Enfield, CT - Board of Education - February 14, 2024

I'm going to call the 7:00 regular a special Board of Education meeting to order if we could all stand for moment of silence from the pledge with Mr. Culver. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I ask for a moment of silence just for reflection as we go into this meeting. Then we may lead with good governments governance, right? Join me in the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible liberty and j

ustice for all. All right, fire evacuation. If you're in the audience, you can either go out the exit doors in the back of the chambers, or you can go out these exit doors over here and go down the stairs to your left and out to the parking lot. Kathy, can I have the roll call, please? Mr. Kober here. Missus LeBlanc here. Missus Pickett here. Mr. Ryder here. Missus Accree here. Doctor Kelman here. Missus Cushman here. Mr. Gennitis. Chairwoman Riley here. OK, so board. We don't have any board gue

sts this evening. We do not. All right, So stuck with me. All right, so let's go. Mr. Jezek with the Superintendent's report, please. Thank you, Chairwoman O'Reilly. We could start. Who do we want to start with tonight? Alicia or Izzy? It's Alicia, but she allows me to call her Alicia. Go ahead, Izzy. Good evening. I just wanted to point out a few things for students that are now able to sign up for courses. They've gotten an e-mail so from their guidance counselor they're able to sign up for ne

xt year's courses. So do that now before all the spots. Right now, spring season sports are starting March, so pre season has already started for things like track and lacrosse. We're having our Blues and beyond performance tomorrow are like Assembly. It's I think it's for juniors and seniors. Our blood drive is on the 29th so sign up. If you do the blood drive three times and donate, you get a cord for your graduation for EHS Black History Month Student Symposium is on the 27th to the 29th. Sup

er excited for that. Also our EHS students will be enjoying A5 Day weekend starting this Friday. And I would also like to have a special thanks to the custodial staff staff for helping the recycling initiatives that has now started an EHS. We now have a new recycling bin that is able that people are able to use and it's also to spread awareness about recycling in Connecticut. Thank you. Hi everyone. Also in school, EHS is now offering a free grant funded program for a math skill recovery program

for students. The program's intended to help students with unfinished learning from their first semester of Algebra One Geometry or Algebra 2, and it will begin on February 22nd. It ends on June 6th. There's 15 sessions. They're in person at EHS. They are around from like 2:30 to 4:30 I believe. Transportation is provided through the buses. The coursework is completed through ingenuity and a certified teacher, and students who successfully complete the program will improve their failing grade t

wo at 60%. The in person attendance to the program is mandatory. 2. Absences could result in dismissal from the program. There's more rules about that. I think you have to look into that. There's an e-mail, I don't know if it went out to Students and parents Student council starting to plan the student versus faculty basketball game that'll take place in March. There's no exact date yet to begin. The 2nd semester Duncan sponsored a pep rally at EHS and each student received two free Donuts and a

$5 gift card. And we also received a special surprise appearance from the UConn women's basketball player Paige Becker. So that was really exciting for all of us. The event was able to showcase the unified Sports basketball team, Buzz Robotics and we wanted to thank our physical education teachers in the athletic department for organizing this really fun event and it definitely showcased a lot of our school spirit. Unified Sports students were also able to showcase their problem solving leaders

hip skills at the Connecticut Association of Schools Youth Leadership Summit, held that as Nantuck Community College recently. Thank you everybody. Hey Mr. Dresser, can I just have a clarifying date from Izzy for the blood drive is the 29th of this month or next month? It should be this month. Cool. Thank you. You can go ahead now. Sorry. Thanks Alicia for mentioning and the last time we met. Sometimes you have to ask for forgiveness and not permission. So I knew about the special guest, but we

were all sworn to secrecy prior to the special guest arriving in FL High. Some of the guesses prior to the kids knew something was going on and hearing some of what they anticipated the special guest to be like is LeBron coming was kind of amusing. So I want to thank everybody as Alicia did with with our P staff and our Athletic Director Mitch O'Connell for for putting that together and the kids obviously had a day that they'll they'll never forget moving on. As a reminder, Izzy mentioned this t

hat Enfield Public School students will not attend school on this Friday, February 16th or on Tuesday, February 20th, 20th in order for our staff to attend full day professional learning events and all Enfield Public schools and offices will be closed on Monday, February 19th for observation of Presidents Day. Two quick things before I get into what will hopefully not be as lengthy as a budget process as it has been in the past. At the last Board meeting, we discussed the adoption and the Board

waive the Board policy with regards to next year's calendar. I have, as requested by Chairwoman Riley, 4 drafts for consideration. It's not on your agenda this evening because you've waived the policy so you don't have to do it in in this month if you don't choose to. When I'm done, I'll pass these out. So you have 4 drafts in front of you for consideration of all the iterations that we spoke about during the last meeting. In addition to that, Mister Long and I today actually met with both of ou

r registrar voters, Mr. Fiore and Mr. Kinsler. And as we might be aware, April 2nd this year in Connecticut is primary day and unfortunately that's also a school day. So typically on Election Day we're not open. We have had school on primary days before, but they had only been for one party. This year there's actually a primary for two parties. Don't ask me any about anything about it. That's about as far as I know. We do have some things to consider with regards to that particular date, specifi

cally at some of our elementary schools which are also voting locations. We have some concerns when it comes to the traffic flow at one of our schools in particular, and I think I am, I don't have the ability to make an adjustment to the calendar, whereas the board would and wanted to bring it to your attention tonight. Both registrars asked if they can come to a future board meeting as board guests and we share with them that we would ask the chairs permission to have them come in February. But

I thought at this point for the betterment of the board as well as also as the community, we may have to consider not having a student day on April 2nd because we may not be in a position to safely run school while the public is voting at some of our our elementary schools which are also voting locations. That would ultimately be a decision of the board. As you know, our students attend 181 days of school. Legally you're only required 180. The board has waived that 181st day before, but that wo

uld be at the pleasure of the board. We can certainly provide more details on that as we get closer. But I had a minimum wanted to get it on the board's radar that that would be something that we are going to have to consider and we weren't aware until recently of of the potential of volume and safety issues we may have with conducting a primary day as well as a a regular school day. So that's on your radar now. I wanted to give families as much notice as possible in the event the board did deci

de to go down that road. I certainly will have our special guests at the end of the month explain more in detail, but we at least wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of that. And now moving on. OK, God bless you. I'm going to see. I think it's on. OK. Thanks, Alex. You gave me a new toy, starting with the presentation, and I didn't get a chance to correct this on the agenda. It says the superintendent's budget presentation. Typically you may see a superintendent's proposed budget or reco

mmended budget. You're not going to get that this year. This is going to look a little bit different than it has in years past and hopefully when I'm done quickly you'll understand why. But what you're about to hear is what we're categorizing this as, the 2024-2025 district needs or a strategic support plan. As of I won't take it personal. I said your name wrong multiple times, not on purpose. Have a good night. I have to stress that this is our district needs as of today. As some of the veteran

board members are aware, a lot happens between February and May when our board is finally when our budgets finally adopted. This year is no different. The difference this year is that there's a lot of other things that are happening when it comes to fiscal resources that we no longer have that we have to make a decision as a board of nine as well as a council of 11 on what the needs of the community are and how we're going to tackle this going forward. That said, oh, did I not turn it on, Alex?

