001foreign for the benefit of those that are participating online we are just waiting a couple more minutes before we call the meeting to order foreign good evening everyone it is now 704 and I will call the December 1st regular meeting of the bristol board of education to order uh can we all please a stand for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] indivisible with liberty and justice uh the meeting Norms this evening are posted for your reference I'll read them into the record all participants 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're going to cultivate trust by being honest and focusing on ideas practices and the work not people Norms will
002be upheld during all meetings and in all interactions outside of formal meetings and our next agenda item is staff and student recognition and I will turn it over to Dr Carbone I am extremely excited to introduce our Junior student representatives for the Board of Education from b-e-n-b-c this evening I'd like to introduce to the Board of Education Commissioners Fatima Amir who is a junior at Bristol Central Fatima will be reporting out next month and we have two representatives from Bristol Eastern pushpita Hussein and Max Stevens congratulations welcome to the board and we can't wait to hear your student voice at our next meeting welcome next on our agenda is the approval of the minutes um you've all received a copy of the minutes in your packet from the November 3rd 2021 regular meeting are there
003any corrections or abstentions hearing none can I have a motion to approve so I moved second all in favor aye aye hearing no Nays motion passes next on the agenda is you have all received a copy of the minutes in your packet from the November 15 2021 special meeting are there any corrections or abstentions can I have a motion to approve the September 15 2021 regular meeting minutes as written so moved second all in favor aye aye aye hearing no names commissioner Wilson abstains one abstention you got that Susan thank you commissioner Wilson motion passes one abstention next on the agenda is our committee report and the first committee to give the report this evening is finance and the chairman of that committee is Dante tagrillo thanks your honor um the finance committee met for
004a special meeting on November 17th to conduct its normal business with respect to the canceled meeting a regular meeting the week prior uh I have only four items to report out of the committee uh the first of which is that we got an update related to our current budget and specifically to talk about how we have encumbered all of our salaries related to our staff there were a few items that weren't encumbered encumbered because we were awaiting estimates that we will receive this month so I'm sure that will be in our next committee report and on that I did want to report that as of November our remaining balance was in excess of seven million dollars the next item to report is going to be something we'll be discussing on item 10d in our agenda
005which is the bid waiver for ready ready CT we received a very detailed presentation from the office of teaching and learning that provided an overview of available internship opportunities as a result of our collaboration with ready CT the unanimous sentiment from the committee was that we look forward to the success of that collaboration and potentially a future expansion uh the overwhelming sentiment of the finance committee is that we strongly support the bid waiver the third item I have is related to the cafeteria as it stands the cafeteria is in the black and we're performing very well and total usage was up for the first few months uh to clarify for the public in this board we are currently receiving a higher than normal reimbursement rate per meal which is up to a dollar and I
006believe we're going to hear an item 10A of our agenda for the cafeteria report I don't know if that will be continued through the rest of the year but hopefully it will lastly item four that I have is the state of Connecticut has provided us with a grant in the amount of 187 982.55 that can only be spent related to cafeteria items the presentation that was given and approved for these funds will include new refrigerator Refrigeration box truck necessary fixes to our refrigerator and our warehouse which includes replacing components a roof repair and resealing two New Deli counter refrigerators at the high schools an alarm system for the refrigerator in the warehouse as we have over a hundred thousand dollars worth of food in that warehouse and three drop in freezers too which will be
007at elementary schools and one at a middle school that doesn't include any money out of our general fund and uh like I said it was a grant so that's it great thank you commissioner tagariello our next committee report this evening will be from the chair of operations so Eric okay operations committee uh moved its regular meeting from Wednesday to Tuesday November 23 2021 we received a project update for srr projects for the Chip And Zone Middle School air conditioning um also chippensville Middle School we have two underground storage tanks that will be replaced the operations committee will act as the building committee for those two projects uh we also have the Edgewood roof replacement um see and um the other one was um I'm sorry if I oh yeah the um the culinary arts program
008for Bristol Eastern and Central High School uh operations will act as a building Committee in that project also so we've got a few things to keep busy on thank you commissioner Carlson our next committee report this evening will be from the Personnel committee with chairman scalinka as the chair thank you thank you Kristen so the only thing I have is tonight we'll be voting on 2267-3551 and bft um the only outstanding contract is 818 which I think our staff is diligently working on um to finish that off but as for now tonight we'll just be voting on those three uh later on that's it thank you Commissioners Kalinka and lastly I will be reporting on the policy committee uh policy committee met on November 23rd we had a discussion about one of the bylaws of
009the board that discusses our current committee structure and how they are formed and their assignments we took no action on that bylaw during that committee and so later on in the Chairman's report you will hear the last committee membership being read into the record we also then discussed two policies related to our alcohol drugs and tobacco policy with the Bristol Public Schools for both students and staff you will hear more about those policies later on in the agenda this evening and that concludes my report for policy committee thank you okay next on the agenda we have our student representative reports and first this evening we will hear from Bristol Central's Sydney Rodriguez good evening I first like to apologize for not being at the meeting in person with the other student Representatives I haven't been
010feeling the best the last couple of days so I thought it was a better idea for me to attend virtually tonight I'll be presenting to you the happenings of Bristol Central since our previous meeting I'll start off with the National Honor Society having a food drive it started on November 17th and will run through December 17th also Bristol Central is having a toy drive up until December 9th the school also recently had their Powder Puff Games which were held with the purpose of raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation while having some fun we were able to raise nearly sixteen hundred dollars for the foundation which we are very pleased with since this is a season of giving our sports teams wrapped up The Fall season with six to seven teens competing in stage in the
011state competition this is including our football team who made it to the state playoffs for the first time in 34 years after winning against Bristol Eastern in the battle for the ball game on Thanksgiving Day our annual pep rally prior to the Thanksgiving Day game was very exciting and as normal as it has been since before cover 19. the dance team cheerleaders and Senior girls perform their routines which was Then followed by the Senior Skip it's tradition for the senior girls to work together for the pep rally to put together a skit that basically roasts all the senior boys football all the senior football players for me personally and I think the football team too it is the most entertaining part of pep rally as we all get to have a good laugh on November
01212th the Yukon Italian ECE class took a field trip to The Wadsworth athenium in Hartford to view the buy her hand exhibit featuring works by Artemisia gentileski and other female famous female artists from the Renaissance they had an hour and a half guided tour with an Italian speaking guide this was the first time at an art museum for many of the students this opportunity was fully funded by the writing initiative at bchs so all students were able to participate free of charge after the museum we stopped it they stopped at an Italian deli for lunch and Italian treats the students were asked to write reflection about their experience and the writing pieces were shared with their with their docent and the Wadsworth staff as well as the writing initiative coordinators you may see some of
013the responses in the next edition of signatures magazine members of the Bristol Central's Educators Rising Club made their first visit of the school year to Southside on Tuesday November 23rd to conduct a stem lesson and three fifth grade classrooms the high school students taught a lesson on boats going along with the Thanksgiving theme and had students build their own boats made of aluminum foil and then had the students test them in water to see how many pennies each could hold and how the placement of the pennies and the construction of the ship affected its ability to stay afloat the high school students did a great job and the fifth graders really loved having them visit classroom the Educators Rising club is looking forward to heading back to South Side after after the New Years for
014their next lesson with the fifth graders Bristol Central and Eastern Administration met with the City of Bristol diversity Council to make plans for future activities involving students from both schools the leadership of the diversity Council was excited to hear about all the diversity work that is happening in our schools thank you thank you very much for that report next up we have our student representative report from Bristol Eastern given by Trisha Mohan foreign I'm sorry this is I'm reading this off my phone I told my dad to print it and then he went to work and left it at work and didn't print it so here we are okay good evening everyone tonight I will be giving a report on Bristol Eastern for the month of December this report will mainly cover school events and
015activities as that has been the focus at our school for this past month start our fall Sports season was fully closed out with our revamped Sports banquet that was held in the auditorium though it was not the traditional banquet in the cafeteria the captain's speeches and other Traditions remain the same with that the winter sports season has hit the ground running with their practices and game schedules also our Bristol Eastern Theater Arts group is currently running their callback auditions for their for the upcoming Musical Shrek I'm just trying to fix this um also our Lancer Nation mentors are planning a door decorating contest for all home rooms to compete and try to make their door look the best for the holiday season the various National Honor Society members have also been taking measures to help
016our school and Bristol Community the NHS is getting ready to host their annual dodgeball tournament to raise money for the kids at ccmc the science National Honor Society has just elected and organized their committees and committee chairs to help organize beautification projects and Courtyard cleanups around the school our Spanish NHS is having each member sponsor a child to help families in need during Christmas time and finally our United Way youth board has kicked off a toy drive to benefit children in our community after a long time Bristol Eastern was able to host our annual pep rally last Wednesday it was great to see our football players cheerleaders and posters up around our gymnasium again thanks to our student council seeing our students come out to support our school for the Thanksgiving Day game was also
