001how are you That's so exciting tell him I said hello and you can even believe it yeah I'll come visit you sometime the Easter good evening everyone thank you very much the time is seven o'clock and I'm going to officially call this meeting to order um welcome to the April 6 2022 Board of Education regular meeting please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Republic for which it says one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please join me in a moment of silence for Rita Sethi who was a secretary at the adult education and alternative education program from 1980 to 2011. and Nancy Webster who was a secretary at Memorial Boulevard school from 1981 to 2005. thank you I'd like to begin the meeting by reading our meeting norms all
002participants will actively participate engage in the work of the meeting and have equal voice and air time we will assume positive Intentions by respecting and honoring the diversity of opinions beliefs and perspectives we will cultivate trust by being honest and focusing on ideas practices and the work not people and these Norms will be upheld during all meetings and in all interactions outside of formal meetings at this time I would like to entertain a motion to move to Executive session for the purpose of discussions concerning documents related to stipends within the Bristol Federation of teachers contract for years 2022 through 2025. so I will thank you second motion's been made and seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you I will be inviting Dr Carbone and Dr
003Galloway also into this executive session folks we will be back very shortly foreign welcome back everyone may I please have a motion to reconvene into public sessions I moved second motion's been made in seconded any discussion all in favor that was commissioner and commissioner giantonio okay motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you welcome back everyone I will now turn staff and student recognition over to Dr Carbone thank you we have a great night of staff and student recognition and um it is a dead giveaway by the height in the room who we are going to recognize first but I would like to introduce Mr uh principal winiger from Bristol Central High School we are going to recognize our
004boys basketball team and not only are we going to recognize our boys basketball team but also the coaches and the school for enduring two years of a very interesting journey to get to this year Mr winninger hopefully [Music] also importance okay so so coach before you before you uh honor your your athletes and your scholar athletes I think there were a couple things we want to make sure we mentioned right that we were 60 and five over the past three years um and that during those three years there were three divisional titles two CC tournament titles an estate title all done in and outside of whatever we wanted to call the past 24 months of Our Lives so take it away Coach thank you uh first off I'd like to thank Dr Carbone Dr Dieter
005and all our distinguished board members for having us here tonight as we are definitely honored to be recognized for our accomplishments I want to take a special moment to thank principal Pete winninger an athletic director Chris Kasson for all their support this season uh from the pep rally to the police escort back into town the night we won you two have provided unwavered support and tried your hardest to make this experience as special and genuine as possible the hugs and handshakes we received from the two of you at 12 15 in the morning as we unloaded off the bus will never be forgotten by my players my staff as well as myself what a run what a team what an unbelievable group of young men that I am honored to coach and share with the
006gym with on a daily basis there are no words to describe the night of March 19th we packed Mohegan Sun Arena with 4 000 plus Bristol residents Board of Ed members members of the city council everyone was present what an atmosphere and experience for my guys I just want to thank all of you that were present in person or with us in your thoughts that evening for your support without you none of this would have been possible it is my honor to introduce each of the young men who played a part in the State title run they've navigated two years of covid starts stops pauses with class dignity and worked hard not knowing if tomorrow would even come all while putting together the longest winning streak in boys basketball in the last 20 years in
007the state of Connecticut so without do first I'm going to name even the players that are not present and could not come tonight so freshman Carmelo Thompson Aiden Lopez and Joey pikel come on Jeff the sophomore class Jason Dominguez Dylan Brown Harrison Ross Mikey McMahon our Juniors Trey Sean Blair John Manuel Gomez Julius Powell Mason Stokes Mike Allen and Jason Van beveren [Applause] seniors I'm going to introduce uh single-handedly because I think they deserve a little bit more recognition for what they've endured the last uh three years we had an opportunity as sophomores uh with the way the draw was set up to possibly win another State title and never have an opportunity as a junior so obviously we made the best of it and won this year but these guys had an opportunity in
008my opinion to win three state titles which would have been unheard of uh in the state of Connecticut so first uh Jelani Wallen who's going to pursue a career he's going to go to trade school when he graduates so Jelani [Applause] Aaron Brown who is going to attend either you heart UConn or Western New England [Applause] Zachary Vanessa cannot be with us tonight but he uh plans on attending a trade school as well Stephen alsef who's exploring his options in basketball and visiting many Nia schools down in Florida [Applause] Captain Carson rivora who could not attend tonight because he's actually visiting the University of Maryland in South Carolina making his final decisions this weekend [Applause] Captain Damien Glasper who's going to pursue a career in criminal justice [Applause] Captain Victor Rosa who's also the Gatorade
009football player of the year in the state of Connecticut the Walter Camp Player of the Year in the state of Connecticut who's going on a full scholarship to the University of Connecticut [Applause] I almost forgot you don't worry big fella and obviously um this young man broke every scoring record the city had this year he's the all-time leader in scoring for the City of Bristol for Bristol Central High School um and he scored a career total of 2 268 points over a covid shortened career he would have likely he finished seventh uh all-time in the state of Connecticut I can't imagine if we had not lost as many games as we had he wouldn't be number one ever in the state of Connecticut so Donovan klingen [Applause] I would be remiss if I didn't thank
010my coaching staff um one was sick one has his coaching obligation tonight a head coach is only as good as his assistance his assistants and I have one of the best staffers assistants around so the only one with us Keith Lipscomb well coach Kyle Phelan and Joe to flippy could not attend tonight but they've been with me for over 10 years and uh at the sub Varsity level that's very rare in high school basketball to have the same coaching staff for 10 plus years that only speaks volumes to the kids were coaching and it's an honor to uh be able to say I'm the head coach of this group in front of you so thank you guys for having us tonight [Applause] congratulations again coach principal winager you are going to help us recognize your
011indoor track team as well right next slide please so our our boys uh tracked into our track team this winter uh took the CCC South divisional championship uh and I'd like to highlight Jarrett Boxley the top name on that list he was uh the class L champ and the 55 meter hurdles he also participated in the state open and uh the new englands and the I believe the Nike Nationals uh had a fantastic season the indoor track folks much like other people were you know affected by covet over the last two years uh last year there really was no indoor track season there was some training outside there was some some other functions that the kids participated in but there were no meets and even the outdoor season was effective as well so for them
012to come back this winter um to have an indoor meet which most of them were held in New Haven so those are long days long bus rides and if any of you have ever been to a track meet there is no sporting event and a track meet none longer so congratulations really happy for them and and proud of their accomplishment so BC indoor track thank you another program that we are highlighting this evening and that we had to take a pause two years ago was the students from Bristol Eastern who were participating in the model un program and this evening I have Mr Stevens who is going to introduce his model un participants and some guest speakers this evening welcome everyone thank you for having us uh Commissioners as well as central office staff I
013don't want to spend a lot of time talking because I'd like for the kids to to speak for us but we had a great four days three nights down in New York City and they did a phenomenal job and it's something that we started in 2019 and weren't able to ever uh Complete because of obviously covet and then we went virtual we were able to participate last year virtually but there's nothing like being in person so I'm just going to let them speak for themselves good evening I'm Dominic caravelli a junior at Bristol Eastern High School and a member of the model un Club um as Mr Stevens mentioned we recently took our um four-day trip to New York City for the National High School Model United Nations this was a worldwide mono un conference
014um and we left for the trip on Friday March 18th and although this was my third year as a member of the club it was everyone's first time attending the conference in person so the days leading up to the trip I was exceptionally nervous not knowing what to expect the conference began Friday night with an opening ceremony after that our school representing the country of Bangladesh broken to accept our separate committees to tackle The crucial problems each committee was faced with communities debated their topics through five sessions with the end goal of all delegates agreeing to pass the draft resolution that solved their problems the conference concluded on Monday the 21st with the closing ceremony um I mentioned at the start how nervous I was about the trip however now I can tell you it
015ended up being one of the best experiences of my life the trip taught me so much about myself and what I'm capable of I learned so much about the world and I met other delegates from all over the world who probably could have been some of my best friends if they lived in Bristol as a delegate I was assigned to the environmental assembly for Bangladesh my community's problem was protecting biodiversity in the Arctic I ended up speaking six times during the moderated caucuses which is way more than I thought I would have I got to work and share some of my ideas with the other delegates in the Armada raided caucuses too the best part for me was at the end when with the help from some of the other delegates representing Poland Denmark in
016the Dominican Republic I proposed an amendment to our draft resolution that um recommended categorizing all climate change refugees as official refugees so they could get the same Aid in support my amendment was voted on by all delegates there to be added to our final draft then my committee voted to pass our draft resolution which made all the delegates in my room really happy and relieved that all our compromise paid off I'm so beyond grateful I got the opportunity to experience this trip inspired me in so many ways I didn't know I needed Dr Carbone deserves a big thanks for everything she did to make this trip possible Mr Stevenson Miss Adam deserves so much credit and thanks to um with my one year left in high school um I'm gonna try and do what I
017can for the future of this club and so future generations of high schoolers who are even more passionate than me get to take this trip to someday because I really believe it can change their lives just like it did mines thank you foreign tartarelli my experience at the National High School Model United Nations two weeks ago was an incredible lesson in Independence that I could not have received anywhere else my my co-go my co-delegate and I represented Bangladesh in the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons at the first committee session I was I quickly realized that I was in for very different challenges than those presented at school in the classroom I could get by and there's the respect that I reciprocated from my teachers but in committee the adults in the room called
