001It is 7:01 and I'd like to call the board of education, school, family, and community partnerships committee meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. respond to the approval of the minutes February 26, 2025. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes for February 26, 2025? So moved. >> Second. Discussion. All in favor? >> I. Wonderful. Motion passes. Do we have any public comment? >> No, we don't. >> Okay. Nothing online. Nothing. All right. Well, next we come to the most exciting part of the meeting. Only second to Dr. Broadick's um presentation of course. >> I know. Rock, paper, scissors. Was fun. Um, it it is funny because when I think about activities, um, I like it to be fun and also um, engaging, but I'm kind of conflicted because I don't
002know how many people we're going to have or what kind of arrangement there's going to be. But um, tonight I was thinking we would do something called one word at a time and we're a little bit spread out, but ideally we would sort of be in a circle. Um, oh, and I do have a prize. How many surprise pri candles? And we do have our support tomato that we usually integrate in some way, shape or form. But for for um deputy superintendent Hawk who might be unaware of what we do in the beginning of these meetings is we activate well-being. And it's just a way for us to um connect, be grounded, and um take a more relational approach to the work we do. often in what we do can be rather transactional and sort
003of just this wrote exchange of information and conversations. Um, but when we connect relationally and organically, it tends to make difficult conversations easier because we remember that we're humans and we're all here for the um highest good of of children in our community and we stay really sort of connected in that space. So, for today, um, it's kind of well, I guess we're kind of in a circle. Okay. So, the activity is called one word at a time. And it's just a simple little easy way um to get us working together and we're going to create a sentence. And we do that by each of us contributing one word. And so, we go around the circle and I'm going to give the general topic. Um, and then maybe we'll start with Michelle because she's sort
004of at the top there in the the queen's chair and um and then we will move to move that way. So then we'll go to Dr. Brick. We'll go to Iris to Mary Kristen. Are we invited of course to participate? Everyone's always invited to participate. I forgot to mention that it's there's it's always an invitation to participate, never an obligation. Um because when you invite you give choice and that's always nice to do. Um and so we're going to go around two times. The first time we'll just kind of warm up to it and then the second time I'm going to set a timer and then see how good we are, how how our fluency is, how automatic we are. And actually maybe the first time we go around, I can pick the topic and
005the second time somebody else can pick the topic. Um, and that way I won't have uh a head start on anything. Um, but because we are part of school family community partnerships and our work is about family engagement, I thought we could start with the word family engagement or the words family engagement. So the idea is to come up with in sequence a word that follows family engagement. So Michelle, your next word would be fill in the blank and then it'll go around and the the hope is by the time we get to Commissioner Van Gorder, we'll have a complete sentence um about family engagement. So the idea is to think about what we do here and um our goal of engendering school family community partnerships through family engagement and we'll see what kind of
006great sentence we make. Okay, Michelle. Family engagement >> is >> Oh, that was too easy. I'm putting you on the spot next time, bro. >> Dr. Brder, >> family engagement is imperative. >> Iris, you copied me. Family engagement is imperative to Bristol community. Family engagement is imperative to Bristol community members. >> Family engagement is imperative to Bristol community >> family members. >> You said Bristol community members. members, >> committee members because family engagement is imperative to Bristol. No, to Bristol. >> Mary's Bristol. >> Oh, darling. Family engagement. >> Your family engagement. >> I'm >> Oh, I was family engagement. Oh my gosh. Well, well, family engagement, sorry. All right. So, okay. Family engagement is >> is imperative >> imperative to Bristol community members because we >> Thank you. Um, family engagement is imperative to Bristol
007community members because we we love our students. >> Okay, >> absolutely. You had the toughest one. >> That was so Bristol. No. Oh my gosh. >> Family engagement is No, this was beautiful. We should be This is great. Family engagement is imperative to Bristol community members because we love our students. Now, >> isn't it so nice that there's a statement that everyone in the room agrees with? Oh, I think everyone in the room could agree with all right. Okay. So, now we're gonna time ourselves. >> Oh, no. >> Um, that's the same game, but we're gonna do a different >> topic. And, um, would somebody else like to choose a topic? >> If not, I have something prepared. I'm a lot. Um, >> let's just go with yours because we don't have one. >> Okay.
008>> School, family, community partnerships. And let's start with Jen. I'll give you the easy followup this time. School, family, community partnerships. >> Oh, we're starting with the same topic. >> Oh, yes. But I got to start the timer. How long should we give us? Let's give us two minutes. And um how do I do the timer? Okay, two minutes. Let's see if we can do it in two minutes. Like we are automatic people. >> What was your first words? >> School the title of our our >> school family community partnerships. And I am going to start as soon as you're done writing. Ready? School, family, community partnerships. Two minutes. School family community partnerships. >> means >> 1 minute 45 seconds. >> Activating. Activating >> school family community partnerships means activating everyone. >> School family community
009family partnerships mean activating everyone united. School family partnerships. Community partnerships >> means activating >> everyone united together as as school family community partnerships means activating everyone united together as partners. Go ahead. 44 seconds. Okay. School family community partnerships means activating everyone united together as partners in school, family, community partnerships. [Music] means activating everyone united together as partners in meaningful work in the highest good of our community. >> That is cheating. That is like six words. >> Slow it down. >> We did it. Did the timer went up? So now in closing ination, school family community partnerships means activating everyone united together as partners in what did you say? She said, >> "This game has gone off the rails." It is >> off the rails >> of the entire community. Is that what I said? In
010the highest good of the school of of the community. Of the community of the community. >> Give yourself a candle. I have many a candle at home. Um, okay. So, now for our prizes. Of course, I'm >> How many? >> Okay. Um, okay. >> All right. So, now what we'll do is everyone we'll pick a number between Did you see it? >> I did see it. Pick a number between 1 and 10. And that's what we'll do. Okay. So, we'll pick a number between 1 and 10. Jen, what is your number? Three. >> That's not it. Sorry. That's my favorite number. It's a good number. It's a good >> um eight. >> Nope. >> Seven. >> Nine. Oh, it's nine. Okay. So now you can pick one of these little candles and then we'll go
011around one more time. But we'll start with Mary. >> Two. >> Well, I have to pick a number. Sorry. >> No, I can't pick two. >> Maybe we should have another one. Guess again. Start over. >> Start over. Get your number. >> It's gonna be a number between 10 and 20 now. >> Okay. I got to think. Between 10 and 20. Okay, got it. Okay, Mary's Anton 17. Oh, I'm sorry. 14. That is incorrect. Four. >> No. No. You get a second chance. >> Not 14. 16. >> No, Michelle. >> 12. >> No, Ryan. >> 19. >> That's a good guess, but it's incorrect. Sorry, Iris. >> 13. >> Wow. >> All the candles. >> What's gonna be going on at Superintendent White House tonight with these candles? All right. >> Well, thank you everyone.
