001participated in a variety of team building activities, personal project presentations, college and career sessions, and spirit house meetings. The day was closed with a schoolwide trivia that students competed in for house points. Today we also had our Chinese New Year presentation that was packed with a large variety of performances including traditional dances, singing, speaking Chinese, and costume production show. Notable parts include our beginning dragon dance and various fan umbrella of live dances. Students had a lot of fun performing, helping outside the lecture hall and watching in the audience. Our upcoming events include um on March 13th, we have night of a thousand dinners from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Come join us for a night of performances and cultural dishes served potluck style. talents includes singing, dancing, instruments, performances, and more. All funds will go towards
002the fight for air climb. And we also have on March 18th, our National Chinese Honor Society and Chinese Club will be hosting a multicultural night with funds going towards the 2026 China Trip. The event will include a variety of different global cuisines, activities, andformational posters for guests to learn about. Last year we had a great turnout with many students, families, alumni and staff joining and we hope to do the same this [clears throat] night of thousand dances and the funds to and what's the cost? >> I believe it's around $3 to $5 I think for entrance and then we have a bunch of food that will be served like in scoops and it's for the fight for air climb. >> Thank you. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak at this time?
003If you do, come on down. All right, seeing none, we'll transition to the chairman's report before I turn it over to our superintendent. So, good evening. I would like to begin by recognizing this month as one of our appreciation and time we reflect we're the people who make our school community strong every single day. To my fellow board members, thank you for your service, your thoughtful dialogue, and your continued commitment to doing what's best for our students. This work is not easy, but is meaningful and I appreciate appreciate each and every one of you. And I also want to extend a heartfelt welcome to our families who joined us this evening and who broke bread with us and enjoyed us and entertained us in these conversations. and thank you for uh coming out. We have
004been uh traveling around to different uh community schools this past two years and uh this probably one of the best turnouts we had thus far. So again, thank you for coming out very clear. And finally, congratulations to our varsity basketball team for winning the Central Connecticut Conference Championship, which they are playing again tonight at the high school. So on our way to the state championship, incredible proud of them for that accomplishment. And again, thank you all for joining us tonight. And I'll turn it over to our superintendent. >> Good evening. And again, we definitely appreciate all of you for coming out tonight. And I'm going to get to you in a few minutes. So, as we open up every board meeting, there are some core slides that we end up showing to our core beliefs,
005what we have in terms of our strategic plan goals, the agenda items that we have for this evening. And before I hand it over to Miss Huins in a moment, you know, we want to see as far as as we lead into the superintendent's report, I want us to pause just a moment and remember that every dis every decision we make in this room ultimately touches the life of a child sitting in a classroom just steps away as we visit the rooms down the hall. Being here reminds us that before budgets, policies, and reports, there are students learning, teachers guiding them, and families placing their trust in us every day. Mayberry represents the heart of our community, and it is important that our decisions remain connected to the classrooms where learning happens. So, over the
006last several weeks, you've heard some things, but we've seen many excellent examples of what makes East Harford special. So during ReadAcross America, we had several volunteers including board members, employees from the United Way, RTX, the American Eagle Federal Credit Union. They all spent times in our schools reading with students and reinforcing the importance of literacy. Moments like that may seem simple, but they send a powerful message to children that their learning matters and that their community believes in them. We also saw another powerful example of student leadership when several of our students recently provided testimony at the legislative office building before the Connecticut Education Committee. They're advocating for strong and sustainable funding for public education. They spoke with pride and urgency about their schools and the opportunities they want for their future. Watching them represent
007East Harford was a powerful reminder that our students not only are learning in our schools, they're preparing to lead in our communities. So again, across the district, our work continues with focus through our school data meetings, classroom visits, and other opportunities. So the truth in education is that it rarely happens, the progress we need to have happen rarely happens overnight. So it's through your support, your effort, our strong partnerships, and our shared belief that every child deserves the opportunity to succeed. And that is exactly what we continue to see across East Harford, our educators, our families, our community partners, and this board working together with a common purpose. So being here at Mayberry tonight, it'll provide a little bit more of what we can see about what we do. So I want to introduce the
008principal of Mayberry, Miss Angie Hubs. Good evening, members of East Harford Board of Education and Superintendent Anderson. Um, on behalf of the Mayberry community, I want to thank you for being with here with us tonight. Um, and all for your time, dedication, and care you put into supporting the students and families of East Hartford. [snorts] It truly is an honor to serve as a principal here at Mayberry Elementary. What I love most about this role is having the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with our students, families, and community partners. Those relationships are really the foundation of everything that we do. When students feel known, supported, and valued, they can grow both academically and personally. At Mayberry, we work hard every day to create an environment where students feel safe, challenged, and inspired to learn and
009to be the best version of themselves. We are proud of the academic growth our students are demonstrating, and that growth reflects the dedication of our teachers, staff, families, and the continued support of this board. Your commitment to providing the resources, guidance, and leadership necessary for our school to succeed makes a real difference in our students lives. Thank you for your continued partnership and for celebrating board appreciation month here at Mayberry. Um we are proud to share our school with you tonight and thank you for all that you do for us and your all of our families. So, I'm going to invite some friends up to share um all the things that we love about I am Rob Monty. I'm the art teacher here. Um I've been the art teacher in this school for 17 years.