018the chairs were simply there to officiate the debate if I wanted to be successful in committee I would have to gain the respect in my fellow delegates gradually I began to speak up more and I was able to find delegates representing other countries who shared the values of Bangladesh as our group of countries grew we worked on writing a resolution to address the abuse of chemical weapons in Syria I didn't see it at first but eventually I realized that that the delegates would turn to me if they were struggling to put their ideas into words because of the respect and and inclusion that I was shown in my block of allies I learned that confidence is one of the best ways to gain respect of your peers and that collaboration only works when everyone has
019a voice thank you to Dr Carbone the Board of Education and our advisors Mr Stevens and Mrs Adams for this opportunity my name is Eamon brohan and I'm a sophomore at Bristol Eastern High School this was my first year in model un and it was truly an awesome experience this was also my first year going to a model U.N conference at this conference I learned many new things such as collaborating with people and coming together to solve real world problems this trip would have been possible without Dr Carbone Mr savings and Miss Adams it was truly a great experience and we got to go through a lot of real world issues for example my committee was youn habitat and we focused on basic infrastructure and um women's women's rights and how Urban safety can affect
020their rights though we only got to one um topic which was the infrastructure it was still great to see all the kids from around the world come together with the same ideas and fortunately we all got our resolutions passed which was awesome and it was again it was great to see everyone with the same ideas and it was a very respectful and inclusive environment so again I want to thank Dr Carbone Mr Stevens and Miss Adams for making this an amazing trip and an awesome opportunity thank you hello my name is Rita GAO and I'm a sophomore at Bristol Eastern High School this was my second year in model un but last year we did it virtually and I was not prepared for it to be like this in person to be honest so last
021year over virtual like you could kind of get away with like not talking and stuff but like because I didn't really know what to do but like this year when you're in there they kind of like teach you how to do it and everything and I love how like the people who did it before kind of like let the others and this honestly taught me so much like how to be confident in yourself and how to ask for help when needed my co-delegate was Eamon and we worked together and although we didn't speak a lot during moderated caucuses we did spoke we did speak and so basically this just taught us that even though there are some differences we can work through this together like for example Bangladesh is a very small country but we
022did manage to like team up with bigger countries like United States so this can help us in the real world to like solve problems and put aside our differences and just work together and as Chewy was talking about earlier our topic had to do with the lack of infrastructure and how everything can basically lead to it like for example in Bangladesh the lack of like the climate change caused like a lot of flooding which leads to more people fleeing into like Mainland so that um with this shows that all problems lead to like consequences and therefore we should solve them as soon as possible and again I would like to thank everyone who made this possible including Dr Carbone Mr Stevens and Mrs Adams thank you just one final thank you Mrs Adams is on
023the zoom tonight she's home with her or one-year-old but thanks again to the board of ed to the central office staff to the Bristol Eastern Administration and most importantly to the kids so thank you have a good night [Applause] foreign they have definitely proven how the vision of The Graduate being able to solve Global and be ready for a global environment and they're they're hitting the mark on that so thank you very much for sharing your experiences with us the next group of young people that we want to recognize today are from Green Hills K-8 school God bless you and specifically The Odyssey of the Mind team coached by both Mr Grant and Mrs Grant and Mr Grant is here with us this evening and Mr Grant I'm going to ask that you introduce your
024Odyssey the Mind teams as well as the fact that they are state champions and it's been a while since we've had Odyssey of mine state champions it has um Mrs Grant and I thought we had retired for a little while of Odyssey the Mind coaching and then um Mr ethereal our Citywide uh gift coordinator and Coach um kind of like said this is the year Bristol's going to get back into obviously the mind and um I know Mr gaudette said that if we uh if we're going to do this you know we're we're going to do it right he's the expect state champions so uh I mean I'm not going to say he mentioned it every day but at least every Thursday maybe every other day maybe I how's the team doing you know and
025if you're going to win make sure you win both divisions so I think that that's excellent yes so we do have some representatives of the team today so I'm gonna ask them to uh come up um and get their certificate for participation this year um so we're gonna start with our elementary group and we're going to invite Janelle Brute and Yasin Musa yeah you can come back you can stand there thank you and Sophie Couture [Applause] there it is very flexible uh and uh our Middle School Representatives we have Caitlin Carbone [Applause] I believe you should have met before just a few times Caitlyn and I go way back uh Kai Kaylee foreign DeVoe and Renee mower and I would be remiss without mentioning um Sarah Larson who uh works for the city and uh
026helps coached our Middle School team and has um gone through our school and is one of the uh the absolute best Bristol graduates that we've had so uh thank you also to Sarah for helping us foreign so a couple of things that we need from you one can you tell us what happens next so we have an elementary group of students who are going to compete at Worlds and we have a middle level group so tell us what happens next so our Middle School team will be traveling to Iowa State University uh at the end of May just before Memorial Day and they will be competing at World Finals um due to some conflicts that we have with our elementary team uh our LMS team is going to remain home their state champions congratulations we've
027um look forward to continuing to work with them um but they're obviously the Mind Journey for this year has has come to your conclusion um our Middle School team is in the process of revising based on the feedback that they've receive from the judges and just seeing how um how many points we can get um because it will be pretty close when we get there we want to represent Bristol as best we can and how many pounds do we need to be able to hold on our structure so um The Odyssey of the Mind problem that the middle school team did in addition to their play um they engineered a structure 15 grams that held 490 pounds um based on the current Intel that we have that would Place us about eighth right now out
028of the teams that are going from around the world um but we really want to be in the top six top three if we can um if we can get another 200 pounds out of there really gives us a good shot so we're hoping to get to 700 um but that's that little structure is going to be straining uh it's got to get some workouts at the gym yeah there's a little more design features and reinforcement excellent well congratulations and I think we want some photo ops is that true Dr Dieter yes foreign well that was exciting and we're not done yet I believe Mrs nocera is on Zoom and we are recognizing a teacher from Bristol Eastern High School who has applied for the grant for fund for teachers Mrs nocera is currently not
029only a teacher at Bristol Eastern but she's participating in our alternative route to teaching and learning alternative route to teaching which is our Tesla position teachers of English of second language and this year because she put together a grant she has been awarded a grant to travel to both Spain and France to delve into the languages and Chile I just wanted you to have an opportunity to share with us the plan of your travel and how you will bring that back to the students at Bristol Eastern absolutely thank you so much Dr Carbone Dr Dieter board members central office staff and my Administration so um I'm so excited and grateful to be granted this opportunity that Dr Carbone was telling you about through the dalio foundation to enrich my own learning um you know I'm
030learning through books about language acquisition and it it's rare that we get to do that authentically and in the real world and I'm so excited to be able to do that and frame span Spain and France and to be able to bring it back to my students particularly our El population this fall um so what my learning experience will consist of I'm going to travel to Madrid and Barcelona and then up to Montpellier and Paris I'm going to experience a lot of interaction with locals through the culture through historical sites the regional Cuisines local traditions and hopefully all of this will allow me to participate in that authentic language learning experience that our students have to um undergo when they when they are El students in our classrooms so I want to have that first-hand
031experience and allow me to practice those social theories that I'm learning about through the T Cell program that you mentioned so I'm beyond excited and I can't wait to share what I learned with with you guys and with my classes thank you Shelly and lastly I believe Mr Bagley will be introducing our art and music student awards for our annual submissions thank you Dr Carbone Dr Dieter Commissioners um thanks for giving me this opportunity to recognize the achievements of some of our students that have excelled in the Fine Arts in the month of March we celebrated youth art month and music in our schools month the council for our education sponsors youth art month at the national level to recognize skill development skills developed uniquely through the visual arts experiences including problem solving creativity observation
032and communication the National Association for music education sponsors the music in our schools month for the purpose of raising awareness of the importance of music education for all children and to provide the opportunity for music teachers to bring their music programs to the attention of the school and the community and to display the benefits that school music brings to students of all ages on a side note I got to have a concert in March for the first time in two years and for some of those kids it's first concert they had given at the high school level and it was truly amazing to watch them perform and get to be with them um with that the importance of Art and music in our lives was never so apparent as in the past years as we
033dealt with the isolation fear and confusion of the pandemic the Arts helped us get through and were the first things that people turn to as we try to return back to our normal ways of life that is why we teach arts in the school because they are fundamentally vital to part of who we are as humans so tonight we'll recognize the achievement of students that have excelled outside of the classroom the Cass Elementary art award the Connecticut Association of schools through its Elementary Arts recognition Festival honor annually two outstanding students in the highest grade level of each of the elementary schools in our states one for visual arts and one for musics so the recipients of the Cass Elementary Arts awards are Andrea Acosta Rivera Max Ciccio Evelyn delage I told her I would try
034my best Blake furucci Vincent Gavin Alex Holcomb Josh ozinkowski Gavin Russell matteus Salcedo this is Zulu pin excuse me Caleb Seeger Kaylee zonenthong Olivia veins Olivia Westbrook and Victoria zaldevar sure and the Connecticut High School Arts award um the Fine Arts award annually honors two outstanding seniors from each of the member schools in the state who excel in the Performing of Visual Arts they must possess the qualities of scholarship and Leadership excelling in the performance or Visual Arts is of primary importance in the selection scholarship and leadership are also supporting criteria so the recipients of the Cass High School Arts award for Performing Arts is Alexia Newman and Mia rupalay and for visual arts Charisma Burns and exile roina the Bristol Fire Marshal's Office each year sponsors a poster contest with all fourth and fifth
035grade students in Bristol as a way to promote fire safety and this year's winners are Andrea Acosta Rivera and Melody Martinez thank you in addition the Martin Luther King Jr essay contest students were to submit an essay that reflects on Dr King's dream and works towards Equity students were were to include their own aspirations and the importance of what Dr King meant to them elementary students were encouraged to include artwork with their essay and this year's recipient did just that Laurel barnor Buxton the Connecticut Regional Scholastic Awards program is a high quality level professionally juried event which recognizes only the best Connecticut student artwork student artwork is juried by professional artists and University Art faculty and is selected on Merit for inclusion in a Statewide art exhibition held at the Hartford Art School beyond the