012That was fun. Oh god. >> To change lives, I think. >> You know what? I think if people really knew the fun we had, we would be the most attended meeting and not the least attended meeting. No one's online. They're not winning prizes. Oh boy. Okay. So, now we will go to that is relational. Um if we could please move on to school family community partnerships goal and action plan report and updates with um Dr. Broader. >> Good evening and I am so much more comfortable up here reporting out than sitting in Commissioner Van Gorder's chair at the end of that game trying to remember everything. >> She did great though, didn't she? >> Absolutely. Uh very very happy to be here again this month. um do want to say that there is no actual
013data to report out on this month. We are getting ready to administer the panorama survey again. So we're expecting this spring to gather some really good data based off the date baseline that we shared out a couple months ago. Um so looking forward to that and more will follow there. But with that said, there are I think some very uh fantastic updates to bring to the committee. Um first of all and feel free to stop me at any time and ask questions, clarifications. Um we are through another round of successful parent teacher conferences here at Bristol public schools. Um of what's very interesting is elementary schools are starting to do the uh student led conferences. We've been doing this for a couple years now in district where the kids actually own uh their progress, their
014strengths, areas they're still looking to improve upon and have a conversation with their teacher um with a parent or guardian and family members present. So again, really exciting. and research is showing that that's something that is uh really helping kids own and reflect upon their own learning. So, we're excited to have those practices take hold now here at Bristol Public Schools. Uh last week on March 18th, uh the Mental Health Advocates Club at Bristol Eastern High School had their second annual mental health fair. Um talking to the administration over there, extremely successful day. They held a half day schedule and then the last two hours of the day the whole student body part participated in this fair. Half of the students went to the auditorium for a guest speaker. They had Dr. Mike Fallen uh
015come to present his story which left the crowd just absolutely speechless. Just really moving for all the students to hear. Um while they were in there that part of the assembly, the other half was around the building uh engaged in a bunch of different activities. They had mindfulness activities. They had yoga, Lego building. Uh they had a bunch of community partners there as well. Bristol police, uh Bristol fire, they had members from uh Department of Corrections in Connecticut talking about uh all different sorts of both preventative measures as well as resources for students to access if they needed as well as future careers. Um, so it turned out to be a really powerful and productive day at Bristol Eastern on March 18th, which was last Tuesday. Um, we're excited. There was a district climate meeting
016held yesterday. Um, I unfortunately was not able to attend. I was in another meeting at the time. Um, I was able to talk to Mrs. Troy, uh, to Mrs. Triani. I just caught up with Mrs. Hawk as well. Uh, first and foremost, we're on our third or four fourth iteration of climate camp. Uh the dates have been set for July 14th and July 15th. Uh per usual, there will be a guest speaker the first day of the climate camp. And this year, the focus uh will be on intentional family engagement. So again, just in perfect alignment with the goals uh that this committee has spoken about all year that we have set forth in our district strategic five-year plan um as well as in uh uh Superintendent White's goals and objectives. Um the second day
017we'll engage in a bunch of different workshops for faculty members to be part of. We expect about five or six participants from every school in district. Uh one or two administrators, three to five teachers depending uh on the building. And then the third day will be at each school's discretion to follow up on this work and do planning for the upcoming year within their own setting and context. So again, really looking forward to that work and a big thanks to Mrs. Trelly um and Mrs. uh Triani for putting that together. It turns to be a super valuable, you know, three days for all of us here in district. Uh they're also talking about a roll out of there's not an official name yet. They have a working name of Guardian U, Guardian University. Um it
018will be a seminar series that will be presented to uh any Bristol parent who would like to participate. Uh next year they're going to start with quarterly seminars uh both in person online and then taping the online portion of it and posting it to the Bristol public schools website so it will be available to all community members. Um some of the themes may include building strong school home partnerships, supporting learning at home, nurturing the whole child, internet safety and guidance, um avoiding the summer slide which we know affects so many of our families and children. Um once students have not accessed school for three weeks, there can be some sort of learning regression over the summer. So ways that families can support that work as well. Um as I was not at the meeting, I'd
019like to kick it to either Erica or Mrs. Hawk to maybe follow up on anything I missed about guarding you. >> Sure. Um Mrs. Hawk, I don't know. I know you were there too. Some of the topics >> I hear Eric in the background. It's trying. >> I don't uh speakers. Try it again. Erica, >> can you hear me? >> Um I guess are Try it again. >> That's all right. This it's if you can't hear me, Mary can talk. >> Go ahead >> one more time. Can you hear me? >> It's not giving me very good. Um >> I can hear her, but it's not being amplified. >> Yeah. also. [Music] >> Yeah, maybe Mary, you should Erica. >> Yep. Let have Mary check talk about it. >> Okay. >> So, I I was
020fortunate to um attend the climate uh meeting yesterday. I'm very excited. Um, we wanted to think about a way that we can help families, you know, as they their children go through the school system and really help them with anything they need and let them know what supports that we have. So, at the beginning of the year, we wanted to talk to them just about um what the school has to offer, what support staffs we have, um what volunteering uh can look like in the school, and also some providers like the Boys and Girls Club and what they have to offer, uh Wheeler Clinic, um Bristol Youth Services, all of those um things that are so common to us as administrators that new families may not know. new family especially to the district. The next
021one we wanted to talk in October about parent teacher conferences and give out some homework strategies, understanding the students curriculums um and really just that growth mindset and setting study hall uh study uh habits so that as they go through the school system they'll have good habits uh as far as studying those. In um November, we talked about the whole child and mental health and giving uh families resources on mental health, on stress management, nutrition, um healthy eating, sleeping, and uh the importance of sleep so you don't fall asleep in class. Um I have a teacher at Mountain View who does a lot of childhood yoga and you may be surprised to know that she's a kindergarten teacher. So she actually teaches her kindergarten students breathing and yoga. And we have seen out in recess
