00111 participants we're good now all right if you're not hearing us again raise or ping one of the board members so good [Music] [Laughter] all right good are we good kara the other thing i'd just like to uh to speak to since uh this has happened um since we last met and it's unfortunate but um we've not lost another young person um henry farmer a 10th grader passed away over the april break henry was a quiet leader loved sports hockey and golf he was considered a role model up at the high school and had an incredible work ethic good sportsmanship and a zest for life our community as always came together to support henry his family his friends and the administration the district with town hall did a lot to provide the support that was
002needed for our students so um we do come together as a community and it speaks volumes to the fabric our community of our community when we come together like this and unfortunately it's happened twice in a very short period of time so just um a moment and just an extension from the board directly of our thoughts and prayers with the farmer family and all of their friends and family thank you for that um we will move on to public comment um this evening on the agenda we have a regular public comment which i would ask the as always kind of uh focused on our agenda or specific school items and then we have a public hearing which is also public comment around the ongoing conversation of the lights usage and the change in the special
003permit in the zoning application so the first public comment will kind of be our normal public comment which we'll also have at the end of the meeting so anything pertaining to the lights if you could hold for the public hearing portion of it that would be appreciated thank you so michelle we'll go to regular public comment and we'll start with folks in the audience for participants in person please wait for the chairperson to acknowledge and call each participant to the microphone for participants via zoom please click the raise hand option the facilitator will acknowledge and unmute each participant for all participants please state your name and address for the record log each participant will have up to three minutes to comment so anyone in the audience for public comment for our regular agenda sure please
004come up to the podium thank you so nice to see all your faces um first of all i just wanted to thank you all for approving the budget for the dei team because i think we're making some progress i'm very proud to be a part of that i think it's going really well i hope chris chris feels the same way and it's really sparking conversation from the networks that we are being asked to reach out to beyond that team so i'm here to thank you for that and i'm also here to share that we are having the first uh inaugural darien pride rally on june 12th at tilley pond park um with the support of the corbin district and baywater properties in partnership with the depot it's going to be a family event from noon
005to four and i'm just here to invite you um so we'll have food trucks and bands and we'll dance you know we'll have a really good time and especially with everything we've all the community's been through it's kind of nice to be able to look forward to coming together so we hope you all join us thank you thank you for speaking oh name and address oh yeah krista carnes 45th avenue thanks thank you anyone else on public comment in audience sure thank you amy zurby nine more house drive due to the coveted pandemic students are facing the worst mental health crisis that we have seen in our lifetime their mental health should be your priority let that see sink in i remind you of this because i see the emergence of yet another politically motivated
006attack on our education teachers and marginalized students in addition to identifying the teaching of crt dei and sel as indoctrination one political party is now attacking education on sex and gender as well as demonizing the lgbtq community this homophobic movement is a ploy to win elections and aims to censor our education and infringe upon the academic freedom of our teachers and students politics is once again targeting marginalized kids in the name of parental rights this has been a challenging year for schools across the country as students grapple with academic social and mental health issues in addition to the loss of friends and family members our dairy and community has not only suffered from pandemic related mental health issues but we are also processing several deaths that have hit our community hard high school students walk
007around school shell shocked as the school has been devastated by two student deaths within two weeks we are once again placing hockey sticks outside of our homes just as we did a few months earlier when a well-known student from another high school passed away people who identify as lgbtq has always been taught have always been targets of hate and fear the community has made strides regarding inclusivity validation and acceptance but renewed hatred and fear are rising as they are targeted by a political party simply for who they are and who they love it is also worth noting that the local homophobic movement aligns with the announcement of darian's first pride celebration which is a celebration of love and acceptance for all unfortunately the focus on helping students has been diminished as the district administration the
008board of head are forced to deal with politically manufactured crises as well as endless foia requests seven months ago mental health measures were overshadowed by an attack on our schools in coordination with the launching of a political campaign the board of ed rejected open choice in part because you wanted to get our house in order this don't say gay movement will hinder getting our house in order don't play into it reject the hate reject the fear and focus on our students needs thank you thanks for speaking this evening anyone else in the audience michelle anyone with their hand up on the world of zoom there are no race fans all right thank you on to the superintendent's report dr adley yes good evening everyone and you certainly understand that if i uh a few other
009additional comments on on behalf of administration and our staff on henry's uh tragic and sudden passing he was a young sophomore enjoying his high school experience with his classmates and also his teammates among other things henry will be remembered for his welcoming smile his passion his sense of humor and his positive outlook in life when he touched the lives of his fellow students and we will continue to uplift the farmer family at this difficult time thank you once again to the greater darian community for your outreach and for support for our students once again there's no easy transition from that so you'll forgive me and understand as i go on to other comments and i will say i try to uh coordinate our week our re-announcements uh with our uh student reps this evening so
010uh so we can progress that i don't steal their thunder so uh i'll share mine and uh they will share theirs as a board chair just announced it it's thrilling to see that the u.s news and world report just released the 2022 rankings of best high schools in connecticut and i'm thrilled on behalf of our students our staff and our community to announce that darien high school is ranked number one in connecticut uh congratulations to the entire students and staff primarily around college readiness and performance criteria also over the break the district received the notice that has been recognized yet again as a 2022 best communities for music education by the nam foundation i also want to pass on our congratulations to our high school young engineers and science students who competed in the team's
011uh competition that traditionally that has been called i believe over the years here jets but the team placed second in the state and we're top 25 teams in the nation the team qualified for the national competition that will be held at the end of june so again congratulations to our team members and also thanks to their advisor mr dan record if you had an opportunity to see the dallas brass concert it was truly a wonderful and uplifting experience on friday night they're both entertained did i steal your thunder there no oh you were looking at me i'm just smiling oh thank you you're before you performed extremely well in it and they break out in song for us you never know it was an absolutely phenomenal concert both by dallas brass but also by our
012young people the elementary band was uh was represented the middle school band was represented the high school band was represented it just was truly phenomenal so thank you to mrs thompson and anyone else who was organizing the event and also those members of the community who helped sponsor this wonderful learning experience last friday april 22nd the middle school welcomed dr tam tom mcmorron tom is an interim principal for the remainder of the school year dr morton has extensive experience as a middle school and high school teacher building administrator and superintendent of schools simultaneously i'll take a moment to offer our congratulations and best wishes to dr rodriguez the uh principal and also on getting her doctoral degree on the same week that she gave birth to her son jack and also on the birth of
013mrs hutchinson mrs hutchins uh son sammy uh so congratulations there's a lot of a lot of things going on at the middle school thank you uh smarter balanced testing started this week at the middle school the ela testing went smoothly today elementary begins next week and the testing will go through the third week in may our third graders completed their visits to the historical society last week uh i look to join our fifth graders uh when they visit in the upcoming week we did have our just as a member of the community mentioned our third dei meeting last week with mr shelton in in district we have two more scheduled before the end of the school year and just as we recognize the performance of the schools and next week we look forward to celebrating
014our staff teaching staff and our support staff during national teacher appreciation week uh in advance of that week we extend our gratitude to the remarkable work that they do every day let me say for first of all for caring for our students then after that and delivering an exceptional educational experience that they continue to do during this pandemic on thursday the coming this coming thursday 7 7 pm ox ridge uh dr mcgenigan who is our director of instructional technology will present the last in the pto series of parents and young children in a digital age postcovid so if you're interested in that that's open to all elementary uh all under elementary parents and i just by way of comment uh connecticut has started his work on getting all districts on board with the future ready
015uh readiness technology plan and i'm pleased to share that darian's plan has been used as as an exemplary network uh and finally uh we had uh storm uh last tuesday just we thought things were over uh hinley and royal uh will have to do a makeup day after the loss of par that will be a half day on june 20th and the last day for those teachers will be on june 21st something nice mr chairman thank you dr adley we'll move on to the appointment of the tokenique school assistant principal um that is kat brunswick um i think cat's here with us this evening hi kat how are you good anything you would like to uh say to us please thank you thanks for coming this evening sure i'd like to thank you dr adley
016dr tranberg ms shirley klein ms marge zion kristin o'reilly scott mccarthy and the board of education for this appointment i am thrilled to continue working with the students families and staff at tokenik it is a great honor and privilege to be part of such a wonderful community i would also like to thank ryan betts principal of tokenik kathy schultz assistant principal and mary michelson former principal of tokenique for their continued guidance and support and mentorship this past year to the staff of tokenique thank you from the bottom of my heart your continued dedication to the students and families especially these past two years has been impressive and remarkable i am blessed to call you my colleagues and i'm for forever grateful to you all thank you thank you kev clearly you want to move this
017along i get it [Laughter] thank you cat thanks for coming this evening and we're very excited to have you continue to be part of the tokenic family over there at dr adley's urging may i have a motion to appoint kathleen brunswick as assistant principal of tokenique elementary school mrs mccammon second by mrs ackman all those in favor that is unanimous with all those present thank you congratulations [Music] good we will luck on dr adley and our student representative reports olivia and john good evening good to have you here good evening um on our agenda to share today our student council elections come up tomorrow so can you do do me a favor just i think it'd be best if you move that microphone to right in front of you and then we'll get two microphones
018going forward since there's two people sitting there mr dimeo client chain um our student council elections are coming up tomorrow which means so we'll have our new student community council new president everything um should be by the end of the school day tomorrow barring any runoff elections um and which sometimes happens um uh student council is who is holding their annual movie night on friday they're um showing cars which will be fun they'll be all you can eat colony pizza for all of you uh dhs uh students who have not already been hearing it on the announcements every day um us as the student representatives we've just been appointed as official members of the community council so we'll have our first meeting with our student government this friday um ap testing starts this monday um