017a major highlight of the year so far as we get closer to holiday vacation plans are in the work to hold another fun Spirit event to close out 2021 before we leave for the break lastly we are currently in the second academic quarter of the school year many guidance counselors are offering workshops for seniors to help them with college and financial aid as well as tutoring opportunities for struggling students and believe it or not for those of us returning back to behs next year counselors are already starting to talk about classes for next year's schedule as we near the end of 2021 Bristol Eastern is looking to end the year strong as we head into midterm exam season while enjoying the holiday season thank you very much for that report today yes Trisha today was
018your dad and I believe two meetings ago your mom got blamed for the smoke alarm okay I think I think the dog is next month but and your report was spot on so thank you uh next item on our agenda this evening is the chair report and um on behalf of chair Dube who is not able to be here this evening I do want to congratulate all of our newly elected and re-elected officials to the uh to the bristol board of education this evening commissioner artegriello re-elected with commissioner Carlson commissioner Wilson also re-elected and is online and participating with us this evening and commissioner Todd sturgeon so welcome all of you we look forward to working with you and continuing to do the work of the Bristol Public School District I'd also like to introduce
019and thank and welcome councilwoman Jolene lucitani who is going to be our liaison from the Bristol city council thank you and welcome that concludes my chair report this evening next item on the agenda is the superintendent report and I am going to turn that over to Dr Carbone thank you thank you good evening Commissioners staff and families this path past month has been busy within the district in the city first and foremost I would like to formally welcome Commissioners sturgeon and Tyler and newly elected um councilwoman lustani to the Board of Education aligned to our district priorities and of operational effectiveness our Co team has met with all of our department heads and school principals over the past five weeks as we prepare for the superintendent's recommended budget we will share with the board of
020education on January 18th and 19th during our budget workshops once approved by the Board of Education this budget becomes the board of education's recommended budget for fiscal year 2223 as a board of education we will present our budget to the board of Finance in March of 2022. other important items I would like to share with the community aligns to our district priority of being learner focused on November 10th the State Department of Education met with myself our district leaders from OTL to review our alliance goals for the Year this meeting is to review our academic attendance and discipline markers for the school year as well as the strategies that we use to support our staff and Scholars an example of a strategy in our alliance District Grant is our effort to increase reading achievement using
021instructional coaches and instructional resource teachers to deliver targeted lessons for students in K-5 who have not yet met their benchmarks in a particular grade level we shared our fall academic Benchmark data with our alliance District liaison and he had shared with us that based on his um meetings with other districts like ourselves across the state our data looked very good um at this time I would like to introduce Dr Dieter or covid liaison for an update thank you Dr Carbone good evening Commissioners I want to update you on some changes that have recently occurred that are will have a impact on operations moving forward so on November 22nd 2021 Dr Manisha judehani who's the commissioner of the Department of Public Health issued an order related to a previous order conditions and environments requiring Universal masking
022within that order there is limited the updated order provides for limited exception to Universal masking requirements that were established by uh nandemon's executive order 13A the dph order reasons part subject to exemption provided in executive order number 13A all individuals regardless of vaccination status shall wear a face mask covering at all times when inside of pre-k12 public or non-public school building excluding residential dormitories when students are present um fully vaccinated custodians or office staff do not need to wear a mask when in school buildings on a weekend or after hours when students are not present inside the building as such and are less directed to do so by reversal Public Schools or Department of Public Health official occupants of Bristol Public School building and programs will not be required to wear face covering masks after
023hours when students are not present in the building the full text of the Department of Public Health order can be accessed this will be sent out electronically so there is a link to that order Bristol Public Schools officials will provide clarification reminders of masking requirements for specific events in which the guidance or expectations may not seem immediately clear or obvious as of 3 pm today Bristol Public Schools stated covid safety Liaisons have completed a total of 359 unique close contact screenings that are related to 145 positive cases this school year the daily positivity rate in Bristol is currently 17.4 per hundred thousand the Connecticut rate is reported today at 3 pm at 5.37 best shared at our last Board of Ed meeting the Bristol Public Schools has implemented the screen and stay initiative with low
024incidence of participants converting to positive cases thus far we've had three students engaged in screen and stay that have converted to positive this was early in the transition to the program and since we have had no further conversions lastly the Bristol Burlington Health District will be hosting a booster clinic for Bristol Public Schools Employees on December 8th at Bristol Eastern High School from 2 to 4 pm details will be posted and the Bristol Burlington Health District is organizing a pediatric vaccination clinic this is likely to occur in the next two weeks and information will be shared as soon as the logistics are worked up that concludes my comments and updates thank you Dr Dieter as Trisha and Sydney reported the 62nd Battle of the Bell was held on Thanksgiving Day both Bristol Eastern and Bristol
025Central Senior band members football players and cheerleaders were recognized prior to the game ultimately Bristol Central prevailed over the Lancers 38-8 we extend our congratulations to both teams and our graduating seniors a special thanks to Mr cassen the administration at Bristol Central in Bristol Eastern Coach fapazian coach Julius coach Heffernan coach D'Angelo Mr Bagley and Mr abusowitz and of course a special thank you to the Bristol parks department especially Dr madiro Sarah Larson and Mr Lincoln and the entire crew who made the day enjoyable for all a reminder to our families that our winter recess begins on December 23rd and ends on January 2nd with Scholars returning to school on January 3rd for our new Commissioners and a footnote regarding our District's use of the title of the word scholar you'll notice that we refer
026to our students as Scholars this is quite intentional the term student signifies a time and a space when a child is enrolled in a school or university a scholar is a person who has attained deep knowledge scholar is a term to be considered more productive than a student the term student has a start and end date relegated to enrollment a scholar however is forever and is to forever be considered as a scholar as a school system we produce Scholars we do not merely educate students and so many of the times that we present we will refer to our students as Scholars and just that everyone has the history of that because you're new to the board my second update is to inform the public on recent updates regarding the Bristol arts and Innovations magnet school
027later this evening on the consent agenda we will confirm the appointment of the new Bristol arts and Innovation magnet school principle and I will speak to that later this evening this Monday the lottery opened for middle level students as of this evening 29 students have accepted their seats in the middle school at Bristol arts and Innovation Magnet School a reminder to the parents who are watching you must accept your seat as a first step and then select the area of focus in the Arts that your child wishes to focus upon during their first year at the middle school and the reason why I remind folks is that some people have gone in and only accepted either the seat or only chose the course and did not make both of those selections additionally we will begin
028the hiring process for our Bristol arts and Innovation Magnet School Middle School level teachers in December and January and apparent information session for our high school families will be held in January that concludes my report thank you Dr Carbone next then our agenda this evening is our consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda the consent agenda which will include items eight a one through eight a nine so moved second uh the motion been properly made and seconded okay item number eight a seven three vote on the rest of it but not that okay so uh a request is being accepted by commissioner Viber to pull out item 8A 0.7.3 some of second all in favor of the rest of the consent agenda hi hi through the chair before we take
029up the conversation I would like to recognize and welcome two of our administrative hires Mr Gervais who is going to be the new assistant principal at Bristol Eastern High School and I believe he is on Zoom Miss Brown yes I am welcome to Bristol the Bristol family thank you so much I appreciate it um yeah I just want to say a few words I very excited uh to begin at Bristol Eastern again my name is Jeremy Gervais I am currently an English teacher at Glastonbury High School where I've served for the past 10 years as both teacher and also as the drama director I've served and been a co-chair of the PBIS committee at ghs I've also served as the co-chair for the instruction committee for our knee ask self-study a few years ago I've
030also served on the advisory committee and so a variety of different leadership positions at Glastonbury I've served as the union president for our local union for the past five years and been able to make a lot of great relationships with colleagues there and and work on a lot of of school Improvement plans as well so I'm excited to bring my my experiences and my energy to Bristol Eastern and to work with a great administrative team at that school so thank you for having me and I'm excited to get to work welcome Jeremy thank you uh and second secondly I'd like to introduce someone that you know Dr Samantha sarley Who currently is our Arts and Music supervisor but beginning as soon as humanly possible will be the principal at Bristol arts and Innovation Magnet School
031hi good evening all right good evening everybody so I'm going to be brief but I just want to say that I'm extremely honored to continue to serve our Bristol Community in my new role assuming but um Bristol Ames is going to put our students ahead of the pack in choosing and exploring all of the pathways and finding their concentrations to enhance their personalized learning which is intentional in our creation of creative construction art which is Visual Arts and all their different components musical arts and vocal and instrumental as well as our newest pathway of theater and I look forward to fostering our strong Partnerships and expanding opportunities for our Bristol students not just within the school but within our district so thank you welcome [Applause] okay shall we be in discussion on the pull out
