001let us please observe a moment of silence for Patricia kohley special education teacher Mountain View in Bristol Eastern from 9677 to 630 2011 thank you let us also observe a moment of silence for Marilyn Resnik grade one teacher English teacher and development reading teacher Kalen school and Memorial Boulevard 1973 to 2003 thank you now we move to staff and student recognition I will turn staff recognition over to our Acting Superintendent Miss White our first recognition thank you is for Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern Avid seniors update even Commissioners thank you for allowing us to be here tonight as members of the abot site team and students in the abot program for those of us who may not be familiar with Abid our high schools have been Abid schools for well over a decade now and
002our middle schools and even one Elementary School are now designated Abid schools as well Abid stands for advancement via individual determination and the program is designed to increase access to and preparation for students who possess the desire to go to college and the willingness to work hard but in many cases may not have the opportunity to be College ready these are often the students who will be the first in their families to attend college and are from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in higher education these students go through a rigorous application process and once in Avid they commit to the ideology designed to give them the tools that they need to succeed in college and uh the opportunity knowledge to work through the application process the students here tonight are here to explain what Abid
003has given them and to inform the board of their next steps after they graduate on June 18th they are just a small sample of a growing number of avid students in our district and they are exemplary students in and outside of the classroom so I'll turn it over to them now good evening my name is mamadu kamano uh what Abid has done for me is provided me like all the support that I need in order to successfully uh proceed like through High School uh our Aid teacher Miss nent has been nothing but helpful in order to help us realize what we want to go for college as well as what we going to study in college like for me she helped me realize that uh I want to go to Yukon in order to study
004Health Sciences and other kids in high school they don't have that kind of like backbone support that Avid has given us throughout all these years and I'm truly grateful for everything that Avid has done for me thank uh good evening I'm Logan Jackson from Bristol Central um I think as he just mentioned Aid's really just been a backbone of just great support since freshman year um even though we were online freshman year I still felt the support especially from our teacher at Central Mr mcab he's been awesome for all four years um senior year specifically Avid was really um I think crucial for helping us with the college application getting the head start on the Common App and all the work we did with financial aid and all of that was very helpful um as
005for my future plans in the fall I'll be attending Yale University and majoring in astrophysics and my uh future goal is to work at thank you hi my name is Zoe Parker I'm from brzil Eastern High School and in the fall I'm G to be going to Central or BR Eastern Connecticut State University I'm sorry um the way Avid is helped me through the years has been I don't know if I would be in this position without Aid I am a first generation college student and throughout high school I have faced quite a bit of challenges whether that be the loss of family members and dealing with health problems I as the other two have said Abid has really been a backbone support and it's just an invaluable experience I think so many other students
006should have the option to have hi uh my name is Haley Lopez I'm also from brist Central um Avid really has been a really really like good help for me just because I'm also a first generation um high school graduate and College um attending but uh sorry I'm like doing great um aage has been helping me a lot understand what career path I want to take and where I want to be as a teacher as well because I do want to be a future teacher and my Avid teacher mmer cave has like made me realize what type of teacher I want to become like the type of teacher that can just help students with anything and they can be comfortable around and like a has also helped me realize like what college I want to
007go to which is Art and that's where I'll be majoring Elementary education and also be getting my Tel certification so I can help those students who went through that ell program and MLA program just because I also went through that and Aid helped me like get out of that program with my English as well um yeah they like aage just been a really good backbone just really good support from everybody there has been there for us and they like the help that they give us is really one of a kind just because not every student get it gets it and it's like very individualized and it just lets me learn more like but yeah thank you thank you um hello my name is di Spinosa um I am a first generation college student so Avid
008has been extremely helpful with helping me through the whole college application and just being able to be on this road because without it I would have no idea what I would be doing because well obviously first generation none of my parents know how to do anything and my parents are not from America they're from Puerto Rico so they had to like learn English and everything so they still struggle sometimes and so Avid helping me was so beneficial and I did ECMC through Avid so I was able to get scholarship and that just made it so helpful for me and less stressful because I knew nothing about what I was doing and they just made it so easy for me to just learn what I had to learn be able to keep up with my grades
009and get accepted into college I will be going to Yukon Waterbury and I am through the roof because of this chance that I was given through Abid so thank you little round of applause for our Abid graduating seniors wonderful as TAA also said uh all of these students have won many prestigious scholarships this spring uh thousands and thousands of dollars through their hard work and effort um so they're they're in good hands and in a good place to start their next step I want to give a quick shout out to Carrie Mall from Bristol Central as the site team coordinator there and Alyssa nent uh who's our site team coordinator at uh Bristol Eastern so thank you for giving us a few minutes to give thanks for supporting Abid in our schools we look forward
010to expanding the program and therefore expanding opportunities for our students to pursue their postsecondary Pursuits thank you thank you very much congratulations very inspiring amazing thank congratulations and and thank you for sharing your stories thank you sorry I'm learning how to use the mic my apologies um second we have Bristol Central High School Latin student accolades recently 44 students at Bristol Central High School completed in the 46th annual National Latin exam 29 bchs students collected medals and recognition for their very high scores on the exam and I think that is Kelly oneand denoya I hope I pronounce your name correctly thank you on thank you good evening Commissioners and Acting Superintendent white I am Kelly manahan denoi I'm the Latin teacher at Bristol Central High School this is the end of year thir 6 for
011me I followed in the footsteps of oh thanks um I followed in the footsteps of my Bristol Central High School Latin teacher Loretta T who taught 43 years for the Bristal school system I have we have in the audience a number of our students uh who placed on the exam and I would love it if they would come forward and be recognized by you so if you are my my Latin Student please come forward now come forward um each year we take the national Latin exam the national no stay yeah don't you go anywhere Natalie I just might ask you one of you or two of you to say a word or two all right um each year we take the national Latin exam which has existed since 1976 and the Connecticut state Latin exam
012which has existed since sometime in the mid 80s um I'm glad you've got it up on the screen some of the people who are standing here in front of you got the number one highest score in the entire state of Connecticut on the Conneticut Latin exam the national Latin exam doesn't quite go number one number two number three they do go silver and metal so it's the top 10% who get gold medals the top 15 or the next 5% and up to the top 25% for bronze for the national Latin exam but the Connecticut state Latin exam identifies the number one highest scores in the entire state number two and number three so some of the people standing before you were beaten by nobody in the entire state of Connecticut and I am very very
013very proud of them and I wondered if Katie you might be willing to step forward Katie I just put Katie on the spot but she's a Latin 4 student whose name is up there um and she's usually pretty comfortable speaking to people go ahead Katie thanks mistra thanks I'm so glad I came right right Katie right good evening everyone my name is Katie Tran and I am in Latin 4 Latin has brought me more than just a better education but also a family my my class is only an eight person class so we're definitely all very close with each other and I love when Mishra used to say Katie you're only a sophomore I'm so glad I have you for two more years but time flies and now I'm a senior and I'm so sad
014to be leaving her behind because even though I've made my Mark at Bristol Central she's one of the biggest reasons why I want to stay now now you now you think that's why I follow just want I I think I'm going to sing her Praises one more time we also just came back from Connecticut state Latin exam and among them I said exams sorry I've got exams on my brain Connecticut state Latin day and among the many activities we participate in at Conneticut State LA day we create a chariot and we compete against the other 50 schools or so with Chariot design but then we also race it um you're looking at one of the two horses that brought back the number one prize and $125 gift certificate of of Aldi Pizza um from Connecticut
015state land Katie that's right so I'm gonna give you a round of applause thank you so very much for allowing me to present our Scholars our Latin Scholars to you I'm very proud of them thanks anybody thank you so much wonderful thank you forgive us but they have a lot of homework to do tonight they really understand we understand thank you so much next on our agenda we would like to recognize and thank our Board of Ed Senior student Representatives Isabelle P Pino from Bristol Central and Rita gal from Bristol Eastern they're not with us physically but they are with us virtually I believe hi hello um thank you for this opportunity of being able to be student representative um it's been an honor to be able to keep my peers um like speak on
016behalf of my peers and help rist Central stay more connected to the board of ed thank you thank you very much I didn't know if you wanted to share what your plans are after graduation if you'd like to sure um so I'll be attending Yukon this fall and I'll be studying Actuarial science and finance wonderful best of luck to you and congratulations and thank you for your service to the board and to your community thank you very much M I have the opportunity to brag um oh did she go come back Isabelle there she is to brag on Isabelle a little bit um She was recently named um centrals valedictorian so not only has she served in this capacity but she clearly is committed to um being a well-rounded um student academic and civically supporting
017um being a voice for the students at Bristol Central so congratulations again thank you so much hello my name is Frida and I would also like to thank you guys for giving me this opportunity this has like not only helped me tremendously like staying on top of like events at our school but like it also kind of like brought me out of my shell and like I was able to help a lot of people especially they would come to me and like ask for like different events that are going on and it just like really help me stay on top of the school event and like really help me tremendously as a person thank you so much for this opportunity thank you is Rita still there oh okay Rita we didn't have give you an
018opportunity to share what your plans are after graduation you like if you want to share um I'm actually also going to Yukon and majoring in Actuarial science oh wonderful wonderful well best of luck to you and congratulations and thank you so much for your service thank you absolutely you're welcome okay next on the agenda I'd like to call Miss Carly foron to announce our PA educator of the year and teacher this is definitely one of my most favorite meetings to attend of all the Board of Education meetings so thank you for allowing me this honor to announce both our 2025 par educator of the year and the 2025 teacher of the year we'll start with our 2025 par educator of the year the anarie Murphy par educator of the Year award celebrates vital contributions of
019par Educators and fostering Student Success named in honor of anarie Murphy a beloved par educator who heroically lost her life at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 this award highlights the dedication and impact of these educational professionals par educators are indispensable in our schools providing essential support to teachers reinforcing learning through small group tutoring offering individualized assistance and behavioral support maintaining an organized and positive classroom environment and aiding students and during transitions most importantly though they ensure that every student feels included supported and encouraged often serving as students greatest cheerleaders we're excited to be a cheerleader for one of those par Educators today so I'm going to invite Mr David fredman to the podium along with me and embarrass him just a tad with more about us the 2025 Bristol pair educator of the Year
020Mr David fredman exemplifies all of the qualities I just mentioned and More Mr fredman completed a distinguished 36-year career as a speech and language pathologist with us in Bristol Public Schools after retirement Mr fredman could not step away from his personal lifelong commitment to working with students and helping them succeed he returned to Bristol Public Schools working for the past eight years as a par educator the last five being at Bristol Central High School reflecting on his post-retirement journey Mr Freeman shared that when he retired from teaching he was going to continue to do what he does best staying in the community working with children and improving the conditions for the community by contributing to education inclusivity is Paramount to Mr fredman if he recalls and I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this that