010Uh five years before that. Um, Amok Copsa hired me at the middle school, so 22 years now. Um, I want to start by saying I've had the privilege of, uh, watching many of my former students grow up into adults and allow me now to teach their kids. Um, it makes me proud to still help them and navigate through life. My first batch of kids is probably like 35 now. Uh, so I definitely feel old. Um, I always get a kick out of when they ask me, uh, was I like that when I was in school, and I always respond, absolutely not. Um, I just wanted to say what a pleasure it is to work with my principal, Angie Huins. Uh, she's been a leader for the staff and for all of our students. Um, our
011students love her. She loves them right back and it shows. um every day if you're in the hallway, her heart is what shows on her sleeve. Um and the staff also gets behind that as well. Um as far as me, I want to go the extra mile. Uh she's rejuvenating my career. Um and just giving me the the will to get here and do the extra for her. uh to the board of education administration. I just want to thank you guys for giving me the honor of working being able to work with her and putting her here as we feel she should be. Um I'm also proud to work with all my colleagues. If you get to see us in action, um my colleagues go above and beyond every single day for these kids and
012each other. Um, if one of us isn't 100% one day, which never happens, um, there's always somebody to pick us up. We always pitch in, help each other out. Um, to parents, we do everything to keep your kids safe in this school. Can't even believe it. I have to say that these days, but our first priority is keeping them safe. Um, in this building there is an adult who is a mentor for every single kid, no matter what their job title. Every adult in this building connects with a kid or kids students. Uh, there's always someone in some place for the students to go to. I'm proud of my students. Some of them are here. Uh, day after day, I see our students learning. I see you guys helping each other out. If someone is
013having a bad day, there's always somebody else to pitch in. Kind of like the uh the teachers and the colleagues as well. We we learn from you. Hopefully, you're learning from us. Um the other day I saw a fifth grader stop in the hallway uh for a kindergartner who was crying on the way to the nurse. That's what Mayberry is about. Uh, I see teamwork all the time and I see our kids being able to be kids as they should. I'm also proud of my families. [laughter] Uh, this is a neighborhood school and I'm old school where I grew up where everybody in the neighborhood knows who whose kids are whose, how to help, pitch in. I see it every day outside of duty. Um, I'm just very proud to be here. So, thank you.
014>> [clears throat] >> Hello, my name is >> and I'm going to talk about everybody that you What I like about school, um, what I like about school is, um, my kids will be nice to me and my friends. >> I like to learn. I like to play. >> And this little very nice to me. Okay. and be safe in the hallway. Walk. Thank you. >> Hello, buddy. My name is Jose. I am one of the parents. Now, this little one is mine, unfortunately. I um I grew up in Isafra. I went to Isafra public schools. My family I mean a couple of cousins of our came to this school. My child come to this school. I'm very proud to be a member of the school. Um she was always you know trying to help
015out trying to go the extra mile. Recently before Julio needed some medication, she shared with me her personal experience not as a teacher but as a parent and thank to her I was able to you know decide whether he needed medication or not. And um since he got medicated he's been a lot better for for the teachers. He's actually focusing more in school learning and and all I got to say is that the school is great. They go above and beyond from all the staff to everybody, you know. I'm just proud to be a part of it. Thank you guys. All right. Hi, my name is Naella and I'm a fifth grader here at Mayberry School. And something I'm grateful for are the activities I get to do here, such as running club and instruments.
