Board of Education Meeting 09-15-21 - 1 of 2

001with humor and and alacrity from attending board meetings to using technology to connect and support membership and teachers in the region Kathy is always giving back to the profession in the world language community in so many ways Kathleen is a model of dedicated world like of a dedicated World Language teacher who day in and day out works hard both in and outside of the classroom to promote the development of World Language and Cultural skills among students while simultaneously working to Advocate and forward the profession on behalf of the CT cult board of directors I'd like to recognize Kathleen's dedication to the organization and the profession and to thank her for her service again Amanda robastelli Price president of CT Cole it's it's obvious that both Kathy and Gina show and share their love of language

002with many others in the profession and we're so very proud that they are around to influence other districts other teachers and our students here at person Central so congratulations to Kathy and Gina and Kathy is on so if she'd like to say a word or two go ahead and unmute I am multitasking as I'm babysitting my nephew as you can see hi Bryce say hello Mr Winnie um I just want to say thank you to everybody you know working for Colt has been great I did it for the last four years and it's been wonderful of course if you know Gina at all you know she's exhausting and the amount of energy that she has and she is currently taking getting her doctorate so she's in class at UConn right now um I just wanted

003to take this two minute opportunity to thank personally um office of teaching and learning Carly for in um lecheck Ward and Dr Carbone for your support with the sealed by literacy and for the students to take the Apple test and that we will recognize at the convocation for both Crystal Central and Bristol Eastern for students who are now going to receive or already receive the sale by literacy both in 2021 and we have students all receiving for 2022 so we're super psyched to keep moving forward with that um getting kids proficient in the language other than English in the next couple years so thank you very much everyone congratulations again to everyone who was recognized next on our agenda is the approval of minutes there are three meetings we need to approve you have all

004received a copy of the minutes in your packet the first one is the July 14th 2021 regular meeting minutes as written may I have a motion to approve motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you next I'd like a motion to approve the August 5th 2021 special Board of Education meeting Workshop minutes has written oh motion has been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions commissioner giantonio has to abstain okay Commissioners giantonio and the Bert are abstaining thank you next may I have a motion to place on file the summary of events of the August 18 2021 meeting promotion's been made I need a second second motion's been made in second at any discussion

005hearing none all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you we will now move on to committee reports first up is the communications and community relations committee and commissioner vibbert will be reporting for commissioner Pence okay there we go thank you very much while commissioner ponds is stunning at the moment I will report for her we met on August 11th and had some Lively discussion uh review the communications committee goals we had an update on the Rebrand Bristol Public Schools update on Grant submissions and the review of the family liaison position talked about opr training and that was it thank you keep your mic handy because I'm going to ask you to please report on finance now okay thank you very much so as of August 31st a snapshot on the finances the

006finance committee um this year as of now we are showing an available balance of 107 million six hundred thousand dollars um we need to remember that there are many things that still need to be encumbered um we have some things that we're working on uh the Board of Finance we've asked for two for waivers of two services this month one is the music lab LLC and that's very important we've had a relationship with them for a long time and they take care of cleaning and sanitizing instruments the other one is school mint Administration did look into a lot of different companies to handle the school lottery for the boulevard when it opens School mint is the only one that's going to work there will be a 62 000 upfront fee for the first year and

007after that it drops significantly to between to between three and four thousand dollars Food Services is doing well we currently um we received a reimbursement of eighty seven thousand dollars from the federal government and we are showing a balance of eighty seven thousand dollars right now more importantly we are feeding many many children breakfasts and lunch as of this report um nine thousand breakfasts and fifteen thousand one hundred fifty six luncheons lunches and that's the most important part of my report I think uh we've had a number of Appropriations and transfers but they've all been in the same Department transferring from one sub item to another sub item in the same Department other than that we will get a report on special education later in the evening from the wonderful Miss Culkin thank you commissioner

008next we will be discussing operations with commissioner Carlson foreign August 25th operations committee first item we worked on was South Side School approval of a change order to add air conditioning to the flex room uh the project for the air conditioning HVAC work there to come in under budget a little bit we were able to add this but it had a slight cost overrun of about nine thousand dollars other items we worked on Memorial Boulevard inter-district Arts Magnet School was received a draft of our vision statement and a draft of the theater agreement which we have to work on and the most one of the more interesting things we had to talk about was an update on the mold cleanup at Bristol Central High School which uh this summer has been rather tough being rather

009high humidity caused a problem with Central High School it was all cleaned up and everything's okay thank you next to discuss Personnel commissioner O'Brien negotiations are continuing with 2267 our custodial unit the secretary's unit and now the teachers Union so progress progress slow slow slow progress as commissioner [Laughter] scholinka and team can uh attest thanks for that next we'll discuss policy with commissioner giantonio a good evening uh the last meeting of the policy committee was on July the 28th and during that meeting we received an update regarding the work in progress on policy 5132 which is the student trust and grooming policy we discussed a revision of bylaw 9271 which is the bylaws of the board we also discuss a proposed new bylaw 9272 model code of conduct data by law and new bylaw 9273

010model civility code bylaw that are in our agenda for decision items tonight thank you and rounding out our committee reports commissioner Wilson with student achievement thank you and uh student achievement was finally able to meet on September 1st we had conflicts in the months of July and August so we put all our work together in that meeting in September uh the first two things that we dealt with were information items that we asked the administration to bring to our attention one was the extracurricular participation in athletics in 2021 both principal winninger and principal Higgins shared our participation obviously it was down because of the pandemic and we lost several Sports throughout the course of the year we also look back at the prior year to give us a benchmark and also during the discussion the

011committee we asked that if we could expand the discussion of extracurricular participation to all other extracurriculars that our students participate in so that we can see the linkage between our students success and students extracurricular participation and then the second item that we had Administration come to us with was our colleges of acceptance we wanted to see that report to show the community how well our students are performing at either two or four-year colleges and so we hope that the community relations committee and the administration will be able to use that information to publicize uh the success of our students so that the families know that they're getting a high value proposition when they send their sh they choose to live in Bristol and they send their schools to Bristol Public Schools our decision items or

012several which I'll review now um and all of these were our revisions of the existing curriculum and they'll be for you this evening for a decision the first reading was conducted in the committee revision of the biotechnical and forensics curriculum we also reviewed the physics curriculum the review a revision of ECE biology anatomy and physiology and original a revision of K2 social studies the committee uh you may actually endorsed all these curriculums and they'll be for you this evening for approval and we had a discussion about student achievement future dates because of the conflicts this summer but since there's only a few months left in our calendar year and our meetings are scheduled with the city through January we decided we would hold fast with our current committee schedule and we were revised for a

013future years that concludes the Mini's report thank you we will now move on to the superintendent report Dr Carbone thank you Jill can you just Advance the slides as you know I shared the innovate and Elevate continuation plan on June 11th in my weekly communication and that plan we had not changed our protocols that were in place at the end of the school year pending for their guidance since our release of our plan CDC Connecticut state department and Department of Public Health has issued guidance for schools and we have updated our plan our plan is posted and what you see on the screen is the way that access our plan including the email address that parents and community members can provide us feedback within our innovate and Elevate plan yeah both Dr Dieter and I

014throughout this part of the presentation this evening we'll discuss and review some aspects of the innovate and Elevate plan and Dr Dieter will further that information during his leadership report later on in the evening that being said next slide please both Dr Dieter and Dr Galloway will continue to serve as our coveted liaison officers as they did last year as outlined in our guidance provided to school districts as the expectations for compliance and creating the safest learning environment possible for our Scholars we have reviewed an updated our cleaning and disinfecting practices and increased ventilation in classrooms cafeteria areas and recertified our HVAC systems I invite Dr Dieter review specific aspects within our plan specifically you will be discussing this evening with us cleaning into synthesis disinfections social distancing massing and buses Dr Dieter will review

015our return to 100 in-person learning there are specific mitigation strategies that all will be expected to follow including physical spacing masks and assigned seats and are non-negotiables by following these procedures we hope we can dramatically reduce the number of students and employees required to quarantine after contact Dr Dieter will also share with you our statistics from the first three weeks of school regarding our positive cases and our close contacts foreign Dr Dieter thank you thank you Dr Carbone so I want to thank the Board of Ed Commissioners as well as the parents and families that have provided support for our efforts to ensure the health and well-being of our students and our employees as parents caregivers and Educators we understand the link between healthy and safe environments and student engagement and performance in fact it

016forms the foundation of everything that we do over the next slides I will summarize content which has been elaborated upon in our innovate and Elevate plan the plan can be accessed on the BPS home page please keep in mind that public schools is focusing on a suite of mitigation strategies and supports we will engage in Daily cleaning routines in all programs and spaces we use safe cleaning supplies that are proven effective against covid-19 and other Corona related viruses disinfection will occur in bathrooms Health offices in any spaces in which an exposure is suspect while the CDC definition and guidance related to close contacts hasn't changed the manner in which we screen and ultimately Implement quarantine directives has Bristol Public Schools will no longer utilize a cohort-only quarantine strategy unless we are directed to do so

017by the local Health Department students that are masked and have maintained three feet of space while in a classroom will not need to quarantine after a contact so long as they remain asymptomatic I want to stress that this three feet applies only to classroom spaces and any contacts or exposures that occur in communal areas will follow the expanded six feet definition next slide please for the executive order signed by Governor Lamont masks are required in all Pre-K Pre-K to 12 public and private schools in Connecticut exceptions require very specific medical documentation and subsequent approval indoors masks will be worn by everyone regardless of their vaccination status and Outdoors Mass requirements can be relaxed depending on the activity and the size of the Gathering while on buses students will be required to mask next slide please

018with respect to Athletics clubs and extracurriculars we have started our fall Athletics and extracurriculars on time this year and we are planning for a full season we have reviewed our mitigation strategies with all our coaches and advisors we understand that fully vaccinated students and staff do not have to quarantine from sports or other activities as long as they are asymptomatic after close contact with a known covid-19 case physical education arts clubs and Athletics will follow strategies specific to those activities and these strategies will include masking distancing droplet control as appropriate at this time Dr Carbone will share information regarding the three quarantine scenarios that we may encounter during the upcoming school year remote learning for the 2122 school year will only be used for three purposes during the next few slides we'll discuss these purposes

019one is considered a spot quarantine or isolation a class quarantine isolation or a school closure for illness during isolation or quarantine students will participate in remote learning students who are not quarantined will not have access to remote instruction slides for our youngest Scholars asked to quarantine or isolate from their peers remote instruction will be provided K2 teachers will live stream one literacy group and one math whole group instruction daily the content of those lessons may be provided to students by instructional support staff for the period of instruction in grades three five teachers will also live stream one literacy and one methyl group instruction again the content of those lessons will be provided to students by instructional support staff when available and additionally posted work will be in either seesaw or Google classroom at the elementary

020level there are two opportunities that may occur full School closure or a class closure in the case of an elementary school closure or class quarantine that means that the whole school needs to close and or a whole class needs to close students will follow the regular daily schedule adjusted to the Bristol Public Schools two-hour delay schedule the two hour delay schedule and school times are on our website and we're included in our opening day packet pre-k5 teachers will send families links to each of the classes needed for this school session any class that requires a school-wide teacher for example art or music or PE will have lessons posted lessons for these courses will not be live streamed in order to reduce screen time subject area instruction in pre-k5 extending Beyond 30 minutes of live remote

021instruction will be followed by asynchronous not live stream assignments to limit screen time additionally in the case of an elementary school full School closure it will follow the same methodology that we just outlined students in this in the school will follow their regular daily schedule adjusted to the Bristol Public Schools to our delay schedule the two hour delay schedule and school times again are sent and posted on our website Pre-K five teachers will send all necessary links to families the purpose of moving and shifting to a two hour delay schedule is for teachers to have adequate time to turn their in-person instruction into live streamed instruction we will follow the same methodology in our middle and high school so I will review both of these slides the next coming slides a little quicker so in

022middle school again there will be the need for spot quarantine or class quarantine in the case of a spot quarantine students will be asked and will be sent their links from their team leader and will follow the schedule that is supplies by their team leader spot quarantine instruction will only occur once the district officially quarantines a student and Scholars will follow their regular daily schedule in reference to the school of closure at the middle level middle level students and the school will follow Bristol Public Schools regular scheduled day adjusted to the two hour delay schedule team leaders will share all necessary information with families so that students can log in to their adjusted time period in reference to our high schools the same methodology and thinking applies students who are asked to spot quarantine will

023follow their daily instruction their daily posted schedule will be sent by their administrator additionally in high school in the need of a full School closure students in the school will follow their regular daily schedule adjusted to the two hour delay schedule again the purpose of the two hour delay timing will allow teachers the time to shift from Full in-person learning to remote instruction on August 5th we held a special meeting to review the suggested projects and programs that could be funded with our professor funds these funds will support and sustain access to full in-person instruction address the academic social emotional and mental health needs of our Scholars during the 21-22 school year 22-23 school year and 23 24 school years Crystal's allocation is 18 million 229 153 dollars we shared with the Board of Education

024during the special Workshop a variety of different projects aligned to the five priority priority areas this evening I will share with you some of the programs that will be sponsored and funded through our Esser ARP allocation and the area of academic acceleration renewal and student enrichment programs such as Project Read stem up after school Advantage all highlight are increased and focus on after school enrichment classes in addition creative Hearts engaging through the Arts and on the right track career Pathways speak to our emphasis at the high school to ensure our high schoolers have a multitude of enriching activities that allow them to explore different career interests priority two and priority three initiatives are aligned to both of these some of our climate initiatives will be supported for example collaborative problem solving and safer saner restorative

025circles complements work that we have already begun and we started three years ago camp and enrichment scholarships will be provided for the next two summers allowing our youngest Scholars have the access to either the science nature center Bristol Public Bristol Boys and Girls Club and or Bristol youth services for Camp enrichment activities enhancing and growing our family liaison is also part of our sr2 priority area priority three which is a focus on technology in enhancing our technology and ensuring that students have access to one-to-one devices we plan to use our Monies to enhance and upgrade our Network our Network switches provide cellular service boosters and three of our schools Bristol Eastern chippensville and Hubble and provide support for both our families and staff in embracing and enhancing their technology skills lastly within priority four where

026we have put the majority of our Sr art monies we are looking to enhance and ensure that our HVAC systems at chip and till and Hubble are updated and upgraded to air conditioning all of our server rooms and then adding and enhancing some of our site work for example curb sidewalks at different individual schools as well as addressing custodial equipment that is designed to enhance and support the mitigation strategies that Dr Dieter mentioned earlier lastly we have added four bus runs but I will share with you in a moment that we are down bus drivers so we have not seen the benefit of the additional bus runs yet this summer this school year it was absolutely a joy to welcome back our staff on August 24th at Muzzy field the energy from being together as

027a district Community was a great way to kick off our school year Alyssa Keane our Bristol Public Schools teacher of the year encouraged her colleagues to rise up to create the best experience for our Scholars during the school year our focus and continued focus on building relationships with our families and Scholars and engaging our students in Dynamic learning activities remain our Central Focus our building leaders and staff are excited for the return of our traditional clubs and sports as well as our new enrichment opportunities that will launch due to our Sr funding both Bristol Eastern and Bristol Central fall sports are in full swing as are our music and Performing groups we've had absolutely many joyful moments as we are back together and we are experiencing some difficulties as I just mentioned we are short

