the schools I was so hopeful that this would finally resolve finding the person responsible however after the fourth threat in all of these protocols in place we are still left with no answers
004how is an elementary age student able to continue to make these threats without getting caught I know Dr Ethel spent time on Friday and Tuesday reviewing camera footage I'm wondering if the school is left to figure this out on their own or have they asked for help from the authorities in an email from the principal she said quote is my understanding that the police do not take over the investigation the children of this age and she also mentioned a direct quote again the police officers here on Friday stayed with us and asked questions to help us process otherwise the police don't get involved in the investigation I also asked her if that I also asked her that if the school is able to narrow down suspects but no confessions are made would the police be
005helping to analyze handwriting or something else to to catch the person and she responded by saying your Expo again I'm not sure if they'll look at handwriting samples they've never offered but I can ask the detective when we connect after threat number four it seems the school needs help why is law enforcement not taking responsibility in any of this 30 seconds if there were any if this were any other public establishment with continuing threats police would surely be involved this is a criminal act that affects the well-being of every person in the building seems absurd to put all of this on School staff and not trained investigative professionals if the threat escalates in the future who will be liable our kids need help I'm asking you our board members to push the city to assist
006with this investigation so that we can keep our schools safe I'm not sure what the answers are but so far this is not it how can we help our babies foreign that um reading there was some emails and you were quoting emails and stuff like that if if you don't mind not doing that only because the other person is not here to verify what you're saying so anyone else coming back up and um oh are you going to speak in public participation she's here right yes thank you all right so uh Chrissy who good evening uh some of you may know me already or see me wearing various Hazard of the district here um of her passionate about doing what I can to support and make us successful as we can be awesome um so
007I'm here today as preparing the fifth grader at Edinburgh um or I'm also the president of the BTO um and I've expressed these concerns uh to some Community leaders including superintendent Wilson and German Professor um but I'm here tonight about going to reiterate those concerns so fabric is four times since returning from Thanksgiving break needed to drop the pencils or sandwiches from their hands and abruptly evacuate effects were discovered around the bathrooms shot over 450 000 students with many include with special needs of course to wait outside in the cold or the rain for emergency Personnel to come continue the building safe for entry parents of other days offended upgrade their child's school is about to be the next tragedy on national news simply worried how their baby is handling the emotional strain this time
008despite the interventions of protocols put in place to inhibit this Behavior those responsible imagine remain anonymous how can we expect our students to learn how can we expect our teachers to teach for our parents to feel secure when they are all hyper focused on what it's going to happen again on the one hand it's understandable to view this as an obnoxious prank orchestrated but if I were a student that needs to just stop but on the other hand it's important to remain cognizant of the fact that we live in a world where recently a six-year-old brought a gun to school to get a little issue with their teacher this may be just our work inconvenience for now about how compounded the Danbury School District or the community as a whole ever have peace of mind
009not knowing when or where the unchecked reasons motivating this Behavior can suddenly resurface or Worse escalate into actual tragic actions I beg you all to air on the side of the caution and treat this like a potentially serious Community issue it is with concerns and ramifications and martial arts and other kind of refuses the valley efforts made so far have not one of the risk I truly appreciate the protocols of Dr Apple was put in place the teachers that have given up their prep to monitor locations and central office that is expedited at the installation of cameras and even superintendent also near your letter today with outlining some additional procedures and safety Advocates that'll be in place I do appreciate however I call before you tonight to ask that you please continue to step up
010these efforts with a commitment to Discovery not just deterrence and to be proactive not just reactive this behavior is well past the line of a frame and it is essential that the responsible parties receive the support they clearly need not just to end the interruptions to learning but to make our schools and Community even safer thank you for your time and I hope you remove dedication to this concern thank you Christina Sweeney hello I am actually not here I'm Christina Sweeney I am a resident by a parent of the two students at Danbury High School who've attended Danbury public schools in Sierra I've been actively involved in several ptos as well as Citywide PTO since my children were little Rich worker first let me say thank you for your time and service to the community
011and to our public schools in the success I am here tonight because I have questions about the public support many members of the Danbury Board of Ed have been Landing to the proposed charter school for Danbury specifically I'm talking about the press release that went out asking for funding to be included in the governor's budget that was signed by several board event members I saw it on Twitter that was their conversation about this endorsement and board event meeting was it vote taken there is no more to that agenda or minutes that I'm aware of that included that discussion a board of Board of Ed members primary role is responsible oversight of the public schools of the community they are elected to represent charter schools because I assume you know do not in any way fall
012under the purview of local Boards of Education I am confused as to why several members currently serving on this board are actively promoting a charter school over which the board will have zero to our station or overtime moreover charter schools have no accountability to the local community any interest would seem to be personal and or political honestly from the outside looking in it appears that some board event members would like to Outsource the education of our children to privately manage organizations with no local supervision or accountability that seems like the conflict of interest at best and their election of Duty at first furthermore Charter School library is going to cost the district as you are well aware this is a district that has no wiggle room when it comes to coasters the proposed charter school