Oh, it's buzzing. It was me. Before we get into what our needs are, I think it's important for not just the board, but the community to know who we are and who our kids are. And I want to thank Doctor Wiley for putting this together for me because I have no technology skills when it comes to slides and picture. So she worked aimlessly to try to get this. And as you can see, these are all results of programs that the board currently supports and ultimately she gets so excited. I wanted to make s

ure we played that. OK. What are our district needs, Our support plan is impacted by the increasing needs of our kids, grant funding reductions that are being eliminated that a lot of you are familiar with that we've talked about at Nauseam over the last four years and as well as any potential legislative impacts. That's a kind way of saying unfunded mandates, There are a lot of them and there is more coming. As I walked in this evening, I was notified that I intend on testifying to the state Ap

propriations Committee tomorrow and I was notified that I'm 285th in line. So I can't tell you when I'm going to be there or how long I'll be sitting. But I do intend on speaking to the Appropriations Committee on behalf of CAPS and behalf of superintendents in the in the state to try to lobby some of the the proposed changes that the governor made to this year's biannual budget that will have a a drastic impact on how we're able to operate our schools locally. But before we get into that, you'r

e all familiar with this. Some of our attorney board members are sick of hearing me say this. But when you ask or look at what who we are and who our kids are, you have to look at what the needs of our students are. And as I've been saying for the last several years since we've started this dialogue about our designation as an alliance district, the State of Connecticut actually does this for you. And they differentiate your students in essentially 2 different categories, all students and studen

ts with high needs. And to put that in perspective, if in order to be classified not by me, not by Chairwoman Riley, but by the State of Connecticut, for a student to be classified as being one of high needs, there's three requirements for that. There are either your free and reduced lunch status, your special education status or your English language learning status. Those are students whose native language are not English. Just to put in perspective, this data only goes back to 22,000 and six,

2007. You've seen this before. And also to put in perspective, this current year's information is lagging a year behind when it comes to the state and when they produce this information. So some of this information is sort of inside baseball. I'm going to share with you in a bit, but what's publicly available at this point just goes back to the 2022-2023 school year. But just to put in perspective, in 2000 and six, 2732% of Enfield students qualified as having high needs through those 3 categor

ies, you flash forward to, you know, 15 years later to last year, over almost 55% of our students now qualify as being of high needs. And if you go building by building, which we've done that exercise in this room before, you can see that we have some schools that our kids percentage of high needs are over 60%. This is aggregate for the entire district. Breaking that down, come on, don't feel me now. Did they give me a dead battery? There we go, the first category free and reduced lunch. Now the

re should be an* on this page 2000 and six, 2723% of our students qualified for free and reduced lunch. 15 years later. You could see that numbers that numbers gone over double. Now the* is that number is not official at this point. That's based on internal information that we have given the the where we stand within the current school year. So as far as the state is concerned, we're still on record as being under 50%, but we have the the inside knowledge of our students in the applications that

we see and applications that we're still trying to trace down that we're going to exceed the 50% number this year. And I've shared that with you before. So that's not official with the state. But at this point, I think it's important for the board to realize the needs that our kids have, particularly economically, five O 4 and special education. This is important to note that any student, there's two ways that a student could be classified in this percentage. That a student can either be receiv

ing services under a five O 4 or an IEP. Both of those are legally binding documents. So when a student is qualifying for services under a five O 4 or an IEP, the Board of Education has a legal obligation to ensure that those students receive the services that they're that they're entitled to under the law. So as we get into budget season, and I hate doing this because special education is a is a large expense in our budget, people start making assumptions that well we got to curb special Ed cos

t. You can't if you want to reduce special Ed cost, you have to reduce it from somewhere else because you are legally bound to in order to meet the needs of our most vulnerable kids. And we can't forget that. But going back to the same time frame, we were at 12% special education in 22,000 and six 2007, again, an* As far as the state's concerned, our number is still about 1920% in last school year. The information that we have on record internally, that's not official with the state. And Julie,

Carroll's going to be mad at me for saying this out loud. So don't anybody write this down and don't put it on Facebook. But right now the information we have internally is that we've crossed the threshold between students receiving services under A5O4 and IEP at 25%. That's one in every four students are receiving services under special education. What does that mean? Sometimes people see percentages and they don't understand. You know, put that in reality and what the context that is roughly 1

500 students of our 5000 that receives services under special education. And again it's five O 4 and or Ieps. Put in perspective, again, you can take Enfield High School, empty all the students who are there now and put nothing but special education students in that building and you'd fill it to give you more perspective. And again, this is where we talk about legislative impacts and we talk about things that we don't control. Our budget was adopted last May. For this current fiscal year, since

July 1st, we have received 78 new students to the Enfield Public Schools who qualify for special education services. 78, that's 78 students that were not on our rolls last year that showed up here as they're legally entitled to that. We have an obligation to provide services for that. You didn't know this last May when we were asking for an appropriation from the town council, but those students are here. They have needs and we have a legal obligation to meet those needs. That population is incr

easing. The number of five O fours that we're seeing now as compared to this time frame is astronomical. Those five O fours are going to transition into Ieps. That's just reality. But I think people need to understand that's the needs of the community that we're facing the English Language learners. Again, not not a huge number. If you look back to that time frame, we were at about 1.4% in 2006 and 2007 and that can provide the board with more aggregate data as far as 10 years back, 15 years bac

k, however far back you want to go. And we the way we stood last year we were at 3.5% doesn't seem like a huge number but it's doubled. And you have to remember just like our students with who require services under special education, our English Language learners, these are students who English is not their primary language. Again to put it in perspective if a student moves here let's say from another country and they English is not their native language, you got one year. So when we start talk

ing about accountability index and test scores and standardized testing, those students who come here with no English skills whatsoever have one year. And our teachers have to get our kids proficient in English in one year because the second year that they're here, they are going to be judged and scored just as a kid who grew up in Anfield their entire lives. So I always kid with Andy, like Misty Meadow. If you grew up in Misty Meadow, you're going to have to perform the same way as a kid who gr

ew up in another country and just got here. That's what the law requires. So our population has doubled and I'm can tell you with almost certainty that number is just going to keep increasing year over year over year. This is last year's numbers. We don't have this current year's numbers officially yet, but we know that where the trend is going. So that's who we are in a nutshell. As briefly as I can share for the last four years, I've been warning you guys that we're going to hit a fiscal Cliff

at some point because if you all recall back in March of 2020 when the federal government started pumping COVID relief money in, there were timelines on that. Chairwoman Riley, I believe you were on the council when I uttered the phrase. Do you think you're going to want to come back, me, to come back to you in four years and tell you I got to find all this money again? It's going to go away. It did. There were different ways, different funding sources. There was the Coronavirus relief funds. Y

ou might have heard the term Esser. There was Esser 1, Esser 2, and then the big one, which was ARP and a continuation of Esser. People may ask, you got all this grant money, What did you do with it? Well, this is what we did with it. And the most important thing is the box with a start and the end date. As of March 1st, 2020, we did receive $995,000 in Coronavirus relief funds, but more importantly, that money had to be expended by October 31st, 2021. So that wasn't a permanent influx. There wa

s a time frame on how we had to spend it. These next few slides on where the grants go. I need the board to think of it as a continuum because you're going to see some things duplicated on here. But that was just shifting. It's almost like a train, right? The first train car you get off, you move on to your next stop. Then your next stop, your next stop. Unfortunately, we're now the caboose because these grants are gone, The train has left the station, and we have decisions to make as to what we

can afford to keep. What did we do with that first round of funding? If you recall, we tried to get back to school, so we had to pay for staff and resources to get our teachers back and get our teachers back in order to teach in a COVID environment. Everybody remembers all the PPE discussions that we have. And I'm not trying to give anybody trauma about that time period in our lives, but where do you think that came from? Masks, hand sanitizers, those plastic dividers that people saw when you w

alk into an elementary school, you saw stickers on the floor about where kids can walk. That stuff's not free. We didn't have to ask the board of the council for money to do it because the money was given to us. But that's what it went to. Everybody can recall that we had tents outside of our all of our buildings for a long period of time. How do you think we paid for it? We use these fund this funding stream to pay for it. We didn't ask the town for additional resources in order to do it becaus

e we had access to this funding and the increase in special Ed population is not new. The reason we didn't have to ask for drastic increases throughout the budget over the last number of years is we had these resources which qualified for us to cover some of those resources, some of those expenses as they increased over time. But that's initially what we spent the money on. The next round of fund is what's called Esser. Now that number is a little deceiving, the 729,000 that the Enfield public s

chools didn't receive all that we were the grant holder for the parochial schools in town as well. So we only received about $650,000 of that. But you'll notice what we did with it on the left. The dates March 13th, 2020, that's when Esser was authorized, had to be spent by September 30th, 2022. So we were able to carry some of these things for some of you were on the board, some of you were parents, some of you were on the town council when this all hit. If anyone recalls a time before COVID, h

ow many iPads did we have in this district? We had. We had 1500. How many do we have now? About 5500. How do you think we paid for it? Did the Board of Education? I'll pick on you, Miss LeBlanc, as you were on both times. Did we go to the council and say we need a big chunk of money to pay for iPads? We use the money that we had because we had no choice. We were going to a remote world and we had no way to, no way to address it. So we use the, the funding that was available to us. But you'll see

there's some things that were repeated in here. PPE that was a continuation. Tense was a continuation. You have to remember going from 1500 iPads to 5500 iPads, we need somebody to fix them and support them. So we put a lot of that money into technology support. That was the first round of Esser. The second round, Esser was more, but as we got to the second round of Esther in January 5th, 2021, a lot of those expenses that we had incurred through the original 2 grants were carrying over. So it

wasn't like we got an influx of an extra 33.2 million. It was we can keep what we currently have and we can expand where we need to expand. There's going to be a theme to the next round of funding. You'll notice when it came to personnel, the only personnel that we purchased with any sort of COVID relief money was in special education by way of behavioral technicians, social work, social workers, the continuation of paying for the iPads, and the tech support. There were some adaptive learning th

ings we needed for special education students, but that's what we use the funding on. And the last one is the granddaddy of them all. Everyone couldn't wait to get their hands on the ARPA money, the American Rescue Plan 7,000,000 bucks. When you do this in a continuum, you have to use some of that money to support the things that we were already paying for to survive throughout this period of time. So you'll see behavioral technicians, social workers. We had increased security measures throughou

t our school, kids coming back to school after COVID. Remember, this is a theme. We didn't know what we were getting back when kids came back to school. This is how we paid for it. We had buildings, construction projects and repairs that we partnered with the town in order to complete because we had the funding resources in the town at the time didn't. But we all work together to use the resources that we had. We had to pay for transportation costs and again IT support and supplies all of that.

