001I'll let Jody in first. Yeah. >> Hey, Jody, if you can hear me, can you unmute yourself and just say hi? >> Okay, got you on. Here we go. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. >> Perfect. All right, I'm going to let everybody in. >> Thanks. Good to get started. Should I wait a couple more minutes? Okay. Well, at 6:05, I'd like to call the policy committee meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag. the United States and >> so our first item on our agenda, we're going to do approval of the August 27th, 2025 meeting minutes. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion, questions, changes? Hearing none. All those in favor? I >> I um and next is approval
002of the September 24th, 2025 meeting minutes. >> So moved. >> Let's make want to make a motion. >> Make a motion to approve the September 20 24th, 2025 meeting minutes. Uh second discussion, questions, changes. Hearing none, all those in favor? >> I I motion passes. Minutes are approved. That brings us to public comment. Um and I do believe we have received some public comment this evening. So I am going to start by reading our rules. Okay. Send your comments to uh unclear on the email, but send your comments to the Bristol Public Schools um designated email address for public comment. Be sure to put public comment BOE in the subject line. Include your name and address. Direct your comments to the board chair or committee chair. Your comments will and this is specific. I should
003have preferenced this. This one's specific to remote. Um, if you submitted public comment remotely, your comments will not be read at the meeting. They will be distributed to all board members and placed on file. All comments should be written in an appropriate manner. Comments regarding personal or confidential student information shall not be discussed under public comment. Any comments not adhering to the guidelines will not be placed on file. Public comment rules for in person during the meeting. One is requested to address the committee chair for recognition. Each speaker must state his or her name, address, and the topic they are commenting on. Comments are limited to items on the agenda. All speakers must observe rules of common etiquette. Personalities are not to be injected. Speakers should not attack or question the motives of others. Anyone
004violating this rule will be denied the floor unless waved by the chairperson. Each speaker shall limit his or her remarks to three minutes. A speaker will have one opportunity to speak per meeting. Written statements and materials may be made available in advance of comments for distribution to board members. Speakers shall state their positions on the subject being discussed. Board members will not respond directly to comments during the board meeting. However, the superintendent may direct the question to the appropriate staff member for followup when appropriate. The committee chair has the discretion to provide brief factual information. For example, they might explain the legal limitations on the board's authority um that may prevent the board from considering the requested action. Speakers cannot donate their time to other people to speak on behalf of the other other person.
005Destructive behavior, harassment, and violence are not permitted. In cases of disruptive behavior, the chair has the authority to warn the speaker, request them to leave, or in extreme places clear the room. >> Thank you. Um, so that brings us to uh public comment. So, we'll start with the um folks that came in person and let me go. >> I I have the list here. >> Perfect. Thank you. Who's our first public comment speaker? >> Mr. Lindsay. >> And then you just have to press the button on the mic and it should turn on. >> There we go. >> Right. Um, I actually rehearsed this at home and uh I went a little over 3 minutes, so I asked the committee for some slight indulgence, like 3 minutes 30 seconds. Um, all right, I'm going to
006start now. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Edward Linsky. My daughter attends second grade at Green Hill School. I'm here to express my support for the placement of armed security guards in Bristol public schools. There are many different reasons why this is a good idea. Firstly, the addition of a dedicated armed security staff would fill gaps left behind by school resource officers of the Bristol Police Department. I can only speak for Green Hills when I say that there are days when the SRO presence is limited or seemingly not there. Superintendent White stated in her email that there are only SRO's in the K through8 middle and high schools. This infers that K through5 schools like Ivy Drive, Southside, and Hubble have no protection at all. By my observations at Green Hills, I can
007state that there was only a high police presence at the school when there's already been a mass shooting elsewhere in the country. The security is heightened for a few days, possibly a week, and then the security level drops. Also, when there is an SRO present at Green Hills Mills, he or she is frequently at the intersection of Pine and Daily Streets. You ever hear the expression, "Where's a cop when you need one?" Well, they're at the corner of Pine and Daily, directing traffic, manually controlling the traffic light, and not protecting the school. We protect our banks, our social security offices, and other buildings with armed guards. I was at the DMV in New Britain where I observed a security guard armed with a full-size duty weapon and three spare magazines. Someone who is equipped to