013is not going to leave you overcrowding in any meaningful way and instead is going to cost the district money busting a loan for the first year I understand to be estimated that over half a million providing special education services will be an additional tasks it would seem that board members of energy should be spent ensuring that the Career Academy and specialized programs will be fully funded staffed and ready to open sooner rather than later contrast to a charter the Career Academy is a school that the board of vet is responsible for overseeing and that will serve a majority of our students we have entrusted you to be advocates for our children and to provide them with the best education Polo also maintaining physical responsibility it is not fiscally responsible to advocate for a secondary system
014that will drain resources from the current schools advocating for a school that will produce a six percent of our student population and that has no accountability to our community because looking out for the best interest of our children or Dare memory if you are truly interested in advocating for our kids I invite you to speak so like I do every year in the coming months about the importance of fully funding the 2324 budget that you will refer red our kids in our community deserve their undivided attention and action on their behalf to ensure our public schools are the absolute best they can be I welcome anyone who would like to continue this dialogue Amanda Pascarella I as so many of us have already stated we are here as parents concerned about what's happening um I
015kind of speak with two hats that I wear one through the lens of apparent the other through the lens of an elementary school teacher I had this beautiful piece that was written and actually has been reiterated so many times already I don't want to waste your time I do want to bring attention to one of the proactive solutions that I do believe is important and is greatly missing in our public education that is simply that we are not providing all students with the coping mechanisms that they need in order to survive their daily social and emotional it is no surprise both out of covet and prior to covet our culture is changing that increases increased school shootings is in the staff and the fact of the matter is we as a public education institution are
016not providing every child knowing how to manage their emotions they are not coming into school knowing how to identify and react when they feel something in a safe and medical life and so every year I sit and I listen to every morning and every year I go out and I support budget in some sort of way and every year I hear our fantastic central office team present how they are in hopes of Bill excuse me building the social emotional needs of students and supporting them and every year I hear our explosions and I hear that now we have four bomb threats in an elementary school what we are doing is not working plain and simple it's not working so now we find what does work and I agree it's not Outsourcing the overcrowding what is
017helpful is proactively teaching as Mr Wilson said and tier one social emotional learning curriculum requires budget it requires time there's already so much on our plates but it's not something that can be overlooked anywhere it's not about adding counselors to support after 30 seconds it is about getting ahead of it and changing the way that our children react to their emotions happening with our babies and it's happening with our adolescents and it is destroying our schools Janice Anderson good evening everyone thank you for hearing me today I'm actually not here to drop that number I didn't know about it until I came home tonight it's right in here though but it does what I have to say does follow right now I was just saying I'm here tonight to express my concern relating to the
018current guidance counselor Staffing local at Westside Middle School Academy and what is being done to expedite to fulfill the open Council position those of you who let me know on the DPS curator I speak the port of city council and supported the board of education's budget I mean everything I can to get correct information to people about academies of Danbury and regarding everybody get out there and learn to learn so what I say to you tonight if I say as an apartment in the spirit of a partner with the district let me start by saying that my concern is not that west side is doing anything wrong in fact west side of its administrators Mr Blue Mr Flynn seem to be doing everything they can with one hand got it behind their backs and school
019counselor for Sarah he's a wonderful west side is budget has been two full-time school counselors and currently has won over the summer one of the school counselors retired living in an opening at the school my understanding is that a counselor from the high school was hired approved to transfer to middle school he's been not allowed to make that move because they'd have a higher replacement for him the opening on West Side remains on the district website there's another one for Danbury High School counselor for pre-law term subs for Harrisburg High School and I went to double check on you in Rogers Park and evidently there's an opening of some sort of brought to you as well but that's not an advertising the picture today 108 days into the school year almost two-thirds of the way
020for the year the open Castle physician website is not for today this is a time when the CDC has just released a survey from his 2021 youth risk behavior which then efficients themselves and alarming and many experts are warning a mental health crisis among us there are 750 students at one side half 375 of them having a son counselor the other half do not 375 students have been without an assigned Pastor since the first day of 6th 7th and 8th grade and continue to do so it was two-thirds of the way through the school year for the Denver is ratio of one password or 375 middle school students is reasonable as compared to the 1 to 250 recommended by the American school counselor association with one to 323 average in the state of Connecticut but
021you have to agree to them you have to agree with me that the answer to the question of what is a reasonable ratio of casters to middle school students can never be zero to 370 the pocket 30 seconds I Mr Flynn and all the other staff at school somehow they're making it work but the district is asking too much them kids are in crisis those that work with them are working under more stress than ever they can only do so much and we're shortchanging our children middle schools are 400 years how do they need they're transitioning they need as much guidance as possible I hope you do what you can to address this issue thank you Richard Janelle seems like we're facing the wrong way um the I wrote a nice script I spent a
022long time doing it transparency Amendment too so um I did want to come here tonight not to reiterate what has been said but I'll need to ask you to listen to these parents there as you were they're frustrated they're concerned they're scared and they thank you Mr Boston for offering to meet with them in person I think the personal contact that you would have an important person would have and leading these people and have open conversations but also toward you the opportunity to listen to some suggestions they they will have it's nice to hear a community come together and not just complain about something this is a serious issue I don't need a desperate but throughout the country the next thing is I think in the next few weeks you're going to be advocating for