And obviously we have more detailed information and just and I know this might come up any dollar that we spent in any of this grant funding. I didn't have the authority per law to just say, well this is what we're going to do it on. All of it is governed by the state of Connecticut. So even though it came from the federal government, it comes down as a grantee through the state. We have to apply to the state, tell them what we're going to spend it on, have it approved and then our business offi

ce can say yes, we can pay for XY and Z through it. So it wasn't just us saying Andy and I going, well, let's buy this, let's buy that. There is a process, There is an audit process. We've passed. We did everything responsibly. But the reality is the funding mechanism is gone. There are other significant impacts that we have to take into consideration. Every budget year we have this conversation about what ECS is an excess cost. They're two different things, but they have the same acronyms. Exce

ss cost, For those of you may not be aware, when we talk about special education costs, the every district has what we call a per pupil expenditure, and ordinarily I start with that, but we've got so many bigger things here. I kind of try to trim this down a bit for your benefit. Our per pupil expenditure is about $13,000 per student. So what that means when everyone realizes that sometimes special education costs are very high, so the state has grafted what's called the excess cost grant. And w

hat that meant in its inception was once a district hit a certain threshold for the cost of an individual student that is classified under special education, the state would pay the rest. So the calculation as it stands right now is 4 1/2 times your approved pupil expenditure and then the way the law is written, the state is supposed to pick up the difference. Now this is my 20th budget in Enfield. I don't want a gift, but in the 20 budgets I've done here, the state has never fully funded excess

costs, it's always been a percentage. So just for the sake of round numbers, because with 13,000 it gets a little tricky, let's assume that our it's 4 1/2 times your per pupil expenditure. So just for simplicity sake, let's say that our 4 1/2 times per pupil expenditure is $50,000, right. The way the law is designed that anything above $50,000 we would be on the hook for the 1st $50,000. Anything above that, the state would pay through the excess cost grant. It's never fully funded that at 100%

because it's one pool of money divided by however many students clap qualify for this statewide. Typically it's a percentage. Last fiscal year the percentage was 75%. So in some simple terms, if let's say our one of our students total cost for special education was $60,000, the Enfield public schools would be responsible for 52,500. The state at 75% would reimburse us $7500. That's where the delta would be. Last fiscal year it was 75%. We're going to talk about legislative impacts in a moment.

Everyone can recall and some of our returning board members don't twitch. There was a lot of press last year when the legislature passed the state budget that there was historic spending increases for K12 education throughout the state of Connecticut. That was in the recalculation of the ECS grant and other things. We didn't get anything. I'm just going to, I'm not, I'm not looking back. I have the Alliance grant on there. That's still a question mark. Part of that legislation, although we weren

't getting an increase to our state aid to fund the Enfield public schools, some of the consolation prizes where there's going to the state was going to increase the excess cost grant and they were going to designate that based on community's ability to pay. And there's actually a calculation out there that qualifies people as wealthy communities or poor communities. Our percentage last year was 75%. So when we presented a budget last year, we knew based on communication from the state that that

was going to at least go up. The percentage that we were given was 91%. So at least we had that as sort of a consolation price. The percentage usually comes out around this time. Some point in February, the state will tell us what the excess cost calculation will be for the for the current year, not for next year. This current fiscal year's excess cost calculation for Enfield is 71%. It's actually less than we had got in the previous year. And what does that mean? That means in the current fisc

al year that's somewhere between 5:00 and $600,000 that we thought we would be getting as reimbursement. That is simply not coming. So in addition to the increased cost of special education, our reimbursement for excess cost is going to go down. We have to assume that that's going to happen again next year and the year after. But there are implications for some of these decisions that get translated down to the local level. The 2nd consolation prize in the historic funding to public education la

st year was a cap on magnet school tuition, which means the tuition that we pay at the Enfield board pays for Enfield residents to attend magnet schools. Typically the magnet school send us a bill, we pay it and we move on. The legislature decided that for next fiscal year, but it was part of last year's budget appropriation that there was going to be a cap at 48%, which meant if we our bill is usually a million, we were only be responsible for paying you know 480,000 and and I may have the perc

entages off. Some of you may have heard the governor proposed his budget last week. There's going to be a drastic increase in early childhood funding through that proposal. One of the things that's going to come out allegedly is the cap on magnet school tuition. So I mentioned earlier that I'm going to be 200 and 85th in line tomorrow, But I intend on bringing that up to the Appropriations Committee because if you were to ask me as your Superintendent on February 14th, 2024, Chris, how much you

budget for Madden school tuition next year, I don't know. I could tell you what I think it is, but I have to caution you. That's what the governor proposed. That doesn't mean that's what's going to ultimately come through the legislature. And I say that and I skipped the thing in the middle because if we budgeted based on what the governor proposed over the last several years, we would have received an alliance grant. So it's kind of both ways this time. So last time the governor was giving us m

ore money, the legislature took it away. This year, the governor looks like he's taking away money and legislators trying to fight to get it back. I if if I don't know the answer, I'm just going to be totally transparent with it. But I have to give you a plan soon because by charter you have to send something over to the town manager by March 1st. There are so many unknowns at this point. Former chair used to say this all the time and he and he was 100% right. This whole process is backwards. We

have to submit a budget to the town by March. The town has to submit a budget to the community, but we do it in May and the state's not done yet. Those are the rules. I can't change those. I don't. I wish I had the authority to, I don't. But that takes us to where we are now. We started this process in October after October 1 enrollment. And I'm going to confess to, well, Kathy probably figured it out, but there's a piece of paper on Andy's door that says do not disturb. And people have been tr

ying to find us for the last couple of months and wondering what the heck are these two guys doing in the office with this is what we were doing. We were trying to figure out how much do we need to present come February to the board. So just for argument's sake, where we started out in October was our original need request was 12.67%. That's where we started. I've been doing this 20 years. I'm not dumb enough to come to you guys and say I need a 13% increase because I know that's never going to

happen. So we have to start doing our work and what our work resulted in. Not as much as I wanted to at this point, but we are able to find about a 4% reduction off of that original 12.67% number. And we did that in a multitude of ways. But I think it's important for everyone to know that an order and included in that 4% number is no reduction for services to kids, whether it be curricular or extracurricular. That was our line in the sand at this point. That doesn't preclude us from doing someth

ing collectively down the road, but as a February 14th, I was not comfortable putting my name on something that took away services from kids. That brings us down to this. You put your jaws back up 8.68, that's where we are right now. Today, we tried to get that as low as we could. This was a last minute decision on where we were comfortable with some things through attrition, some things that were falling into place. There's a lot we still don't know, but I wasn't in a position to bring that dow

n any lower at this point in time without making an impact on programs for kids, whether it be curricular or extracurricular. So the decision that I had to make was, do I bring this down lowered or something that's more palatable for the community now, knowing that we may not need to go there because there's so many unknowns that we're unaware of at this point in time. Here's a list of things we don't know. Our insurance increase right now is at 9%, but that number is always high in February bec

ause we're self insured and that's based on claims. And anyone who's been through this process knows that the insurance consultants give us a number in February that's not to exceed. But we work between now and May to bring that number down. I can't cut it anymore at this point in time, but I know it's going to come down. I've already talked that nauseam about the state budget. I have no idea what they're going to do, but I have to hold out hope that reason's going to over win the win the room a