019our prom tickets additionally just went up for sale for juniors and seniors because our senior prom is in i think three weeks it's the 13th and then junior problems the 21st this is a bigger announcement um the spain trip just finished so uh first i would like to thank uh miss mauricio and all of the chaperones who have graciously volunteered their time to go to spain which is a vacation as much for them as it was for us so it was a lot of fun we went to six cities in 10 days uh we saw places such as the alhambra la girado de savilla las ramblas we also went to a cooking class and went to a flamenco dance show a lot of fun there was a great balance of both free time and a
020lot of structured activities through ef which was our tour group and we would especially like to stress that um the dhs students deportment was incredible throughout the trip there were no major infractions of anything um on the topic of our foreign language department our language department has its uh national honor society induction tomorrow night as well as awarding all of our students who have earned the seal of bi-literacy um we'll receive those awards tomorrow and just honoring all of the students who really excelled in our amazing language department and finally um deca nationals which are business competitions uh currently is happening right now in atlanta this is the end of a three-day four-day program that started on saturday so we're really excited that we had several people go um and we're hoping to congratulate them
021on any of their victories when they come home that's all we have great thank you both appreciate that mrs klein [Music] i just add one thing to olivia and john and dr adley's um announcements saturday was our youngest athletes our unified sports athletes dr forshaw was there with several of the team members from oxford it was our first time having in the the important part of the stadium what's that called the important part of the stadium dhs football field no the big one center oval center no no it was at the stadium thank you the stadium okay trying to get it right so we had our youngest athletes there and our secondary athletes were there mentoring them and it was the first time we had the opportunity for all of our unified sports athletes and
022coaches to be there it was extraordinary the weather was kind and generous to all and it was just a wonderful opportunity so i just wanted to acknowledge everyone and how well our athletes did thanks thank you mrs i was there and i i will say the turnout was incredible the way it was set up mr riviera was there paul was there who heads up that program and just an incredible turnout and i will say that our students then carried over morticia and adam gomez from the adams family play sung the national anthem and to kick off to baseball at mcguan field on sunday and they sung the national anthem and again that was a packed house with the fire trucks transporting some of our kids with special needs in the challenger program and again just
023another incredible get-together i think it's been three years since they've been able to get together and have kind of the baseball kickoff at mcguan field so they did a beautiful job singing in the national line so thank you mrs clark uh we will move on to approval of minutes um we have a motion to approve the minutes of the special meeting and regular meeting held on april 6 2022. uh mr ceni second by mr moroney all those in favor that is unanimous thank you board committee reports mr sean we had a finance committee last thursday uh meeting um pretty quick one there's a few transfers that uh rich will run through uh later on which we recommended for the board thank you mr suny mr zachman uh the policy committee met what i thought was
024last thursday or maybe it was a different day of finance it was thursday but it was definitely last week um we began the first half of the 2000 series which is a student series and you'll hear more on that tonight with recommendations from the committee great thank you uh mrs mcconnell the henley homes and royal building committee continues at pace we have selected three architectural finalists and we're in the process of looking at the construction managers who have applied to our rfq and so we move forward thank you terrific um oxrage had a meeting last week we have a meeting every thursday on specifics around construction we're still on schedule to take over that building on about june 9th we're working through any supply chain issues with respect to furniture i think we'll be good
025to outfit that school over the course of the summer it will be ready for the students and then the deconstruction of the existing school will will start almost immediately once we get that school emptied out we're working through some switching issues from a technology standpoint jeff adams and mike lynch and company have gone above and beyond to figure that out and we continue to be so on target and under budget no pressure joe and emily holt holmes as that comes up for a june 9th just i think we need to make sure the board has a vote to take possession of that from the town so we just want to make sure we schedule that yeah it's a good point it came up in a conversation i had as to temporary co and moving and
026the fact that it's phase one and phase two so we'll we'll work through that and uh bring it to the board around taking care control and custody of phase one with respect to the the uh ed specs good thank you good um any other board committee reports okay we will move on to the public hearing on the high school stadium lights uh thank you all those that have come and and kind of participated as we've gone down this path just kind of a quick recap as everyone knows um the agreement that was put in place um after five years is up for review so that is what we've been doing we've kind of started the process i don't know michelle do you want to put up that timeline up there just so we can kind
027of refresh everyone's mind so um that's a great picture um go to that next steps and timeline thanks michelle so we are um doing the public hearing we have an agenda item that after we hear from the public the board will continue our discussion around our role in filing an application uh for the zoning regulations and application for any changes to the special permit associated with it um and then that's the timeline the next meeting we'll have further discussion and decision uh and then we'll work with the submission of the application with our land use attorneys through the planning and zoning application process so just to recap because i think it's important the administration has um come as requested to the board with a proposal in terms of what they would see our kind of
028uses and timing around the fields propodium stadium light so we've had that what we thought would be important is to hear from the public over and above what we need from a school standpoint in terms of the usage of those fields so that's what we'll be hearing tonight from the public anything over and above what the school builds around the schedule and then anything over and above what the school uses the stadiums in the fields for goes to our normal use of school facilities process so again i think once the administration goes through the process of and the board going through the process of applying for a change to the zoning based on our discussion and any changes to the special permit the schedule that will then be built around the needs from a school
029standpoint and then as with our use of facilities policy it'll be opened up to other community groups to use those fields so i would ask if there's any additional board comments around that okay good and michelle will go to the public hearing part of it will we start in person yes same rules yes okay for all participants please state your name and log he will have up to three minutes of comments anyone interested [Music] please just come yes come up to the um if you want to line up somewhere you can do that also my name is albertus vandenbrook and i'm living on 15 lyndon lane and i've been doing so for just about the last 50 years i would like to rectify a misconception that has often been put forward over the years that
030people who do not wholeheartedly support any proposal with regard to the use of the athletic fields and stadium lights are against student athletics as well to mention that our family is part of the founders of the dairy and athletic foundation as it's also another neighbor only lane as is attested to the plaque on the stadium field i've also contributed to the installation of the turf fields and i'm proud to say that our granddaughters are top athletes in the sports teams at the school and brought them to state championships and our son richard has been very instrumental in the organization and development of the darian lacrosse league so anyway to set the stage student sports is not a site activity in our household but there has to be a balance between the activities on the athletic
031fields and the requirements of undisturbed living in the homes right around the fields the agreement that was developed five years ago after extensive deliberations among the board of education the school administration and the neighbors did accomplish that with the exception of the management of the sound to which i will come back later in preparation of this hearing i have communicated with the neighbors aboving the high school in lindelay and middlesex road and there has been quite a turnover in recent years with many young families with little children moving in continuing the agreement would be well received and back in november dr adley said it has been working for the school but recognizing the community spirit engendered by friday night's games as mentioned by several of the people that we talked to also in our neighborhood
032has made the neighbors open to the idea of a few more friday night games to support this community spirit he noted that in the past season not all the available night games were even used which makes us wonder if additional permitted night games are even necessary or if the desire for more friday night games can be satisfied by simply requesting from pnz more flexibility in scheduling games rather than the rigid two per team program in place now neighbors are really indifferent to what team if a darion is playing but the total number of disturbed evenings does matter even though the new technology used keeps light from spilling beyond the field please understand that the lights are still a nuisance because of the bright landing strip effect they create however irrespective of when lights are on
033and the number of games the neighbors were unanimous in their judgment that the sound of games is the greatest nuisance and need to be addressed game's creation for almost that time just keep in mind three minutes you're almost at time i thought the hearing had no limitation of the minutes common three minutes for adhering too i mean i i have to finish down yes go ahead an unusual situation i you had 15 seconds left go ahead please we'll be able to do it in 15 seconds is it under the rubbish rule that we have here or she outlined the public hearing rules when we started each person has three minutes i thought it was related to the comment section but not to the hearing section no she outlined it when we started to three minutes
034a parliamentarian you have but i can come back at the end of the meeting i guess excuse me i can come back at the end of this meeting yes yes yes i finished with public comment at the end of the day don't have to do that or you can handle this you can also send in your comments email them in to us please yep thank you good evening i'm chris harwick i live at 108 inwood road uh in darien i am president of the darian junior football league i'm here again to state our request and to clarify our position regarding extended use for lights of darion high school we request the board of education submit application to bnz that only limits the time which lights can be operated that will comply with dairy and land
035use regulations there should be no further restrictions offered on the application that would dictate how our fields should be used there must be clear delineation between the land use permit being sought to operate the lights and the operation guidelines which should be formulated by the board of education and the administration with thorough input from the community especially those that use the fields on a regular basis like the dj afl why will we having more light why do we need more lights uh or more time for lights in the djfl is the question i have coached two sons through the program and will be coaching my third in sixth grade this year i also work in new york city i have zero interest in being on the field at 9 30 at night i have zero