032item 88.7.3 thank you very much do I push it down okay um I wanted to pull this out Simply to give kudos to the young Mr Joseph Grabowski Joe is a Bristol resident he is now married to his high school sweetheart and they are a homeowner in Bristol and he served on the board of education as the youngest ever Board of Education commissioner in Bristol for a four-year term a few years ago and I just think that he does he's now going to be the gifted coach at I think chip is he's going to be the gifted coach at chippens and it's just very exciting I'm sure the teachers that had him in their classrooms are very excited to see the path that Joe has traveled he went from there from a classroom to their
033colleague and he's doing very very well and we love to have students that go through our system become teachers and stay with the district and I think Joe is the perfect role model for that I don't know if he's on I doubt it but so congratulations to Joe we're very happy to have you I'm sure he'll do very well as the gifted coach he's doing well as a teacher and I simply wanted to give him that little extra kudos your honor I just if I may I I do want to point out something that is procedurally incorrect here and out of order which is when we pull items out of consent agenda we are doing it for the purpose of discussion to lay a question on the table we're not doing it for this for
034the purposes of extracurricular discussion and I just I appreciate the sentiment of commissioner ribber I think that it's great that we want to give somebody Kudos who did matriculate from our school system and was on our board and is now a teacher here but I do want to say that we we should be following procedure as it is appropriate and that we shouldn't be using the consent agenda's time to not deliberate business that's before us all right well there was no deliberation well that's a matter of excuse me may I have the floor for a moment it was just a two-minute comment about a wonderful young man and I think it was he deserved that Kudos I'm going to call the meeting back to order and if there's no further discussion I'm going to ask
035for a motion to approve the consent agenda to include all items eight point a 0.1 through 8 point a 0.9 second motion's been properly made and seconded all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you okay next on the agenda this evening is uh were I'm sorry I skipped my apologies I'm going to now um you already discussed the new administrator so we are going to move to public comment and Mrs Everett did you receive any public comments I'm going to I have a list in front of me that was just given and before going into that I am going to read the public comment rules um you need to send your comments just use never Apostle k12.org you must be sure to put public comment Boe in the subject line you need to include
036your name and address you need to direct your comments to the board chair your comments will be read at the meeting by the board chair all comments should be written in appropriate manner particularly if concerning a Personnel matter and any comments not adhering to the guidelines will be read at the meeting um so I'm going to call uh the people that are present in the room by name and then we will move to those that are joining us via Zoom first on the public comment sign up sheet is Grace regali two hello my name is Grace Grace regali here there we go now we can see you Grace okay now they excellent thank you I take a drink of water and I forgot to put my mask up she tells me to put it on
037but she wears her mask down and says she's fine and far enough away and she's like an inch away she throws away my water bottle when I play with it then I have no water all day what we use shields for snacks and breakfast and have to put our masks back on but the office ladies leave theirs off all day masks don't work there they have tiny holes bacteria can flow through please take the masks off use us they they're hot sweaty and dirty thank you for your time thank you Grace uh next person who has signed up for public comment is Lauren vernalia thanks good evening um it's not chair duby so it's uh commissioner gianton commissioner G Antonio uh as you already know my name is Lauren vernalio I live at 79 Beechwood
038Lane first of all I want to sincerely welcome all the new members and re-elected members of the Board of Education along with my uh my girl Jolene over there I'm thoroughly excited and have a glimmer of genuine hope that maybe some changes will begin to occur in this District I would like to say that I am simply a parent who is expressing my concern and my dismay at the state of things I am not a monster I'm not out to get anyone nor do I wish any harm on others that's not in my nature however I am fighting for the two most important human beings in my life and I may say things that hurt your feelings and I'm not going to apologize for that because frankly that's why and I'm not speaking about the
039Board of Ed members you get paid the big bucks you get paid the big bucks to listen to me and many other parents Express their concerns my biggest concerns honestly are the two guests at this meeting for far too long this board of education has been operating upside down the board of education is elected by the people and you work to represent the tax paying individuals in this city and the superintendent answers to you and the chain goes from there honestly I find that the superintendent and the deputy superintendent are using their positions and alleged power to bully the board the administrators staff teachers and parents in this entire District I mean even the mask issue I mean it's been months and months and months and now I can finally walk in here I don't
040have to put a freaking piece of cloth over my face and it took this long are these truly people that we should be entrusting our children and their education and safety with people who elicit fear and the employees who actually do interact with our children on a daily basis I pose this question to both you Dr Carbone and Dr Dieter there is a present and aggressively metastasizing lack of confidence felt by parents students Educators and Community stakeholders in your ability to lead and create the conditions needed for students to thrive and grow academically socially emotionally physically and personally in the school environment how do you plan to consciously respond to the community's request for Choice are you going to sit back and reap the benefits of your inflated salaries and continue to hide behind the
041dictator we have in the State House are you going to actually do your job and fight for the children and parents you say you work in partnership with because as far as I have seen in the last many many months I have absolutely no faith in the intentions Dr Carbone says jump and Everyone Falls in line and says how high that's not a partnership that's a dictatorship mask mandates mitigation strategies punishments being handed out at school around Mass compliance my son being one of them being told to run laps because he didn't put his mask on to go from lunch to recess my daughter being sent to the principal's office for having her mask below her nose the second week of school and I mean I could go on and on uh running a pacer
042test with a mask on you know continued propaganda pressuring students and parents into getting a vaccine that's only been out for an incredibly small period of time with no long-term studies threats of corn excuse me through the chair the time has expired okay well I'm almost done so if you want to give me two if you could just wrap up your contacts you got it I appreciate it you got it so discrimination and segregation strategies and Athletics Now vax versus unvaxed when is this nightmare going to end when are we going to stop doing this I guess you know the bottom line for me is work harder for our children get them out of these masks and get life back to normal for school period thank you next person that has signed up for public
043comment this evening is Jen Van Gorder good evening chair giantanio I can never say right and um other members um congratulations on your elections and um I hope that we are able to move forward now with unmasking our kids I think that is what Bristol residents came out and voted for was freedom for our children in our schools and to get rid of these mandates and um I don't know six to three so I I guess Bristol has spoken so um I want to also second a little bit about what Lauren said there seems to be a bit of a toxic environment in our schools between um the children sometimes and the teachers and the staff and just harassing the children it is no longer as fun for the kids to go to school and
044it's it's sad to see I see it daily with my own children um as soon as they walk in the door on the way home too it's it's fighting and arguing and it's and it's it's overflow for um school um I'm glad to see that everybody tonight most of you have their masks off and we're also able to be mask free it was quite a fight to get here but finally we're here at the board of ed breathing freely so hopefully the school is next I'm not sure why we're continuing to do this to our children is it because our governor says so or is it yes or funds or is it because uh fauci represents science it can't be about health or safety because the only peer-reviewed study done has shown that masks don't
045work in um Sweden they've 1.8 million children that have not been masked at all during covet and there are no coveted deaths in children the teachers and staff have the same infection rate as the rest of the population uh as we see now too with the winter sports coming up they have brought in medical discrimination right the unvaccinated kids can do their Sports without their masks on while the onbacks are partially vaccinated must remain masked even when an activity seems a little more dangerous they say the vaccinated children should remove their masks but if you're not vaccinated you may uh I have a feeling that this is going to be moving into our schools now that it's in the sports it's going to be medical discrimination between the children the ones that are vaccinated will
046be able to remove their masks as a forcing function to put this trial vaccine in the arms of all of our children uh so I hope that things start to change I hope everyone starts speaking up and we could just move to uh medical freedom for our children it's the job of the school to teach our kids not to uh Force vaccines and masks on them thank you thank you next on the list for public comment this evening is Brianna tirado my name is Brianna Toronto I'm 17 years old and I live at 41 Leon Road I just want to start by saying how I get harassed by my teachers I get single down I get death threats by my peers I have a hard time keeping my mask over my nose because I have
047asthma and I get yelled at by my teachers that are not wearing their masks correctly they're wearing it under their nose um uh under the chin some have them under their nose and have it under the chin uh I guess singled out because sorry I guess singled out because I had my mask under my nose so do other kids but I'm the only one that gets yelled at so there was a teacher that asked me was I vaccinated out because I had my mask under my nose because I was taking a test in the hallway and I don't think that's right for her to ask me if I'm vaccinated or not um I get death threats by other kids as I said like they be saying they said go kill yourself jump up a bridge
048and I want to watch you die just because of my political beliefs and I'm fighting for my right um I am getting called racist and homophobic by kids I don't even know the flu has killed more people my age than kovid there's only been five deaths since the beginning of coven that's killed people under the age of 18. suicide rates went up from four percent to ten percent masks don't don't stop the spread of covid neither do vaccines stop the spread stop all these mandates it is affecting the kids more than you whoever think thank you next on the list of signups for public comment is Kristen Bevins good evening everyone good evening my name is Kristen Bevins of 41 Leon Road and it's nice to see most of your faces this evening I am
