001foreign good evening calling the meeting to order thank you all for your Collective patience welcome to the West Hartford Public Schools regular Board of Education meeting it is Tuesday April the 18th and we are glad to be here today so Charlotte will you please call the roll Dr Chang here Mr Goldman president Dr Harris here Dr came off here Ms nazarella present Dr Steinberg here Dr Thomas farqueson here student representative Caitlin strip cave excused student representative Megan Murphy here thank you Megan will you please lead us to Pledge of Allegiance thank you we do have a proposed revision to the agenda order I move that we rearrange the order of business to move executive session from the end of the agenda to following unfinished business is there a second second all of those in favor
002say aye aye aye any opposed abstentions the eyes have it thank you so much now moving on to public Communications this is an opportunity where we're able to hear from you your thoughts your questions your suggestions each individual has three minutes to speak we ask when you go to the podium to please share your name and your town of residence please be mindful of Charlotte who will hold up a yellow card when you have one minute remaining in your time and when your time has expired you will receive a red card we ask for you please to respectfully take your seat at that time know that we are attentively listening to you however it is policy that we do not respond to comments as they are being made but we are listening to what is
003being shared we do have as our policy we begin with those comments coming from those speaking on agenda items however looking at the list here there is no one who has signed up on the list but I still will ask those of you who are here if you desire to speak on agenda items we will ask for you to please approach the podium and just to as a refresher the agenda items for today include appointment of superintendent of schools McKinney vento Grant assurances non-renewal of non-tenure personnel and Personnel report so is there anyone who would like to speak on an agenda item all right moving on to General comments and we do have a list of individuals who desire to speak on General comments and I will go through the list beginning with Nancy graceilli
004and I apologize in advance if I mispronounce any names please approach my name is Nancy gracilli and I live in West Hartford and I'm here because I'm concerned about artificial intelligence and critical thinking of our students for several years I was attend a tenured professor at Tunxis Community College I retired and then I became an emerita which means I'm invited to graduation and now I'm an adjunct I'm teaching one class this semester and surprisingly my one class this semester is a business class and I have five West Hartford recent graduates in my class it's a delightful class good students so as I was approaching subject matter on promotions I wanted to know what students were reading and I asked about 25 students how many students get a newspaper daily in their home one magazines three
005they were all science that was nice how many people in the class have read a book for pleasure since the beginning of the year fewer than half of my students happily three were of West Hartford yay what we know in education is if they don't read they don't write well and if they don't write well they don't think critically but they do write quite well outside of the classroom but they're always supported they have grammarly for punctuation and spelling they can buy any anything that they need they can buy a resume cover letter they can buy a poem they can buy anything they need um we do have ways to to find out what they're doing um classroom were enforced to write either a quiz or an examination booklet with a test they don't write
006as well speech isn't as good content isn't as good they seem to be less critically thinking is this a problem I don't know but last Sunday I watched 60 minutes and I came away from that frightened the artificial intelligence is getting closer and not all of it is pure as Lam is real some is is not real time has expired thank you thank you thank you next we have Erica Nestor hi thank you my name is Erica Nestor and I live in West Hartford um and I'm here tonight to tell you a little bit about Wolcott school and the impact your decision to cut an instrumental music teacher would have the board of education's capital Improvement plan describes Wolcott school as having seen a dramatic increase in the number of students requiring additional Services beyond
007the standard classroom at Wilkin some students receive special needs education many receive math tutoring reading reading tutoring and easel lessons oftentimes a student's own schedule of tutors and Specialists conflict with group instrumental lessons a school with growing educational needs requires more resources to meet the needs of each student it serves resources like teachers who have the right combination of energy flexibility and creativity teachers like Mr Dan Luongo wolcott's instrumental music teacher who meets the need he finds a way to meet with each student every week usually in a large group format but when a student's academic needs are better met individually rather than in a large group he schedules it so when a student misses a class because of a tutoring session he catches up with them at another Point throughout the week in order
008to not let them fall behind for students excelling at instrumental music he orchestrates them in a band known as the woolcats as such he ensures that every fourth and fifth grader has the opportunity to learn instrumental music the opportunity that is just right for them it takes him the whole week to do this five days the participation rate of instrumental music at Wolcott school is 97 percent higher than any other Elementary School in West Hartford due to Mr Luongo's dedication if his schedule at Wolcott is reduced which group of students mentioned should he be among those he would have to cut from his schedule the capital Improvement plan also States the West Hartford Public Schools curriculum has been distinguished by its emphasis on excellence in academics Sports and arts six sold out shows of Frozen
009at conard proves the value that West Hartford residents place on music and arts but becoming distinguished starts in the elementary schools we respectfully ask you to reconsider your decision to reduce the number of instrumental music teachers we hope that money may be made available through unforeseen retirements or unfilled positions throughout the district currently there are 46 posted online and I'm also leaving you a petition signed by more than 180 will get parents and caregivers who disagree with your decision to cut the position if the town can acknowledge that Wolcott has a growing range of needs your time is expired okay thank you thank you next we have Dean pichelder bachelder get apologies thank you hi my name is Dean batchelder I'm in West Hartford and I just wanted to talk to you again about the