036interest in dragging my tired and hungry 10 year old home that late but the demands but due to the demand and increased usage by the high school in recent years we need the flexibility to on occasion push a practice later football is a unique sport we have lowered our injury and concussion rates significantly over the last few years by spending a tremendous amount of time on time and resources on coaching proper and safe techniques this takes repetition this takes time canceling practices are not an option so when we lose fields at darien high school because of high school events that we're not necessarily know about we are forced to consolidate teams onto one field with our narrow time frame multiple times last year we had six teams and over 150 participants on one field this
037creates unsafe and unconstructive practice conditions with extended usage we could easily bump out a couple of practices and smooth out the usage of the fields when conflicts present themselves with our time constraints and the lights going off at 7 30 we are forced to use every last minute of our usage during practice for practice breaking down the fields in the dark with a smartphone as a flashlight as your only source of light is unnecessary having our players search for their gear take home the wrong helmets and phones some people in this board you're almost dead having parents search for their players in the dark with a very busy parking lot next door is unnecessary the djfl is not looking to add practices or bring younger teams to practice at town hall the darian high school
038with added light usage we are not looking to hold practices to 9 30 on a regular basis we simply want the flexibility to adjust and smooth out our practices and game schedules for the safety and benefit of our families thank you mr army anyone else in the audience tommy branca 14 shipway road owen comey 20 saddle ridge road uh hello we are here to talk about or the be part of the movement for longer light usage owen and i are both captains of the boys soccer team i've played on the team for three years i've seen the program go tremendously but i first hand first handedly experiences the disadvantages of not having extended practice time um while i acknowledge the importance of hearing and considering the opposition's position and truly believe that the world would
039be better placed if we all respected our opponents here i truly do not understand why the discussion of having added light time is something that is worthy of so many people's time in life we all know that every decision we make has positive and negative effects and clearly here i believe that the positive effects of having extra practice time outweigh the negative effects greatly not only does extra practice time lead to a healthier student body build community spirits and allows for the ability to hold more night games it also helps team to perform better through my experience i can confidently say that the boys soccer team performs better when we have a student crowd however we only have a student crowd when we are under the lights as well when it comes to playoff time
040we play on the stadium field and to be able to practice on that field is a necessity playing on center oval is not the same to playing on the stadium field and when it comes to that we usually don't have time to practice on the field because of light usage and other teams having to use the field it would be a great advantage to many teams if they are able to practice on the field they play on and i believe it'll lead to a greater success in our team's outcomes thank you for your time consideration thank you thanks for speaking this evening cece chandler 19 peter glean good evening i'm currently a junior at darien high school i play varsity lacrosse and next year i will be one of the girls varsity soccer captains i
041have lived in darien my whole life just a half of a mile from the high school i started playing organized soccer in town in kindergarten and lacrosse in third grade my sisters did as well we've spent countless hours hundreds on the school athletic fields when we finally got lights at the stadium it was such a big deal for myself my family my teammates and my friends finally we could have friday night light games this opened an opportunity for games to be more accessible to fans especially for parents coming after work or a long commute like my dad my first ever soccer coach finally we could be like every other town we played i couldn't i could only help but wonder why we couldn't have more games under those lights it doesn't make sense that we
042can't play more games so that our family and friends can attend we have winning high school championship teams every season hundreds of youth involved in town sports supportive parents who work more than an hour away why can't we have more opportunities to use these beautiful fields and lights more this includes practices there are nights when coaches can't make earlier times and the lights would allow for extended practices it doesn't make sense that we can't use the facilities we have right here in my backyard i'm here to say let there be more light thank you thanks for coming out and speaking this evening good evening my name is ryan hopkins and i live at 27 point woods road south i'm marina dragula at 91 raymond street i'm morgan mats i'm morgan massey i live at 31
043arrowhead y i'm a junior at dhs and next year i'll be one of the varsity field hockey captains and i also currently play varsity lacrosse for most kids in darien playing on the stadium field at darien high school is the biggest stage they will see in their athletic lives it's a place we dream of playing our entire lives i grew up watching older girls on that field and i thought of them as celebrities and they inspired me to work hard to try and follow in their footsteps a huge portion of the darian community comes out and supports high school varsity games stepping foot on that field as a varsity player is one of the most thrilling things that has ever happened to me i hope that the next generation of female athletes at darien high
044school that inspires the great i hope to be one of the next um i hope to be that next generation of female athletes at durian high school that inspires the grade school age girls who just picked up a stick for the first time every once in a while we get to experience that incredible stage under the lights and it's magic it's a moment in your life that you never forget that your parents and grandparents will never forget that eight-year-old boys and girls will never forget it's a special event that brings us together as a community community and makes darian the special place that it is today please help us keep the magic of darren athletics healthy and alive by letting us enjoy these lights more often and for longer periods of time thank you all
045of you for coming up and speaking i don't have any notes my name is guy wisinski i actually was the first person that um submitted an application for the lights 15 years ago i grew up in a little small town in new hampshire um same town as carlton fisk if you're a red sox fan and all of my high school games football baseball and soccer were under the lights and when i moved to darien i was told that chairman of the board of education lives right next to the school and you will never get likes when i sat on a 2002 committee with bob harrell who was at that point the first and make a long story short we started the process we uh i coached in the dgfl for 10 years i guess i
046was my title was the vice president or what have you um we sent out 1200 registered letters a year just to get portable lights at town hall and at the high school so both football field hockey varsity junior sports could play i was a coach okay i had three kids who were dramatically hurt two toured their acl and one probably would have played for four years in high school uh high school and in college one of the best athletes i've ever seen he basically got hurt because i was running a practice at we beach because we couldn't practice under the lights on the field so we would have to go to the parking lots because the assistant coaches were all working in new york and we finally got to the point where we got portable
047lights and we went through that whole process again anybody within a mile or a mile and a half of either one of those fields got a registered letter we went through it every year um i started this when my son was in fifth grade my daughter was captain of the lacrosse and field hockey teams her senior year was the first time my youngest of three played on that field her senior year in a field hockey game and it was a special moment for a lot of people momentocus um uh and i think it was a it was a one goal game and we were able to pull that off and when the lights went on all these people who complained and fought and everything else were saying oh my god what's the big deal and
048to the point where they said this is a box of light okay this is going to be dangerous to get to the parking lot because everybody was scared of the light spillage so my kids are in la chicago in my daughter my gran my daughter will graduate from richmond she played lacrosse there and i will just tell you it's where a community comes together and i would really look at this very very seriously in terms of what was said and what has happened because it's a very good thing so thank you for your time could you just go provide your address again sure thank you it's uh guy wisinski and i'm at 111 delafield island road and darien thank you thanks for speaking next person from the audience vapehog machal 369 middlesex road uh the
049past few years have been quite nice as we moved into this house about five years ago i feel that the agreement which has been in place has worked well for both the school and the community one thing that i'd like to um talk about with the lights the lights isn't really the issue the lights have worked well uh i think that you know my daughter also plays field hockey she's enjoyed using the field and having the lights available what is a concern for us is the noise that cut that comes along with the games especially late in the night my the same daughter who plays field hockey also has sensory issues so when things go late and it's noisy as has happened a couple of times in this year it gets very trying for her
050so the idea that we would have uh more games but potentially longer into the night is a concern for us with our daughter being in high school and for us and potentially for the other families with younger kids in the area one other thing that i wanted to say is that just because we can doesn't necessarily mean that we should it oftentimes feels in this town that anything to do with sports then yes we must do this because it's sports because it's for the kids and that's the end of the conversation so i'd like i'd like for us to consider that just because we can does that mean that we should thank you thank you thanks for speaking this evening anyone else in the audience good evening my name is andy von kennel i live
051at five georgian lane and first just thank you board of education i think many of us have watched you guys from home on zoom going through the unthinkable and we appreciate it so a little context i've lived in darien 15 years my wife and i moved here i can't believe it's 15 years now we've raised two kids here both through homeschool middlesex next year i have two at dhs admittedly i didn't grow up here in where i grew up you pay a premium to live near the high school so you can hear the noise be a part of that community and enjoy hearing the band the socializing all of that so on a very personal note i am completely confused by what i moved into 15 years ago on that regard okay but i respect
052it and i get it um in our 15 years my wife and i who i'm here representing also have volunteered on our own because we love it to this community darian soccer association dylax darian little league djfl you name it we've basically given time booster clubs pto and the community and the kids that live here it's really what makes this place so special all right and it's been great for us and i think when i look at these lights these are a wonderful asset for our town a fantastic asset that are wildly underutilized today and it's not necessary and maybe some people think it worked for five years okay but now is a great time for the administration to begin managing this process do it like it's done other places and i think what you'll
053see is more positivity in the community than anything that could even remotely be negative it is that nice of an opportunity and i'm actually excited that this group has the chance to influence and take this forward in the way that it needs to go because it is that important and i i couldn't be prouder i know i mean i've coached or know most these kids i see so many familiar faces so i'm grateful to be a part of the community i appreciate everything that you guys do and i please ask you to give consideration to take control manage it understand what the rules are in our town i can play paddle till 10 o'clock at night we crank the music crank the music play paddle in multiple locations we can play sports until 9 or
0549 30 get out of there quietly and i can assure you everyone will be so much better for it so thank you so much for being here tonight and thanks for listening thanks for coming speaking anyone else from the audience [Laughter] hello my name is doug wilson i live at 43 arrow headway in darien i've been a resident since 2003. i have three children in the darian public school systems in elementary middle school and high school that are all involved in a diverse set of activities from theater 308 chorus diving football and lacrosse i'm here tonight to voice my support in favor of the darien board of education and the administration for having full dominion and control over the lights that are located at darien high school i am opposed to the continuation of the