008engage and neutralize an active shooter. Why can't we have this level of protection in our schools? Why is the DMV worthy of more protection than a school? People argue that they don't want schools to feel like prisons. We want to turn schools into fortresses. The difference between a prison and a fortress is that a prison keeps bad things in. A fortress keeps bad things out. Anyone with evil intentions will think twice about going into a school if this proposal is implemented. There are those with the argument more guns lead to more gun violence. Let me tell you why this is untrue. When you are faced with a threat, you call the police, people with guns. When an officer calls for backup, he or she is bringing more guns with humans attached to them into the
009equation. More guns means more gun violence is a nonsensical statement. Having a permanent armed security presence in our schools would neutralize or at least delay an active shooter until backup arrives. with the security keeping the active shooter contained. This will allow staff valuable time to enter into lockdown and keep our kids safe. Finally, gun violence is not unique to other types of violence. Even if you were to ban all guns, evil would find a way. What about knife violence, car violence, bomb violence? 30 years ago on April 19th, 1995, I was seven years old, same age as my daughter. A domestic terrorist built a bomb out of fertilizer and destroyed a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Not a single gunshot was fired. We cannot erase evil or legislated away.
010All we can do is protect ourselves and our children from it. I am here tonight to ask you, to beg you to do just that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Any other um folks sign up for public comment? >> Yes, we have Deian uh De Jesus. >> Good evening. Good evening. My name is Ty Jesus. I live at 43 Popular Street. Um, again, I would like my comment on security. Um, I didn't write anything up, but I agree with him and to a certain point. If we're going to have guns in school, I think we should be with the police because if we open it to security guards, what standards are they held to? Are they held to? If they have to act in a mass shooting, what standards are they going
011to be held to? Are they going to be held to the same standards I am if I carry a gun? Or are they going to be held to a standards of a police officer? I'm all for protecting our children. I just think that if we open the round, then what's next? Our teachers going to carry guns. The principal is going to carry guns. That's not going to make our children safe. So I think for me, if you want to put police in the schools, I'm all for it. I mean in the schools, actively in schools, not outside of the school, but in the school. So for that, I support. But as far as giving a security guard a gun, I'm just not okay with that because what standards are they held to? What is the
012ramifications if they have to discharge that firearm? So police, there's different ratifications. I understand the training and stuff because I have training as well, but again, are they held to my standards or are they held to the police without a batch? Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Want to sign up for public comment in person? No. How about online? >> I don't see anybody here. >> Okay. And then I do just want to acknowledge that the the committee did receive um public comment remotely via email. Um we each have a copy of it. Um it was submitted by uh Celia Everett and it will be put on file um for this meeting. >> Okay. >> There's one individual who was asking to make a public comment. >> Oh, of course. >> Hello. Can you
013hear me? >> We can hear you. >> Yep. My name is Eric Veron and I will uh I believe that this is a terrible idea. Uh, armed guards have been in our schools as has been pointed out with this uh the uh uh resource officers for as long as I can remember uh since I've been in school. And I honestly don't think I've ever recalled them having to discharge a firearm to solve an issue in one of our schools. uh studies of 133 school shootings from 1980 to 2019 found that armed guards were present at a quarter of them with no reduction in loss of life in any way. That is uh actually counter to what you'd think. Firearms present uh with armed guards actually increase the amount of people that died. Uh whenever firearms
014are present, it's a quote from this study. Whenever firearms are present, there is no room for error, and even highly trained officers get split-second decisions wrong. Many shooters are actively not planning to walk away from these events. They intend to die in the act. So, an armed officer may actually be an incentive rather than a deterrent. Uh, in 2013, the FBI study of 160 shootings found they are carried out in a manner of minutes. And if those guards are not in the exact place where they need to be at the exact time, they are not going to help that situation at all. If we have money for this, I think we have money, we can better allocate money to funding our schools, to uh upping the things that we have, having better sports teams, having
015better electives, uh having better resources for kids that have trouble so we can identify these things ahead of time. We can also do better at maintenance. Uvaldi, the whole thing that happened there, it was one faulty door. Making sure that our doors are better locked, that our locks are better, that we have better camera systems and better security systems would be a much better investment than putting somebody in with a firearm inside these schools. >> Thank you. More public comment. >> I do have another individual just named Eric. Uh good evening folks. Uh Eric Boniudo, uh Paul Street here in Bristol. Um new to town. I have a fifth grader and a third grader at Mountain View. I just wanted to add a comment. Um 30 years of being in the uh security um industry