022when a child gets upset, child from her class will walk over and say, "Oh, use your breaths. You know how to use your breaths. Don't be angry." So it really does work, especially at a young age. Um the one that uh we really wanted to focus a lot on in January um was the internet safety and guidance because there's there are a lot of ways that very techsavvy people know how to set constraints for their children on their phones to um an example that was given in my committee was how alleviated a family member was when a guidance counselor taught the the parent how to turn off internet at a certain time and how amazing like that was a breakthrough for this family who like the child is constantly getting on the tablet um at
023all hours of the night. So teaching about um you know internet uh safety and some of the websites that we know that students can um come on to and parents not realize that it looks like a cartoon but it may be not the best place for their kiddos to be. Um, and also those little tricks of the trade that the techsavvy uh people have to really uh limit the amount of technology that the students have and going into the summer as um Dr. Broadick said, you know, avoiding the summer slide, but also um getting out. We're going to talk about different camps that are available, different programs at the library, different programs around Bristol just to really encourage families. Um, and we know that um hopefully people will be able to come on because we're
024just having them for four nights, but if they can't, we're going to uh tape it so that they can watch it at their leisure. Um during COVID I had this thing and it was like a movie night with Hawk on Fridays and um I would do like a little short video just kind of letting everybody know what happened and the families really enjoyed it and found it useful. So sometimes we don't have time to read all the brochures and read all the memos but if you just create a quick video um families can really get the information need. So that was the thought behind it. and thank Erica because she brought this amazing um and Christie brought this amazing program to Bristol. >> That's a lot to digest really great >> currently in development, but
025the ideas behind it are so fantastic and talk about just the variety of ways that we'll continue to engage families and community partners. Um, just seeing Superintendent Benos walk in just made me think of the amount of partnerships that we already do have both with Bristol Boys and Girls Club, uh, CHC, Wheeler Clinic, uh, other municipal agencies, you know, obviously BRICS and all the work that they do. And we're coming upon the summer season where, you know, they offer a variety of programs for all ages of our kids and offer scholarship opportunities. We have come up, I serve on the youth commission in town, we have our youth recognition awards coming up. Uh typically that's in May and then we have a meeting soon that they maybe set. Um but we'll be talking and sharing
026that out to all board members as well. We'd love to have you come to that. It's just such a fantastic night of celebration of you know the kids in Bristol, the volunteer work that they do. Uh there's usually tasty little treats or shakurery two years ago I think which was pretty fantastic. Um, so again, the partnerships that we're seeing at all levels, not just at the high school level, but with, you know, the Bristol Park and Recck community, the new services, still getting used to that one, um, is is just so fantastic and transformative for our kids and families, but we're always looking at ways to strengthen that. And so our meetings, um, always welcome to attend those. are very conversational around what's going well, what else can we do as a group of educators,
027community members to continue to support our our students and families. So, we value all those partnerships and I think we're looking to continue to capitalize on them. Um, we have great people in this town and great people in this community and a lot of skill and knowledge. Um, so we're looking forward to, you know, continuing the work. >> Well, thank you very much. I Yeah, I couldn't send I couldn't have said it any better. And we are going to hear from Dr. near us today. Um, as part of our community partnerships report because we do want to um, be really intentional with the way we highlight partnerships and collaborative efforts and all the things that going back to the our little activate well-being sentence, the things that engender the highest good for those in our
028communities, people that we serve. >> Yeah. I mean, they supported hundreds and over 500 children just in their toy drive for the holiday season. That's pretty significant. That's sensational. It's amazing. >> Um so I anticipate then probably in a future meeting um considering that we your panorama survey is going out and that is one of the goals that you've presented to us that we'll hear some more about it and hopefully we'll be making that um indicator of success of 80% of parents, staff and students will participate in the bianual school climate service. >> Fingers crossed. So that could be something as well that when we report out to the full board and hopefully when we have an amazing showing of participants in the audience that that will um inspire them and remind them to participate
029in that survey and certainly a reminder to all of us that when we do participate in that survey we're helping the district meet um its goals. >> Absolutely. So yeah, I mean, wow, amazing stuff. Uh, in the future, and you probably don't have it at the ready, but would love to know how um that studentled conferencing um is having an impact on engagement, whether it's family engagement, student engagement, the collective engagement um where students are able to really advocate for themselves and how with them taking the lead, the impact it has on conferencing approach. >> Perfect. Yeah. I think one one of the things that we'll see just we don't have the data right now but a lot of the principles that I've spoken to have talked about just the increase in they've always had
030decent attendance but better attendance from parents and having kids come with them so there's just more people in the school more of the time which is what we all want >> right yeah that's amazing I love it um any feedback >> questions thoughts always a pleasure to have you present your amazing Thanks for having me. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, so next we have um Dr. Joshua Maderos and he as um Dr. Broadick mentioned is the superintendent of parks, rec recreation, youth and community services for the city of Bristol. And part of our community partnerships uh reports pursuit is to highlight the amazing work of our community partners making sure that efforts do not go unnoticed and it really has been informative for us every time we have uh this part of the