055standstill agreement that was agreed to five years ago that places arbitrary and unnecessary restrictions on these assets the lights belong to the town of darian they were funded by darien residents and they should benefit the community the entire community the community and our families wants to use the fields our communities and our families need to use the fields it is my understanding that the restrictions included in the land use permit that were included in the standstill agreement were negotiated amongst a limited group of landowners and the former superintendent of schools without the direct knowledge and input of the board of education or the community restrictions governing the size of the ball the form of the stick the age of the player or the time that a match begins should end it should be a matter
056left to the administration the coaches and individual parents not a group of neighboring landowners or people that represent a special interest in closing i would like to reiterate that should this should be a discussion about dominion and control over these assets and making sure it resides with the most appropriate governing body thank you for your time thank you thanks for speaking this evening uh good evening terry bach seven birch road uh i have four children one through three currently in schools two in high school and one in middlesex uh i've served multiple youth sport youth sports boards in town uh over the years at the moment it's uh darian little league and darion junior field hockey i speak with my youth sports volunteer colleagues tonight to expand use of the lights uh as well as
057the fields um and actually despite knowing uh being in town a long time and in these positions this is actually my first time before the board of education so for those of us that listen to some sports radio and i think there's at least a few of us first-time caller long-time listener uh i'm not gonna repeat uh you know uh i will focus on one challenge that uh my dll colleague mr harwick mentioned which is to pull these leagues off the monster volunteer effort that it takes to pull those off in terms of coaches umpires referees score keepers all that stuff and expanded hours in a town that commutes to new york city for the most part um is really really critical to us as it relates to the hours um but tonight i wanted
058to offer a viewpoint a little bit adjacent to what you may hear so when you think about expanded lights and fields you think of our very optically obvious um teams that we have to shut down the campus for football state championships lacrosse that sort of thing um there's actually a group that this may benefit more than all of those which is young field hockey girls so um darien jr field hockey started two years ago we got a field hockey league in town that got sort of reborn um with a group of us volunteers um we've doubled the size of the league and we're operating with uh substantially the same amount of fuel time that we used to so when you expand lights and you think about football teams and lacrosse teams and that sort of
059thing it actually may be that the biggest beneficiary of expanded use of the fields and lights is actually k through eighth grade girls so please do keep that in your mind as you as you ponder the expanded use of the fields and make more of it available to all of us thanks for listening thank you for being a first time speaker jim palin by hickory lane uh i'm not a first time speaker um yeah i'm a parent i'm a taxpayer i'm a coach i'm a member of the djfl board of um dgfl board and a member of this community i've taught six or seven different sports some better than others over the past 18 years in town and i'm really here tonight i wanted to speak and say thank you to the board of bed
060for racing this issue i appreciate the fact that you're revisiting this permit after five years and that your intention is to go forward and apply for a new special permit i i would remind you all in the community itself that the stadium the lights the fields the school buildings including the new 60 million dollar building we're building up on on mansfield are all town owned assets that were funded by residents and taxpayers and in many cases some very generous donors within our community that the care custody and control of those assets have been has been handed over to the town from the town to the board of ed to basically carry out its role of education for all the youth in town but i think it's also the responsibility of the board of ed which
061you have in the past fulfilled and done a good job at that is to make sure that when the board is not and the administration is not using these assets these extremely valuable assets that you make them available to the community and i think what we're hearing tonight from many different members of the community all different ages students coaches members of different boards is that there is high demand for the use of these assets and so what i would encourage you is when you move forward to the planning and zoning commission with a new special permit you should be moving forward with a permit that asks for the use of the lights inside our land use regulations our land use regulations govern the time that the lights can go on and off and the noise
062and sort of other stipulations around intensity of use our planning and zoning commission we have former members here i mean they're a very talented group but they're not experts in whether it should be a varsity player or a jv player under the lights last time i checked when the lights go on they're the same intensity regardless of the age of the students regardless of whether it's a stick or a ball and whether the ball is a rubber ball or a leather ball i would encourage you all and ask that you all move forward with a revised special permit and you seek permission to use them inside the land use guidelines as determined by the planning and zoning commission and then the board of ed and the administration like they have in the past can manage
063the use of those facilities between school related activities and community organizations and and how they're divvied up in the times and number of games that should be a board an administration decision not a planning and zoning decision so i thank you thank you for speaking mr pam [Music] anyone else from a public standpoint here in person michelle do we have any hands raised on zoom we do oh we have jen it's going to speak then we'll go to zoom you guys are tremendous by the way jennifer montanaro president of the dairy athletic foundation um 86 maywood road i thought i'd just um bring a little bit of lightness to this because it seems as if maybe you know it could be a little contentious you know so five years ago something popped up on my
064facebook today i'll try to make this brief five years ago um we rallied quite a bit of folks here called called the lights brigade and um we were at the shake shack and anybody that went to the shake shack they would contribute 15 percent of the proceeds towards the lights brigade and tour to the efforts of the lights so um at the time the then superintendent you know we came up with this fantastic idea to do a lacrosse game the skirts versus the shirts the guys versus the girls lisa and jeff would switch coaching and we drummed up the idea of bringing the community in to let them know what our effort was for the likes and if you hadn't been there i just want to read you a quick summary of what i sent
065to then superintendent dr brenner um because he was i would say 85 against this for so many reasons and was so worried that maybe something could possibly go wrong or the weather wouldn't be right so just bear with me on this dr brenner i said that when i touch base after the game i would have a positive report for you the event went off without a hitch it was a true community event and the spectators were multi-generational which was so fun to see there was a buzz in the air that was pure joy and excitement i'm not sure if the best part of the day was a surprise promposal kyle cornell pulled off asking emma lesko or the camaraderie between jeff and lisa or the fact that it ended in a tie and went to
066a brave heart only to have it be kyle and emma battled out for a goal the silly boy went for the win but he'll learn i had planned for the inevitable thinking that the players would disappear immediately after the game and not want to help at the youth clinic i was pleasantly surprised to have to tell the boys that the clinic was over and we had lunch waiting for them i think that they would have played lacrosse with the younger kids all day this is the circle in the darien lacks community that's known for giving back to the younger kids in the program which is one of the reasons that the program is so successful it was a fantastic day enjoyed by the entire community and thankfully the weather cooperated so i bring this to
067your attention because this day was quite spectacular we had vendors we called them vendors but they were local businesses and they were approached by students they were approached by parents parasite had nothing to do with their kids being on this field nothing to do whether or not their kids would ever be under the lights um we all rallied together but the greatest i think achievement was to see the community rally together to look into an entirely packed crowds of people all different ages and seeing these little kids asking will they then have the opportunity to also play under the lights and did they have to wait until their senior year until they got into high school you're almost at time okay thank you it is it's a community asset and like mr palin and all
068the other folks before me um it should be enjoyed by the community so thank you and we do appreciate all the time the effort that you've put forward into this thank you thank you and thanks for speaking this evening michelle we'll go to uh folks on zoom ground you are unmuted and recognized hi can you hear me yes we can thank you hi thank you okay i'm going to run through this because i've got quite a lot to say um the derriene school district and its athletics department should continue in my opinion to be the decision maker and yes master scheduler on the use of stadium lights on their property and be a good neighbor to the homes around it it should also continue to prioritize the use of fields by our high school athletes
069i don't know anyone disputing that or the enjoyment gained from our high school sports teams we are all grateful and enjoy this large gift for many constituents in town it was given as a gift it doesn't come with rights from any special interest group my concern is in reference to comments made by dj fell and daf board members tonight wishing to expand the use of the stadium field and practice times for their own use at night not the school's use but their own from the existing approved 7 30 pm time to a later slot of 8 30 with shutting down of lights at 9pm this request specifically impacts middle and elementary school student activities once you grant approval of that extension for their use you have zero input on which age group is playing at
070what hour and that should be of great concern in their presentations tonight to the board those dep members have demonstrated a focus on start time suitable for parent coaches and a concern for multiple teams on the field some kids grow up to be professional athletes with no field lights in their use none of the speakers have commented on the well-being over time of a fourth to an eighth grader due to the extended practice hours at night so i will the sleep foundation has written about sleep athletic performance and recovery it states that whilst physical activity is important component of a healthy lifestyle making time for rest recovery and sleep is part of that without sleep the pathways to the brain that allow you to learn can't be formed a loss of sleep is associated with
071a declining cognitive function such as decision making and just as exercise can help improve or maintain mental health sleep is important for mental health healthy sleep prevents irritability and decreases a risk of development such as depression 9 pm is too late for our kids to be leaving these fields at 4th through 8th grade come on be the leaders be the decision makers be their advocates as the board deliberates on this subject any board member who has participated in fundraising for or is part of those special interest groups djfl and daf should recruit recuse themselves from the discussion as they do not have impartial judgment that is the practice of best ethics please note that i am very grateful for what daf has provided for our town this is a very specific concern about a specific
072age group of fourth through eighth graders in djfl program and these board members had not come to you and discussed how they would manage dead time ms brown they have not come to you and discussed how they would manage that time or the element of sleep that those kids were going to get thanks very much thank you could you just provide your address again 102 colony road thank you thanks for speaking this evening thank you michelle anyone else on zoom there okay we'll circle back with the audience make sure we've covered everyone all right good all right thank you everyone for coming this evening thank you for speaking um it's important that we hear from the community and i appreciate all that was said and we'll move on to our next agenda item which is