049sure that some of you are tired of hearing the same things from the same people but if we don't continue to fight for our rights and the rights of our children who will the division that covet has caused among students and parents alike is a shame as my daughter has stated she has been told to kill herself as well as she doesn't care about the lives of others and how awful it is for children to speak to each other that way my children have been taught to respect others their rights and beliefs but it seems the only rights and beliefs that matter are the rights that follow the mainstream agenda today I went to the State Board of Education a child who goes to Bristol Central refuses to wear her mask any longer she was
050told to get a medical exemption and she went and got it and then they didn't accept it after she had been in school all day with no mask on they then sent her home and told her that she cannot return unless masked so now she's sitting at home racking up absences and unable or allowed to attend school we are segregating our children due to the beliefs due to their beliefs this is not okay vaccinated and unvaccinated spread alike and yet we treat our unvaccinated children different covid does not affect children the way it does the elderly we can no longer say get vaccinated because it protects others because being vaccinated does not stop you from getting or giving so why are we treating these kids differently we are no longer following science here we are
051following a political agenda the agenda of Lamont the mental and emotional strain this is having on some of our children is saddened the children have not known normalcy in some time I implore you to help our children get back to normalcy and to give them back their faces I also want to bring to light the racial division that is growing my second grader was approached by a boy she calls her friend who happens to be African-American he tells her to say black as my child doesn't look at people as black or white um so she does he then starts yelling calling her a racist my second grader being called a racist again focusing on Division division of mass usage division of vaccinated status division on Race teachers Board of Ed members elected and appointed officials
052what are you all doing wrong never have I seen so much hate in our schools whatever is being changed and done in school is not working and needs to be fixed get back to teaching math science English American history leave politics your beliefs and ideologies out thank you for your time before I move on to accepting public comment online I just want to reiterate for those in the audience that um Bristol Public Schools staff Administration and this board take threats to students or any other staff member or any other person in our school Community very seriously and if that is the case I would like to request Administration will certainly follow up with the family and make sure that a proper investigation is done with that um with that being said um I'm going to
053ask if there are anyone on the online meeting that wishes to make a public comment I'm hearing that there are none and I am going to conclude a public comment portion of our agenda this evening yes I just wanted to also um reiterate what you said that and thank the young people for their bravery and speaking tonight and if people are being bullied or treated that way that this board would not stand for that and that I completely support what you said that there should be an investigation be done three for the chair there's another one another public comment oh pardon me you are I'm sorry that is my apologies um there is one more person on the list it's time I'm sorry I cannot read the writing Tom Barrell thank you very much my
054apologies no problem no problem yeah my name is Tom Barrell I live at 498 East Road and um Madam chair board members and superintendent Carbone I want to thank you for the all your efforts to make this complicated school system work and I recognize it's not easy but I'm here to express my concern about the national Trend that is affecting school systems throughout our country and my hope is to bring it out into the open and find out how much of an effect it's having on our school system and I'm speaking about a radical gay agenda a radical gender ideology really that has the Western World in its clutches it's not aimed at eliminating discrimination as has been claimed but there are their own agendas states that it's to convert our next Generation into the
055transgeneration it is a thought out attempt to destroy what they call the oppression of the heterosexual Norm which means to destroy our idea of what a family really is we're not talking about gay individuals we're doing their best to live their lives as responsible members of our society but as it is about a radical agenda that is confusing and destroying children's lives and their family's happiness and peace until just a few years ago gender dysphoria which is severe discomfort in one's biological sex was vanishingly rare studies in uh in in uh 2016. it was it was found less than .01 of the population that's one in ten thousand kids in adolescents but today millions of children mostly female are convinced that they should change their biological sex is reaching epidemic proportions it's warmed its way
056into thousands of Public School Systems laid its eggs and hatched out into endless confusion in school district after school district back in the 90s the early 2000s there was a bulimia epidemic among girls and young women the medical and psychiatric communities the educational system the government came together to stop the tide of this lethal psychiatric problem but with the Trans craze today we have the medical and psychiatric Community the school systems and the government encouraging this terrible psychiatric problem now buyer's remorse among these kids and young adults is very troubling the suicide rate is 18 percent higher than the other kids their age and it's it's hatching out into other psychological problems uh like very serious depressions so I hope this school district is aware of the national trend I just wanted to remind you
057that the students or the scholars here do not belong to the school system they don't belong to the teachers to the administrators or the teachers unions the children's are but the children belong to their parents God gave them to their parents the school system is to be made up in our nation of well-paid stewards of the taxpayers to educate the children not to influence them in sexual matters excuse me through the chair the time has expired okay ultimately God is the final judge of both our private and public decisions one day we will give an account to him for those decisions quoting Jesus he said whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which are connected to me they were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned
058in the depths of the sea so I would ask the board to stay alert to this problem and and uh to really consider it and I appreciate you listening thank you uh that concludes our public comments this evening uh next item on the agenda is deliberated items and District leadership team reports uh first item under uh category 10 is the cafe uh CAF expenditure and I'm going to turn uh the agenda over to Miss Brown thank you thank you commissioner G Antonio as commissioner tag Riello had spoken of earlier during the finance committee meeting we had spoke about an additional allocation received from the Connecticut State Department of Education to the cafeteria in the amount of 187 982.55 this is a revenue amount in response to the closure during the pandemic in March of 2020
059the state used a formula to Dole out funds to school districts across the state the funds must be used to support cafeteria service in schools and we brought forward some well-researched considerations for purchases that we could do to support the cafeteria with these funds we suggested the purchase of a refrigerated box truck to um to transport foods to schools that amount would be 89 543 dollars we would like to replace the compressor uh the compressor in the refrigeration system in the warehouse here at the board of ed that's twenty nine thousand nine hundred dollars uh we would also like to do some work around that uh compressor refrigerator it needs to be resealed and the roof needs to be re-supported that's fifteen thousand dollars we would like to add two refrigerated Deli counters one at
060each High School approximately thirty thousand dollars and three drop in freezers for school storage at Hubble south side and chippens that's eighteen thousand dollars that leaves approximately fifty five hundred dollars remaining to letter the new truck vehicle and register that vehicle to install an alarm in case of a freezer failure out in the re in the warehouse and uh the recommended motion is before you if you would like I would read that or one of the Commissioners can read it uh can I have a motion to we've resolved that the Board of Education authorized The District administration to purchase the following items using the additional cafeteria allocation from the state refrigerated box truck replacement of the refrigeration system at the Boe Warehouse roof repair refrigerator freezer resealing two refrigerated Deli counters at bchs and behs
061three drop-in freezers for school storage hubbells chippings and sell side truck lettering and registration and freezer alarm installation so moved second the mush has been properly made and seconded any other items for discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye motion passes unanimously excellent thank you thank you next item on the agenda is a request to authorize the Board of Ed operations committee to serve as the Bristol Central in Bristol Eastern commercial culinary arts lab project committee Mrs Brown could you inform us on that please uh yes as you know we had been authorized by the board of Finance to utilize some of our surplus funds for the purpose of adding a culinary to each High School a very inclusive culinary program or commercial culinary program and so there will be a building
062committee to oversee that project the estimated amount is nine hundred and seventy thousand dollars and any project that is below one and a half million dollars the operation committee will serve as the building committee for that project so we need to make a request to city council to recognize the operations thank you results request the city council to establish the Board of Education operations committee as Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern commercial culinary arts lab project committee let me ask for a second I will second motion's been made and seconded any further discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye aye motion passes unanimously next on the agenda this evening is our request to city council to form a building committee to oversee projects funded by the Esser ARP Grant Mrs Brown can
063you please uh inform us on that activity please certainly and these two projects are to add air conditioning to the chippens Hill Middle School and the Hubble Elementary School funded by the Esser ARP Grant but this project well in CXC it's that one and a half million dollar threshold so the request will be to city council to form a building committee I'll read the motion resolved to request the city council to establish an Esser our projects committee to oversee the addition of AC at the at the Chip And Soul Middle School located at 551 peacedale Street Noble Elementary School located at 90 West Washington Street for a combined project cost of an estimated 8 million six hundred and ninety five thousand dollars so moved second motion's been properly made and seconded is there any further
064discussion on this item carrying none all in favor please say aye aye aye OSHA passes next on the agenda is a request to approve the bid waiver for ready CT Mrs Brown please give us a description of that yes as uh commissioner tag tagliello mentioned in his report um we informed or asked the finance committee for their support in requesting a bid waiver going to the board of Finance we have allocated 190 668 dollars within the srrp grant for the purpose of partnership with ready CT after receiving feedback from the local community including the Board of Education back in August of 2021. the funding supports a work-based learning coordinator and 60 paid student internships at local manufacturers for one year upon Inception ready CT is the only non-profit organization in Connecticut with support work-based learning