023your money as I serve people well and I've always done this is a primary example of telling the story that has to be a way to include this in lithographs and with your numbers and with your presentations to tell this particular story also we often talk about impact it's also important you can say but the impact of not having this is the potential impact on a district of 12 500 kids for not being able to fund what's necessary for you to provide any Professional Services whether it be social or whether it be academic I do want to compliment with this meeting my presentation I went to last week in terms of Storytelling okay it was an incredible presentation made by Erica Hines I think from that it would be a good way to take some
024of these issues and present them into the budget what we've been doing in the fast in terms of a bunch of presentations is really fallen on deaf ears and I think they need an eye-opener AS three are only suffer thank you very much [Music] foreign good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight like so many other parents here I am concerned for the safety of my kindergartner I can't work out more true I'm appreciative of all the work that has been done thus far to keep our kids safe and thank you for Danbury Police our Emergency Management director for all they've done during health support okay thank you I had the unique experience to win this firsthand onto the threats in December and it was incredible super kindness and compassion empathy and quick
025actions by the teachers and staff in the school scared to cry and getting left from Coltrane and Pembroke staff on a modern job to help them feel safe but after the child who's now scared for emotional go back into the classroom and continue to work I know this is a very complicated situation but with the new cameras and additional safety measures by urgent disease to do whatever you can do to identify the individual or individuals terrorizing our kids I encourage you to use every investigative resource legally available to you a question what amount of personal resources have been involved with investigation today and to what degree I also asked them to visit the school safety and evacuation class to address a safe place for our children to evacuate for both my childhood worth going to
026school he loves his future but how can we expect our children to provide new environment of fear instead of discussing the sight words on cancer and questions about what would happen if Obama off while he's at school environment to teach our children it's hard enough and our kids deserve a safe place to grow thank you okay Gene rivet hi everyone my name is Danbury resident and I'm also called uh here because of Pembroke school where my grandson attends um so I'd just like to say a couple of things um I've had thousands of students I you know I think any teacher any person here who's a teacher can easily tell when a student is telling the truth or not after a couple of years of teachings um and have you considered it it might not
027be a child at all if it is a child then the teacher can talk before me um seems correct about all children's mental health is not being attract because this child obviously would have some kind of emotional problem um if if as an adult how many ways might that be indicative of a distraught staff member and how would anyone know without a police investigation if it's an adult how close to the mental jumping off point are they if they would go to this extreme to threaten our students in our schools I've personally been involved in an active shooter threat as a teacher in a school and still have this was three years ago I still get a lot of anxiety when I think back on it and I'm an adult and I usually you can
028know how to handle my emotions but these These are little kids and I've seen good the real real truth here in my grandson's face and I'm sure you know many other students there as well but um I'm hoping that all of these things are being considered that I know when I was involved in that active shooter uh SWAT came to the school I'm not sure what happened here I know the police came but um I hope that it's being with the climate in the country today I just hope that everybody's taking it as seriously as possible thank you Chelsea Hiller hello um I'm Chelsea Miller as a second grader at Pembroke um I don't have anything prepared or anything like that I just kind of wanted to go off what everyone else was saying but
029kind of tell a story so my son is absolutely terrified to go to school he's home he was home today the last time there was a mantra I kept him home for a whole week um he won't go unless I can confirm that he's safe and I cannot confirm that he's safe um he's just terrified so I'm just pleading for you guys to please step in and do something he's just just like all the other kids I'm feeling unsure he just has to go back to school I mean he's begged me to get him into a different School get him into homeschooling I mean he brought up homeschooling today this is the most social kid ever he is terrified to go back to school okay that's everybody I have on the list um so just
030for clarification we typically don't go back and forth on addressing any of the questions or issues that come up now but um I did I did ask Kevin to what we're going to put that aside for it and address some of the things that um you know some concerns just as an update on where we are and um you know what's what's going on I I showed up late is it possible I was doing something in the record absolutely just if you could give your name my name is Juan Rivas 59 data Road uh two children in the school system um I just came from work so um I apologize for uh not having a prepared uh Speech I thank you all for uh letting me speak tonight and get this on the record I
031speak on behalf of the panther parents as well it looks like a lot of it has been already set um what I asked of the board is I please support you guys to step up your efforts when it comes to the PD City Hall whoever you need to go to to help have this resolved in a very timely manner because this last event my son had a breakdown and I'm amazed that it took you know four or five threats for him to finally have a breakdown and like the last parents just spoke it's uh started to have an effect on the children and we can't City with this uncertainty I work 45 minutes away from home I do get the text alerts when the schools go into the shutdown but it leaves me helpless that
032I'm at work and I'm getting these text messages and I can't do anything about it not enough to include as well my wife is a tutor there at the school so now I have a spouse and a child that are in the school when this is happening God forbid something happens I now lose half of my family government something good to happen I can't accept that and I won't accept that so I asked of you guys to please step up your efforts let's get the to the end of this and find out who's behind this is what I asked me to thank you foreign so like I said typically we don't really have a discussion back and forth but I asked Kevin to update um kind of where we are and what's going on if
033that's okay with everybody else so when I I want to thank the families for joining us this evening Dr Apple thank you for also being here this evening to support your school I'm having a hard time hearing this for a number of reasons many of those reasons are the same reasons why our families are here tonight I've been in meetings and so because of those meetings I know a lot of the families who spoke here today respect the fact that you are concerned about your child's safety then I've met some new families here this evening I want to thank you for coming as well I know some of the families spoke the sentencing which came up and it made it clear that she's a partner in this work and I know that is true what