016um private um mostly on the vendor side. Uh and I did seven years in the uh uh board of education in another town. Um I'm I just don't see the fact of an armed guard. I don't think you should allocate resources for an armed police officer. Take away the resources on the streets and other areas where they can be useful um to put them in in every school. Um I think you're sending the wrong uh message when you do that. Um we had them at the middle school and the high school in the town where I was there. Um, I know a lot of them are are retired cops because I could talk from experience that the training that a security officer gets is not nowhere near the level of training that a police officer
017gets. Nowhere near. Um, most of your policies and procedures are going to indicate that a a security officer is not allowed to to um discharge their firearms. Um, they're they actually are told to exit out of the building. Um, so I think you're I think it's it's kind of being a a face in a in a uniform, but I don't think you're going to get the end result that some people here think you're going to get. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comment? >> Okay. So hearing none, um we're going to close public comment. Given that most of the public comment has been centered around our number five agenda item, like to make a motion to swap five and four. So moved. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I I So we
018are going to hop to item number five, which is discuss discussion and revision of policy 5142.41, 41 armed security guards. Um, and just a brief little snippet, this was um, I believe discussed at school safety and referred to the policy committee for further discussion. Thank you very much. I want to share with you some information in regards to this policy so that we are all um aware of the different nuances of this policy. It was written by Cape and it uh defines the armed security officer as a sworn member of an organization's local police department or retired police officer to provide security services in a public school. If such person will possess a firearm well in the performance of his or her duties, such retired police officer shall receive annual training pursuant of section 7-294x.
019This was discussed with the Bristol Public Police. Uh they actually are going to allow if this does pass for us to do all of the trainings that the Bristol Public Police do. So even though within this policy it asks that we are pursuant of just one of the trainings, they will be taking part in all of the trainings. Um they have to be a retired police officer and there are stipulations. I did um number the pages because there's a lot of information here. Um but if you turn to Um, let me do this. You turn to um page two. It says that the school staff um will be promoting a safe and non-threatening school environment, including the assistance in the prevention of school violence. So, this police officer is not there just to be a
020um a person with a weapon, but to be a person that the students can bond with and that the students can um connect with and hopefully have a positive influence with. The idea behind the uh security officer is to act swiftly and cooperatively when responding to major disturbances and flagrant criminal offenses at the school such as disorderly conduct by trespassors and the possession andor use of a weapon on campus. So those are the the basic on page two um responsibilities but the duties also include the following the observation and reporting of any unlawful act. The control of access to permits on to to the premises being protected. The maintenance and order of a safe public activity. protection of the district property, schools, staff, persons, and property on or about the district property while attending district
021uh sponsored events. I now ask that you turn to page four. They are going to also be responsible for all uh reporting of emergency suspicious um criminal activity in the school related to or structure or events when find and able to work with the administration. They are able to uh assist the administration and staff in handling uncooperative or confrontational non-affiliated members of the school community on school grounds. On page five, it talks about the armed public safety officer. It shall be a retired member of an organized local, state, or federal government agency as a law enforcement agent defined by section 53A-3 of the General Statute 13 USC, carrying of a concealed firearm by a qualified retired law enforcement officer pursuant to the standard of the Connecticut public act a local, state or federal off um
022enforcement officer for an aggregated of 15 years or more and separated from such service only in good standing. a local, state or federal officer of a aggregate of 10 years or more and separated from such service in good standing due to service disconnected disabilities. So if you're a federal officer, it's 10 years. If you're a local police officer, it is um 15 years. the uh Bristol uh police department would would be providing us with the firearm. It will be checked by the Bristol Police Office. Um and we have committed to number one, an extensive background investigation, including work history and criminal history. Number two, a full psychological evaluation. Number three, an examination, a physical examination and a drug screening. and number four, completing and successfully passing the comprehensive interview process. They will also be required