nd some point and at some point we're not going to keep getting bad news coming out of Hartford as to what it means for us locally. I'm going to do my part. I mentioned yesterday earlier that I have to go testify in Hartford. Tomorrow, 850th in line. So I don't know when that will be, but at some point I will be in Hartford pleading with the Appropriations Committee. Don't do this. He seems like a nice guy, but don't do what he wants you to do right now because this is going to have a drastic im

pact on my community usually by the time we do the budget. I don't have this answer, and this year is no different. Certified staff members aren't required to tell us if they're going to retire until next week. So I don't know who's staying or going, but I have to give you this today because you have a decision to make. But that's something that's continuously fluid. And I put grants on there because like I said, you know, although we didn't get an alliance grant, that doesn't mean we're not sti

ll asking and we're not asking for that situation to be rectified. So it's possible. I think anything's possible. And I think we have to take a different approach than we have the last two years. So we're working on that. I'm working with our, not just our our delegation, but I'm working with our representatives this time. We are members of Cabe. I've been having conversations with Cabe since October about this. I'm obviously talking through caps. I'm on the district's. I'm Caps's Alliance commi

ttee, Meet Alliance committee. The chair of that committee is very supportive on rectifying this. So there's hope. I don't have that now. I'm not going to know and answer this until probably until May, and I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. This is the reality that we're facing. But we all have to make a commitment and understand that this is very fluid, more so than it has been in years past. This is also not a surprise to your counterparts on the town side. We've had conversations with town

council leadership because we're all in this together. I've constantly had communications with the town manager about this almost daily. The commitment really has to be from the Group of 20 and not the group of nine and 11, because I'm sure in the coming weeks you're going to hear the town's perspective on their spending plan for next year. And it's probably going to be similar to what we're going through because a lot of the funding streams that they've survived off are also expiring. That's wh

at happens when you get an influx of federal stimulus and it goes away. So this is not going to be unique to the Enfield board. It's not going to be unique to the Enfield Town. We're all going to be in this boat. This is not unique to Enfield. I don't read the paper, but I'm sure you guys all do because I talked to my colleagues, so I don't need to read it in print. I'm still not the highest Superintendent out there right now. I've got colleagues that are coming in at 101112789, Everybody's in t

he same boat and it's really a perfect storm. It's a perfect storm of the grants are going away, but our costs are going up. We're not immune to things like inflation. People think, well, you're a public school system. You shouldn't have to pay. An increase in your certain cost doesn't work that way. Just like when you go to the grocery store, a loaf of bread cost more today than it did five years ago. We still buy bread. We still buy supplies. That goes up. The combination of that going up, and

honestly, the combination of our increase, our most vulnerable students who require the most resources have gone up to over 25% special education. There are costs associated with that and there's a there's a large increase in in that 8.6% that could be attributed to our increase in special education cost. And right now you have an obligation to pay that. So if I want to go down lower than that, it's not like I can say we're not going to pay the special education bill this year. We're going to p

ay something else you have to take from somewhere else. I'm not in a position right now or comfort level to tell you where that has to come from because of all the other things I just told you about the things that we don't know what I'd ask from this point. I know Chairwoman Riley, we're going to have a special meeting next week so that the board can sit on this, gather some questions and we'll have an opportunity to explain to the public to answer the Board's questions and anything you may, I

would ask that you your questions to the to the chair so that we're answering nine different questions. Some of you may ask the same thing that we'll just consolidate it for you. We've done that in the past. I'll try to answer whatever I can with the understanding of it's still only February 22nd, so I may not have a lot of these answers, but some of you will be pleased that we've gone old school a bit. Mr. Long, he's going to pass out the old school book and your draft calendars for you. We'll

send it. Also, I'm sure Mr. Colbert, we're going to send electronically too. I just forgot the PDF to send it to you guys, but you have a copy of the book in front of you. I do have to warn you though, when you read the book, when you look at the FTE counts, don't think that we just went and hired 100 new people, going back to the train metaphor. The increase in FT ES are simply positions that were funded through different grant grant streams over the years that are no longer there. So the last

stop that we can put staff that was funded out of grants is in your budget. So you're going to see an increase in certain line items for FT ES. I'm not requesting new people. We didn't add new people. These are people who've been here for the last four years, but that's how we've paid for them. What I explained earlier, this is the last stop at the station as far I have to put those people somewhere. And if I don't include everything that's in that book that you have, then I can't say with all c

onfidence that we don't make any a decrease to services for kids and programs for kids, be it through curricular or extracurricular. That concludes the Superintendent's report. Well, that was just a load of awesome news, OK. We reserve our questions or comments, are we not? So what we're going to do, no, what we're going to do is we're you guys, whatever questions you have, just submit them to me by the end of the day on the 21st because our means on the 22nd. And hopefully you can give it to th

em, get them to me before then and I'll put them on together and he will have them to be able to answer them at our special meeting. OK. The 22nd special meeting. OK. All right. So moving on to audiences. OK. So everybody gets 4 minutes. During this. Any resident or taxpayer of Enfield, employee of the board, may address the board on issues concerning the school. When addressing the board, the member of the audience will state their name and address framed for making personal attacks on individu

als and your format. So first up is Zach Zanoni. Thank you Madam Chair. Zach Zanoni, 6 Howard St. Enfield, CT. I am coming today as a member of Pflag's Board of Directors to talk about a scholarship that is now open for not only LGBTQ students, but also allies and those who are partners in the mission of advocacy for that community. We wanted to note that there are two $1000 scholarships available that close on March 6th. You are able to apply at ww.pflagenfield.org, the letter P Flag enfield.or

g, and that is the Lily Gory Scholarship. I really encourage all the students who may be watching and parents who think that they have children who could be interested in this to consider applying. $1000 goes a long way, especially if you're talking about the cost of books, parking, permits, tuition. It can really go a long way. And it's available to not only LGBTQ students but also its allies. And I really think it's an opportunity, especially in challenging Financial Times to make use of every

opportunity you have to bring down your cost of education. We are really proud to offer this scholarship and I hope that people take that opportunity again. You can look up at ww.pflagandfield.org to apply and that closes on May 6th. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. OK, Next up, Lillian Camieri, carrier. Carrier Sorry. Hi Lily Carrier, 160 Abbey Road. Hello, my name is Lily Carrier. I am currently a senior at Suffield High School, enrolled in the Agri Science Program. I am also currently serv

ing as your Connecticut State FFA Parliamentarian. Today I would like to share with you some of my experiences and opportunities that I have participated in as a student of the Suffield Regional Agri Science Program and give you my sincere thanks for providing myself and other interested Enfield students in the same opportunities. Being someone that comes from a town that is not typically a farming town, I was very unsure of my decision to attend Suffield High School and be part of their Agrisci

ence program. However, now after spending these past four years in the program, I couldn't be more pleased with my high school career. Thinking back to those four years ago as a freshman when I first came to the program, I remembered how terrified I was of not knowing anybody and not having any connections. It was very difficult for me. Fast forward to today. I have created lifelong connections with not only many of the chapter FFA members, but also with some of the amazing Agriscience teachers

that are there, as well as having the opportunity to become a State officer for the State FFA Connecticut Association. For me, I was blessed to be born into a farming family and many of you may know this farm being from Collins, Powder Hill Farm or Collins Creamery. It gave me an advantage in not only my knowledge skills, but it allowed me to gain a deeper connection to the teachers as well. Through these connections, I was able to step out of my comfort zone and compete in different career deve

lopment events or competitions and advance in different leadership roles within the chapter and at the state level as well. This allowed me to develop my character greatly. Being a senior now, I have realized that I've been so inspired by my AG teachers in the program that after high school I am hoping to become an Agri science teacher much like them. As I begin to embark on my final months as a high school student, I would like to thank all of those who have helped me along the way and the town

of Enfield especially, for granting me the opportunity to attend Suffield High School for the Agri Science Program and to find my passion and future career in the path of the agricultural industry. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, Next up, Maureen Griffin. Hi Maureen Griffin, Abbey Road. Very sobering presentation about the needs of the schools and the Cliff. As he said, I would like to really encourage you guys, the town council, but everyone in the town to not be penny wise and poun

d foolish the like, Mr. Drezek said. The special Ed you have no choice on. You have to provide it. But there's spillover from those positions that support so many other children in the schools that have needs that don't fall directly into a category that is easily delineated. And you don't want to look at these kids and have some nebulous criteria for worthiness of well, your parents are doing this for you or that, so you deserve extra support. It really doesn't matter. We only need to know what