02815 bus drivers of the 90 bus drivers we need both first student and our substitute staff service ESS are both looking for new employees and I have sent out using parent Square information to our community members who might be interested in joining these organizations please use the links sent through parent Square and since I have just mentioned parents where we are excited that we have moved our entire District in all schools to using parent Square for a more robust way of communicating with parents and to consolidate Communications from various schools into one platform lastly I would like to remind those in attendance and joining us remotely that we have placed on our webpage the interactive maps for our reimagining Bristol 2023 redistricting and building plan parents can access the school's own their child will be

029assigned to in the 23-24 school year when Edgewood comes offline and is repurposed as a Pre-K Academy parents can also review their child's school zone in phase two as a reminder phase two begins once the newly proposed constructed and larger nems comes online and the district transitions to all schools being either a Pre-K Standalone K-5 or six eight school and that concludes my report thank you very much next on our agenda is the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which tonight will include items 7a1 through 7A 11. so moved second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye I opposed abstentions thank you Dr Carbone will be introducing the new administrative hire Mark Hughes who is the dean of

030climate culture and student services thank you chair duby it is my pleasure to introduce Mr Mark Hughes as the dean of climate culture and student support services and Mr Hughes if you would like to address the board we are thrilled to have you join our team uh thank you uh I will be brief there are a lot of people on that Zoom my friends and family who are laughing at me saying that because most that know me know that I can't be brief but I will be I promise um I just want to say thank you so much uh for this opportunity um you know it's uh sorry um you know just briefly uh a few months ago I watched my position be eliminated in in my former district and that can be kind of

031nerve-wracking and and my wife was here with me today said look I don't care what you do as long as you're happy and I just want to tell you that it's it's not very often that you get to do something that you're passionate about and come to work every day and be happy and that's been my experience uh over the course of last month uh here in Bristol so uh I greatly appreciate it just to share a brief little antidote is that uh just yesterday I was in a meeting uh with the um for the climate leadership to get prepared for uh the upcoming District climate meeting with Dr Dieter and he stopped things in the middle while we're talking and just expressed his excitement about where Bristol has come from and where we are

032and where we're going that kind of thing and Doctor I'll let you know and I want to let everybody here know that um I I have that excitement every single day I come in and it's just exciting to know that these initiatives are not just talked about they're they're followed through upon and they're a priority here and so I'm very thrilled to be a part of that so I just thank you very much for that opportunity thank you Mark next on our agenda is public comment Ms Everett did you receive any public comment for this evening yes I did okay thank you okay so I will first be reading the public comments that were received prior to this evening's meeting and then I'll hear the public comments from those of you who are in person

033tonight the first is from Kaden vernaglia who resides at 79 Beechwood Lane dear chair duby my name is Kaden bernaglia and I am in fourth grade at Ivy Drive School I need you guys to get rid of masks if you do then I can breathe again and breathing helps me live this is why I want you guys to get rid of masks foreign vernaglia from 79 Beechwood Lane dear cheer doobie bristol board of education members Deputy superintendent Dieter superintendent Carbone Etc my name is Teresa Cirillo vernaglia and I reside at 79 Beechwood Lane in Bristol I have been a marriage and family therapist for the past 23 years focusing primarily on children and adolescents I have been a Bristol resident for 19 years all of which in the same location I have been a parent

034of Bristol students for the past nine years I'm writing to you regarding the mass mandates for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year as we can attest the end of the 2019-2020 and all of the 2020-2021 school years were unprecedented no amount of Education workshops or meetings could have prepared any of us for what we would have to encounter as parents teachers building administrators or mental health professionals at the beginning of the pandemic I was proud to say my children attended Bristol Public Schools our teachers continued teaching our children virtually without skipping a Beat kudos to all who made that possible including us parents even last year I continued my pride in being a Bristol resident and parent my son's elementary school did an outstanding job with virtual learning days and his in-person learning days were looked

035forward to he was given Mass breaks throughout the day as we were told all students would be his teacher shared pictures with all parents throughout the year via Class Dojo to show us what students were doing including at recess and outside time my daughter however a sixth grader was often virtual due to quarantining mostly because her teachers were exposed and there weren't enough teachers to go around on the days she was in person at school she and her classmates were not afforded Mass breaks when my daughter or her classmates inquired about a mass break they were told the next teacher would give them one and that never happened the only Mass break given was at lunch while they ate this was brought to the principal's attention time and time again and we were told it

036would be resolved however it was not here we are at the beginning of a new school year with all of you sitting before us telling us our children will be forced to wear masks again I would like to ask you all how many of you have in the course of the past year and a half have worn a mask for five to eight solid hours but the only break from wearing your mask being when you were eating lunch which is a 15 minute break at most how has your mask felt after that many hours I for one can tell you as I have and still have to wear a mask at my place of employment masks regardless of disposable or cloth become damp if not wet within an hour they become uncomfortable for anyone child

037or adult with skin sensitivities allergies Etc it becomes downright unbearable and if you have worn a mask that long how have you felt physically when you have finally taken the mask off out of breath short of breath dry or scratchy throat perhaps all of the mentioned how many of you have a medical condition such as asthma which is exacerbated by the wearing of a mask the research has shown that by wearing a mask for prolonged periods of time the wearer is breathing their own carbon dioxide a poison which is then re-entering their lungs this increases the chances of upper respiratory infections bronchitis and pneumonia I truly believe in person education is of utmost importance for our children however at what cost yes they are physically in the same building as their friends but they are

038behind masks that isn't much better many of the children in Bristol have been together at some point in time this summer and I assure you they have been maskless the last time I checked my children's birth certificates the parents names are my wife's name and my name not the City of Bristol not the bristol board of ed not the state of Connecticut and not the federal government we live in America where we are supposed to have the freedom to make the choices that are best for us and our families I implore you to make the right decision for the children of Bristol let their parents make the decision for them you are not their parents nor their Guardians this mask decision is not yours to me thank you the next is from Cali vernaglia dear

039cheer doobie hello my name is Callie vernaglia and I live on 79 Beechwood Lane I'm in seventh grade and go to Northeast Middle School I would like to express my opinions about wearing masks for the school year I feel that everyone should have a choice about wearing a mask I personally don't want to wear a mask but some people may have different opinions than me and I've got to respect that the reason why I don't want to wear a mask is because the masks make me anxious and faint and plus with the school you're starting the masks aren't going to help with any of sorry The Masks aren't going to help with any of that another reason is by the end of school last year I was barely wearing a mask so why do I

040have to wear one again this year my last reason is that wearing a mask for six to seven hours a day does not make breathing easy for anyone how much longer are we going to be playing this game because I am not a fan of it okay the next is from Lauren vernaglia my name is Lauren bernaglia and I live at 79 Beechwood Lane here we are again another school year and I find it harder and harder every day to send my children to school I grew up in a family where my parents were both Public School teachers and I always attended Public School the public school system was regarded highly in my household as a child when we joined the school community in Bristol nine years ago I still felt the same as this

041pandemic has unfolded I am no longer feeling as though my children are receiving a quality education and in fact I do not feel the school is a safe place for them anymore the fact that my wife and I have seriously been considering pulling our children from a school system they know is really disheartening school is no longer fun or safe it is now very similar to a prison imagine having your children and their peers share with you on a daily basis how teachers are sharing their personal opinions about vaccines masks the virus and making comments such as you need to pull up your mask you're making me feel unsafe or keep that mask on your face because I'm trying to keep myself and my children safe and how that feels as a parent my heart

042breaks for these kids because they are being brainwashed and made to feel as though they are poison and that their friends and teachers are also poison the fact that this District continues to turn a blind eye to this evidence and makes statements like oh the kids don't complain about the masks is mind-boggling if you are at all in touch with reality you would realize that they have been taught to speak appropriately and respectfully to Authority and that those comments would come out at home with the people they feel safe with consequences being handed out for not having a piece of cloth over their mouth and nose recess or gym class being held inside even on a beautiful day I am completely disgusted and the fact that multiple districts in the state of Connecticut still had

043their Board of Ed meetings when parents chose not to wear a face covering but this one never held the meeting called the police and then tried to see if they could press charges just further solidifies that you do not care what the parents children and Educators in this District think or have to say I used to be proud to be a Bristol Public School parent but I am now completely embarrassed and disgusted by it I had a board of ed member tell me it was not her job to put pressure on the people above her as the voice of the parents of this District so what exactly is your job why are you all sitting in these seats if you are not going to be our voices I do want to acknowledge the following board

044members who did sit and listen to every word that was said in August because they are the members who will be remembered come voting time John scalanka Kristen G Antonio and Thomas O'Brien thank you for being professional enough to sit and listen to concerned parents we are not the minority and we will not be silenced back parents into a corner and refuse to listen but then act surprised when we come out sounding angry I'm not sure where everyone's Common Sense has gone but it is time to reflect and take back what power you do have before it's too late for our city state and Country the next is from Emily Bailey good evening chair duby my name is Emily Bailey and I live at 21 Tiffany Lane I want to take a few minutes tonight

045to First tell you that our group of parents students grandparents and Bristol residents advocates for Parental Choice regarding mask wearing in our Bristol schools yes I said choice I personally do not support telling another parent what is right for their children if a fellow Bristol parent wants their child to wear a mask to school then that should be their right to choose we are not anti-massacres or anti-vaxxers we stand for Parental choice I have grown up with the phrases my choice and my body my choice in a year and a half these phrases have been thrown out the window new phrases are wear a mask for the greater good we are all in this together we want to get back to normal so do your part wear a mask and take a shot keep your

046community and school safe wear a mask our individual personal and private medical freedoms to choose what is best for our children and ourselves are being Stripped Away some Americans may see nothing concerning about what is happening to our medical freedoms that is their American right to have that opinion that opinion should be protected and be free from censorship the same should be afforded to me regarding my opinion I disagree with what is taking place here locally in Hartford and at the federal level I should not be silenced and demonized for expressing that opinion our children are growing up in an America where they are mandated to hide their faces in Social distance in schools so much for the social emotional learning that is pedaled and pushed on our students daily in our schools the schools

047are failing them especially on this front the high school students are unable to sit with their friends at lunch instead they have been placed in a seat near Piers they don't know and in some cases with peers much older than them in turn students turn to their cell phones instead of socializing in the first weeks of school the high schoolers and older middle schoolers have had to listen to teachers push the shot on them phrases such as if you don't want to have to quarantine and miss out on school and activities you should get the covet shot this is coercion the use of coercion goes against the Nuremberg code absolutely disgusting that this code which is adhered to internationally and is meant to protect us has been tossed in the garbage the elementary kids in

048Bristol over the first weeks of school are being taught school expectations the expectations that tap the list are in order to be safe in school they have to keep their mask up and stay socially distanced from their classmates instead of little kindergarteners drawing and coloring pictures of their favorite things they are coloring pictures of kids wearing masks in one instance Bristol school children are met at the crossing guard area by an intimidating man enforcing mask wearing outside before the student even reaches the school entrance elementary students are being dismissed and are walking to their parents while the staff is scolding them for taking off their mask outside some staff are saying phrases to Children such as you are scaring me I feel unsafe you are going to get me sick children young and old can't

049understand their teachers I am sure if they can't understand them then the teachers are having the same hard time hearing and understanding their students these are just a sample of what is going on in our classrooms and on school grounds it is not normal in our culture to wear a mask and cover our faces stop trying to normalize it to our children as a parent all I see in here are government schools working very hard to get children to submit give up push the jab onto them via peer pressures and gift cards and still fear in them that if they don't wear a mask or wear it properly people are going to get sick and die the list could go on no wonder suicide anxiety and depression and our children has grown tremendously I am

050interested in hearing what our Board of Health has to say on that issue the kicker is that all of this ends the moment the students leave school masks come off kids hang out they participate in activities in sports but for a minimum of six hours a day our children are forced to breathe through a mask that is not FDA approved to stop anything masks have been authorized as an emergency use only device and that means you need to allow for informed consent before mandating that my child wears it you have not asked nor received written approved consent to put masks on my children failing to allow children and their parents their right to refuse wearing a mask is against federal law our children should never worn masks for the flu the flu that is more

051harmful and deadly to school-aged Children than covid you never Force our children to wear a mask and we as parents never requested them to be worn we the parents should make the choice always in addition the Bristol school system has never instructed students as to how did Dan and off masks properly not following the proper procedures when putting on and taking off a mask as well as disposing of them properly clearly throws any efficacy one may think the mask provides right out the window the Bristol school system needs to prove to me that masks are safe for my children to wear six hours or more a day unless you show me evidence that masks are safe across all metrics then you cannot and should not force masks on my children in school I do not

052send my children to school so they can be emotionally physically educationally socially and psychologically damaged the answer I have heard to mitigate any damages to children are we have social emotional learning daily in school social workers and psychologists available to help this is abusive I do not send my children to school so they may need to see a shrink because of the policies and procedures the Bristol school system enacts in closing I demand this entire board to work in any capacity it can to be our voice to Governor Lamont Connecticut State Department of Education and the Bristol Burlington Health Department thank you the next is from Aiden Smith who also resides at 21 Tiffany Lane chair duby last time I addressed the board in July I expressed my displeasures with the masking policies within our

053schools I still have these issues I'd like to elaborate my thoughts on the new reopening guidelines what makes little to no sense to me is the fact that while in school for six hours students are massed up but when we go out to play a sport or just leave school in general we take our masks off do you think the virus only festers indoors no it lingers outside as well just to summarize within school I have had constant headaches and such after school and many of my other friends have expressed health concerns although they won't speak about it also the new policies regarding athletes and vaccinations makes no sense we should not be coerced into getting a vaccine in order to play a sport and we should not be discriminated against based on whether we're

054vaccinated or not vaccinated people do not have more rights than the unvaccinated an athlete is an athlete regardless of what regardless of that fact you are ruining our futures thank you for your time foreign Mills who resides at 294 Lake Avenue good afternoon board chair my name is Paula Mills and I am writing about the concern of masks being mandated for my kids to wear to school I have three children in Bristol elementary schools and I do not want my children masked they have been mask free for the summer months and lived their best lives as kids playing at the park going to restaurants vacationing at hotels and swimming interacting with other kids and making new friends and just having fun breeding the fresh air I didn't need anyone from the government or School directors

055to tell me how to take care of my kids all summer long and I don't need to be told how to do what's best for them now I as a parent do what is best for my kids doctors physicals have shown they are healthy and growing strong with no concerns wearing of masks should not be forced on anyone it should be a family Choice made by parents who raise their kids and know them best there is no emergency with the loan numbers out there stand up for us to the governor and please give families the choice to mask or not unmask our kids the next is from Samantha Eaton good evening board chair and members my name is Samantha Eaton 488 Hart Street I am writing to express how much I disagree with the mask

056mandate I understand that the Mandate is set in place by the governor however it is time that as a community we take a stand against all of these mandates I have three children in the Bristol Public Schools currently none of them want to wear masks and have each expressed their feelings about them to me which is why I've become involved with being a voice for them my youngest is three and I am very worried about her development as she is unable to see expressions and mouth movements you have to sit back and ask yourself why it honestly isn't making sense anymore to say that it is for Public Health we have sports games concerts fairs event after event taking place that are jam-packed with folks shoulder to shoulder unmasked however come Monday morning it's put