073a further conversation around the proposals for the use of the stadium lights um so i think the conversation for the board this evening in order to give guidance to the administration and our land use attorney to move forward with the applications is twofold if we go back to a review of the application in the documentation there is um section d from a regulation standpoint used to accommodate town or school athletic or related activities or town not-for-profit organization or athletic activities i think with respect to the request from the administration keeping it specific to the town and not allowing games to be played or dhs to host fc or cx games has to be part of the conversation um i think having the facility we have um in being part of the fcac and the sea
074act if another stadium was to go down or out of service um i think it it speaks well for us to have the ability to host uh those games or for those athletes to use our facilities if they are available and then with respect to the special permit around the lights and the timing of lights i think it was well said and that we have to talk about the use of the lights within our land use regulations i think the administration has proposed an extension of the lights to 8 pm during the week 10 p.m on friday allows starts of weekday games after six in the stadium and also allow some additional regular games under the lights so this is specific to what the administration needs with respect to the high school sports then i
075think our conversation has to include what we've heard from the community in terms of the use of the uh i like the word the assets up there that we have in terms of the field and the lights so i'll pause there for a moment and um could open up sure mr cena could i just add one section to your car shorts uh because it was raised in the public address system also yes good point thank you on page 10 uh o through q um and there's audio specifications and um that that should be a section under discussion okay so thank you mr ceni and then just to back up on that to get specific so the public address system is o through q with subsections there um we spoke about section d on used to
076accommodate town or school athletic athletic related activities and then if you have this document the use of lighting is also where uh it's outlined in section f a b c and d uh in terms of the i'll use the word um schedule or limitations it actually says time limitations for lighting facilities so um but we have to this evening and we can have further discussion and move to a decision at the next meeting is the guidance we want to give the administration and our land use attorney on the filing of the special permit application and also the change to the zoning regulation so and i will say since i think it came up a couple of times the board is not involved in the scheduling of these fields that is strictly an administrative role along
077with the athletic director and so they will build a schedule of these fields and then over and above what we need the field for in terms of our athletic events or school events it then goes to the use of school facilities and there is a pretty detailed and i think it works um kind of policy around organizations and a priority of how those organizations would apply to use the fields when they are available outside of when they're being used by the schools so i don't know if there's anything you want to add to that dr adley actually no okay opens okay good so i'll open it up for board conversation so duke just to be clear the the questions we're answering tonight are do we want to have visitors or users of the field who
078are outside the town that's one question we have to answer and if we think so then we have to change we have to request a change to the zoning regulations correct second question we have to answer is what is the block of time that we want uh the fields to be open to the administration and the public correct correct okay and we have to do that as part of refiling the special permit correct okay we'd all the other language that we had in the special permit we no longer have to have in there about um who what team right field use when lighting facilities are in use time limitations for lighting facilities and even games okay i think what we would want to make sure we understand in terms of going forward with the application
079it would be a redlined agreement done by the land use attorney that would turn all that over what i would consider the management of the facilities and the scheduling of the facilities to the administration based on the usage of lights based on what we agreed to from the board and that it adheres to um the land use regulations with respect to lights okay that makes sense and then the third component then is that the public address system needs to be updated to uh be more accurate is that correct the the red red line the items related to the public confesses right okay so that's really what's in front of the board right now well and that would need to be addressed if the board has any recommendations or not right yes thank you [Music] so
080john just specific again to the public address system just it's uh found on page right 10. so when you look at a audio specifications it gets into the use of how the spiro system is used within the facility right and you know as i understand it there are noise ordinances at state level and our local statutes refer to those state levels so again if we're violating noise or if we're within the confines of the noise um ordinances we shouldn't have to have special regulations within the special permit okay directing the use of our sound system you know that would be up to the administration and right to adhere to the sound ordnance side to the regulations well to just draw a finer point on it i think the the question is should it all be
081codified at a special permit level or if the administration chooses to make a recommendation that's how they run the schools that might be fine but right now we have it codified and it is um it doesn't match state statute so this is and this is the only place in town where it sits like this so the question is it's it's not per se to say there would be no restrictions but those would be on their care custody control of the schools rather than held within a special permit [Music] board questions comments so i guess i'll start um you know hearing feedback from the community i i think and in previous board uh discussions um you know this is a zoning issue and i think we as you as we summarized a lot of the details
082in terms of how the use of the facilities we already have a a policy in place and our facilities use policies so i think uh to what we're dancing around is what have we heard from the administration and what have we heard from the community that would uh cause the board to make a recommendation for the administration go forward and work with the land use attorney to to make these uh modifications upon that the once we file an application that agreement with the neighbors disappears so that's also another um you know thing we should just solidify that whether or not this board wants to have any sort of uh formal agreement with the neighbors i would argue no at this time um i'll just throw you know just to get the conversation started i think
083nine o'clock is a very suitable time uh for use of the lights within this community you know people are going to start wrapping up around 8 30 at night i'm not getting into the nanny state of determining when or what time children need to go to bed i think that's in the best interest of their parents um and not in either in this board's purview or even the administration's purview i think nine o'clock is very considerate to the neighbors um and and really not impacting the quality of life um and you know planning and zoning commission has different thoughts around that and the impact of the surrounding neighborhood they will weigh in but i think as uh you know the entity that is here care custody and control we should get this back to what
084it truly should be and that's a special permit around the use of lights at the facility and the rest of the care custody patrol left with the administration so i think i appreciate that mr ceni thank you i know one conversation i had i think with dr adley um and the land use attorney was on the lights out time so if it's at nine o'clock it does mean that the lights go out at nine o'clock so that practices would stop around 8 30 so people could get off the field get to their cars i mean there's security lighting that needs to be there from a parking standpoint you should always make sure that's the right lighting after these lights go down and that's mr lynch and facilities um role but just so it's clear it's
085not the practice or the game start at nine and it takes 30 minutes for people to get out of the way and the lights go off the lights go off at whatever time is agreed upon and then the practice will be scheduled accordingly let's let me just finish yesterday and we also have to be careful to make sure that any amendments we make we don't cut off any opportunity for friday nights until 10 as that's currently there so that's where it was going to go so your your nine o'clock is that your individual guidance is that monday through thursday and is there a friday time 10 10 as it is and is there a saturday time no that's up for discussion i haven't read okay all right we'll move over mrs achman so [Music] i
086will say i've thought a lot about this having i think lights might have been my first vote on the board which feels like a forever ago but lights were even longer ago than that um the crux of it seemed to always be that the neighbors were concerned that they would get kind of run over by the lights and there was a trust issue i don't really know any other way to explain it and what i do think that the five-year agreement was supposed to do was to show that trust could exist right we would put things in place but it was never meant to be in perpetuity and i think that's why we're at the review now and what i would hope from the neighbors who have concerns is they they understand that there is
087a mutual respect there is a trust there is a conversation to be had with the administration if there's a concern about noise or something but the idea that we've locked it in a special land permit use has really kind of gone far beyond the scope of where we'd like to be so i'm in favor of moving forward um and letting p and z rule there you know let them really control land use i'm not a land use expert um and i think the board should do that and i think they should do that soon i think the neighbors should be assured that i don't think that means that this administration of this board is in isn't open to having conversations i think we've shown ourselves to be good neighbors and we've honored our word and
088our agreement but that's where trust extends to a new point i will say and as much as i'm in favor with many of the speakers of moving forward i do want to put a small caveat the idea that i pay for an asset so i get to use it we pay for all our town assets right and we govern them town hall is closed on fridays right we pay for town hall but the administration over there has made a decision that that's the best way to to run their program so i just hope within that there's still respect for the fact that the administration and the school may run their program and their customer care custody and control decisions and it's not just i mean we all well i shouldn't say well many of us
089here supported the lights and wanted it wanted to bring it to fruition but i don't know that that means that it means we can use them endlessly so as long as we can come up with something another speaker said finding out the balance between um neighborhood living and living in a school i think we should but i don't think that needs to be codified in a land use agreement and if anything we've shown over the last five years that we can be held to our word we're open to conversations and i think it's time that we move forward um with a new permit under pnz and then any conversations about usage needs to go to the administration thank you mr brown thank you um i would just follow up mr ceni and miss ochman um
090agreeing and disagreeing in a small part i agree we should move forward we should go to pnz i disagree we should have any time limit i think the time limit should come later and that should be administrative policy i think we should move uh to whatever limit pnz will give us for full use of the assets and that's my comment thank you [Music] um i am in agreement with moving forward i just wanted to touch on the outside town use since that's something we need to discuss right um i think that that is something we need to open up to because we use other towns facilities as well we are part of the larger community um you know for the turkey bowl we've gone to stanford for swim dive we have to we don't have
091a pool that accommodates we have to move outside for that i feel like we're part of the bigger community and we need to allow others to use our town assets as well thank you is that over and above or beyond what the administration is recommending in terms of essiac and ciac playoff games um yeah you're referring to i'm talking i know i'm referring to the playoff games okay thank you thank you mr maroney yeah so i think i think there's some um interesting thoughts on this so so mr wisniewski brought up the point of that the rtm actually had a public hearing on this and i was the the chairman of that or the acting chair i was the vice chairman of the rules committee so then had a host that meeting and it was