036honor of being selected for this high quality exhibit students may be awarded gold or silver keys an honorable mention Awards in each of the 18 media categories tonight's recipient was awarded a silver key Shannon philippon each year the Connecticut music educators Association sponsors music festivals in each of the four regions of the state as well as an All-State Festival students auditioned to be part of these festivals by preparing solos scales and sight reading Bristol is a part of the northern region and each year close to 2 000 students auditioned to be part of a festival chorus band Orchestra or jazz band tonight we recognize the students from Bristol that have achieved this goal of being selected for a festival ensemble the elementary honors band was nationally about basora jail Cruz Mendoza Alex Holcomb and Kailyn
037Ward the northern region Middle School Festival included Paige and Ash hilly Bush Nathan dos Santos Calliope Gallagher Ava Gamel Tyler Holcomb Aaron Martin Paige Mehmet Maya Michaud Rivera mascara Kate Patterson Noah Pellerin chandel San Martin Alex steinel Gabriel tuninski and Trevor Wells and the Northern Region High School Music Festival included Aidan coloniani Chloe van Nelson and Jennifer Volos Avila I would like to actually recognize a few teachers from Bristol that sit on Statewide offices in the cmea organization Danielle abusowicz and Andrew Moss have teamed up and serve as directors for the northern region of Connecticut and John abuseowitz serves as the chair of the student affairs commission for the entire state this past weekend John did double duty and served as the chair for the All-State Music Festival John and his team hosted over 500
038musicians for three days of rehearsals and performances and we received a letter from a music teacher in another district and I wanted to share a few of their words quote John's sacrifice of time and effort reminds of the reason we are in the profession in the first place John knew that without an All-State Festival chairperson in place the festival would not have happened I believe that he placed the needs of students above his own personal discomfort and I am so honored to know him because I do not think I could have handled doing both positions at the same time seeing the smiles of the students and the parents made the event worthwhile and I believe that John shares that same sentiment again please know that you have an amazing music educator who works in your
039district and his name is genovesewitz we definitely feel the same way and congratulate and thank John for his service to all of the student musicians in the state of Connecticut thank you the International Championship of high school acapella was founded in 2001 out of the growing interest in an acapella singing at the high school level they've since seen an explosion in participation and talent and many of the high school groups could hold their own competing at the college level the tournament has now grown to include 150 groups competing in quarterfinals and semi-finals and eight regions Nationwide we'd like to recognize the members of the strawberry fields from Bristol Eastern High School for being a Northeast quarterfinalist and they include Faith boilard Kylie Bernier Aaron mataraki kalista Santiago Thomas bullio Ben Martin and Camden Michaud foreign
040here in Bristol we have two active chapters of Fine Arts honor societies the international thespian society and the Triumph music Honor Society the international thespian Society is the only theater Honor Society for middle and high school students in the United States its recognizes rewards and encourages student achievement and celebrates the work of students in all aspects of theater performance and production trium is the only National Honor Society for student musicians in the country it highlights our school's music program and gives students the opportunity to perform lead and serve tonight I'd like to recognize the students that were recently inducted into the honor societies for the its Honor Society was Alexia Newman Holly Cushing Aaron mataraki Kylie Bernier Annabelle Redline Hedy Wells and Julia liba and for the Triumph music Honor Society Faith boylard Hannah Karen
041Sarah Cody Emily piondek and Brendan tartarelli [Applause] it's quite evident that these student achievements could not have happened without the dedication skill and creativity of their teachers we are fortunate to have a wonderful staff of teachers that Inspire our students every day we are even more fortunate to have the support of the community and most especially the Board of Education and all the leadership here at central office so thank you again for taking the time to recognize our Fine Arts students and their achievements so far this year thank you so there are 165 communities in the state of Connecticut and this evening you heard that our basketball team won the State title you heard that our gifted and talented program Odyssey of the Mind won the State title in both our elementary and middle and
042you just heard that in our music program one of our teachers ran the state competition and that's how you put Bristol back on the map where we used to be about 10 years ago and here we come again [Applause] thank you next we will be voting on approval of minutes you've all received a copy of the minutes for the March second regular meeting in your packet are there any corrections or abstentions hearing then I'll entertain a motion to approve so moved second any discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed of sentience motion passes moving on to committee reports our first chair yes Mr scalanka two of Steve the last one okay commissioner can you please abstain from last month fine thank you moving right along to our subcommittee reports we will first
043be hearing from Communications commissioner giantonio [Music] I'm gonna have to make this um brief because I have laryngitis um the communications committee update this month we reviewed the BPS logo and rebranding feedback from the survey that was sent out to the community um all of the options received a lot of feedback and the chair influenced her favorite that's my personal opinion we also discussed the survey options for parents um recently a couple surveys went out there is some limitations sometimes when we're trying to get exactly one response and it did require some of some in our community to log in with a Google login account and if they didn't have them we had to provide an alternate means for them to provide their survey results which was which was fine but we'd like to move
044forward in the future with coming up with alternate solutions for some of our survey response and the software that we use for that so we will be exploring those options in the future and then we reviewed the Bristol Public Schools website redesign which is also equally as exciting as the new logo and rebranding efforts and that concluded our me thank you next to discuss Finance commissioner tagriello thank you madam chairman um the fines committee met on the 9th of March in a record time of 12 minutes um therefore I do not have a lot to report uh specifically the items I did want to report related to our expense lines we had a couple overages in certain areas and I'll explain those the areas include General character Transportation maintenance and special services with respect to
045the general character and maintenance lines we did expect those to Trend downward closer to the budget regarding transportation we were currently in negotiations with first student apply adjustments that line because they missed several routes so they were not compliant with their existing contract regarding special services we saw four additional outplacements which was resolved those overages in other other news the city had received the excess cost Grant but at the time it wasn't adjusted into the additional Revenue lines so we'll expect that next month our cafeteria is showing a healthy balance of 600 000 at the time of the report and lastly we had implemented a budget freeze that was ongoing and the only expenses that were currently allowed include direct support special services and facility maintenance and repairs that concludes my report thank you next
046to discuss operations commissioner Carlson yes operations committee met on March 9th we took a little more than 12 minutes uh chip and soul um underground storage tank we received two design options to be considered above ground lead time is 14 to 16 weeks if we do have an underground tank we've got a lead time of 14 months Edgewood roof project committee approved a motion to complete a temporary patch with the Edgewood roof not to exceed sixty thousand dollars full the full roof will be replaced next summer due to the long lead time on items like Fasteners and insulation discussed the kickoff meeting with Dre architects in which we looked at different option layouts discussed for the High School culinary arts project we look forward to the presentation of these design at the April operations meeting
047we're also updated on the traffic study progress at Hubble south side and Green Hills the Nash Architects had some strategic plans for each site to improve traffic flow which will present Associated cost estimates for each and our April meeting lastly Dr greeter gave an update on the Bain's Mutual Aid Mutual use agreement Administration is working on the final finalizing a list of blackout dates and the rental agreement is still being worked on WE anticipated draft version reflective of revisions next month thank you and to round us out commissioner G Antonio oh actually commissioner scalinka do you have anything for personnel I do not thank you I hope you rested your voice a little bit commissioner Antonio would you like to speak to policies uh yes last month the policy committee met and we discussed a
048revision that will be um elaborated on further in the agenda tonight on policy 6146 which is our graduation requirements uh the committee then moved on to a discussion of three existing policies one three two four which is in regards to fundraising one three two five which is in regards to advertising at 3280 which is in regards to gift gifts donations and bequests we had several community members um present that night from our booster clubs our existing booster clubs and um the committee decided that in the April time slot for our normal policy and Communications committee meeting we will cancel those and have a booster club Workshop instead so that we can more freely discuss these policies and some ideas and feedback from our community and that included the meeting thank you next on the agenda
049are student representative reports tonight representing Bristol Central will be Fatima Amir good evening board members today I'll be reporting on versus Central High School for the month of March starting off with the highlight of this month the boys basketball team played at Mohegan Sun and won the state championship in division two finishing the season undefeated and ranked number one in the state for the second time in a row the student section was packed with many spirited students I'm sure this night must have been truly a night to remember especially for the seniors many other spring Sports have also started like tennis lacrosse softball on track March was a very eventful month full of many positive events the Bristol Central admin teachers and student students participated in the read Across America day at Southside School Miss
050banjo's transitional program has been making cards for holidays and special occasions for our staff members to purchase the students are creating some beautiful work for our staff members I'm sure these cards will cheer up anyone who receives them the National Honor Society in rules 54 new members of the topping breakfast that was held on March 18th the inauguration ceremony will be held at the end of April and will officially enroll all new members into the National Honor Society the National Honor studies also trying to find new ways to stay involved with the school Community one of their goals is to sort out the brand Locker where there are a lot of clothes that can prove helpful to some people students from around the state have submitted proposals to improve their schools and win twenty thousand