057those masks put those kids back in a mask I mean come on look at our very own buses these kids are riding three to a seat no amount of paper or cloth over their faces will protect them from anything except smelling bad breath last year in the beginning of February 2020 before covid was a widely known thing my at the time third grader and fourth grader came home saying there were a lot of kids absent I thought hmm okay that's weird the next day they came home again saying mom there was only nine kids in all of fourth grade today concerned I called the school I was told that it was true and that there has been a significant amount of absent students and staff due to illness but not to worry because they were

058going to do extra cleaning that was it there was none of this closing schools and mask wearing at what point are we going to say okay enough is enough the CDC themselves is reporting a survival rate of 99.997 among school-aged children we really need to let school be school and remove the state and Board of Ed from making Health decisions for our children thank you next is from Noah Eaton hello my name is Noah ferial Eaton 488 Hart Street good evening board chair and members I do not want to wear masks it is way too hot inside these masks I cannot breathe well and they make us sweat terribly I want to be able to see my friends faces I am not scared God gave us an immune system and we should let it do

059its job please unmask us the next is from Cameron Eaton hello my name is Cameron Eaton 488 Hart Street good evening board chair and members I wanted to speak to you guys to tell you about my mask struggles I hear a lot of adults say that it is our parents that don't want us to wear masks but really I don't want to I want to tell you about my struggles it is hot in these masks my mask is wet by the end of the day from sweat and breathing in them it is difficult to breathe well we do not get enough mask breaks my mask causes me to have sores around my ears and gives me extremely bad headaches that I did not have before I wish that we did not have to wear them

060please unmask us the last one that was submitted is from Hillary Wright good evening and thank you for being here with us tonight my name is Hilary Wright I am a resident of Bristol and a mother of two kindergarteners parents and concerned citizens of Bristol have shared multiple resources showing you how detrimental Mass use is to our children as well as how masks do not help prevent the spread of covid yet here we are still arguing our facts against the misinformation you're using to make decisions that have no factual and scientific backing you have yet to show us any scientific proof other than CDC recommendations which have not been backed by peer-reviewed research studies and have been debunked numerous times according to the CDC the spread happens between people who are in contact for usually

06115 minutes or more if you are simply following this data and none other then I would assume that means it's unsafe for our children to be in school at all but instead they're wearing masks that do not protect them and have been found to be detrimental to their psychological development and numerous other aspects of their development so what is really going on here forty eight thousand children were studied by a Johns Hopkins research group and there was a zero percent risk for children who did not have pre-existing conditions our children have the same chance of catching many other illnesses as they do covid yet we send our kids to school every flu season and we take the same precautions that we always have if you are sick stay home right before the last Board of

062Ed meeting I received a letter in my son's mailbox that there was a case of croup in his classroom yet the class remained open the students were not told to take any extra precautions and no one batted an eye croup even has a higher death rate than covet in children five percent of children have died from croup and .03 percent of children have died from covet it also spreads the exact same way masks have never been mentioned World Health experts advise that the use of face masks is not recommended as benefits are limited and there is risk of self-contamination if used improperly improperly includes not wearing the correct mask which paper and cloth masks are not considered masks are an emergency use authorized item long-term safety has not been proven where is your scientific research

063proving otherwise according to the Nuremberg code the foundation of ethical medicine eua products are by definition experimental which requires people to be given the right to refuse them under the Nuremberg code the foundation of ethical medicine no one may be coerced to participate in a medical experiment consent of the individual is absolutely essential we do not consent unmask our children I also do want to read into the record that we do have a petition from the 2021-2022 school year that reads I do not want to wear a mask in school and there are 188 total signatures thank you everyone for listening and submitting your comments we will now move to public comic to those who are in attendance just to remind everyone who is in the audience please include your name and address please direct

064all your comments to the board chair and we can now begin the first is Tom buwell my name is Tom Barrell I live at 498 East Road in Bristol and um chair duby and the rest of the board I thank you for this opportunity to speak and uh in case you're not aware of it maybe you are a Federal Law requires schools and governments agents to teach the U.S Constitution uh it became a law in uh 2004 it enjoyed uh wide bipartisan support it was sponsored by Democratic senator Robert Byrd and signed into law by President Bush on December 8 2004. it's called the Consolidated approach Appropriations Bill and became Public Law 108 447 and it states each educational institution that receives federal funds for the fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the

065United States Constitution on September 17th for the students served by the educational Institution the September 17th was changed from citizenship day to Constitution Day and citizenship day George Washington said a primary object should be the education of our youth and the science of government in a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what Duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be future Guardians of the Liberties of our country Abraham Lincoln said the political philosophy of the classroom one generation will be the political philosophy of the government of the government for the next now I looked through all the websites for each of the high schools and middle schools to see if anything was being done to teach the Constitution I saw Friday the 17th when one school was

066crazy sock day and but nothing else was mentioned specifically for that day with the preponderance of critical race theory in our public educational system system which denigrates the Constitution and the founding principles in the Declaration wouldn't it be nice to have an honest presentation of the importance of our constitution critical race theorists and those who have been indoctrinated by them deny the historical fact that over the past two and a half centuries America's founding documents have been the major Force for freedom and prosperity throughout the world our constitution has been imitated by scores of of national republics throughout the world which improve the quality of life for countless Millions keeping this federal law should be especially important in Connecticut which is called the Constitution State you can see that moniker on our license plates but

067I doubt if anyone knows the three wonderful reasons why we are called the Constitution State but it the reason we don't know is because it isn't taught so I'm asking the board to follow the federal law passed by Congress to adjust the issue as president of the Institute of Connecticut history I would be happy to offer my free assistance to the board in an instituting Constitution Day in Bristol Public Schools and uh have appropriate guides outlines for teaching students um the this valuable part of their Heritage As Americans so thank you for hearing me thank you next will be Matt bozie Boogie I don't want to mispronounce it thank you my name is Matt bougie I live at 89 Pleasant Avenue um pretty much everything I was going to say was already said about these

068masks but I have one question to ask if kovid was so deadly why are 99 of these people survive no one's promise tomorrow you can walk out of your house get hit by a car why are we living in such fear As Americans these Mass are proven to not work they do not do anything I have a headache right now because I've been wearing a mask since nine this morning why they don't work there's no reason for them my parents get to choose what I have on my face what I wear what I do no government no Board of Ed you have no right the Constitution should be taught in school I hope you listen to these people tonight because they're worth it they're speaking out do your job and speak up for us we're

069taking time we're taking the time to come here and speak out yet nothing's ever done so make a change because I'm here to make a change thank you up next will be Jen Van Gorder sorry good evening board and members thank you for your time tonight I didn't really have a chance to prepare much I've been busy but we're a few days into school here already 12 days about and my oldest has already been in the office um for her mask because she can't wear it properly all the time um other students have also been sent to the office um the teachers are are telling the whole class on their way in that everybody better bring up their masks they don't feel like talking about it again for another period another teacher um told the

070kids that she would not start or continue instruction until the whole class had their masks on properly I was pretty sure that her job was to teach the children um my oldest went from being an excellent student with amazing attendance grades and never had to worry about being completely uninspired um I get emails and phone calls of missing assignments I even got a letter saying her attendance was poor last year she was in seventh grade CBL until what the end of March so figure that one out um so the team the kids are also being told that they should be used to wearing masks by now because they've been having to do it since March I'm sorry this isn't anything anybody should be have to get used to and it's abusive um one of my

071friends um daughters was told that she wore her mask properly all day that the other children would get two mask breaks because the kids have not yet gotten a single Mass break in school none of my children three of them not a single Mass break in school uh let's see our governor is not going to let up he's asking to get another extension he is not a doctor right he's not a doctor so he doesn't know if these masks work there's plenty of evidence showing that they don't work and some I was also pretty alarmed to find out that the Speaker of the House Matt Ritter his Law Firm should have been a Goodwin is the law firm that represents most if not all of the board of EDS in Connecticut and so I guess

072the letter went out to all Board of EDS throughout the state stating that you know threatening on the boards that if they were to even consider making masks a choice they would be personally liable there could be all sorts of threatening things with that letter I guess went out the day before Lamont did his executive order so Lamont goes to his Lackey Matt Ritter and Matt Ritter goes to his law firm and then goes to all the board of EDS so it's like this giant wall of tyranny that is um at the expense of our children her children are being used as pawns it's really unfortunate I really hope that everybody takes the time to start standing up and um pushing back and letting masks be a choice if a child or a parent wants

073their child to mask great but the children should be offered in the parents a choice have a good night thank you next is Kristen beviel good evening everyone I'm short my name is Kristen Bevins 41 Leon Road first and foremost I would like to comment on last month's meeting or lack thereof most of you should be ashamed of yourselves for how you treated your constituents for those of you that stayed and listened I do applaud you guys so thank you was a dereliction of Duty by the board members who left it was not based on feeling unsafe but to prove who was in charge again you should be ashamed now moving on to the matter at hand I have three daughters ranging in age from 7 to 17. I don't push my children to follow

074my lead but to advocate for what they feel is right for them all of you have heard many times that mass don't work do your own research Etc and I'm not here to repeat those things although it is my belief but I am here to talk about my feelings and some thoughts I would like to start off by saying I'm not one of those crazies I'm not a conspiracy theorist my children are fully vaccinated excluding the covid vaccine so what I tell you comes from a place of concern and love for my children my seven-year-old is afraid to hug her friends at school out of fear of being reprimanded we're teaching them to fear their friends my 13 year old started with panic attacks after going back to school The Mask wearing not only makes

075her feel trapped overheated panicky and anxious of course there are some teachers who like and don't like or agree or disagree with mask wearing if my daughter drops her Mass below her nose she is told to pick it up but by who some of those same teachers enforcing those rules don't abide by them themselves I have pictures sent for my children at school of their teachers not wearing their mask properly not wearing their mask properly not wearing their mask properly again the same thing not wearing their mask not wearing a mask I have a picture of the mayor not wearing masks here's a gentleman from or at the Board of Education today not wearing a mask so these are for you guys to keep you can have these but it's it's it's hypocrisy thank you

076um let's see um these are the pictures my children sent from school it's a matter of following rules when convenient you can see in the pictures lunchroom is so packed some kids have no masks four kids to a table I went to the school during school hours to ring the bell I had to bring my daughter water because she forgot it at home and uh last week she was told that they didn't have any water to give her so of course this week I brought it um so I rang the bell the woman comes to the door now the door the school has two doors she opens the first door her mask was completely off her face she did not even have one on she gets to the outside door and in front of my

077face decides to put her mask on um I get a call from the principal with my daughter in his office because she was struggling with the mask as he tells me she needs to wear one then I receive a call from her telling me he had her in his office the whole time while he was on the phone with me and talking to her with his mask with one loop on his ear like this as he's telling me my daughter has to wear a mask um now I'm not here to police the teachers but we expect our children to be in these mass for six hours but the teachers staff public figures and Boe does not have to abide by the same rules it was admitted to me that the eighth graders who were not

078were not being given a mass break uh by the dean of students and when asked why she said I don't know the same thing in high school no Mass breaks I was also told by the teacher that I can send my child to Matt to the school with eight to ten masks and when asked who would pay for that she stated that the school had a budget and could not provide those masks to student all to all the students and that it would fall on the parents I hope everyone is seeing the hypocrisy of it all it is overwhelming I will also say it has been long enough that our political figures in the Board of Education shocked their responsibilities you all have a purpose any decision made should be a democracy there is a

079vote coming whether or not to extend Lamont's Powers I assume the Board of Ed will follow suit I implore you all to remember why you took this responsibility decisions should be laid it should not be laid in the hands of one person this is why there is a board discuss and vote on all issues I hope when the time comes you remember why you are are he are there the Board needs to take back the power and one more quick topic on my agenda being mandated vaccines and I suppose we can of course add the masks in when this again becomes the decision of the board I implore you to say no take out the topics of masks and vaccines and just look at the uh look at these man what these mandates impede on

080Parents Choice what happens when the next mandate comes out um and and it affects your child or it's something that you don't believe in or that you go against um is it going to be okay with you when the government continues to overreach if we don't stop it now it's gonna just continue please help us as parents get our voice back thank you [Applause] thank you next is Grace Regal okay okay thank you next then would be Kelly Curry okay yes my name is Kelly Curry I live a 44 Brace Avenue I'm just here to say that I'm sick and tired of the way our kids are being treated they are not animals and they should not be treated as such our kids need to be unmasked not only for their physical well-being for but

081for also their mental well-being look around people are maskless everywhere whether it's at a Fair amusement park school bus school lunches these are the same kids who have been hanging out together having sleepovers hugging kissing maskless all along and now they are being asked they are being amassed again while you go to your meetings your outings and sit in your air-conditioned offices unmask while our kids are being physically and mentally abused they are sweating they can't breathe they're getting sick with respiratory infections among other things these masks do not work although you already know that I'm tired of our kids being treated as political Pawns my daughter has Type 1 diabetes as soon as she puts the mask on she starts with a headache that turns into a stomach ache then her blood numbers get

082out of control it's hard enough to manage her numbers in the first place never mind the mask with the mask on does her not her well-being not matter to you I'm asking you to do your job stand up and fight for our kids teach them math English Science and History yes all history and stop trying to co-parent my child that's my husband's job foreign next is Brianna tirado my name is Brianna torado I live at 41 Leon Roan I go to Bruce essential High School I find that's uneffective I on the box it says it would not help prevent against cloven 19 half our teachers don't wear our mask properly while telling us to while eating there are barely no masks four kids to a table I have pitches for proof thank you if masks

083and social distance this is this is thing is important why is this happening all summer we were with our friends unmasked sleepovers and as I like compounds all the whole summer um and no masks and none of us got coven we wear our masks for almost seven hours a day and uh and at home on the bus I'm not sure if you adults notice how hot it how hot it's been well we all sorry guys um we should we should show we should try to try riding the bus on a 90 an 85 degree day when we sweat our Mass becomes wet and sticky inside uh statistics to our face and it's hard to breathe when I asked for a new mask they're either headed to me or laid out on the table collecting germs

084already some sometimes we don't have the AC on I feel frequently get overheated and it's if again if it's being first we should be given a sterile Mass every so often with all the extra money school's gotten I have pirate class and Clay gets on my mask and no one asked me for a new one I would like I would like to give you guys a demonstration of how germs are spreaded with the masks and how and they don't help they don't stop spreading germs she was going to put cornstarch on her face and just go and you see the cornstarch come out from everywhere but a little science experiment it's kind of a little show and tell you could do it away from the podium can you just step back honey so everybody can

085see the podium is thank you back there but all of our eyes both thank you foreign hello my name is David regali thank you everyone for being here tonight I didn't prepare anything uh so I'm kind of just shooting from the hip just as other discouraged frustrated parents are um I guess first I'll start by quoting a Green Hills teacher that I'm going to be talking and you guys will be listening so please keep your mask on but I'm just gonna put mine down because I'll be talking um basically what my concern is um because I can't my voice won't change this whole mask thing so what do I do as a parent who has frustrated kids who were upset who are struggling with this and foreign I have to tell you that while we