016I have won two medals in running club and I have been able to play the violin for a year and a half. >> [laughter] >> Hi everybody. I probably don't even need this. So around Mayberry, I am known as Auntie Nikki. Uh my niece Annayia is a first grader here at Mayberry Elementary School. And to put it bluntly, Mayberry is pretty much a co-parent for me. Um, right before my niece started kindergarten, we had a tragedy in our family and it made it just that much harder for her to get ahead. And kindergarten started out as a struggle. She struggled in the beginning of kindergarten, but by the time kindergarten ended, she was so improved. I was so impressed. Her confidence has soared. Just her as a young lady, the way she carries herself, the
017way that she walks these halls. And I can honestly tell you that if it was not for Mayberry and the staff at Mayberry, I would be lost. My partner and I went from zero to two kids literally overnight. And if you don't have kids and that happens to you, when I tell you it's tough, it's tough. And then you're also dealing with the trauma and just so much internally. And there is not a person at Mayberry that has not stepped up to put a smile on my niece's face or put a smile on my face. They're so open. The communication is always there. I always get a response. I mean, listen, when I drop her off in the morning time, we do our affirmations, walking down the path. And she is always there, always there
018smiling. Just the energy that she exudes first thing in the morning. I know that my niece is in a great place and I know that this is where she's going to excel. For me, we commute from Hartford every single day and my one concern is that once um her adoption is finalized, I cannot put this kid through any more change. I need her to stay where she is because this is where she excels. These are the people that support her the most. These are the people that bring her up, that make her feel her own power. I cannot be without Mayor Barry. When I I like I said co-parent I every last one of you I I I could not do this without you at all. I I when I pick her up from school
019the joy in her face I know she had a beautiful day and I know that is because of the the care that I left her in. It is this school that is going to make my niece reach her greatest potential. And again, thank you may thank you board of education for Mayberry Mary and thank you Mayberry. >> Thank you very much. So >> still on. >> That's why >> we're always figuring things out even in real time. So again, we definitely appreciate, you know, being here and hearing from the students of all ages. I think it's very important for the board to be able to see when when I mentioned earlier about when we talk about budgets and policies and those type of things. Everything we do, it needs to go back to how is
020that impacting everyone in each building that we have. And by being here this evening and being able to have our students and our families be front and center, it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to see the work that is taking place on a daily basis. So, I want to take the opportunity as superintendent to express my appreciation and applaud the efforts of the principal, the entire staff, and the families because it is a community truly that's making a difference here. So, thank you. So, we have other things that we're going to keep doing. So, if you do find the time when you need to go, don't feel that you're disrupting us. We're kind of used to those type of things. But, we're going to continue in our next our next part of our meeting.
021we get into which is our staff spotlights and for those of you that this might be new to so each month we have individuals who are nominated recommended by either their supervisor or their principles in their building and we have an opportunity to showcase them here. Thank you, >> ladies and gentlemen. Who remembers what we did yesterday? I'm Amy [music] Pueblo, fifth grade teacher picking school. I've actually been in [music] the district 34 years. I have been at Pick School for 5 years. >> Ladies and gentlemen, remember what we did yesterday, great teacher [music] school. I've been in the district 30 years. I have been school for 5 years. People probably this [music] but I really >> I have never [music] not wanted to go to work. >> I love what I do what I
022do. She is a gifted [music] teacher. She really is. She builds incredible students with her families. She shows those students [music] inside she has a way of being [music] so in tune to their needs and differentiating for instructionly [music] about things whether it's math reading whatever whatever it is go deeper was not surprised at all that she had selected it [music] was basically a twoe internship thing with that that took labor in [music] England and how to teach that hard history [music] because because it is hard history. So how do we bring it down to a fifth grade [music] level level and select classroom to come and picture and [music] select one and the way the way she supports her students but also because of the critical thinking to do [music] their responses their thoughtful
023consideration. >> Wow. blown away [music] by what they internalize it and how they want to be learning more. >> Good. Thank you. And now we will highlight Megan Spisman from guidance council at Cyn. Did you get my name? I'm school health counselor at Synergy High School. In 2004, I got a position position as a school counselor at Eastford High School and then I went to Woodland and a couple years ago I landed at very student centered whether that's in the classroom doing lessons on social emotional learning or having small group completing college credit or individual kinds. is an amazing school. He's always making sure that she knows the idea what it is that they could do [music] integrating course and just kind of bring in the whole picture. [music] Before you do the work, you
024have to get significant and that's what we do here at we're able to support students to the goal of a diploma and a plan. Most recently we ended up having our first CTC so that on top of that she's actively working on the free African [music] family. I'm glad that we have real kind of tight community that we're able to give support. >> Thank you. So again, each month we're able to do this. We being able to take you into the buildings and being able to see and hear why some of our staff are recognized the way they are. So also want to take an opportunity as a school board recognition month and also being able to share you know the appreciation for the board of board of education members you know for each of