092kind of contentious as well so i think there's there's some things that i'm kind of was mr brown i think we should go just go to the land use restrictions and go to that and then we worry about times later on i don't think we i don't want to specify a time at eight o'clock because we can we're going to argue all night about what what the right time is i think we should go to the time that we are allotted and then we figure out what the best time is and that can change over time and so we're not bound by an agreement somebody you know 10 15 20 years is going to say why did they build nine o'clock it should be eight o'clock and then you know and then we have to
093they have to file a new new permit um i think the other part from me that that i heard last night or last meeting that i'm still struggling with is you know we talked about honoring the spearmint spirit of the agreement with the neighbors and and i'm just questioning what that means so if we're going to if the if the agreement was originally x games and we're going to 2x or 3x is that honoring the spirit i'm not sure so i think we have to be careful as to what we say we want to honor the spirit and to follow through with the honor of the spirit and same thing with with the times that the lights are allowed after the scheduled time from now where it was we originally said 7 30 if we
094go to nine i'm not i don't i don't know i'm not i'm not a pining on it but i'm not sure that abides by honor of spirit of the agreement i agree with with mrs worm on the outside usage i think you know the students also were talking tonight and they said you know one of the thrills was to play at the stadium field what a thrill it would be to play a championship game at this at your home field that no one in darien has ever had the opportunity to do so i think that would be a major major accomplishment i think the other part that i don't think we've discussed and i'm not sure what can be done is the noise and i think the neighbors have brought that up and i'm curious
095as to what we can do in the application around north i think that goes to what the ordinances are around noise what the ordinance may be that are in place for those places that have the clubs that have um nighttime paddle and in different other events too i think again it goes to one of the land use ordinances yeah well maybe we can go above and beyond those land use ordinances and try to become better neighbors if we can i don't know just a question yeah so i'm sorry this is awesome get good at it by the time i leave um i think the hard thing is i hear you saying like let's not put any time restriction on it but what restrictions can we put on noise which is just an inconsistent logic to
096me um i think what happened is we had a gift of lights to the school which we hadn't had for years and then we wanted to be good neighbors but there had been for whatever reason bad blood and it wasn't getting done so we came up with this answer and for five years we've lived by it so we've shown will be true to our word and now the question is how do we move forward um [Music] i mean you could open up the whole thing i would say that's we should really just not talk about the spirit of the agreement then because we're getting rid of the agreement what we're saying is we i think the darian public schools is respectful to its neighbors we're respectful to our neighbors and tokenique we're respectful to our
097neighbors high school they have different activities and so there's there's different conversations that need to happen but i would like to pull this out of a land use agreement to mr ceni's point and not have this an issue laden in p and z and have this an issue over care can trust custody and control of the schools which we do every single day right we used to have bonfires at the high school that was a care costing control issue it was not an issue that we took up with pnc we you know we have homecoming we have all these things so fireworks right oh don't get me started on fireworks please do i think so much tonight so you know if the board wants to totally open up but i don't think that's what the
098administration is asking us to do what i do think is we are reaffirming the right that we control this property and in order to do that we don't need it written in p and z and i might just add just clarity sorry to jump in but um we do as a part of an application you do have to set what you want you can't just say hey pnz decide for us so we got we got to come to a time okay so that's good that's good clarity for everyone um i'll make sure we cover everyone i'll go to mrs best i i basically will say i'm largely in agreement with most of what's been said i think we should move forward um i agree that we should allow contests on our field that may not
099involve our teams if that's how the season plays out um i think we've heard a lot of great comments tonight i think we can change these parameters and still live by the spirit of the agreement and the way we we move forward even when we've taken more control of the decisions and not left it in a special land use agreement i think we still can be respectful of uh the neighbors and their requests and i think we also need to be mindful to whatever degree it's our responsibility of how the fields get used into the late hours some people have expressed those concerns also but i think there are some really great compelling comments about the camaraderie and the community spirit and those are things that we should we need we should look for um
100we should try to make things possible where we can so i'm on board thank you mrs best this is mckevin thank you so i'm fully in agreement with removing the um language that in my opinion doesn't belong in the special permit from the special permit so that would include all of the restrictions on the who and how as well and the timing uh as well as the the inappropriate noise parts again not because i think that we need to be noisy all the time but just because it doesn't belong in here um i'm in agreement that that we should open ourselves up to fcac and seattle competitions um i am you know love friday nights i grew up with friday nights um and i think um i could discuss um what time the lights go
101monday through thursday i think that um 7 30 for sure is too early um i think between 8 30 and 9 would be fine with me to give to i just want to make sure teams have time to practice and then get off the field safely um and then saturday i think we would just leave open to what is needed so i don't know if we can go and say as needed or if we have to be more specific about a saturday time in order to properly file the application if so um i would say we maybe do need to put a stake in the ground and then i i would say 10 o'clock for saturday as well but with the idea that that is a rare occurrence um as needed as needed um the
102last piece i would say is you know in regards to the spirit of the agreement one of the things that is in the um special permit that i think we need to maintain not in the special permit but as a practice is that neighbor committee that meets regularly um and so just saying out loud there is a group that meets with dr adley of neighbors and wherever we put that whether it's an administrative protocols i just think it's important to keep an open dialogue with the neighbors as we transition into this new environment look i think i i i think to some of the comments here i caution referring to the spirit of the agreement if we are moving away from the agreement i think what we've done as long as i've been on the
103board almost eight years now managing seven properties so to speak is always to be good neighbors and that is listening i can count on less than one hand the amount of complaints i've gotten as vice chair or chair or head of facilities i've gotten more complaints about garbage and lawn maintenance and weeds than i have about no i've got no complaints about lights i've gotten two complaints that i know about about noise that were bumped up to the administration and athletic director and handled i mean there's a process to see you know what the students were doing and so i think the goal is always to be a good neighbor we're all neighbors and part of the community there are schools in their assets so um you know my view is i think much uh
104is the same as the board i'm in favor of moving away from the agreement um working to understand what the administration needs and what the community will use thereafter when the schedule permits opening it up to outside organizations that can use the fields um i do agree with mr senior i think as a board we have to come to some conclusion on the times and go to planning and zoning around that um i appreciate jill bringing up the saturday question and i will also just so we cover all seven days a week bring up the sunday question and that just might be a hard no which is fine i think everyone i mean a lot goes on up there on sundays but i'm not sure it needs to be lighted and go into the evening
105so mr brown so just to follow up to that point duke um dennis had mentioned that we were constrained noise-wise by whatever the ordinance is do we know or perhaps this is a question for our land council what is the constraint by ordinance or by other regulation in terms of time and that might inform the decision moving forward please yeah and so what a great point mr brown thank you so we'll get that from the land use attorney again i think there was some conversation when he was here as to what's town versus what's a state and replaced on zoning what a noise ordinance is so we'll get clary on that apparently dude yes just one clarification on weekends you know they're to to mrs mccammon's point there's random playoff games and again i just
106don't want to create any unintended consequences for the administration you know there's some i remember having a football game on a sunday in new canaan which is very you know it's late into the playoffs but i know there are some quirks on saturdays and sundays that uh you know we should consult with uh mr manfredonia before we come to a final conclusion i'm not advocating like consistent use on saturday nights but there are like you know certain playoff games i know with football but i'm sure with other sports that occur on the weekends sometimes let me get some clarity around that dr edward well currently currently uh given the proposal we're not uh planning on having those saturday night games mr mountain is on on the call right now but we're not including that as
107part of the need for the school system at this point okay i also i'd also say to the um our neighbors who have been great neighbors and um i don't think that including the need for a committee people can come to us anytime relatively um and we'll be responsible we'll always be responsible i don't think they're mutually exclusive ideas um that you know that we wouldn't be uh good neighbors in that capacity so anyway mr manfredonian how are you hi duke how are you thank you um yes so so the current agreement allows us to use the field and the lice on a saturday or sunday one one dictated by the estiac or ciac we have as mr steeny points out have used the lights on the saturday or sunday um during those um those
108odd playoff games so i would i would obviously advocate for us to continue to do that on those games when the cia crc mandates us to have games on those two days so i'll ask someone of the resident expert mr ceni so would that be would that be that specific occasion you would consult with our language attorney yeah how to rock that in yeah you know so just good on these rare occasions thank you this is akron so i would just offer i think that has always been the case and so and now what we're saying is we'll let other teams if it's not a darien team play but i don't know that we want to open up every saturday and every sunday night and have like a shockwave go through our neighborhoods i think
109what the superintendent has presented is reasonable it is um it is a big kind of step forward certainly in trust and communication i happen to agree with superintendent i don't know that um a committee is the way to go i think any neighbor should should have the right to come and talk to the superintendent i think that committee has done a lot of hard work i think there are other neighbors who feel sometimes like they want their voices heard as well so i think if we say neighbors the administration deals with this mr manfredonia and dr adley that would be a better way to go than having a specific committee and i think that what the administration proposed after looking at this now for multiple weeks is really where i'm comfortable as a board member
110moving forward to pnz i think it really strips away the most restrictive um clauses which were probably not really land use clauses anyway um or appropriate to be there and i think it returns care custody and control to the schools and that kind of gives us a path forward without reigniting now a whole firestorm of like well maybe or um pnz said that you could be open until 10 why aren't you renting me your fields at 8 o'clock on a saturday night like i just don't feel like we're we're at that point yet we're about to take another really big step which will open up our fields allow a lot more people to enjoy them and a lot more teams to enjoy them because sometimes just scheduling a night game is really hard under the