034many of you who have talked this evening so I want to thank you for that continued support of the district in Partnership today the security and safety of all of our kids is our utmost care I mean i period and let me also be clear this latest priority and shift that we made during the holiday break Christmas break many in the audience may not be aware of this but part of our security grant that the district has Pembroke was on a rotation to get upgraded surveillance equipment we made sure that that equipment was updated during the break in light of the incidents prior to the Christmas break I'm mentioning this not to just reiterate it because I just sent it in an email today but I'm mentioning to this because we have new resources available
035to us that we did not have before the Christmas break I'm not ready to give up on the investigation that just started on Friday and so I'm I'm saying that with a tone of my voice like I feel like we we're much closer than we've been before and I feel confident that we'll have some information available for you and our school Community sooner rather than later because of the resources available that we've implemented during the break we just have answers to questions we did not have before and this has given us eyes on different parts of the building that we did not have before so I I want to start there and want to share with everyone the investigating started on Investigation started on Friday I and I I can Sharon if you don't mind
036also want to help the principal because she sent out a correspondence to her community that may have given families the impression that we stopped the investigation or we stopped viewing the cameras because of the break and that that cannot be further than truth the reality is the investigation was because it because it happened on a Friday there were students and and perhaps even staff to one of the questions that I heard if we think about the fact that this could be someone other than a student and once we see the video now there are people who have to who have to be investigated who have to be interviewed and between ELP which is our Extended Learning Program we have folks who have access to our buildings before school during obviously our staff and then after
037school and so we have video footage of all of those all that movement throughout the day so if any event a note may have been left in one of these spaces the night before during school there are staff that we can get to in real time during the school day and then some staff on a Friday at 4 30 5 o'clock when my assistant superintendent principal was still meeting with kids but at certain point because of the time of the day that has happened they were not able to get to all the people who needed to begin and so that is what had to continue today on Wednesday when we got back and so I just want to clarify that message that went out so it was it was less about continuing to look at
038the video and more about the investigation itself that had to continue into this week before return to school so I just want to share that with the family I don't want anyone to think that we stopped working on this because we were up against the weekend we all had plans to get out of town I apologize we can't we're already off off our track and we can't we can't interact with we're going back and forth that's why I just he's making a statement and follow up you have emails and stuff like that I mean it's the policy and the rules of regular board no I understand it believe me I'm in this District a long time I understand it's just we can't conduct we're already over the time for public participation already and we're just
039pushing that aside because of the severity of the issue so and to be clear when I say we there is no separation in situations like this between a principle the superintendent and the assistant superintendents and support for the school so we means collectively it's it's weak so from our security team to our chief HR person to assistant superintendents when it's we it's we a principal whether it's Danbury High School Middle School or in this case Pembroke Elementary School we means the red phone goes off and all of us are in the room circling around to support that building in need of support I I also heard that really and a cry for help and Amanda please excuse me because you were crying for help but it's really like hey we we need to be more
040intentional about helping kids and not being reactive and being more proactive and we hear you loud and clear and and for the for the families who are not familiar with this idea this pascara is a teacher and so she understands how effective this strategy could be and it's really about the idea of helping and working with kids and be intentional about addressing their social health debt they have a social emotional health and um post pandemic immediately when we return during a pandemic and right after the pandemic we were really intentional about incorporating these ideas into our curriculum some of our families right Might Recall getting things back when our kids were coming home and it was about building community in classrooms Etc and I and I think we we don't have a choice but to
041revisit some of those ideas and and figure out what this means not only in schools like Pembroke but schools across the system so we not only just in light of your email in this latest incident we will be revisiting how we go about working with kids in regard to um the social emotional health and how all of us and again we're talking about tier one is our teacher who's in front of us every day because we don't have enough counselors and social workers to get to every single student I'm really really concerned about where we are as a district I'm quite frankly the information from the last couple of days I feel much better and I feel like we're much closer to identifying the person responsible but I'm also really concerned about the damage this
042has left on our school community over these last couple of months and so my my team and I um we think and the reason why we sent this invitation out to the community number one I was fortunate enough I mean three people in the audience tonight who I consider Partners in this work who said hey um Kevin I think it would be good and I'll be happy to help get families in to have a community conversation about this and so to all of you guys who are in the front row I I'd like to thank you for that and so we we listened and we heard and so we will have a meeting at Pembroke next Thursday I believe it's at seven o'clock so so that's one and then two we will have a similar
043meeting with staff um at Pembroke on Tuesday right after school I understand it and recognizing and appreciating the fact that they're going through the same feelings and emotions that our families are at home and so soon after we will talk about plans to just help to restore our respective climates in our building and I I do not have a magic wand but I just want to be clear that we understand that there's a problem and that's something my team and I will be working on over these next couple of weeks but we will be starting with listening to our families and to our staff and helping to identify a plan that really makes sense it helps to hmm get the perfect Community back on the learning and not having to be concerned about being safe