065in such a manner so you're on I'll read this yeah resolve that the Board of Education authorized the administration to seek a bid waiver from the City Board of Finance for services through ready CT so move second motion's been properly made and seconded any further discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please say aye aye motion passes next on the agenda is policy 6114.81 emergencies and disaster preparedness pandemic epidemic emergencies emergency suspension of policy during the pandemic at this time I would like a motion to terminate the policy 6114.81 emergencies and disaster preparedness so move second bush has been made properly seconded is there any discussion um I have a question yes can someone talk about this from the policy meeting sure um this was a policy that was put in place in
066the beginning of the pandemic um that authorized the superintendents that the superintendent to have emergency executive Authority um the policy can only be terminated by by a full board vote and and when the emergency policy is extended by the governor uh the board also has to extend um has to vote to extend it to match the governor's extension at this point in time our um our staff has done a commendable job at putting together policies in place that protect the safety of students in our schools vaccines are widely available for student most students from age five and older for those families that wish to seek out vaccination we now have a new screen and stay policy that is in operation and working very effectively and the at this point in time we would be looking
067to terminate the emergency Authority because it's still open for discussion the floor is open for discussion yes I just want to make one comment um I understand that the board is capable of making decisions I believe that this policy and the governor's who started this is not to say that we're not capable of doing it but in an emergency it can be very difficult to get a quorum of the board together to make a decision and to vote on something and that's where this is really important so I will not support getting rid of this through the chair go ahead commissioner ponds my question is if the governor gives executive powers to superintendents whether or not a board of education votes to Grant it or not Grant it do we really have the authority to
068give or take away something that the governor is giving this has nothing to do with executive orders issue by the governor those are still in place and need to be involved so they would be followed regardless of our vote that's correct okay thank you so if we vote and the vote takes away the the power from the superintendent she still has it right now the only executive order that's still in place for school environment is my understanding is the mass commanded right now that executive order is currently in place until February 2022. any further discussion yes yes for the chair the definition of emergencies has certainly expanded in these last couple of years we're currently working most of the way through the Greek alphabet with the variants to a disease I think that right now
069process is in place are adequate that we know what we're doing we know what we're facing we don't need a further Emergency Management type of order any other discussion I want to make sure commissioner Wilson I know is online okay I I would like to speak to that I guess um this is kind of a vote that is really rather interesting because many may not know on the board but the superintendent is really an agent of the state not an agent in the monastic municipality nor an agent of the Board of Education her Authority emanates from the state two perfect examples of that there's two Landmark court cases in Connecticut one is a cgf case they didn't sue the city of Hartford they sued the state of Connecticut the second one was see Jeff which
070I was on the steering committee for we didn't sue the local municipalities for failure to give appropriate education to those municipalities we sued the state so that shows that the Authority for the superintendent and her actions comes from the state and not from the local Board of Education so you know I've been consistent all along in saying that I believe this motion was out of order this policy was out of order when it was adopted and it's still out of order and obviously I I understand the landscape but I still oppose this and I think it's uh legally untenable for the board to take that position seeing no other comments on the TiVo I would just uh reiterate that this policy was created to be allow the superintendent to act very quickly in the beginning
071of the pandemic we did not have this policy on the books prior to that it was a brand new policy that was implemented right wrong or indifferent at the beginning of the pandemic seeing as though your feelings commissioner Wilson along with some others here on the board about the the no longer the need for it you're questioning whether or not it was ever should have been enacted alone we were asked to consider this policy in the beginning of the pandemic policy committee took it up they agreed to allow the superintendent to temporarily take over uh emergency Authority where she saw necessary before a lot of these protocols and policies and executive orders from the governor were in place so I think you've just reiterated my argument as to why we don't need the policy any
072longer there are certain powers given to the superintendent by the state those will remain in place uh this policy doesn't make sense anymore and so the motion on the floor is to have it be terminated hearing no further comments you will take a roll call vote please can we clarify that if the vote is yes it's to get rid of the is to terminate the motion on the floor was to terminate policy six one one four point eight one the emergency Authority rendered to the superintendent in the emergencies and disaster preparedness pandemic epidemic emergencies policy Carlson yes commissioner giantonio yes commissioner ponds no Mr spelenka yes Christian sturgeon yes Mr tyrellio yes is it close no it wasn't what is it yeah yes come on there you go that's it for tonight um commissioner vibbert
073no commissioner Wilson no motion passes five three great thank you uh next on the agenda is the special services leadership team report and I will turn that over to Dr Culkin thank you good evening so first I'll start with our enrollment update for our November first enrollment account this is working it's up it just doesn't snow okay so as of November 1st 2021 we have 1659 students of a total enrollment in Bristol of 8 196 students were identified as students requiring special education programming and instructions that enrollment reflects a 20.24 total student population within Bristol during the month of October we had nine of 67 newly enrolled students identified as students requiring special education at the time of registration also during the month of October we had one student come to us newly enrolled already
074receiving their programming in out of District placements as of our November 1st 2021 enrollment count 108 of our students are receiving their special education instruction and out of District placements and special education school programs and 66 students requiring special education programming and services at other public out of district schools such as magnet schools and that number reflects five more private out of District program and placements and one additional public school placement compared to the overall out-of-district placements the previous month Miss Brown if you were to click into the link at the bottom I'm also um going to provide the board with an update regarding our District special education programs but should jump into percent mode if your life might be easier to see so I'm glad to share with you an update regarding our reimagining
075as it pertains to several of our our district special education programs across Bristol as you are aware we've made some adjustments and enhancements to multiple special education specific self-contained programs for the start of the 2122 school year over the next few slides I'll review some of the information that informs our work as we continue to make improvements in our special education program across the district this slide here provides to you as I thought it might be helpful for you to have some context regarding the students and their areas of primary disability that we are currently serving and addressing in Bristol the graph represents prevalence rate of students primary disabilities with the largest percentages of students that you'll see here as having a learning disability 38.4 percent other health impairment which would include a diagnosis of
076ADHD as a primary diagnosis or primary disability 20 of our students students with a primary disability of autism or emotional disturbance for each of just over nine percent and 2.3 percent of our students with disabilities having a primary category of disability identified as intellectually disabled remember we serve students with all areas of disability in the least restrictive environment that's most appropriately meeting their needs and if we are unable as a public school system to serve their educational needs in a meaningful and effective way here in our schools we look to contract for tuition services as an approved special education program out of District until such time where we may be able to meet their needs in a public school setting the least restrictive environment is appropriate as determined by a planning and placement team to
077meet the individual needs of a student and that does span a Continuum again determined by that child's individual planning and placement team thanks as you also know through the years several areas of improvement for Bristol Public Schools special education programming have been identified in 2017 the district engaged with crack the local Regional Educational Service Center to conduct a review and audit of special education programming throughout the District results from the audit were specified they were specific and targeted highlighted some of the findings some of the highlighted findings included recommendations in the areas as noted here such as strengthening our scientifically research-based intervention services or also known as srbi prior to special education referrals to reduce and over identification of students addressing increased needs relating to mental health and behavioral needs within the districts addressing having
078limited Special Education Service options in a least restrictive environment here in our school district so we also know from our annual performance reports that our students year after year have been identified as not meeting performance Targets on some of our standardized assessments and so we continue to look for ways in which we increase students performance and success in those areas it has been since 2008 that we were actually noted by the state department as making progress in the area of increasing students time with their non-disabled peers if students were identified as having a disability here in the district so with some of those pieces in mind we embarked and with your support last year and made some adjustments to our programming stepping into this new school year if we go to the next slide please
079so in particular the update this evening is being provided to you regarding four different programs that are run throughout our district the first is a program that is now known as Excel you might recall from the past that we had programs historically known as medically fragile Eagle goal and at the elementary level through High School level program known as ASAP which stands for alternative special education programming so we had reimagined updated and included new programming names as they made better sense and represented our students needs so those programs that I just mentioned have for the start of the school year been re-identified as our Excel program our breakthrough program or lead program and destinations attendance recovery over the next few slides I will probably provide you with more information about each so if we can