111current restrictions so i think we're meeting both goals and really continuing to engender trust among the neighbors which i think is really what we're looking to do more so than the spirit of any agreement thank you mrs hoffman anything else from the board members okay so um thank you again to the public for participating this evening thank you to the board oh yes please um john or olivia thank you friday night games were like underground but not all of the teams used two paragraph games so i'm wondering if maybe that there were fiction so only two first four say that again um yeah it's a great it's a great point and i think that that's the goal so that it would be available for multiple times yeah i appreciate you bringing that point up yes
112olivia the um importance of not only utilizing our access like to support our community because also football games are um they're not just uh sports games are also an opportunity for um the rest of our student community to get involved in the sports process including our band but um additionally as a student athlete that consistently travels um darien has put a lot of money and time into these lives in this facility and letting other schools access it um especially with other schools that don't necessarily have the super high tech likes that we have um it presents a really good opportunity for the rest of fairfield county and the rest of connecticut to come here and use um the facilities that we have put so much time and effort and money into and i just think
113that's a really important contribution to the rest of our state slash county area [Music] you're speaking on the microphone thank you no no is there a button um [Music] there are many buttons okay um i was just going to say um specifically about the the type of music that can be played when um one thing that i have noticed well because the band goes to all the football games is that sometimes um the there is music played over the pa during games which is i'm learning just now is uh against this guideline so maybe better coordination of what music happens because i know sometimes we have the band plays at the same time as the pa plays music at the same time as there's the the announcer at the same time as there's like a
114cheer so i think maybe the compound effect of the music we could work to coordinate that more so that way there's less of an overall combined decibel level that's being projected out into the neighbors around okay thank you anything you want to add there good appreciate you guys understanding so just to recap because we will move on to the rest of the agenda but again good conversation so at the next meeting we'll have any further conversation and we need to come to an agreement as a board um dr ellie i think we should have the land use attorney here at the next meeting it would be our intent to have him here and probably have a redline draft okay and have a redline draft that will circulate ahead that will incorporate kind of comments from
115the board and an understanding of what the public also expressed this evening this is mccabe anything you want to add you're good with the recap um do you want to be do we want to be any more specific about the timing or we just want to see a red line agreement with a with a time in there we didn't come to necessarily a decision i don't know that we have to tonight but [Music] because you're going to be working with land use attorneys i'm comfortable with what we have proposed forward for ourselves which is the eight o'clock time and the 10 o'clock on the friday that's that's what i'm comfortable with that's that's our need for the school system okay so then we should give him some guidance on yeah community standpoint i'm personally comfortable
116with the nine o'clock understanding some of the community needs um in the 10 o'clock and then you know we'll work with him on what this to mr manfredonia's point what the specific need may be on a friday or saturday and then i think the opening it up um to outside i think is is somewhat specific to uh championships and and playoff games with fcac and seak and i think that kind of makes sense in terms of how we go forward all right good yes sure we're moving forward with the administrative recommendation yes okay and then we'll have something and then we're looking at striking any noise ordinance and letting state statute govern state or local planning in the nine o'clock for the canadians my super recommended what sorry the super well but i think we
117have to balance is the suit i i correct me if i'm wrong alan you're you're recommending what your needs are which is up until eight o'clock i think based on what i've heard i would like to go to nine o'clock just to make sure that the community you know is able to schedule what their needs are once our schedule is built that's how i'm approaching the nine o'clock mr brown and i would just be curious to know what the actual statutory or other control is so well great point mr brown so we'll we'll clear out the noise and kind of your point um around what are the statutory land use regulations around the lights whereas we've got a paddle that's going until 10 o'clock at night so what may well be nine or ten questions
118appreciate that might help us come to a more reasonable time that we agreed to sorry last question i swear so if we are going to go above and beyond the administration's recommendation i'd like to hear from the administration what additional burden staff constraints budgetary implications there are for you if any right because when we rent out our fields that means we have to have certain types of supervision and if there's any constraints we should just be aware of that as a board as we open it up it may be that we affect our billing rates it may be that there's no incremental cost so we can hear it next time but if there's any additional charge or expense to the district based on what you have planned i'd like to know revenue yeah that's probably
119useful for revenue yeah anything else good all right thank you all for the conversation again thank you for the for the public and for everyone speaking um we'll move on to presentations and discussions after having a quick update on the status of schools uh well the quick update is that uh for these couple of weeks we the cases have increased we have 26 new cases uh over uh this this past weekend um our health systems are not under pressure hospitalizations remain constant uh the symptoms remain relatively low acute security is low even though in the town and in the school system uh the cases are right and that is that is a fact the state department wrote these uh superintendents uh on friday and ensured that uh they want to share with the community that
120things are rising and what are we doing i'm inclined just to share what we just we really reiteration of what we are doing in our own district i don't want i want to give people undue cause that we have no need for that where we are working well um uh we'll just remind people of what we have in place at the moment at the weekend our training communication but over and above that um i mean that's that's the big takeaway here you can see that this is uh 79 cases the last time it was 51 and 31 before that this uh which is part of your packet those top two right hand corner numbers are now 26 and 52. so you can see that the numbers these were you know this is the packet that
121you received but now those numbers are 52 and 26 so so those those are increasing um that's probably not surprising to people how we're managing it well and again there's uh there's relatively a relatively minor impact on the healthcare system so that's kind of where we are good thank you board questions or comments all right thank you doctor my friends at the end they're good yeah all right raise your hand i don't see you well now that the mic works i think all right good uh we will move on to discussion and possible action on elementary parent conference days for the 2022-2023 school year dr tranberg good evening everyone in your packet there's a memo that articulates the recommended dates for conferences to end the first trimester and the second trimester of elementary they're based
122on previous years with the same timeline you'll also notice snow dates there is an evening conference this will be our third year for an evening conference scheduled for march 16th as an option and we will continue to offer families the option to participate in person or via zoom because it's given access to conferences for some parents that have not been able to attend in the past great thank you dr trenberg board questions or comments sure mrs mccammon because we are offering zoom options does that give teachers any reprieve on um their need to take large blocks of time and do has it provided us any flexibility in in some large blocks of time it takes out of school time the greatest flexibility has been now that we have an evening conference not many people are
123opting for an evening conference because they're able to um i mean part of the reason was if people are working it's difficult to get there but it's not necessarily as difficult to take 10 or 15 minutes out of a day to schedule a conference via zoom okay so that's that that's been noticeable okay thank you thank you mrs mchammick dr allen mr chairman i just would wonder it's not a topic for discussion but just how much interest the board hasn't seen this every year that this seems just to be administrative in this in the sense that it's set up um like we can bring in the system it just seems that there was something we could be putting on a calendar and be done with you know so we approve the sorry we approve the
124calendar two years in advance and that's part of the reason why these come up additionally this coming up yearly is where we started to hear from parents that they wanted a night conference prior to the advent of zoom so you know just know that it has yielded fruit in the past and then you would have to be prepared with this two years in advance when we approve a calendar okay we can also have an agenda item at our retreat to just you know make sure we round out the discussion so mr brown i would agree with dr adley this should be admin i would only ask that if there's going to be a change to format perhaps we're doing away with zoom or evenings just give us a of what goes on with this they
125have a motion to approve elementary parent conference days for 2022 2023 school year november 29th and 30th december first and sec second snow date december 8th march 15th and 16th afternoon and evening 17th snow date and march 23rd this is fast seconded by mr brown all those in favor thank you we move on to presentations and discussions discussion on the march 2021-22 financial report and possible actions on budget proposed transfers mr rudel so this is the financial report through march uh we are projecting a year-end surplus of 664 which is about a point six two percent of our budget and about twelve thousand dollars more than the previous month uh the general education rc's are a positive hundred and sixteen thousand special education rc's are a positive 546 000 which is primarily due to excess
126cost and the covet rc is a positive seventeen hundred dollars um again we have about a million eighty-five in uh total covet expenses and arp expenses a million twenty five of that is the grant and there have been transfers approved of about sixty one thousand uh salaries are forecasted at a positive 183 thousand uh the primary reasons are student interns at forty eight thousand the portion of budget control which which remains unused at forty three thousand and then we have some savings and some clubs and salary savings operating is forecasted at a deficit of 144 000. uh that is primarily due to uh some items that are up for transfer today uh custodial supplies care grounds fire alarms and electric materials uh we still have the deductible for storm elsa we have received 100 reimbursement
127for storm ida and elsa we do have a placeholder for the library redesign study at the high school middle school in tokyo 60 000 and then some small savings and materials travel pd and then coveted supplies fixed is a positive 150 000 it is primarily due to health insurance we did have some census changes which yielded some savings some small savings and vision insurance and life insurance as well transportation shows a positive 30 and that's primarily diesel fuel and then we have some savings in workers comp general liability and student accident uh revenue again is a positive 519 000 that's primarily driven by excess cost which is positive 547 000 and then we do have a slight negative balance in the elp tuition at thirty nine thousand dollars so there are four transfers we're asking
128for approval for uh the first is for twenty two thousand one fifty uh this is for some fire alarm repairs that were noted during the semi-annual inspection the high school middle school and central office in this building we are recommending taking the funds from the savings and diesel fuel uh cara grounds we are asking for a transfer of sixty thousand dollars primarily for some irrigation repairs and some maintenance to uh some employees that are out on leave and primarily taking that from some savings and health insurance as well as diesel savings the third item is for eighteen thousand dollars in custodial supplies uh we have seen a large increase in cost in stripper and wax and some other custodial materials we are asking to take that from some savings and legal fees and then 27