025them that are here tonight and for of course those that aren't here this evening but just a reminder that you know for their continued support and service but it's a reminder that the school board position is a volunteer commitment. So requires a significant amount of time, thoughtful decision-making, and deep belief in the value of public education. So the dedication you bring as board members collectively in supporting our schools and the students and families of East Harford is deeply appreciated. It truly makes a difference to everything that we do. So again, thank you for your support on all levels. Thank you. Also, we recognize Women's History Month, and these are opportunities for us to dive in a little bit deeper on things of making sure we talk about being inclusive and sharing stories and making sure
026that that level of appreciation goes without saying. And we haven't gotten to a point obviously in our society where we don't need to highlight different groups. So, we're going to continue to do that as we continue to push forward and make sure that everyone receives the recognition for the work that they're doing to support the community as a whole. So, the next few slides, I'm not going to go through them all individually. I'm just going to skip through because we've been going through the budget process for many months at this point. And we presented at the town council on February 26. And the ask is the 1.9% and the $ 1.9 million increase which again just to touch on covers the cost of for us to maintain what we have. So it's not really a
027budget that's going to allow us to expand tremendously but we're being very fiscally responsible and understanding the the various needs that exist across the board with all the town agencies. So again we put all the information out previously. The council will be voting on it within the next couple of months. We're also participating in a lot of discussions at the state level because there's an impact on communities like East Harford and communities in all towns and cities to begin with, but there are certain things that we're pushing for to ensure that we receive a little bit of additional funding as time goes on for this for this part of the year. So again, a lot of the information has already been put out. I put this in the slide deck so it can stand on
028its own so individuals are able to look at it later, they can get a better picture. And if there are any questions, you can always feel free to reach out to my office. You can email, you know, to me, it's something that's extremely important. We want to make sure that everyone has their questions and their their questions and get the answers that they need to make sure you're fully aware of how we're taking care of the budget. Now, I want to invite up Anna Capiano. Anna has a long title, so I'll let Anna say that to you. Thank you. All right. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Anna Cabbiano and I'm the supervisor of professional learning and evaluation at East Harford Public Schools. The purpose of this brief presentation is to provide a
029professional learning progress update and strategic outlook on how East Harford Public Schools is evolving to meet the specific needs of our educators and students. So I'll be highlighting two critical shifts in our district's approach. Um first our move towards personalized growth through our innovative pathway system and then secondly our strategic AI integration roadmap. So ultimately these investments in professional learning directly support our East Harford Public School strategic plan which emphasizes our commitment to cultivating a highly skilled and engaged workforce to improve our student outcomes across the entire district. Okay. So before diving into the specifics of our professional learning topics and approaches, I would like to highlight our newly revised tenants of professional learning. Um so our professional learning in East Harford public schools is not just a series of workshops. It's a strategic researchbased
030framework designed to directly impact our educator effectiveness. So we operate under four core tenants um which you can see uh on the slide deck here. Um first is our commitment to excellence. So all of our professional learning is datadriven and rooted in proven research. Um we also emphasize reflection and innovation by fostering a continuous improvement cycle um that really embeds reflection and data gathering into our pre-K12 programs. We also emphasize the importance of understanding adult learning in our professional learning systems. We recognize that educators have unique learning needs. So our formats are tailored to be immediately applicable to educators daily work. Um and lastly, but certainly not least, we believe that learning is a collective effort and it's supported by flexible grouping and job embedded outcomes. So, thus the first uh critical approach in our
031professional learning that I would like to highlight is our newly implemented personalized pathway model. So, the personalized pathway model um is an innovative professional learning model. Uh we are one of the only districts in the state at this time that are effectively implementing um this type of model and it is also our primary vehicle for achieving our strategic initiative 4.3 which emphasizes our personalized professional learning in alignment with the educator evaluation plans. So in our personalized pathway model, educators engage in professional learning that aligns with the goal that they established via the educator evaluation system, which is also only two years old. So we're still piloting that evaluation system in partnership with the state department of education. So during four of our professional learning early release days, educators select professional learning topics, activities, and sessions
032that are meaningful to them and that align with their unique individual goal. In order to support the diverse needs of our educators as well as to meet several of our district strategic initiatives, we offer many district-wide sessions that educators may choose to attend. So this slide here outlines the opportunities that we have offered um just throughout this year so far. And as you can see, there are variety of topics and approaches and all of these align with the diverse needs of our students and staff. Um so we've offered sessions on advanced technology such as AI Gemini and Notebook LM. We've also offered sessions tailored to student support such as emotional and behavioral regulation. Our instructional equity remains a focus through culturally responsive teaching practices and sessions that embed strategies to support our English learners. And