021during his own Elementary School years many students were excluded from a free and appropriate public education recognizing the loss each Community suffered due to such exclusion he sees how his work as a par educator allows each student to fully participate in learning significantly impacting both the school community and our larger Community Mr fredman believes in the importance of being part of something bigger for both students and for himself recognizing the critical value of par Educators he uh does some recruitment work for us and encourages his peers saying it's never too late to make a difference in a young person's life and one of the best ways to do so is by becoming a par educator in his application Mr fredman wrote every time a student turns to me after we've been working on an assignment
022and says I think I understand that or when a student shares something troubling to them or he helps them solve a problem he feels successful in his work initially he shared that he was hesitant at working at the high school level but he embrac the challenge at Bristol Central High School so much so that to better assist his students he often completes the same assignments they do I understand he's earned an A in information processing relearning high school algebra wasn't the easiest thing to do uh he shared now after working at the high school level that the students and faculty at Bristol Central High School have been wonderful respectful and welcoming he feels at home within Bristol Central High School and Bristol Public Schools expressing I love being here I'm giving it all I can
023and I hope it makes a difference Mr fredman we know that you're making a difference both for Bristol Central High School and the larger Bristol Community and we are incredibly grateful for the service you do for Bristol Public Schools W thank you very um it is a pleasure to accept this honor it really is um as Carly pointed out prior to what I do now I worked for 36 years and when I retired in 2016 from teaching I thought well I'm not ready to hang up my you know my hat to just sit around and do nothing so I thought what am I going to do mold over a couple of ideas and then I decided it's not worth Reinventing the wheel I'm just going to go back and do what I know how to
024do best and obviously it was a good choice why we're here tonight um it's really nice to be recognized for the work that I do every day although I have to say on most days it doesn't even feel like work because I'm getting so much out of it myself just as much as I'm putting in for the students that I work with um I like that every day I go in and I support the teachers of Bristol knowing what it's like to be a Bristol teacher and that I'm hoping to to really give the students a leg up on their Futures going forward from from the their times at Bristol Central I recently had an encounter with one of my students we were in a guitar class and we were working on a new piece
025of music that was just given to him um we were working on you know reading the music getting the fingering on the guitar and he was having a little bit of difficulty with it at first and I said you know let's just you know keep going on it I would always tell him the joke how do you get to Carnegie Hall practice practice practice and he finally repeated it a couple times to me so we sort of had that connection with that and so finally at a certain point he started getting what we were doing and he turned to me and he said you know Mr fredman I think we make a really good team and I wasn't going to argue with him of course and I said I agree with you 100% but then
026I real it really does make a whole team it's not just me it's it's everybody who is involved in the the life of the students The Faculty the administration myself we all work very hard to to get these students to move forward and and be successful in their lives so I thank you once again yes teacher of the year 2020 just the formal part making sure that we're moving forward in the agenda Malala yasi once said one book one pen one child and one teacher can change the world it is that time of year when we as a community bestow one of the greatest honors Upon Our Educators naming our teacher of the year today we have the privilege of recognizing a Bristol teacher showcasing how her dedication and hard work embody the transformative power
027of Education that that Malala spoke about these individuals represent all of the caring and committed Educators within the Bristol Public School System this year we received an astounding 152 teacher nominations and every year it keeps getting higher and higher so again that's the highest number of nominations we've had a testament to the exceptional dedication of Bristol's Educators their commitment to student growth support for colleagues and contributions to the community shine through in these nominations choosing just one recipient from this pool of outstanding nominees is an immense challenge however the time has come to unveil our 2025 teacher of the year and I couldn't be more thrilled to share this exciting announcement with you the slide kind of gives it away but I would like to invite Mrs an tanelli up to the podium now is
028your turn from the multitude of nominations one candidate emerged as the standout Choice through her exemplary application and interview performance the teacher of the year committee has proudly selected an tasselli as the 2025 Bristol teacher of the year Mrs tasselli a self-professed BPS kid and a graduate of Bristol Eastern High School has deep roots in the community with her parents par s who are also here this evening still residing next to Mountain View school she has dedicated her 17-year teaching career to Bristol Public Schools where her commitment to education has remained steadfast currently she serves as a fifth grade teacher at Green Hill school where her positive influence on students and colleagues alike is truly commendable in her classroom Mrs tal tasselli adheres to a motto attributed to Theodore Roosevelt people don't care about how
029much you know until they know how much you care she emphasizes to her students that she has deeply invested in their well-being and academic growth fostering a sense of trust and belonging this commitment to building relationship forms the foundation of a supportive classroom Community where students feel empowered to take risks and extend their learning beyond the confines of a classroom a poignant example of this is Miss Tonelli's lesson on chocolate which serves as a catalyst for the fifth grade students to explore complex issues and develop a sense of global citizenship during these lessons the class delves into an article titled chocolate from children by Deb dun which sheds light on the harsh realities faced by children in Coco producing regions who are deprived of educational opportunities and forced to work in Coco Fields Miss tal
030tasselli guides her students through discussions and activities that prompt critical thinking and compassionate action many students are inspired to write letters to chocolate companies and become conscious consumers of chocolate asking their parents to seek out products certified by organizations like the rainforest Alliance or fair trade through such lessons Mrs talson Elli instills in her students a sense of empathy and responsibility towards Global issues preparing them to become informed and engaged change makers in their communities in both our application an interview Mrs tasselli humbly acknowledged her nomination as Bristol's teacher of the year attributing her success to the collective efforts of her fellow Educators within Bristol Public Schools she expressed profound gratitude for the mentorship and guidance she received both as a student and now as a colleague in her application she eloquently stated we as
031Educators play a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of our students lives from Early Childhood to high school graduation each teacher contributes to the collective effort of nurturing the potential within every Bristol student her words underscore the interconnectedness of the educational journey and the profound impact of dedicated teachers in shaping the future of their students and Society at large and receiving the honor of Bristol's teacher of the year Mrs Ms tanelli stands as a shining example of the dedication and excellent that charact an Excellence that characterizes Educators within our entire Community her unwavering commitment to her students coupled with her passion for fostering empathy and Global awareness embodies the transformative power of educ education as we celebrate Miss Tess's remarkable achievement let us also recognize the invaluable contributions of all teachers and Educators who strive
032tirelessly to inspire and empower the Next Generation through their Collective efforts they plant the seeds of knowledge compassion and possibility nurturing a future where every child potential can blossom EMB embodying the transformative power that Malala YF saai envisioned one book one pen one child one teacher at a time congratulations to our 2025 Bristol teacher of the year thank you um so before I begin I was looking at um the Latin slides and that's why we teach right I turned to my mom and I said oh there's two students that I had in fifth grade and I pointed them out right away so that's what I do what I why I do what I do is to see kids succeed um I'm deeply honored and humbled to accept Bristol's um 2025 teacher of the year award
033this recognition is just not just a testament of my efforts but in the incredible support system that surrounded me throughout my journey first and foremost I want to thank my mom and my dad your unwavering love guidance belief in me have been my Foundation you've taught me the value of Education and instilled in me the passion of learning and teaching to my husband Rich your support and understanding have been invaluable you've been my rock encourage me every step of the way and understanding the late nights and as Mr godette would say very early mornings when I get there before him sometimes um that come with this profession I couldn't have done this without you um to my two wonderful children Andrew and Nora you inspire me every day your curiosity and enthusiasm for learning remind
034me why I chose this path thank you for being my greatest cheerleaders to my lovely three sisters um eron Kathleen and Trisha as well as your families your constant encouragement and love mean the world to me you've always been there to lift me up and celebrate my successes and I'm incredibly grateful for our bond to my incredible colleagues um thank you for your camaraderie and collaboration teaching is not a solitary Endeavor and I'm fortunate to work alongside such great and amazing dedicated and inspired professionals finally a heartfelt thank you to my administrative team at Green Hills Scott gardette uh Megan Riner and Erica Coleman your leadership and support Have Been instrumental in creating an environment where both teachers and students can Thrive thank you for believing in me and fostering our community of Excellence this
035recognition is a testament to the collective effort of all of us I wouldn't be here without that entire team I just talked about thank you again for this honor let's continue to make a difference for the students in bristles Public School schools together thank you so both our par educator of the year and our teacher of the year will be moving on to the state contest so we have some high hopes for their continued uh acknowledgement for their hard work from across the state of Connecticut and we'll be celebrating in the fall in a reception held for both of them thank you thank you so much and congratulations to all of our award winners and those who were featured in tonight's student and staff recognition now we will move on to approval of the minutes
036uh on May 1st 2024 there was a special meeting meet and greet minutes so you have all received a copy of the minutes in your packet are there any corrections or extensions exstension okay one abstention any others okay can I have a motion to approve the May 1st 2024 special meeting meet and greet minutes as written with one exstension motion to approve second all in favor I I now I if commissioner ponds is online we may need to do a roll a roll call vote I I could just say I I'm the only one online no commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes I have yours as an exstension commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner oen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner Van Gorder yes commissioner tarello absent uh chair pwn yes motion passes unanimously thank you
037next we will move on to the May 1st 2024 regular board meeting um can I have a motion to approve the May 1st 2024 oh excuse me before that um everyone has received a copy of the regular meeting minutes are there any corrections or abstentions no okay can I have a motion to approve the May 1st 2024 regular meeting minutes as written to approve second okay I believe we need to do another roll call vote please commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bua yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner van Gord yes chair ponds yes motion passes unanimously um through the chair yes um I was I I was I asked for some clarification earlier this week I'm wondering where our meeting minutes are for our
038special meeting we had on May 14th special meet that was um about three weeks ago I think per state statue they are supposed to be listed within seven days are we able to confirm if those have been posted through the chair they are they are complete I am waiting for guidance from our attorney as to how they are to be approved as they were in executive session and there's been back and forth on how um our executive session minutes are approved and anything about the Open session after executive session I'm waiting for guidance so I don't know what okay yeah I'm just concerned because we took a vote on two agenda items which were the um contract on the interim superintendent in the removal of the director of communications so since it was a 10
039pm meeting I think it's important for the public to see those minutes it well noted um we'll see if we can Circle back with our board attorney to ensure that we can get the guidance needed to um respond thank you through the chair yes yes I I'm curious why we would need guidance for a public meeting that we convened into that really shouldn't fall outside any other public meeting reporting of minutes and the timeliness of doing so to our constituents very confused about that I think that's noted as well um in the the interest of me filling in for chair ponds um I don't know if chair ponds wants to weigh in I know that there was some conversation to ensure that anything done in executive session was kept confidential and then there was the