's going on with the parents so that we can help them access any resources that is available. Beyond that doesn't matter. You have a crappy parent. You don't look at the kid and say, oh sucks to be you, you're going to just flounder your whole life. You do everything you can to provide for that child and to get providing an atmosphere where they can succeed in school and that requires supports beyond what we grew up thinking was part of education. We need the social workers. Don't cut any of the

m. We need the supports. These children have needs. They so many kids come from difficult backgrounds. And even if it's something that is appalling to you, it's not the child provide for the children. Don't cut them. Thanks. Thank you. All right. So that is all for audiences. Next item up is board member comments. We're just going to whoever wants to go, just raise your hand and off we go. OK, Scott. Go for it. Mr. Ryder So one thing I just wanted to clarify that Mister Drezek didn't touch on th

e superintendent's report is something that was confusing to our family when we were first time kindergarten parents here in Enfield is that the last day of school. The date is not set in stone, so we've had two snow days so far this year, January 16th and February 13th. So that does move the last day of school, which is now presently Wednesday, June 12th at least as of right now. And as a reminder, Tuesday, June 11th and Wednesday, June 12th. Both of those days are early release days with lunch

. So I just want to let everybody know that. So the paper calendar that went home on the first or second week of school was accurate and that was our intention on that day that it went out. But that is moving. What does not move is the date of graduation, which is still that same week, that's Friday, June 14th. So I just wanted to put that out there for everybody. Although we don't update the paper calendar, we do an update enfieldpto.com. So those when you look at the activity calendars for all

the different schools, I spent a little bit of time yesterday updating everybody's school pages. So that is the appropriate last day of school. And we tried to share that on social media too, because not everybody knows that, especially some first time kindergarten or or first or second grade parents because we haven't had a lot of snow the last couple of years. So just want to remind everybody of that. Just a couple of quick updates from Eli Whitney On February 23rd, which is coming up, they'r

e doing cereal box donations. They're going to make Domino's out of the cereal boxes and then those cereal boxes will be donated to the Enfield food shelf. So if you're an Eli Whitney family, please bring in some cereal boxes for the Enfield food shelf February 28th at the high school, Enfield's Hazard Memorial School and Eli Whitney are doing a Build a creature event. Think of like Build-a-bear. So registration for that event is closed, but there is a volunteer link up on infillpto.com/whitney

and infillpto.com/HMS so don't let everybody know that. Also at Eli Whitney on February 29th they're celebrating leap year leap day with a read a thon. So they'll be as an assembly that day and they'll be taking advantage of the extra day in the calendar to do some reading, which I'm sure is something we can all get behind. March 5th is Family Engagement Night at Eli Whitney. More to come on that as we get closer, but I did want to bring attention to the infield Eli Whitney and Hazardville famil

ies. Right now on the HMS page, there's a couple of upcoming fundraisers that are open. We have a Wolfpack event, Monster Truck Jam at the XL Center calendar, raffle sheets, Sonny's Place Fundraiser coming up, and a Yard Goats game fundraiser. And all the buttons that are appropriate for both school communities will be on both pages. They're all up right now on Hazardville's page and I have to move them over to Whitney, which I will do tomorrow. So that'll be set by the end of the week. So I jus

t wanted to mention some of those upcoming dates. Also a school wide reminder that the invention convention is being held at JFK on Saturday, March 2nd. So I want to put that that date out there. The last thing I wanted to touch on this week is that the lunch link is returning. So for those families that wish to take advantage, just a quick reminder that this Friday, February 16th, as well as Monday the 19th, although school is closed, if you go to Enfield Loaves and Fishes at 96 Alden Ave. they

are doing the lunch bunch, lunch link. And so if you need it, head over there and pick up some lunches for the families. And we want to thank our partners at Enfield Loaves and Fishes for providing that to our students. And that's all I had for this week. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Mr. Rider would like to go next. OK, Miss Kushman, Go for it. I just wanted to express my appreciation to Miss Sherry Winans, Miss Mary Almeida and Miss Kerry Wiley for hosting the Internet Safety Night last week a

t our JFK Middle School. With the goal of keeping parents and caregivers informed about safe social media behavior and Internet trends, they invited Trooper First Class Officer James White, who's the statewide coordinator for DARE Drug Abuse Resistance Education, to present a social media and Internet safety program. Officer White provided a lot of valuable information to those in attendance and he suggested resources that he has found helpful for caregivers to stay on top of an ever changing me

dia world. He had recommended commonsensemedia.org and the blog of Bark dot US he said are exceptional resources so I just wanted to pass that along. So I just a great thanks to Miss Winans, Miss Almeida and and Miss Wiley for hosting that for our youth. And I also wanted to share this flyer that's a save the date flyer. The Enfield Together Coalition Mental Health and Wellness Coalition Prevents Screen Agers. It's a three-part film series and just says join us and learn about the different ways

social media and Internet usage are impacting today's youth. Gain skills to protect and empower the youth around you. So For more information there is AQR code. I don't know if anybody if you'd be able to get it on this, but there's Flyers and you can go on that ETC website and hopefully take advantage of of viewing that. So just wanted to share those things. Thank you. Right Thank you Missus Cushman, who would like to go next? Mr. Cover go for it. All right. So couple things I want to touch on

. Since our last meeting, I had a opportunity to do a couple of different events. The first one I want to highlight was at the Stowe Early Learning Center. They had their Apple Desonguous School Celebration Day. It was a very exciting event. It was able to kind of see walk around the classrooms and get a presentation of the kids incorporating technological and innovation in the classroom. So as a parent, it was good to see that the schools are doing a good job balancing screen time with still ha

nds on learning. And it was a very exciting event to go to that. The other thing I was able to do was a legislative breakfast. It was hosted by Cabe, which is the Connecticut Association of Boards of Ed, if for those not familiar with it. And there's two themes and it ties into the superintendent's report, ironically, about the budget. So one of the big themes was unfunded mandates coming from the state. So it's reassuring, I guess to an extent that Enfield is not alone in that and that other di

stricts are in the same mess for for lack of a better term. The other theme that we saw that we kept hearing from is in the last few years, the state legislator, State Department of Education has become a lot more involved in writing very specific policy and curriculum that's now being filtered down to the local school boards. So it's beginning of a shift that we're seeing where a lot of you know things like reading and math and and other requirements that were historically done at the local lev

el. We're now getting some pretty stringent directives from the state. So that was that was something that was brought up one of the other comments they have and this will be through the charity of the Superintendent shortly after you know taking office. I had reached out regarding some information, enrollment numbers and metrics. I know since we're getting into budget season, I would definitely like to have that in front of us kind of being critical. So if we get an update before the next meeti

ng I would definitely appreciate it. And the last comment I just want to make you know as a reminder kind of everybody obviously we're we're here representing the public and and you know my goal and I believe the public goal was you know efficiency and responsiveness. So as we're coming to budget and stuff like this, we're obviously making you know there may be difficult decisions that we need to make. So we'd love to hear from the public. So you know for for those that are comfortable coming to

meetings, you know we have public communications audience on the agenda at every meeting. For those of you that are not comfortable, we are elected officials. Our contact information is out there. So, you know, feel free to reach out to us at any point and and send us your concerns or, you know, whether it's complaints or compliments. And and you know, I think I speak for most of the board when we have an open door policy for for most things, if you're not comfortable speaking to the public. Th

at's all I have. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Mr. Cover. Appreciate it. All right. OK. All right, Mr. Pickett. Go for it. Perfect. I just wanted to piggyback on your comment, Phil. I would agree that feedback is really important. And I know there wasn't details in the presentation tonight as far as the impacts. Hopefully some additional information will be coming out maybe in our next meeting. But I do encourage folks to share your feedback on resources that are important. I just for for me it's

important for transparency that I share some of my immediate kind of questions and comments. I don't expect any responses. I'll make sure that I capture my questions and submit them to you personally. I think all of these discussions would be mandatory for town council to watch and be part of our decisions are important, but they ultimately make the decision. And so having an understanding of kind of the information that was just presented, our previous data presentations, I think it's importan

t that there's context to the decisions around that we're making and there are going to be hard decisions. I agree with you, Phil, but I think using data to to inform our decisions is really important. I also think that we were always aware that the COVID funds weren't going to last forever. So I think about kind of what strategically do we need to sustain? What are our needs? I'm going to be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I know that this even seems like a big ask, but this seems to just be