044in school so I I really appreciate all of you coming out tonight um thank you for the clarifying questions um and coming out this evening um this is serious for all of us we will find the person who is responsible for it and do everything we can to restore your faith in us um make sure that our school Community is safe so I just want to thank you for coming out thank you thank you thank you thank you I make a motion that the Board of Education approved the items on the consent calendar exhibits 23-36 through 23-39 is recommended second so motion read by Lawrence any discussion all in favor aye opposed okay motion cameras okay student Representatives you're ready I see uh oh yeah yeah okay and it's you all right thank you guys
045you're great every time we're ready [Music] thank you for allowing me to represent and speak on behalf of the Alternative Center for access Daniela Esposito's creative writings children's literature class has been collaborating with midtown's third grade class set of Ellsworth the goal of this fellow operation to provide the third ingredient celebrity I'm nervous I'm great Haley you're a pro at this you say you're here everyone you're here there's a lot more people here this time yeah students it gives them the opportunities start again keep everything sorry she usually does grapes oh I know good evening Board of Ed members cabinet community members thank you for allowing me to representative that the Alternative Center for excellence Daniella Esposito's creative writing children's literature class has been collaborating with this is happening hunting tins third grade class at
046Ellsworth the goal of this collaboration is to provide the third graders with a high school reading buddy at pen pal and for the a students it gives them the opportunity to draw and write the younger student and to recognize the important role they can have as a mentor this semester includes a new group of eight students who will be matched with two to three students each the plan is to meet monthly to have the third graders illustrate high schoolers accumulating project in published children's book on March 23rd these will be offering the sap to all ages 11 th grade a special thanks to Kyle tricola for coordinating that effort during that day Ace will also take all 9 through 10th graders to the White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield Connecticut also on this day all
04712 creators will tour the mvccu campuses in Danbury Waterbury now we're talking about Community College by the way thanks to all the Proctors and chakras who make offering these opportunities possible to lead a student body that's it students at Ace will confuse the Henry Abbott Tech after school program on March 8th before the final decrease as a group at Eastwood John thank you principal Durkin for organizing an after-school program for students interested in exploring the following trades hairdressing and cosmetology poverty Collision Repair culinary arts HVAC and precision Manufacturing Ace has seven students participating in this program every Monday Wednesday from three to five after school thank you both for your hard-working determination and semester one fully distinguished honors honors and Genesis made my office thank you all for allowing us to share what's going on
048with our Ace family and have a nice evening stay healthy grooming it's strong [Applause] can you read eh action item a January 2023 financial reporting I moved that a board of education except January 2023 financial report in accordance with exhibit 23-4 page 16. motioned me by Ms Cooper second by Mr Russo any discussion foreign [Music] motion that the Board of Education recommended the city council to update the members of the school building committee uh Danbury Career Academy to reflect the new board leadership members throughout Central Station board chair and Michelle cuello sites and Facilities committee chair in accordance with is it a 23-41 to hit a second okay motion made by cake seconded by Theresa any discussion just a quick question Mr Jim this position has always had two Representatives on the board I believe
049so prior before Rachel uh and I saw that I think it was catching on here and someone else I remember Kathy yes so I had always been two minutes from this board and my question is leading to I can see the chairperson taking that responsibility and being so now we've done it only the past years uh where we had two Representatives men to answer my question thank you yeah thank you okay all those in favor any opposed dreams Texas one abstention thank you so it carries a kid too right superintendent's report so I would like to start with before we start with item a um we have a visitor in the room with us and I'm not talking about the visitors in front of the room but behind Miss Cooper and King Thompson is going
050to talk to us about this display so um it doesn't take a second to share with you this new Banner um our team because we are in a bit of our cyclical low waiting for the burst of hiring to come that always comes in the spring um this is the time when we regroup and really focus on our recruitment documents what we're doing for outreach and so my team did a couple of things in the last month or so our brochure has been really Jazzy updated and so these will start floating around as well as some other marketing kinds of materials but this banner and there are two of them travel with a variety of our administrators across the district who go out to recruitment fairs to look for teachers and other kinds of Staff
051members could be paraprofessionals could be nurses could be anybody and so our administrators really do step up to decentralize a lot of our hiring so they're looking at a variety of different career fairs this year and they're going to take with us this nice Banner and there's a table that has a lot of information on it including the Chromebook that runs a lot of our aerial views and the mayor's little updates about the career academies so there are things on the table that are meant to be interactive as kids who are just getting ready to finish up their Program start to communicate with all of our administrators about hiring so we are hopeful that we will shake those trees and we will find those people but I just wanted to share with you some of
052our new work good thank you so I would like to update the board and really what's about to happen is really a Spike Lighthouse staff and our amazing students at Danbury High School so I don't know maybe three two or three weeks ago principal Donovan and I received an email from a gentleman by the name of Charles Kenyon and he left this Cliffhanger like emailing those it has some exciting information to share with you might you be available and Dan and I are going what are you talking about right and and then the guy just disappears and we set up a date to meet and then we we come back we finally set up a date to meet and oh my goodness and so he reminds us and in the title it said voice for