040um going back into public session for the votes and I know that that was something conveyed to the attorney um so I I don't want to misspeak because I was not priv conversation yes um I share the same concerns I don't know why it's not being shared publicly I have no idea so I think their concerns are valid and as soon as uh I don't see why we wouldn't just an you know process the minutes with the outcomes of what we voted on as we've done in the past Su the shair do the minutes usually get approved by the attorney for all of our meetings no so just so why why is this one Treo different it wasn't at the dire it wasn't at my direction that this I'm not I'm not saying that it
041was I'm just wondering why the change in um how we do things I share your I share your your concern so it sounds like two items of resolution are needed um one being the acknowledgement of the vote once we left executive session for the um Acting Superintendent contract in the second being the um position for the executive director of communications so if we can Circle back to the board attorney um unfortunately I don't see resolution for this meeting but we we hopefully then have some resolution in the very near future and we can connect obviously with Miss Everett as well to see if there's something we can do to facilitate that resolution uh one last point to the chair sure um it's a it's a different point that's been made it it's also extremely concerning
042because those votes impacted budget line items and then there was a special finance committee meeting held tonight which utilized some of the changes that were approved from that meeting to adjust budget items and the public wasn't even informed about the first change and then a special meeting was held tonight with no public comment which has also uh been something that we agreed to as a board that all special meetings would from now on have special comment it was scheduled very quickly for Commissioners to adjust to and there were items on that agenda that were um very concerning to the public because they were related to other workshops extensive work that we did with um booster clubs activity funds gate fees and once again we had to delay an agenda item on a special meeting agenda
043that we didn't notice the public for it didn't allow I'm Excuse me retract that we noticed the public but we didn't allow public comment which is how we had agreed to move forward and now we have to have another Workshop in order to gain public commment so I would please ask the board leadership to follow through on their commitment to transparency and providing not only board members but the community with enough notice about special meetings and to make sure that there's public comment on them and if we're going to provide special meetings at very short notice to the public that they are um needed because of time constraints and we don't through the chair as as the chair of that committee I'd like to speak chair chair Carlson of that committee acknowledged um I followed
044my standard procedure for special meetings based on my previous time on city council so there was never public comment on special meetings at that time so I just literally did not include it and that was oversight on my part I'm I apologize for that thank you commissioner thank you um chair Pon did you want to no Eric Eric set his P thank you so that's duly noted and thank you uh commissioner Carlson certainly um doesn't hurt for us to take a look at our practices and see whatever ways we might be able to to tighten those up and to improve our communication to ensure that the community is well advised and um that we're supporting collaborative practices okay if there is nothing else on this we will move on to committee reports starting with finance
045and operations okay um and unfortunately I was late to the committee so I didn't chair it at the time um but all items were basically tabled and more discussion items than anything else um and again we're putting those off till future meeting so the next regular schedule meeting we'll see these items thank you thank you policy good evening policy met on May 22nd um and we did have some pretty robust discussions around around um our agenda items we learned some more information around cheer competition uniforms how many teams within the CCC have one comp uniform versus two um I'm sorry practice and game and then a comp uniform we did discuss our bylaws and um had some really great conversation around a potential schedule um creating a schedule to review them on a regular basis
046that's still in the works and further discussion needed on that um we discussed school climate policy um bylaw 9326 minutes taping broadcasting and policy 2141 Recruitment and appointment of superintendent um those last two um agenda items will be coming back on our next policy committee meeting for further discussion all in all it was a really robust conversation thank you you thank you next is school family and Community Partnerships a committee that I chair uh we started our meeting by activating well-being which is a way to um support relational practices and connect with one another in a less transactional way then we moved on to community conversations and the potential of bringing in community voice and how that would impact the work we're doing at school family family Community Partnerships knowing that each Community member um
047has something important to contribute and how might we engage community members members of the school community members of the community at large students parents Etc no resolution there but just really starting to open that up for conversation we also discuss school family Community Partnership committee expansion looking at the committee and the potential for expanding the committee Beyond just the board members so looking at uh student Representatives um PTA Representatives parent Representatives staff rep staff Representatives really making sure that we have um diversity in the voice and representation again no resolution there but just conversational also looked at tari reporting for District transportation and District practices in the way that it um um assigns uh absences or tardies based on District transportation challenges that has been something discussed widely throughout the district and we wanted to
048look at potential policy which is um a task for another committee but again looking at how we can create Partnerships to ensure that students across all schools in Bristol have um an equal application of practice thank you next um student achievement and outcomes hello so student achievement committee and outcomes met on May 15th um and we had uh three informational items real impact initiative partners for educational leadership student outcome data fiveyear smarter balanced peer assessment and then a sharp update um we also had three curriculum revisions that we moved to the full board which we'll be learning about more tonight um those included modern American history Emer Emergency Medical Response and um algebra and Algebra 1 eth grade revision thank you thank you moving on to labor relation through the chair where are you here
049it's ly oh thank you sorry the budget has to be voted on today so the budget that we originally proposed to you the changes that were made in the that we proposed last meeting or the ones that we proposed to go through the special meeting today would have to be done or we're going to have to have another meeting before June 30th okay thank you you're welcome let me just review the agenda to see if we are needing to do that in new business okay Labor Relations uh we're still in in uh process with three unions uh I can never remember the numers 38 um again nothing's been signed I'm looking for the true the chair 818 3551 and 2267 Dr deer for the win and the save thank you Dr deer and thank you
050um Mr Carlson okay so let's see okay now we have the honor of moving to student representative reports first we will start with Bristol Central and we have Abigail Wasa our Junior student representative good evening board members today I will be reporting on Bristol Central High School for the month of May many of our spring Sports had a successful season Bristol Central boys track and field completed an undefeated CCC South season with many individual boys becoming CCC South Champions the boys then went on and placed third at class L championship and are off to New England Championship boys lacrosse had an excellent season as well winning the CCC South Division tournament for the first time in addition the BC golf team won the 2024 CCC Championship two of our Bristol Central students were recognized as
051a 2024 cast CIA scholar athletes congratulations to them to other Bristal Central students were recognized as the cast c Special Olympics Unified sports awards for their dedication commitment and enthusiasm congratulations to them as well the Bristol boys and girls swim teams and their coaches were honored for their sportsmanship by the Western CT swimming officials Association this is an amazing accomplishment congratulations both BC Juniors and seniors had a great time at prom this year before the actual dance these students watched the mock accident that was put together by the Bristol Fire Department Department Police Department EMS and BC performing art students thank you for putting this together and for teaching our students to be safe and make smart decisions both proms were extremely successful and lots of fun great job to all the class officers and
052advisers for fundraising all year and planning such a fun night in World Language news many of our Latin students had a great time at CT Latin day at the beginning of the month the students played games dressed up ate great food and learned less about the culture throughout the the year many of our Italian students have gone to Southside school to teach the students the Italian language this past month our Southside Scholars graduated from the Italian program in addition the annual Italian car show made its way back to bchs students were able to see sit in and ask questions about the Italian cars and culture bchs Performing Arts put on a wonderful show in the spring performance the Jazz Band procussion Ensemble and concert band performed and were amazing the magic girls BC flats and
053concert choir performed at the spring Coral concert and were incredible as well we would like to congratulate all of our Juniors and seniors that were inducted into the National Honor Society this month our students have worked incredibly hard and should be proud of themselves for receiving this honor the senior NHS officers and advisers put together a beautiful ceremony to welcome the new inductees Bristol Central hosted a successful Awards night this past month freshman received excellence awards Juniors received book awards and our seniors received scholarships for next year there were other special awards given as well we are so proud of all our students for how hard they have worked this whole year we're especially proud of Isabel poino and Olivia Nory who were named valedictorian and salutatorian at awards night congratulations to them as the
054school year is rapidly coming to a close all of our underclassmen are busy preparing for finals as our seniors prepare for graduation we are sad to see our friends and fellow classmates go but we're excited to send them off and watch as they in continue their journey in life we wish them the the best of luck I look forward to updating you all on future events thank you thank you very much wonderful now we go over to Bristol Easterns Payton Troth also a junior hi everybody uh this June report will consist of sporting events and activities as well as updates on academics and extracurriculars at Bristol Eastern High School the past two nights Bristol Eastern has had two events held at the school such as the sports banquet as well as the academic and scholarship
055Awards as the sports season comes to an end the teams of Bristol Eastern had a final commemoration the coaches players family and friends came together to honor the best moments and players of the season with sports coming to an end for the school year Eastern is grateful for the athletes who have kept our School competitive and kept the spirit of Lance surprise of ler Pride alive throughout the passion of sports last night many students were given awards for the academic achievements students received many scholarships and were recognized for their efforts this past school year congratulations to both students and student athletes who have worked tremendously hard this year this past month Bristal Eastern has had lots of activities for both students and teachers to be a part of starting off with our mental Awareness Day
056students and teachers participated in a handful of events uh and activities that focus on different uh elements of mental health therapy dogs were in attendance as well as firefighters uh my favorite part was being able to make the beaded string that helped with breathing techniques we also had a speaker who spoke on his battles of anxiety and depression and this gave uh lots of insight to students and allowed them to feel seen Bristal Eastern finds their students mental health to be at the top of their priority and as a student I am very grateful for my school's Care on such heavy topic like that uh the end of the year activities have been in full swing as finals and graduation are coming up very quickly uh after proms seniors are really focusing on all the
057final details before graduation as underclassman are preparing for finals and next year's schedule which we just got today though finals can cause stress our annual walk week has given us students and teachers time to not be overwhelmed each class this week is given the opportunity to go outside and walk the track seniors recently had their senior Beach life prank and Senior Sunset where all 12th graders participated it was great to see all the seniors come together for their for one of their last celebrations the Lancer students and staff have been working diligently throughout this whole year and specifically this semester and we look forward to continuing the hard work this concludes my junior report for Bristol Eastern High School have a good evening another wonderful report thank you so much now we will move to