023to um take part in all of the um trainings with the police officers and they will work side by side with our SRO's. We feel as though that this is will be a successful program. Um, and I've also provided the uh board of education members and their extras for the public um with some statistics that were shared with the active shooter report of the New York P uh city of New York Police Department. They did an extensive um study in regards to attacks by age and the attackers. And beginning on page four, you can see that um the school attacks were uh between 10 and 15 year olds. 15 and 19 year olds is actually the highest amount. 20 to 30 year olds, the number of these type of attacks decreases. 25 to 29 year
024olds, it decreases again and so forth and so forth as the person gets older. If you look on page five, when they talked about the analysis of the U mass shootings, um the academic mass shootings were the second highest only only down compared to the professional um mass shootings. Only workplace shootings had more shootings than um academics. The rest of this report goes into detail about um on page seven where the shootings are taking place. It is the schools were at at 29% an office building was at 13 open commercial was at 23% a factory was at 13% and others were at 22% like outdoor concerts and such. So, I I'm sharing this with you because it's the reality that we unfortunately live with. And um one thing that we are striving to do here
025in Bristol is to make our schools as safe as possible. And we are moving extremely cautiously with this policy. Our our forecast is to first begin with our own security director. Uh Steve has been with us for multiple years and he served on the state police prior to coming to Bristol. Uh he is a well um a well-versed uh person in regards to school safety and has helped us tremendously. He knows our schools. He that is his beat and it has been his beat for over three years. When you are in Bristol Eastern, if you say there's a problem in the science lab, he knows exactly where that is. If you say there's a problem in the cafeteria at Chippens, he knows where that is. Our hope is to have more Steves in the future,
026but at the very minimum to start with Steve who is very talented, knows our schools very well, and is out visiting every school every week and really has a good understanding of our buildings and the nuances within them. Are there any questions? >> Thank you so much. Um, two questions that are initially coming up for me are I was wondering if you could go into a little bit about any ongoing training that they would be receiving and then um I had looked online a little bit and did some research and it looked like about saw 47 to 50 schools within Connecticut have armed security guards. um some of them are our neighbors and I was just wondering if there had been any feedback or had that come up in the discussion at all um when
027considering this. >> Good evening. So, um, I was contacted by a reporter from the Hartford Current, and I don't know if folks saw the article that was posted online early this morning, >> uh, which quoted myself and also quoted the superintendent from Ellington, >> Dr. Scott Nickel, about their experience. They have SRO and armed security. They have both. Um, I don't think it was mentioned in the article, but I know Derby also has armed security guards, and I know when we discussed this, um, the hospital limbs last year, there were a couple of >> districts that we looked at, um, their policies. >> Yeah, >> I want to say New Town was one from what I recall. >> And I believe that your second question was in regards to training. Do you have any ongoing
028thoughts around ongoing training or what that would look like? >> Yes. So, um, Captain uh has Chief Chief, that's it. That's why it didn't sound right. Chief Mel um has offered to incorporate our armed uh guards with uh the exact same training that he's doing with his SRO. Um, our SRO's uh have a new um leader this year who is actually going to be increasing the number of um active shooter trainings for our SRO's. I believe he's going from four to five times a year to once monthly. Um, so it it is something that you never want to feel like you weren't prepared >> and you never want to live knowing that um there were options that you could have taken that may have helped. Um, and so I think that right now, um, we
029know how strong the Bristol PD is and they are they are here to protect and when they give us a recommendation, it's something that Superintendent White and I take very seriously and this was one of their recommendations. >> Okay. through the chair. >> I think that um the language of armed security guards can be a little bit deceiving the way that the policy reads and when we use that um vernacular, we say armed security guards. Um as an outsider, if I were looking at this, I would be thinking, oh, we're contracting like a security company, like banks and such. And I appreciate that there's some clarification that um what's being considered are actually retired police officers um or as the policy reads uh that retired people in law enforcement. So possibly Department of Correction parole
