001necessarily Go full screen that's what you you need to have the oh it all switched over it all switched around again you got to share it oh it all changed again it always does this is what happens every time you come on to these machines they just go off a COA on you and you just have to deal with it all right cool we can fix this really quick well it is one two I know work I worked for better brands for 12 years did you really and my bosses taught me every yish word there is every Yiddish word on the face of the planet right there we go some of them I will not repeat it is because it sounds it's messed up it sounds messed up so it's yeah exactly I love it
002love it gonna zoom in zoom in will she be able to of course absolutely' be able to be heard and screen because I'm gonna go over there and run it so I don't have to be out here so the way we've organized it I'm going to start just introductions Aaron is going to then come up I assume this is where we're going to come to and then uh he'll do his section and then as soon as he just say introduce her and I'll put her up on the screen yeah so just wanted to share with you the flow that we thanks shared and just wanted to make sure that we could get we we have we had plan a and plan B so plan I'd like to call 2025 for support of Education board meeting
003to order kindly stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please Jo silence ass education 8382 to also at65 to 1866 Citywide model3 [Music] 19696 as reming to those online he you have alled a copy of the in your packet are there P Corrections or extensions to approve February okay so this was let me a correction specification this was for the budget Workshop My apologies um so I want to be sure would you still like to make that motion okay very good yes yes please also and okay so there's a motion on the floor and it hased that there were sta members were not included on the [Music] okay so the that weting are so we have a motion on the floor that is exective um to approve the minutes with the amended uh language to include
004um Miss foron Dr hin and Amy Martino so all all in favor I any opposed and at this time can can we see what Commissioners we have online just to be sure that we're getting um votes from those online chair Pond are you online yes yes can you hear me at this time I know that chair Pond was is going to be signing online but if we don't have her online and can we check to please see if uh commissioner signment baula is online she she's going to be absent tonight okay and I and um I did receive word on on on my way here that commissioner T was also not going to be um present so okay so it sounds like we have a motion that is passed any anything further okay can you
005hear me oh now we can hear you oh okay I did vote Yes okay thank you for that clarification that we're working through a few Kinks here thanks for everyone's patience okay so that motion passes um February 5th 2025 regular meeting minutes do your ball receive the copy of the minut in your packet are there any corrections and exensions hearing none can I have a motion to approve the February 5th 2025 regular meeting minutes as written all in favor okay motion passes very good e yeah I think we'll move on okay so now we have the February 4th 2025 special meeting minutes you will all receive a copy of the minutes in your packet are there any corrections or extensions the February 26 26 26 uh through the share I'll have to obain from this
006one thank you we have one exstension anything further Corrections or exensions okay can I have a motion to approve the February 26 2025 special meeting minutes as written second second all in favor by thank you chair Pon any opposed okay motion passes now we'll move on to the committee report Finance and operations um just one item of note is going to show up in um in deliberated items we're 're going to be doing some lighting efficiency upgrades in our schools these items will come up at another later time contracts and whatnot we're working our way through with the city thank you School family Community Partnerships School family Community Partnerships held its meeting on Wednesday February 26th um as we started the meeting with activating well-being we had a fun exercise of um sharing some humorous
007appropriate uh jokes just to lighten the mood and um then principal Higgins CH chose a number and the winner of the prize was Michelle cley so that was fun then we discussed um the the school Community partnership's goal and action plan report updates that was presented by Dr broadrick um we learned a lot about what was happening throughout the district and the district's continued um investment in establishing and um celebrating School family Community Partnerships we discussed student representatives and ways to engage student representatives in a more active um manner we looked at um what was happening in with some leaders in this work nationally we looked at whether or not we were prepared as a district to have student Representatives sit at the table um at the board at the board table in in committee
008work etc um we're not there yet but we did discuss um our Readiness um we had Community Partnerships report where we had Sandra Goen from our Family Resource Center present on the amazing work that they're doing throughout the district and in our communities and we also discuss uh the role of board Liaisons and looking at the way we interact with um our assigned schools or our um assignments and how we may be able to explore um bringing bringing changes to the work and so that it best serves um the needs of the district let's see what's next student achievement yeah that is um commissioner fit Simon's bu's I'm going to I'll move that one and I'll go to policy um in briefly and then we'll go back to that one um after school safety if
009that's okay so I can pull that agenda up but for for policy um we looked at um P model policy for student representatives and again just for exploration purposes to see where we are as a district and if we're equipped to bring this work um to Bristol and in addition what we're already doing uh we looked at um policy for um going this we looked for the policy on um the wand and um some search and seizure policies and um we're going to be doing some more work on that moving forward school safety that was actually ah please that was actually um just to piggyback off of that we also met um with a special meeting with um school safety and policy and we're speaking on those two policies um regarding the handheld bands and
010we're still in the mix of working those out thank you very much and our next um school safety meeting is in May thank you very much I am going to pull up just briefly the um the school the student achievement minutes because uh commissioner Simon VA is not here today but please any other Commissioners who want to share on that while I look please do um because I want to be concise so I don't want to try to go from my we go from my memory okay have it here um Carly for in did present on um some data points some of the information that we looked at were Next Generation accountability performance indicators um we looked at the is it nce or or Nish n nice nice nice even though it's spelled n in
011my defense um H student English immersion programs and um the potential to bring that uh program here to to to Bristol in our high schools or was it Bristol Eastern was being explored first and that's like a student exchange immersion having students from Spain come in and experience life at Bristol Eastern um also looked at the K to5 social studies um that was azra's presentation and journalism was presented by um Mr Ward and then we had pre-calculus presented by m lansa okay moving on now to our student representative reports please who do we have online um good evening board members my name is Abigail Wasa I'm from bristell Central and tonight I will be reporting on bchs for the month of February despite the short month a lot was going on here at BC first
012I'd like to begin with the meeting we had discussing the role of student Representatives I believe it's important to continue discussion on how we can adjust our role to make student Representatives more effective and beneficial to both students and board members in other news we're so excited for all of our seniors that have been accepted into college as many decisions have come out we have students accepted into colleges all over the country such as Yukon Alabama Villanova and Harvard just to name a few we are excited for the rest of the decisions to come out in the following weeks in World Language news we had 11 Italian students participate in the weekly virtual Exchange program through American Association of teachers of Italy in the itang world program starting in October students met every Sunday to
013practice their world language skills the program was such a success that 85% of students that participated in the first session are participating again in the February through April session today we are excited to celebrate all of the Juniors who were inducted into the National Honor Society at our annual NHS tapping breakfast these students have worked so hard and I would like to congratulate all of them for their accomplishments lastly our winter sports have come to a close and with progress reports closing we are excited and looking forward to the spring season here at bchs I look forward to updating you on all future events thank you thank you very much and now we have pton TR from Bristal Eastern uh hello and good evening everyone so this March report will consist of the sporting events