031presentation. We learn so much then we're able to better serve our community. Um last month we had the family resource center um Sandra Goden come in and that was really informative. In the past, we've had Erica Trani and Christy Tley report on the great things that the um district is doing. We learned about the community closet. Um so, the more tapped in we are to the resources we have in our community, the better resource we become in supporting the needs of our our families and our community. So, thank you uh Dr. Maderas for being here and we look forward to your sharing. There it is. Okay. Good evening. Thanks for inviting me. Um, Commissioner Sim has asked me to kind of talk a little bit about what partnerships we've had going on and some of
032the work that's going on in the community. Tons of things are happening. So, I'm happy to if you have any questions and hit want me to hit on anything, I'm happy to do that. Um, we do a lot of great partnerships right now with the board of ed. We have a strong relationship with the school system. As um uh Dr. Brderick mentioned, he is one of our youth commissioners. Um we sponsor a lot of events in the schools. The one he was just referencing was funded through our FEST program which is the drug-free community. Uh so we were able to fund that activity. We have youth and family uh counselors who are social workers who assist with um case management and working with youth in the schools. We oftentimes get referrals from the schools to
033work with kids, get them connected to a lot of the different programs we have. So, that's one of our great partnerships. We've also over the last couple years um took on the maintenance and scheduling of the school fields at the elementary and middle school level. So, that's something we're continuing to work um on as well. It's been a good community benefit that people can uh request their field use directly through our website online 247. And so that was an efficiency that helped um the schools as well. We've also uh Plant Lake Adventure Park is back online. Not sure if anyone's familiar or have been to that, but it was a long-standing partnership program where we bring kids from the school system into the woods to do outdoor experiential learning. Um that was closed during COVID.
034The city did a lot of investment in that site. We have a new climbing tower, new features, a bathroom, bus turnaround, all these things that we didn't have for a long time. That's now back online. We do have some school groups coming out um soon as well. We also partnered with the schools. The swim teams use our uh Dennis Milan Aquatic Center, which is our indoor year-round facility um that's used by all the high schools. We did in this budget cycle request a new diving board and starting box kind of in collaboration with your athletic director as well. Um so that's also forthcoming. As Dr. Broadick mentioned, we do offer hundreds of recreational programs, social uh service programs, enrichment, after school, etc. Is this like >> standing too close to um we do offer scholarships
035to all those programs. So any families that you have that you think could really benefit, please connect them to us. Um we often give out around $20,000 of scholarship which is funded through our youth service bureau uh grants that we get. Um we kind of have the mantra we don't ever want to turn someone away from a recreation program or a learn to swim program. These are essential things that kids need. Um so we definitely send them our way. Stephen Bindan in our office manages that program. Um we also have a lot of projects going on right now in the city. If you've driven by Paige Park, that is in full construction right now. Uh slated to be completed by the fall of 2025. That's going to include four new uh pickle ball courts, lighted
036pickle ball courts. It'll be the city's second uh courts followed uh Seymour Park was our first one. So that is uh forthcoming. Uh we also have some ADA sidewalk improvement projects coming on the boulevard. Uh that's going to be starting in midappril. So, we're trying to make the boulevard more accessible uh to our community members and kids to really be able to come out, see the monuments, and and be a part of that learning as well. Uh other project we have that's about to start in midappril, uh we're installing a trail walking system where the former soccer field is at Rockwell Park. We have four new pair of fitness equipment stations. These are free outdoor uh fitness stations for folks to use. There's going to be a walking trail that's going to connect the four
037of them. So in theory you can kind of come do some laps and then um work out at the different stations. So that's a upcoming project as well. Dr. Bravo mentioned too we have a couple award programs that we're facilitating right now. Uh the one he mentioned is our youth award um and prevention award program. This is the 33rd year that we've run this program. Um so we are accepting nominations for anyone within the community, kids that have done uh volunteer work. Um, everything's on there. If you know of a kid that you really want to feature and recognize, please nominate them. That is closing pretty soon. Uh, March 28th, which is literally in two days. So, get those nominations in last minute. It does go to the arts um, youth commission in April for
038their to vote on. And then we celebrate that on May 7th at 6 PM at Muzzy Field. So, great event. We'd love to see you all there, especially if you've nominated youth. Uh it's an amazing program. It keeps growing each and every year. We have hundreds of families that come to that and um it's really a great event. I have flyers. I don't know if you want me to leave them with you at all for your office and everything's available on our website. We're trying to be more paperless. I don't think it's >> uh we also employ hundreds of youth every summer. Uh we are in active recruitment road u mode right now for our lifeguards, summer labor roles, and some are camp counselors. So we hire as early as 15 and then you know
039through adulthood. So those opportunities are here. We're also hiring ropes course facilitators. So these are really nice jobs. The ropes course facilitators are paid $35 an hour. It's really hard to get these people to come out and do this work. Um so we'd love to you know teachers that are looking for summer jobs or something to do does require certification. we can help put you through that uh to get you trained to do how to uh delay climate towers and all that stuff. So, a lot of great opportunities there. We are a large employer certainly with part-time seasonal folks coming up as well. It may already be on your calendar, but the city is doing its annual community cleanup day. That's going to be on Saturday, April 26. That's sponsored by the mayor's office uh
040public works and parks and collaboration. Um, and that will be uh from 9 to noon on that day. So again, great opportunity if you work with any scouts or school groups that want to come out with their class and do anything. That's another great opportunity. We also have our annual fiction that's happening on that same day. That's going to be the 74th year of that program. It's running strong. It's usually at Page Park, but as I mentioned, we are under construction. Uh, so this year we're switching it to Rockwell Park. So great, another free opportunity for families to get out, be outdoors, and and fish. There's lots of free prizes and a lot of great stuff there. It's a really popular event. >> Um, as we mentioned, another great partnership we have with the board