010music program at Wolcott I know there may or may not be things you can do to address um what we see as a teaching shortage in that regard um if you I want I want you to consider a couple of things one of them is that music rewires the brain music provides a release of dopamine which changes changes your brain and makes you more happy and motivated alert and focused that obviously is something we want for our children it also really helps the release of Serotonin which influences learning memory and happiness again all wins music inspires connections both socially and culturally and we have a multicultural school where that is a language they all speak music improves the mood of the students music engages them in a multi-sensory and engages them engages their motor Networks
011music engages students that have learning and behavioral challenges some of these students will not have access if there is a reduction in music teachers and Dr Chang you pointed out last time that there is not a significant correlation between pay-to-pay subsidies and participation rates um I appreciate that and I know you have a lot of balls you're all juggling but as valuable as extracurricular sports are to students I do think and I hope you do too that the curriculum itself should take precedence if if in spending if it will not prohibit participation thank you for your time thank you next we'll have Jacob Jacob they're coming for me so I'll make this quick that's a joke it's a joke okay rough crowd here um my name is Jacob warblow I live at 27 Howland Road
012in West Hartford uh it's a nice place glad to glad to live here so um so I'm an educator you're all Educators we're all Educators so uh we give a lot of we give assessments all the time so we should start with a quiz right um so how many schools are there in West Hartford 11 right there's 11 Public Schools right there's more 11 elementary schools right okay thank you I'm that's where my brain is elementary school so um so you've passed I've failed my time's up um so 11 Elements 11 elements is cool so how many music educators do we have well you would think the answer would be 11 but it's not it's 9.5 so we've already cut the music education program it's already been cut and if the current budget goes through
013then it'll be further cut by 10 percent down to 10.5 so as a parent of wool kit not only will we be uh harmed because our beloved music teacher will lose a day in our school but that's a 10 cut across the board that that is painful um and so how can you keep a nationally recognized program when you have already cut it and then we're going to cut it again so 11 elementary schools deserve 11 Elementary music educators it's simple math and if we have on if we have open positions in the district at The District's office right in this building how can we justify filling those positions first when we have when we're cutting the the positions of the of the professionals who are with our children like there's no point of having
014a central office when there's no there's no teachers in the classroom right so uh and then you have some positions like uh Dr uh Rosina Haskins how could we fill her open position anyway how could that be filled so I really hope that that uh the board and the central office reconsider the cut of the music program across the district and um and just the last note it's it's this is personal so the the teacher Dan Luongo it's also his job it's a personal decision even though that we know line items the decisions aren't made in that way but teachers are leaving the cea did a poll this year 76 percent of teachers want want out I I'm a professor at CCSU our enrollment has down 50 percent since 2016. so teachers are leaving I
015can't even get students to to go into the program and then our beloved teachers are going to be split and sent across the district and forced to drive you're going to lose them like why would anyone stay in a district and be split when they can take a full-time position in another district and have their own program so please reconsider that decision especially if we have vacancies and central office so thank you thank you okay I'll go thank you next we have Mark Walsh Walsh 33 Huckleberry Lane my number is going to be much smaller than how many schools it's about how many students that had medical issues on school property last year that died we had two your first priority as board members is to keep our kids safe it's your obligation it's your
016responsibility and if you can't do that you shouldn't be sitting there it's not a personal attack it's it's a word that I don't hear anymore it's called accountability now you saw me here last year three times I came up to try to find out I was on a fact-finding mission about an 11 year old who hung themselves in a school bathroom at Bristol I had to get the police report myself I had to do all this by myself I pleaded with all of you with every town official to help me out no one helped me out at the same time I find out a five-year-old had a medical issue at Charter row collapsed and soon after that died I started a fact-finding mission there I had a high ranking Fire official duped me they said
017there was nothing that was going to save that boy nothing you could do so I stopped I should have got the police report because now we have a lawsuit and that police report mirrors the police report that happened to the student at Bristol where there were many bad decisions Mistakes by administrators and teachers students and even parents in on top of it that Fire official and I told you made me out to be he said most officials think I'm a lunatic and a conspiracy theorist and I'm also hurting the men and women of the fire department I went on over 20 000 calls in Hartford listen we come last you are you all come last the parents come the victim comes first the appearance then the family and then all the friends I was so
018upset last week to see that picture of the family and friends having a vigil at Charter Road and where were we did you people know about there was a vigil did you even know a five-year-old died there where were we we weren't nowhere to be found where's the mayor where's any of you speaking about this this is a crisis the cloak of secrecy is going to come off and it's about protection and it's not protecting people it's about trying to protect our image and right now our image is lost because this thing is Pub that was in the New York Post about that five-year-old in the lawsuit you people should all be ashamed of yourselves for having me stand up here by myself now one of you is offered to help me out I don't