014and different activities as well as updates on academics and extracurriculars at bristle Eastern High School so the winter sports season is actually coming to an end and our Lancer athletes have made us nothing but proud lots of students and teachers have shown up to support our athletes and our basketball team took a tough loss uh this in the first round of the state tournament at uh home against simsberry but as a senior and the boys basketball team manager I loved watching the boys uh compete throughout the state they showed their love of basketball through wins and through losses and it was just so inspiring and I love to see the enthusiasm that came from that um the girls team has also been doing a really fantastic job this past Saturday they won the first round
015of the state tournament versus Guilford and to keep up with sports this season you can look at Eastern social media Pages Eastern's website and bs. girlsbasketball on Instagram to keep up with their tournament Journey uh this last month Bristol Eastern has had lots of activities for both students and teachers to be a part of today there was a student teacher of volleyball tournament in support of bristl Eastern DEA and science National Honor Society program the Bristol Eastern color guard has created a recycling Drive of sneakers as well and the Jazz and coral groups are having their annual Coffee House Performance so us Lancers are being very active within our school community and are continuing to make efforts to make our school comfortable and safe place for all people as part of that uh for last
016month for Black History Month students and teachers had the chance to also go to the library to have a readin with black poets and writers um as spring is approaching seniors have the chance to visit colleges of their choice like Sacred Heart Yukon and even Springfield College through the school these visits are either in person or representative from that school will come in and talk to the students in Guidance the school has offered a great for students to receive scholarships through the Main Street Community Foundation program thanks to my education uh through Bristol Public Schools I'm very happy to say that just a couple days ago I committed to the University of Alabama on a full tuition scholarship where I plan to obtain a degree in broadcast journalism with the concentration in sports reporting and
017without the amazing guidance of my favorite teachers such as Mr rowski miss noera and miss Mariano I wouldn't be where I am today along with the support from our administrators Mr Higgins Miss frano and Mr redond so as the school year continues the Lancers have been doing a really great job on getting adjusted uh to the new schedules every Wednesday for 30 minutes we have blue crew which allows us home rooms to get to know each other more and more as the days go on um the Lancer students and staff have been working diligently this semester and we look forward to continuing the hard work as the student representative I know know it is my job to be the voice for other students I'm grateful to the board uh who gave me and Abby the
018chance to speak with them this past month uh thank you for trusting us and allowing us this job and allowing students to bloom and I can't wait to see uh where this job goes so this concludes my March report for brist Eastern High School well that's wonderful congratulations Payton thank you Obama wonderful um and thank you to both Abigail and pton for those um really wonderful highlights of that some of the amazing work that we know is happening um in Bristol Public Schools much appreciated now we'll move on to the chair report chair Pond do you have a chair report to share I do thank you ah tough act to follow with uh Payton and her scholarship to become a broadcaster I I don't know that I can live up to that that's amazing congratulations
019Payton um you're welcome my report tonight um is uh about the budget um yesterday superintendent white Deputy superintendent Hawk and I met with Dave Makowski the chair of the board of Finance along with Maria O'Brien who is our Board of f Finance liaison for the Board of Ed she organized the meeting and I would like to thank her for that uh Diane Waldren the comproller for the city and Lynn B boser the chief chief of Finance for Bristol Public Schools and Jody Bond the accounting supervisor for Bristol Public Schools to discuss the city's current fiscal challenges due to the lack of grand lless growth and how that will impact the current fiscal challenges for approving the Board of Education fiscal year 2026 budget that will be voted on at the upcoming Board of Finance meeting
020on March 19th 2025 during our conversation chair Makowski expressed optimism that the board of Finance would consider approving a 6.6 million increase for special education which is the forecasted amount based on the current figures to prevent a deficit in special education for next year we also anticipate receiving $1.2 million of an increase in Alliance funding which would result in a total increase of 7.8 million compared to the approved budget for the 20242 fiscal year prior to the adjustments for the minimum budget requirement the minimum budget requirement is the minimum amount that the board of Finance can provide to the board of ed assuring that the budget amount can never be lower than the previous year in September of this year this previous year the Connecticut State Department of Education sent a notification to Bristol Public
021schools of non-compliance which required the city to provide an additional 1,372 1811 to meet this requirement the insurance benefits for Bristol Public Schools Employees are projected to increase to$ 24,28 one, which represents a $3.9 million increase for the fiscal year of 2026 in addition there will be approximately a 3.9% salary increase from the four Union contracts ratified this year consequently even if the city agrees to provide funding to cover the cost of the increase for benefits in addition to the 6.6 million that has been forecasted to support special education bringing the total increase to 10.6 million we will still need to reduce approximately 6 million from the projected amount needed to support the current Staffing infrastructure reducing the fiscal year 2026 budget is the first step in the process the SE the second step is
022looking at ways to reduce spending this year to prevent a further deficit the board of Finance has requested that we outline several scenarios illustrating the impact of different budget cuts for example we will need to outline the impact of a $5 million reduction versus a $6 million reduction chair Makowski provided some general eneral examples on how the board should reduce their fiscal year 26 request acknowledging that the final decisions are the board of educations to make he suggested looking at the expenses that are nice to do but not required by law the board will be able to lower the budget I'm sorry the board will not be able to lower the budget to a level that the board of finance will approve without making some very difficult choices this is certainly a challenging situation that
023none of us would choose to be in however it presents a valuable opportunity for the board to work together to realize the factors contributing to the deficit that were beyond our control such as rising special education costs an increase in the number of identified special education students reduced cost sharing reimbursements and stagnant funding from the city additionally we can focus on areas where we can enhance policies and procedures to strengthen the board's ability to oversee the expenses that impact the budget this will ensure that the board's ability to oversee the budget has full transparency to maintain our legal authority over new positions changes to job descriptions and full transparency of the impact of each decision that is brought to us and and how that impacts the budget by examining the impact of pre previous financial
024decisions that did not include the board we will be able to effectively identify the qualities we seek in a permanent superintendent as we develop a goal profile to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the existing budget deficit and the projected 16,41 14,870 th000 million doll gap for the for the upcoming year necessary to sustain the current infrastructure CLA will be providing an interview an overview of the audit that they conducted on Bristol Public Schools finances over the past three fiscal years years tonight this information is intended to delineate the identified issues to better understand the factors contributing to the increasing deficit and to explore potential Solutions I want to thank them for their very comprehensive audit and report that will serve as a road map for the board as we navigate through this process every
025decision we make will be centered around what is in the best interest of the 7,800 students that we have been elected to serve thank you that concludes my report thank you chair Pond next we'll move on to superintendent report superintendent white thank you very much CH good evening everyone um as chair P stated we have um Auditors from CLA who are here to present on their audit findings and recommendations just to provide a short brief background last fall the City Board of Finance contracted with Clifton Larson and Allan CLA to provide a review of Bristol Public Schools Financial processes their assessment was focused on the administrating oversight management controls and financial processes for Bristol Public Schools with an additional accounting analysis and review of budget data for fiscal years 2022 2023 and 2023 2024 this