041of ed is, everyone's aware, tied to the theater. We run a really expansive downtown Live, which is a special revenue funded program. So, we're covering our costs uh through that program um and offering a great arts and culture lineup for the city. So everything's available on our website. You can go to virtre.com. There's links to downtown Live, which has its own separate website. Uh but that's all here. We have a lot of shows coming up, including Charlotte's Web. And then everything from comedians, uh string queen, jazz group. So we're really trying to diversify the offerings and kind of have something for everyone to get out downtown, come see the show, and then kind of go out to the restaurants is really what we're trying to see happen. Um, we've got a lot of good feedback
042from downtown restaurants that their sales go up every time we do the show. So, we're really excited about what means for downtown development, trying to get more businesses to restore them. Uh, last thing I'll end on too, um, as I mentioned with Paige Park, we do have now a park project website. So, if you ever have questions on what's happening in the parks or when you drive by and you see construction or or people ask you, hey, what's going on here? If you go to bristore.com, right on our home pages of our project portal, it brings you to every active project, past projects that were completed, things that are coming up. We have all the documents. So, design, development, um, bidding documents, anything you really need to know about the project and probably things you
043don't even need to know are up on that website. So, we're trying to be really transparent and, uh, have information readily available to residents. So, we have a lot of great projects um happening and and so I'll pause there. I'm happy to answer any questions or talk about any other partnerships that we have going on. >> Well, first I I dare someone to say that we do not have the best I mean the best um parks and recent youth and community service. I dare someone to tell us that ours isn't the best. I mean >> that is just fantastic. I I definitely learned a lot as we always do when we have our community partners come in and and share out the work that's happening. And um I I also wanted to highlight when in
044your your bio here that you are certified parks and repres reps recreation executive and the recipient of the Connecticut Recreation and Parks Association Outstanding Professional Award for 2022. >> I mean there are some impressive things. I feel like you really have transformed what is happening in the community and it's made me a lot more aware. So, thank you so much. I felt like I wanted to >> Thanks. I appreciate that. One of the things we're really proud of is so the city of Bristol Parks, Recreation, Youth, and Community Services Department uh is a national gold medal finalist. We've got that distinction for the last three years. Uh no one in Connecticut has received that distinction before and I don't think anyone even in New England at least in the last 50 years. Um, basically what
045it means is it puts our department as a top four agency in the entire United States for communities of our size. Um, I think it's 60 to 75,000 is the range. So, uh, really proud to be kind of in that line. I think it is a credit, great staff team, a lot of hardworking, passionate people in the community. Barely scratched the surface of what we have going on, but encourage you to go to bristolrec.com, all of our services. There's hundreds of things that are out there. >> Wow. Thank you. >> Love to open it up to commissioners who may have comments or questions or feedback. >> Not really. I mean, I know all that Bristol has to offer is one of the things that when I came here in 2000 that I really liked. There's
046our parks. There's so much for families to do in town. We really, when my kids were younger, always went to the music at the park on Tuesday nights. That was something that we enjoyed to get the wiggles off before bedtime. Uh yeah, there's a lot of great things that happen in Bristol. So, thank you for coming and appreciate >> sharing that. Of course, we have camp sign up starting soon. >> That's a big one. >> Everything's coming up in April. So, our summer swim lessons, summer camps, these fill up. Swim lessons fill up almost overnight. Um and our camps fill up really quick, too. And we are doing the free summer concerts again at Rockwell Park. So, really encourage you go to the website. There's just tons to offer families. And like I said, the
047schools have been great about helping us kind of get that information out and um making things available. So, we're excited about the partnerships and looking forward to continue to do great things for the city. >> Thank you so much for highlighting all of the different pieces that um are within our community. And it made me honestly think like just I I learned about a lot tonight and it made me think about the importance of creating those opportunities for people to learn, ask questions and hear about all the new things. Um because there's so much that has to offer and I was kind of blown away. I'm was looking at the the downtown live. I had no idea about downtown Live and I just think that's so cool that we're talking about it so people can
048learn about it. >> It's great. and even thinking about how we can um be really intentional with getting information out to our families and how we make it part of our like persistent practice. what what can we do to make because your success is our success, our success is your success and we it's really sort of like this reciprocal um relationship and if our families can have access to all of these, you know, especially the free activities, if you don't have something to do on a certain day, there's a free activity. I think that really speaks to me. So I'm sure that other app we really service from birth all the way to death in terms of our services. We run a parent and child program. So we actually uh offer services on you know
049parenting 101 to folks that are at risk or need some of that support. Um >> so a parent child center or >> the former parent child center. >> That's what Okay. So that's those programs. We still do the caring closet. So if people need diapers and things like that formula, they can get connected to Aubrey Minker who's our community services coordinator. So we're providing all that. We provide school age activities. We like to kind of think, you know, once the kids get out of school, what are they doing? And we try to kind of fill that gap. Um as well as many activities for adults, families on the weekends and nights. So there's really a lot going on. I don't think there's much we don't offer for the city. Um we're proud of. So and