033then we also offer sessions for operational proficiency. So we realize that educators are using a variety of tools um such as parent square and our viewic interactive boards um and that we have educators with varying competencies using these tools. So all of these sessions are optional. Educators can choose to engage in professional learning on their own um that they select um you know really by their own choosing. But what's been most encouraging about the implementation of this new mod model um is the response from our staff. So even though teachers could choose their own PD and they could choose to stay in their classroom and work for two hours on whatever most benefits them, our recent district enrollment data has shown that over 80% of our educators have chose to attend at least one district
034session. So this confirms that our pathways are not just compliant with our goals, but deeply relevant to our teachers daily work. Okay, next I'm going to pivot slightly um and focus our professional learning on outlining our East Harford Public School strategic AI integration and training for staff. So, this has been a district-wide initiative for all of our prek12 educators to ensure that our educators and students are prepared for an AI accessible landscape. We are following a multi-year equity centered plan to build AI capacity. This plan was developed following our learning and insights from our AI pilot program uh which we partnered with the state department of education. You may recall that East Harford public schools was one of seven districts throughout the state last year who were selected to participate and were endowed um with
035quite a generous grant that we were able to utilize um to purchase AI based tools as well as professional learning for our staff. Um that grant funding did flow into this year which is how we were able to fund u much of this work so far. Following the feedback from last year's um secondary educator pilot which used magic school which is an AI tool I'll talk about a little bit more in a moment. We mapped out five critical steps for professional learning for this year. So, first because the district had purchased licenses for the magic school platform again which is a prek12 um both student and educator focused AI tool that embeds a variety of different features that can be utilized by any staff member or educator or student. Um we started with magic magic
036school um fundamentals. So this step really focused on not just foundational principles of using AI in the classroom as well as responsible use for the practical applications but also on very usable teacher approaches like differentiated lessons for building customized teacher tools um that could be utilized for all pre-K12 educators. Once we had um embedded those educator focused tools in our professional learning and in our educator capacities, we moved on to magic student which is the studentf facing side of the magic school platform. Um this stage provided specific training for our secondary educators on how to effectively manage and utilize AI tools directly with students in the classroom. Um again this is at the secondary level so 6 through 12. So all students need her public schools have a magic student license. um and are using
037the magic school tools with their teachers in the classroom. Our third step um in this plan prioritized AI responsibility. So we pro provided secondary level educators with a comprehensive overview of AI fundamentals um along with our district sanctioned ethical guidelines to integrate these directly in their instruction. and secondary educators took the content from these professional learning sessions and then turnkeyed these in their classroom to prepare the students to be ethical consumers of AI and the respective technology. Following that, we broadened our perspective by partnering with Ed Advance for a district-wide keynote designed to provide our entire um entire staff with information about the shifts in classroom AI use and the future labor market that are clearly impacted by AI not just in the classroom but obviously in the world um our global industries in our
038professional pathways and careers. And then finally, and as recently as today, it was a professional learning afternoon, um we're focusing on academic integrity connected to AI use. So in this step, we're providing actional strategies for educators to design what's called AI durable assignments. Basically, these are tasks that prioritize critical thinking, authentic process, and human- centered assessment to ensure meaningful learning continues in what we understand as a highly utilized AI landscape. So, looking ahead to 2026 to 2027, we will continue our focus on embedding personalized pathway professional learning for all of our educators and focusing on our AI strategic plan. um our focus for the AI work in professional learning will shift um from some of those basic core competencies that we've focused on this year and towards a more um deeply embedded focus on taking
039the ISTY standards which are the national technology standards for AI use and embedding those along with an AI literacy and digital wellness plan into our curriculum and professional learning um in order to emphasize and promote our daily digital healthy digital habits. Um so overall this road map that we've been focusing on especially um our emphasis on AI has really ensured that East Harvard public schools remains at the forefront of innovation um while keeping our student well-being and equity at the center of our work. Um I'm on a number of AI committees and consortiums across the state and I can say with confidence that right now East Harford is doing this the best of anywhere that I've seen. So we're in a really good place. Um we have a lot of work to do moving forward
040but our students are being prepared. Our educators are prepared to embrace what we know as a rapidly changing landscape. And our educators are here to do the work and make sure that our students are comfortable as they emerge in a very diverse workforce because of technology. Are there any questions? >> Questions presentation. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Capabiano. So, as you can see, there's a lot, but I think the key as far as what was said shared at the end was that we are on the forefront. There are things that our team is definitely doing and we will continue to do as we move forward. So, I'm going to ask Mr. Brown, our IT director, to come up and he's going to go through some things with us. Thank