086look around in here and you guys have your masks on properly and the show is a plus Top Notch um the front line is not those that matter that are teaching our children staff members at school principals no Mass when they feel convenient um which is funny to me so I sit back and I think a child doesn't wear a mask over their nose they get sent to the office they get sent home that's a child okay what happens to adults when we don't follow the rules that are implemented we are suspended we are written up we are fired Point Blank I want to see that because I have not and I don't want it to come to that again why I heard it before why do I want a police teachers and staff members

087it's ridiculous it is but guess what that's the only tool and power I have right now so if somebody's going to tell my child to wear a mask I'm going to tell you tenfold everybody around my child better have a mask on always and I mean I don't think that's asking much considering what's being asked of us um again you know I'm not going to get into any of the the stories and the statistics the science behind it the politics I mean it's all a show it's all ridiculous I mean anybody with common sense knows that um you know we can humor it if we'd like but the reality of it is we have these kids that are the Pawns in this whole game that we're playing right now and when do we wake up

088when do we draw that line where we face the Tyranny that is in front of us and fight I mean just speak up just say something and I mean I look around this is a beautiful beautiful building the schools beautiful schools in Bristol I mean taxpayers did a great job in this city and now here we are begging for morsels as our Mill Race soars as our hard-earned money goes into this I mean again I simply just want voices to be heard and the only way it goes is up so here we are in front of you imploring you to go above and beyond and let them know what we're saying and what your true thoughts are because I can tell you right now I know that there's teachers that don't agree with this you

089know if they're staff members there's principles there's Board of AD members there's people above you that don't agree with this and what's going on but the more we stay quiet and in the background the more we're just going to get rolled over more kids will get rolled over and we'll suffer and I guess that's the message I wanted to leave here today is this is about our children and about some power control my side your side politic swear word okay I mean that's that's my voice today thank you everyone Miss Everett were there any other public comments that were submitted to you this evening no we will now move on to the deliberated item portion of our meeting oh are there any virtual did anybody email in Virtual no okay thank you next up on

090deliberated items is a accepting the Stafford School roof and photovoltaic project as complete and that would be Miss Brown good evening commissioners the Stafford School roof and photovoltaic is complete on July 15 2021 the building committee met for the last time to accept the project as complete and to forward the motion to the full board of education for consideration I would request a motion to accept the Stafford School roof and photovoltaic project as complete at this time so moved motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you motion passes next is a sidewalk referral request on 263 to Miner Street again Miss Brown at the operations committee the review of the sidewalk deferral request at 263-2 Miner Street was approved

091and forwarded to the full board of education for Action this is in an area that has no existing sidewalks currently and it is an industrial Zone there are no student Walkers that pass through this area the City of Bristol Public Works Department approved this request on their end and forwarded the request to the board of education for its approval as well at this time I would request a motion to approve the sidewalk deferral request for lot 263-2 Miner Street Bristol and forward to city council for appropriate action move to approve second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion okay hearing none all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you item C is the Verizon Wireless cell antenna at 532 Stephen Street specifically this request is for an easement

092to the existing utility pole to add an antenna to support wireless service measuring approximately 36 inches I'm going to click on this link so that you can see what the antenna's size and location would be if I go to present mode this might come in a little bit larger for you here you see the existing utility pole on the northeast school property this is the um apparatus that is they're requesting to attach to this existing poll foreign this is the main driveway at the northeast school and this here is where the pole exists I would request a motion to approve the request from Verizon Wireless and Grant an easement to install the wireless antenna on an existing utility Pole located on the property of Northeast Middle School located at 532 Stephen Street commissioner Wilson will

093offer that motion motion has been made is there a second second okay motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion yes I'm going to be voting against this I don't believe that I should be approving a um a new new wireless antenna on a pole that is likely to be removed in the process of building a new school thank you I think there's a chair I was going to basically mention the same thing I wasn't able to attend the entire operations committee meeting but I did um ask some questions there and I'm thankful for uh commissioner Carlson's feedback and reminder that this property will be undergoing extensive uh Redevelopment and there really is no guarantee of the poll at this time so why entertain any of these changes and also um we still

094have would have yet to receive solid safety data as well so um this isn't something I can support this evening does anyone else care to comment yeah commissioner Wilson like to speak in favor of the motion this is a telephone utility poll already exists and Horizon will bear the costs if we do renovate and move the poll they will bear the cost so there's no cost of the board and I believe this is a motion that we should support a question as to whether or not there's any financial and benefit to the board by approving this because many towers that come with Revenue through the chair I had asked that question I still haven't yet received any information what we would be getting financially for them to use this poll on our property so with

095that in light I was in favor of Prior but now I can't support it I would say currently that ATT would have a cell tower on the water tower nearby so I don't understand the need for this particular pole location and they didn't even list the power output of this so is it replacing their cell tower on the on the Water Tower I mean I have no idea what they're doing or why it's needed as a pole mounted device typically these are on larger Aerials uh not not smaller ones so if it's not a power limited one you know this this could be replacing you know an existing antenna on the on the water power that the the water department actually makes for revenue from oh just ask is this going to improve the wi-fi

096at Northeast School or does it have no impact whatsoever no impact on the Wi-Fi we do have a representative on the call if you would like to ask questions directly we do have a representative on the call if you would like to ask questions directly Mr Kenneth Baldwin is on the line good evening um thank you yes we're I'm joined by Eric Swanson who's a professor of physics from the University of Pittsburgh who's with me tonight we we hope to be able to answer all your questions um Dr Swanson is is a physicist who can answer the questions and concerns that may be raised regarding radio frequency emissions But to answer a couple questions that I just heard um this is a small cell antenna that Verizon would install specifically to alleviate an existing capacity

097problem um Verizon does not maintain antennas on the existing water tank um but would need this facility again to alleviate some capacity problems with this its existing macro cell locations that surround this area in Bristol um again it's a it's a small installation uh Verizon because of its uh stature as a certified telecommunications provider has the right to install antennas on existing utility poles and has been installing antennas on existing utility poles within the public right-of-way the um the reason why we are here seeking an easement from the city and from the board of education is because this poll even though it's a distribution poll is located on private property owned by the city obviously and we would need an easement to to access that Poll for the installation and maintenance there is um a

098a one-time fee Associated uh with these easements that that Verizon typically offers um I don't know what the amount of that but it it is a one-time easement uh fee uh that would be negotiated between the real estate Representatives uh and the city uh once we got through this process if the board is so inclined to allow us to continue uh in this process um we have Professor Swanson on in case there are any specific questions about RF emissions from this facility uh the facility is regulated strictly by the FCC we have standards that we have to comply with safety standards that have been established since 1996 and and this facility is very low powered and will comply with those standards very easily um perhaps Professor Swanson could spend just a couple quick minutes talking

099about those issues to provide the board with some additional information and comfort as it relates to those before that happens through the chair was the safety data presented in committee the safety there was a discussion of the safety data and the standards that was provided to the committee yes foreign yes uh I have one question the representative um how many watts is this small small antenna going to be producing and what is it in comparison to your typical larger aerial antenna that should be that would be a you know 80 feet in height is there a difference in the wattage output Professor Swanson you are on mute I think okay I'm trying to turn this on I hope everyone can hear me at least now we can hear you now okay great uh good evening

100uh Madam chairman and members of the board uh I'm Eric Swanson reading that into the record professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh um I actually don't have the exact wattage figure here I can't find that for you if you want I have seen uh a report from a Verizon engineer and I've done my own calculations and I can tell you that the wattage is sufficiently low that um the exposure due to this uh small cell installation would be about 600 times below FCC uh requirements um at the distance of the school and about five times below FCC requirements if you stand right underneath the uh underneath the device so um it means that the wattages is quite low through the chair yes is this a 5G capable Tower this is this is a

1014G installation are there plans for 5G um you I never say never um anything can can change in the future but the initial installation is to provide 4G capacity support to the existing 4G network and I'll just add again that our primary responsibility is to manage and run education in our in our town our city it's not to facilitate private utilities and their poll and placement and help improve their product at no real benefit to the district so that's just my additional comment does anyone else have any go ahead I'm sorry I I would just point out that that the improved capacities and Service uh to the network would certainly be a benefit uh to Verizon Wireless customers as well as emergency service providers um providing better overall wireless service in the area including the

102area for the Northeast Middle School I understand your your role as as Educators and and um and again because of the the location of this poll in particular we are here tonight seeking the season that conflicts with the earlier information that you guys just gave us an answer to commissioner O'Brien's question so there was no residual benefit in the network capabilities at the school no I think what what was stated was that there is no benefit to the the school's existing Wi-Fi service and that's right um this provides service um to wireless networks uh utilizing Verizon Wireless service um it would it would provide some service inside the school but not not Wi-Fi services um that I'm I'm guessing the school contracts for separately any other comments before we move to a vote okay all

103in favor please say aye aye aye opposed a post okay do you think we should probably do a roll call vote thank you commissioner Carlson no commissioner G Antonio no commissioner O'Brien yes commissioner scalanka nope commissioner vibbert yes commissioner wodowski you know this is in my neighborhood I think I have to abstain from this because I have a personal interest in this so I have to abstain commissioner Wilson yes chair duby no fails with four no's three yeses and one abstention thank you moving on to item D consider surplus funds to cover the over expenditure on the South Side School HVAC project Ms Brown yes the South Side School HVAC replacement committee had change orders that put the project over budget the board of finance will not allocate any more monies toward this project the

104information was discussed at the August 25th 2021 operations committee meeting originally I had suggested using the 2019-20 surplus funds um to cover the over expenditure and the committee voted unanimously um to approve that suggestion however when I contacted the city I was informed that they utilized that source of funding to help us meet our current 2122 operating budget so I will shift that request asking for a motion at this time to utilize of our most recent Surplus that Surplus amount is four million 807 dollars and 807 463 dollars to utilize ninety five hundred and fifty dollars of that to cover the South Side HVAC project overage so we're looking for a motion to approve yes so moved second motion has been made and seconded any discussion through the chair yes then I'm sorry Joe we're

105taking more than this the nine thousand correct no the entire overage is nine thousand five hundred and fifty is just referencing and if I'm incorrect just cut me off that when we um we have presented to the board of Finance our request to have a one-time use of 1.4 million dollars to address multiple projects that we suggest and this is included in that figure yep and that's the rest of it's coming up in the next question yeah okay thank you okay so motion has been made and seconded any other discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you item e is to request the board of Finance to transfer fiscal year 21 General funds and request a set aside of funds to the Board of Education general fund so in accordance with

106the Connecticut General Assembly Public Act section 10-248a we are seeking a formal approval from Board of Education to approach the City Board of finance and request a two percent set aside of our 2021 Surplus that two percent amount is 2 million three hundred eighty one thousand seven hundred ninety nine dollars and additionally we're asking to reinvest an amount totaling one million four hundred and seventy one thousand back into Bristol Public Schools that amount will support a BPS culinary program at both high schools a cyber security program at both high schools an Adaptive playground at Mountain View Elementary a Pre-K playground at Edgewood soon to be Pre-K Center and also digital storage of high school records that leaves a total remaining amount of 114 dollars for us to be returning to the city at this time

107I would request a motion as such so moved second motion has been made and seconded any discussion just one quick question the Edgewood playground that would also be uh handicap accessible adaptive as well both playgrounds I know you mentioned that for the first one but not the second the intent is that it is adaptive correct the intent is that it is adapted and right sized for the Pre-K Center does that mean it's accessible yes any other discussion all in a favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you item f is the certification of authorized signers of the csde Bureau of Health Nutrition family services and adult education that's our form Ed 099 agreement for Child Nutrition program the Connecticut State Department of Education requires certification of authorized signers for the Bureau of health and

108nutrition family services and adult education as chair Dube said this is known as the form ed099 Dr Carbone and Jill Brown myself will be authorized signers for the Board of Education and we require your formal approval as such so I would look for a motion recommending this approval at this time so moved so moved motion has been made so the chair is that have to be a resolution or is it a motion what would you like Miss Brown it is just emotion I believe it's just emotion on record in our minutes for the state okay [Music] all in favor please say aye aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you item G is the 2021-2022 school year calendar Dr Galloway will be discussing that with us good evening Commissioners and members of the Bristol Community this

109item on the agenda is to advise the board that in June there was a discussion to add remote learning after the second snow day remote learning is not an option inclement weather days will be added on after the last day of school which is presently June 8th that is the information on that item thank you so we need a motion to approve the amendment to the school year calendar it was never changed this information only no action required okay thank you next Dr Galloway will be discussing the new teacher hiring overview for the 2021-2022 school year thank you today we are tracking over 20 percent this year in our hiring of educators of color which supports the board of education's goal of hiring a highly qualified and diverse staff 12 of our hires so far

110are actually from Bristol which I know is very important several of our hires have been developed over time as they have worked in the district in other capacities and have taken advantage of different certification Pathways that are now offered for example Kevin Taylor is a Bristol Alum who worked as a para educator and coach over the course of several conversations he and I had in the Bristol Central cafeteria I urged him to pursue teacher certification and thankfully he did and is now a fifth grade teacher at Hubble School similarly ovideo Munez is a retired army veteran who started with us as a technology intern at Green Hill School and that was his transition from active duty service to education he was also encouraged to pursue teacher certification and thankfully he did and he is a

111second grade teacher at Stafford School this year I would also like to mention kamani Hume who was one of my former warhawks a scholar athlete who went to college for his academics and his athletic prowess he interned at Green Hill school went through the Yukon program and is now a school psychologist there we will continue our Partnerships with the University of Connecticut St Joe's CCSU Quinnipiac and other universities to secure The Talented Educators to support the students and families in Bristol that concludes my hiring overview pending your questions any questions Dr Galloway just had one question um have we um I don't know if we would even know this but have we had any teacher resignations where the reason for the resignation was due to any of the covid mandates I can't say that concretely

112I do know that some staff members resigned to be closer to home those were some of the reasons but I can't say that for sure okay thank you welcome thank you Dr Galloway thank you item I is our innovate and Elevate continuation plan review our health and safety protocols and that will be handled by Dr Dieter thank you madam chair uh Mrs Brown if you could activate the link please going to walk you through a summary of activities uh engaged by Bristol Public Schools since the start of the school year the covet safety Liaisons have completed a total of 112 contact tracing activities since the start of the school year and we have reported we're reporting this information out uh to individual schools when they have a positive case we're also reporting out weekly on

113Tuesdays the cases reported this past week this is a table from this past week's update at the high school level including B prep we had five positive cases total for the school year eight in that grade Band Middle School uh six eights we had four cases this week for a total of six this school year this past week at the Kates we had three for a total of five this past school year and at the 3k5 level we have had seven cases this week for a total of 12 at that grade Band summary total would be 31 positive cases since the start of the current school year next slide I wanted to compare this with the activities of the Bristol Burlington Health Department and give you an idea of their community activities that they have