050there's a lot of great facilities. a lot of people don't even know all the different parks that are there and encourage you to go to the website. >> That's something else I learned about. I didn't know we had that climbing power and so it just it it creates all those opportunities for connection within our community and that's so important. >> Yeah, it's a great part. We're really getting it back off the ground. We are offering um a climbing camp. So on April break we have that camp. It's actually filled so don't promote that. >> That's maxed out but it's a good thing. So we have 20 participants. It's also helped subsidized by our drug free community program. So the kids get a little of that education about prevention and they get to work on team
051building communication skills while being out in the woods. And High Lake is just a phenomenal site. We are going to be offering a second one I think in June. So keep an eye out for that one. That has not gone live yet, but we're really trying to re-engage that site. It's a phenomenal hidden gem, I think, at Bristol. And for so long it's been shut down because there's remediation work, COVID, we couldn't do anything. Um, now it's really kind of relaunching. We haven't been as kind of letting everyone know because we were still building a staff. As we mentioned, when CO happened, a lot of these facilitators across the state had to get different jobs and now everyone is struggling, winding trails, etc. to kind of build up that staff again. So, we'd love to
052have teachers open for summer jobs or commissioners that want to get involved. Oh, the pay is the pay is >> really I think generous. It's it it's competitive. It's competitive >> and it's really one of these it's a rule where you know it's not a full-time job obviously, right? It's it's sporadic based on bookings and and things that are happening. So, you work a full-time job or a part-time job and just one little thing here or there just to get outside and work with kids. It's a really cool opportunity. >> It's amazing. My husband does that. >> Yeah, I was gonna say >> winding trails too. He he loves to suspend himself from I'm not going to do that but he enjoys it >> but um and he's had really amazing feedback great things about
053um his experience. Oh, good. >> Drive-thru. >> We are looking to develop group. So, it's not all about kids. We are kind of >> program or even, you know, uh, you know, staff wanting to come out for a retreat and get team building skills or work on how to communicate, reach out to ESPN, different companies that may need, you know, some of that work. Um, >> boards of bed, >> boards of med exercises, stuff. >> Yeah. I mean, we're really trying. It's not just about the kids, right? A lot can happen at that site. I know years ago when I was the aquatic supervisor, I brought my leadership team out there to base the train, too. So, it's it's a really cool uh opportunity. >> Yeah, you guys monitor those cameras because I always wave
054hi when I'm in there or like outdoor trail. We just look at things like vandalism, but >> we'll go we'll go check the candy can be like >> amazing. I really truly I'm just really impressed. um even more than impressed that I was before because there's so much more that I didn't know you were doing and offering the community. Chair Ponds, I know this I would consider you like a >> an expert in in grants. is are there opportunities to sort of partner with parks and recrecks and youth and community services as a CBO and consider how we can give children opportunity and exposure to some of the things they may not have had opportunities for outside of this? >> Yeah. So, we've had some of these conversations. There are opportunities. I uh the state
055after school grant right now is being discussed by the state legislature. Uh I anticipate that it will become available with as soon as the session is over. Uh that is um after school funding available to community based organizations and school districts that work together. And so I think there's definitely an opportunity to uh you know apply for that and I'd be happy to talk to anyone about you know kind of getting that together different options and um provide the application when it when it goes online. >> Great. We're always looking for new funding sources and opportunities to to do that. I will say in terms of community partnership when co happened um our staff provided child care for the schools when um I think we were in some kind of a only in a couple
056days a week and and out a couple days a week we kind of filled the gaps when the kids were not in school we were providing child care so we're always looking for ways to be best annuals and I think that was a really cool it feels like 50 years ago at this point but it it still you know >> lots of partnerships through money in the summer with kons >> and I think you host Oh, you're doing the Do you still do the enrollment for the Bame summer theater camp? >> We're not anymore. >> Okay. It kind of they took it over, but I know that you filled it up a couple years in a row for them. >> Yeah, we've actually found our website. It's the number one uh tracked website in the
057city when they did a survey a couple years back. Like it was the most traffic site, which we were proud of. Yeah, >> that's where a lot of folks go to get their information. >> That's great. >> Thank you. Thank you again. Let's continue the conversations um and keep the communication open so that you know we can be sharing the great things that are happening because it definitely impacts not just students but families over the summer when school's in session vacations obviously we missed we missed the April ropes but you know it's it's amazing that this stuff is um available to our community so thank you so much >> I will say it's a year round we do year- round programming I think a lot of People just think it's a summer kind of thing,
058but we do offer year-round recreation, adult, youth, senior activities. Everything from pickle ball to sports fun to swim lessons and water exercise classes. Um, uh, therapy in the pool, pretty much everything. >> Thank you so much. Great. >> Any any other questions or concerns on commissioners? Thank you so much for coming down. Appreciate you guys. Appreciate it. Go ahead. >> Take care. Good night. So now we have um our staff and student recognition agenda item and you know we've been having some conversations about how to you know celebrate in a very um consistent way like in a very regular way um the contributions of staff and student recognition of staff and students and I wanted to just kind of open up conversation um This also connects to conversations about how we can um hear directly
059from our schools and leaders um student representatives, but also our school administrators um at our board meetings and really celebrate staff. I know we have um intermittent like celebrations and it's it's like a tease. It's like a peek at the great things that are happening, but there are students and staff that may not be typically engaged but are great stewards of the work of Bristol public schools. So, an idea was um if we had on like a monthly or rotating basis and schools would possibly know about this beforehand like Bristol Central would have August and Bristol Eastern would be November. You might have to have two schools represented in one month, but there would be um a a school uh a student, a a non-certified staff member, a certified staff member um all selected by