080go to the next slide please our district-wide program Excel which had previously been referred to as medically fragile was welcomed at Mountain View school starting this 21-22 school year the para educator staffing has been increased by three para Educators this year which has us with six para education positions for that classroom program that is a program that serves our students grades K through five investment and grade level Alliance standards-based curriculum resources and specifically that are specifically designed for students with significant special education needs have been invested in we've also invested in a recent augmentative communication and assistive technology consultation for better meeting our educational needs of our students in the program this was conducted just prior to our Thanksgiving break this name was also changed to excel because we know that our students can Excel
081when they're provided with high quality instructional opportunities our next program for an update is our breakthrough program this program is a relocation of classrooms that had been at um thank you that's okay we had had one classroom at Southside another classroom at Mountain View and third classroom at Ivy Drive those classrooms now are all at IV drive this program had previously been referred to and called goal it was reimagined and renamed as breakthrough classes from Mountain View and South Side were welcomed at Ivy Drive for the start of the school year this allowed us a K-5 program design and development in one school setting para educator staffing has been increased by an additional full-time para educator increasing to seven para education Educators for the three classrooms we also through the support of the Board of
082Education added a school psychologist position to address the clinical needs of our students and have also included consultation of the district's clinical psychologist as part of the clinical team for the program development of the program dorms and practices including a revised and enhanced program staff book has been underway additionally we've invested in professional development related to trauma-based practices that are relevant to students with therapeutic educational needs and have made some minor facility adjustments to make the environment more conducive to learning for students our next program update is for our lead program the lead program was in part updated by moving two classrooms from Stafford to join the third classroom that was at Hubble so from Stafford Hubble to a full design at Hubble School this program was previously known as eagle starting in our 21
083to 22 school year we had also invested in creating a lead teacher position as a stipend position to provide instructional and programmatic coordination and Leadership to our team additional special education teacher position had been created and results in an increase from three to four certified teacher positions for the program her education para educator Staffing had also been increased by full-time three full-time para Educators so we now have 18 para Educators assigned to this program Investments had also been made in grade level by standards-based curriculum as resources specially designed for students with significant special education needs as well as investment in classroom furniture and other materials conducive to the learning environment what is it you're right thank you this final program update of the evening is for a district-wide program that has been not moved it's
084still located at the rear of Bristol Eastern High School but there was a redesign that took place for the start of this school year so for our students who attend the previously known as asep alternative special education program now referred to as destinations those who attend grades 9 through 12 experienced a redesign and the redesign took place through a coordination of our staff and a consultation from a out of District special education school program for which provide services to students who have significant special education needs and required in out of District setting the design of their program is to address students whose attendance is impacted by their areas of Challenge and so through that consultation and a program redesign our students in grades 9 through 12 attend the destinations now known as attendance required recovery
085program and that is a program that's meeting their specific educational and curricular-based needs also their own personal um needs related to engaging in school being in attendance and engaged in their school environment the number of Staffing positions have remained consistent as they continue to address the needs even with our redesign of that program we've got one more slide there as a conclusion for you I do want to thank you and especially our staff and students for support and the work that they have put into making these significant contributions and adjustments doing the work that is important and challenging under normal circumstances under the current circumstances is even more appreciated and demonstrates the level of dedication that our administrators our para Educators certified staff and families have for our students the transitions to new locations New
086School communities newly established teams misreturning to school in person and for some students in substitute Staffing shortages that impact their school environment with no small feat and there have been some unexpected changes and challenges that staff and students encountered along the way but everybody has continued to work very diligently and with great dedication we continue to consult with and contract for our board certified Behavior analysts or bcba Services who have also been incredibly dedicated to helping our staff make these adjustments and these improvements be meaningful and be effective for our students and so a great thank you to them as well for partnering the impact of the enhancements will in part be measured by students engagement in performance on grade level assessments increased opportunities engaging their learning environment in their general education setting and their
087overall academic progress I'm happy to take questions Madam chair do you mind if I ask a question I don't think that we can um I'm sorry councilwoman Justine this tiny but that would not be proper at this point in time thank you through the chair recognized can you provide us with a little bit of background as to why we made the specific School selections that we made like Mountain View Ivy Drive Hubble and Eastern I just I kind of want to understand the thought process of having certain feeder schools um and what that means in terms I assume it's not those places that just have that's correct so some of those programs were already located or portions of the programs were located where they are now Bristol Eastern for example there is a rear wing
088of Bristol Eastern that has had a a nice facelift over the past couple of years but does provide for a a quiet setting with um it's good real estate in some ways like there's a lot of space for multiple classes um to engage in their learning environment Bristol Eastern I don't have the history to tell you why initially that location was sought for that program in particular but I can tell you that over the course of the past couple of years we have taken very seriously what that environment is and understanding that our kids are coming to a school setting that in some respects that program limits their engagement throughout a larger School community and so the superintendent and the board through the board support of resources did give a a meaningful upgrade to what
089that classroom those classroom environments are and provide to those students in a very thoughtful way our students who attend the program over at Mountain View this year that was a relocation of space so one of the classrooms that is now a breakthrough class had been at Mountain View part of our design to enhance the programming was that where we had for lack of a better term splinters of a program in different places in the district for that to really function and operate as a coordinated program we identified where in which the district it would make the most sense be the most effective and efficient to bring classrooms together so staff can collaborate as a team because ultimately that's part of their design as a program is to be a team so one of the classes
090did move out of Mountain View and moved to Ivy one of the classes from Ivy did move to Mountain View that was part of a different program so some of those changes took place across the district our programs that I named tonight do have students who come to them from multiple schools across the district there's not a feeder School necessarily because depending upon a student's needs and at what our programs to provide in terms of the educational setting the services and if there is space available within the programs because like other classrooms they have time to do fill up we might have students coming across town because it meets their specific needs and thank you for that and just just to follow up um I think one of the things you says we haven't met
091our Target since 2007 2008. so one of the things that a district is measured on annually is the amount of time students with disabilities are engaging in their learning in the typical classroom environment with their peers and so that is an area for us to be mindful of and to consider that our students in Bristol historically if they're a student with special education needs we more frequently are meeting their needs in a special self-contained separate setting and so that's an area for us to know it's um as we make our improvements it should be one of the factors that we're considering we want our students to be able to make their gain make gains in grade level learning because successful as they possibly can be and have an experience with their typical peers to the
092greatest extent that it's meaningful and appropriate for them so it's an area for us to continue to improve and just we're confident that the reimagined plan is going to help us I'm confident that there are very strong elements of the reimagined plan that as we become cohesive teams some of our teams are still bringing in new members um as you know like there has been there's been some change in Staffing in certain places um some of that is exciting because it's brought in some expertise and people new to our settings that bring with them a wealth of knowledge experience resources so I I think as we get underway and mindful that this is a really challenging year to have made somewhat drastic changes in light of returning to school Under not normal circumstances necessarily I
093think the long-range view is to get that momentum and for us to have those regular check-ins with the staff with the teams and looking at our students progress even with some of the challenges at the beginning of the year has had even in a very recent meeting with one of these teams there were a number of students who are identified as already demonstrating improvement and increasing some of their time with their peers so it's December 1st or so I think it's the first so given that um I can only you know think positively that the hard work and effort and our staff is significantly dedicated like their incredible incredible staff and working together as a team to support one another and support our students those are things that you could try to build in but
094when they come naturally like that's that's a win so great look forward to the progress thank you I'm not seeing any other Commissioners here with any questions um I don't see a handout from commissioner Wilson either I had a couple quick questions regarding the Staffing updates thank you very much for those that's that's helpful um in the Excel program and the Breakthrough program um you mentioned the increase in the paraprofessionals at those locations and the totals have gone up um can you tell me is there uh is what is the certified staff at the Excel program certified teaching staff so the Excel program has one certified teaching position that position actually I think the new teacher was on the consent agenda this evening who will be taking over that class that we're thrilled to have