053Change and so we're excited but you know we've done something we've made some exciting announcements announcements about voice for change so we had no idea where this was going and then he goes on to tell us that then I'm not going to still get done lean against the wall he will he goes on to tell us that commissioner Russell Tucker is attending a conference on behalf of Commissioners across the country is going to be speaking about this amazing voice for change initiative that was started under her leadership here in the state of Connecticut the board and the community might be aware that recently we celebrated Miss Lorenz for her classroom leadership we celebrated last year at the black box when the commissioner came down and visited us and really thanked us because I think we
054made the commission to look really good quite frankly but we had more submissions in the entire state of Connecticut than any any school in entire state of Connecticut Dan Heather I want to thank you both for that but let me just start there but then it gets better because I the challenge is the competitions here's one right and I mean we just it wasn't just like first place okay I'm gonna stop there I'm sorry no no no we need you here and so let me just go back to Washington commissioner Russell Tucker has been invited to Washington DC with other Commission across the country she has asked Heather Lorenz and stood two students from Danbury High School to join hers in a conversation about the voice for change initiative here in Danbury um and so
055Dan and I it was like we birthed a child we said oh my God the commissioner was calling us to go to Washington D.C um then I'm gonna stop talking now please so that then yeah [Laughter] uh and so quite naturally we asked Dan to come here this evening and introduce Heather Lorenz to to some of the board members may not have been here last year when when Heather um but when we celebrated her the last time Heather I just want to go on record and just say I I can't thank you enough for what you have done to get us to this point um and I I'm convinced we are the commissioner's favorite Connecticut and it has a lot to do with the work that you have done um I know our teachers have
056benefited from this project um Dan has gone out of his way to do everything he can to also support staff in different ways but you've really led the way that I can't thank you enough I still remember the email by the way hey Mr Wilson did we not apply for this opportunity for our kids I can't thank you enough for pushing me to make sure that we apply for it um and so if you can come up and talk to us a little bit because we'd like to celebrate you embarrass you in front of everybody so thank you every time you bring me here I get tears in my eye um thank you uh thank you for allowing me to oh I'll cook at home uh first of all I want to once again I
057want to thank both you and Mr Donovan for um believing in me and letting me just run with it um I'm I'm like a bull in a china shop sometimes I'm gonna make like I want to make sure my kids have every opportunity possible and um this opportunity hasn't opened up doors for so many of my kids so many of my kids have gotten more active in their Community more active in understanding what's going on around the world um the teachers are ecstatic it went from 1970 in our Teachers Lounge to era 2020. you know I need to tell the board in the community of project and what happened sure I can give you um so one that project in particular was a selection of five by the commissioner it was her first election and
058she chose it um because it was um the only project in the state where students focused on Teachers Health is mental health and how that has an effect upon student health and well-being and learning in the classroom and my kids were they did a great job of writing it up um and she selected it and and they're they're ecstatic about it but honestly I don't think we would have done been able to do even half of what we did if it wasn't firm Mr Donovan he won't he won't bloat about that but seriously him and John LaRosa our assistant principal at DHS were significantly helpful in US obtaining furniture and getting it moved and getting things set up and and just everything that went along with it um we're still in the process of rolling
059it out we've gotten probably three quarters of it done we're hoping to have the rest of it done you know about maybe spring break or the end of the year um the second project was the water fountains project which many of you may know um Chapel he came here last year when he won and um he's actually going with me to along with Viviana Flores who last spring came and presented to the board about what voice will change was and one of the projects that they had done so um both are now College freshmen and they are static and they have this opportunity too and that project is going to be able to replace some very outdated water fountains throughout our school and we're in the process of working on that and the work will
060start spring break spring break and hopefully be done by the end of the school year and that's going to be wonderful because we're going to go from like I think it's four water fountains or four four water filling stations up to eight by the end of the school year and maybe a few more extra foreign because it gets kids back into classes faster it allows them to stay hydrated when they're hydrated they're the more focused implies so it has a lot of benefit plus it's better for the environment um did you want me to talk about the presentation in Daisy also go for it please I'd like to know what you're doing at these okay um everything well I can tell you what I know so far which is not that much but um the
061conference is like the I think the 17th or the 18th of March through the 22nd we will be there we're going down the 19th through the 20s and we're coming back the 22nd we are presenting on the 21st with the commissioner and it is the ccsso sort of like the Chiefs schools like the school Chiefs yeah conference legislative conference and so the focus is on how covid Esser funds uh you know made effective change for students throughout the country um and so our focus is going to be on student agency right because that's what this project was about it's about student agency and how I took um the commissioner's initiative and created into a project-based learning experience in the classroom um which then like um and the students are going to talk about their experience
062in the classroom doing this um and what they took out of it also um and so it's going to be showing how these funds made a difference in terms I've hit everything but that's about all I know so far we haven't had our planning meeting yet um so once we do I'll have more and obviously once I'm back I'll have more information to share thank you so much thank you and congratulations please take lots of pictures so we can show you off again and for the finance committee and for the board there's an item on our monthly budget report and you'll notice under grants it says voice for change it's 30 plus thousand dollars that through Heaven's leadership and the students of Danbury helped to bring into the district and then those funds are covering
063these projects that she's talked about today so just wanted to connect the dots thank you so much thank you I guess Dan can go home I guess huh I'm out principal Donovan thank you sir thank you so much and just last but not least our superintendent goals update uh School climate and as the subway it is school security and lots of goals this year and how we're moving towards coming to address those points thank you superintendent so there's a lot that's been happening in School Safety and Security um we're gonna be talking a lot more about this in executive session uh we'll be talking a little bit about some of our camera installations um our safety Advocates Staffing some of the changes we've made in light of the safety audits that we conducted last year