keeping consistent programming. I think that we can't deny that there's a fractured tier one. We have huge needs, not just because of our special Ed in five O 4 students. It truly is a Tier 1 issue. And I would actually probably argue a little bit with you, Mr. Drezek, that I think if we invested more in tier one and resources for intervention coaching for our staff that we might actually see more bang for a buck and potentially lowered costs down the road. But that means that we need additiona

l funds, which is not even what we're asking for. So I think that's a little, a little frustrating. I'd also just be interested to know kind of how are we making those cuts. I know you made a generic statement and you said no changing to programming. I'm wondering if scheduling is also part of that, no changing to programming. I also think it's important for the public to understand that there's many interconnected pieces and that complicates our budget. So not even just what Mr. Drozik shared a

round that the state budget isn't done yet, grants all of those things, but so many of our school stuff are caught up in things like the roofs and the school modernization efforts and other things that are happening on the town side. So again, I think it's really important that we have a holistic understanding of these things. The next thing I'd like to add that it's Black History Month. I know that I've seen it mentioned in my daughter's newsletter. I've seen booklets coming home. I appreciate

these symbols of representations. I do wonder about our next steps with family and community engagement. I think it's really important that actions speak louder than words. So how are we truly engaging in these types of activities? The other piece that I saw come out, and actually this is through the chair to the Superintendent. I understand that there's been a legislative change with loose guidance from the state around kindergarten entrance. I did see a letter to families encouraging them to c

onnect with their building administrator if their child isn't isn't 5 by September 1st. I'm wondering, and maybe this is not for tonight, but maybe a wondering for us is how are we kind of ensuring consistency on those determinations from school to school? So do we have actually a process or a rubric that we're using? And what's the impact of this on Stowe so we can ensure that we're ensuring support for them? I'm sorry, I got a lot. I feel like it's been a while. We were off a week. I feel like

, right, we got an extra week here. I want to thank you, Madam Chair, for supporting me and my quest for clarity and solutions around our safety of arrival and dismissal at the high school. You've been incredibly responsive and I really appreciate that. Thank you, Chris, for sharing the MOU with Enfield PDI do have some questions, but I see that we're going into executive session. So I'm going to reserve those questions and comments for that conversation. However, I will share publicly that I th

ink it would be helpful again thinking about how we use data to make decisions, Any data that we collect around the use of our SRO's in schools, if we could kind of share that decisions around safety and security are important and using data research and best practice is critical. I'd also like to add that I'm disappointed that it's taking this long to get some immediate adjustments. I'm under the impression that some of the signs on Route 5 can be quickly changed by our local PD. It just needs

to be some simple requests. I'm hoping that is moving along quickly. Thank you, Zach. PFLAG is an amazing resource here in our community. I encourage students to apply at the high school. I hope our high school school counselors include this in their resources for families. Lily left, but Agri science is important to my husband. Happy Valentine's Day. Participated in Bloomfield always spoke very highly of the opportunity. I hope she comes back to us when she becomes a teacher. Miss Cushman, you

mentioned in your comments the officer recommended Common Sense Media. I like to see that's actually aligned to what our tech department uses in our curriculum with students. So it's nice to see that those recommendations are aligned and filled to your comments around some of those unfunded mandates and the curriculum mandates coming down from the state. My guess is probably the one that's lingering most in that conversation is around the science of reading, which in curriculum discussions, I'm

sure you're all sick of me talking about our K5 reading program. But I think it's really important that when we think of some of those, some of that legislation from the state level that was truly an equity issue and looking at the impact and success of our students. So that one in particular, I think it's really important. Thank you for the new drafts at the calendar. I'm going to look at those four drafts. That's a lot, this event I was also at with you, Phil. I can't say enough how proud I am

of the work that's going on in Stowe and how I hope we can replicate some of the work that's going on there. Their intentional use of the iPads in learning and instruction was pretty impressive to see Parkman. There was a recent roar assembly. A flyer came home today that I am ecstatic about because I think this is what demonstrates Enfields is our partnerships. So there's an upcoming math night, ERFCRPTO, our teachers, and A food collection for Enfield Loaves and Fishes. So this is, this is wh

at school is about. We had an amazing special someone dance for Enfield Street School. Thank you to our PTO. And the last comment I will add is for Enfield Teacher Association. I know they're doing a raffle for scholarships, so please check out their Facebook page. I also want to highlight I've been in communication with some admins. The state Department of Ed did offer $1000 donor choose projects that teachers had to apply for. I know many of our staff, particularly a lot from Hazardville, have

been awarded. No teacher should have to write a grant to get supplies that they need for their classrooms, but I really appreciate the teachers that took the time to do that and I hope that this additional funds goes a long way. So thank you. Happy Black History Month. Thank you, Miss Piggott. Go ahead, Doctor Keller. First, I just like to build on what Maureen was talking about. I am concerned about that 25% of students with special educational needs and a great proportion, perhaps the majorit

y, have attendant emotional issues, mental health issues. And unless those are addressed adequately, all that money that we're spending for their education might as well be flushed down the toilet. We have to protect their mental health needs and and with that in mind we really absolutely have to maintain at the very least maintain our behavioral health technicians, our counselors and our social workers on. As Phil was mentioning on April 2nd, a ceremony was held at Stowe Early Learning Center t

o celebrate the receipt of the Apple Distinguished School Award and Apple gives this award to select schools around the world in acknowledgement of outstanding employment of technology to promote education and healthy development. A number of Apple representatives were were present. I think our own board was pretty well represented at this affair. The ceremony began with a children's parade, followed by a number of brief comments and finally a viewing of children at work creating art with their

iPads. So we tend to focus on the potential threat posed by technology to the developing brain of a young child. But what Stowe has proven is that technology can also be highly beneficial to childhood education and development. So congratulations to all the people at Stowe with respect to Kite Enfield. Kite wants to wish Amy Whitbro a wonderful retirement from the Enfield Public Schools as their partnership Coordinator and thank her for her many years of service to the district and all of her in

credible contributions to play and early childhood for Enfield's littlest learners. Kite's three to three committee welcomed kindergarten and early childhood educators to Connecticut State as Nantuck Thursday, February. This was Thursday, February the first. A wide variety of items from Esnantec's former reading room or program were available to educators for free. The Enfield Family Resource Center donated child size, Pats, mittens and scarves to center and educators. Survey results of provider

s inform the committee that they would love to be more connected to Enfield Public Schools and kindergarten teachers as well as having more ideas on access to sensory, art and science activities. And finally, Hazardville Memorial School hosted an instructional play workshop for district, kindergarten and 1st grade educators on February 12th. They were chosen to be a part of a play pilot program through E Con and Kite is partnered and and supported this work. Thank you. Great. Thank you Doctor Ka

lman. Go ahead Mrs. Acrey from the desk of Andrew Depere at Crandall. He would like families to consider purchase purchasing discounted tickets for the Springfield Thunderbirds versus the Hartford Wolfpack on Friday, February 23rd. And if you are interested please see the newsletter. He would also like to thank Mary Almeida, Sherry Winans and Carrie Wiley for coordinating with the Connecticut State Trooper James White that misses Cushman mentioned earlier and him putting together a presentation

for parents discussing the dangers of social media and ways to help track and monitor children's usage. He also says help us reach our goal of 1000 shoes collected. We have currently collected 825 pairs and the Spring picture day at Crandall is Monday, March 4th. Please look for the flyer in your child's backpack. I'd also like to add that I had the pleasure of attending three of the events since our last meeting. I went to the Crandall's Literacy and Numeracy night. It was great seeing the stud

ents in their parents working together as a problem solve with reading or math concepts. I also attended the Apple Celebration at Stowe Learning Center. I was very impressed by the little ones and how they are learning and using programs on their Apple tablets as they learn about their reading and math, music and art concepts. I also over the weekend, this past weekend went to the Infield Public Library for the black history presentation that was given by Ujima. The presentation was very interes

ting and informative. We had a couple of professors and the local historian in Infield talk about the lives of African Americans during the colonial period. Thank you. Thank you Miss Hickory. Go ahead, misses the Blake. I just like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. I'm sure you're so excited to spend Valentine's Day with the nine of us, just as we are as excited to be up here. The Enfield Instrumental Music Association asked me to give a couple of updates on Saturday, February 23rd at Se