026audit provided valuable information to improve our systems and structures and we want to thank them for their work and for presenting their findings and recommendations to us tonight I would now like to introduce Mr Jeff zlo from CLA who will start the presentation good evening sorry good evening everyone can youall hear me this is good mic it's there we go thank you um good evening everyone um thank you um very much for giving us the opportunity to to spend a few minutes with you tonight to give you an overview of um the financial assessment that we performed um as the superintendent had mentioned um we've spent the last few months if you will coming in and taking a look at the financial operations um of the school district um essentially you know we reviewed the
027processes and controls um and and how budgets are created um what the spending practices are evaluated related policies and procedures reviewed um and took a look at the budget overages for uh 2023 2024 um also spent a good amount of time taking a look at the whole special ed uh area from a financial and and budget process and then in the report that I believe all of you have we provided um an overview findings and recommendations so um the folks that I worked with um and and just by way of background Jeff Zell one of the principles at CLA in our business risk Services Group um the folks that worked with me on this project include uh Aaron Perillo who's here tonight uh Lindsay and shur could not be here but you will be um
028she's joined us through zoom and we'll be um providing a presentation on a couple of uh the slides in our slide deck so I'm going to turn it over to Aaron uh who will then turn it over to Lindsay and then we'll take any questions that you might have after [Music] okay evening everybody start with the financial analys if you want to go for another slide or two so as just mentioned my name is Aaron I work at CLA with Lindsey and the business res Services Department um we were come in kind of look at the expenses of we want to give you just kind of a high level overview of some of the items that we found within the budget what was going on within there and kind of the impact that was having
029um as it was mentioned we looked at the last three fiscal years Faline 22 23 and 24 um what you'll see up on the screen on the slides here is those last few years and what was budgeted ver what actual kind of growth was so you can see that your budget's been going up 2 to 3% each year the special education expenses have been growing by double to Triple that in each year so over the last two years they've grown by 20% um in addition to that just the the cost of tuitional loan is growing at a much higher rate and we'll talk a little bit more about that on next slides so what we wanted to kind of point out here is we took a list or took a look at some of the
030higher cost structures of the special accounts these are the six accounts that had kind of high varience between budget the actual [Music] amounts um so in here you can see what we're talking about in the first line Professional Services other can't read my Pap theam my Sayes as we go through here each year it's been sparely under budgeted from what the actual work uh and just even going forward in the 2425 budget the amount budgeted still less than what was spent in fiscal year 2122 um so compar that you kind of brought up the budget costs are known and Bud may be budgeted a little bit better in future years um really kind want to that any other are you able to get to join there's someone else that you need online yes I'm here
031can you hear me perfect okay so go ahead Lan to the next slide should say reasons for B budget overages perfect um so in summary the the primary reasons for the budget overages in the years that we assessed the first would be the inadequate budgeting right and that's kind of what Aaron just showed you on the previous screen with the two uh visuals right so for special education initial budget requests were lower than actual expenditures in previous years and that leads to an immediate budget shortfall so if you look at the fiscal year 25 request of 16 a. half million that is less than the actual expenditures in the previous two fiscal years of 17.8 and 19 .6 million the second you know big reason for Budget overages is the rising tuition costs and I
032know that was uh mentioned earlier this is Lindsay and TR uh from CLA I'm one of the managers I just saw that in the chat um so your outplacement tuition rates are increasing anywhere between 14 to 16% in the past few years based on um the data that we assessed while the budget again back to that diagram earlier is only Rising that 2 to 3% thirdly and and sort of tied also to the rising tuition costs is the Professional Services fees are also Rising uh rapidly right and so this line has also been consistently over budget rates in these lines for things like occupational therapy Physical Therapy nursing and and so forth again kind of right in track with tuition costs those are going up as well the fourth bullet here is in regards to
033excess cost so historically r or in the past Connecticut state reimbursements you know used to be somewhere between 74 and 79% and sort of districts had expectations at that level uh when in reality and as of recent years districts are receiving closer to 64 to 75% and I think Lynn had mentioned the other day Bristol is closer to that 64% number so go ahead to the next slide next uh reason for bud budget overages would be unplanned and midyear special education costs so when we took a look at the years we had uh data for we identified for fiscal year 24 there was an additional 50 new special education students uh that required out of District placements and and tuition and so forth that goes with that um I think after November of that school
034year so that was an additional 1.2 million in costs that were unexpected unplanned the unfunded State mandates starting in July of 23 um Connecticut Boards of Education had to be required to provide special education services for students up through age uh up to age 22 uh and in years past Services only needed to be provided until age 21 so there was an additional year worth of cost um for Bristol it was approximately $611,000 in unplanned additional costs and then lastly some general smaller um imbalances and inaccu for specific budg budget items like supplies Tech uh software licenses and I think there's a few other where the district is really only budgeting for like exact need with little to no room for any unexpected or additional costs and then you know that's putting you into a
035budget overage and a budget freeze position kind of soon after the school year begins let's go ahead to the next slide in the full report after we had done the financial analysis and kind of those big heavy-hitting reasons for Budget overages we put together our general finding some recommendations the first is in regards to outplacement um fluctuations and sort of dealing with those Rising costs uh and cost changes as they occur during during the school year um the finding is that those rates are sometimes changing mid year and that is not currently something that's identified in your um outplacement contracts so our recommendation here was to consider confirming rate ranges with the outplacement providers um and sort of documenting that within the contract and kind of budgeting for maybe the high end of the range
036so that you have a little bit of um a cushion and and sort of a uh extra funds there in case and for if and when those rates do rise mid school year secondly uh you know we took a look at the workflow and the the purchasing process in general and the number of improvers and and what the um sort of path is to get a purchase order processed uh in the school district we noted there was a high number of approvers in there currently it also requires uh the superintendent the Director of Finance there are multiple City approvers also in the current workflow we noted that there's challenges with you know District limitations to just using State contract vent ERS thirdly right now only the city can close open purchase orders which kind of
037makes it difficult for the district to see the real-time budget status when there may be open POS that that aren't really truly open so our recommendation here was can we tweak some of the um controls or workflow in purchasing so firstly can we modify that workflow can we reduce it maybe consider dollar thresholds where different people approve at different dollar values to hopefully expedite the overall purchasing process second can we establish some guidelines for how to use non-state contracts how to use Amazon business accounts um in places where it makes sense thirdly we suggested giving access uh to the school district financial department for the ability to close their own purchase orders to establish you know a routine close process with the city if granting access is not something that can be set up go
038ahead to the next slide so on the tail end of the purchasing process we also noted that the accounts payable or the AP process is manual and paper intensive right now there's redundant Printing and copying and filing um there's some physical stamps for approvals and um that can all be automated in the financial system that you have so just to improve you know efficiencies and to maximize the software that you have we made a recommendation to make that process as electronic as possible and and use all the functionality of Enterprise Erp which is the school district's Financial system number four a couple of findings just related to roles and responsibilities for outplacement um there was a little bit of an overlap between uh two positions here pupil per Personnel Services the senior admin assistant and