030officers like people who are carrying as part of their profession who are trained and require certain certifications um to carry. So that it's a really specialized um group of people. Um and I think that might comfort those who are concerned that it's just like a random security person. Not that they're not qualified, but there's a different level of qualification um and uh sort of professional experience that comes with that. So I appreciate that. Um, and I I also think for those who might be listening and those who might listen to the recording or watch the the recording of this, our director of security, um, Director Cabelis is actually a retired state police officer. Um, so his experience is obviously um in law enforcement and that he currently holds certain certifications or uh abilities to to
031carry a weapon. Um, so he would be leading the charge from what I understand, um, in being the liaison to Bristol Police, but also maybe being the first person um, to test this out and also to ensure that any further um, employees are vetted are um, in trained properly and so he would be overseeing that process. Is that correct? Yes, that is okay. Um, as far as the vetting of the um any applicants in the future, I believe that we'll be collaborating with the Bristol PE. >> Oh, sure. >> Um, and our SRO. So, will not be really my decision. It will be a lot of professional who um are well vetted and everyone who even gets the opportunity to interview will have to have had those numbers of years of experience and left on
032good terms. Um, one positive that I have heard from the Bristol PD is that um, some of the officers who've served their entire career here are interested in this um, because they still want to protect um, and they know the schools and they know the families and Bristol is, you know, their heart and so they they welcome this as an opportunity. >> Thank you for that. Um, another question that I have about the policy is has this policy been reviewed by board's legal counsel. So last November when we initially discussed this and I think it was you um vice chair you gave good advice of um consulting with our attorney. We did consult with Shipman and um and there was an attorney that I met with and they provided some guidance some questions things that
033or should consider in terms of creating such a policy. Um, and they also made sure that we had the correct legal statute language so that we were following the correct statute requirements. >> Okay, good. >> I could certainly share that with the board again. >> That's helpful. So, what what's in front of us has been reviewed by our legal council to ensure that it aligns with statutory requirements and Okay, that's perfect. Um the other the other thing that I was going to ask on page four of um this model policy student affairs um where it reads respond to all reported emergencies and specific criminal activities in the schools um etc. I'm asking this question because not too long ago we passed policy that allowed wands um with reasonable cause. Um so who is currently because
034we don't have these armed security guards? I know that's the language that we're using. Um, who would the armed security guard in in alignment with this policy alleviate some of that responsibility from school staff who may currently be responding to criminal activity in the schools? Did is my question clear? I know I kind of jumped around a little bit there. So currently um if you are in a uh high school, elementary or K8 and uh you perceive that there might be some criminal activity um they often have walkie-talkies and they can consult with their SRO's um ask their SRO's to meet them somewhere to go over something to have a double set of eyes. If you're in an elementary school, which I was for 10 years, um if you suspect some sort of criminal activity
035or somebody on grounds that you're not familiar with, um then a 911 call needs to go uh to the city of Bristol. Again, they respond very quickly. Um, and I'm not disparaging that at all, but there is a wait time and, uh, you often don't know the officer. So, it's hard to, you know, uh, have a conversation about what your concerns are. Um, so I just feel as though if you had somebody that you worked with regularly and got to know and they got to know your neighborhood and they um got to know your building and your school that it would be a better match. Again, if something um is uh needing multiple people, our SRO's call in um Bristol PD for oper uh situations where they do need multiple people. Um and that would
036happen as well if we had the um concealed uh weapons with the uh retired police officers. Um but again, it's that familiarity that I think is is so important. >> I appreciate that. And I think then my my final point >> um of clarity or you know just information is that we currently have school resource officers. We have Bristol police officers who are armed who are in our schools right now. So the idea of having an armed um officer is not new. It's what's happening currently. What this policy would do would have the armed security guards, I wish there was a better term, armed security guards, um who would then be Bristol public school employees, not um Bristol police employees. So for those listening that is um something that would be a clarifying point of
037they would be Bristol public school employees now and not um Bristol police employees. Is that correct? >> That that is correct. And also um the system that we're using now is that we sometimes will have to call Green Hills or West Bristol and say can you send your SRO to us which is 20 minutes to get to our building. You know 20 minutes to help us out and 20 minutes to get back to their building. Um and this would also alleviate that and and garner more support for the high schools and the the middle schools. >> Thank you. >> We have a question. Um so since they will be um working for the person public schools who do they report to >> would it be director of safety? >> Yes. So they would be under