114reported to us the Daily the Bristol average daily positivity rate is currently 28.7 per hundred thousand uh and we monitor that on a daily basis uh this is a rolling average that the Connecticut Department of Public Health monitors Crystal Public Health excuse me Bristol Burlington Health Department has identified 230 coveted positive cases within the community since the start of the current school year they've also reported four deaths within Bristol that have been attributed to covid since the start of the current school year next slide the next slide I wanted to provide you with a summary of positive cases by age and the month so June of 21 through 9 21 and you can see here the various um age bands to the left and along the top the top are the month and would just

115want to draw your attention to certainly all the data containing here but the band's uh representing August and September where we do see in the month of August a dramatic increase over the previous month in the positive cases which does correlate with the arrival of the Delta variant in the region currently the September figures are there by age and the next slide we'll show them to you in a graphic representation so I apologize it's small there I will follow up this presentation with an email that contains all of this data but you can see the trends here over the months of June July August and September by age range next slide please so at a previous Board of Education meeting there was a request of more information from the director of the Bristol Barrington health

116district Marco Palmieri Mr palmeri was prepared to join us at the last meeting that we were not able to convene he is not available this evening but he has responded in writing so if you activate that link please and again this will be shared at the conclusion of the meeting thank you for increasing the size so a brief explanation that he's not available this evening however he has responded to the questions uh and his answers are in red the first question uh was a I understand uh there were many questions under this heading so he's compressed them and provided this response the question is what data and information on data does the Bristol Vernon Health Department use to help formulate decisions about masking and other mitigation strategies Mr palmeri's response if state or federal mandates

117or recommendations already exist such as the mask use mandate in Connecticut schools the Bristol Burlington Health District will defer to those that are in place otherwise the Bristol burnings and health district we use state and local data to which they we have access consult with appropriate professionals and formulate our own strategies second part of this question is do you take guidance from the state dph state Boe CDC and just Implement that and Mr palmeri's response yes when appropriate next question after the executive order ends on 9 30 2021 is it anticipated that the president health district and Bristol Public School District will be able to develop mitigation strategy strategies that are just based on our own local data and metrics instead of following say a Statewide recommendation pulmonary's response if the Statewide Mass mandate and

118school ends Bristol Burlington Health will evaluate our data the state data and consult with appropriate professionals the bristol board of ed and others to formulate our own strategies next question what are the requirements of masking quarantining masking quarantining and vaccination status first part of this question does the mass require impact the quarantine rules Mr palmieri's response yes I believe if Mass were not required in schools the definition of a close contact in classrooms only would not have been reduced or cut cut in half and therefore subjecting many more students and staff to potential quarantine especially in classrooms with Children Under 12 years of age just part of the question for example would there be different quarantine rules if there was a future decision made to allow Mass choice Mr palmieri's response most likely next part

119of the question would mask versus unmasked have two different quarantine rules if a mask choice would be allowed in the future similarly would there be different rules for quarantine if a student was vaccinated versus unvaccinated Mr palmieri's response currently those who fully vaccinate those fully vaccinated need not quarantined unvaccinated folks must quarantine if exposed with a few exceptions next part of the question are parents obligated to disclose vaccination status for a vaccine that is not mandated to attend school Mr palmieri's response the school's legal department can answer this the school's health staff the Bristol Burlington Health Department nurses maintain the students medical records the next question I will read and it will be responded to by Dr Carbone there were several concerns about the lack of remote learning option being available this year and how

120that will impact a student's learning if they are quarantined and if they quarantine and if they are quarantined multiple times how will quarantine work with no remote learning option and second part of the question is can the quarantine rules be reviewed again at the meeting as presented earlier Bristol Public Schools is offering remote learning options for students who are quarantined I cannot say that is the case with all school districts but we have developed a plan with our teachers union and our teachers are more than willing to provide remote learning opportunities for students who are quarantined thank you Dr Carbone next question what are the health metrics being used to determine the zones the green yellow and red zones with regard to school age children with different thresholds be used based on what conditions would

121mitigation strategies be lifted Mr palmieri's response we the local public health agencies have been discussing this in other issues both as a region and as a state we have not yet formulated any criteria nor come to any conclusions as soon as we do we will share them next question many parents are inquiring about the metrics and parameters that need to be present in in order to establish an acceptable risk level for the virus for example like we do for the flu we know there's a risk from Catching the flu during flu season and we accept the risk with our children that our children may contract the flu at school or in our community what will be considered the metrics for determining a Public Health crisis that a Public Health crisis that requires the continued use

122of masks social distancing and other safety measure measures is it one case in the district five cases will parameters be different based on grade level Elementary versus Middle School versus high I suspect it is more complicated than just the number of cases Mr palmeri's response your suspicion is correct next question should hospitalization rates and death rates be used instead of just counting cases if most people don't get as sick with a Delta variant and vaccination rates continue to rise Mr palmeri's response they will certainly be considered next question will vaccination rates be determined be a determining Factor Mr palmyra's response they will certainly be considered next question does the Bristol Barrington health district or the school district anticipate a point in time where mitigation strategies will be lifted or the option for mask Choice be

123allowed and then ask parents to choose to send their child to school unmasked to sign a waiver that removes liability from the school if the child receives a positive test Mr palmyra's response yes I hope very much that our infection rates drop and stay low so we consider lifting some or all of our mitigation strategies unfortunately our current rates are exponentially higher than just a few months ago so time will tell the number of children infected has also increased significantly he refers to see attached chart that is the data set that I showed you on the previous slide next question is how does the Bristol Burlington Health District know how many people in our community are vaccinated against coca-19 and the natural immunity in antibiotics be considered as similar to vaccinated Mr palmieri's response Bristol

124Burlington Health District has access to Connecticut's immunization Registries the accuracy is dependent on factors that are out of our control second part of the question what data is being used to validate how long natural immunity protects an individual for Mr pulmonary's response I'm not familiar with the process next question many parents have said in their correspondence that mass don't work that cloth paper over-the-counter masks are not FDA approved that when you purchase them the Box patching packaging states that these masks do not protect from covert 19. how can something that has a disclaimer stating you do not prevent transmission and or not FDA approved be something children should wear seven to eight hours a day can the Bristol Burlington Health District explain why mask requirements are considered effective Mr palmyra's response face mask use in

125health care and in other professions where Airborne threats and respiratory risks are likely have been used effectively for decades the effectiveness is based on several factors such as whether it is a mask or a respirator the material a niosh rating and the fit to face if folks remember early during this pandemic there was a shortage of face Mass even for those working in hospitals surrounded by dozens of infectious patients most Hospital workers had to make do with whatever type of face covering they could find that is a pretty good endorsement to the effectiveness of even the simplest of masks and as being a good mitigation strategy next question does the Bristol Burlington Health Department and School District take it into account the mental social emotional health of a child yes of course is Mr pulmonary's

126response follow-up if yes then how do you incorporate that into making decisions about masking and other mitigation strategies Mr palmieri's response the entire Public Health Community recognizes the mental emotional social impact this pandemic has on all populations especially our most vulnerable this is one of the main reasons why schools sports and other extracurricular activities started on time and with full capacity the next question highlighted will be answered by Dr Carbone as the Bristol Burlington Health District or School District seen an increase in students reaching out or being referred to school counseling and psychology psychologist services do you keep track of this information and can you tell us what the town State or National Suicide numbers for 18 and under from 3 2020 to present first question regarding how does the school district address any student

127who has been referred or reaching out to counseling services we increase the number of social workers within our schools this year um do we keep track of information we keep track of information regarding our number our calls to 2-1-1 or our referrals for students who may need increased services that fall without outside the bounds of what our social workers and psychologists are certified to address I do not have the statistics from specifically 322 of the beginning of the pandemic for suicide numbers for our state town and National Suicide numbers what I can say is that all of our staff are invested in ensuring and supporting the social emotional mental health needs of our students and on a monthly basis for many years Mrs Culkin and before that Dr Dieter has reported on the number of

128students who access our 2-1-1 referral system thank you Dr Carbone next question does the Bristol Burlington Health District take into account the learning barrier that mass create based on the age of the student speech challenges and other developmental needs and the lack of facial cues for students Mr palmieri's response I am certain the state agencies took into consideration these and many other concerns when mandating Mass use in schools if the mass mandate is not extended Bristol Burlington Health District will consult with appropriate professionals versus the Board of Ed and others to examine the issues regarding students with speech and other developmental needs next question what are the positive positivity rates for Bristol for the age group 13 to 3 to 19 and have the rates changed since March of 2020. Mr palmeri's response see the

129attached charts I've reviewed those charts and again they will be forwarded at the conclusion of this meeting next question can you tell us what the current town State National Poverty positivity rate is for covid-19 students 18 and under currently what are the same numbers for the entire duration 320 20 to present can tell us what the town State National Hospital rate for covid-19 for students age 18 and under from 3 2020 to present and do we know the covid-19 transmission rate in Bristol Public Schools from student to student contact or staff to student contact Mr palmieri's response is extremely difficult to identify transmission rates in settings such as school because at the end of the day those who work and attend school go other places where they could be exposed to or spread the virus

130to anyone based on our contact tracing efforts we conclude strong probabilities of the sources of an exposure or outbreak and then Implement stronger strategies to stop or reduce new exposures we do this every day final question how will how will the school voluntarily how will the in-school voluntary testing work can parents opt out or not give consent Mr palmieri's response voluntary means just that that concludes the responses submitted by Mr palmeri director of Burlington Health District as I stated all of this document as well as the supporting graphs will be forwarded at the conclusion in the meeting and Mr palmeri has offered if there are any further questions if you submit them in writing through myself Mr Galloway or Dr Dr Galloway or Dr Carbone we'd be happy to forward them on to him foreign

131yes I want to thank Mr Paul Mary for providing the answers to the questions that were asked to be submitted in advance we certainly appreciate that and I think it's helpful to have that information available to our parents and Community uh that have come here and asked a lot of these same same questions of us and uh I do appreciate that and I would certainly I will certainly communicate that to him um after seeing some of the information that's been presented I will follow up with one question about the chart because I I need a little more context about the 28 plus percent positivity rate per 100 000 in Bristol and Bristol is a population of 61 000 so I is that from the beginning of the covid pandemic so I that'll just be some

132question I'll follow up and I'll share those with the rest of my constituents on the board um the other answer that I would ask for some follow-up on um both from our Administration and from the Bristol Burlington Health District are the differences that have been identified between vaccinated students and unvaccinated students as far as differing quarantine procedures and I would like to know what is the specific science behind creating these two different classes of students since uh especially since asymptomatic unvaccinated students versus asymptomatic vaccinated students even since this decision has been made there has been more information uh always difficult to source with all of this that's been going on about how the um how covid-19 is transmitted and there's more information coming out that even those that are vaccinated can still transmit covid-19 asymptomatic

133students whether they're vaccinated or not vaccinated I feel have the same amount of risk to spread or transmit the disease so treating students differently is a very big concern of mine I don't understand the science behind doing that it creates a class system that has ultimately effects about the privacy of some of our students because once one of the students notices that one student is out longer than another I feel like there's a privacy breach there for that particular student that may put that on at risk for all of the other dialogue that some of these parents have come to us and talked about so I would like a lot more of the science and data behind the different quarantine rules and the impacts of having those differences be so transparent to our students and

134creating subclasses of students I think is I I would expect that there needs to be a very high threshold to make such a drastic categorization um and I know that you've asked for this to be I'm followed up on the last thing I'm going to say is about the notes that I took tonight during public comment and besides the people that have actually come to us in this meeting I know I have received numerous pieces of feedback from my constituents about the apparent um hypocritical nature that they're claiming about some of our staff I absolutely am asking the administration to investigate and address that I think that is an absolute valid concern we have some parents that have come here with some proof I think they make very valid points and I did write this

135down never in our history have we ever required children to be responsible for the health of adults so if there is any commentary from Administration and staff that is making children feel that because of their mask usage their inability to wear a mask properly are made to feel to make an adult feel unsafe absolutely disturbs me to the core so I'm just asking that some of this feedback that we received from public comment tonight be addressed thank you through the chair I'd like to make one correction sure if I may so if I indicated the average daily rate was 28.7 percent I misspoke it's 28.7 cases per 100 000 and that is derived through a formula we understand Bristol is not a uh is a population of about 61 000 so it's a formula that

136is that is used to arrive at that calculation and these figures can be found at ctcovid.com data tracker it's a graphic that we've shared previously thank you through the chair in reference to the pieces of feedback that were given regarding the hypocrisy of my staff I take that extremely seriously I will address via email to my staff the need for proper use of wearing a mask however it is my expectation that none of my staff would put a child in the middle or create a child to feel fear of how they were wearing their mask however they will correct if a child's mask is not on properly then I will address that as I normally do through the appropriate channels and my role as the superintendent through the chair I just have a question um

137these photos I'm anxious to see them but isn't there a provision somewhere where our teachers are allowed to remove the mask on a certain distance from our students correct so some of these photos may be at that part of the I mean everything there's always two sides right so it's kind of my thing but am I correcting that if if we're x amount of feet away from students they're allowed to take their mask off right uh the there is a provision in the uh in the guidance that was provided by the Connecticut State Department of Ed however Bristol Public Schools has taken the position that all individuals regardless of status are required to wear masks while indoors the exceptions to that would be if they are in a space that is not occupied by others

138or when they go Outdoors so there isn't a loophole for that it's everybody has to wear or you don't correct okay correct I just had one question based on the public comment do we have a consistent policy with regard to mass breaks for the school system I mean do we require them at every school at a certain point or what is the existing procedure and policy the existing expectation is that if a child requests a mass break that one be given as soon as possible and that is what we've articulated in our plans the other opportunities for Mass break are those that are built naturally into the schedule whether it be at the elementary level snack time a outdoor activity physical education that occurs Outdoors lunch Etc we were led to believe based on the

139public discussion that many students go the entire day without a mass break other than possibly for lunch is that the norm or do we have other process in place to ensure that uh commissioner there are certain times during the day when there are mass breaks my intent would be to follow up with the person who spoke and ask for more specifics so that we can look into that further it is our expectation that students be provided breaks appropriately through the chair I I've had this discussion with central office and I was told certain kids don't need them that's why they weren't given this was a problem last year where was more in the elementary level where kids weren't getting Mass breaks and if you ask me I feel they are the ones who need it

140more than the high schoolers but the obviously the high schoolers are getting them so I think it's an easy fix I just say listen we're going to give Mass breaks across the board and just make it easy that in this way because now that alleviates that problem of my kids are getting a mass break so now they are so that problem's gone right I think that's an easy fix and like you were saying just a straight line um across the board we're going to do Mass breaks and I get it you know if if you if every kid asks for a mass break every five minutes it's disruptive to the class right I get that um but I think if we just make it across the board from K to 12. the mass breaks are

141X Y and Z I think it just alleviates that issue we can move on I just think we need a consistent policy you can't go six hours without a mass break and I'm not sure that's the case but certainly was suggested that there are situations where that occurs and I I think it's important that we eliminate those I do have one more question for Dr Dieter if we do these Mass breaks how do they do them safely if we're still in the classrooms with how was that do we move them outside I mean does it turn into a cluster you know what I mean uh so again it the ideal circumstance would be to move students into a larger area so that they could then expand the space to six feet or greater whether that