039then the special education accountant within the business office minor overlap of Duties some redundancies and spreadsheets in the data that they keep so we made a recommendation here to just um delineate the tuition and cost management for specication strictly to the business office have them be the owner of the financials related to special education and then continue to meet regularly between the two departments and and keep as much data as possible centrally accessible in that Financial system and then the next slide position control is um a function and feature of the fin system that you have now the full report elaborates on this uh in depth but essentially it allows the district to track and manage all employees by positions as opposed to by person it gives the district uh you know stronger budget oversight
040and it prevents over hiring or hiring out of class or out of pay um with some limits and some controls in place through position control better reporting um better Insight in terms of vacant positions and and where you are in cost savings mid year or throughout the school year so we made a recommendation to get that configured and to consider fully U utilizing the position control module in uh your financial system going to be a joint effort um between talent management or HR and finance and then I believe the last no it's not the last one um number six administrative support for the transportation director uh as part of this we also interviewed um transportation and Facilities transportation is a busy Department it's a high attention area it requires kind of daily um touch points
041and attention it's susceptible to frequent changes the only backup person that is in place right now for uh transportation is your Director of Finance and operations which is certainly a busy enough position so we made a recommendation that we consider obtaining additional administrative support for the transportation department um even if that means using or sharing an existing admin number seven is maximizing your financial system uh right now there's limited reporting capabilities there is an ability within the software to set up a dashboard so that users can sort of see their frequent reports or their key performance indicators um you know items in their workflow queue purchases waiting their approval and so forth and so we made recommendations to get some additional training on the system um see if there's some user groups and tools that
042we could be using and and get dashboard set up so that we can have better reporting right within the system and that'll reduce the need for Excel and and other software number eight is a finding about General needs for increased communication and collaboration with the city regarding budget transparency um a lot of the processes purchasing payments grants budget transfers Etc right now they involve both um District Finance as well as City Finance and a lot of the actions within the financial system are currently executed by the city on behalf of the district and so our recommendation was continue you know regular meetings consider meeting more frequently you know monthly quarterly as needed to go over budget to talk about any changes or unexpected um additional costs in special education any incoming or expected grants purchase
043order changes and closes and any other General Finance Financial concerns and that does it for us so with that um I wanted to see if you had any questions um and our comments um yeah I do have a I do have a question it looks like uh most of the uh the U auditing that was done was on the processes and things like that um were there U Were were there any calculations or considerations for um positions that might be uh like redundant like redundancy positions where people are like in in central office or where like in the city hall might be um doing some overlap of of work that could be combined between the city and the school district yes sir um to be honest with you we did not look at that okay
044we did not take it was more of a financial analysis looking at yeah really just looking at the processes in the finance correct corre anyone else thank you very much for your time appreciate it have a great evening thank you very much very [Music] comprehensive in terms my ter of the budget update um chair Pon shared a summary of the meeting uh That central office had with the board of Finance members last night um and tomorrow morning um I'm thankful to the central office team who's going to be working with me to develop the um two scenarios that cheron spoke about that will be be presented next week at the um finance committee looking at different scenarios in terms of budget cuts and um presenting the hard choices that need to be made and what
045those choices will look like so that there's full transparency and that the board of education has the information needed to make the decision before adopting the budget that needs to be presented to the board of Finance on March 19th and in conclusion uh we' had Edgewood uh we had a successful reopening of our prek Academy um our lead programs are at West Bristol so we're thankful to the West Bristol team for um welcoming those students in this week and the other students are at the back Senior Center and I asked uh Pete pusco director of facilities to present a Time line U more specifically on the Edgewood building um and what the timeline may be for renovations so be H please good evening uh the nominating committee met last week and nominations are going to
046City Council on Tuesday March 11th for approval the first building committee meeting is scheduled for Monday March 24th this will be a roof replacement and targeted alterations project we will discuss the approach and begin defining the SCH open work at that meeting any questions heing none that concludes my update thank you the chair can you said that you were meeting with your central office team to um revise your recommendations in collaboration with your cabinet members for the same scenarios that um Cher pected before when do we have that information your recommend your and your cabinet's recommendations so chair PS ask that we please have that by the latest Monday afternoon so the board would have an opportunity to review it and be prepared to ask questions before we present it wedes tonight if that works
047thank you very you're welcome thank you very much superintendent white there does appear to be one more item um board member appreciation mon yes thank you so March is Board of Education member appreciation month and on behalf of brist public schools I just wanted to acknowledge the work of this board of education we want to take the opportunity to thank you all for all you do on behalf of the student staff and families in Bristol we recognize that you volunteer your time a lot of time at meetings preparing for meetings um doing research providing us with feedback and it doesn't go unnoticed and I know as a public servant isn't always easy you're open to a lot of criticism and it's not an easy position to be in and so we just want to recognize
048you and thank you for all the work that you do so thank you thank you thank you superintendent white for those kind words and thank you to my fellow board Commissioners for your um efforts and your collaborative spirit and um always wanting to move the work forward in the highest good of the community that we love here in Bristol okay do we have before we get there we're going to do consent agenda so that's agenda item number seven can I have a motion we have it up okay good um can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which will include items 7.1a through 7.1 B so moved second all in favor I chair Pawn I okay any oppose wonderful motion passes Now we move on to public comment Miss Everett did you receive
049any public comment I did not receive any okay wonderful now we will move on to item number nine please through the chair oh yes online oh okay so we have online so we'll just take a second to acknowledge that and then I will read the rules for public comment the rules for public comment have been revised so please mind the revisions I will read now the board welcomes public input and appreciates the diverse perspectives of the community while the meeting is open to the public it is fundamentally a meeting of the board the public comment period allows community members to share their insights with the governing body about the agenda items that the board will be reviewing or deciding on the board values this input and will consider it when making their decisions community members
050are encouraged to express views on any topic related to the agenda to comment on the topic that is not on the agenda please email your comment via the contact list on the BPS Board of Education website items requiring consideration by the board must be approved as an agenda item by two-thirds vote of the board members present such items may be refer referred to for further study and not necessarily acted upon at this meeting so everyone is requested to address the chair for recognition each speaker must State his or her name address and the topic being commented 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 violating this rule will be