058the chair report chair Pond do you have a chair report to share this evening chair ponds may not be online I was am online I'm sorry I'm just I'm not I do not have a report thank you thank you very much now we will move it back to this um Acting Superintendent Iris white for her superintendent report thank you thank you commissioner Simmons and good evening everyone it's my pleasure to uh provide you with my first superintendent's update I want to begin by giving my own staff and student recognition um I want to take an opportunity to say thank you to the C office cabinet staff Board of Education Commissioners executive assistant Susan Everett for all of their support and helping me transition as Acting Superintendent I feel very well supported everyone's been very patient
059with me and it means a great deal to me so I want to say that acknowledge that publicly to all of you I also want to say that I receive all the parents forare messages from principles and I love seeing all the student recognition and awards there are too many to mention tonight but and and I certainly don't want to mistakenly leave anyone out but it's evident that we have some amazingly talented staff and students and as much as we can talk about and celebrate that I think the better off we all will be so that's really going to be my focus and my update tonight I also had the opportunity to meet as a central office Town Hall um actually in this room with staff from the central office and really it was my
060first opportunity to introduce myself as the Acting Superintendent for formally and also present my three Focus areas for the coming months um three Rs resiliency reputation and relationships the first one resiliency really talks about acknowledging the unprecedented two or three weeks that we've had as a district and really acknowledging what that has meant to each staff member every family member and every student and during this challenging time I really want to acknowledge that the level of professionalism and focus has been very strong throughout the district um everyone has really focused on the mission to teach and learn with passion and purpose and is really dedicated to ending the strong the end of the year on a strong note so I want to acknowledge that um and thank everyone for that um and my role will
061continue to be to provide leadership so staff feels supported in their roles and are able to avoid distractions and really continue the good work that they are doing and that they want to do the second R was reputation I understand an important part of my job as Acting Superintendent is uphold The credibility and integrity of the district to really talk about um the wonderful things that are happening in the district and want to focus on those wonderful things and not always on the challenges so really the focus is on keeping that strong reputation that Bristol has had and we want to continue to Main main so I wanted to reiterate my commitment to that also on developing positive relationships I'm committed to establish positive relationships with the Board of Ed Commissioners Educators staff parents students
062and those who represent them as well as a larger community and again I want to share the wonderful things that we are happen that are happening here in Bristol schools um our Focus over the summer is going to be to really expand our social media presence we have a new website that will be updated where we'll be able to post video and photos so we really want to highlight the wonderful things that are happening in Bristol so we will have more opportunities to do that um and during Monday's Town Hall I also encourage staff to share positive messages with their friends families and networks I think together we can all work to focus on doing that so I'd really love everyone's commitment to doing that school visits I want to thank the administrators at those
063schools that invited me to visit their schools um as it is the end of the year and everyone is very busy I wanted to just give an open invitation to any principal who wanted to invite me uh to come visit and this is the list of schools that I have been able to visit and during these visits I was able to visit classrooms to observe instruction and really hear administrators talk with pride about their schools and their students my plan is to visit each of the schools in the fall and my hope is that some of the Commissioners will be able to join me on those visits it really is a wonderful reminder of why we do what we do and I also want to say that I'm excited about being at speaking at tomorrow
064night's adult education graduation ceremony strategic School reviews so one of my recent parents were messages I talked about the wonderful reputation that Bristol has had and when I was first announced as Acting Superintendent there were a number of other District uh Personnel who reached out to me because I heard about some wonderful practices that were happening in Bristol and this is just one I wanted to highlight and I wanted to really commend the work of uh Chief academic officer Carly foron and the office of teaching and learning I was able to uh observe some of the end of year strategic reviews and this is just another example of the Innovative practice ice at Bristol where the focus is really on looking at data and principles really self assessing with their team where their schools are
065and where their schools need to move in order to to provide that continuous Improvement so I really just wanted to highlight as that as one of the practices we can certainly have the team um do a deeper presentation on this but this is one of the practices that I wanted to highlight that I've been able to observe in my shirt three weeks as Acting Superintendent and finally I wanted to announce U the learner engagement and attendance program so uh the State Department of Education reached out to the district and invited us to participate in this program is research-based Grant funded opportunity to implement a relational multivisit home visit program designed as a Target intervention for students who have missed or have begun to miss too much school um you'll see the amount is $200,000 the
066funding period is between approval of application and ends January 31st 2026 the application deadline is April 28th 2024 and you see our leap district coordinator is going to be working on that um that application we do have an orientation that Erica and I will be attending next week to learn more about this program but is very exciting and we certainly will want to share with you updates about our progress on this program and CH commiss simus that concludes my update thank you very much for that very comprehensive update hope that your first three weeks was enlightening and enjoyable it has been wonderful thank you now we will move on to the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which will include items 81 a to 81 f so moved all
067in favor and I believe we'll need to do oh yes uh just quickly a quick comment about the consent agenda yes um I I just want to uh reiterate that for as long as I've been on this board I think commissioner um Carlson has been the only one in in here that's been on here longer we've always had a consent agenda on our um monthly Board of Ed meetings I think it's serves a a great purpose to our community about um the Staffing that we like to try to be transparent with um and we've always voted on the consent agenda so I just want the um board to be mindful that when we vote on a consent agenda that that is the will of the board because of a a vote has Tak in place
068and if there are any changes to items that had been voted on in a consent agenda that they really should be returning to a consent agenda and at least notifying the board um um I'll follow up further with the chair of leadership and um Iris after this meeting on those details um but I wanted to stress the importance of that and why we do that as a practice as this board has always done since I've been on it thank you duly noted your position I appreciate that thank you any other points on the consent agenda okay so we have a motion and it's been exed and now we will do a roll call vote commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bua yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons
069yes commissioner van Gord yes chair pwns yes motion passes unanimously wonderful now we will move to the public com comment component Miss ever did you receive any submitted public comment no I did not okay online so I think we should clarify was there an was there public comment online and I think that Miss Everett indicated no but then we do have some in-person public comment thank you so I will read the rules for public comment submitted public comment needs to be reviewed by 4M on the day of the meeting or received rather and send your comments to um Susan Everett at Bristol k12.org be sure to put public comment Boe in the subject line include your name and address director comments to the board chair your comments will be provided to Commissioners in place on
070file all comments should be written in an appropriate manner comments regarding Personnel or confidential student information shall not be discussed under public comment any comments not adhering to the guidelin will not be read at the meeting okay and did we have any so we don't have any online and we did not have any submitted to you so we didn't have any submitted and you'll ask them in a moment if there's someone online that would like to do public comment but you can also um do within the room first before okay you can call the public comment now okay so I do see that there are um members of the public present here that would like to make public comment um so now I will read the in-person public comment rules um everyone is requested to
071address the chair for recognition each speak speaker must State his or her name and address all speakers must observe rules of common etiquette personalities are not to be injected anyone violating this rule will be denied the floor unless Wave by the chairperson or a majority of the board each speaker shall limit his or her remarks to three minutes a speaker will not be recognized for a second time on the same topic and a little insertion of my own please know that while we are not able to hold conversation um we are certainly um acknowledging the person speaking but that we are not able to um have a conversation a reciprocal conversation so the first participant in public comment Tom barl you could please state your name and your address thank you the mic thank you
072my wife and I are here are not here today to express our opinion or to redress any personal grievance we come to you today as a man and a woman representing almighty God your creator what we are about to say should be coming from a clergy the clergy of the community but they have abdicated their responsibility and somebody has to shoulder it and we are doing it the Creator God who gives us life and breath in all things is the god of the Bible who most of you do not want to hear from in fact you have rejected him you you've driven him from your lives and from the school district and have robbed the children of Bristol from his influences automatically you default to the idea this is a state institution and God and
073religion have no place here however you do have a God here that you have that you have replaced the true God with the word de Dei is a Latin word for God small G in the genitive case this God Dei whose rainbow flag you wave to express every kind of sexual deviancy in opposition to the true Gods marriage love decency and propriety this God of yours accepts a plethora of diversity of ideas and principles except for the true God of the Bible's ideas and principles this God of yours promotes an atheist Marxist idea of equity and Justice to destroy America's founding true principles of equality True Justice life and Liberty that have been endowed To Us by our creator this God you worship includes every influence from Hell while it excludes every influence from Heaven
074the one true Living God has a message for you today and you will never forget these words yes you will mock them you will deny them but you will never forget them them because they are more real than you could ever believe they will follow you to Eternity the true God is fed up with the destructive influence of your Dei God that God is destroying children's innocence there will be consequences and judgments from God on you not anything from outside of you but from inside of you to put it in Jesus's terms it would be better if you would tie a millstone around your neck and cast yourself into the ocean than to confuse and destroy an innocent heart with your Dei Insanity I'll leave you with this it is a fearful thing to fall
075into the hands of the Living God thank you next Deborah bernel again I'm sorry barl thank you thank you U my name is Deborah Barrel I live to get this one okay my name is Deborah barell I live at 498 East Road and chair board commit committee me Members um we watched the video of last month's board meeting it seemed there was a lot of self congratulations on the part of the administration and the board how great the last year was and how great a job was done over the last seven years basically you were giving yourselves an A+ us on how you ran the district for the last seven years or so would you like to know the grade that God has given you no probably not well I'm going to tell you God
076gives you an F minus this year our school district under this Administration and under this board of education has installed tampon dispensers and teenage boys bathrooms if that's not a sign of dysfunctionality and Insanity then I can't imagine what is oh you say we were just following a legislative directive well for your information not every town in Connecticut followed that directive somewhere someone stood up for what is right you did not over the last seven years the children of this District have been psych psychologically poisoned by a radical lgbtq plus agenda that is haunting them and confusing them we have teachers in this District that encourage early sexualization of children and behind parents' backs encourage children to identify as gender opposite to which God created them over the last seven years the children of this
077District have been brainwashed with atheistic Mar Marxist ideology that contradicts the Constitutional values of our American Republic yes God gives us Administration in this board F minus however God is very merciful he's going to give you a makeup test if the next year you get rid of the tampon dispensers from the boys bathrooms they get rid of CR rid of critical race theory if you get rid of social emotional learning agenda you put your away your rainbow Flags begin to teach children Common Sense Godly principles and to keep God's Commandments in language arts mathematics and science so they can live happy useful lives and if you teach them morality not from man's point of view but from God's point of view God will have mercy on you so God is setting up before you today