041you. >> Good evening. >> We've been waiting for this presentation. [laughter] Come on down. >> Duck a little bit to speak in this. I want you to be a bit. So, so, so I wanted to tell you all this is pretty much the work we've done since I arrived in June of last year. Um, and some of you will remember I did a 90-day plan and I shared that with you. So, some of this ties into that work and where we where we are now, what we want to. So as you all know the core beliefs and I want to remind everyone our work is to support teaching and learning without students without teachers we would not be here without those things we have no purpose of being here. Our purpose is supporting that instructional
042technology instruction. So those are our goals. So the purpose of this update is to give you updates to what where we've been like I said before and one of the things we did earlier is ensuring operational stability and reliability strengthening cyber security and data protection and establishing structured multi-ter technology road mapap. We want to make sure we have a roadmap to move forward. So those were our goals for the last eight months. Um we will cover operation stabilization, how we did that, some of the things we did, um strategic communication and partnership model, um cyber security and risk management mitigation, financial stewardship and capital planning, enterprise systems and data uh strategy and at lastly IT focus areas and road maps moving forward. So one of the first things we did when we came in um
043I don't know how many of you have ever heard of it which is a framework that is used for IT service management. One of the core things in there is hiring process and procedures. So we have a ticketing system but we had to reestablish how that's being used. Um I know it seems simplistic but we have to have some type of organization of how we're prioritizing how we're looking at those uh issues daily. So we reestablish that process and then also during that process we also reestablish our help desk ticket system ensuring that everyone is putting tickets in there. Some things require emails and some things don't. Um, emergencies don't happen every day, but we want to make sure we're ensuring that we are taking care of things in a timely manner. Also, struct structured
044life cycles, looking at our devices and seeing what is at end of life, ensuring that's taken out of our fleet. Um, and how making a plan to ensure we're updating and moving forward. Uh, also the last thing is I don't know how many of you know, we cover a lot of things and we are the data warehouse for the district. So we pull that data and triangulate that for um our district leaders, teachers and staff members. Um this is a structure of our department. Right now we currently have 16 people and roughly 7 7,500 users that we uh service and support throughout the district. These are uh out of that 6,200 roughly are students 1,300 are staff members and our staff consist of IT manager um CIO and our other staff which is a network
045network team um the devops team and also our tech that handle our end users. So this is just a a snapshot as of today. So since July 2025, our department has taken care of 6 6,236 tickets. This is rich data for our department. It also shows you the turnaround times we have. Um some of that when you see on the end you see I think 5.1 days. Um that is because when the ticket is put in that is the entire time it takes to close that ticket. That's average. So we try we try to get that done in 48 hours but that's the average time for all of those tickets but that's what we've done thus far this year as far as ticket strate strategic communication and part partnership model I think it's very important
046because we have to support instructional technology digital teaching and learning student information systems um data collaboration and triangulation and operations and academic integration we have to have those convers conversations with those departments as it relates to these areas and rather than being reactive, we want to be proactive. So, as those conversations happen, it allows us to to plan and support these systems better. We've done a pretty good job of doing it, I think. Um, it's still a work in progress, but we want to cons keep that communication going. Cyber security areas of focus. Um, currently we we have considerations for identity and access controls, which is MFA. Um, that's been rolled out before I got here, but we want to expand that. Um, enhancing network monitoring and content filtering, working on that. Revising district disaster
047recovery and business continuity planning, strengthen data governance and privacy processes, expanded cyber security training and awareness, and formalizing software review and application governance processes. All of those things are either in process, done, or we're working on this. I don't want to get into specifics about our cyber security because this is an open meeting. So, if you need anything and want any feedback, I will be sure to get that to you. But, you know, this is an open forum. So I don't want to get but we're working >> IT department planning for financial stewardship um for cat one and cat 2 as it relates to -ray this year we have been somewhat not going all out um one reason is we're monitoring and evaluating where we are. So based on evaluation, network evaluation, maximizing rate reimbursement
048opportunities this year, we want to see where we are so we can maximize those opportunities moving forward and prioritizing infrastructure and modernization investments. This ensures that we can be predictable with life cycles and planning to address gaps in these red and reduction of reactive and emergency expenditures. So that's what we are with um the planning piece and moving forward let's see enterprise system and data strategy a lot of our work is focused on data so expanded use of data dashboards to support leadership in schools improved reporting timelines and cross system integrations strengthening collaboration between IT schools and central office and continue refinement of data governance practices all of those things are being done in enterprise via our DevOps team right now. And here it's a long list. I tried to divide these into five categories