038um Steve for when they are here at work and then they would be under um Chief Mel when they are in trade train. >> Okay. And um I know there has been communication with the Versal Police Department. Have they seen the policy at all? Okay. Yes. Yeah. >> And um just really between the advice and the recommendations between Bristol Police Department and Mr. Cabllis, um it gives me confidence in the process. So, thank you. I had one thing to add regarding the name. >> Um I'm looking again at Shman and Goodwin. um the guidance they provided they didn't use the term guard they used the term officers ar security officers I don't know if the >> I like that better but thank you for >> is pretty sure >> is the feedback that they provided
039has that been integrated at all into this model policy is this is this policy reflective of I mean that's that's a simple switch out of a word I'm I'm presuming that any major your recommendations that are impactful to statutory language or whatever have been reflected here. >> Yes. >> Okay. But that's helpful to know that they again I just feel like guards >> it has a different feel to it. Yeah. Um so they have armed security officers. >> Is that how they terang? >> Thank you. I did um look up before the meeting the difference between the guards and the officers and it did say off um the armed security officers do have more responsibility than a guard. I don't have that source in front of me but I did notice the title of it
040but then in some parts it did say armed security officer >> active. What I'm hearing is that as a committee right now, we like the change from security guard to security officer. >> Yeah. I think it also there's consistency throughout the document if it reads armed security officer also, you know, and page five, an armed public safety officer shall be and then it goes through sort of statutory language. Um, but here it reads carrying of concealed firearms by qualified retired law enforcement officers pursuant to the standards of Connecticut public act blah blah blah. And and there it's expanding the scope from just retired police to actual like qualified retired law enforcement. So my note here was why is that language different than page one? Page one is offering definitions armed security officer, retired police officer,
041but not um qualified retired law enforcement officer, which again broadens the scope of who that includes because there are other law retired law enforcement officers that would qualify that aren't >> that aren't >> an armed security officer as the way it's defined here. So, we may want to consider I don't know if there's if there's other if there's model policy in other districts or if that's something that our council would weigh in on is the definitions are not including that retired law enforcement officer which is inclusive of inclusive of retired police officers, but there's an element there that's missing. You get what I'm saying? >> Yep. There's a group of retired law enforcement officers that's missing that are not retired police officers. >> I almost feel like law enforcement officers is a little bit more,
042>> right? Because there's statutory language here to describe what that is. You know, Connecticut Public Act 13-18. I don't have my glasses on, but So, what page is that on? >> Page five. Uh, under B, armed public safety officer. because now that language is a little bit different. Again, we've got armed security officers, armed public safety officer, armed security officer. So, it's like there's a lot of different nuance there. And I wonder if there's a way for us to be a little more specific and streamline, but again, I wouldn't want to modify any language and it impacts the way the statute supports, you know, the language unless we have council saying, "Oh, that's okay. It doesn't change the way that the statute describes these titles. Um, and I think consistent language is important to have
043consistency through the whole document, >> right? >> Um, so what I'm going to Well, I first want to say thank you very much for the work on this. I really appreciate the level of seriousness and thoughtfulness that went into approaching this policy. Um, and at the heart of it is keeping the kids safe. Um, and I just wholeheartedly really appreciate that. Um, so I was thinking I'd like to make a motion to pass arms uh policy 5142.41 armed security guards to the full board for discussion, review, and approval. Um, and then would it be possible to get legal's weigh in in between now and our next board meeting regarding that language? what they would recommend as far as uh keeping consistent language throughout our policy definitions um and kind of those nuances that Maria was
044referencing. >> Absolutely. >> I know that was like a question and a motion. I'm sorry. >> So, there's a motion on the floor. >> Yes. >> Right. I need a second. >> Um so, I'll second the motion >> and then the discussion is where I should have put all of that. um to check in with councel regarding the consistency of the language um specifically law enforcement officer, police officer um and armed security guard. And another point of discussion and pursuant to some of the concerns that were expressed by public comment um from our virtual >> um our virtual virtual participants and I know we talked about it before when we were um entertaining the idea of having armed Bristol public school um folks not staff currently but um >> we talked about the budgetary impacts.