078spiritual life or spiritual death up to this point you have chosen spiritual death God is beseeching you for your own sakes turn from your sins against God and repent rep of these consequences or Consequences of your Insanity will come upon you and Destroy You from inside out God is our creator and we were created in His image and likeness and he knows what we need and what what will make us happy and it's such a shame that America the school board this school system so many people have turned away from God when he made us and and we don't want to be like him and I think it's a shame that the school systems and the education and government and everything have have turned away and just want to be the opposite of God what
079God made us to be to be loving the time has expired thank you thank you next Joselyn Benoy good evening Joselyn Benoy 38 hi Molene here in Bristol first off I just want to thank the Board of Education and the Commissioners for creating a safe and um welcoming and nurturing environment um for all of our students no matter their beliefs sexual orientation um gender identity or expression whether or not they need tampons or what thank you for providing those things for our students so that they can feel safe and affirm Med in our schools thank you there are um parochial um and private schools that kids can also attend but um the students who you all are in charge of taking care of go to a public school um so thank you for um taking
080care of their social and emotional learning because if you don't take care of those things they can never attend to academic learning in the classroom thank you um so that's what I'd like to say about that that's not what I came here to say um but what I did come here to say is that um my I have a child who goes to Green Hill school we have been dealing with heating and air conditioning issues for a very long time probably since the school has been built um and I know that a lot of kids got dismissed um earlier in the week because it was 98 Degrees according to a thermometer on the third floor um on the Middle School side thank you central office for sending fans we appreciate that um but there's a
081lot of staff and students who that is just not a conducive learning environment um so my question is as a taxpayer we've already paid to build a nice beautiful building that doesn't have Heating and Cooling that has ever worked properly I think there's always been a heating and cooling van outside of Green Hill School like for my kids tenure which has been 8 years um and now we're paying again to get it fixed so my question is like who is on top of that who is making sure that is happening in a timely fashion and who decides what I mean granted I'm fortunate that my kids are actually in a building in Bristol that have air conditioning so I feel fortunate for that for sure but who decides what is too hot for our staff
082and students to to learn in on a daily basis so that's it thank you so much for all that you do thank you next Jennifer benevento try to leave her there that might not work um hello Commissioners um superintendent white thank you for having me here um again uh Jennifer benevento 239 Grove Street uh I have a 15-year-old Asher who goes to uh Bristol Eastern um he is in the special ed program so we have been in the district for a while now and eventually that little terror will also be your problem uh but you got a few years so um I wanted to also thank you all for what you do um it can't be easy to deal with all of the different needs of all of the different people in this community especially
083when various needs from different sides of the equation are are pecking in your ear uh I want to agree with Joselyn that I want to thank you for attending to the Social and emotional learning of our students um there was actually a discussion on Bristol talks somebody had posted something um about I'm assuming it's from a like a middle school or high school health class and it was talking about things like um what kind of qualities they would want in in a partner um it was talking about things like abusive relationships um how to help somebody get help if a friend of theirs was in a situation like that and there was discussion of similarly like this should not be part of our education in our public schools and I think that is exactly the
084kind of education we should be having in our Public Schools if anybody's paying attention to AI get ready y'all have no idea what you're going to need to teach her because you have no idea what kind of job she's going to need what she's going to need to do is learn how to sit quietly be kind to people work through collaborative you know processes disagree um treat each other with respect those are the kind of things we need need to instill in our kids um those are the kind of things that I see you embedding in the curriculum and I appreciate it because what's most important to me is that we do have good Global Citizens who are graduating from our schools and who are ready to come to a world that they don't know
085what to expect but they're going to be openhearted when they do I have to react a little bit to some of the I'm going to call it like petulant bickering that I see I'm just going to throw it out there if you're on this board and you think that the meeting minutes should have been posted seven days after and it's been three weeks why are we discussing that here publicly right now why don't you just call each other I don't understand that there's no reason for this you are models for my student for my daughter and she's watching people pick at each other for no good reason if you have a question about why something is not here right now be adults talk about it before you get in here because the example you're showing
086everybody is that there is no God there is no love there is no relationship and there is and I know there is because I almost every single one of you up here and I'm friends with almost single every one of you up here okay you have good Hearts stop this stop treating each other like you don't care when you do you're on the board of ed my goodness you know poor Miss White welcome to Bristol I hope we can treat each other with a little bit more respect and I see a lot of people grinning and smiling because nobody here thinks they're the one I'm talking to I'm talking to every single one of you okay that aside through the chair the time has expired thank you one last thing I just want to say
087common sense and being like Jesus is not about judging other people it's about being interested in learning and learning about other people who are different than you and not throwing shade and judgment and trying to make people look bad in public spaces behave please thank you thank you very much next we have Kelly badara bka Kelly bka thank you um Kelly bka for bridge PF I'm GNA keep it brief um I am the parent of an IV student on current yes no is that better yes okay um I am the parent of a current IB student and um I'm just feeling very much left in the dark as to what's been going on there over the last three to four weeks or whatever it's been um so I'd really just like to request that some
088more information be given given to us parents um in regard to what's been going on and how it impacts our kiddos and what the plan is for moving FL thank you thank you very much next we have Lauren Radia did I pronounce that correctly yes thank you good evening to the chair um who's not in the room and the other members of Board of Ed you all know who I am well most of you know who I am I'm Lauren falia I live at 79 beach with Lane I am here because of the incredible concerns that I have seen in the leadership of this board of education and the way things have been handled through the district um I have two kids in the district one of whom just left Ivy Drive School um my
089kids were both at Ivy Drive School so I was there collectively for 11 years and I had was on the leadership for at least three of those years uh for the PTA so I do still have quite a vested interest in that school but prior to that piece I just want to speak of something else which is I am not going to stand here and claim to have been an incredible fan of Dr Katherine Carbone however honestly the woman stood behind her staff and she knew what she was doing in trying to run a district of this size and instead we have a uh interim superintendent who doesn't really have any administrative experience and kind of is seems to be in way over her head and I don't mean that in any disrespectful way it's
090just I've seen a lot of things unfold just since the um board chair has taken a seat where within less than a month the superintendent puts in to retire and then another position is eliminated the communications position or something of that nature and then as I was speaking about Ivy Drive previously now we have the uh administrator at Ivy Drive School who has had her reputation kind of smeared across the uh entire State and the way that this was handled here has completely disrespected her confidentiality and it's all under the guise of I'm still learning things are being blasted across the entire District who's the new Su who's the new principal that's going to step in while she's not there has anyone checked in with her has anyone thought about her well-being has there been
091any support from the district any sort of like we're really sorry that this is how this was handled and that there were reporters outside of the school while kids were walking from the school to walk home some of them obviously didn't have parents with them because they just walked through the neighborhood to get home and we have cameras in our faces and nobody from central office is at the school at least not visibly and this stuff is all really really concerning because you know what the teacher or I'm sorry the administrator from that school has been in this District as an educator as an administrator for a very very long time and has an incredible reputation I'm not going to say that she's everybody's cup of tea because nobody is everybody's cup of tea but
092you know something she brought a lot of accolades to that school and now here we are nobody knows what's going on nobody can answer any questions and there's somebody there running the school um who doesn't really have a whole lot of experience as a principal and so I just sit here and you know I mean somebody here the chair the time has expired okay I'm just gonna let say couple last sentences and then I'm done somebody here was speaking about how you know all the bickering and whatnot that goes on it's so obvious that the leadership here has brought this board of education I don't know I hope you're proud of yourselves that's all I can say because it's really deplorable thank you thank you next we have Rachel Dean good evening ladies and gentlemen
093board chairs and uh Miss White um my name is Rachel Dean I live at 111 Old Turnpike Road um I need to glasses on I stand before you today as the PTA president at I Drive school for the past 3 years I've witnessed firsthand the incredible leadership and dedication miss Gomes brings to our school Community as a mother of three boys who have all benefited from her guidance I can attest the positive impact that she has had on their education and well-being my oldest who you will hear from shortly um struggles from anxiety and dyslexia when he came to Ivy uh he was too great levels behind in All State Testing he was terrified to start at a new school and Emily held a zoom meeting with him and was so patient um and answered
094all his questions uh she came up with a plan and got the right people involved and he's now entering High School testing out of Special Services Reading at a college level and preparing to take AP classes as a freshman my youngest has ADHD and as his parents we chose not to medicate him and Miss Gomes supported us again she knew a plan put it in place with what staff was best to handle his needs and he is excelling in all areas and absolutely loves school I want to emphasize that I wholeheartedly support Miss Gomes and believe that she will be cleared of all of these false allegations however in the meantime her absence not only takes a toll on our school it deprives our children of her presence Miss Gomes always has prioritized the education
095safety and well-being of the IV students her unw unwavering commitment and contributions should not be overshadowed by stupid baseless accusations during her tenure Miss Gomes has fostered an environment of inclusivity support for all students she is a rule follower an enforcer ensuring if there's a form to fill out it's filled out guidelines are followed meticulously while this sometimes FR frustrates the PTA we recognize that she does this with the best interest of the IV children at heart I'm appalled by the public handling of this investigation into these allegations why was it conducted so publicly why did the news become so heavily involved Miss Gomes is not accused of physically or emotionally harming a child in our district there have been incidents involving harm to children and they were not made public with less than a
096month remaining of the school this disruption causes caused by the situation has re havoc on our school Community as members of the Board of Education you continue to Champion our students education and wellbeing I implore you to uh to consider the impact of these decisions the best course of action now is to support Miss Gomes and bring her back to her rightful place at Ivy Drive School our children miss her and the well-being of them should be at your utmost priority thank you for your attention thank you next we have Wyatt Dean hello hello board Commissioners and superintendent I am W County I live at uh 110 Old Turnpike Road and I'm a uh North uh eighth grader at Northeast Middle School I am a prior student of Ivy Drive uh today I stand before
097you to advocate for miss sces our ex principal who faces accusations that in my opinion are unfounded and due to the media I know Miss Gomes has been an exceptional leader constantly prioritizing her students needs her support has been instrumental to my academic and personal development as well as that of many others I would like to take a minute of your time to recount my experience and the positive impact of Miss Gomes impact that Miss Gomes has had on my life returning my returning to Ivy Drive after attending a magnet school from grades 1 to four I found myself lagging behind in two grade levels of in Reading struggling in math because of that as well as struggling with severe anxiety ad miss these challenges I was starting a new starting a new during the