064and then also just some of our forward planning and thinking ahead that we're doing but one of the things I want to talk about here was our RFP process that was launched last month as you know we have the State security grant that is supposed to be focused on multimedia interoperability and this is really about increasing the district's capacity to interface with Emergency Operations in the city and also the Police Department fire any anybody that that we need depending on the nature of emergency um this was it was it was a significant Grant it's over 700 000 and we really wanted to make sure that we were picking the right software so uh John Spang and I put together an RFP that went out and it was week when the What's called the opening date
065it doesn't mean that the RP is open it means it's actually closed but we open all the submissions so it was the opening date and uh we had four really high quality submissions that we're very excited about um a little bit about that RFP so the way you write it is you put in at your objectives for the things that you're trying to accomplish with the software or the systems that you're you're looking to acquire and you can do it in a number of ways you can either look for a sort of One-Stop shop that would solve all your issues or you could set it up in a way that you're going to Cobble together two or three different pieces of technology so we had six clear objectives that we wanted to achieve we wanted
066a comprehensive system for managing coordinating and sharing critical security information we currently do it manually it makes updating and just keeping things a little bit more challenging so we want a system that would coordinate these have templates we'd be able to say here's your drill report and things like that we wanted capability for staff members to be able to alert emergency services or to alert an Administration very quickly we wanted the capacity for School site mapping to to Aid in emergency response if they were to go into the high school and weren't sure where D building was or G building was they would have they would have that capacity we also wanted some help around reunification software so things you know Patrick's a great example if there's a drill and all the kids are standing
067out on the field the teacher currently has to have an attendance list everybody takes their paper out with them we wanted to make sure that this is something that could be digitized and for example if Miss casimiro is supposed to be in my class but I she was maybe pulled out for uh you know music classroom for intervention or whatever that it would be it would come up on my screen that she's grayed out and she's with another teacher and that I know she's safe so the the technology is really advanced in these areas so these were some of the objectives that that we wanted in place with this new system uh so like I said we when we send this out we got back four really high quality proposals from four very reputable companies
068Raptor Technologies was one of them Raptors currently the system that we use to scan ideas when people show up and they have an entire Suite of services that we're very excited to to see up close entrado is another company that that's we've also worked with in the past but primarily as a web host but they've actually sort of pivoted their whole business model and now they're all in on security and I saw some of the other their stuff demoed at a conference not too long ago it was very impressive navigate 360 is another company that responded um they're they're very happy on the planning and templates piece of this work and then they also have some of these um these other Technologies and systems that we're looking for and then total Communications who's primarily Communications
069company but they also have some uh some of these mechanisms to help contact Emergency Operations and the police department so our kickoff meeting is tomorrow we have put together a selection committee uh comprised of I think 11 members we have a board of bed member on that committee a selection of principals central office administrators and then we also have some Partners from the city so we have Captain Larose from the police department uh and Matt casabecia for Emergency Operations because we just want to make sure that everybody is seeing what the capabilities of the system are and it's going to work for everybody so our kickoff meeting is tomorrow we'll be talking through a high level all these different proposals um kind of what our parameters are and what our process is going to be
070and then we're going to schedule the pitch sessions either one day where we're just going to have a marathon you know kind of shark tank style pitch where they're going to come in and show us the product and you know let us play with the gadgets and a demo of it we won't break it up into two days we'll see what makes more sense for the group but we're hoping to have a decision in the next few weeks and then enter contract shortly thereafter and I look forward to sharing what we chose and all the great capabilities that it's going to have thank you so that before I say that concludes the superintendents report I I want to say and I just want to share this for the families that in the audience it was
071important for the chairperson tonight and make sure we had an opportunity to respond to the words that were shared today the superintendent's update is specifically aligned to security and school climate goals so I don't want to be a sensitive to what we heard this evening and think that the goals that we share has made it's it's specifically of my indirectly it's helping everybody including Pembroke but it's not speaking to that incident because it's this has been playing actually months ago for me to provide nothing it just so happens that it just happens to me tonight um and then there are some more details that we'll be speaking about so Mike has intentionally kept this very high level we were going executive session so I'm sure it is with the audience will know full of our
072folks at home go to Executive sessions to speak in more detail about the things that we're hoping that programs can provide in terms of security support it upgrades but also some other things in terms of personnel that we are looking to do addition required those things are not high level and kind of meets the requirement for executive assessment which I just really clear thank you let me know next um asked a question and because what's going to come in an executive session I can wait until then but um as we talk about parents that are here with fear and the children going to school the bomb threats everything else that's going on in our country and you guys knew what happened here aboard me and a couple of uh a year or so ago when
073we got shut down so I'm not no doctor none of us or doctors how can we sort of come together do not have that fear and students and teachers working within those facilities not have that type of appearance again because you know what we can say it won't happen a lot of other places say I didn't think this was happening in my room okay and things happen and we can't understand why these things happen no one can but the fear of the child and I have two grandchildren in the school system too so you know I don't want them to tell me they don't want to go to school and I guess my question is how can we work on that good social social emotional illness to get people back or get our students and