045So, I think that's going to be an important conversation um because we have had some budget challenges this year and I know that it's been a very public um topic that we are very mindful that this is going to have a budgetary impact and we want to have that conversation as well. Um, so I I I think when we present this to the full board having um more information about costs and I know that there'll be just introductory conversations about it, but I do think we need to be well versed in that. We owe that conversation um some attention and I we talked about the implications to insurance and costs and I think we really need to start having that conversation as well. um so that we can um be more diversified in our sort
046of approach to this. I'm so I'm in I'm in support of ensuring that our schools are safe and expanding our efforts in having armed officers because we're doing it currently, but we're expanding our efforts and trying to provide more consistency across the district. Um but I want us to be you know fiscally responsible in being um more informed about what the cost will be as well. >> Absolutely. >> Any further discussion questions? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I motion passes and it moves to the full board. >> Thank you. Thank you and thank you to to those who provided public comment. It's something that we greatly appreciate and value. Okay, so it's 6:50. I want to be mindful of time. Um, I think that we're able to cover number four and maybe
047talk about um unless actually I should check in to see are any other are any of our other policies right now time sensitive? I know they all are technically. >> Yeah. Do you have any? >> No. And in number four, I was going to propose adding a special policy committee meeting to try and tackle some of this. Um I was going to put that out there to see what folks thought. for um for number four um for example like the drug and alcohol testing by the bus drivers. I have for you tonight um some uh guidance from um Colin Urace who's our director of transportation and that packet and um so that and I'll have that from um Mr. folds about the food um one the minimum duty free lunch that is one that we've
048already put into practice >> uh but we just haven't voted on. >> Okay. And then letter A as well that's something that we the committee I believe adopted from what I could tell in March of 2024 but we just weren't seeing it posted online. >> Okay. >> So that would be one that we could check off as well. >> Okay. And um currently um Miss Triani who is one of our uh specialists is working to make sure that restorative justice practices are first uh her first objective is that every new administrator goes through a 2 to three hour training. And then her next objective which she'll be working on next month is to make sure that all the social workers are trained so they can train all the rest of the staff. if they haven't
049had it. Bristol has had restorative practices for multiple years and I would say probably 75% of the staff has been um trained. Okay. >> But we do have some turnover and we want to make sure that it's 100. >> Okay. >> But I can bring that to the other meeting. >> So it sounds like to tackle letters A through E, we'll need a spe to schedule special policy meeting. Um, we will still need to address six and seven. And then did I want to >> I had a question >> related to uh item eight. uh it is term bound by the marking period which would end for middle school on December 1st. So if you do not have a meeting scheduled in November, it would be a policy that you'd want to hear about tonight
050or revision that you want to hear about tonight make a decision. So and the number seven, the gifted and talented. I think he has until January 1st. That gives us more time with that one. >> Okay. So, I'd like to make a motion to hop down to number eight and then we are going to identify a special meeting for the remaining IE policy items on our agenda. >> Second >> I thank you. Um and this is our extracurricular and cocurricular productivities policy 6145.2. We had talked about this policy a little bit earlier with uh some changes at the high school eligibility uh policy. So it's eligibility to participate in extracurricular and co-curricular activities. uh a upon review at the beginning of the school year, our middle school administrator suggested a revision to the policy that
051as it pertains to middle school co-curricular. Let me to deputy superintendent Hawk numbered pages since these weren't numbered. So you'll see my handwritten numbers at the bottom of the pages there. You won't see any changes until page eight. And the recommendation from our middle school administrators was to eliminate the standard of conduct from the eligibility policy. And while that might seem uh startling at first, why would administrators not want students who have exemplary conduct on their teams? I want to assure you that that's not the case. Uh, of course, any student who is uh not demonstrating any responsible or respectful conduct within school would not be able to participate in their athletic events, including practice or competitions at the end of the school day. However, this standard is dependent upon students marking period grade for