051dollars to fund them bchs had five families and were currently waiting for the winners to be announced one example of a project is the human Garden created by students at bchs the new Mastery credit based credit requirements class of 23 was ruled out we are seeing many interesting projects put forth by students that could impact their school and community in many positive ways new opportunities are continuously being posted on the junior school classroom to assist students who may not know where to start now for testing the class of 23 took the state administration of the digital portion of the SAT for the first time thankfully there were only a few technical issues 100 BC language students took the Apple test attempting to earn the Seal of bi literacy as well after all these stressful past
052weeks prom tickets went on sale for the juniors and got everyone excited and in a positive mood after all the testing lastly Central stage put on its first indoor live show in two years with their amazing production of The Lion King opening night was last Friday and everyone was invited to see the amazing and talented cast perform on stage the show was on for the whole weekend the amount of the amount of effort that went into the show really showed on stage from the lights to the handmade costumes to the set itself everything was perfect the show left people speechless and the cast and crew who had been working since September for Endless hours deserve to be flooded with the upcoming spring break students will get to rest up and come back stronger for the
053new quarter and start off the on the right foot thank you to represent Bristol Eastern will be pushpita Hussein alrighty good evening Board of Education members I hope this past month has treated you well I am pushpita Hussain and I will be reporting on Bristol Eastern for the month of March this report will consist of updates on the sports season special events that have occurred clubs and activities and will end with academic life I will start off with the various Sports involved the school as of recently first wrapping up winter celebrations congratulations to Ella Nichols who became a nhsca wrestling champion last month and in Spring news the girls softball team has continued to strive in practice throughout this month winning their first game this past Monday boys and girls tennis has recruited quite a
054bit of members creating time to learn and play while creating strong bonds with each other the outdoor track team has been practicing in preparation for their meets the kids are working hard and committing to the sport we can head on to our next topic regarding model un this group at Bristol Eastern had a successful trip to New York earlier in the month this was a four day trip consisting of meaningful and accomplishing events meeting with different individuals to further their understanding and path of debates and various topics and in between the many meetings with peers from many different places we got to do quite a bit of sightseeing in New York City it was very busy and we definitely got our steps in regarding our eventful activities in the school for March Bristol Eastern held
055its first agriculture day on March 25th it was student driven and hosted by the diversity Club the day included students attending school with their cultural clothings and country flags a parade before classes around the school and ending with an event during the last block of the day the various booths represented cultures and countries while music was playing in the background and students and staff dance on the gym floor we were especially happy to see dancing skills on display by Mr Valley and Dr Carbone and let's not forget about Mr Higgins as well the day was expressed as successful and quite enjoyable for many as of this moment there are many clubs preparing for their respective events such as Amnesty International club with their efforts to raise awareness on how to combat School violence and school
056students as we Mark another year since the Kalman strategy this April fashion Club is also hard at work creating their outfits for their fashion Gala they're planning to hold their event toward the end of the school year and they are currently recruiting models for their Gala event SATs were held for juniors from March 22nd to March 25th Junior students were assigned days to complete their test with given time periods these standardized tests were quite different as we have transitioned from paper to digital attendance and participation was good as only a few Juniors still needed to take the exam on the makeup day as exams are approaching for AP students classes are preparing to wrap up their units and get ready for these exams I will end up this report with the exciting arrival of April
057break staff and students are looking forward to the end of this week as they are planning their long-awaited break after a long and busy month Bristol Eastern hopes to continue to have fun as well as maintain good academic standing as we head into a long waited prom season and the remaining school year thank you thank you we'll now move on to the superintendent report Dr Carbone good evening a few updates for our parents and Greater Community for parents and guardians of our scholars in grades three through eight the smarter balanced Statewide annual testing window begins April 25th and will run through May 27th individual schools will communicate the assessment calendar and dates of testing in the coming weeks later this evening you will be voting on our school calendar based on the number of inclement
058weather days this past school year we have extended the school year by five days to address those days of cancellation which will bring the last day of school to June 15th 2022 barring any unforeseen circumstances in reference to summer school families will be getting information regarding our general program as well as our extended school year program the general School general program will run from July 6th through August 10th in our extended school year dates are July 5th through August 4th exciting news we were notified this week that we have received another additional Grant allocation to our 21st century After School summer Grant Awards Ivy Drive School South Side Hubble Northeast Middle School Bristol Eastern schools were awarded additional 21st century after school and summer program monies in total 560 thousand dollars will be used to
059extend school year and school day school year and summer beginning this summer through next school year and the following summer for students participating in our after school activities designed at the six schools it's very special thank you to principals Gomes Dr Huber principal Deleo principal Higgins this is the channel principal of this Fitzpatrick and principal sonstrom for creating the programming allowed for these Grant applications and submission and to Mrs McCabe for organizing all of the submissions and sending them to the state two weeks ago lieutenant governor by Switz State Department of Education commissioner Russell Tucker and mayor caggiano visited Bristol Central High School to recognize the five Voice for change submissions from Bristol Central across the state 1700 students were voted on The Voice first change projects and we are very excited and anticipate in
060anticipation to wait for the 54 schools that will end up winning and there will also be five commissioner Choice Awards that will be on live on YouTube this Friday April 8th at 10 15 and I will send that link out to families so they can um tune in which is very exciting we're expecting great things at Bristol Central Bristol Eastern and BPA and then lastly in reference to an update for our Bristol arts and Innovation Magnet School our fourth Lottery pool is on way we have three uh 232 6th through eighth grade Scholars already selecting into the school and we will be waiting to fulfill the remaining about 60 seats the mission and vision have been developed and are being developed with our staff led by are newly appointed principal Dr sarley in addition we
061had our students begin a mascot submission this there were 25 submissions the contest started on March 21st and closed April 4th and the staff is narrowing down the mascot to two it will be sent back out to students for students to vote and hopefully by the end of April our Baines School will have a mascot we're excited to show that to you next month and then lastly we're just rounding out finalizing and Hiring Our Last staff for the new school for the next school year and that concludes my report thank you very much next on the agenda is the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda will which will include items 10 a 1 through 10 A2 well it's no proof second motion has been made and seconded is there
062any discussion okay hearing none all in favor please say aye aye opposed no opposed okay abstentions are there any Commissioners voting online okay I didn't hear what they said I said I this is commissioner Biber thank you commissioner Wilson the firms the vote thank you okay all right next on our agenda is public comment Ms Everett did you receive any public comment this evening not online okay thank you thank you so I do have one public comment that was submitted to be read out loud it is from Amy Greaves who resides at 17 summer Glen dear members of the board chairperson dubie and superintendent Carbone first and foremost members of the board many people don't know the amount of time and stress that goes into your unpaid position so I want to say I appreciate
063your time and effort in representing Bristol many are here tonight to present their arguments as to why the superintendent's contract should be reviewed seeing today's social media posts in regards to why it should be reviewed leaves me saddened as an elementary educator for 20 years to use CRT as a scare tactic and state that it is being taught and pushed through SEL and Dei is wrong and frankly not the truth further they are not one of the same and should not be lumped together I can't help but wonder if any of those against SEL and Dei have set foot in a classroom in the last five years has anyone been watching the rise in suicide numbers the rise of students being diagnosed with anxiety disorders and other mental health issues you might say these issues
064are for me to teach at home it is and you are lucky that you are privileged to do this but many parents aren't for whatever reason and there are those educated knowledgeable and seemingly perfect families who try and think that all is okay but have no idea what happens to their child during a six hour school day despite their best efforts not my kid not my problem is a very slippery slope to walk on and it is the school's duty to protect all children during school hours thus it is extremely important that scl stay in our schools in fact hiring more school psychologists bcbas and social workers would be an added bonus why are we even questioning Dei in a school district that represents the city and all socioeconomic backgrounds shouldn't we have representation of
065our students at every level do you know a child with an IEP a 504 or a child or family that receives husky insurance or state aid do you know a child with physical or mental disabilities that would need protection Dei encompasses all of those things Dei doesn't just protect against race and sexual orientation a fact that many leave out when arguing against Dei I truly fear what would happen to our schools without these policies in place I'm truly frustrated by the misrepresentation myths and fake news that dominate some of these meetings especially where there is factual data to prove points wrong step into your child's School spend a day or two in the classrooms and see for yourself what is happening without SEL or Dei in place it would be next to impossible for your
066child the one many of so strongly Advocate to protect to learn successfully at school let's support a superintendent that bases policies and curriculum using data while supporting the all of the students of Bristol and that the opinions of a small minority at this time I'll ask if there is anybody who is online who is planning on speaking okay so what I will do is I'm going to review the just a second please I just want to ask that you include your name and address please direct your comments to the board chair all comments should be an appropriate manner comments regarding Personnel or confidential student information shall not be discussed and any comments that are not adhering to these guidelines I'm asking you to not read thank you thank you I would ask to the chair
067do you include that disclaimer to every person that comes to speak yes there are certain disclaimers that are read prior to video representation and then I will read the during the meeting ones following your discussion for the people who are here okay thank you you're welcome appreciate that uh clarification my name is Morris Patton 49 Field Street here in Bristol um I I did want to comment follow-up those that were previously said um I was also sent a post today um a picture of it from a Facebook page I believe it's private called Bristol parents group and ask our kids um and it really it bothered me and I thought it'd be worth it to uh speak tonight um the post was about trying to drum up support for people to come to the board