060but maybe an administrative team who would be the and you know we could come up with like a Bristol bright light some someiteration you know we have a B in our So, Bristol, I don't know, Bright Light was the only thing that came to my mind, but and and that it would be on our website and it could be, you know, we could find a place publicly for in the B in the in the building for students and for the people who were selected to be highlighted in a picture. And I don't know just this idea of how can we hear more from you know the hardworking administrators in the front line and they're celebrating staff members who are doing the great work who are doing the um frontline uh representing our vision of the
061graduate or I don't know engaged in a project whatever it is. So there was just that thought and I wanted to know um if that resonated with anybody and and it also kind of ties into the liaison like what is the intention of the liaison? How can we frame that work in a way that because many boards of ed don't have that on the agenda they don't have the liaison report on the agenda um which is something that I learned I didn't know that um it but how do we engage with our community our school community in a way that we can celebrate these accomplishments but it's something that every school has an opportunity to do, but it's also sort of like the anticipated so it's not a surprise and every every administrator gets an
062opportunity or every school gets an opportunity to celebrate sort of evenly and equally >> through the chair of course. So, I like the idea of the opportunity to highlight different things that are positive and impactful that maybe, you know, we would learn and want to support in some way or share. You know, I I think those types of opportunities are great. I know I've been one of the um board members who has kind of said we need to look at the liaison thing a little differently um because it's like reading something that somebody wrote that we could read on our own time board meetings are really for the work of the board. And while I love in committee meetings that we get to celebrate or learn about different activities, um I think sometimes at the
063end of a hard agenda when we just start reading the other, you know, just things that people wrote, it's kind of not relevant for that time, right? like it's we're doing work uh making hard decisions talking about really difficult topics at times and then at the end when we all are like okay that was two hours and I can't handle one more minute we're like and by the way and we just start reading right and so how do we build a space that recognizes um each building or what the administrator would like the board to know uh highlight you know there's different ways that we could imagine that right like there's just not one way we can do it and I don't know if it's worth kind of engaging with the administrators to find out
064how they would best like to have this experience go because I don't know that we are the best people to decide that but just kind of understanding that we really want to learn more about what's going on in the buildings and especially all the good stuff uh and especially stuff. I think the whole intention initially of liaison was to have a board member that could build some sort of relationship with a school and then that school could then inform that board member about something that you know maybe they needed support with or you know so it kind of evolved more into like a newsletter or like a advertisement of like what what they say on the morning announcements or what they send home you know to just kind of highlight like some great things that
065happened that month, but I think it could be more meaningful in really demonstrating something that needs support or grant funding or um I a policy or you know something where our work could impact the school in a positive way and where they and and I don't know that it needs to be one board member per school. I think it kind of is good to have the whole board learn about these things too. So I don't have the answer but I don't know administrators might idea about um getting feedback from administrators and and leadership from the school and see to to really learn what they feel would be really purposeful and meaningful and uh what they like what they could see as you you know, how how the board can be helpful essentially >> in the
066work that they're doing or you know sharing positive messages >> and would it be better in school committee partnerships than it would be in the full board meeting like Maria really wants an audience to come to this we can make it popular but no I mean I was even thinking like if you did you know different types of opportunities for even students to perform or show us something that they worked on or you know and I don't know I like I would want the administrators to kind of tell us I don't know Ryan I know looking for some help yeah I think there's a variety of things already happening um depending on the context so districtwide we are in the middle of staff achievement award season uh putting forth nominees for a recognition that happens
067in May, but really it's a fantastic night and you know a lot of really valuable people to the district do get nominated and awarded that night. Um different schools have different types of recognition activities both for staff and students. Um some schools I can say at Bristol Central we've been in in a conversation with our school climate team. Really one teacher spearheaded this this year. Monday is going to be our first day of rolling it out to staff where staff members can be nominated by students or staff. Um and then we'll recognize we right now we're going to do one a week. Some schools I know Shipments does one a month at the corner of the month that comes with you know swag and maybe a parking space or whatever it may be. Um you
068know we waited for our swag order to come in because we want to make sure we take care of people with you know cool logo things. So and I I can't speak for any other building. I do believe that's happening elsewhere. So, how do we work within >> that context here, right? Because I think it's happening to a variety of levels. Um, but to then codify it in a way where it comes in front of the board to really recognize these people more than a free pencil in the parking spot, you know. Um, might be nice. I know the staff achievement awards families just are so happy to to see their family members part of that, administrators, teachers be part of that. That's the dinner. Yes, >> that's the dinner. Um, and it's it's wonderful
069every year. It's that tends to be about six employees of the district though it's wonderful. There's way more than six people every year deserving as we know. And so what are some other ways we can bring that recognition that you know isn't salmon and steak because that's expensive, you know, and do the way in which we can really just people do it for the intrinsic recognition. They just want to feel good about the work they're doing and feel like they're making a difference. And we have so many people who are doing unbelievable things around this community right now. So I think it's worth further discussion, you know, to let the the board decide, you know, in conjunction with um the central office team as well as building level administrators, what might that look like going