052conduct. And that's a standard that middle schoolers are held at a higher standard to than what you'll find in our high school eligibility. And given even some of the comments that we heard earlier this evening, one of the ways we know in which uh students really feel connected to the school is through their participation in extracurricular activities. And so while they might not be able to participate on a date uh if given an incident in the school year, we wouldn't want them to be uh restricted from participation based on a report card grade uh that is not recognized at the high school level that same standard. uh we want students who might need that additional support to feel connected to the school and we know extracurricular activities are a part of that. Uh so their
053recommendation is to keep the standard that is there through the CIA and for our high school students uh to be the standard for all students in Bristol and that's right now based on academic performance. As I said, I don't want anyone to think that the elimination of this language in this policy prevents any student or coach from making a decision, any administrator, coach to make the decision uh to not restrict a student from practice or play in a competition based on an incident that occurs during the school day. We just don't want that to be dependent upon a report or conduct that's at um at a teacher level. a teacher would be reporting that on the conduct and that would impact the student for the whole trimester that was the reference to our marking period
054ends on uh December 1st. So those decisions would be be would be made on eligibility at that time which is why this change in policy means some discussion today. Okay. Happy to answer any questions. One question. Um, so you had mentioned that this would align the policy or align with the high school requirement align with the high school requirements. >> Yes. >> Okay. So when uh the whole the whole policy including the eligibility policy for high school that's what's on pages 1 through eight. It is primarily based on academic number of credits that students have within their course schedule and then their performance in those classes. Uh the CIC which is the governing body of high school athletics for us uh does not recognize any kind of discipline. They recognize that within their athletic handbook,
055as we do in ours, that those decisions are made between the school administrator and the coach, but there is no overall arching um standard or grade for conduct. Typically, at high school, you wouldn't see that and no policy that's it matches here for middle school. That's what we're trying to do. >> That's what I was going to ask. Like, where do you see a grade in conduct? Like, how Yeah, >> I only have that here at middle school. uh we don't have it at the high school level. That's why I think years and years ago when the middle school eligibility was looked at I think it was probably about 20 years ago now where they did include that conduct standard but I don't believe that it's any it's not relevant any longer. >> Thank you.
056You have no more questions. with the chair. It's not being said, but I want to put it out there that I'm presuming that when a student is struggling academically and receives a grade of what is it 64 or lower, um that there's support for that student, that there been support for that student. Um it's not been my experience that we're trying to, you know, deny students opportunity for this sense of belonging to participate in extracurriculars, to participate in sports when sometimes that might be the only sense of belonging that a student feels. Um, so you know, as an educator, as a mom, as a member of this community, I I I know, but I almost want it to be said that our educators in this district are supporting students. And if a student's receiving that
057grade, it's not a surprise and that student is shocked and doesn't know and now can't participate that we're supporting that student throughout the trimester or semester, however, you know, marking period so that that student is getting, you know, built-in support is can we affirm that? I'm glad that you bring that up. It's actually part of another policy that we must provide academic support for students who aren't meeting that standard. It's under our graduation requirement policy specific to the language around middle school students. Uh but that without policy in good practice, of course, we're communicating with students and their families. We're at least reviewing on a monthly basis students who are not meeting with success at all of our secondary schools, talking with the school administrators who then are are sharing that information with their school
058teams involving school counselors, the teachers of the students often at a team meeting at the middle school um and in other ways at the high school through different individuals advisors of the students. So yes, thank you for making sure that we thank you. >> Any other questions or discussion? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor to move this policy to the full board. >> I I motion passes. Um so that brings us to the end of our agenda. Um there are a couple items that we had referenced that we did not get to and the plan is for us to identify a meeting date for special policy meeting and we will be moving the remaining policies 8 through E 6 and 7 to that agenda to start discussing those policies. Any questions or anything I
059might have missed? No. Okay. 703 and our meeting's adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.