068event meeting tonight to express a no-confidence petition that was being collected against uh our superintendent uh Dr Carbone I'm not surprisingly it was truly poorly written it was full of misinformation but I thought it should be addressed um I want to speak tonight and ask the chair to please remind Dr Carbone to consider the fact that there are over 16 000 individual parents of Bristol students um this group has about 250 followers so that means that about 98 and a half percent of the students and parents you serve do not stand with those people um who are trying to collect this petition and they are not representative of us as a whole um the post says that the doctor is quote unquote very political um as people here probably know as chairman of one Bristol's
069two major political parties I can confirm that's not true um she stands strong in her convictions and that's something that should be admired um It also says that she does not speak for the children of families um I just spent two and a half years as the president-elect and president of the chip until booster club as well um so I can tell that that's not true we are extremely appreciative of the time that both she and Dr Dieter would come to our meetings offer support um but also going to other Bristol schools not just ours um so I would guess that less than you know percent of half of the online group attended a single one of those booster club meetings um so who doesn't speak for the families and the children superintendent of them
070but the critical race Theory aspect that they flew or that they put in their post was also a real bother um it did reference Dei and SEL as a part of critical race Theory and that's completely totally false you know as we all know SEO includes self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills responsible decision making those are the things that are included in SEL if you were blend those things with respecting people of diverse backgrounds what you get is a good kid a good student but we're all taught to be um I I I'm almost done but when I went to Bristol Central my disabled classmates were kept in a basement uh we called it the Romper Room um as the Joker and we have team moms that were prevented from even coming to school it's
071the opposite of diversity inclusion and you know it really prevented us from learning about anyone with different experiences I think that that practice stunted our growth as people and left kids like me unprepared for the realities of Campus Life when you go to college because there are so many different excuse me diversity care the time is expired Please wrap up your comments Mr certainly will um I would like to say uh through the chair uh to our superintendent you know I believe that she's a warrior for students that need it um I serve on a board that interviews students for a scholarship fund the only board in the state or uh in the city that actually does these interviews and the experience that they've had and the support that was mentioned in some of those
072interviews about Dr Carbone was incredibly impressive and I hope that through the chair as this other group goes through the chair consider that his time is up he was wrapping up his comments commissioner scoring yeah I was wrapping up okay I am going to ask to please stop right now Mr Patton thank you is there anyone else on our online platform who is requesting to speak okay then at this time we will move to official public comment I will ask that everybody addressed the chair for recognition each speaker State their name and address all speakers please observe the rules of common etiquette personalities are not to be injected anyone violating this rule will be not denied the floor each speaker shall limit his or her remarks to three minutes and a speaker will not be
073recognized for a second time on the same topic written statements and materials may be made available and advance of comments for distribution to board members speakers shall State their positions on the subjects being discussed board members will not respond directly to comments during the board meeting the superintendent or someone from her cabinet will direct the question to the appropriate staff member for follow-up first up Craig minor good evening Craig minor 88 Anderson Avenue I was not at the board of ed meeting in bris in December but I heard that there was a disagreement over the consent agenda process one of the board members wanted to recognize a young teacher who used to be a board of ed member when he was a student here and apparently she was criticized for wanting to do this I
074think that was wrong the technique of using a consent agenda is fairly new Roberts rules newly revised came up with it a few decades ago it explains the purpose but not whether something should or should not come off so I did some digging on the internet the Smith Buckland management company advises non-profit organizations they have a website called board forward that provides guidance to non-profits this is what I found there at the meeting the board chair should ask members if they wish to move any consent agenda items to the regular agenda for further discussion this is essential as members should be able to make such a request for any reason if requested the board chair would move the item and open it up for discussion during the regular agenda or make it a parking lot
075item for future debate I dug some more and found the national Center for non-profit boards they have a publication called the consent agenda a tool for improving governance it says if a board member has a question wants to discuss an item or disagrees with a recommendation he or she should request that the item be removed from the consent agenda without question or argument the board chair should remove the item from the consent agenda and add it to the meeting agenda for discussion in conclusion I think the Board of Ed owes the board member an apology and in the future please follow the proper consent agenda process thank you thank you next Michelle McKinney good evening Commissioners my name is Michelle McKenney I live at 87 Collins Road I'm a personal resident and a mom of
076two sons my youngest is currently a senior at Bristol Eastern my oldest is a graduate from Bristol Eastern of the class of 2019. in addition to being a mom I'm also an educator I teach fourth grade in a nearby School District I'm speaking to you this evening over concerns I have about the direction of our elementary math and literacy curriculums more specifically the overall shift in pedalogical ideologies that have taken the joy out of teaching and learning in our schools I'm going to ad-lib for a moment because listening to Dr Carbone's um statement I absolutely agree it'd be great for Bruce will be back on the map but what we were being recognized for this evening has really a lot to do with individual student passions and joy and interest not so much the passion
077and joy that they're receiving throughout their academic curriculum if you explore any District's website you will almost certainly find a document that outlines the vision and mission of the district the vision is often coined as a vision of The Graduate Bristol's vision statement reads all Bristol Public School students will graduate with the essential academic knowledge skills and dispositions that Empower them to be self-sufficient and make meaningful contributions in a rapidly changing Global Society it's a lot of words the vision statement references empowering students to be self-sufficient however we are presently doing the opposite currently the Bristol Administration is sending the message to teachers and students that they cannot be trusted to lead their own learning instead they are being provided with prescriptive reading programs and just in case you wonder I have done my research
078on geodes under the guise of accelerated learning the geodes reading program while well-intentioned is a disservice to our teachers and our students this program is no more than a glorified basal reading program which is which does not allow students to access reading materials at their own pace or at their individual reading levels according to John Hattie a highly respected research in education learning needs to be made visible to students it is important for students of all ages to be able to articulate their individual strengths and areas of growth in addition to making learning visible teacher relationships and clear learning progressions have the highest impact on student learning a large part of building these relationships with students is engaging them in reading books that they are passionate about however Elementary School teachers were recently asked to
079pack up their classroom libraries Bristol teachers are censoring students access to literature and materials that they can read during school hours I find very huge faults with that while these books the only access that they will be given during the school hours are to geodes taxed or fontus and pinell guided reading texts I use those in my own guided reading instruction in fourth grade they're great for individual instruction they're not high interest books that help to motivate struggling learners excuse me through the chair the time has expired can you consult for me yep I'm going to quickly um go through this so having two students first of all my son is like I said a senior and he actually wrote an essay in his freshman English class the title of his essay was the problem
080they were being asked to write an essay about the problem with today's American education system here's his hook the problem with today's American education system is that I'm writing this evidence-based essay only to do grade for my teacher after it is graded I will probably throw it away it has no meaning or purpose to me nothing about school has purpose nothing connects to my life personally or to the real world there's no authentic purpose for the work that I'm being asked to do I'm sorry through the chair we have all those people that need to speak I will submit this and I will come back the next board meeting because I am that passionate about it um and I think that we're taking the joy we're talking about SEL which should be at the heart
081of everything but there's also SEL for teachers and it will tell you that we're going to lose teachers if we continue to not trust it says accountability Excellence inclusiveness Innovation and Trust we need to trust our teachers that they know how to teach and stop providing them with scripted lessons thank you thank you next Tom Barrell Tom Barrell 498 East Road in Bristol um Madam chair thank you for this opportunity to speak I'm here this evening to speak about the radical gender ideology that has infected so much of our educational system it seems important in the light of the news story that broke last week about a school nurse in Hartford that turned whistleblower on Facebook the news coverage focused on possible disclosure of personally identifiable information which may or may not have been the
082case but the real story is that she exposed that Hartford Public Schools may be purposefully deceiving parents by withholding the children's self identification as non-binary persons the question is are schools encouraging dangerous puberty blockers to children without parental consent Public School administrators social workers and teachers should not be involved in any gender issues without parental consent it has also been revealed that the same that some area schools have sanctioned closed rooms where high schoolers can come to school dressed as their parents see them when they're leaving in the morning then change into other clothes they have at school inappropriate ones are they or their preferred School gender then they change back before going home and the parents have zero clue as to what's going on in the light of this we would like to know
083as the taxpayers that are funding Bristol Public Schools what is the administration's policy about gender issues being hidden from parents can we as public as as the public have an answer are there rooms where high schoolers can come and change their clothes expressing a different gender identity without the parents knowing it comes down to the question do the children's belong to the children belong to the school system or do they belong to the parents are we heading for an orwellian Society where children belong to the states such as in China North Korea Cuba or are we embracing a society envisioned by our Founders where our self-evident rights that are given to us are by our creator and are protected by the government then the government is actually established to protect those rights God has given