098pandemic Miss GES took time engaging in a summer Zoom call with me to address my my concerns which had which was a game changer her patience and reassurance played a crucial role in boosting my confidence said she knew just the teacher to assign me to when we started she put together a super team that helped that helped me because of everything she did for me by the end of the last year I tested out of special services and I'm on honoral I will be starting my freshman year in the fall taking AP History none of this would have been possible without Miss Gomes Miss Gomes has always f fostered a sense of self-pride and pride and school pride within us her office was a safe place of guidance and support Miss celebrated our achievements and
099motivated us to conquer our obstacles she was not only a teacher but a mentor a friend and a role model who led by example I am confident that Miss gumes will be cleared of all charges and will return to her rightful place it is in my belief that we should we should be rallying behind her aiding her to return to the school and the students who depend on her like myself she has more than earned our support and recognization for her contributions to our school and Community we should stand with with her expressing our our appreciation and eagerness for her her return she would be doing the same for us thank you for your time and attention thank you that is all we have for inperson public comment but before we move on Miss Everett
100just want to confirm that we do not have any other public comments no we do not thank you very much now we will turn it over to Dr deer deliberated items District leadership team reports good evening Commissioners I have a brief report this evening regarding our district dress down days uh you may recall from previous meetings uh we do on a monthly basis post dress down days staff can opt in by making a donation uh over the course of this current school year uh we've raised in excess of $77,000 for local uh nonprofits uh including the Henry Bernard Memorial fund the Bristol Police scholarship Board of Ed immediate response funds Bristol business Ed Foundation local food pantries F frc's and the kids in the programs our districtwide unified um arts and theater programs bral adult
101Resource Center Shephard Meadows bcba and BPA scholarships uh the Bristol veterans and uh this past month uh we did host an event for the United Way day of caring uh that concludes my report if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them wonderful thank you so much now we will move on to Dr reenberg curriculum revision through the chair Special Services report oh my goodness Miss Martino I'm so sorry and sorry to Dr reenberg um and thank you to Miss Everett Special Services report with Amy Martino good evening Commissioners good evening superintendent and Madam chair tonight I will be reporting on the special education enrollment count as of May 1st 1,845 of the 8,140 enrolled Bristol students are identified as requiring special education programming this enrollment reflects 22.67% of the total BPS student population
102as of May 1st 120 students with disabilities required out of District placements at private special education school programs there are 79 students requiring special education programming services at other public outof district schools that would that would include magnet schools during the month of April 2024 21% of the newly registered students were identified as students requiring special education programming at the time of registration one of the newly enrolled students during the month of April received their program and services at an outof District special education program and lastly during the month of April there were 28 211 and 9 911 calls are there any questions thank you thank you very much and now there she is Dr reenberg for curriculum revision thank you good evening Commissioners so before you you have grade eight mathematics you have both
103the academic and the accelerated version grade 8 math academic is our illustrative math the revision really focused on the identification of common formative and summative assessments as well as adding success criteria to the curriculum that you had previously seen years ago The Accelerated version of algebra or algebra that we offer in grade eight is the same algebra accelerated that we offer at the high school level with one exception and that one exception is unit one and unit one is exponents and scientific notation last month I shared with you the grade seven um curriculum and the bridge curriculum and in that bridge curriculum we shared that there is an extensive amount of content that has to fit in um prior to the grade 8 SBA admin Administration so we did opt to move some of that
104content into our algebra course it sets us up for Success because it feeds the second unit of instructions you'll see those were the major changes that were made to grade 8 mathematics and at this time I'll take any questions or a motion questions no okay uh can I have a motion to approve the grade eight math and alra curriculum revision motion to approve second roll call vote please commissioner Anderson commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bulla commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner Van Gorder yes chair Pond yes motion passes [Music] unanimous okay and Dr reenberg you have the floor again with Emergency Medical Response curriculum revision so as part of our health and medical pathway we are looking to extend extend our cour workor to include a new course
105called emergency medical responder EMR for short this course I did make an error with student achievement that I want to note during student achievement I um shared that this would be a semester course for a half a credit I was incorrect it is a full credit full year course and you can see by the number of units that makes sense with 16 units up there um so I just want to make sure that everyone is clear on that um this course is an incredible opportunity for our students it gives them extensive knowledge and background around looking at an emergency situation and responding um we have an incredible Health occupations teacher Dr Carline Richardson who really advocated in moving this course over and bringing the credential to our students our students will be credentialed through the
106American Red Cross as a result of completing this course and the appropriate assessments and with that I can take any questions or if somebody would like to make a motion I just have a couple questions sure um not necessarily about the curriculum but how many students is that available to you know so right now it will run the way that um Dr Richardson is scheduled she'll run one section in each building so she's running one section at Bristol Central with a maximum of 24 students and one section at Bristol Eastern with a maximum of 24 students is there any prerequisite required for this course no thank you any other questions okay hearing none uh can I have a motion to approve the Emergency Medical Response curriculum revision so so moved by uh commissioner Carlson did
107I hear a second second okay excellent uh roll call vote please commissioner Anderson commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bua yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner van Gord yes chair ponds yes motion pass unanimously thank you thank you okay next we have the modern American history curriculum revision Mr Ward but that is reversed that's me okay I okay all right thank you sure apologies good evening Commissioners so I'm here to present the modern American history curriculum revisions modern American history is a one credit course required for graduation the curriculum was revised over the course of this year to align with newly released social studies standards was presented to the student un Committee in April and then again for further discussion in May um if there's any additional questions
108I'd be happy to answer them now or I can ask for a motion to approve advised R home there the chair yes um first of all I would like to thank um Leach for the time he spent with me after the meeting in April I had raised some concerns about just a couple of the items I had seen in the history curriculum um mostly due to um some sensitivities to our constituents that may have lived through um some recent events and being modern American history you know we definitely consider recent events in the in the curriculum uh I thought that the they did a great job in the curriculum the curriculum itself was presented to us the way we always get things with um incredible content great detail um and always in a collaborative environment
109where our curriculum staff appreciates the commentary from the Commissioners and the robust discussions that we have um I I really want to thank lak because he spent an extra hour after that meeting speaking with me about my concerns um and I know that the committee um approved a change to one piece that I had concern with at at the April meeting meeting um and then it was returned back to committee uh I also believe in that process of returning items to committee when there's more discussion to be had I've done that practice in the past myself uh unfortunately it couldn't be there for the second one and the um the committee uh changed the mind and reversed the content back to where it was um so I respect the decision of the committee but I
110wanted to reach out and thank um uh lak I do think that there's um some latitude there with the uh instructors to uh do as they always do and keep in mind this uh the sensitivities of students in in our classrooms and when we start getting in topics in history that may have overlapping circles with politics um my concern is always from the constituency that reaches out reaches out to me and gets concerned about um put politics in the classroom um because like we see in society that can be um an area that can get complicated I would imagine for a teacher in the classroom I have the full confidence of our staff that manages those conversations in the classroom and then uh we'll hopefully manage them outside the classroom as well the only thing
111I will say though for um those parents that might be concerned with those with those issues and can't attend meetings um that we are here to bring all of those points of view to curriculum committee they're important to be heard um they're important they're important reminders um in the first meeting the um curriculum committee actually did not have any issues with what was being corre uh requested so I just want to correct the record that no commissioner was trying to change curriculum it was a a question about an assignment that might have some sensitivity related to it at the end of the day parents through the protection of pil rights amendment will always have the right to protect the political beliefs of their students in the classroom and that's a clause the hatch amendment the
11214th Amendment of the Constitution so there are opport opportunities and ways that parents can make sure that their students are entering into safe spaces when it comes to politics in the classroom thank you once again for the hard work that you do thank you commissioner anything else on this topic questions comments yeah share a comment um and thank you commissioner G Antonio for those comments um it is really appreciated you know I think hearing that perspective is is really great and really helpful um I also do want to thank the committee I appreciate the process of being able to send it back um revisit some of the questions that we've received um I know for me personally um I had some questions around the facilitation and the support and I feel like the presentation that
113we received in the second committee meeting was really really helpful um in how um the the teacher is able to facilitate and support those tough conversations um and allow for opportunities for choice if a topic gets to be um difficult or challenging for the group um so I just want to thank everyone for that process and allowing us to revisit some of those questions and concerns that we received you turned it off thank you any other questions or comments hearing none can I have a motion to approve the modern American history curriculum revision motion to approve second roll call vote please commissioner Anderson commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bulla yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner van Gord yes chair PS yes motion passes 7 to1 thank you
114going back to Mr Ward textbook adoption oh wait a second okay yes modern American history textbook second reading so along with that curriculum revision we have the second reading of a textbook to accompany that curriculum the first reading of the textbook was presented here at the May Board of Education meeting um having received no questions since I Pres presentation I'd be happy to either answer them now or ask for a motion to approve the modern American textbook questions motion to approve okay wonderful so we have a motion to approve the modern American history textbook as presented do we have a second second roll call vote please commissioner Anderson commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons Wula yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner Van Gorder yes chair ponds yes motion
115passes 7 to1 thank you Mr Ward thank you moving on to new business are there any Ms of new business presented before the board I believe we need to bring at for new business the um recommended budget cut that we reviewed in the special meeting no last meeting sorry I take that back pass it over to you Lynn would you mind presenting what we um the topic in which we need to present before new business you need to vote to bring it to new business okay and so we're looking to bring the budget recommended recommended budget cuts to new business so we have a motion made um by commissioner Carlson do we have a second to bring the recommended budget cuts to new business thank you roll call vote uh can we have discussion please
116sure please have a clarification on what the new business motion is which budget cut meeting because there was one right before this meeting so if you just have clarification on which one it would be the one that was presented to the full board last month because the one there was there's a a a question about the minutes from that special meeting that would make the one I presented at the special meeting today not right here the chair yes acknowledged um why would we vote on something that didn't reflect the minutes of the special meeting when we all know the outcome of the votes in the special meeting they're not a secret we voted to eliminate the position um and we voted to give uh this Acting Superintendent a contract so I mean everyone is aware