051denied the floor unless weighed by the chairperson each speaker shall limit his or her remarks to three minutes a speaker will have one opportunity to speak for a 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 chair has a discretion to provide free factual information for example the chair might explain that legal limitations on the board's Authority prevent the board from considering the requested action speakers cannot donate their time to other people or speak on behalf of other people disruptive behavior harassment and violence are not permitted in
052cases of disruptive behavior the chair has the authority to warn the speaker request them to leave or in extreme cases clear the room okay so now to our online public comment if you're online and you requesting public comment unmute I'm sorry uh unmute yes the person may be onute maybe muted if you would like to unmute yourself and just state your name and address okay can move on okay well we'll move on and entertain going back at somebody identifies okay so now we will move to item number nine deliberated items District leadership team reports first is 9.1 healthy food certification for the 2526 school year Lynn are you online oh I saw I saw that you were online and then I didn't see you in here so I presumed you were not in house hi
053okay you bet you have the floor every year the board has to decide that to have the healthy foods certification for the school year year these have to be read exactly as they're written if you so CH would you like to read them just kidding I'll read them okay so projected on the screen we have um an item for deliberation and I have a motion and we will read this exact because I know how important that is um for the healthy food certification um for the 25 26 school year and I'm going to read this exactly as it's presented the motion number one healthy food options that pursued to Connecticut General statute section 10-2 15f the B Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its
054jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 this certification s include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeterias culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups you have a motion to approve motion second all in favor any opposed and chair Pond online hi motion passes okay good that's that's that now next 9.2 PR preliminary calendars for the 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 school years no through the chair chair there's a motion number two under 9 thank you
055did that just pop up okay my apologies so like I can make a motion that would be wonderful thank you I'd like to make a motion for food and beverage exemptions the bristell Board of Education vote to allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards of beverages not listed in section 10-22 one Q of the Connecticut General statute provided that the following conditions are met number one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend number two the sale is at the location of the event and number three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or scho store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly
056scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates or events but soccer soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales excellent thank you second okay so motion has been made and seconded all any um extensions or wait where am I please forgive me discussion yes I missed the second motion so I wanted to make sure I was following the script because I deviated from the script okay so any discussion okay all in favor hi by okay any oppose okay motion passes wonderful so now I'm GNA
057watch the screen and look at my script preliminary calendars for the 2025 26 and 2026 2027 school years okay this is our second presentation and who do we have okay so thank you um last month we reviewed a draft 25 26 26 27 calendars those calendars uh based on some feedback that I have received um remove the Veterans Day as a holiday um after the reading feedback from the Gore as well as the community we added those that holiday both on both calendar years um as customary in the past after the last board meeting when we made those changes re added the Veterans Day holiday to the draft calendars we did send the calendars out to um the unions and the bft responded with feedback um with concerns about um the number of holidays and
058pushing later into June when you add in snow days as well um and a concern about U moving longer into the June month um where it's extremely hot and humid and there are a number of schools that do not have air conditioning um and there was also a recommendation um to have students attend school on holidays and teach lessons hold assemblies to recognize the cultures holiday and any excuses any and excuse any absences by students um and so and speaking with Vice chair Simmons um wanted to just have an open discussion with the board are do we feel this support that they're ready to adopt these calendars as their currently posted with the understanding that maybe changes could be made based on if we wanted to go out and get additional feedback from the community
059if there's additional data that the board wanted to look at just want to have an open conversation and hear your recommendations and feedback on I I think it'd be great to have um a conversation about it um so far it's just been presented um at our meetings with um so maybe if we bring it to student achievement and um go over some of the data we had previously um I agree getting L to June it's um is tough but um yeah I think more conversation maybe the student achievement or policy would be a good idea my feedback is to um be able to provide the community with um information as as soon as possible so they can make plans around it knowing that we can change it um so I would be in favor of
060moving both these calendars uh to vote um I haven't put a motion on the bo to do that because I know everybody needs to speak and then request that it be added to the student achievement agenda I did send that request um the Friday after the last board meeting but it didn't make it to the agenda so I'll have a followup conversation with the with the chair of that committee to make sure that we can have more discussion in looking at data um and if the data is significant enough it can always move out of committee and come back to the board for a change um but for to give parents because you know we usually try to get this out you know March April so that people have some predictability there that would be
061my U feedback um I can also appreciate and Echo that um I think also hearing from the community first and foremost is the most important thing um but I also agree with moving forward I okay at this time then I'll make a motion to approve both the uh 2526 school year calendar and then 26 2027 school year school year calendar as presented with veterans they added back second okay motion has been made and seconded um any discussion will we still be maybe bringing it to student achievement and consider yes and so I think um the feedback has been really helpful feedback um considering there have been members of the community that have requested the calendar um for child care purposes for vacation purposes um and I think it would be skillful to you know move
062the calendar to the to the community so that they can make some plans and that there was conversation in question about if this has historically been something that has um been presented in student achievement and we can consider whether or not we want that practice to be a regular practice so that it looks so it comes to student achievement it's discussed there and then it goes to the full board so that people have opport opportunity for conversation we can discuss um if there are data points that we want to explore um I think it's opportunity to maybe examine our practice and see how we can improve it so people feel like their everyone's voice is being heard um and we know that even with approving these calendars it does not prevent us from collecting data
063from hearing from the community and making changes based on that feedback sure sure um I as just a member of this board since 2018 and also on the student achievement committee the calendar has always been brought to the student achievement committee as far as I can Rec up um and if and if there's some facts that can you know be presented to me that it's something different um but it doesn't mean that um we can't make a vote on this and then have it on the agenda absolutely the timing did not um for whatever reason did not work out uh I I just want to clarify that if a commissioner asked for an agenda item to be put on the committee agenda it should be put on the committee agenda and then we can expedite
064things a little more quickly thank you so right now we have a motion on the floor to approve the 2025 26 and 2026 27 um calendars so I will move it to a vote all in favor by and pond okay um any opposed okay motion passes moving on to 9.3 Energy Efficiency project believe we have Lynn with us again oh gotcha Mr Fusco good evening um we I wanted to speak to you briefly about a project a lighting project that was uh given uh we had a presentation last month at operations and finance and I know that uh the board was thinking about potential savings that that we're looking at here with LED lighting upgrades uh I'm not sure that we're necessarily ready tonight to make a decision uh but we do have a pamphlet