142is indoors or Outdoors for the mass break okay pending no further comments or discussion we can move on to item J which is the office of teaching and learning leadership team report that will be done by Ms Fortin good evening see if we can Advance the sides please so I have three informational items to present to you tonight I'd like to provide an update on our district priority indicator since we're at the beginning of a school year but have concluded a school year and I'd like to give you an update on that I'd also like to talk about the summer learning experiences we were able to provide for all of our students and thirdly I'd like to share an update on the professional learning that we provided to our staff at the beginning of the

143school year this year so in uh 2018-2019 school year the district continuous Improvement team developed eight academically focused District priority indicators of student performance these indicators outline long-term goals and yearly benchmarks for for student learning and engagement I recognize that it's pretty difficult to see but we do have some preliminary results typically the state confirms our results later on around November December we have some preliminary results to be able to share with you this evening and you could see that those are noted I'm two different types of results there some data is not available from the prior school year because of the impact of the covid pandemic these two indicators the first is addressing the percentage of students who will enroll in a two or four year college and you could see that there was

144a greater number of students taking college credit bearing classes in 2021 due to the expansion of the career Pathways and expansion of college Partnerships you've seen a particularly Dr rickenberg here standing before you quite often expanding those Partnerships and as a result of that even in the impacted year that was last year we had a greater number of students who took the the college level classes within our high schools as you look at number two the percentage of students who will graduate on time we do not have our numbers yet for this indicator since the high schools are still processing the credits that are earned through the extensive summer school program we are anticipating that the number of students um earning five and a half credits to be at 87 slightly lower than in years

145that were prior to the pandemic I did want to point out as commissioner Wilson mentioned earlier at our student achievement committee meeting we did share a number of the schools that our students will be attending or both principals spoke to that and you could see the schools that are listed there that is very small for me to see from this distance but you could see BU b c Yale as some of the schools our students are entering after their High School experiences here with us and go to the next slide so for uh both indicators five and six we do have some preliminary data and we're planning to provide a more detailed report regarding our smarter balanced assessment achievement and an upcoming student achievement meeting once we've had the opportunity to analyze the data in

146more depth all of the data results from students that you see here include the students who tested remotely are CVL students as a district we had 35 students who did test remotely and there as I said their performance is embedded within the percentages overall and you would note that in our percentage of students who are reading on grade level at grade three and the percentage of 8th graders who are proficient in algebra we'll be investigating more deeply the impact of the learning structure and attendance on student performance in the upcoming months it is going to take a bit of work to go back through to investigate just how long students were either in a hybrid circumstance or completely remote and the next slide I'll share some brief highlights from our testing results but before we

147do that sorry I knew I was going to trip you up there Mrs Brown uh before we do that I do want to just mention some of our other indicators for attendance covid had had an impact on our chronically absent population with a dramatic increase in the percent of students missing more than 10 percent of the days in school across the district both School level and District level attendance teams implemented a number of strategies to support regular School attendance throughout last year our district director of climate culture and family engagement has strategized with district schools and even individual families to increase student engagement she shared that some of our increase in chronically absent students was due to our middle and high school students choosing to remain CVO and not engaging in classes despite the multiple

148contacts with students and families including hundreds of home visits conducted by school teams some of the increase in chronically absent students was also due to high school students who worked during the school day we also had a lot of students who were with sick who are sick or with parents who were working and then they were in the care of other family members and that did impact their access to technology Wi-Fi internet and some of our families not the parents of our children but families who were caring for them during the day may have struggled with accessing the remote learning platforms our districts certainly ensure that every student themselves had a device but there were times when students were not in the home with access to the internet we did see some patterns with students

149who needed to be with other caregivers during the day and really the difficulty of the caregivers accessing our platforms impacted students ability to complete the work the last indicator that I'd like to know is the last on the screen about each child having a um a caring adult to whom they could go to during the school year last year for the first time we implemented a student survey through Panorama to determine if all students could identify that caring adult our Baseline percentage was 84 percent with higher percentages among our elementary and middle school aged students as we look at our SBA results now and the next page and as I said I will present a more in-depth report at student achievement Committee in the upcoming months we saw that some of our performance some of

150our schools outperformed the last time our students took the SBA so the the top there where you see Edgewood Hubble IV Stafford Green Hills that's not necessarily cohort data that's not cohort data that's the last time that the students took the SBA comparing the percent at proficient or Advanced so you could see that at Edgewood Hubble Ivy Stafford and Green Hills and multiple grades and in both literacy and math our percent of students who achieved proficient or better was even higher than when students took the smarter balanced assessment in 2018-2019. we also did an initial comparison looking at cohort data and again the first time that we were able to do that is looking at our fifth grade cohort because they took the SBA last as a third grade student with us and you know

151that the SBA is first taken as a third grade at third grade we saw students cohorts of students even outperformed the last time that they took the SBA and the SBA is scaled out for growth by grade level so they're superseded that and that those cohorts were at Edgewood Hubble Ivy Mountain View and Green Hills School so we're very proud of those results so even though the year was impacted by the pandemic and by the multiple learning conditions we have evidence that our students have outperformed the way that they have performed in the past any questions about that I could answer about the district priority indicator status okay so moving on we have a summer learning update and there were a lot of exciting advances here you've heard me speak about them before I'm sure

152because I've talked about how we're using some of our grant funding to support our students learning students were we I'm going to share what happened at the elementary middle and uh High School level at the elementary level we had a full day academic and enrichment program for students at no cost to families with breakfast and lunch provided and transportation to and from the programs both at the beginning of the day midday and at the end of the day we used our Esser funding to support this program it really coupled what we used to offer solely in the mornings was which was an enrichment opportunity with an opportunity for students to have their academics in the morning so it was a camp kind of experience for our students we had 159 students who attended and on

153average there were about 13 students students were identified based on their need for some academic support throughout the summer based on where they ended in the school year at our middle level we offered an opportunity for some bolstering some academic understanding among our middle school students this instruction was provided both in person and virtually so that was um we did struggle in the middle level to find teachers for the Middle School academic bolster program and so our science and social studies courses did have to be offered virtually but we still there had pretty decent enrollment and you could see that information up on the screen a brand new program that we had and piloted this year was the Avid algebra bridge program which was a support for students who didn't quite yet solidify the skills

154to be successful in algebra as an eighth grade student we although we offered the opportunity to over 30 families nine students participated this summer all of the nine students are now enrolled in our 8th grade algebra class so that was a it's positive outcome and we hope to expand upon that next year we also sent two of our tesol teachers teachers of um our for teachers of English for our bilingual speakers to Avid Excel which is a summer program for El students long-term El students within our district they ran two programs throughout the summer with small groups of students bolstering the language skills of our English learners our high school program had quite a robust credit recovery program you could see the number of students in all there were 741 enrollments for credit recovery at

155the high school level the pass rate for these courses was 72.1 percent mainly impacted by some forces that we were only able to offer virtually for example chemistry being one of them it was difficult to find Summer Staffing for all of our particular courses but we wanted to ensure that we had the opportunity for students to recover some credit we were unique in our scheduling and that we did a hybrid approach which allowed our students to take up to four courses throughout the summer instead of the typical two that would have been offered in the past and so while the pass rate of some courses dramatically impacted the overall pass rate we did see a great number of students who were able to get back on track after struggling this past year additionally to that

156we for the first time offered elective courses so courses where students did not fail first before coming into the summer program we offered three we had a career exploration course we had an introduction to computer science and computers and then we had a media literacy class and again we had pretty strong enrollment our greatest enrollment at our career experience class some of the photos that you see down below were from that class's visit to the cruise manufacturing that within that course students learned of the number of opportunities within Bristol for potential careers and had the opportunity to interact with community members about those a third program you heard me mention earlier was our CNA certification program which with which we partnered with tungsta's Community College and again we had 12 students participate 11 at the

157time of August 30th Who had who attained their certificate and one who was pending the final opportunity we offered this summer with our youth was Our Youth Empowerment partnership with the United Way we needed a way we knew that we were going to need a way to encourage some of our students who were disengaged or disenchanted last year throughout the year of um the pandemic school year that they may not want to enroll in the summer and so our approach was to couple their attendance at summer school with the opportunity to earn an income and so students ages 14 through 18 learned a career employability skills through an instructor provided by the United Way who met with our students every Friday and then the students worked every afternoon provided that they had good attendance to

158the summer school program in areas around the Bristol Community we had 30 students participate in that program overall we had 1 221 students enrolled or participating in our summer program are all funded with our sr2 funds these programs required the support and commitment of 62 faculty members so I really want to and extend a huge amount of gratitude to not just the individuals who are named here on the screen but all of the teachers who participated in the program after such a challenging year to dedicate your entire summer to continuing the work for students certainly shows their care dedication to our students special recognition to Mr Scott Redman who ran our elementary program Mr Steve gaudette who ran our secondary program our OTL supervisors who supported the work in designing those programs Ms azero redzick

159Ms Jillian Roman Dr Jamie reckenberg for her partnership with CNA and the career experience class and Mr Larry Covino for his experience in facilitating both the secondary program and our partnership with the United Way I could take any questions or comments about that kosher G Antonio through the chair just um I was trying to take some notes as you were going through it so I might have I might have missed it the full day summer um school program for elementary uh it was full day was that in person or virtual in-person hybrid in person in person and I have it correct that middle school was also full day but half was in person and half was virtual no the middle school day um provided some academic bolstering so it was four one hour sessions English

160and math were in person uh science and social studies were in person in school but on a virtual platform so the students were in a classroom with one science or one social studies teacher but they were working at three grade levels sixth seventh or eighth on the virtual platform okay and the oh the rest is mine is just nerds um high school for credit recovery just depends on the the course is that a a student would up to four courses they could choose students could take up to four classes so all almost all of the all of the high school classes with the exception of PE were done as a hybrid so two days in person and two days at home with some asynchronous work some of the courses like chemistry word chemistry Civics they

161were done completely online thank you and I agree thank you to the staff that committed to these programs finally professional learning update uh I wanted to take um some time to mention the professional learning that we provided to our staff at the beginning of the school year typically we haven't reported on this but given the number of new teachers that were on the agenda tonight I thought one question might be how do we welcome them and bring them up to our standards as they join our Bristol Public School staff and then if I was doing that I thought I would also share some details about the professional learning that the rest of our staff received so our new teachers who joined the district and you can see that we've had over 60 new Bristol Educators

162join us attend a week-long of learning prior to the start start of school and you could see the number of topics that they that are listed there some some of you have presented at our orientation to The District in the past they also receive support in all of our technology practices and policies or the introduction to their curriculum in general and then specifically to their grade level or course they have an introduction to our standards for high quality instruction they have some support in thinking about the strategies for clear and challenging expectations and how that's communicated to students on a daily basis within their classes there's classroom rules and routines which helps teachers beginning teachers especially structure their classroom for the most uh instructional time being actively used they also have a special services review

163and to put our best in front of them they get to meet many of our former teachers of the year and ask them questions about their experiences here with us with all of our professional learning we do ask for feedback and so it's a longer survey but I identified two points of feedback that I thought I would share one is the participants feelings of the learning being useful and the other really being practical and relevant to their needs and you could see how our new teachers responded to the to the new teacher Academy the next set of professional learning is part of our professional learning days at the start of the school year all teachers participated in the topics that you see listed on the screen so they had positive classroom in school environments where

164principals and the district work together to talk about how will we successfully transition students who may have not have been in school last year we also provided more professional learning around our illustrative Mathematics Curriculum how to read and respond to the literacy data of their students we provided co-teaching training you know that the social studies curriculum at our Middle School was new so the teachers had some time to learn how to implement that curriculum well the same was true for some of our science courses we also provided technology training and go Guardian Google meets and use of the Smart Board in addition to parent Square which you heard about earlier and for social emotional learning and well-being of students many of our schools engaged in QPR training which is a way in which our our

165staff can recognize potential signs of students who are at risk for suicide the respondents there and I will say that I wish every staff member responded to our survey but those who had had a 100 agreement that the topics were useful and practical and relevant to their experiences as educators I also wanted to point out a third area of professional learning which was for our administrative assistants we also planned a full day of professional learning for every Administrative Assistant within the district and they were trained in parent Square Google meets and PowerSchool with some reporting updates with changes that the state is requiring and again 100 of the participants of the sessions were useful practical and relevant to their responsibilities and that concludes my report barring any questions thank you very much Miss Morton next

166on our agenda is our special services leadership team report there's three areas that I'd like to share with you this evening the first is the monthly enrollment report as was shared at the finance subcommittee meeting so as our enrollment status for the end of August 31st in preparation for September 1st enrollment count we have 1658 students in Bristol identified as requiring specialized education programming and that reflects a 20.49 of total Bristol Public School population the identification rate at the end of the last school year as of June 1st 2021 was 21.88 percent the overall Public School uh Bristol Public School graduates at the end of last school year 120 students with special education programming received their diplomas during the months of July and August 2021 with 83 of our 342 students that's 24 of newly

167registered students come to our district identified as requiring special education at the time of their registration no students were enrolled at those in within those two months already receiving their services in out of District programs as of September 1st we have 105 of our 1658 students requiring out-of-district special education and placements and 64 students requiring special education program as they attend public out of district schools such as magnet schools as asked for additional information there are 13 students who had been attending out of District private special education School placements last school year who are no longer attending those placements through the Bristol Public Schools for the 21-22 school year and those reasons include return to district relocations and graduations I'd also like to share with you information regarding the esy program the extended school year

168program that took place this past summer as you're aware due to Staffing shortages experienced for our extended school year programming the program was provided primarily through remote platform that was through the month of July as of July 1st 229 of 340 students engaged through remote instruction there were 111 families who did opt out of receiving their esy once they were notified that it was through yes through remote instruction we did provide the opportunity to receive in-person related services such as occupational therapy and physical therapy and transportation was provided for students they received those services at Green Hills School of the 50 students who had the opportunity to receive those Services as offered in person 18 to attend additionally 63 students received their speech and language services and their Counseling Services I'm sorry 63 through speech

169and length for speech and language in seven Counseling Services through the use of remote platforms such as Telehealth methods foreign I wanted to share with you as a point of information related to anticipated special education related recovery funding so directors of special education and superintendents were notified by the State Department of Education that following the following funding sources will be made available for students within the public schools through special education funding and sr2 funds each Lea will be receiving upon the completion of an application a base amount of funding based upon the number of students with IEPs in our school district Bristol will receive a hundred twenty thousand for having over 1 000 students identified as receiving special education programming each Lea will be able to also receive an additional twenty five thousand dollars if

170their application is able to document the use of funding for priority populations so special education students that were disproportionately impacted during the pandemic and that will then be part of our application to the State Department of Education that is anticipated to be available and accessible in October there will also be sr2 special education recovery funding made available for students specifically diagnosed as their primary disability being in the area of Dyslexia let's see um specific learning disability our district will be able to access up to 650 per student identified with dyslexia those funds can be used for tutoring and that will also be set up in the grant system and accessible in October up to 10 triennial evaluations will be offered through the State Department of Education and in partnership with the rests which are the