117and it it's it it is what it is so I don't understand why we wouldn't be moving forward with the way we voted why would we vote on something that's I'm just confused uh through the chair maybe uh and I I don't know either but maybe because we didn't post the minutes from that meeting they weren't the the the public was not notified of our vote I don't know if that complicates the matter or not I really don't um but I don't think we should be voting at all so I think if we need to we'll have another meeting but I don't think we should push something through um that doesn't reflect what we did I I feel like it's a technicality I don't know who made the decision not to post the minutes um
118I know myself I spoke to um our lawyer Tom Mooney and the minutes were approved I mean they didn't the secretary during executive session didn't write anything that couldn't have been used so I'm just very confused who made the decision and and why we are where we are with this just for a point of clarification the minutes were not approved they've never come to vote that was the question earlier no no no they weren't approved by us but they were not they the lawyer did not tell me not to do anything with the minutes like he didn't I didn't I wasn't advised not to release the minutes so right now we have a motion on the floor um which has not been yet seconded to oh did it was it seconded by R I apologize
119I think there was clarification about what we were voting for and I'm not sure that everyone was clear of that when we did the motion do we even want to put this into in new business right now we're you're putting a motion on the floor to add this to the agenda and I don't think it should be added to the agenda tonight I think if we need to do this then we'll have a special you know we can we we'll have another meeting before the date if we have to but right now considering things are not clear I don't think we should Rush this so we can do a roll call Vote Yes I can't hear whoever's talking the mic your mic can you hear me now hello yes I can all right so my
120my question would be are there certain items on that uh on that agenda that are time sensitive that uh we must vote on within a certain time frame through the chair um we need to approve the general fund budget so that we can start entering everything for the new year um the we can you can change the budget at any time we just need to make whatever Cuts you want to make and approve them so that we can start doing the work for next fiscal year and by cuts are we talking about the position and some of the items that were recently discussed okay thank you for pulling that up by June 30th we need to have the vote is that what what Lynn said I don't I don't believe a a a date was
121provided in the last meeting I think it was okay so uh through the chair yes so we would be voting on a budget that was voted on prior to the vote that was taken today on the budget I'm very confused I'm confused about that as well this what you see in front of you is what was presented to the finance committee at the meeting today okay that that's clarification to I think the point that we need to directly address now which is we have a motion on the floor to move this into the budget budget into the into new business we have a second through the chair yes the the item provided in the meeting before this meeting looks different than that item up there so there is on that just I'll just put just
122for example just strictly for example not the oh sure please you know a conversation said anybody Row one says reduce positions at BAM and the teacher salary for those courses the one that was in the special meeting tonight says move those positions at bames to Alliance funding you're correct Kristen and that's the correct budget should be the one that you're referencing thank you so let me find the one that we presented I'm sorry yes that's the one that I'm trying to find to put up all right while she's doing that last point of clarification right now the only motion on the floor is to add it to new business so that's correct once we have the right materials on the board everybody's comfortable we can take that motion correct to add it to new business
123and vote accordingly how people feel correct all right thank you let's get it up on the board to see whether or not we want to move it on the agenda for new business can't see thank care are we good okay so before us are the possible budget cuts in which we're considering to put on the agenda for new business I'll give everyone a moment just to review it so that we can God bless you so that we can determine if there's any more discussion about this and then if we're going to go and then we'll go to our roll call vote uh through the chair yes the vote to add it to new business puts it on the agenda yes we and then if you wanted to act on the budget you would have to
124have another motion that's correct thank you chair okay yes just a point of clarification at first when the question was asked which budget we were going to vote on uh Lyn answered and said the budget that was approved or discussed last month and after we just had this conversation now we are going to be voting on the budget that was presented today in the special meeting that's seems to be a fair appraisal there may have been a little bit of communic uh a little bit of confusion initially but I hope that we've rectified that so after a few moments to review what has been presented uh before us we are voting to determine if we would like to put the proposed budget cuts on the agenda in new business let's go to a roll call
125vote commissioner Anderson commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bua yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner van Gord yes chair ponds yes motion passes unanimously okay now that this item is on the agenda for new business we can determine whether or not we would like to approve the proposed budget cuts as they are presented before us should we wish to do that I would need a motion in a second do I have a motion to approve the possible budget cuts presented before us as discussed in our special meeting are we approving the budget cuts or the budget we would be approving these recommended Cuts some moved okay so there's a motion on the floor to approve the recommended budget cuts as they are presented before us do I have
126a second I have a second I have a I I do believe I heard chair Pon second um open for discussion I have a question yes um so I remember in the previous budget there was a reduction of building pair professionals so in here um are we changing it from building Paras to special ed Paras or and just Lynn could explain that chair special education do the chair you could not be heard is that is that accurate Lyn commissioner Anderson would you mind repeating that now that your mic's on thank you yes I'll reiterate um I asked that same question uh um this evening and I was informed that those building peras were actually being switched to uh to uh you know sped peras so they would be uh helping with um special ed instruction
127and not being and not being um used as as buing pars any longer and that's two Paras three Paras two uh two Paras that's correct okay thank you through the chair yes similar question um there is a difference in responsibilities between building Paras and special education Paras um we're moving the positions um and I'm assuming that those that will be in those positions will have the proper credentials training other support of being a special education par professional at seamlessly is that the case yes are the existing building par professionals qualified to be special education paraprofessionals Miss Martino would you mind speaking to this thank you thank you thank you um so yes from a credentialing perspective all Paras have um equal opportunities for different par educator assignments at the beginning of this fiscal year we
128did speak with building and special education Paras and talked about you know despite having different current roles that all staff in the building should be used for student purposes um in addition all parent Educators regardless of how they're designated go through the same level of training that we provide throughout the year and we would be seeking to do the same in the future thank you very much for clarification are there any are there any other questions yes I um I see in here and I I'm I want to apologize to the to the board I would have asked these questions in committee but I could not and I know that that will be rectified in the future and I I appreciate um commissioner um Carlson's appr um appreciation for that um there are items that
129are going to move into alliance the two pair of professionals um the new positions at bames which from my understanding from slide 26 in the in the budget were to um it was 1.1 fulltime staff for the marketing class uh that was associated with the curriculum at Bay so and the um the building PA professionals and then the line item further down in the orange highlight for the biliteracy test supplies that came to about $12,999 in Alliance funding that wasn't there before so where did we get the extra Alliance funding to be able to cover the 11 12,99 that we're moving into alliance Lynn do you have uh feedback on that was this something that we covered in uh the special meeting um that was the cut from the position from the meeting that happened
130prior for the communications okay through the shair yes um I don't know if either of you could shine any light on this I know the budget process is laborious right um here Citywide um the city had not given the board of vet as much as we had originally requested and then I know they um settled on a on an amount and then I see here for the employee medical RX that are they just graciously giving us another $750,000 through the chair yes yes um they took it out of the Medical Reserve that they have over there for us and they gave us 750,000 to defay our budget costs thank you I have a secondary question regarding that amount in the the materials that we were given tonight it says the city gave us 750k the
131overage that we were trying to cover with that with those funds was a change in dollar amount of 27232 dollar so where is the other 2third of the 750k going through the chair yes the um original budget cut was 500 they gave us 500,000 at first and then they ended up giving us 750,000 and that is the difference between the one point the 15, 600,000 and the 15, 327,000 because the cost of the insurance when I budgeted for it was at 8% and we came in at 14.4% no I understand that the the cost differential but the change in the superintendent budget and the new budget is 27232 if we are taking in an additional $750,000 from the city it will cover the $ 27232 deficit that we're trying to protect in the increase in
132the benefit cost my my question is where's the rest of the $750,000 being applied that was from the original cut that we had before we went to 4.13% when we gave it to before when it was 500,000 they were understood so the additional 250 is what is covering the 272 322 correct we had already mitigated the initial 500 yes thank you you're the chair yes um I have a question on line item it's um 5611 02 it's instructional supplies if that's if I read that right can you just explain what that is specifically it isn't anything specifically at this current time we just cut the supply lines from all of the supply lines to make the budget balance okay yes is your mic on commissioner that include things like like paper paper clips you know
133office supplies that kind of thing no it's instructional supplies instru I suppose one more thing um so this line item for the new position at beames that's for the marketing class original there were three positions there was a a three coming over for art a three for music and a 0.5 brand new position for the um marketing which equaled the 1.1 positions the only one that's coming over would be the marketing position okay I just know that they um do have marketing at Central and Eastern so I'm not I'm not sure I I'll defer to you guys but the D duplicative nature of having it then again at um beams for our high schoolers but that is all for my questions through the through the chat oh any further questions CH M yeah if I
134may through the chair um I did have a question um it's the seventh line item down labeled as various it's uh regarding um coach stiens um it looks like we are seeing a reduction of about what is it 26 $26,000 I know we talked about like um you know uh you know doing some things with adaptive Sports is that being impacted with this with this line item cut the line item cut for the intramural time the reduction we had over budgeted for the amount of time that the kids would be using that and we also had budgeted for an additional round of esorts which we you cut out once um Miss Martino figured out how much time we would need for the intramurals but is H is adaptive Sports being impacted by this yes please
135okay um so no it's not impacted in that way I think we've been strategic about actually adding Middle School back in so we're actually in fact adding to some up the Unified sports pieces thank you very much through the chair yes um for uniform Athletics one quick question um with this budget cut do we know um if there's specific sports team that will be impacted or is it um a general cut right now that cut right now is a general cut uh when we make a cut to uniforms we'll go back and look at that uniform replacement schedule and uh identify what makes the most s sense based on current conditions of uh the uniforms on that schedule thank you do we anticipate Dr derer that um we'll be able to continue uh the the
136next in line do you think that will be impacted with this uniform reduction or are we still on target there'll be an impact I just can't identify what specific sport or season would be impacted that would be uh left up to SRA the director of Athletics do we know how many um sports uniforms are on the um rotation for the outcoming school year I don't have that off the top of my head we have presented that previously with the uniform schedule I can get it uh back I can get it and distribute that out again if you'd like yeah just looking to see if there is um a projection uh in the event that this money um remains reduced if there is going to be an impact might we anticipate which sport would be impacted
137um thank you very much any further questions I I'm just gonna add one um small comment before the vote because I can't comment once the once things are on for the vote um although I I agree that our um District needs to move forward with a budget and we need to agree with what the dollar amounts are so that the financial side of things can move forward I just want to make a note that um because of the special meeting and the vote that went into public meeting that the public doesn't have the minutes for yet I did not support terminating that position and therefore it's conflicting for me to then use those funds to now support this budget but I think the growing need is that the district has to move forward with a