049for you. Um our network infrastructure, these are the things we are currently incentives that we're currently working on the priorities and upcoming incentives and they all tie into all of the things I already spoke about. infrastructure, cyber security management, power school and data system transformation, um device life cycle and capital planning and also supporting what you just heard about our AI initiatives in the district. We support that from a technical standpoint and also somewhat instructional as well as needed. So closing and recap uh we're going to work on stabilized core operations strengthening cyber security and risk posture institute discipline financial stewardship elevated data and enterprise system strategy and also shift from reactive support to strategic partnerships. Um are there any questions right? Sure we have some any questions? No, thank you. >> Sorry, we have
050one one question. >> Oh, yes. Yes, sure. >> All right. Thank you for that presentation. >> You're welcome. >> Um, just trying to find out um any idea of the impact of AI financially? You do you mean on the finance of of our tech budget? >> Yes, >> I could get that to you. I don't have that. >> We'll be able to get it, but right now [clears throat] what Miss Capiano mentioned earlier as far as the grant that we received last year that covered a lot of the implementation work. So the number was about $100,000. So right now it's not the whatever would be included in the regular budget would have been things that we were already planning for, but any of the larger type of things were able to use some of that
051money to help cover that. >> Thank you very much for the presentation. And I do I actually do like the the ticket times and all that because it really really goes to show you the guys behind the scenes that really don't ever get to come to these meetings and show you how quickly the things get turned over. >> Are do we have enough behind the-scenes people to get everything done? >> I'm [laughter] going to you know you know the answer. I would say by by by industry standards we're only it's just in an instruction instructional technology side and our infrastructure side >> we are pretty good. Um but yeah there may be some more positions but um I'm sure we do well what we have. >> No it's basically to the the ratio of how
052many devices we have to how many students to how many actual behind the scenes technicians is what I was >> the ratio is 18 to 22. Currently we have 16. So we're we're close. Oh, that's all I was asking. Thank you. >> But to Oh, you're not done yet. Well, I guess if they're done, I was going to add one piece. >> The only other thing I was going to say because we think about the overall technology part of it and this was the other part that Ben was going to mention as far as the instructional technology piece. So, that is something as we think about the future, how do we really get that? And from a data perspective, how are we handling all of that? Not just we can come and say we're sharing
053the typical data points but levels of efficiency. How are we knowing like we just mentioned about the tickets all those other things that are wrapped up in there. >> Good. >> All right. Thank you very much. So as we So I always I always add this in here. I'm we're going to go back to it because Dr. Torres is going to come up. She's going to be the item on the other part of the the agenda. But [clears throat] I need to just touch on a couple things as reminders because I don't think some of you know that I have a part-time seasonal job that goes from 10:00 in at night to 5:00 a.m. in the morning sometimes called meteor meteorologists. So, we're figuring out our last day of school at this point. I can
054guarantee you that it was sunny today and there was no snow or ice, but it's one of those few jobs that, you know, it's kind of thankless, but I'm never going to lose a job as a meteorologist. And whether we're right or wrong, but as we look at that last day of school right now, as it stands, our last day of school is June 22nd. Friday, June 19th, we just haven't had this. We haven't had this, I'm going to call it a problem. We haven't had this problem in the past because we've never gone this long to get to June 19th as a recognized holiday. So, we're doing some meetings. I'm going to be meeting with several of the other, you know, our bargaining units to kind of see what's the thought process because coming
055back on on a Monday as the last day of school on June 22nd. We just need to be mindful of, you know, what the impact the impact of that will be. And we know families plan things, but I'm going to be I'm going to be very candid and honest. That's not what I'm thinking. We're not thinking about people who schedule vacations. It's more about are students going to come to school that day? What's going to be the impact of instruction? So, I'll be sharing with the board, you know, probably in between the meetings as far as what we're definitely going to end up doing for that either June 19th date or if the consensus is to come back June 22nd. As I've said for the however many years I've been an administrator, we all have
056to work 12 months. So it's it doesn't make that much of a difference to us when we think about kind of being given a smart answer about it, but really looking at what's the true academic impact that we want to have during that time. So and just one other reminder as I'm listening to the news and the radio about illness, the flu is still out there. People still need to remember to wash their hands, cover up, do all those things that we may have gotten away from. Because if we looked at the information prior to COVID, there were many very sick people from the flu, very serious that I don't think we paid a lot of attention to in terms of the numbers. And as we dug into it because of COVID, then we realize
057how many people were severely impacted by the flu. So something we definitely have a little bit more opportunity to fight in terms of, you know, seeing the doctor and taking care of those things. I just wanted to emphasize that because although it's March and it will be 70° tomorrow, the flu is still there. So we need to just make sure we're being careful. So thank you. I do want to again thank Miss Huins and her team for being here this evening, for hosting us, again to our families and our community partners as we continue to do this work together. So, thank you. >> Okay, next we have Elsie for our 2026 2027 Head Start selection criteria. >> Good evening everyone. Um, I am here to seek your board approval for the 2027 Head Start selection