019think anybody got the police report for the incident at Bristol and I begged you to get it because that's the only way you would find out what happened so many missteps Snapchat Tick Tock bullying she was 11. look at the lawmakers are out at the Capitol are right now talking about creating a law where you have to have parents permission about getting on social media I even brought that up myself we could have spearheaded that right here in this town of West Hartford and use that incident at Bristol I see the red cards up so I'm going to step away but I am coming back time is expired next we have gechi hello good evening my name is Gage I live in West Hartford so the Board of Education continues to push this gender ideology
020and SEL regardless of the parents I was crying most parents do not want their kids to be indoctrinated or mutilated by gender dysphoria cadres we all know the system that does not accommodate the majority voice is a tyrant this board of education does not listen does not listen to the majority because I have been here last year most of the time remember last year students in both high schools voted to keep mascots but Board of Education decided to remove it anyways this is called dictatorship in an oppressive system education cannot flourish because I came from oppressive system Africa if you need a proof just take it buy a ticket and fly to Africa and watch one of the school systems is terrible we heard like many people spoke about it music position had been eliminated
021and there is an effort to eliminate a stem position as well ridiculous to me eliminate a stem position that is eliminating science technology maths and the good stuff in education this is literally waging a war on academics no wonder academic score have gone down in West Hartford Public School since this craziness started sadly we also hear about a plan to add four more equity cadres in the districts why do we need four instead the Board of Education should eliminate Equity positions because Equity is poison is a poison to meritocracy it kills Talent creativity and dumps down generation is that what we want for our children no West Hartford sorry um we don't we don't we don't want that for for our children we should be we should have zero Equity countries in our school system
022so the fathers of atomic bomb Second World War that made the United States victorious in second world war Albert Einstein Robert Oppenheimer Leo zeelard were not trained by Equity cadres they didn't need equities but by the teacher of science there can't be no scientists without science science gives births to technology but equity abortices it is because of stems that America became superpower imagine what America would have been if those scientists were trained by equity cadres America would have been would have surrendered to the Japanese Army so please do not destroy our children okay sorry by flooding was sad race thank you is there anyone else who would like to make a comment ask again in either comments okay we will pause our public Communications at this time now moving on to non-staff Communications and reports
023and we will hear from Megan sharing about Hall about connored pardon me excuse me um first I want to start with sharing that before break we had fictional characters day which was a few students in acting classes um we're in the gym in the black box and they work really hard to set up their backdrops and they stay in character all day and a lot of us students got to go visit them and there were characters such as where's Waldo Pixie Hollow fairies Oscar the Grouch and many more and that was just really fun before break um during break Conor and hall baseball teams both of them honored the West hartford's First Responders in their second annual First Responders game and even a conard baseball alumni Neil Santoro threw the first pitch so that was
024just really great for them to continue that um actually today there was a band named Gooding that came from Nashville Tennessee and performed at conard that was for financial literacy month they performed a concert and presented about financial literacy to students from conard Hall and reach so that was really great I have two updates on our unified theater program there's a Spring Fling this Friday and I know a lot of students are super excited about that it's from 4 to 7 p.m and the theme is Hawaiian so that should be fun and then also our unified program is starting cornhole they have four practices that lead up to a tournament so that will be super fun and lastly Earth Day is being celebrated at Conor this week the environmental Club is kind of spearheading that
025celebration I know they're doing things on social media and a school cleanup and there were t-shirts and sweatshirts sold that were made out of EcoSmart materials so yeah all right lots of things going on thank you so much Megan although Caitlyn is not here she's a student and she's an athlete so I imagine there's some sports activity that she is participating in school is their priority so we'll get updates on Hall the next time moving unless Dr Mario unless all right yes all the next time all right continuing on to unfinished business which we do not have any at this time now moving again we revised the agenda we now have our executive session so rather I move that we go into executive session for the purpose of discussing the appointment of a new superintendent
026of schools is there a second second all of those in favor say aye aye any opposed the eyes have it I have invited Deputy Corporation Council Gina Verano and Executive Director of Human Resources gilo Julio Duarte to join us for executive session we'll be back with you okay it is 7 45 we have returned from executive session thank you so much for your patience now moving on to new business and appointment of the new superintendent of schools and so I move that we appoint Paul vicinas as the Acting Superintendent of schools for a term to commence May 1st 2023 and further then the chairperson is authorized to execute an employment agreement with the Acting Superintendent on behalf of the board of education is there a second second discussion so teammates uh this has been quite
027a process quite a lengthy process and so this is an opportunity now to hear from you why you may be voting in the way that you plan to vote and so with that let us just it's all right go in alphabetical order and so beginning with Dr Chang thank you Lorna the process of being on uh on the board and being a part of the the Personnel search committee uh was a tremendous learning experience to be able to sense the community's needs and the legacy of the district and uh and our aspirations and what you know really stood out to me was uh was uh Paul your your um your dedication to um to being such a strong instructional leader um I think is is inspiring to all those around you and your commitment to