138budget I just want that noted because I don't want my vote in agreement of the budget to be misconstrued that I supported a decision for how those uh extra Alliance funds came about thank you I can appreciate that and I think I can acknowledge that there's a sequencing of things um that are leading up to today's vote and um that distinction I can understand wanting to make sure that that distinction is understood and ideally we would have a a stronger structured process in place currently but we have gone through quite a bit of transition as a district and I think the best we can do is examine um the practice things that we have done well and areas that we know we have to improve and I think a few of those areas have been
139uh highlighted tonight and we need to come back as a board and as a team and um discuss ways of remedying the current issues and making sure that we improve moving forward so that's that's duly noted commissioner thank you okay so now that we've had opportunity for discussion actually I would like to say one more item and it runs in the same vein um not on no it's still not on is it now yeah I think you got it now my M to hear um so I I appreciate the need that uh you know to move our our budget forward um but I I I want to be on the record as being uh being made clear that I'm not in support with how we got some of those funds with the elimination of of
140the cons director so that's all I have left to say thank you any further conversation okay hearing none we had a motion on the floor to approve the possible budget cuts presented before us we had um a second we had conversation and now we need to move to a roll call vote commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bulla yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner van Gord yes chair ponds yes motion pass unanimous thank you now we need to uh see if there are any other items to add to new business and I am going to make a motion to add to the agenda discussion concerning confidential attorney client communication regarding an employee claim that is a motion do I have a second second okay can
141we please have a roll call vote and that is to go if if I may um clarify that is to go into executive session to discuss the attorney confidential client communication regarding an employee claim through the shair when we add if we go forward with moving this into business can we put it at the end of the meeting I'm fine with that so let's amend the motion to yeah um following the conclusion of other items on the agenda um there's a motion to go into executive session to discuss um confidential attorney client communication regarding an employee claim so that's the motion and can I have a second on that Amendment roll call vote please commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Simons bua yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons
142yes commissioner van Gord yes chair ponds yes motion passed unanimously thank you any other new business before us okay we will move on to the building reports we'll receive the following building reports this evening and if we could call up Mr Fusco thank you good evening um I would like to start with chippens Hill Middle School underground storage tank as you're all aware the tank has been extracted the new above ground tank was delivered and piping was installed oil and Diesel were delivered on Friday May 31st 2024 startup was in the morning and miscellaneous Paving and site restoration will be completed in the next two weeks moving on the bames on Friday May 31st the contractor began transitioning new equipment into the space work is scheduled to begin on Tuesday June 11th the remediation is
143scheduled the last four to five weeks and we are working with the design team on the restoration design when the remediation is complete moving on to the new nms approval from the state was received and the project is set to go out to bid for phase one by the end of next week the design team and construction manager are finalizing the documents for phase two the PCR for phase two will be scheduled for Mid July and at next month's meeting we will be asking for approval on the specifications and drawings this is a requirement for State approval these will be emailed to the Commissioners in the next few days moving on to SARP kick off meetings are complete all contractors are on board preliminary work has started they are currently working on second shift and
144plan to move to first when school is out for the year that concludes my report any questions I have one question yes um in spirit of the constituent that spoke earlier do we do you are you involved in the Green Hills H yes I am I am in charge of that project so how is that going I know more ceiling tiles are missing so the Improvement it's a it's been a two-year project in duration we're we're we're getting to the home stretch I will say this summer we plan on completing all of the air conditioning and hopefully we'll have a completed project by April where we will start our punch list items the reason why we have discomfort in that building at this time is because in order to make space for the installation of
145the new equipment we had to mine out a lot of the existing equipment and we are in between converting from a geothermal system to a conventional system we do have uh Aon units running ervs which bring in fresh air and they're they're they have capability to temper the air but it's 122,000 square feet and they that was never what they were intended to do so we've supplemented with fans we've kind of used some of the strategies we use at chippens Hubble and Stafford these days hopefully though in the end of by the end of the summer we will be 100% up and then only dealing with punch list items and working through any Loose Loose Ends so you think that start of next school year septe we get some H days that there will be
146a functioning AC unit yes we are in the process there's piping we're at the point now where condensing units are on the roof piping a a significant amount of piping has been done there are still some uh work like we are going to transition out of a water cooled system to an air cooled so there's some work that needs to be done on the roof but again we tried to minimize the impact and over April vacation we had to do a lot of demo because that's the only time we could do it without kids being there and we knew some of the the impact of this demo would result in less capacity for cooling this at this point but again we're keeping some of that cooling what we can in place and yes uh the
147goal is to have a new conventional system by Fall thank you any other questions thank you thank you very much now we'll go on to information in liaison reports are there any Commissioners who would like to share information and or um give a liazon report do the chair I have a report for West Bristol thank you please and's on a little up note here it's welcomed to kickoff May West Bristol School participated in their Ninth Annual no one eats alone Day event this program was created by the nonprofit group Beyond differences to combat social isolation and to help students get to know one another Middle School student volunteers facilitated lunch conversations during all lunch waves at the lunch tables this year's theme was St Star Wars May the forks be with you it was an
148incredible experience for our students led by the library immediate team of Judy mad and Sharon Dixon Patrick Briggs the Northeast director of avid came to West Bristol school to guide staff in Avid professional learning and planning for next school year students in grades three four and five put on the Play Imagine a Dragon Guided by director Maria Kora my apologies if I Mis pronounce that these talented students practice for months and put on an incredible performance the PTO hosted a districtwide event where the Harlem Wizards basketball competed against over 25 districtwide teachers and administrators it was such an exciting fundraiser with lots of laughs the 32nd annual Bristol Youth and prevention leaders awards were held at Muzzy field mayor Jeff kiano the department of Parks and Recreation Youth and community services and the Bristol youth
149commission selected kids in the middle and leader Amy campasano as a recipient of the 2024 Youth and prevention leaders award for their outstanding efforts in servicing the Bristol Community additionally two of our West Bristol students Gianna fuchi and bayy licky were honored individually for their service to the community that ands that concludes my report thank you I do have report but I wanted to see if any other commissioner does before I move on I do all right wonderful okay for Ivy Drive Ivy Drive recently held their fifth grade wax museum families friends and members from around the community were so impressed with the hard work and dedication of the fifth grade students and teachers they also had a very successful family field trip to Barnes Nature Center this Friday they have their big Funday event
150and next week they're looking forward to celebrating their kindergarteners and fifth graders thank you wonderful anyone else got a report from Hubble hounds okay okay so Hubble hounds just finished up the last book fair of the Year sponsored by the PTA all students were able to take home a free book our grade four students just visited the New Britain Museum of American art and grade five had a great day at Lake compounds we are currently having a penny war between grade levels and the teacher winner gets to pie the other grade level teachers even Mrs Deo is going against Mr bash this fundraiser is so much fun for the students we are also celebrating field day and caring adult day with many activities from potato sack races to planting seeds with our caring adult the
151Bristol blues players will be joining us for a Flag Day celebration on June 14th and the PTA is hosting our Hubble hounds at the Bristol Blues game later that evening grade five will enjoy their class night on the 17th and the next day we will have our annual grade five students versus faculty Dr Dodge game um which is always a student favorite lastly we will say goodbye to our grade five students in our hound farewell walk where all the students line the Halls from kindergarten to grade four to send well wishes to our grade five hounds that will soon leave us and join middle school thank you wonderful okay um Bristol Eastern proms were held and both were a great success the seniors had their prom at the aquaturf on May 11th and the Juniors
152had theirs at the Double Tree on May 18th mental health awareness our first mental health awareness day was held on May 24th uh be HS partnered with fisal youth services to bring in guest speaker Dr Mikey Fallin to talk about mental health awareness and healthy mental health habits we also set up mental health awareness boosts and activities for students to participate in and learn more about healthy and positive ways to cope with stress anxiety and other healthy habits of mind and body scholarship Awards night on June 4th Eastern held its annual scholarship Awards night over 80 students earned scholarship Awards and tens of thousands of dollars were awarded to our students who completed and submitted hundreds of scholarship applications through the second semester many community members and Educators showed up for the event on May
15322nd we hosted our Avid end of year celebration that evening we hosted all Avid students and their families to award superlatives and recognize their hard work and achievements all of our Avid seniors earned $66,000 scholarships through the ECMC scholarship Foundation They will receive 4,000 in their first year of college and 2,000 in their second year it was a tremendous Accolade for each of them as they worked through a rigorous process to earn these Awards Bristol Eastern Performing Arts Spring musical production mean girls played to three soldout shows in May this was the highest audience turnout for a play or musical in many years at behs the musical numbers were fantastic and students got to show their talents on the stage in the music pit and backstage with costume design light and makeup people are now
154eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Fall production for the upcoming year now on to Southside Southside wrapped up the year with a few family fun nights we hosted two family field trips at Indian Rock last week and our first ever Lego night last night all three events were well received by kids staff and families based on feedback from families we now have a system in place for our Spanish speaking families to volunteer in our classes they simply contact Mrs Walsh our bilingual secretary set up a time to come in Mrs was goes to the class to translate and the families can support our students and their learning to date we have had five families take advantage of this lastly after meeting with families at the May familias and asion district meeting we are seeking feedback
155from families that would like English classes at Southside we currently have 14 people that express interest and will partner with BCS to see if additional families would like to participate okay now do our city council eais on nothing okay I have nothing thank you so much that concludes the liaison reports which brings us to our executive session and we will now move to our executive session we've already voted and seconded and we're looking at a five minute break all right we'll head up there and then we will come back down for adjournment thank you okay thank you very much Lynn okay so um I'm motion processing to discuss to discuss the confidential attorney client communication regarding an employee claim second roll call vote Miss ever you get the golden star award not only for being
156awesome all the time but especially tonight commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes commissioner Fitz Sim Simons bua commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner ozen Kowski yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner Van Gorder yes chair ponds yes motion passes you thank you C and five and then we'll come back for adjournment e e e we good okay oh I'll make the motion I'll make a motion to make a motion to come back into a regular session so moved second um commissioner Carlson made the motion to come back into executive session and uh Lori seconded and do we need a roll call vote for all in favor I don't know if commissioner p is on or chair Pon is on she on commissioner Anderson yes commissioner Carlson yes commissioner fit Simmons vula yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner atin
157Kowski yes I said atin I'm sorry atin yes commissioner Simmons yes commissioner van Gord yes and commissioner chair pans okay it's unanimous and now we're adjourned thank you everyone motion to adjourn thank you Eric oh second all in favor I I by