074our faculty that in that sort of halfway comfort zone and I know that you know it's a hard task so miss Cooper it is a hard task um and we're acknowledging that we have to do something about it the point that I had raised earlier the investigation is one thing and identifying a person responsible is one thing but we understand clearly that we have to work hard to prepare the damage that's been done in immediately and when I talk about damage I'm talking about the anxiety that we've heard our parents talk about tonight helping to support kids and staff in any way and families anywhere we can and have those anxieties have led to fear in some cases fear even coming to school so trying to as one of my assistant superintendent said today you
075know we need to provide some type of reset our school community so we will be working hard on the staff to do that but we wanted to listen and I've suggested that we start by listening so we will start that next week with the staff and with the families and then come up to come up with a plan to do the very thing that you're asking about but that is come up with some type of plan to help again give our families and our community to confidence that I can't promise this will never happen again but we do want to assure folks that everyone is working toward the same goal that's the key most safe with that type of momentum I think folks will feel better about coming to school so we we understand there's
076a lot of work ahead of us and we will be focused on thank you and so I want to make a comment I mean I'm up here I'm cracking jokes and trying to make a bite of some stuff to make people laugh but I'm I'm actually I'm actually pretty I'm kind of upset about um you know what's going on for Rich and Chrissy who know who know um you know I understand what it seems like because you're getting a lot of words and you go all right we're going to do this and we're gonna do that I get parents who went through the school I I have kids who went through the school I would be where you are now and feeling the same way that you guys are but I just not that it
077makes a big difference or it does if it doesn't make you feel better we're we are on top of it and and it is concerning and I know in public participation we really can't get into it as much as I you know I wanted to and it's a couple times I just felt like screaming but you know and I'm having a hard time with it and you guys are living in real time so I can understand what you're going through I know sometimes you know it seems like because I've been involved yeah we're doing this and we're doing that but I could we've been in many many conversations even over the break and stuff like that there is a a concern and what I'm confident in the staff doing what they can do and we
078all want to get to the bottom of it and this is just more talk I get it but I'm just trying to for the people who do know me know how serious you know we take this and if that helps in any way that we're on top of it and we're doing what we can I hope it does if it doesn't I understand too but I'm sitting up here and I'm stealing to try to say something and I guess when you're in board chair you could say what you want so I'm just going to say it now and and be done with it and hope that helps that we are working on going to accompany Kevin next Thursday um if that's okay and just any questions any answers were were you know we're there whatever
079we can do we can do um that's all I got off on a team um all right what was I saying that yeah yeah yeah ever since they were coming out is there a reason we don't have in our educational staff come before us anymore question because they used to come and do the presentation from the schools and it was very Enlightenment particular what was going on at the school I think we've changed that over to a spotlight in school so like so they come at that point right exactly because that's what you did yeah that's what I think for us okay all right yeah yeah all right and as a board chair person's reporter ready discussion of that information there's no discussion items on information just making the board of the community okay report
080sorry I'm I'm throwing off um so just a couple things um some meeting updates and expensive times we are going to do a um 227 at 5 30 . we were originally we're going to do a roles and responsibilities Workshop I've asked Tom Mooney um most people know to just come in and give us kind of a uh overview of roles and responsibilities and uh you know for board members it's good to do that um you know every every now and then so we're gonna we're planning that on um 227 at 5 30. that's uh that's when Mr Mooney has availability and I think it's good since we've appointed a new new board member uh congratulations Jesse Fernandez um so we wanted to do it after we appointed a new board member um so that'll
081be 5 30 here on 227 and then 3-1 there's a sites and Facilities meeting but also we want to have a special board meeting to get a presentation from the city on the new Academy because there's a to see plans and see um you know how the construction is going to progress going forward so that's 3-1 sites and Facilities I believe is at six o'clock and so we're going to make that in person and then go right into a seven o'clock special meeting with the presentation um for the board don't want to only be until 10 o'clock that night you'll be okay Excuse me yes the 227. we haven't they haven't sent out that invitation trip no we're doing it'll go from Gary I wanted to mention it to make sure everybody had the time
082zone yeah so these two yeah so the the three nine meeting with with the cape that was that one's canceled we've not had one we're not having that because uh 27. I have something and um speaking of my last thing speaking of the new Academy for some people might know that we are moving the off and the boardroom um the new Academy correct so we need the Cartersville so I just want to make people where we are starting the process of naming the new boardroom after one of our most esteemed board members who served on this board for 31 years Miss Gladys Knight so I just want to let everybody know s her but but Gladys and I go back a little way and and she was kind of the first one who guided me
083when I was on it was elected in 2013. um she gave me some advice about saying things out loud that you know before they think before you talk obviously it hasn't worked um but um I think Miss Cooper kind of and I don't want to embarrass her and get her upset just kind of kind of a picture of what a board membership he said I found and the probably one of the most respected people who's ever been on the board and in the community so we we are starting that process I don't know what the process is but it's it's gonna get started and that that's what we're gonna we want to do and we just want to recognize her for that here here tonight thank you [Applause] I'm pretty much out of everything at
084this point in any any board members or committees or ptos or anything else that anyone wants to say before we wrap it up yeah so we need uh effective yes so we need a motion to adjourn public session things public session second by Warren all in favor I need a motion to enter executive session someone motion by Mr Russo seconded by Teresa all in favor