028equity and seeing the whole student as as something that you know as we see continually and I'm really proud to to be in the position now to see um to see your leadership carry uh carry the district through through whatever's ahead thank you Ethan would you like me to yeah I'm good just in context my day started three this morning so if I Stumble good so sorry Paul um been here about a year and a half on the school board and I've been impressed with your willingness to share information and ideas and look for better ways to do things and to keep improving the schools I also know of at least a couple circumstances where parents commented to me that they in some cases came here spoke expressed their frustration and you went back behind
029the scenes and at least talked to them I think in some cases improved on the situation in the interview process um you stood out for going the extra mile putting a lot of information out and coming extremely prepared and ready to go so I look forward to seeing you as superintendent and we had a lot of good candidates and like I said you seem to go above and beyond in sharing ideas sharing thoughts and looking for better ways to improve the schools so looking forward to working with you in the future thank you Dr Gail Harris um so I want to congratulate you Paul I'm really excited that you have accepted this position and that we're going to be able to work with you for the next couple of years I've always been struck by
030your integrity and your willingness to listen to different people and different views um I see you as somebody who could potentially unify the schools and the community and I've seen you do that you know quietly and in in the last few years working with different people and listening to different views um I think that this is a win for the district I think this is a win for the community and um I'm really excited to to have you accepting this position congratulations Dr Renee came off thank you being the news member of the Board of Education our time working together has been brief but Paul I've really appreciated getting to know you more as part of the personal search committee and I was really inspired by your recognition of how well West Hartford is doing
031but wrecking but also having a vision for moving forward and I really look forward to working with you together to implement that vision and I offer my congratulations clearnessarella so Paul I'm I'm thrilled that you'll be a new superintendent um I've worked with you for many years and I've witnessed how much you care about children about families and how much respect you have from the staff throughout the interview process you wowed us with your materials your preparedness and your ability to think on the spot and share your leadership moves which I had never been in that kind of interview process before and it was very impressive it was a very hard process and I'm thrilled that it's unanimous decision or you know we all came together and I also know we're in great hands so
032congratulations and I'm looking forward to working with you Ferrari Steinberg it's really hard when your last name ends up being at the end of the list because everybody said everything else well and my maiden name was Bloom so I was you know I'm used to going first um so I really just want to congratulate you Paul um on this um appointment um your commitment to the district um is you know it is unsurpassed and I I actually really um the thing that stands out for me when I think about you um as a person not even as a superintendent assistant superintendent is the level of humility and genuineness that you kind of Express and exude um and I that's something that I really um value um and it's just something that's always struck me with
033regard to you um and I also just want to you know in whatever role you're in I feel that you're always looking out for the best interest of our students and our parents and our community as a whole so again I just want to congratulate you and I look forward to working together and Paul I Echo all that that has been shared coming to this place is one that took a lot of thought we certainly know as our charge as Board of Education members I often reference their three primary charges we have and one of them is appointing the superintendent and so therefore we took this very seriously and that's why it's even all the more impressive to be in this position now to vote to appoint you you are someone who speaks and walks
034the talk and that is what we need so admire how not only do you talk about Equity but you operate through a lens of equity and you also engage with others in Equitable ways and you are willing to listen to learn and receive constructive feedback and when there are differences of opinion you're willing to work and talk with individuals to come to a shared destination thank you for that thank you for your patience thank you for your dedication in this district for over 30 years that's a long time and yet still you continue to rise above and surpass the expectations that some may see of you and you also not only give to our community you give to our town our state at large with your role in the armed forces we thank you for
035your service so this is not a goodbye just to see you later in a different way and we thank you so very much and we look forward to the collective journey ahead and so with that Charlotte may we please have a roll call for the vote Dr Chang yes Mr Goldman yes Dr Harris yes doctor came off yes Ms nazarella yes Dr Steinberg yes Dr Thomas farqueston yes the yeses have it congratulations [Applause] laughs thank you thank you to the Board of Education thank you for your your confidence your faith in me for your amazing words uh a charge that I genuinely will do my darndest to live up to because I feel the weight of the responsibility and the expectation and I'm so grateful for this opportunity I want to thank first um Dr
036Morrow for uh for your leadership over this last year um for your mentorship over many years your friendship your collegiality and the grace in which you've LED and you've and you've helped me shepherding in this process so I genuinely appreciate that thank you [Applause] I want to give a quick thanks to my colleagues support of the executive team to to Rosina to and to Julio to Melissa to Liz thank you very much you're you're just an outstanding teammates I couldn't ask for better people to be surrounded with around to learn from I want to thank all of my wonderful colleagues here in the room the support that that you showed not just to me as an individual but to us as a team to this district and to this community is um is just remarkable