ven O 5 at the Springfield Thunderbirds game. The EHS Music department will be be performing before, during and after the game. On Thursday April 4th is the Red Robin Night and they will receive 20% of the sales of people who bring in their flyer and on Saturday May 5th is the annual golf tournament at Grassmere Country Club. For more information contact Dave Orton or Terry Carlo. I think there will be sending us updates to read at the meetings. After we had our last meeting and we talked about

more community involvement with the Senior Center, I saw Mr. Senay, who's head of the social studies department, and he said friends of Rachel used to actually go to the Senior Center and help the seniors with their technology. So it was good to hear. So he he said he's all for kind of bringing up those community, bringing back those community connections. And then Mr. Saccio from the Visual Arts department, thank you for reaching out. It doesn't matter whose idea it was up here. They, the visua

l arts department, followed up on the idea to have our new honors art and community coursework with the Senior Center in Enfield. We are meeting with them. They are meeting with them later this month in hopes of coordinating event where EHS students would travel over to the Senior Center for an interactive art experience. Between the students and the Senior Center, I I think that's wonderful. He's hoping to make that happen this year, but he will keep us posted, he said. Let's see. OK, it is Bla

ck History Month and I was on Facebook and I saw somebody post on picture Enfield 2 residents that lived in Enfield on Enfield Street. I believe it's the house with the white pillars. Their names are Paul Robeson and his wife Essie Robeson and their son Polly Robeson, and there's a picture of them in 1944 on the steps of their home in Enfield, SC and Paul met as students and at Columbia University in 1920 and married the next year. SC's accomplishments included becoming the head histological che

mist of surgical pathology at New York Presbyterian Hospital, the first black person to hold such a position. She later earned APHD in anthropology. Paul, on the other hand, was a talented musician and actor. But I encourage people to look into the story and how they ended up in Enfield. They have lived in Europe and then during the time there was questions of communism. It's a really interesting story to how they landed here and they said they moved here to enjoy the quiet Country Life and that

's how they ended up here and they were in Paris before they ended up here. So it's a great story. And on our Black History Month, I think it's something at to tie back into Enfield and I love learning about our community and the past of our community. Miss Cushman, thank you for talking about the impact that social media has. I know that's important to you and it kind of goes along with something I wanted to say tonight because we know like that social media, I feel like, As for young kids, has

such a big impact on their mental health, what they see. You know, when we were in school, you didn't know if you weren't invited because you were home with a Rotary dial phone watching TV. But now everything's like where you know what's what's happening all around you 24/7. But I think that adults are the ones that actually need the training. So this brings me to what I want to say tonight. And I'm going out on a limb, but I find it disturbing. And maybe other members find it disturbing. Maybe

the community find it so disturbing that day in and day out we have Facebook's forums run by middle-aged to older white men without children and EPS without children at all who obsessively talk about, and I mean obsessively talk about our kids, the LGBTQ plus community assignments and PJ Day. They are so certain the kids are getting indoctrinated in our schools that has turned into an unhealthy obsession and almost scary one to post and talk day in, day out about our kids, our LGBTQ plus commun

ity. I want to laugh at this, not give their post the time of day, but I realized this obsession with our kids is real and their obsession with our LGBTQ plus community is real. Further, when I was chair, one member of the forum had a private screenshot as a parent had posted something that was going on in Enfield Public Schools with their child. They were venting on their personal page and this person screenshot this parent's information with their kid and wanted answers from me and Chris what

was going on with their kid. They had absolutely 0 consent to be speaking on behalf of that parent and we confirm that. Where do we draw the line? Mr. Ryder got involved, Got EPS involved in PJ Day, which raises money for CCMC and patients with Cancer Research. Mr. Ryder that started this because a teacher and EPS had a child of their own that was battling cancer and he wanted to help. So one Friday every December, the students and staff wishing to participate bring $1.00 into school and wear th

eir pajamas. To date we have raised close to 100,000 like 4848 thousand to CCMC for Cancer Research for kids. Of course the men on the forum decided that this is an issue because I don't know if it's Mr. Ryder or whatnot that promotes it. I'm seriously concerned if you think this is any more than bringing a school community together who have lost friends, parents and relatives to cancer. We have lost EPS, kids and teachers to cancer. The vulgarity of suggesting otherwise makes me concerned about

this obsession and that it is. More I will reiterate, it is to raise money to CCMC for Cancer Research. I tend not to go on the forums. I get things shown to me mental health is important, my mental health is important and going on to these forums can be really damning to your mental health. So I worry about people that go on to these forums that are in a really sad state of mind, kind of looking for validation that they don't belong. And these forums will help you feel that way. These posts ar

e meant to divide and hurt. I thought long and hard about even bringing this up because the owners and notorious posters on the forum want the attention and I'll be the next one. In a time obsessed YouTube video that takes so much time out of somebody's day to do it. I guess I draw the line when there is an insinuation that PJ day is something more than it is. We have students and staff or I wanted. I said that about that, but I said I lost my mom to cancer when I was pregnant with my daughter.

When you know somebody that has cancer or lost cancer or recovered from cancer, it stays with you for the rest of your life and you always want to be able to help. There are amazing things that happen in Enfield public schools that these posters, forum owners, keyboard warriors, absolutely know nothing about. I was able to go to the pep rally at the high school with page backers. It was. You look around the schools, and I've had this conversation with different board members, and what did Paige

Becker say? The pep rally was like a pep rally on steroids. And it was. She had been so far from removed from high school that she was just so excited to be there. And when she came in, I mean, how did you not like everybody was just screaming. The students just all came together and you look around and you're like people that are attacking our school system on a day-to-day basis are so out of touch and what they're seeing in our schools. Charlotte spent that day at Hazard Bell in the kindergart

en class learning about play. Like there's so many good things that are going on in our schools. Just don't attack our kids, don't attack our our community. You have no idea. This is a good school district. I've put three kids through it. It's not always been perfect, but I'm concerned that there is an obsession and it's getting quite disturbing. So lastly, Mr. Drozik, thank you for the budget presentation. We knew it was going to be an interesting year with all the COVID funds. I appreciate you

going through and showing us what the funds, where they were spent. Oh, and I do have one more little surprise. I would like to wish somebody who calls me his bestie of education. Happy 50th birthday to Scott Ryder. Scott is turning 50 on Sunday, so happy birthday to you Scott. Charlotte brought you a Diet Coke to put in your one eyed Frog lunch box. So thank you. That's all. Thank you, Missus LeBlanc. Oh, go ahead, Miss Acree. I just want to say thank you, Miss Griffin, for your support piggyb

acking on Doctor Callen and for the mental health. Thank you. All right. So I think everybody went, so I'm going to go now and everybody already kind of like took my Thunder. So I guess I know how that goes, all right. But I piggybacking off of what Mr. Drezek said during the budget presentation, the Cape Crack legislative forum got moved from tomorrow to the 21st. So I'm going to go to that still. But helping out, I did submit testimony for tomorrow's Appropriations Committee public hearing. I

don't know if it's going to help. I don't. I didn't want to be 1999 in line. So I submitted the testimony. And so when you do that, it brings up this form letter. And I'm like the form letter doesn't fit in field. So I deleted it all and then I wrote my own and I basically just brought up everything that went in our budget, how we got shortchanged on the alliance, how we have so many kids in our district that are now special needs that we didn't have before, How they still have yet to ever fund

excess cost sharing. They put in mandate after mandate and they don't help with that either. So I kind of went through the gamut with that, and I hope that other people did. And I'm sure Mr. Drezek's going to do a bad job tomorrow. You know, our schools are in a it blows my mind. Our schools are in a tough spot. We got funding sources going away, grants going away, and they fully acknowledged, and we fully acknowledged that our kids need help. And then they turn around and propose a budget that

cuts $62.9 million from kid at 12 schools. So I I can't even fathom that just blows my mind. So I guess we just hope for the best and expect the worst. So a lot of this is kind of duplicate, but shout out to Crandall. I did get to go to their literacy numeracy night as a mom with my daughter and it was amazing. There was so many people there and the activities that we did were great. We had this like math thing that we did. It was like flipping over tiles, but you had to add up numbers to get th

ere and like, man, what? I didn't have that stuff when I was a kid. Those were cool games. But like everybody was engaged. They had a hot cocoa. It was wear your pajamas that night. So it was it was a good time. Everybody had a great. It was a blast and I just wanted to shout out to them. They knocked it out of the park and Crandall in my opinion is an excellent school. Maybe because I have two kids that went there, are going there, but they always do awesome things and they they make me happy.