070into next year and how do we do it in a way that's uh more streamlined, but it is it's happening already and people we do it with kids as well. Um we have, you know, our student shoutouts, same thing. Wheel of names every Friday comes around. Somebody wins they come down and it's all it's amazing how an 18-year-old gets so excited over, you know, a free whatever. It's it's pretty cool. >> Yeah. I I think this is affirmation that there are so many great things happening that we want to know about and that's >> I if we can create a pathway for people to be recognized um and the more opportunities we have to celebrate the great work of our staff and students and um there are models some models out there that we might
071be able to look at. Um, I know Hamen has something called Hamen Heroes. Kind of a similar premise. I think they they rotate, you know, by the schools and the schools might have their own internal structures. Um, but there's a a student, there's a certified staff person, a non-certified staff person. So, we're allowing sort of opportunity for all the people who are contributing. We're like beacons of those core values, the district's core values. Um, but yeah, I definitely think this is just getting it the thought out there and seeing if it resonates and ways that we could take what's happening in the school and make sure that we have sort of opportunities for all the schools to shine and see how we can I don't know move with it. >> Any thoughts? No, I mean
072the only thing that I can I know um with my kids at Green Hills, they do student of the month, student Friday phone calls. Um there's there's a lot of recognition and I know each school has their own um way of doing it. And I mean, we really have a lot of great teachers and obviously they all can't get teacher of the year every year. If we could, that'd be great. But um I guess my my only other thing would be with um the liaison like it is kind of a tricky area and um what I don't want to see happening is where board of ed members are overstepping our roles into you know being like the superintendent in charge of the staff principles in charge of staff and making sure that while we navigate
073any changes in liaison but it is within our lane. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And maybe it's time to sort of look at our bylaw language or look at if there's a framing or reframing um you know what what what are the outcomes? What do we hope the liaison connection creates and um making sure it's within our our roles. Yeah, absolutely. And this is a time to get some feedback about it too. See see what it was the what was the intention and maybe how did it develop into something that it's not aligned with the intention anymore maybe or you know >> and aligned right highlight the good things that are because usually they are right this month that >> whichever school um this is what the chap the kids did this is what we did
074this is um the great things that happened right it's not maybe it was the original intention But I think we can get some feedback on them. Yeah. >> Yeah. I I I think I we can even, you know, reach out to Cade and see that there are experiences that are similar or different or um any other sort of bylaw language that speaks to the roles of liaison. And um yeah, I mean maybe we could also look at our roles and guidelines and and what is stuff overstepping what isn't or what kind of support um some of the feedback I got was it's was designed in some districts to filter like concerns or how can we support initiatives in the school or how can you know is something happening that you know you want us to
075know about but there's also a comfortability there that not everybody has that if it's really about what are some concerns and things that we can help support you with? I don't know that if everybody's comfortable with sort of sharing that with commissioners or if there's been an established practice that allows that. So, it's definitely a good idea to look at it and make sure that we're meant to be um overstepping trying to stay in you know >> through the check. I think for me when you say what what outcome are you looking for? Like for me the outcome would be understanding great things that are happening but that aren't what is put out in the newsletter every time, right? So that getting a little bit more information. So like what Mr. Broadick said around, you
076know, they have all of these recognition things happening at the schools monthly. Maybe it's an opportunity to highlight some of that or um if there is a school that is writing a grant or doing something as a project like explaining it to us uh you know this is what we'd really like to see come out of this or we're really you know a group of kids that you know are going to go to another country and then come back and you know share it and and advocate for something to happen you know I don't know I think an actionable kind of sharing more than just a report out, right? Like where we can be supportive in some way. I don't think it's a place to come and complain about something, you know, that's not what
077we've I that wasn't my envision, you know, of it. It's more of um we want to engage the board, show them this this these good things so that when this comes across our purview, you know, we have some information to support different things that we can see what's going on that's successful or that is, you know, a goal of a school. You know, that was kind of what I was thinking. I might be in the minority that I don't find it beneficial the way that it is right now. And if everyone likes it the way it is right now, then we can keep it the way it is. But I'm just I thought it could be more. >> Yeah, maybe it's a good opportunity. Um I'd be happy to reach out to board commissioners too,
078just to see, you know, get some feedback, just open feedback. And you know maybe we could also start talking to our school administrators to see know if there's um an approach to liaison that would you know be the best approach. Yeah. helpful or um could start there and just >> and then if people wanted to continue doing it the way it was maybe SFCP is a good place to put it on the agenda every month at the end of the meeting have board commissioners who want to report out the way that we have been is it's more about that than it is about the work that we're doing when we're at a board meeting. Yeah, definitely can explore um multiple options and even seeing you know if we do something at the board meeting with
079the staff recognition and staff celebrations maybe there's a way to you know move liaison in with that in in some way as well you know in that sort of celebratory being an active participant of that process somehow um it doesn't hurt to start exploring any other um discussion on this. Okay. Well, that does it for our agenda items tonight. Um so, if there's nothing else before the committee, um I'd like to ask for a motion to adjourn. So, second. >> Okay. Good night everyone. Thank you so much.