058criteria. Uh, the Head Start program annually establishes the selection criteria that weighs the prioritization of selection of participants based on the community needs um identified in the community needs assessment as described in the performance standards. Um, the selection criteria includes the following areas. uh public assistance, family income, disability, parental status, employment status, education status, and family status. The federal poverty guidelines are also noted on the document for your reference as well at the top of the page. Um the community needs assessment does not warrant any changes to the selection criteria at this time that was established for the 2627 school year. Uh, one other thing that I will note is that one change that we did make and it was in response to the kindergarten age for entry is at Hakenham school we began accepting
059um, students beginning at the age of 2.9 because of that kindergarten implementation. And so it has impacted enrollment at Hockenham School in a very positive way. So, you know, many of our seats, if not all of our seats, have been full as a result of um instituting that. >> Any questions? Any to? >> Okay. So, do I have a motion to approve? [laughter] All right. A motion to approve our head start agreement. All in favor? >> For the minutes is the head start criteria. >> Thank you. >> Next, our healthy food certification T. >> Good evening everyone. Uh today I am here to discuss the approval of Connecticut healthy food certification. Um, the Connecticut's State Department of Education enactment of healthy food certification under section 10215F of the Connecticut General Statute concerning healthy food and
060beverages required that each local board of education participating in the N National School Lunch Program must take action annually to certify whether all food items sold to students separately from the reimburseable meals will or will not meet the Connecticut um nutrition standards. Um the district has received about $81,000 in fiscal year 25 and this um this funding stream goes back into the food services uh for reinvestment of um purchases, our capital expenditures and initiative to improve the uh food service program. >> Any questions? I'm always reminded this is how I met Vanessa because of his policy many many years ago. [laughter] >> Yeah. She she organized a BTO parents because we uh we limited uh junk food in our school. So no soda, no chips, nothing. It was only apples and oranges and fruit at
061our basketball games, our sporting events. And she came on down with a whole lot of parents. So with that being said, do you want to take this motion? [laughter] [laughter] >> So I make a motion. >> Oh, am I making a motion? Oh, okay. I move. [laughter] >> All in favor? All oppose? >> Eyes have it. And then our FY26 exemption, beverages and school hours reference for full motion was a second uh motion to Vanessa coming down because they wanted to raise money for our PTO. So now we can. So with that being said, do you want to take this one too? >> This is a good one. >> Have a motion to exemption for food beverages served after school hours. >> All in favor? Opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you, Tia. >> Perfect. Thank
062you. >> And then Jim, come on down for our Har East Harford High School library media center. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Um I'm here to uh get your approval for the acceptance of a project that we completed last summer. It was uh as you said, the uh rooftop heating air conditioning units at the uh high school which were completed as of November 13th. And so the attached documents represents a complete package that will be filed with the state department of administrative services, office of school construction grants after all approvals are obtained and the town attorney signs the state's final grant application form SCG 1039F. The state DAS will then schedule a final review and audit of the project. Upon completion, the 5% retainage of grant funds will be released. So, the state's expecting
063to pay an estimated reimbursement amount of $180,860.13. And this motion was approved last week at our uh remote BOE facilities committee meeting on March 4th. And um upon acceptance uh we'll we're presenting to uh Stephen for uh your authorization to um authorize the ex director of facilities execute the contract on behalf of the board of education hearing. Hearing none motion to approve bid 18852-2 East Harford Middle School media center HVAC roof roof roof replacement state project 043003 second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you very much. >> Next are there any questions or concerns by board members? Any topics for future agendas? All right. Thank you all for Oh, >> I got I got two of them. One of them I I'd like to be uh bring up for future topic agenda items is uh
064[snorts] school safety for pick up and pick up and drop offs throughout all the schools. I know we do have a lot of stuff for bus transportation from DHCO itself, but there's really no raw information on our board event policies for actual student drop off and pickup. What our for or walkers or anything like that. So I think coming up with a criteria and some type of I don't know policy or something to kind of develop on our own internal but we've had plenty of problems that I know one of the schools that my children go to with pick up and drop off. So, I think we'll be looking at it internally as we go forward with a lot of the facility improvements to our parking lots. There's there's ways to look at it to
065make it a lot safer for these kids to get dropped off, picked up or for the walkers to get to school. So, I'd like to know if we could look at that in the future. >> So, so similarly, um I'm going to piggy back on Mr. Because we while in some instances it is human error and poor judgment, there are ways that we could impact the physical plant in our schools to be able to create safer spaces for them to get dropped off. Um, and so in particular with all of the snow that we've had this year, it only further exacerbated the challenges not directly near the school, but even in the blocks that are approaching the schools. and there have just been too many near misses in terms of um students potentially being hit
066by cars, things of that nature. So, and we discovered that there's not really anything that speaks to um that principles have sent countless notices. The parents do not heed them and then there's no consequence for them not heeding them unless there's a time where we have a child or something. So, All right. And uh Thomas, the Mayberry families and students made that amazing project back there for us. Can we have that transported to the third floor at the board of ed offices with the rest of the other artwork we have up there? >> Yes. Thank you. Yes. All right. Thank you. With that said, a motion to adjourn. All in favor? >> All right. Thank you everyone.