037and uh and by extension to the teachers that you represent here tonight because I am not fooled for a moment that that real work happens in the classrooms in the buildings with the students whether whether they're classroom teachers or their support area Specialists or all walks of life from our custodians to our secretaries to our cafeteria workers everyone who touches a child does so with such you know immense joy and only the best of intentions and to our community that that maybe at home or hear this news later I will simply say it is my most guarded responsibility to live up to the expectations of you as parents and caregivers into this district and to our long and proud history of Excellence without exception a final shout out to my wife who's here in the
038back my best friend and my true love without your support I couldn't be here and so I just thank you and I'm proud to be having this moment here with you together so thank you very much foreign [Applause] thank you and before we move on I have to certainly acknowledge you Dr Murrow for your leadership at a time when things were rough and Rocky and you without hesitation stepped up and said I'm here and we would not be in this place if it were not for your steadfast leadership during those times so thank you thank you thank you once again please [Applause] now moving on to McKinney vento Grant assurances we have a recommendation that the Board of Education of West Hartford Public Schools makes the following assurances in relation to its application for a
039mckinney-vento homeless assistant Grant hello Liz wonderful to see you and so I will pause and pass it to you Liz before reading on good evening so you have before you assurances related to a McKinney vento grant that we are applying for so the mckinney-vento act as a federal law it's created to support the enrollment and education of homeless students um so the mckinney-vento ACT guarantees a free appropriate publication for all homeless children and youth by removing barriers to their enrollment and attendance in school and supporting their education success so the district has applied for this grant in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars it is a two-year grant that we intend to use to help defray the cost of transportation for students who are unhoused unlike most of our grants this grant actually requires
040that you adopt these assurances through a board action so that is why it is before you tonight you'll see that the assurances are comprised of three items they're in the standard boilerplate language but basically what they're saying in the first one is that in the last fiscal year that the district assures that it's spent at least 90 percent of what was spent in the prior fiscal year what they're really trying to make sure is that we're not using these Grant funds to supplant um other funding um the second Assurance means that we will comply with the McKinney vent shoot statues so that statutes rather that are listed there um I I do have them they're in in League lease but um I can assure you that we uh comply with all of those uh Eric
041Dempsey actually serves as our McKinney vento liaison and we certainly are in compliance with the requirements of this act and the third Assurance um it just asks that we assure that we have appropriated a matching amount for the grant at least one hundred thousand dollars for transportation that is not being used for another purpose and you uh did that when you adopted the budget for the upcoming year at our last meeting so I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have it is kind of a standard format but happy to get into more details if if you're interested question yes yes thank you for the details on the on the grant um it seems that applying for a grant such as this means that we have new needs um in our district which is
042a sad reality um can you describe what the need is in the district and what that's looked like over time uh certainly I only have a few years history um with this but in the past we have occasionally had one to two students who may have been unhoused and who would require these services in the past year we have seen an increase at any given point in time we have had anywhere from two students um two seven or eight yeah just because it's not a new Need for St Jason but it's it's been uh for at least a decade we've had uh students who have qualified under mckinney-vento but never to the number that we've that we've been seeing whether it's temporary or we've even had students that are now going into almost their full
043second year under some of this requirements just a follow-up okay for me um so it correct me if I'm wrong with that it sounds like the grant is for transportation only it can be for whatever you want I see yeah we've we've um in the other requirements were already covered with the budgeted funds that we had the increased expense that we happen to be seeing is transportation costs so when students are unhoused they may be temporarily staying in another municipality and so we're incurring additional Transportation costs to ensure that they are able to attend their school of origin and fully participate in their education so to us that was really the best way to utilize these Grant funds students and families have a choice um when they're in that situation Governor McKinney vento they can
044either continue at the school they were displaced from or they can actually enroll in the the district that they may be currently living in so this would be to cover students that were busing from other districts back to their home schools I see and to be clear certainly it can be you know economic hardship but it also could be a situation where perhaps a family has had a fire they're temporarily displaced certainly want to stay in their home school and these funds just help ensure that they're able to do so yeah yeah okay thank you of course other questions or comments yes Ethan yeah I'm just trying to understand the logistics is there like an amount per student or because it sounds like each situation is different so I'm just here in again it's how
045do you determine how much it should be and if you understand um just because of the situation is the money refundable or so um we applied for a hundred thousand that was the amount we were able to apply for over the course of two years so fifty thousand per year clearly the amount we spend will be based upon the number of students who qualify for these transportation services as well as the length of time that they may need this service however should we find that transportation is not um any longer what we need we will have the opportunity to go back and amend the budget with the state but based upon the cost of Transportation um you know this is out of District transportation you're leaving West Hartford going to another municipality I feel confident