095this teacher joining us at Mountain View she's actually familiar with the program having been a support staff of that in Prior years prior to that vacancies I'm sorry was that a vacancy that's being filled yes okay and the Breakthrough program the Breakthrough program has three certified teachers the lead program has four and the destinations attendance recovery has won overall had we have any decline in staff other than the normal um you know uh certain people leaving the district but then we were rehiring him but have we made any reductions in staff permanent reductions no we've made Staffing increases yeah okay I know you highlighted those I just want to make sure that we didn't actually reduce in other areas too um the uh overall just special education I know that um you know it's it's
096always a challenge to make sure that uh we're able to recruit the stuff that we need it's a shortage area some of the sub-specialties even in the related service providers I know have been a challenge to try to get um people in to cover our our vacancies and I noticed that we've we've gotten some speech and language Pathologists in on and so that was great too um I'm happy to see that we've been able to hire some new speech and language Pathologists with us and where we've continued to still have vacancies we have been able to partner with Contracting Services to put some of those Services into place even though they're not yet Bristol Public School Employees filling those voids so one of the pieces of feedback that I've received from the community is moving
097forward as we go through our reimagining Bristol Public Schools transition in several different um movements of schools and the different phases of the projects along with having to do some redistricting along the way I know that there I've been getting feedback from families about their concern that we provide a stability plan for these resources as we move through those transitions since staff will potentially be moving along with the rest of the redistricting and as the schools get populated new schools get populated with larger amounts of staff and other things that we are hearing some concern from families that we'd be able to provide them a level of stability through all of that change because these students could be much more highly impacted by these movements and I know that you guys will keep that in
098mind as we go through our our planning with staff through the chair we took that into account we made these moves so the intent the intention is these classrooms will remain in the schools that they're currently located because it's a district-wide program so those families have already landed in the spot in the reimagining plant the remaining classrooms there are no based on the um the redistricting plan when Edgewood closes and the remaining classrooms will be able to address any of this enrollment or student movement so there wouldn't be a stress on the existing schools great thank you thank you Dr Culkin moving along in the agenda is our curriculum revisions this evening and the first item under curriculum revision is baking and Patisserie this will be the second reading and I welcome Dr rickenberg to
099the mic to describe that for us please good evening Commissioners just as a recap from our first read this is a semester course is it's an introduction to Bakery baking and pastry with intensive Hands-On laboratory training the laboratory classes emphasize basic ingredients in production techniques there are three themes that run through this culinary program uh which are safety and sanitation careers and employability planning preparation and production at this time I would entertain any questions and or a motion to approve is there a motion to approve baking and Patisserie second reading still moved second motion been properly made and seconded any further discussion questions all in favor please say aye aye aye motion passes uh next vitaminer the curriculum revisions is uh acapella curriculum the second reading thank you Dr sarley thank you uh so much
100thank you so uh just to start us off um the acapella course was designed as a semester-based course where students earn half a credit and will learn how to sing in a small group students will learn vocal techniques used in contemporary College acapella style such as Glee or Pitch Perfect or Pentatonix this will include learning vocal percussion such as beatboxing microphone techniques arranging and writing and students will also have the opportunity to sing fellows and enhance their ability to connect with their peers and audience so I presented this at our last board meeting and so I'm now asking for a motion to approve so moved second okay a motion to approve the acapella curriculum that has been made and seconded any discussion questions hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye motion passes
101moving right along is our digital music second reading thank you Dr sarley for continuing yes so um the digital music curriculum is also written as a half credit or semester-long course there are three units of study and there is no prerequisite required for students to take this course the course introduces students to digital music using computers synthesizers and digital audio workstations to create original music students will collaborate with others to create work across other subjects such as Art Theater film dance and English so similarly I would now ask for a motion to approve so move second there's a motion to approve digital music on the floor it's been properly made and seconded all in favor uh any further discussion questions hearing none all in favor please say aye aye motion passes [Music] okay last one
102last one is jazz band thank you very much that's right so jazz band has always existed in our after school or before our school offerings and at Bristol Ames this will be a semester-based course that students can take during the school day our teachers designed a course where students will learn styles of salsa Latin and swing just to name a few and they will also learn how to perform and modes commented jazz music allowing students the opportunity to learn how to improvise and perform solos and before I ask for the motion I do want to just thank our teachers who wrote this curriculum which is Michael coder Danielle busewitz and Andrew Moss great at this time because we have a motion to approve jazz bands I can read second motion's been properly made and seconded
103any further discussion foreign questions just one clarification I know I asked this at the uh student achievement committee on the existing before and after school programs for jazz band will remain in the schools that they already have so and this is just the change for babes correct it's an offering for our high school students to take up aims great thank you yeah uh hearing no further discussion or questions all in favor please say aye aye motion pass thank you next on our agenda this evening are some policy revisions uh and this is in regards to uh policies for one one eight point two three one and policy 5136 concerning alcohol drugs and tobacco and Dr Dieter if you can please explain those policy relations there are two policies for consideration this evening the first is
104a policy regarding the existing Board of Ed policy 4118.231 and uh the proposal is to replace that with policy 4218.232 this is a Personnel policy and it relates to recent changes in state law with regard to a possession of possession and use of marijuana specif and it's specific to um bringing our policy into align with the existing state statute it is rather uh elaborate but I do just want to you know give you an example of one of the changes that it would or one of the areas that illuminates and that is it would prohibit smoking of marijuana on school grounds by employees it would also allow the district to refuse and employee make an accommodation uh or um or an employee to possess a cannabis while on school grounds it's one of many changes
105that were proposed uh both these policies were reviewed and uh and recommended for full board consideration I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have foreign at this time can we please have a motion on the floor to approve uh the proposed revised policy 4218.232 so move second bush has been properly made and seconded any discussion or questions I just had one question I'm sorry uh talk to Dieter and this policy is is is there discipline or Consequences involved in this policy or is it just the policy so with regard to disciplining consequences that would be a function of uh going through a Personnel committee uh and a com you know a complaint process in that purview so um and um so therefore it's not specific to um the type of discipline or to
106or the range of discipline that could be implemented thank you thank you at this time could we please have a motion on the floor to consider uh the recommendation to adopt policy 513 is that a one six is that a correction as well I'm sorry I missed the vote on the first Posse I apologize uh with no further discussion on the floor uh we will vote on policy to ex motion to accept policy 4218.232 all in favor please say aye aye aye thank you uh the next motion for your uh the next policy for your consideration is uh with respect to students this is the 5000 series uh and this is policy 5131.6 uh and this is a specific to students uh this also brings uh the district into compliance with uh statute it does
107elaborate uh on the definitions of what drugs are the different forms of liquid nicotine vapor products CBD Etc um and again it's a fairly elaborate policy which does go into a quite a bit of detail with reference that we are a drug free school zones and our obligations that we have uh given that our funding comes from both state and federal sources so guidance is provided on how to navigate that space with prevention programs as well as how the men manage situations that would for both prescribed medications to students as well as medical marijuana and I'd be happy to answer any specific questions that you may have at this time can we please have a motion on the floor to adopt policy 5131.6 alcohol drugs tobacco revision Factor motion's been properly made and seconded any
108discussion or questions but yeah Dr dude I apologize I was confused with for eign hearing no more discussion or questions all in favor please say aye aye aye thank you next time the agenda is new business is there any new business oh hearing none we will move on to the next item on the agenda which are building reports and we will receive the following building reports this evening uh one on MB mbiams update and the South South Side School HVAC project thank you the first report will be mine and then Mr Callahan will report out on South Side uh the Bristol Ames Construction continues to proceed um we are working on interior and exterior uh spaces final grading and the binder coat are going to be applied by the end of the week and inside
109progress continues on all levels third floor academic areas are receiving final touches painting no work etc within the theater we are the walls have been framed in sheetrock is being applied there's progress to the walls in the barrel roof we've been wrapping up our furniture fixtures and equipment into spinning Handover in late June the first round of the babes Lottery as we identified has been completed in student pathway selection has commenced for several of our Middle School Scholars thank you Dr Dieter we'll move on to the South Side School HVAC project thank you good evening um we're moving along with the South Side school as a lot of you know we work through some leaks on the Dakin units that have been put up there the repairs have been done uh we're working with the
110manufacturer some of those repairs are temporary we're going to have to get to a long-term fix on those which is the manufacturer's responsibility so we're working through that it's no longer leaking and we're in good shape in terms of of how that's working right now we're still waiting on the two HVAC units that are going into the um multi-purpose room should be delivered uh this this uh next week so we're hoping they're going to be delivered next week but we've been having delays in terms of the equipment getting here so that's that's south side and and as uh commissioner Carlson said you know we got a lot of stuff going on next couple of years with a lot of projects so uh the facilities department will be uh will be quite busy thanks any questions