084these children to their parents to instill their values in their children have the families of Bristol so failed them so failed to do that that the Socialist values of a radical Elite have to be shoved down their throats without the parents knowing I certainly hope not it's important to recognize that only a few years ago the data showed that one in ten thousand children were gender dysphoric in 2014 there was only once you enter the chair of the times the United States to to treat those clinics with particular with that particular psychosis now there are over 700 clinics can you please wrap up Mr Pearl we have okay the fact is that gender dysphoria is being encouraged by a radical elitists that are sure their values are better than ours thank you next will be
085Deb Barrel my name is Deborah Barrow I live at 498 East Road Madam chair board members thank you for allowing me to speak my husband and I realize that because we are speaking out against radical gender ideology that we would be accused of being homophobic or transphobic the word phobic means afraid I promise you we are not afraid of these children nor we do we wish to make their lives any more difficult than the culture they have grown up in already has made them we are here on their behalf we have not forgotten how difficult it is to be a child growing growing up into a teenager going up into an adult it is one emotional upheaval after another trying to keep your balance in a world where peer pressure is so intense and true
086affection is hard to find can be traumatic and I can attest to that as a teenager and a child growing up one thing that the generations before these children did not have to face was so many choices about their sexual identity teens and tweens today are being pressed to to locate themselves on a gender spectrum and with a new sexual classifications long before they are finished the development that would otherwise guide the discovery of who they are and what they desire in fact long before they have had any romantic experience at all young woman judged insufficiently feminine by their peers are today asked outright are you trans any inclination toward agreement is being encouraged by multitudes of social media trans influencers and confirmed by Educators often behind the parents back in the last few years
087this trend has turned into an epidemic among adolescent girls so what do you think God thinks about this God created us all whether we believe it or not in His image and his likeness male and female created he them the Bible says that for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one is there any coaching in school today to try to help train children to enter the happy monogamous marriage for girls become good wives but boys become good husbands I don't think so you know what God will be merciful to the all those these confused children but to the adults who are pushing this agenda on these kids knowing outcomes will be unhappy at best tragic in the most extreme at worst
088God will not be merciful the people that are pushing this agenda on children are putting themselves in a very dangerous place spiritually Jesus said it would be better for a millstone to be tied around their neck and be cast into the sea rather than to offend one of these little ones we encourage the board to do your best to stop the radical gender ideology in Bristol Public Schools thank you for your time thank you next will be Emily Bailey hi I'm Emily Bailey I live at 21 Tiffany Lane in Bristol Connecticut good evening chair Dube and Commissioners I am extremely concerned and disturbed by the healthy and balanced framework curriculum that was released by the State Board of Education in 2021. I have questions and I want answers how does this curriculum make it into
089our schools will this be a curriculum that this board will eventually vote on to be used in Bristol schools does this curriculum come directly from Hartford and must be implemented with no questions asked this curriculum states that discussing masturbation with children in grades three to five is appropriate in just that one aspect alone I know that this curriculum is garbage who here thinks that masturbation is an appropriate topic for a third grade class stop ripping away our children's innocence stop trying to sexualize our children SEL runs throughout this 81-page curriculum SEL is the current Open Door into the classroom for all of this sexual identity privilege grooming and woke agendas to be crammed in please don't waste your time in Mind by trying to deflect and deny that any of this is not true or
090not happening we see it we hear about it while the beginnings of SEL some 25 years ago may have had honest and clear intentions of helping children and adults manage emotions it has been hijacked along the way by critical educational theorists it's changed into the castle model which is a model used in Bristol and throughout Connecticut transformative SEL is another even more aggressive form our K-5 children should not go to school every day and receive a half hour or more of a group therapy session our teachers who facilitate these lessons daily to our students in K through five are not therapists or psychologists putting teachers into this role is unacceptable and as administrators you should know better professional development in services for our teachers are actively taking place regarding gender identity Equity privilege and so
091on who puts these professional development and services together are these in-services discussed and approved by this board is a bureaucrat in Hartford or as our superintendent and Deputy superintendent directing them parents in Bristol are working together to uncover and bring to light this cancerous and perverted junk that is metastasizing within every aspect of our children's education I will send my comments that I'm staying here tonight to all of you via email with a copy of this healthy balanced framework curriculum and that you guys can get back to me with answers on all of those questions thank you thank you next will be Jen Van Gorder hi chair duby and Commissioners I'm Jen Van Gorder 272 Candlewood Drive um I just wanted to say how great it's been having the restrictions lifted my second grader is
092excited to go to school No More Tears last month I was able to participate in the uh tunnel of Hope at Green Hills greeting the kids in the morning as they came in on Monday morning for their week so many Smiles it was so great um the kids are really excited to be back to normal it's nice to see everybody unmasked here as well and the kids here today were amazing and with each teacher or coach they all had something to say they also these kids missed out on opportunities of going to New York City for two years they missed on basketball games all of that is really just tragic um and what else I had oh the um open house it was supposed to be virtual for the kids going into high school I'm
093hoping that we're you know reconsidering that and doing that in person the kids coming from a K-8 especially especially need to uh have a little um introduction into the high school setting thank you thank you next will be Kristen Bevins good evening my name is Kristen Bevins 41 Leon Road I didn't write anything as like I usually do so bear with me um tonight I wanted to talk about kind of a communication uh between parents and and schools I can tell you from my own personal experience and stories that I've heard from other parents that there isn't much communication coming from school to home my child personally has been pulled out of class three different times in regards to one situation with a girl um three times she's been pulled out of class zero times
094did I get a phone call if it warrants my child being pulled out of class I think that I should have a phone call home um I was talking to another parent today whose child was in in school suspension today who didn't even get a phone call to say that there was an incident she had to hear from her son that there was an incident and then today when he gets home tells her that he had in-school suspension with no phone call home to me that is unacceptable I believe that children need consequences um and that we have to stop coddling them and like trying to oh it's okay well what's going on with you and how can we fix it because I can tell you right now when my especially with my child and
095like I don't have a problem saying that I have a teenage daughter who is all attitude and sometimes I just want to love her um so and for me there's consequences at home you know my daughter hasn't had her phone in six months because school comes first missing assignments late assignments not acceptable you don't have a phone you don't get to do this you don't get to do that right so I find it absurd that if my child blatantly tells a teacher no which is not acceptable um there's no consequences she goes to the bathroom for 20 to 25 minutes and there's no consequences I will say that I did get two phone calls this week from two different teachers asking me what was going on with Gabby um and that she's been different and
096blah blah blah and you know and I said I appreciate the phone call but there's only so much that I can do from home when she's at school where are the consequences nothing changes if nothing changes if there's no consequences for the kids I was fortunate enough that I've called my principal and not been able to get him to call me back I was fortunate to talk to him yesterday and when we do speak to each other it's a good conversation right so I had to ask to put my child in in school suspension I had to ask for consequences a parent should not have to ask for consequences a teacher said we can't give them consequences that has to come from the administration so we are limited time is expired thank you I'm wrapping
097up thank you um our teachers have to ask permission to give consequences or not allowed to um for me personally give my child a consequence if they are not held accountable for their actions nothing will change thank you thank you next will be Richard Saputo I'm so sorry Richard Saputo separito I'm sorry thank you Richard sapporito 212 Stafford Avenue um I was going to speak on another issue tonight but um listening to what's going on this evening especially the presentations I'd first like to again commend the board I served on the board for 12 years so I know the issues that you have before you the the work that's involved in the uh and the time that you volunteer so willingly uh for the uh for the citizens of Bristol um I'd also like to
098uh just shout out to all the uh students today that we heard from the um my children when they went through the program lances by the way not Central um they all participated in sports in the music program in uh model UN in Odyssey of the Mind fabulous programs uh helped to make my children what they are today um as a caring and compassionate and energized adults um all of those things uh that we heard earlier today that the students participate in do a number of things in addition to building their own self-esteem but it teaches them teamwork it teaches them um about diversity about how you need to work with people who you may not know and be comfortable with who you may have not had a chance to interact with uh and to
099accept their differences towards a common goal and uh they're fortunate as someone previously said these are a lot of these kids are there because it's a passion and a lot of our other children in our programs don't have uh that ability but they still deserve that opportunity to learn how to work with learn how to interact how to recognize differences and uh and overcome those differences without fear we live in a world today where differences divisiveness is the rule rather than the uh the exception it's used as a political tool to slam each other over the head with uh and criticize each other as being uh woke or not woke being a citizen not a citizen being patriotic not being patriotic um and it uh it needs to stop children or children they are who
100they are um just as we don't want the government stepping in and telling our children they should be gay we shouldn't let the government step in and tell our children they shouldn't be gay either and tell them what their gender should be or what their gender identity should not be they should be who they are and the schools should support them in finding out who they are not forcefully direct them it's not taking the job away from the parent anymore then we take the job away from the parent when we report child abuse and we take the job away from the parent and the state steps in so um I think that uh those are important Concepts um the um uh again there's a lot of things coming up and again I was going to
101speak actually a little bit on critical race Theory um and how it's being used again as a divisive Tool uh I would say two things to that end one I actually brought something here I know um the board will do their due diligence make sure they understand the uh issue completely what I brought with a I'm just a quick list of five uh University free University level programs and major universities around the United States on critical race Theory so I would hope before any decisions are made excuse me honor the chair the time has expired okay misguided belief uh that they uh they educate themselves I'd like to just uh close with one thing I also saw the post today encouraging parents to come and uh uh sign a petition as a uh for a