065here from the vendor if anyone would like to see it I can leave it at the table to review the financing the savings and the overall scope of work and project uh it's a it's a traditional LED lighting upgrade from what I could see it looks like we have between a four and a fiveyear buyback period and then you really start to see your savings so it's not free uh but it's financed through uh eversource it's an incentive program so if there's any questions that I can give you otherwise I'll leave the pamphlet for review if you'd like more information it's pretty detailed right there any questions through the chair they have uh board members have a version of that pamphlet it was attached to your um to the agenda item okay thank you do
066the chair just one quick question yes yes um so do it I was here for the presentation um but can you just tell reinforce for me again there is there an upfront investment and then we don't recoup from on The Upfront investment until the potentially the fifth year yes based on it's not a cash out of pocket it's a it's a cost avoidance every month it's projected this particular firm did a a comprehensive energy audit in our buildings made recommendations um and the recommendations tied into the cost of the materials in the labor and you start to find a break even spot it's it's detailed by school four and a half to five years it looks to me it's suggesting and then at that point you are really starting to see savings bigger savings because
067you are paying in in essence for the equipment but it's on the front end of this and depending on what your your um utility rates are if they go up your savings are more significant I don't work for this company but in listening to them and I know that the city did do a couple of buildings over on that side so it's an RFP process it's not just a hand it to this company but it's an opportunity to potentially save some money with with energy just just be that um maybe when we have our budget meetings and our budget discussions you know we we consider this so among to ourselves in that meeting um to determine when and where we want to vote on it unless somebody's moving it Forward tonight thank you through the
068chair yeah this um this program is part of the Energy Efficiency program that the power company's been doing for many many years 20 plus years um I believe it's a 0% interest it is 0% um and it will pay back is pretty much guaranteed um I can tell you that the energy demands definitely decrease with the new LED lighting motion sensors and everything else so um there's a number of aspects to it that we're going to be looking at um I've been appointed as the Lea on the energy Comm committee for the city so I'm in with that and things are going to go back and forth there may be more projects coming up as part of this and the actual contracts that you written up later chair yes what's the projected life of these
069LEDs the vendor has suggested upwards in 10 years I thought you said 20 was it 20 I thought you said 20 yeah I would say realistically beet it in the middle probably 15 years just yeah we we get to see because the the LED projects that we have done in the city are very new so we're only about a year in at best thank you through through the chair um yeah the LEDs and again we deal with this when we buy the LED Home Depot for our lamps at home and they don't seem to last that long uh the better quality lights definitely do last longer and again it's we're not dealing with 9% LEDs we're dealing with better quality fixture replacement fixtures and everything I did have a question um and it's it goes
070to like what one of Christi's concerns and that was regarding pain for the uh um pay for the lighting and stuff like that is this um something that's added to our our utility bill we're kind of paying additional money on our utility bill until until those materials are paid off is that how that how this is working or is it just one lump it's more of a cost avoidance on your monthly bill so you will you would traditionally spend $40 you'll only spend 30 and 10 will go towards the equipment it just on a simple simple scale okay they factor in Energy savings in this report and they also factor in timing materials for us to change balance bols but it's going to be with the projected reduction of our our utilities were we're still
071you will reduce your carpet footprint in in one you know one piece and you'll also hopefully cut down on your labor and your you know buying balance involves the traditional Ling that we have now Mr Pesco are there any anticipated front-end costs the frontend costs are defined in the agreement and they're basically spelled out as to what the overall project is worth but again through 0% financing and then through the projected savings that's where basically I mean anytime you get a project that's seven years or less on a buyback it's hugely a big deal they're projecting four and a half to five years if utility rates were to go up or kilowatt rates were to go up that could make it three years but that's all again I don't work for this company it's just
072looking over the agreement you know it it makes sense and uh I I just think it's something that should consider right I think if you go to the uh if you go to the the PowerPoint um it's on page I think it's page 16 it'll have like what the what the prices or what you know what the financing price for The Upfront cost is going to be looks like it's four um 4 4.2 million I believe you're correct okay I still have my nice binder at home too um which they did a nice job putting that together um and do you believe that these costs are pretty fixed these frontend costs are pretty fixed and because I know would go RFP would that be a pretty consistent startup I think that when they compete against
073the other vendors that are part of the program forever Source I would think whoever sharpens their pencel the most uh would be but it's going to be close materials are materials labor can only make so many adjustments if you're going to do a project of this size maybe the advantage they have is they were able to do the comprehensive audit and see our bu so that was free of charge any further discussion okay thank you very much next we have pup Personnel report H Martino thank you Mr PCO I hope they were not watching you present that because clearly you have a ditch for some of this information I think that was almost an interview answer those questions well um tonight I will be talking about the special education enrollment account as of February 1st
0741,823 of the 8,084 enrolled students are identified as requiring special education programming this enrollment reflects 22.55% of the total BPS population as of February 1st 121 students with disabilities required out of District placements at private special education school programs there are 87 students requiring special education programming at public out of district schools that includes magnet schools during the month of January 2025 36% % of the newly registered students were identified as requiring special education programming at the time of registration none of the students enrolled received services and programming out of District programs and then during the month of January there were 47211 and 9911 calls are there any questions thank you thank you very much now we'll move on to curriculum revision and first we have introduction to journalism curriculum revision evening Commissioners I'm happy
075to present to you the revised uh introduction to journalism elective this is a revision to an existing elective that was last updated in 2011 so it's been some time it was presented to the student achievement uh community in February it's part of our journalism pathway as you may recall we have a pathway that culminates in media freedom and power which is a dual enrollment opportunity through southern this is the introductory course in that pathway um the curriculum revisions Focus primarily on WE organizing and strengthening clarifying the units for the teacher and teach the course resulting in the three units that you see there the intro to journalism is a quick unit that introduces students to what makes topic newsworthy and the rights and responsibilities to journalists the second unit explores a variety of genres and
076journalism news featur outet articles lifestyle Sports entertainment students read a variety of news articles and um write flash straps of each of them and then the third unit is focused on producing a much longer investigative reporting piece so I'd like to thank um K Kean and Kat robberts for all their work in the curriculum and providing this opportunity to Aspire in journalists like inro we from earlier so I'm happy to answer any questions or um ask for a motion to approve the journalism revised journalism curriculum I have a motion to approve the introduction to journalism culs second any discussion all in favor any oppose motion passes thank so much okay let see what we have next next we have the K to 5 Social Studies culum revision good evening commission good evening Commissioners I'm also
077excited to be here this evening to present the K5 social studies curriculum revisions this we to the student achievement Council in February I wanted to share quickly some of the goals for the revision process we uh really wanted to adjust the social studies lessons to benefit the six we cycle with science we want wanted to increase ease of use for teachers we wanted to update our resources and most importantly align to the newly released State framework which was released in October of 2023 you will notice that our P five social studies curriculum covers four dimensions the First Dimension is developing questions and planning for inquiries the second dimension is thinking like a historian geographer and political scientist the third dimension is evaluating sources and using evidence and the fourth dimension is communicating conclusions and taking