129000 in electrical materials we are asking for that to come from census changes in health insurance and then the savings in the adult ed cooperative with stanford public schools and this is for some wiring that needs to be done at the middle school and token thank you mr ruehl board questions or comments [Music] all right um may i have a motion to approve the march 2022 budget transfers mr ceni second by mrs worm all those in favor and it's unanimous with everyone here right this is best thank you um we will move on to i'll read this once further discussion and possible action on proposed revisions to board of education policy series 2000 administration 2100 goals of administrative body 2210 duties of the superintendent 2220 recruitment and appointment of the superintendent of schools 2230 superintendents
130contract 2240 superintendent of schools opportunities for development 2250 superintendent of schools evaluation 2260 on availability of the superintendent 2310 administrative team 2410 dissemination and implementation of policies and administrative regulations 2420 uniform treatment of recruiters and 2610 annual report of the school district i will turn it over to miss scion and mrs ackman so i allied at our work when i gave our update this is the 2000 series which is administration for approval our meeting focused on the first half of the 5000 series which is students i did not receive any questions there were um [Music] there was one outstanding question regarding whether we wanted to keep the word written in the superintendent's evaluation it remains there currently i didn't hear anyone wanting to strike it or actually support it one way or the other it's
131been a board discussion in the past so if anyone has thoughts they can let us know tonight if not we can move forward with approval board questions or comments seeing them then i'd make a motion to approve um as recommended by the policy committee okay what's the um uh so i would take it at personally i would do it as a motion to approve the memo which dictates what we'll do and we can do it in one vote but okay elsewhere is we got to do it exactly group by group and there's repeals and revisions so i would do it as um as the memo states in april 6 2022. you can do one vote so i have a motion on the table second i'm sorry what was it written in the script like the
132difference between the process i'm sorry i didn't hear that no that's right it's just a motion to approve the board of apology series 2000 um then a motion to repeal board policies 2100 goals i think mrs parent just did it multiple rather than taking it one as a member second emotion all those in favor that is unanimous thank you thank you mrs zachman who is the person um i made the first john second and that was unanimous thank you good thank you um mr rudel um annual review possible action on reciprocal agreement on use of the facilities at the ymca it's hard to believe years gone by so this was another discussion but good this was the first year of the agreement between the ymca and the district um it has worked out very well
133uh the y made available for use uh their swimming facilities including sundays they also made available gymnastic space we provided a lower in town rate for the summer camp and provided available hours for gym space uh they did reimburse us for all custodial overtime costs uh so in total the district saved about thirty eight thousand dollars um we did reach out to jennifer garner the ceo of uh the dairy and y she agreed it worked out very well um it seemed to work out well for both sides we are recommending extending it another year great thank you mr rudolph thank you for all the work that was done behind the scenes to get this tour at that any questions or discussion on the ymca agreement just a quick question rich when you look at the
134rate per um hour or daily rate i'm not sure how you bill do we have an escalation in our next year's budget for revenues and does that encompass does the agreement encompass that so what we uh what we build them is the actual cost of the custodian who covers uh for that time so they'll pay a little bit more next year because the stereo agreement will likely go up um but there's no net revenue it's just we're not now absorbing those costs and and what about the facilities equivalent fee that you would charge another group if you will are you thinking you can so yeah the facility rate uh was approved in the budget at a four percent uh rate increase and this encompasses so we don't build them a facility used unless they go
135above the 2900 if they go above the 2900 then they would have to pay the four percent increase thank you good thank you we have a motion to extend the reciprocal agreement on use of facilities with the ymca for the 2022-2023 school year this is worm second by mrs best all those in favor and it's unanimous thank you we'll move on to personal items appointments resignations and retirements mrs scion some very sad news about the retirement of mike lynch in june thank you mr scion um mr lynch isn't here um hopefully he's not listening at this hour um i personally and on behalf of the board just extend a thank you uh to mr lynch uh aka um in my years on the board he has done an incredible job of maintaining um fixing and
136keeping our facilities uh you know up to you know standards that i think we all appreciate um he has been instrumental in all the plans and all the work behind and has gone over and above the work that he's done on the oxridge school build and he's already been instrumental in helping the henley homes in royal builds too so a big thank you to mr lynch for all he's contributed uh to this district i think he's just one of those folks you can always count on and rely on and it's just well respected and i think all the architects we've had in here all the engineers we've had in here all the work we did on a master plan the constant theme was how well our buildings were maintained and the conditions with which our
137buildings are in those of us that do a tour and those of us that are in and out of the buildings um they always look great and it's not easy um to keep up with the the acreage and uh the size of the buildings and the age of the buildings we have so uh thank you mr lynch hopefully we can celebrate even more before he goes so anything i'd like to add well i appreciate your comments about this distinguished employee and i also say he's a very loyal proud hard worker um i will miss him and um the district will mention but we wish him well and his decision thank you it's a guy that just keeps the plow on his own pickup truck to help out when uh we don't have the trucks or
138the resources to do it so he's just one of those get it done guys so we couldn't bribe them in any way thank you mr lynch what we couldn't bribe them to stay another year you know thank you for that question um we tried not to say maybe as a consultant but we tried and uh his wife has been retired for about two years now so i think that pressure has ramped up and um you know he's on to grandchildren i think everyone's out of the house from what i understand so um you know you only go around once so take advantage of it and enjoy it but a big thank you to mr lynch so thanks for asking that first question i asked all right we will move back over michelle to public comment
139we will start out with our friends in the audience um please come up again please sounds repetitive but for our records name address and michelle do you want to kick it off again please absolutely for all participants please state your name and address for the record loss you will have up to three minutes to yes my name is albertus vanden group and it will start in three minutes and it was very pleased to hear also that the board is interested in that kind of cooperative effort with the neighbors but i hope it will extend beyond three minute comments anyway i was left over at the point that has been mentioned there but not much actually further on discussed and that is the unanimous agreement also the judgment of the neighbors that the sound of games
140is the greatest nuisance and it needs to be addressed now games create the greatest sound noises from the pa system the groud noise vessels air horns and car homes and some of these like crowd noise and whistles come with a game and can only be addressed by maintaining a limit on the number of games but the bigger sound problem pertains to the volume of the pa sound the playing of the pre-recorded music during the week as well as also when i emphasize the content of the pre-recorded music at the warm-up times at the teams the content of the songs with swearing and lyrics totally inappropriate for the audience is reprehensible and as a board of education responsible for the welfare of young students it deserves your highest priority neighbors also want to make a distinction
141between activities taking place on meet nights versus friday nights the sound of games is most disturbing on weeknights when young children have their dinner and early bedtime the older ones are doing their homework and more people are now working from home in exchange for supporting a few more friday night games we would ask that the use of the ba system and wardrobe music be preserved for friday nights on friday nights the ba system has to be better controlled and the music content needs to be monitored the new sound system that was installed has the capability to adjust the sound level for the spectators in the field and does not need to reach the whole of fairfield county now if the weekday sound issue is resolved the neighbors are fine with the weak knight gas games
142expanded to 8 pm now at the april 6th meeting the school administration presented a slight comparing the stadium light practices at neighboring schools well only granites and staples have a similar local environment to darien and a considerably stricter application of rules for use of lights now as illustrated i will show you some of these slideshows in here new canon wilton and western are totally unlike the area in the location of their athletic fields and should not be used for any comparison for reasons discussed in the past and also illustrated in the slides that i mentioned neighbors are against hosting fcac and ciac playoff games that do not involve dhs actually even our own turkey bowl has been moved to other fields because the town locale of the stadium cannot handle those games the challenges imposed
143by having our athletic fields right up on the residential properties are unique and unfortunate but with a cooperative attitude can be overcome and we are most willing to participate in that thank you thank you for coming back and finishing your comments appreciate that michelle anyone else in the audience sure please come up thank you could you mrs lockhart mrs lockhart could you use the microphone right there at the podium i live in high school lane and i've lived here since the 80s um the traffic is tremendous on high school lane the school handles your traffic and your games but it does not handle the traffic on the neighborhood and it is out of control the speed limits are that students go by is very fast and it's dangerous if the night games are very concerned
144about security over the year i have handled help with the rape case i am very very concerned about how it's managed at nighttime after games and i think unfortunately we are part of poor planning in the past and we need a compromise to respect the neighborhood and i know the needs of the school thank you mrs lockhart i just mr chairman for me i just didn't hear um what mr lockhart said just about she being supervised and what yeah i just i was just i'm just clarifying what you said because madame you said that you were you're sort of overseen or heard or something about some sort of case i didn't catch that word i'm sorry i didn't catch it uh you had mentioned about the the roads and the busyness of it and that
145over the years you've been you've seen some things happen or otherwise maybe i miss concerned about the night time management i believe is what misses yes yes there are specific incidents it's not you manage it well during the game it's after the after the games that the problems have concerned that have occurred you mentioned the police will clear out traffic and then oftentimes what's left behind is where the problems happen mrs lockhart you mentioned a specific incident that you've been involved in is there anything we need to know or hear more about that it happened a number of years ago okay but i am also always aware of of problems okay thank you mrs lockhart thank you let's see any more in person michelle do we have anyone on zoom there are no raised hands
146at this time okay oh i'm sorry yes okay go ahead good miss louise waylon brown [Music] can you hear us and see us mrs brown there you go i'm unmuting her now okay go ahead you're ready yeah i'd just like to say i'm disappointed in the board's decision tonight based around stadium lights um specifically with reference to the capping of a limit um and going against the wishes of the superintendent who gave you a recommendation of eight o'clock as the finishing time um yeah just very disappointed but i guess you're not the ones the next morning that will have to face irritable and sleep deprived elementary middle school people are you uh anyway yeah very great shame thanks thank you anyone else on zoom michelle there are no more raised hands at this time okay
147thank you everyone for participating in person and on zoom thank you for the public hearing and the discussion may have a motion to adjourn mrs worm second by mr ceni all those in favor that is unanimous thank you all have a good evening