102no-confidence vote and of course now that I pop this up I can't find it but um um parents are very important the input of parents is very important but we shouldn't lose sight that the job of public education is not to do what the parents want it's to do what uh Society needs the client of the public schools is the public not the parents thank you thank you that concludes our public comment for this evening we will now move on to deliberated items and our district leadership team reports up first will be Dr Galloway to discuss our high school graduation date and end of the year closing date foreign good evening commissioners I have our last day of school and graduation date as June 18th I'm looking to see if I'm 15. I'm sorry thank
103you very much uh June 15th um I'm looking for uh board approval of that being the last day of school into entertain a motion please we'll move to commissioner vibbert second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor of the last day of school and graduation date being Wednesday June 15th please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you Dr Galloway next up will be Dr Dieter to discuss the nems authorization of preparation of schematic drawings uh thank you chair Dube I believe uh our Tim Callahan is going to manage that so uh Mr Callahan if you'll come up to the podium please thank you Dr Dieter um today is just a formality tonight is a formality for the board to move forward with a resolution that
104has to go up to the state regarding our ability to do schematic design so I will read this motion we have already begun the schematic design but this is just a formality that we have to have checked in the box when we submit our paperwork for nems so I will read this that the Board of Education resolves to authorize at least the preparation of schematic drawings and outline specs for the Northeast Middle School project located 530 Stephen Street in Bristol Connecticut and to forward onto the city council for action so moved next second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you next will be the approval of the ffne package for bains which is a revision thank you chair
105uh uh with respect to the approval of the of the ffne package for Baines as you likely recall that uh the office of school Construction Grants review provided preliminary approval of our technology package which had been submitted for review as you also likely recall this board did act previously on this item and sent forth uh set forth that information to Oscar we have to come back because subsequent to that uh vote there have been some minor changes to the technology plans mostly these changes are a result from equipment preferences as we drill down further with our staff our employees as well as it changes regarding availability of items these changes do not result in any revisions to overall cost or the guaranteed maximum price so with we've moved things around within specific clients the building
106committee for the Memorial Boulevard inter-district Arts Magnet School has reviewed and approved the FF e and Technology plans so I come to you this evening before approval of the board I have a very specific motion that I'm going to read in so be it resolved at the FF e technology final plans and project manuals as prepared for bidding dated 121.22 revised for 122 and the professional cost estimate completed in accordance with level three of ASTM International standard e1557 standard of classification of building elements and related site work under uniform at 2 for this project dated 12122 revised for 122 half-bit been reviewed and are approved that is the motion second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions uh I believe
107it might need a uh roll call vote because it's a resolution not a regular vote okay is that right can you call a roll call vote commissioner Carlson yes commissioner G Antonio yes commissioner spelenka yes commissioner sturgeon yes commissioner tagarello yes Mr Viber yes commissioner Wilson yes chair doobie yes motion passes thank you next we will have um Dr Galloway and commissioner solanka to vote to approve the stipend committee recommendations thank you chair Dube as part of the bft negotiations we were tasked with convening a committee a stipend committee made up of personnel from the bft and the board that good work ended in a bft agreement of over 84 percent to update the stipend amounts and I'd like to thank uh chairman scalenko for his hard work so looking for a motion to accept
108the new stipend amounts to be included in a new bft contract promotion second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you next to vote to approve the new Bristol Public Schools logo Dr Carbone with a lot of fanfare so with an astounding support for our new logo the um Communications committee did successfully move this in front of the board and this would be the first time in about 20 years that Bristol Public Schools officially has a logo and um as a preferred set of colors so we will be navy blue pencil yellow and light blue and we are looking for the Board of Education to approve our new logo that would begin formally and we will roll it
109out in The Branding that goes along with it July 1st we are looking for a motion to approve I'll make a motion logo thank you I need a second second any discussion just one quick comment if it's okay this is commissioner vibbert certainly I just want to congratulate the people that put this together I will say initially I didn't want the logo to be changed but as I'm looking at this this is a really positive change I like it thank you through the chair go ahead yes um although I'm not on this uh this committee I know that this was coming up I didn't have any opportunity to discuss this um and being a Bristol Eastern alumni I do appreciate the blue and yellow colors um did we consider any maroon for Central in this
110at all Bristol Central can I ask that here it's a different shade of blue two certainly distinct and different shades of blue than our Bristol Eastern blue doesn't represent a school we we Pro we stayed we try to stay away from the colors of the tooth it was on purpose we've been kind of a some sort of blue at the district level never really landed the plane on the color of blue so we are going to firmly Embrace navy blue with the light blue um and Bristol Eastern silver and uh blue yes to stay away from the two thank you I just want to add we're good with the color as long as they don't decide to change their color again but I like the one with the ghost that was in the I'm sorry
111okay thank you scholar thank you wanted the ghost back I believe that commissioner thank you duly noted sure Dewey yes I would like to thank the work that was done on the logos myself it was the um was brought before the communications and Public Relations Committee in my first meeting that I got to be chair of and it was uh it was uh very impressive the work that was done um I will miss the student off of the logo but I am willing to support the will of the people and the survey that's the spirit all right let's vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions motion passes next we will have our special services leadership team report Dr Culkin hi good evening before I provide my monthly enrollment report and Department update
112I did want to acknowledge that today is National para education appreciation day and thank our Bristol Public School para Educators for all that they do to support our students and our community now for our your monthly update for our enrollment as of March 1st fiscal year we have 1694 of our 8089 students in Bristol identified as students receiving special education services and programming that enrollment reflects 20.94 of total Bristol Public School student population during the month of February three of the 31 students will be registering in the district were identified as students with special needs at their time of registration also during the month of February no students newly enrolled in Bristol Public Schools receiving their programming or services in out of District programs at the time as of March 1st 122 of the 1694
113students identified with special education require out of District placements with special education school programs and 71 students required special education programming for services at public out of district schools such as magnet schools that number reflected one additional private outplacement outplacement program and no change in public school placement as compared to the overall placement of the month prior and on an exciting note on our next slide I'm excited to share with you some updates regarding special education and inclusive programming so it really is a marriage of special education and general education opportunities being made possible by the use of our Esser funding and in partnership with culture City we will soon have our Flagship sensory room completed at Ivy Drive School culture City if you're not familiar with is a non-profit organization based out of Birmingham
114Alabama they're committed to spreading awareness for sensory sensitivity to those people who might have autism dementia PTSD or other like conditions their mission is to create a world where all individuals regardless of disability or sensory needs can be accepted and included the culture City organization is known to us thanks to a connection through our own Brian Burke Brian's helped to coordinate the start of a partnership aimed at bringing to life sensory rooms in multiple locations across Bristol Public Schools the first being at Ivy Drive the picture you see here is the room in which the process which in which the process is in the process of being transformed into a high quality multimodal sensory space for students both with and without disabilities to access during the school day for those who are not familiar with
115the sensory room a century room is a space designed to help an individual or individuals with sensory needs learn to regulate their brain activity and to work with the external stimuli by learning coping and developing coping skills to deal with during their experiences and in some cases it may be a whole room that might be utilized as a sensory space or can be simply a space set aside within a section of a larger room sensory space is typically built by culture City or mostly found across the country and across the across the globe in large venues such as stadiums zoos aquariums nature centers culture city has sensory room locations built as far away as London and Australia that said the sensory room at Ivy Drive is the optimal size space according to their culture City
116partners for taking place in a public school setting I will tell you that Bristol Public Schools will be the first Public School setting in New England or outside of Alabama for that matter so this is truly exciting work that we have partnered with the next slide is going to give you a sense of the items that will be brought into our sensory space to provide different stimuli for students to engage with as they both self-suit and interact with the world around them so what you see here Ivy Drive as seen on that previous slide has already had their white boards removed from the walls they have had their walls freshly painted a recommended shade of blue it's not yet in this picture captured here but that's the space that's freshly painted for our our students
117back to this slide here's this is an example of the materials that will soon be installed on the walls and in the room of Ivy Drive we have a swing that will also be installed that you do not see here in this picture replacing an older swing that we have currently of new beanbag chairs for students there's custom art if you notice the dragon in the middle that's a dragon that was um commissioned through the partnership with culture City to match the logo of IV Drive which is a pretty neat feature that will be also mounted on walls there's Bumble bubble walls that you see to the right of that there'll be multiple bubble walls that have an audio quality as well as the visual quality filter City provides the sensory input for all of
118our senses minus smell smell being one sense that not everybody appreciates in the same way and cannot be turned off as easily as a light switch or a sound so thanks to this partnership and through the use of our Esser funds culture city is meeting us halfway so there's a half cost for this Transfiguration and the products bring being brought to Bristol Public Schools culture City also provides consultation and a training module that our school staff will be provided upon the completion of the sensory space and each building that we do Venture into this partnership with will also be provided that training that's designed by culture City at this time particular time it would be premature to announce formal plans for additional schools we are formally in the process for our Ivy Drive School but