078informed actions the K2 curriculum you might recall was approved in 2022 onee shy of the newly released standards which were adopted by the Connecticut State Department of Education in 2023 so you'll see that in K students start learning about their community these units build up in grade one and we start learning about citizenship and then in grade two we learn about government right and responsibilities and we begin to study about people from the past that have contributed to society in grade two we also start learning about Bristol and we've partnered with the Bristol historical society and we look at photographs from past and present next slide please you'll notice gr three four and five uh have not been revised since 2012 so these are somewhat new units that are aligned again to the Connecticut social
079studies framework you'll notice in grade three we spent a large amount of time learning about bristl Bristol's geography past and present again we partner with the historical society and we uh look at photographs to learn really about the roots of bristell and bristell contribution to Connecticut and America in grade four we study the regions and then we conclude in grade five by talking about settlement uh the American Revolution and learning about Constitution and public participation I would like to take a moment to really thank some special people that have contributed to this curriculum so if you'll indulgent I had the pleasure of working with teachers side by side so I'd like Tok than Marcy the Shan B and paren Colleen Kelly Jeff sence judier Boro Katie Pearson Lissa OD Stacy rora Tracy squit de balen
080zacho uh Christina Anderson derck Rance Mary K Pano Julie Stevens and Rachel Hazeltine as well as an tanelli and once more I'd like to thank the Bristol Historical Society for their contributions and dedication to our social studies curriculum or visions at this time i''d like to answer any questions you may have or entertain a motion for approv I'll make a motion to approve the grade three grade four grade five social Stace curriculum as presented tonight I'll second motion has been made in seconded any discussion I just like to extend my thanks to all of those involved in the curriculum making sure that we use our commity Partners like the wonderful historical society that we have we definitely um have a blessing here in this city that we have um such an active Historical Society that's
081willing to partner with us and so I'm glad that our staff and um made that happen for for our kids thank you thank you the chair can we have the motion revised to to say K through five versus just 34 five on that thank you I'll make an amended motion to pass the Social Stace curriculum K through five and to sorry you got it second good okay motion has been made to include the K to five social studies curriculum revision as presented and it has been seconded all in favor I any oppos chair P I heard your affirmation on on there okay great so um motion passes thank you thank you very much okay we have precalculus academic curriculum revision next even done good evening Commissioners um on Trend with my colleagues I have a
082revision for a curriculum that was over a decade old um teachers have really been working hard to update our curriculum and make sure that it's aligned to what students need um so the pre-calculus curriculum revision was reviewed by the student achievement Committee in February and they've moved it to the full board for your approval um since this curriculum was last revised in 2014 we've adopted the illustrative math curriculum um through Algebra 2 so there was a great need to make sure that we aligned with those standards as pre-calculus is the CT stying Algebra 2 so the new curriculum addresses the current Connecticut Core math standards Builds on the progression from grades 7 through 10 especially Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 and it makes sure that all standards required for Success on sats are covered it
083includes many of the Connecticut Core math plus standards as those are the standards that go beyond Algebra 2 and allows students to make connections to prior knowledge and go into the content deeper um it creates a very rigorous course for all students and it's a strong way for a 12th grade student to end their math career in high school or entering populus in their senior year if they're a current Junior and pre-calculus um I'd like to thank Nicole bamp and Tyler Roberts Colin brunetti and Ben Oakman who um who are really instrumental in writing this curriculum um we started writing it in late December so they work really hard the last couple months to get it done so I'll entertain any questions or ask for a motion to a fruit can I have a motion
084to approve the pre-calculus academic curriculum revision as presented second motion has been made and seconded any discussion okay all in favor chair PA right okay great any oppose motion passes thank you thank you thank you so much oh you're all right now we'll move on to textbook adoption for pre-calculus academic uh first reading yes um so far following that curriculum um the teachers really looked at our current textbook which was last approved by the Board of Ed in 200 S um so it's been very difficult to get replacement texts and um get the text that we have in good shape for our students as they are very very old um so if you go to the next slide I have the three books that the text book committee looked at um over the past couple
085of months and the book that was the highest um was the pre-calculus textbook by Blitzer the publisher is Pearson it's the seventh edition from 2022 and it was by far the highest score on our rubri um that's the cover of the book Blitzer is known for his creativity in writing content as well as his um colorful colors or colorful um covers that he has um he's very um creative in the applications that he offers students but he's also very well versed in what students need to be successful um so this is the outline of the book and you'll see that there's a prerequisite unit which was one of the things that teachers were really looking for um they wanted to make sure that they were able to provide students with the foundation to be successful
086um but there's also a full scope here all the way up to an introduction to calculus so it provides a full range of topics for students thank you so some attributes for Student Success that we were looking for that this book fulfills um this textbook provided the most support for varying learner needs there was real world connections and the why behind Concepts made evident throughout there's an emphasis on students investigating and discovering Concepts so that they make sense of the mathematics students would also receive access to my math lab online which has practice problems with video supports access to an app for an offline digital version of the book differentiated practice based on their checkpoints in class and an astonishing ability to translate the text into 135 languages um the rep assured us that they
087have a team of people who works on accessibility and this is not just a Google translate version of the textbook um there's prior knowledge that's explicitly called out in each lesson and there are skill building activities that teachers can use in class um pre-calculus can be a very challenging course without all of these components um really asks students to pull on all of their prior math knowledge even from fifth grade when they're dealing with fractions so this is just a snapshot of some of the inside of the book um the text explicitly States the review that can be integrated into new learning so you'll see those integrated review topics um that's the best way to accelerate students knowledge is to integrate the review in the current content um you can also see uh sample of
088what the online videos will look like um here's a sample chapter um and how Blitzer really tries to engage students in the real world application so this is um talking about polinomial interational functions and how um somebody who's riding a bike um and does something called a somersault turn that can be modeled by a quadratic function um and so there's a lot of activities willing throughout that are applications um so there's another one here where they're modeling Statewide elections um populations looking at metropolitan areas so really trying to show the why behind this high level math that students are learning so I know this is a challenging time of year to be asking for funding I do realize that um we have budgeted for 100 textbooks per high school I'm only asking for 100 total
089because that would be our need for next year so that's half of what we had um budgeted for in this current year um if we wanted to purchase the student hard copy Edition and six-year access to my math lab the cost per item is $ 23847 um it would be a cost Savings of $90 per text if we didn't do the online resources but then we would not have the accessibility pieces with the videos and the um translated text in the differentiated practice um it's actually not really a six-year access it's 600 licenses so there's no real expiration so if we have less than a 100 students we would that would extend beyond six years um and then there's also an annotated instructors addition which would really help teachers to see how to scaffold and