046that over the two-year period we will expend the funds so there are identified people yes or kids yes that are receiving Services now so is it a 50 000 you're spending per year is it a hundred thousand because you're matching hundred thousand because of the match but it's in the other 50 000 is an unreal not non-transportation expense I know so we pay 50 000 of the transportation per year the grant will pay 50 000 of the transportation per year and this will occur for two years and your department will manage it as well as the transportation department we will manage the financial aspect of it our transportation I just wondering who's gonna to the reporting all right yeah scale um I just also want to clarify just a couple of things so we're going
047to have a hundred thousand dollars fifty thousand from the grant fifty thousand from us and you said that there's somewhere between two and eight students so you foresee that it would cost to transport two to eight students a hundred thousand dollars a year yes we get it's yes I mean the short answer is because we have situations where um if what a single student being transported depending upon the distance and the the ability to perhaps combine with with other students or such maybe in excess of seventy thousand dollars a year that's simply the per student that's personally that is the transportation costs unfortunately uh for that it could be up to four hundred dollars a day for for private transportation such as that and is there any um criteria in terms of you know the
048student can live let's say be anywhere and we still would be transporting them so you know and I'm thinking long distance like um certainly I don't think there's any geographical limit but I think just as a matter of um of ease of Transportation if someone for example had had been displaced and was now living in Massachusetts just the length of the trip would not be beneficial to them so these are all people who are right in surrounding communities okay and then my just one other thing um so if you weren't to spend the money for some reason let's say we don't spend the money on edge on Transportation are we did you say that we can then use the money towards something else or we need to refund the grant it would be one of
049two things we could either use the funds for other needs related to unhoused students or we could just return the money to the state okay other questions or comments think I appreciate you sharing on this and I think too with with McKenney vento many um are not aware of it and and the legal uh responsibility for that and certainly recognize the need to be fiscally responsible with it but I think more importantly knowing the reason I'm preaching to the choir so bear with me the reason for it and I will say that just professionally having um seen its usage um in different roles that I have had where there have been students who were displaced and the one consistency in their life at that time was their school setting so knowing that the McKenney vento
050obligated those to support that effort certainly was well needed in Spoke volume so thank you for sharing with us but I believe we have to vote and so with that yes you may I was just curious so if we get more students more costs we're doing that I mean I'm not arguing I'm just trying to understand yes we we're we're liable and required from uh the federal state and the state statute to be covering that so we have this whether we get the grant it is a open-ended exactly we we currently bear those costs through our our transportation line item which was the 7.8 million dollars that was appropriated for that thank you of course any other questions right again so we have received a recommendation at the board of education of West Hartford Public
051Schools makes the following assurances in relation to its application for mckinney-vento homeless assistant Grant so from what has been shared all of those do I need to go to each one individually or collectively okay so collectively with what has been shared all of those in favor say aye pose any extensions the eyes have it thank you so very much now moving to staff Communications and reports where we now will receive our superintendent's report Dr Murrow I really have no other additional uh report except to re-uh remember have parents remember please that now that the weather seems to have turned a bit and we're seeing more kids out and such we're also seeing more kids walking and biking to school so please make sure that people are aware of crossing guards and Crossing walks and doing
052so safely teammates questions or comments regarding our superintendent's report um so Andy I just want to thank you you've led the district through some tough times um you were there with professionalism and confidence and um it was no easy task being short-handed as well so I wanted to thank you for all you've given to the district Jason Dr Mora I also want to thank you for everything you've done for the district in particular I've been so impressed with the ways that you've supported student mental health and um and and it's been so lovely to see the the work that you've done with the next chapter uh really you know Blossom and I hope it continues to be a a fixture in our community thanks to your leadership thank you all right um I'm going to
053thank you from before you decided to be the interim superintendent as a parent at Bristow Middle School um I have appreciated all that you've done for our district from way back when um but I do want to recognize um your time during taking on that interim superintendent role I think we all realize when Tom Moore decided to leave that those were going to be pretty big shoes to fill and I think there was a lot of anxiety amongst the Board of Ed amongst the admin team amongst the community of like what our district would look like and I just you know I just want to recognize that you stepping up taking on the role and and through your leadership really quickly allowing all of us to feel safe and secure and know that we were
054still moving in the same direction despite having you know having lost time I just really want you to know how much we appreciate you kind of taking that on it wasn't during an easy time for our district it wasn't an easy time for our world there were a lot of complications and challenges within the district and you really just kind of sat there and um you know you you were really our our Rock during a really challenging time and I just want to acknowledge that and thank you very much for doing that for us Renee I I also want to offer a word of thanks thank you um again our time working together has been brief but you've always been extremely helpful in answering questions and making sure that you know we're aware of all
055the situations going on in the schools and like Jason said your your vision with the next chapter is really inspiring for our community and I hope that um you know we continue to work together and I look forward to working together Camp yeah I also Andy want to offer my thanks to you for stepping in um and helping us keep the situation going seamlessly um you know you you helped us at a time where we sort of needed somebody to step in and you did an awesome job and it's it's been a pleasure working with you this year I appreciate everything you've done for our school system so I'll join in um I I know there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes but it did appear to be a smooth transition