111any questions thank you very much next on the agenda this evening is liaison information reports this month Commissioners that are Liaisons to middle and k through eight schools will give reports are there any Commissioners who would like to share information sure Miss ever do you have the picture if you don't I understand I sent it to you like seven weeks ago okay I'll just give the report then okay um I went to South Side school for turkey Bingo and every student there were many families there the place was packed I was pleased to see how many fathers were there my kids are 23 and 28 they went through the Bristol Public School Systems when they were in elementary school and there were events it was usually the moms and the kids and there were a
112bunch of dads it was really nice to see that um every student walked away with a prize some of them won turkeys some got pies and some got books there was a young man named Tyler from Bristol Central who came over to help and he dressed up as a turkey he was phenomenal this young man is going out into one of the Dakotas to set to study he's a senior he's going to study some very intense engineering program so we have a lot to be proud of with our students from K to eight through High School thank you commissioner Viber sure uh I did reach out to principal Gomez at Ivy Drive we unfortunately being new to the board we haven't been able to connect yet we do have a meeting set up for either
113tomorrow um I'll check my email when I get home or next week so I'll report the next opportunity that we have great thank you Commissioners yeah thank you chair um so I did get something from Principal um Farrell from South um Stafford so she does some cool stuff over there I don't know if you guys know who she is the time and she's awesome but so what she does is she does this thing she was a video and I I can send it to everybody so they can see the questions anyways but she does this thing where she'll ride on the bus with kids that behave themselves and she hands out things to these kids um you know the ones that you know are the best behaved and um she also does she'll she'll leave
114things for the bus drivers to hand out the kids when she's not on the bus who are acting appropriately and I think that's great that you know our administrators are because listen our bus drivers are having a tough time now um and I think that's great that our administrators are stepping up trying to do their part to help mitigate the problems that we're having on our buses and I think she's doing a great job with that um so kudos to her um and she said the bus drivers are super super um supportive of all of it so um that's pretty much it I mean there's a few other things but oh and she also does um which I think is cool she does a thing with Bristol Eastern it's called the vision of a graduate
115um the partnership between Stafford and Eastern has begun Eastern students will connect with the math and literacy coach to learn strategies and activities uh to support learning in the classroom the goal is to support the vision of a graduate by helping our little Lancers Envision themselves as future lancers and to match Eastern our school in the colors are changing to blue and white and gray which I think is great too and our mascot to the hawk um because we have a Hawks Nest on both sides of our school so um yeah I like her she's doing great things so I'm gonna get over there and do a walk with her one of these days that's it thank you commissioner I'd like to recognize councilwoman uh lucifani do you have anything to share um not at
116this time thanks I did also reach out to Dr levesser at um West Bristol but we also were not able to connect before the meeting so we'll report on them next time charity Antonio I had sent an email to uh chair Dube asking to give a couple liaison reports great thank you um I don't have those I'm assuming you're going to read them yes no to her that I would I would make them um thank you I lays on to three committees that I thought the board would want to know some information about uh the first is the Bristol Education Foundation the foundation was set up by some business owners and people that are Advocates of public education in Bristol many years ago to support some of those items that couldn't make the cut in
117the general budget uh and so that that has occurred over the years and over the years we've funded some scholarships we've we've funded printers Smart Boards technology items and then our most probably the last seven or eight or nine years we've done the mini grant program which many are very familiar with um so over the past couple months we had seen some attrition on our board so we're pleased to be adding six new uh board members over the last two months to get the board up to uh full speed um we've added some Community people and some business people to the board um typically we do fundraising every year we just completed our annual appeal and we also get some support from a local foundation and we have not been able to have fundraisers over
118the last two years our fundraiser has been most recently a trivia night and we have not been be able to have it because of covid but we're hoping for next fall to be able to have it if things continue with us we hope they will typically the Ed Foundation gives out between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars support to the Bristol schools under the mini grant program teachers will submit an application and Committee of the Ed Foundation we'll review those and uh coordinate with the administration to decide uh those uh applications that are most needy so we'll be doing that in the uh next couple months um and then in January of every each year we bring the mini Grant Award winners and their students to a reception typically it's before the board meeting our January
119board meeting and so I encourage you to watch for those details and hope that you'll be able to attend um we'd also like to you know highlight with the help of Brian Burke um there's been on linkage with donors choose organization and in the mini grant program in some cases where the mini Grant couldn't fund all of it don't a choice shoes is going to fill in some of those gaps as well as monetize how much we can get with some of the grant requests so it's a good opportunity for us to work together with donors choose the second uh report I was going to give to you was on Cape Cade held its annual convention at the Mystic Marriott on November 12th 240 board members superintendents and members attended um that's about half of
120what we typically have but the hotel had some restrictions that we had to adhere to uh and so we were limited by the number of vendors that we could have and then a number of participants but we were fortunate to have the U.S Secretary uh uh zoom in with us and so we got to hear from our own uh Dr Miguel Cardona and so we're so proud of him being the name the U.S Secretary and he shared with us some great points about being leaders as Board of Education members being bold and being role models for our community so um the other thing that kids got going on is for you newer board members there is two cohorts of training available to you on December 8th at the Hartford Holiday Inn one cohort is for
121a board member that's been on the board for less than two years and one is for the new board members and so that would uh be something that uh might interest you and then finally I'd like to talk just a little bit about the delegate assembly that was held on Thursday the 11th of November and that is where all the delegates from the board of educations uh get together and review and vote on the legis all the legislative resolutions um that will form the legislative agenda for Cabe and so we reviewed those 77 uh resolutions and from that the state Relations Committee which I will be the chair of that Committee in this upcoming year will create some priorities in this case we created um four priorities which I'd like to share with you um
122and we will be meeting with the legislative education committee this Monday and we'll also be planning on meeting with all the other legislators as we're able to get appointments when the session starts in February this is the short session of the legislature so it typically is just for Budget adjustments but we're hoping to also lay the found Work Foundation for other initiatives that we support moving forward the first one is removing the cap on special education excess cost Grant the latest data that I have for it is 2019 and that Grant has been fixed for the last five years at 140 million dollars and it's estimated by the Connecticut school Finance project that uh to satisfy the needs of the local communities it would cost about 200 million dollars currently they're estimating that um only
12370 percent of the need for towns for these excess costs and for our newer board members excess cost comes into play when it's four and a half times our per pupil expenditure the purpose of the excess cost Grant was to level out for Boards of education so they don't have to pay so much on those large high-cost expenses um so it's four and a half times for our own students and then any State Place students in our district it's one times so um we're hopeful to try to make some traction on that initiative we've had some conversation already and there's some people have seem to support that position the other initiatives that we were looking to support are or supporting programs that promote attraction training hiring and retention of Educators from diverse backgrounds uh strengths
124strengthen the support of Social and emotional learning through professional development for educators and provide resources for students parents and community members and I think you'll see if you read the mirror and an article this week from the legislature that they are starting to realize the resource Gap that we have um for social emotional learning and that we need to find a way to get those gaps reduced because this crisis in our emergency rooms on the emergency rooms are not the best place to deliver the social emotional supports that we need and then uh the final uh initiative that we have is to provide support for increasing interdistrict uh Partnerships uh amongst dexterous town to town in close proximity to one another so we can share services and resources and then my final report would be
125on correct um when the legislature created the Magna schools um especially the Hartford band in schools they were established at a foundational amount of 10 443 dollars and that was uh set in 2010 and it's only changed once uh since then and it went modestly up to ten thousand six hundred fifty two dollars well you know from what we spend per pupil that those amounts the 10443 or the 10652 come nowhere near what it costs to educate a student in Connecticut so we as a town that sends our students or our students choose to access magnet schools we as a district have to pay that tuition and so the executive director of correct has let the area superintendents know that if the legislature can increase that foundational amount above the 10652 that there would be
126no way for them to operate without a 12 tuition increase which is he knows and we all know that that would be drastic but it would basically we have is an unfunded mandate by the legislature to create these schools all and it's not just the Hartford area it's all across the state they're all in the same position every rest there's six rests in Connecticut and they are all operating magnet schools and they're all in the same situation so um we will be I'm also on the legislative committee for uh correct and we will be having that discussion with those legislators on that issue as well that concludes my report thank you commissioner Wilson hearing no other reports the next item on the agenda is a vote to convene into executive session for the purpose of
127discussing local 2267 contract local 3551 contract Bristol Federation of teachers contract and Dr Carbone Dr Galloway Jill Brown and Susan Everett will join us in that executive session still moved second must have been made and seconded all in favor please say aye aye I'd like to take a five minute recess before we convene upstairs thank you