090address misconceptions within the course um so including shipping our grand total comes to 26,7 86 um so right now this is just for information purposes if there are questions I'll answer them I do have a copy in my office if anybody would like to preview it um and then next month I will bring it to the board again for a second read just one quick question the um the student hard copy Edition plus the figure access to my math lab y do is that electronic access for the book as well yes so they get online access to the book with that and they also get that app that they can use that gives them offline access which I think is great for students who don't have reliable internet so this is just a first reading
091um if the Commissioners have any questions of Miss lantha then this would be a great time to ask questions um but we will have opportunity in the intervening month uh before it comes back on the agenda in April to ask questions and review the textbook so nothing actionable tonight any questions any discussion thank you very much thank you okay do we have anything in your business tonight no okay um next we'll move on to the aison information reports are there any Commissioners who would like to share aason report I do okay thanks okay for Ivy Drive principal Coleman said that uh there's a lot going on a lot of good stuff um Ivy Drive celebrated read Across America day on Monday March 3rd as a whole school Community by welcoming Bank of America volunteers principal
092Dan srom and Bristol's Miss team to read to our classes the book titled Ruby and the dragon our instructional coaches coordinated the event which included an activity which students identified the things that make them remarkable just like the main character in the story our fourth and fifth grade pride pride student leaders welcomed all of our volunteers and escorted them to each of the classrooms they were scheduled to visit overall read Across America day was a big hit all of our students and staff enjoy the common reading experience as a whole school Community I I drive is also participating in a full week of spirit days this week in recognition of re Across America students and staff are dressing like their favorite Story characters and wearing black and white just like the cat and the hat
093The Ivy Drive yearbook committee has kicked off planning and organizing the spring 2025 yearbook students at iy voted on the theme of this year's yearbook which is Dragon mode activate Mrs goui and M roard are accepting cover designs for the yearbook which are due from students by March 28th our school will then vote for the yearbook covers designed the covers designed by our students the fifth grade at Ivy Drive School participated in a field trip last week to the Connecticut Old State House our students were able to visit and learn about the historical events that have shaped both state and National historical events such as the Amad trials prudence crle and Other Stories from the past our fifth graders said they especially enjoyed being able to visit the CT kid governor's office at the old
094state house that's because this fall the fifth graders at Ivy Drive participated in the kid governor election and casted their vote for this year's Connecticut's kid Governor students were able to to identify a cause that is Meaningful to them and explor Community issues and current events that kid Governors have addressed through their platforms during the field trip our students were able to visit the office of the CT kid governor and see the space in which they volunteer for this role Ivy Drive PTA is sponsoring the Boosterthon fundraiser Glow Run on Tuesday March 11th for all students in grades K through 5 our students will be participating in a Glow Run in the gym during their specials time as schoolwide fundraiser students will be participating in the schoolwide event in custom t-shirts provided by The Ivy
095Drive PTA and will be enjoying the event with glow sticks and listening to music and last but not least Elementary parent teacher conferences are coming up Wednesday March 19th through Friday March 21st parents and families are welcome to participate in a scheduled student Le parent conference with their teacher with their child's teacher we are excited to welcome our families into the school to Showcase all of our students learning and have our students share their learning experiences with their families along with their teachers thank you good stuff happening any other thean reports I have from h please the Hubble hounds just had an amazing in school field trip with a visit from Coastal wild zoo Rachel and Josie two zookeepers at Coastal Wilds brought their Animal Ambassadors to our school the zookeepers brought a guinea pig
096bearded dragon African millipede albino corn snake and a spectacled owl for the students to see and learn about the students were even able to have their pictures taken with the bearded dragon and owl nobody wanted but you're African M we are currently celebrating read acrost America week on Monday guest readers visited classrooms to read aloud to our students readers shared their favorite books like lemon Moon and dandelion the rest of the week students have have fun spirit days like dressing up for their future professions as a not to the book oh the Places You'll Go and having crazy sock day for Fox in Socks all week we are giving away Dr Seuss stuffies during morning announcements we look forward to all the great field trips and events planned for the spring I had a great
097honor too of going and reading to her first grade classroom and that was fun I was able to bring a book from home and then also read a Dr Seuss book so very which book did you bring in well I actually brought in two I brought in um no it's about a dog who thinks his name is no so um and so he goes on his daily Adventures of digging in the garden and then climbing in bed and then um yeah yeah and then the other one I think the title is what can I do if I can't tie my shoe so it goes over you know ping your shoes and steps and half the class knew how and the other half didn't yet so it's fun discussion item thank you so much for sharing
098any other liaison reports I just have a a brief one from um Southside um also celebrated read Across America day um there were many special guests uh that shared the love of reading with a great book and um I was also honored to be able to read a book and and saw um other readers that were dressed up like story book characters and children and staff were dressed up like story book characters it was super magical and very sweet um at Southside um Dr wanted to give a shout out to the Musicians who performed at the Citywide music in our schools month concert um there's actually a full video on Southside school's Facebook page and um I wanted to give a special thanks as well to uh principal Higgins and Dr bradick and Payton tro
099and abigel Wasa for and of course um superintendent white Cher Pond U we had opportunity to meet and discuss uh student representatives there are some amazing things happening at both schools I know that we heard from from our two uh senior student Representatives they had a lot of feedback to share about how we could create um a really like authentic and organic organic approach to elevating student voice um sort of nothing about us without us kind of um theme and we hopefully will have more conversations as well about the role of Liaisons and what we might want to do to to to reimagine liaison and consider how um we can use our roles to make sure that um concerns are heard or needs are hurt and how we can bring that um collaboratively to the
100board and um continue to move the great work forward okay so if that concludes that part of our liaison report I know we have our city council leas on just a couple quick things wonderful the bral Early Childhood Alliance that everybody's formed together um it's time to register for kindergarten parents should not wait to register their children as a timely registration helps the district plan accordingly as an added incentive children who registered before the last day of school will be entered into a drawing to ride their first day of kindergarten on on a fire truck also brist Public Public School prek uh receive an additional 15-day uh 15 part day slots uh there are currently five openings left call 860 584 7828 if you're interested and also um in partnership with the bral library Vera
101Early Childhood Alliance and School Readiness Council are hosting a sensory friendly movie night in the afternoon um for families with young children on March 23rd which is a Sunday at 1:30 p.m. also one other question from City Hall and this may have been answered at a previous meeting a budget meeting or something um how much our money went into salaries during 2023 and 2024 how many were new hired those are you questions that that was just dra I'm writing that down and Bill definitely gives you that answer appreciate how much are money was used 2023 2024 how many were new hires okay I appreciate it we will get you that information thank you so much you're welcome thank you so much is there any other uh informational items that to share okay well with no
102other business before the board can I have a motion to adjourn all right anyone want a second Just For the Love of seconding all right good night everyone thank you so much favor I dare you to say you're not he adjourned officially now after all the eyes thank you