056and you deserve the credit for that and thank you for all your hard work again I Echo what has been shared I shared words before we'll continue to share words just thank you so very much and not saying goodbye just saying see you later but uh thank you for for being our rock thank you all right and continuing on to staff reports and board discussions non-renewal of non-tenured personnel and Personnel report who will now receive the background by from Mr dealer Duarte thank you Julia welcome all right good evening everyone um so every year at this time we present a list of non-tenured teachers whose contracts will expire on June 30th according to the state statute the board of education has to vote to non-renew these contracts once this occurs we are then required to
057provide written notification of the vote to the impacted non-tenured teachers so before you you have a list of 32 teachers who are being non-renewed the majority of these teachers are on interim contracts and essentially filling in for folks who may be out on a different leave whether it's maternity or whatever type of leave that is and so it's it's really not a surprise to these individuals they know that on June 30th that their contract will expire because ultimately the person who they are filling in for will be able to return back next year so the good news is that we have as always had just an array of amazing candidates who've done really really great work when I report back to you in October next year with me with the opening schools report I'm hoping
058that you'll see many of these same names on that report because we do a lot of hiring from this list so again this is a more of a formality once again I will communicate with all the individuals and reach out to them and the principals do a great job too of communicating so that people know what it is and like I said we'll move forward with that but ultimately I do need to have the board vote on this and I am happy to answer any questions before you vote May there be Ethan I just have one question looking at the letter the resignation list and then notice that a number of and I assume because of age or whatever are resigned in the middle of the year so we're I think you're referring to the
059Personnel report I met at the schedule oh yeah sorry no problem with your other question no you're ahead of me I got up at three fair enough so with that seek oh yes Claire I just want are any of these teachers hired through the Esser funds no not on this list so um no thanks the other one all right so with that seeking a motion to accept the list of non-renewal of non-tenured personnel from the Personnel report is their motion I make a motion is there a second second any discussion all of those in favor say aye aye opposed right the eyes have it thank you now on to the Personnel report all right looks like we're eager to get this report today so I will try not to disappoint our Personnel report can be
060found on page five of your packet as you know District policy requires that we update the board on any changes that we have for certified staff and whether that's both teachers and or administrators so the last time I presented the Personnel report to you was back on December 20th and so I'll give you a quick rundown of essentially what we have in the report here so we have a total of 12 resignations all for a variety of reasons we also hired five contracted teachers six interim teachers and four interim administrators again just for clarification purposes interim positions are essentially someone who's here they know it's typically for the duration of the remainder of the year or a year or whatever that term would be whereas a contracted teacher someone who we've given a permanent contract
061to and we anticipate having them back year after year so again I'd be happy to answer any questions that the board may have do it again and I think I just figured it out so these are resignations that come out of that are unexpected or are they expected it's a variety of reasons so a resignation again can be you know we list here for personal reasons but you know a personal reason may be families moving you know and so they have to relocate or you know whatever that may be so we obviously don't get into the specifics of the reason here but sometimes we know because they've told us or they've been we've tried to work with them and support them through some of the challenges but then ultimately it's just not something that's feasible
062for them and their family and what we ultimately want to do is always respect our individuals and do the best we can to support them but again everyone's story is different and and we have to do what's best for them okay no my question was going to be it must be disruptive if somebody leaves in the middle of the school year but if it's unexpected then because I've seen where companies in this on the private side but they incentivize people that stayed for a certain period so or with warning so there's no it's not as disruptive but I don't know if it's applicable here well so within our contract we certainly have the ability to hold somebody um for up to 60 days if we needed to do that and we can do that um
063again it really our our folks when they're leaving I've had a lot of conversations with them the principals and and we have a good solid understanding of the why um and really want to be respectful of that why and folks to be honest with you are very respectful and the superintendents you know Andy's done a great job of working with the other superintendents to if we need to work something out or vice versa and so there's a good camaraderie around making sure that districts aren't leaving each other hanging and those pieces but you know when someone does need to leave and there's an emergency we respect that and what we're we're lucky and we do a really good job in my principals and Department supervisors do a really good job of having somebody always ready
064to go um it's a it's a pretty small number Ethan if you can consider the number of teachers in the overall number of staff that we have and it's mainly as as Julio articulated it's mainly when there are emergencies there's a family situation there's a move based on perhaps a spouse's relocation and such and so that's really the only reason people are yeah I wouldn't want to hold anybody I I just was wondering all right thank you good um yes Julie you said that um some of these people in October you would say they're they're with us and the non-renewal but I see like seven are already hired so do you send the non-renewal to the people who we've hired no so if we've already gone through that process then you know we've done that