171Regional Education Service Centers of which there are six in the state to then conduct evaluations for students in Bristol Public Schools the evaluation team will be spread out over a period of 10 weeks and we will learn the confirmation of the timing within this current school year when we will have those evaluation teams available to Bristol Public Schools and lastly through ARP funding there will be additional idea award made available to the district for special education costs as part of the Ida through the ARP funding available that concludes my report for you for this month and I'm happy to take any questions if you have any through the chair commissioner G Antonio of course has questions I apologize to my colleagues but I still feel my questions are important um the uh the offering for

172elementary and middle school for summer programming for students with special services Sr funds uh were used to assist in the summer programming uh developed for students most impacted by the pandemic we could see that for both the presentation that Carla gave us and um I'm assuming that's true for those other students that require special services you said that they were offered a virtual only option yet we had um full day in-person option for the other program that was not specified for students with special services um they you said that the virtual esri program was through July um how long was that program offered to those students during the day how many hours of the day was it full day esy program ran from July 1st through the end of July four days a week from

1739 to 11 30 in the mornings so two hours a day virtual two and a half hours for four days a week for about 20 days in July so how does that compare to the number of hours that were offered to students that do not require special education services if I could add the initial intention was to offer an extension of that esy program but due to staff availability even to extend it as a remote option we were not able to offer it then as an extension there were a number and I don't have the percentage off the top of my head and I could find that information for you and share it with you but there were a number of students who attended the full day es full day summer program but not designated

174as extended school year who did have who do have special education needs and IEPs so they did get gwing the benefit as should be and was intended to be made available through the Esser and our monies that we're receiving it's part of our duty to make sure that we're making those opportunities available to students with special needs as well so there are there is a difference in the type of programming and the reason behind the programming and students who require extended school year is required through their IEP and their special education process the school summer programming offered through the office or arranged through the office of teaching and learning is not necessarily intended to fulfill those obligations understood and thank you you answered my second part my second half of that question about opportunity did

175some of those students take advantage of the full day offerings that were offered I my only other comment is that having a 111 of our most vulnerable students having to feel that they had to opt out of even a virtual experience for I'm sure many reasons I could probably think of 10 on my own I you don't need to elaborate on that is highly unfortunate I know that not all of that is in the control of um you know the Staffing that we tried to get and I know you've reported on that before what I am going to ask though is that this clearly points to um sort of disproportionate program offerings that aren't fully under our control but I am asking for the administration to pay special attention to this type of disparity and

176hopefully it can be addressed in a in a better way with um if we continue to have uh the lack of staff to support Something That We're statutorily obligated to provide so thank you thank you next on our agenda is curriculum revision I know you're double checking because you're saying why is Carly up there I am here to present on behalf of Dr reckenberg Who had a family emergency thank you so the first item on the agenda is the AP biology curriculum revision all of the curriculum that you'll hear tonight was first presented as a revision to the student achievement committee who has voted and brought it Forward here for with a motion and a recommendation for your approval our AP biology curriculum is a college level foundational biology course that is taken primarily by

177Juniors and seniors at our high schools if students do well in the AP course and take the AP exam they have the potential to earn some college credit the advanced placement program is pretty scripted by the college board and so we uh put forth our curriculum document based on what the College Board and the advanced placement program prescribes we just need a motion for your approval we need a motion to commissioner Wilson will move the AP biology curriculum revision Commissioner James on a second okay motion has been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you the next course is an anatomy and physiology course Another Science elective this course is most oftenly pursued by students who are interested in pursuing a health related career in the

178future what is most interesting I think about this particular curricular revision is that it is written for a challenge by choice so it is written with the intent that all students would have access to this course and they could take this course either at the academic or accelerated level we felt that we did not want any prerequisites that would lock students out of this particular course so once they enroll experience some learning in the course they will send either by interest or their ability to support of the teacher they'll have the opportunity to take the course at an accelerated level by engaging in some extension activities at the end of each unit so this is a new approach to our curriculum design but one that certainly prevents any barriers from students to access really high

179level curriculum that I'd like to ask for a motion commissioner Wilson moved the recommended approval of the anatomy and physiology curriculum commissioner giantonio seconds motion has been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you the next course was updated uh it's biotechnology and forensics it was updated to four and more specific focus and call out for our students on the forensics possibility within this curriculum students study a biomedical engineering the bioprocess of a bioprocess engineering and forensics so if you're at student achievement committee you might have seen them photos of students who are studying blood splatter fake blood splatter I'll say as part of the study within this course again you could see that it's a science course geared toward future careers for our students those that

180will be exploring biotechnology the engineering aspects also in forensics and potential careers and services that serve the community commercial arts and moves that we approved the Biola biotechnology and forensic curriculum revision commissioner G Antonio seconds motion's been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye aye [Music] opposed abstentions thank you okay so the next course is ECE biology you've heard me speak earlier um I think three curriculum presentations ago that was on AP Advance placement that's one way in which our students can earn college credit for the courses they take within High School another way is through the early college experience and that's what ECE stands for the ECE biology course is a Yukon course that students take with the supportive guidance of our teachers here at our high schools this course

181can only be offered by an instructor who has been approved as an adjunct through Uconn and so since the curriculum was revised at UConn we also had to revise our curriculum here looking for a motion for permission Wilson moves that we approve the early college experience biology curriculum revision commissioner G Antonio seconds motion has been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye opposed abstentions I'm going to abstain because I was out of the room for the conversation thank you thank you I think the last is physics academic and accelerator curriculum the last course in science anyway this course was revised to address more of an opportunity for students to engage in labs in physics and so both the academic and accelerated curricular curricula were revised here and you would see an

182a increase in the number of experiences that students would have to engage in Hands-On learning around those physics Concepts commission Wilson will move the approval of the physics academic and accelerated curriculum revision commissioner G Antonio seconds okay motion's been made in second in any discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you hi good evening first I would like to thank the teachers that worked very hard on writing this curriculum the grade 11 Health curriculum was previewed by the student achievement Committee in July and presented for its first reading to the board of education at its July meeting I did not receive any questions since the presentation but therefore I would like to request a motion to approve the 11th grade health curriculum this evening commissioner Wilson recommends approval of

183the grade 11 Health curriculum commissioner G Antonio seconds motion has been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you good evening chair Dube Commissioners Dr Carbone and Dr Dieter I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to present to you the curriculum revisions for K-2 social studies the curriculum revision was reviewed by the student achievement committee September 1st and they have moved it forward to the full board for approval uh the curriculum needed to be revised because the current curriculum was previously revised in 2012 uh this was prior to the Connecticut social studies framework which was published in 2015. so the current curriculum revision ensured that we have high quality social studies instruction in all of our classrooms that meet the Connecticut social studies

184framework and the C3 framework as well as provide Mentor texts that are robust and rigorous for high quality social studies instruction at this time I'd like to entertain any questions clarifications around the K2 social studies curriculum and or ask for a motion for approval Russian also moves to approve the K2 social studies curriculum revision commissioner G Antonio seconds motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you next on our agenda is policy revision so Dr Dieter is going to go over some thank you uh thank you chair Dewey I understand that all of you have the supporting documents attached within your agenda we have three bylaws to review this evening the first is bylaw of the board 9271 code of

185ethics this identifies the standards and responsibilities that are most critical for productive board and superintendent relations by way a further explanation uh all of the bylaws that we're going to propose this evening were voted unanimously through the subcommittee for recommendation to the full board so back to bylaw 9271 I'm seeking a motion to approve by law 9271 commissioner giantonio someone motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you the next bylaw for the board is the bylaw 9272 code of conduct on data use uh this is a new bylaw for the board to consider this identifies the appropriate use of data in the decision-making process we looked at model policy and you can see from the model submitted that we did make some

186revision to the model policy and that is um referenced with a strikethrough as well as new language in blue within your packet I'd be seeking a motion to approve commissioner G Antonio so moves the motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you the final bylaw for consideration 9273 this is a civility code this by law recognizes that the board strives to improve student achievement and public education through several statements and attestations the content of which you have attached within your agenda seeking a motion to approve commissioner G Antonio solos the motion has been made and seconded any discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you madam chair yes um before we move on to new business I would

187like to request to make a motion to add two items to new business they would be bid waivers for two items that I discussed in my finance committee report one being the music lab and the other being School meant okay so we need a motion to add these to new business might make a motion to do motion has been made I need a second okay all in favor up any discussion okay uh we're good okay you can third it third okay all right so all in favor of us adding this to new business please say aye aye opposed Madam chair while we're talking about adding new items to the agenda I'll add one as well just to provide you some context uh we needed to make some revisions to the professional development and evaluation committee

188so I'd ask that we put that on the Jennifer's uh I'll put it on when we when we do it but I just want to add that item but I wanted to give you some background on it sure all right so that is your motion I need a second second all in favor of adding this to the new business agenda please say aye aye opposed abstentions okay commissioner Viber you are up first thank you very much the first item is well they're both bid waivers the first one is music lab I discussed that that is the company that cleans and fixes the instruments um the request is for the bid waiver is well it's a 75 000 charge this year which is more than usual but that is due to covid and we have a

189very long-standing relationship with this company the second one is school mint and that is the one that is going to we're proposing to handle the Memorial Boulevard Lottery um School mint is the only company that Administration found that was willing to take on the task and as I said earlier the initial fee is going to be 62 000 and after that it will be it will be between three and four thousand dollars so we'll back up and do one at a time yes please all right so I make a motion that we approve a bid waiver for the music lab LLC uh commissioner Antonio II motion has been made in seconded any discussion through the chair what what's the covert have to do with seventy five thousand dollars I'm confused instruments have to be cleaned

190Jill so I do have Dr sarley's notes who is the department head for uh the music and art departments I'll share them with you at this time and I do want to add some clarification um we had budgeted 75 000 um we both Dr sarley and myself feel we're not going to to hit that threshold but it will go over the threshold that requires competitive bid which is twenty five thousand dollars so just a little bit of clarification there um the music lab uses an ultrasonic process that is quite tedious they assess each and every instrument that comes in not only for cleaning needs but repair if something requires repair they hold off on the cleaning and they do an individual quote to repair our instrument um and so each instrument that goes in requires

191something unique and different um so that is something that we get in particular with the music lab um the vendor like commissioner vibbert said it has been a long time vendor we have a long-standing relationship they even assist us in categorizing instruments uh the work performed they photograph the work performed and they update an inventory record for us so we feel that the work performance that they do coupled with the long-standing relationship we would like to approach the board of finance and request a bid waiver when we were in our meeting it was I had looked into our policy which doesn't require a vote but when we fill in the request form to approach the board of Finance they would like the board of education's approval before we head over there so that's why we're

192seeking your vote this evening right but she said the the price was due to covet I'm just curious do these kids own their own like do they take it on themselves these are what were we paying prior to covert I guess is my question so I work obviously with Dr Surly as well I don't have the cost prior to covid there is an increase because it's a per instrument costing our students rent not rent they loan their equipment so each student is using an instrument from us and that we would have to reuse for another student this year so the cleaning was different it wasn't just the typical cleaning that's done between the school years it's an ultrasonic cleaning which is deeper from my understanding very limited understanding of what how to clean an instrument

193but that was the increase in the number of instruments that they needed to clean and the type of cleaning was one of the reasons why we had this increase this past year and you said there was equipment that needed to be repaired is that was that a large amount of money as well so sometimes when the instruments are handed back in there may be you know let's imagine a clarinet there may be keys that are loose there may be a gasket around a key that has to be replaced so they're usually minor repairs it depends on the usage and the durability and and what happened with the loan during that time I would like I'm sorry I would like to know what it was prior to covert what we paid we didn't require repetitive competitive

194bid so it fell below the 25 000. um so it tripled because of covet we have budgeted a triple demo as I said before we do not expect that we're going to hit that threshold but we wanted to be prepared for it as the parent the mother of an of a musician minor problems as you talked about happened just with normal wear and tear it's not like these students are banging the equipment or purposely breaking them it's very easy for minor flaws to happen on instruments so is it almost like our laptops we offer Insurance when they use them or not uh no this is not an insurance program this is a vendor that we currently use and have used for quite some time that we seek to clean and repair the instruments that the

195district owns and we loan out to students for use so they may use them for a semester-long course or a full year course but they continuously get turned in and loaned back out turned in and learned back out all right thank you okay motion has been made and seconded ending further discussion we can go ahead and vote all in favor of the bid waiver for music lab please say aye aye opposed opposed abstentions thank you and next um commissioner remember you can go ahead with the supplement very much schoolment is the company that Administration has found um well it's the only company that they found willing to take on the task of the lottery for the boulevard um I don't know if Mrs Brown or Dr Dieter whoever would like to expand on that oh

196fantastic yes um so uh it is uh accurate that we uh did research vendors to provide this service a schoolmet as a vendor that we feel is uh uniquely qualified uh they currently uh contract with districts that are um providing magnet programs within their District um and because of those variables and their willingness to provide customization which is what we need um we felt that this was the appropriate direction to go in um and I understand that there were questions after the last meeting which we did respond to uh in writing and I believe though that those responses were shared with all board members with that I offer um I'd ask for Mrs Brown or Miss Emanuel to elaborate I wanted to share some of the intricacies of this Lottery process um because it's not

197a just a typical randomization of students to just get filled into um the system what's going to happen is for the 21-22 school year each Elementary at the fifth grade level each K-8 at the fifth sixth and seventh grade level in each Middle School at the sixth and seventh grade level will automatically be entered into this magnet process um this would be a continuous Dynamic feed from power school until the close of the application period um these would all be considered feeder schools to the magnet it would then have to take each of these feeder schools differing demographic percentages including El non-el sped and non-speed racial makeup and free and reduced lunch and non-free and reduced lunch and calculate all those percentages of each of those feeders each feeder school would then have a differing

198number of seats that are being offered into the magnet um in coinciding with um also their demographic percentages and keeping in that same demographic um of those feeders it would then fill the magnet um these students would also need to have a randomization within their demographic groups um multiple rounds would have to be continuously run until enough acceptances and you know we would want to get to approximately 98 to 99 acceptance rate in those demographic groups um before then offering seats to the Bristol residents who are not part of Bristol Public Schools and who would not be randomized in the same um in the same fashion because we wouldn't have their background demographic information so then at that point everybody would get um their waitlist numbers and so with all of that complication um and

199customization that would have to go into creating this kind of demographic feed and also keeping a randomization going where we're not picking special you know like particular students um it has a lot of upfront cost but then once that's all built then each additional year would just be a maintenance cost of three thousand to four thousand dollars um so that was that was the reasoning for that customization fee thank you Lorena I'm through the chair yeah I I did ask some questions that were answered um prior at the other meeting I do have two additional ones since that meeting um I I am just for full disclosure and software development so when I heard the extent of the customized code that's going to be required and then found that through the presentation at the finance

200committee that this is the only vendor that committed to do this type of customized code just sends up some flags for me being in the industry um the I can understand why they um typically software companies will always charge for a customized code so I understand why they're charging because of the amount of customization above um I did do some of my own research on the software after after that meeting and after the other questions were answered one of the things that I found in the reviews of the software was that there is an um a lot of um uh what's the word I'm trying to say the the initial setup is not um it's not very easy so it's a complicated type of software and so when we go to use this type of