119I will tell you that we do have our site set on expanding this opportunity in other buildings across the district so more to come in the future certainly exciting to be able to provide this to our students while promoting inclusion in the public school setting we do anticipate the completion of the flagship room at Ivy Drive to fingers crossed be done by the time students come back from spring break or by the end of April but it looks like knock on wood will probably be there ready for them upon return from spring break and then after the completion of additional rooms I would do anticipate we are planning a press release to make a bigger bigger opportunity for folks to better understand what we've brought to Bristol Public Schools and to our students here so
120a lot of folks across the district are helping to make this happen it's a lot of coordination with Maintenance and Facilities and the administrators in the school buildings the teachers staff so it's a it's a fun project to be a part of excited for our students any questions yeah I have um this is a great thing for our district I'm very excited about it I did just have a question on um Replacements of some of the equipment you know how can you explain how that works is it with the partnership still do they give us where they Source the equipment from maybe because I'm sure they get it do you mean if one of the items here needs to be replaced down the line right so we will um we have the the items are
121being shipped directly from the vendors and then we will identify what those manufacturers are in the event we need to replace an item I don't have an answer for you as to if an item were to potentially malfunction years down the line whether or not that partnership would cover the half cost but it could certainly look a little bit further to let you know that in the future thank you foreign I'm so excited that's all I can say I was so happy when you I was able to get um a preliminary report um through a meeting that we had earlier this week and I'm just I'm so happy and so excited for our students and that to have a space to be also inclusive with um with peers in a school that I think is
122a fantastic pick to start with and I look forward to any future opportunities thank you so much for bringing this to the board it really is very exciting and thank you to um Brian Burke for his relationship that helped Foster this thanks thank you thank you next on the agenda are curriculum revisions and Dr sarley will be discussing Middle School theater okay yeah okay good evening everyone um so here we are for the second reading of our Middle School theater curriculum specifically for beams um I do want to thank Teresa McDonald Lisa Carroll and Lindsey dph who are all our teachers in the districts that created and put a lot of love and thought into what our team our students are going to engage with so I presented this curriculum as a first read last
123month and as a recap there are nine units of study for our concentration pathway and two of the units make up the exploratory curriculum they're the ones with this well there were stars next to them but units one and two um I haven't received any questions in the past month so unless there's any right now I would ask for a motion um second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye apologize abstentions motion passes thank you okay so here we are with seventh grade curriculum similar nine units of study two of which are taken out for that exploratory purpose units one and two are those um I haven't received any questions so unless they're running now I would request a motion second motion has
124been made in seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed extensions thank you okay the last one um this is the eighth grade curriculum for theater um again there are um two units that get pulled out for exploratory in this case it's units one and three and there are eight total units for this curriculum sorry to ask for emotion unless there's any questions second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye opposed extensions thank you Dr sarley thank you next is policy revision Dr Dieter thank you madam chair for your consideration this evening our revisions to policy 6146 graduation requirements uh revisions of this policy include uh alignment with State Department of Ed guidelines these guidelines
125have been phased in over a period of years they include a credit account review revision downward from 25.25 to 25. uh they also include revisions also include removal of language tables and other information that is no longer relevant for students enrolled in Bristol Public Schools as well as new language and updates regarding master-based Assessments in the Connecticut seal of bioliteracy the policy revisions were reviewed by the policy committee at our March meeting the revisions before you were recommended for for to go to the full board for approval I'm seeking a motion for approval of revisions to policy 6146 graduation requirements so moved second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you next on the agenda is new
126business I don't believe there is any new business before the board this evening we can move on to building reports Dr Dieter for mbiams thank you the project continues toward completion we have an anticipated turnover date which continues to be June 1st I want to remind everybody that the turnover marks the date in which our Bristol Public Schools Employees will have access to spaces for training on the various facility systems and general operations this is not the date that we will occupy the building with our students today I had the absolute pleasure of taking a tour of 20 future bains teachers through the building this was the first occasion this group has been in the space together as a cohort the excitement and energy will certainly fuel Our Success Through the next few months as
127the tasks of outfitting classrooms operationalizing program specific procedures and ultimately welcoming students and families becomes a reality lastly I want to offer special thanks to our office of teaching and learning supervisors and director as well as our Bristol Public Schools tech department and other teacher leaders that provided feedback regarding our ffne lists this was an enormous undertaking and it was organized by Tara Landon and Mr Callahan the final FF e procurement process is now underway with your motion this evening and we look forward to transitioning into that process and our close close collaboration with Roger Russo at City Hall to make the program a reality for September of 22. uh pictures have been cycling through as we as I've been speaking you can see the progress across the building and again I would offer a
128tour to any Board of Ed members that would like to come out uh give me a holler and we'll make arrangements to ensure we don't have a quorum but can provide access to the uh the building for your preview thank you thanks Tim Callahan you have a whole lot to present for us this evening I'll try to make it quick it's late thank you um first of all um I'd like to report on Northeast Middle School of course you know we've hired QA M and D'Amato Downs to help us with this project um we're meeting with the state tomorrow to kind of review where we've been and where we're going to in terms of this project that means we're going to be reviewing the facilities plans we're going to be reviewing the demographic studies we're
129going to talk about we've done our due diligence on the existing conditions documentation and now we're bringing forward this project which is the first piece or actually the second the boulevard first this is the second one so as as the the boulevard Fades we're going to move into this wonderful school it's been a great opportunity I'm really looking forward to this project uh so tomorrow we have a chance to meet with everybody and explain what it's going to be so that we can get into the pipeline for um for the uh for June 30th we're going to be submitting these this paperwork which is a schematic design edspect and estimates for this project so we're moving right along with that local approvals will be um the 16th will be the joint CIP approval of the
13075.4 uh then local approvals of the schematic plans Ed specs and estimate uh Board of Ed city council building committee will be May 17th to the 14th and we'll be submitting at this point uh the 049 the document for uh getting a grant uh on uh June 20th 2022. any questions I um I actually have a comment to make a recently Dr tour Northeast Middle School and um most um I can see why we need a new school what I was rather impressed with the creative and persistent use of duct tape all over that building I think you guys have used more duct tape on that building than they used in the Red Green show for the first season so congratulations on using the handyman secret weapon I won't take responsibility for that the Fusco
131um Edgewood roof commissioner Carlson you talked a little bit about this uh this is moving along well we just spent some time at Friar fire Architects we have our schematic design we have a layout we have a design and we're moving forward with this project uh currently we're at a 1.3 million uh and we're hoping that that budget holds the day and they're going through the uh the estimating right now so we anticipate with a lot of these projects that numbers are going to be kind of interesting uh you all know what's going on with the economy right now so hold on to your hats and also with uh getting uh projects done on time and materials delivered on time so that's kind of been our struggle lately and I think it's going to continue
132to be our struggle so we'll keep you posted on anything that goes on with these schools in terms of that kind of stuff so um that's all I have for Edgewood next please uh dra has been hired uh to do the culinary arts program uh we have uh 500 000 set aside for Eastern and uh 470 set aside for Central uh and they're working on plans they did pick up uh uh some existing condition documents we had a long arduous contract signing going back and forth that happened sometime we just did get it clear so we're going to be meeting with him and getting this stuff going any questions okay uh the Escher projects um that's that that includes uh the ones I'm working on are we have a committee set up for is the
133Escher art uh funds which are Esser our funds excuse me uh we have um six point uh nine million set aside for chippings and 1.6 million uh Plus for um for Hubble uh we'll be setting up our first meeting is tomorrow night uh and and we'll be starting with the RFP process for for engineering for those services so we'll be we're going out and get an RFP working with Roger Rousseau and then uh we'll be hiring uh interviewing and hiring uh Engineers to do these projects so um that's that's the next steps for that any questions no I think you're all set that's it thank you so much you're welcome thank you next on our agenda are our liaison reports this month it is liaison's for middle and K-8 schools are open to give reports
134are there any Commissioners who would like to share a liaison report I'll start to my left yes Northeast Middle School um Northeast Middle School and Avid students ran a reasonably randomly drive to collect three car loads of supplies for Ukraine Channel 30 News meteorologist Bob Maxson visited nem's green team as they were getting ready for their winter unit he spoke to them as in a group in the cafeteria and shared his experiences growing up in Upstate New York thank you commissioner councilwoman lucitani do you have anything that you would like to share for early example okay with no other business before the board Madam chair yes yes I remember I spoke with you is it okay if I give this 30-second report absolutely thank you folks this is really an information report it is not
135a liaison report this is about Mountain View school though I live two blocks away from Mountain View school and as in many communities there is a Facebook Mountain View Community Group this it's definitely has members from Mountain View school but it also has just residence in the area so the group got together a few weeks ago and decided they are going to start doing cleanups and there were it was a last minute thing so there were only a couple of them that night or that day I'm sorry but they spent several hours and they cleaned up like seven huge garbage bags of trash on the Mountain View grounds and they plan on going back because Mountain View has a very large backyard it goes way up almost into Walmart so they're going back to finish
136that so basically what we're the reason we're reporting it is because this is a great organization and I'd like to thank them on behalf of the board I think I can do that I think all board Commissioners would agree with me for doing this and they're kind of putting out through me a how about the other Facebook Community groups let's get all of our school grounds cleaned up and that's it thank you awesome thank you thank you so much the April 6 board meeting is now a jerk thank you [Music] thanks