065already some of these were hired um you know that were on interim contracts and now we've moved them over so they would not be on that list so they don't get the letter no good other questions comment yes Jason yeah thank you um I in sort of reviewing the the roster here the resignation list I was identifying um a couple positions in um in special education and wanted just to hear you know I I you had just stated that the department leaders are you know are managing those those fluctuations well and and just wanted to hear a bit more you know on um how that's the transition to new personnel and the hiring for those positions how that's going yeah so again I I think one of the things that um we've really and I've
066been really proud of the work we've done this year is we've really become a lot more collaborative as a team in general and by that I mean that really our department supervisors our principals are all working together to really do what's in the best interest of West Hartford and so what I mean for that and Special Ed's a great example we've had we had a couple openings and so rather than run all these individual searches and individual things where you know ultimately we end up choosing Canada a and Canada B was so close but we went with a and then the other pool the candidate B was never even in it and I'm like wait there it's West Hartford it's our kids we should be getting the best folks and so really what they've started
067to do is team up together and we actually had and hired some outstanding candidates last uh last week and I'll be meeting with them this week um you know one of the things too we've done is we've become a lot more proactive and also leveraging some of our connections so um I went to the Yukon career fair I brought uh Jamal Hines with me I also brought Shannon majinski with me and you know the the line of uh students that were coming and wanted to talk to us Harper was funny and I won't name the district we were next to um but their person came over to me and said hey can you send some people our way and you know they did a great job of just basically making people feel welcomed and actually
068I received numerous emails from UConn students just saying hey met with a lot of districts but honestly felt so welcomed by you and your team and looking forward to to getting in hopefully an interview and so we've already hired several folks from that process you know know the other piece that we did which was really great and Jocelyn Tamara Noble and Rosina Haskins really helped the partnership we have with Uconn and they essentially allowed us to do a West Hartford Public Schools career fair and so we had honestly we had access to 30 something candidates by ourselves and the principals and all of our department supervisors were generous enough to give up of their own time and provide one-on-one interviews for every candidate that wanted one and so we've already hired folks from them too
069and we know which are some of the more challenging positions we anticipate and so we're hiring now um you know Andy again did a great job of introducing the district and all of that so those are things I think that are a little unique but we recognize we need to be proactive and so I think I would attribute our proactiveness and our real collaboration amongst our leaders to be one of the reasons why right now knock on wood I'm feeling really good about where we're sitting and still have as we said the non-renewal some really outstanding candidates that I'm really hopeful that we can find places for them too Bravo thank you for that other questions or comments right now we vote on the Personnel report that's been received so all of those in favor
070of receiving of all those in favor of the personal report that has been shared with us say aye you know I'm going to retract that I have to do a motion first I'm going to take the words back let me start again is there a motion to receive the Personnel report that has been shared with us so moved thank you is there a second second thank you discussion all of those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions the eyes have it all right thank you just to remind it before Julia leaves that he he needs all of this back from you yes illegal actually for you guys to keep those yes absolutely thank you thank you now to routine matters approve approve the minutes is there a motion that the Board of
071Education approved the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting of April the 4th 2023. so moved is there a thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Renee discussion yeah yes um there is one mistake on that on the some minutes on one of the votes that we took so I don't know if that can be amended oh right do you mean the final vote no the um the motion on the um edition of 217 500 oh it's six to one yeah it was six to one not seven two zero got it thank you Gail and so again let the minutes reflect a correction with respect to that speaking of that board of education approve the continuation uh the motion passed six to one got it okay thank you Gail any other
072comments or observations regarding the minutes okay so I will revise the motion and seeking a motion to approve the minutes the updated minutes as spoken of today from the regular Board of Education meeting on April the 4th 2023 is there a motion so moved is there a second second thank you discussion all of those in favor say aye opposed such as the eyes have it all right thank you moving on to information and reports board members do we have any Communications and reports from other boards or organizations team none any other information and discussions seeing none future business announcement of future meeting dates our next meeting regular Board of Education meeting will be on Tuesday May the 2nd 2023 at seven o'clock here in room 314 followed by Tuesday May the 16th 2023 our regular
073Board of Education meeting at seven o'clock again here in room 314 and then the last meeting of the year Tuesday June the 6th 2023 our regular Board of Education meeting at seven o'clock here in room 314. my oh my any requests for future agenda items seeing none do we have any visitors here that would like to make a comment while she's here I actually I wanted to have us all recognize Dr Kerry Jones who successfully defended her dissertation this afternoon foreign s to you all right thank you Dr Murrell for sharing that absolutely any other comments seeing none we had our executive session we do not have an additional executive session therefore seeking a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Jason is there a second two all right we have two seconds from Ethan
074and Ari a third from Ari the meeting is adjourned at 8 27.