201software you know it's not very user friendly then the second piece of feedback that I wanted to bring back was that there was a lot of commentary about its inability to integrate properly with PowerSchool and because we are a power school Community I want to know if any of our I.T department has reviewed that piece of it since we're not going out for a bid waiver or we're requesting not to go offer a bid waiver that we won't run into problems and with this vendor increasing cost if we require more customization for it to properly integrate with PowerSchool then lastly um with the degree of customized code that we have to put in in the initial I'm questioning the three to four thousand dollars per year maintenance after that in our contract will that maintenance

202include any modifications to maybe inadequacies with the initial custom code that was uh implemented for the the first year are they going to guarantee that if they didn't meet our demographic criteria that was so complicated that they have the custom code that the following year and the year after that they will have to continue to make some customized code and then come back to this board and say because we've now contracted with this vendor we're not obligated to not only pay the maintenance fee but any customized code adjustments year to year and so for those reasons um you know I'm I'm hesitant I value all the feedback that came back but I am hesitant that this won't um that this won't translate into way more cost than this if we use this vendor and it's

203unfortunate that we can't get are there vendors that would agree to do this and like to me that validates my concern so I'm having trouble supporting this tonight but I know we're under a deadline so um that's just my feedback I don't know if you have any information about the PowerSchool integration or not thank you for coming to the meeting and staying so long to address these concerns sure um so the only need for any connection with PowerSchool um would be to pull the the demographic um information of the students into schoolnet and so we are in the process of testing um the connection into PowerSchool at this time it really even if we had to do exports from PowerSchool physical exports and just feed them the data it's really only to get the student

204information into their system we don't have to feed anything back into PowerSchool once students are selected because we have a process of registration at this time where the family would just do their registration paperwork and that's what feeds back into PowerSchool so there's not a real huge need to have a a lot of integration it's more of the calculating and feeding um feeding students into the magnet school in the proper percentages that need to go in um if we if we went out if we had to go out to bid for any kind of uh software we might be facing the same situation of what are what are software companies offering what are they promising and are they going to come through with that promise from what um what information that I've gone over with

205this company they seemed very uh step by step in how they were going to program each of the steps and each of the kinds of percentages that they would need to fill um this seem very confident about all of that process so um in order for us to ensure that we would fill correctly for this year and then continue to fill correctly we would have to run Lottery simulations before we went live at the lottery so we would make sure those Lottery simulations were appropriate um for this current school year so that in the future it would continue to run similarly I I would also want to add that um one of the variables that we considered is that this is a vendor that is currently providing Services into larger districts um Harford as well

206as within a district that will be the first all magnet District in the state of Connecticut which is in London public schools so as far as history and the availability to deliver I would suggest they have done that within a district that is um on a very larger scale than what we're attempting to do they've been successful well I appreciate Kristen's concerns and I I share them the alternatives are are so limited is the thought of hiring someone to build it from scratch is a more concerning to me in total so at least the fact that they've had some experience and have a model that works apparently would make me think that we should support using them to make sure that we're on time and doing whatever needs to be done to get the magnet

207school up and running through the chair I I agree but I don't want to get stuck behind well we had to we ran into a problem with this software we're into about and then that 62 turns into 70 turned into 50 you know to 85 and then next year it's not three or four it's seven or eight a year so someone's got to be be up front and saying you're going to hold that 62 000 cost at your right but number two I'm really really concerned with when when you're on a building committee and you see five different bids in everybody's way up here and then somebody's down here it raises a red flag right for me it's you're telling me there's only one person that was willing to take this Challenge on it's concerning

208to me without doubt because that raises a hundred red flags to me why we can't find anyone and if they know this seventy thousand sixty thousand whatever they want to tell us is what we're going to pay because they're the only ones who are willing to do it but my concern is this because we've seen it with every other project we've done that 62 is not going to be 62. like we're we're we can agree on that it's going to be 70. it's gonna be 75 because something's going to come up like she said she may be confident that this company's got their things together but there's always something so if they can guarantee that and guarantee the the yearly maintenance of three to four that I could might buy into it but I just

209someone's got to explain to me why we can't find anybody else to throw their hat in the ring so we would enter into a contract with the vendor just like if they were the Reese if they had won an RFP we would enter into a contract for an agree to pound amount as well as the renewals and that's what we're asking to do with this vendor it's my understanding that this is a premier vendor in our region which is why they handle Hartford Public Schools New Haven Public Schools New London public schools in New York City they're the vendor with the expertise and when we reached out to find someone to help us with the customization that we needed this was the only vendor that indicated to us that they could handle that sort of

210customization so I hope it would alleviate some of your concerns that we would look to enter into a contract with those agreed upon amounts and it wouldn't be an open door so that they could just charge whatever they wanted for further customization it's not what we're looking to do last question um just some of the rules about how we have to conduct the lottery they obviously come from the State Department of Education correct I think that was mentioned in the um in in the committee meeting if I'm wrong please you can straighten me out now but um if they're part of the ones that require uh the randomization of of particular demographics do they assist other um so the randomizations and the way we're doing our demographics is based on what we know is best

211practice to ensure equity and access for every every student and every family that lives in that catchment zone of each of the schools and so that is the reason for the sophistication within our our design that as a board of education you should be proud of the fact that you are you can confidently say that the makeup of Memorial Boulevard will be consistent to catchment area of the students of which represent the school that's sending that child or family if they so choose to that school that's not my concern actually I'm glad that we're able to represent our student popular practice Department of Education has nothing to do with our oh I misunderstood that I thought in the finance or in the committee that it was said that because I asked about what how why

212is our lottery so much more complex than the other magnet schools that have been in other districts and had to start you know with brand new um magnet schools in in Hartford per se and and so there is a different layer of sophistication within the magnet system whether it's a correct magnet system or New Haven Public Schools Magna system the first of all the there's two different pieces of information that goes into that number one Hartford area magnets whether it's cracker Harper public schools is pulling from Hartford students first with the demographic by Zone not neighborhood of school and that does not play into the way an intra-district magnet school which is what we have is being designed in addition a second layer of qualifications and or nuances to the lottery system and Lorena since

213you are in new um in Hartford um with me and ran the Hartford lottery for years um you can correct and interrupt me if I misspeak each of the sending towns or towns that are in the correct area have a certain weighted allotment of seats into the magnet system and then there is yet another layer to determine how many students from Bristol would be accepted based on a variety of demographics yeah most of my concerns are actually with the vendor and um I think I've already stated those uh the the minimal amount of vendors I could do this I understand commissioner uh O'Brien's um perspective too that at least we found one uh doesn't entirely make me feel any better to be honest with you so I just wanted to to bring up um something

214about the fact that the state of Connecticut went to a new Lottery system themselves they did a custom Lottery with a vendor um and it has not been very successful um it is a different vendor so I have seen some of the implementations from a two other vendors that I didn't have any um previous experience with now this vendor schoolman and um they have merged with Smart Choice Firefly who I also had experience with I had um past experience with both of those companies and and so far they have been able to customize anything that we asked for in Hartford um during the years of choice and um like I said the state of Connecticut went to a company that they promised a lot of customization and they you know they did the bids they

215did everything that they should do and the company did not come through on their promises and they're still trying to fix a lot of things so I also am cautious about which companies that we go with and you know I do want to understand that the person the the person on the account or the the developers on the account are knowledgeable and they are competent and what I've found so far with this project is um the developers that I've talked to myself and because I I am also a developer um they have been right on with what we're asking for okay so I believe we only have a motion on the table um commissioner O'Brien you are about to Second and then we had some discussions you've taken away my opportunity to move it all

216right so motion has been moved and seconded we've had discussion any other comments if you're elected do you have to I thought Tom made the motion and we didn't get a second I thought if I moved here and made the motion Tom was going to Second it and now just did second it but we still have one additional comment I just have one question I think she said everybody's going to be in in this Lottery All 8 000 of our students my kids get chosen I can say no what happens if we can't get the demographics that we want to line up with free and reduced lunch this or that I mean I'll be honest using Harford and Bridgeport and New Haven as an example these magnet schools are are a blessing for these these

217cities and they beg for their kids to get into these schools because they don't want them into the public schools right so with Bristols Bristol's a different animal right so we have great schools in our town so this is almost like a an option right I just feel what happens if what happens if we can't get that free and reduced launch the whole demographic that that she's um saying that we're looking for where do we go from there so where we go from there we've covered this territory uh in previous sport event meeting uh the the where we go from there is that we have made a a substantial and documented effort to uh meet that expectation um and therefore uh once we have uh achieved that there you know we'll go through however many

218rounds uh in Cycles we need to um if in the end we don't meet our goal we can represent uh very clearly that we've made all attempts to do so which would alleviate us from any corrective act potentially alleviate us from any corrective action that the state department of Ed would suggest if we had disproportionate representation yeah that was my question it was more concerning with the if we didn't make the numbers for free and reduced what would that do to the rest of the district would that make everything else kind of because we're our uh our current situation is determined by our uh district-wide um frame reduced uh rate versus by building uh I I don't foresee that currently as being an issue okay perfect thank you and uh just to piggyback off of

219that um as as Dr Dieter mentioned we would continue to run rounds like so for example if we offered 10 seats um from Chip ins into Memorial and we only had three acceptances we would the software is going to fill in um the additional seats again to try to make more offers again to those same types of demographics that we need to fill in so that's part of that customization I'd like to move the question and have a roll call both okay [Music] foreign [Music] just one last comment I'm sorry to the chair I'm just gonna I'm just gonna say that the inherently the bid process protects the district that's why we have it um I realize we have timing constraints here and I just want to be clear that my uh issues really with

220a single vendor Choice without going through the bid process that usually protects us I I do not have issues with why we are trying to feed the school the way that we are so just clarification okay pending no further comments can we have a roll call vote please as Everett commissioner Carlson commissioner G Antonio no commissioner O'Brien yes commissioner sorry commissioner escalanka nope commissioner Viber yes commissioner wodowski yes commissioner Wilson yes chair duby yes motion passed with five yes and three now next on our new business commissioner Wilson thank you um years ago the state gave this a new evaluation system and we created a committee called PDX professional development evaluation committee so I wanted to make a motion first and then talk about it all right I'll make the motion first second CI is

221glassing over um I move that we uh amend our existing pdec agreement to align the flexibilities provided by this sde okay the motion has been made by commissioner Wilson and seconded by commissioner okay so years ago when we changed the evaluation system we created a speedc committee to create the basis upon which we would perform evaluations the state has come up with some additional flexibility and how we're going to evaluate people and who is an evaluator and so on Mrs Fortin will give you the real details but I'm just giving you overview so we received that request at the end of or in the middle of June when our teachers had already gone home for vacation so we couldn't really uh get them together until this past week we got them together and now um

222we have to have our response back to the state by October 1st so that was a necessity that we couldn't get on the earlier to our agenda and so that's why we're putting it on tonight and that's why I would hope you would support this motion I hate having to add this to the agenda to an already long meeting but as commissioner Wilson shared we do need to bring this forward and tell the state what we intend to do whether that was to follow the educator evaluation plan that had already been submitted and approved at the state or adopt the flexibilities from the state on our that are now allowable for our educator evaluation plan I do think I added a slime I did um but you can't read because it's too small so let

223me tell you about that they are allowing flexibilities this year um really due to covid but also in part of the whole state process and reviewing the educator evaluation system the changes are made around goal setting the ways in which teachers are setting goals in the past our teachers would have to as part of their goals indicate student learning outcomes that they intended to achieve by the end of the year this year impacted by the Limited number potentially The Limited number of data that we would have about students they anticipated that teachers would not be able to set accurate goals regarding student achievement so in addition to setting the student learning indicators they're allowing teachers to submit measures of accomplishment which would be evidence of practice that they've changed within their school school or classroom

224so an example of that might be that the teacher would need to demonstrate evidence of new learning and how that learning has impacted students within their classroom in addition to indicators of what students have achieved as a result of that change in practice the next change was around the length of observations as you've heard before the length that you could be in a classroom I could certainly be impacted by some of the covid restrictions so as one of the flexibilities they're allowing it more or really encouraging shorter more frequent informal observations which really was in speaking with our pdec committee made up of both members of our administrative unit and members of our teaching unit and the shorter more more frequent informal unannounced observations were valued as the best way to collect what's truly happening

225in classrooms on a day-to-day basis and to provide more regular and consistent feedback in addition to going back and seeing if some of the changes or support that's needed were really put into place it was the preferred mode and this flexibility now allows this just to outline what that change would be for some of our tenured staff teachers who are on cycle one so anybody who's tenured who's been in the district longer than four years who were proficient rated proficient or Advanced they'd have one formal observation which would be the length of a full class for the entire year this flexibility requires two informal unannounced observations with feedback to teachers and for our beginning teachers it would be three informal observations unannounced or announced and a review of practice and they can answer any questions

226that you may have hearing that there are no questions we can move this to a vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you thank you next on our agenda is building reports Dr Dieter thank you madam chair I am pleased to report to the Board of Ed this evening that the Memorial Boulevard and Mrs Brown you can cycle through the pictures thank you the Memorial Boulevard project continues on budget as well as on schedule while our delivery date continues to fluctuate within a window of about three weeks we are still well within the timeline set forth at the outset of the um project in order to appropriately [Music] appropriately set up the classrooms and Technology Etc we have various pictures here that are showing you the progress of the project if

227you've driven by recently you can see the addition of our new windows as well as cleaning up the outside features the whole building has been washed and scrubbed and it's in my opinion looking fantastic so I'm happy to answer any specific questions you may have just a comment it's now Bristol arts and Innovation Magnet School foreign thanks no surprises Mike that we know well there's surprises every day uh however we have that's not gonna hurt us we have a very uh we from the outset we were very careful about contingency and setting you know being very uh cognizant of the fact that we're renovating 100 year old buildings so uh there are some there are surprises quite frequently but we have a great um Don stamato team uh and uh we've been working through those

228uh issues as they've come up uh they are problem solvers and uh they they are delivering uh they're delivering for us uh the the folks on that crew love that building and it's very clear in the pride they take in the the job they're doing pending no further comments we can now discuss the South Side HVAC project is Mr Callahan oh there he is I'm here can you hear me everybody hear me yeah so South Side is going along pretty well as Jill talked about earlier uh we are over budgets slightly by uh 95 150 and uh we have pulled that out of uh Surplus so uh the rest of it looks pretty good um and the project is moving along the way it should right now um and uh and and and we we

229don't have any current significant problems any questions hey Tim John hey John how are you um everything's good for nothing you know it's kind of late it's kind of late John I'm kind of tired things are going pretty well I I you know we we had uh we had talked about the uh the the Wayne the rain water test that we're we did um today and we're identifying some of the leaks we might have in those uh those um units that are up on the roof but uh we'll work through that and we'll be reporting back to the committee perfect thanks Tim okay thank you Mr Callahan thank you next on our agenda is liaison or information reports this month Commissioners that are liaisins to an elementary school can give a report if they have

230one I will start on my right any takers I will start on my left now any takers okay Mr Kelly would you like to give us City Council update bills [Laughter] I almost started to cry I'm not gonna lie anything to share no all right well friends this has been fun um I would like to request a motion to adjourn so moved second everyone meeting is adjourned stay away took a nap this afternoon good thing