And then Stowe. Obviously they're the only preschool that was recognized by Apple across the country and I think the world to do this. So watching in the classrooms, they're using the iPads as an enhancement, not a replacement. So like I saw some of them like doing an experiment with rolling or sliding cars down like a a track and then they would track it on the iPad. But they were doing in the oh, was it, did it roll, did it slide to go fast or slower. That was pretty cool. And they were doing

like they had a mock like grocery store and they they were using it as like a cash register and they were playing with each other and it was pretty cool. I had a great time and we know Still was a gem of a place in my Burke. And I'm sure it's crazy at times over there, but nobody does it better than the staff over at Still, so kudos to them. And then the Internet safety night, I went to that. That blew me away. Miss Alameda and Miss Winans they recognized in their 5th graders over at Crandall. G

o for Crandall again. You know that it does have an impact on kids and the way that they talk to each other on social media and the things that they see. So they got together and they had the officer from Daricom and it was it was like the most interactive presentation I've been to. It was like we got to like put an app on our phone and then they asked us questions and the results were like real time up on the screen and it was really cool. Those websites, I checked them out on that Miss Cushman

brought up and they're legit, they're they're really good. So apparently they're going to do a fifth grade Internet presentation. So that should be really good for the 5th graders to go to. I'm excited about that. So I mean all I can say to parents is try to keep open communications with their kids about their digital footprint and appropriate behavior in person and online and hopefully we can do some more of these for the community because it was super informative and an eye opener. Last call

for trivia night for first readers. The really cool thing is we have awesome partners in town and Enfield produce and Deli has a deal, if you order from them they will deliver it to Mount Carmel that night and then first readers gets 10% of the profits. Thought that was really awesome of them. So thank you to Enfield Produce and Deli. And then well, last one I was going to bring up was the Enfield Instrumental Music Association. So their fundraisers on the same night as Crandall's fundraiser. So

we're going to have like Enfield's going to be in the house that night and we'll be able to listen to the Enfield High music department before, during and after the game. So consider going and that's all I had. Oh, go ahead Mr. Ryder. I just had a quick clarifying question for the Superintendent related to your budget budget presentation, but not related to dollars and cents. So for our English as a Second language students, our ESL kids, I know that after a year in our school district, they're

expected to test with students who spoke English their entire lives. And you said it was a year. Is it a 365 day calendar year from their enrollment date or if they joined us in second grade, would third grade be that year and then it starts day one and grade four? I just want to clarify for the public, it's typically an academic year, but like if a student moves in in May, then that the clock will obviously be case back. I just wanted to ask. Thank you. OK, all right, #10. Unfinished business.

We don't have any #11 new business. We have policy revisions. First readings, Missus. Cushman, do you want to go through 9120? Per our February 8th meeting, the Policy Committee is recommending the first readings of four current policies with proposed revisions. The first of the revised policy is Policy 9120, Officers of the Board of Education. The revisions primarily update the language from Chairman to Chairperson, as well as define duties as being imposed by statute and board policies. I wou

ld like to make a motion to approve the first reading of Policy 9120 as revised. So moved moved by Mrs. Pickett. I just second. Second from Miss Acree. Is there any discussion on the motion? Go ahead, Mr. Ryder. Just a quick question. In the third sentence, we crossed out and it shall be his her and changed it to his her duty. I was just wondering if that was just a typo. It's just the same thing twice. Yeah, there's really no change. I just wanted to double check. Thank you, Miss Pickett. Aweso

me. So I appreciate this. It appears that the changes were around creating a more gender neutral stance especially around chairperson. So I think that's nice. I again appreciate the change. I wonder and doesn't have to be taken but I propose that we amend the he she's all today so if we're just keeping full gender neutral language it doesn't matter. ** *** if you just put a generic they it takes care of that. But just a wonder, if anyone would want to 2nd that proposed amendment, that would be f

ine if not confined with the policy as it stands. OK, I would second that you would second it, Mr. Back Allen. OK, so actually that was something that came up as a discussion, but we just felt like such person being singular and they is not being plural. So just to keep it consistent with singular, you know, singular subject and singular pronouns. Alright, I guess I could, I could debate the use of the word they, I, I, it won't be the hill I will die on. But you know, I would still say that they

now comes to mean all singular as well as plural when it's a question of gender. So I would stick with her recommendation, Amanda's recommendation. So why do we do that? OK. So is this that it goes back because it goes back to policy anyways. So we would just approve the first reading. They would go back for fixing. OK. Not if we approve the first reading as written. Yeah. We can approve it as written or we have a amendment that we could either. Yeah. Or Dan. Yeah. OK. So we do. OK we can do a

yeah. A motion. A motion. Yep. All the he she's would be they would be they's and then Dr. Callan has seconded. So is there any discussion besides already discussed on that Just to clarify it's only two places so it's just it would be here and here. OK, All right. So then can I have a show of hands to go with the go to be in favor of the amendment. OK. And then how many against show of hands? So it stays as is. So it stays as is. OK. All right. All right. So then the motion is on the floor. Stil

l the original motion. So I need a roll call vote to move that forward. Mr. Koper? Yes. Missus LeBlanc. Yes. Missus Pickett. Yes. Mr. Ryder. Yes. This is a Cree. Yes, Doctor Kalman. Yes. Missus Cushman. Yes. Chairwoman Riley? Yes, motion passes. OK All right. Miss Cushman 9132. Yep. The second of the revised policies is Policies Policy 9132 Standing Committees. A primary purpose of the revisions is to update the policy on quorum requirements for standing committees, especially in light of the ne

wly formed Mental Health Committee consisting of only two permanent members. Another significant revision addresses remote attendance, making it consistent with the recommended revisions for policy 9325.43 that will be discussed shortly. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the first reading of Policy 9132 as revised, so moved by Miss Pickett, second by Mr. Kober. Any discussion? Go ahead, Doctor Counten. The revised language is a little bit vague, specifically the reference to If the Standin

g committee is composed of two permanent members, quorum shall be defined as at least two permanent members, alternates or ex officio members present. I'm not really sure exactly what that means or makes this kind of confusing. The word or So what is the quorum 2 mem two permanent members plus alternates plus exophysio member I I just don't it's just not what would what would constitute A quorum. So Doctor Callan, just to confirm, because we talked about a committee it it's taken the language fr

om the three or four re repeating it to the quorum of two is 2. It's just saying if we have alternates or ex officio. So if we add an alternate and there's one permanent one alternate, we'd seek the alternate as long as we could get to. So it's just reiterating for a committee of two, the quorum is 2. OK. And two could then be defined as if you couldn't make it but the chair could, it would still happen because there'd still be two people there, Gene and Charlotte, who's an ex. Yeah. Yeah. Right

. 22 means two. OK. OK. Thank you. So that brings it. The Mental Health Committee is not a standing committee. It is a special committee that we talked about earlier. It's not standing. You know, it's not like curriculum and it's not like the curriculum and policy committees. We when we started this, we said it was going to be a special committee. Yep. So it's not standing. OK. This would still apply to any standing committee that did have two members. So it's rare that we have special committee

s of two but I guess for clarification purposes we could put or special committee. I I would recommend I'd I'd make a motion to say if the standing or special committee is composed of two just add adding that I'll second that amendment OK so all right so here we go we have it an amendment on the floor to add or special committee. So it's a motion made by Mr. Ryder, second by Miss Pickett. I have a question on that. Then would that make underneath quorum everywhere where it says standing committe

e, you would say standing committee or special committee then. So when that's may I ask chairperson for a special committee, you have to have an alternate or is Doctor Callan and I would that be sufficient? You're. I'm sorry, in my opinion, you you both are still the standing members of that committee and you're the only two. However, a meeting could still take place if one of you were absent, if the chairperson at that time was able to attend because you'd still have the two people. Because as

chairman Riley is the ex officio of all committees, theoretically she could fill in for any one of us just to make warm. OK and we defined how many people were going to be on that committee. So that's what it's defined as. We didn't say that there was alternates or other members. OK. So then my question still stands, Would they, would the wording underneath where it says quorum just say standing slash special committee on all of those? I would recommend too that maybe we change it just instead o

f saying standing committee for each committee of the board and then that would be universally applied to that entire paragraph that would work. Say that again. Change it to that to read for each committee of the board. So I think we have a motion, though with a second. So should we vote on that one? And then, yeah, then. I'm sorry. I'm really bad at Robert's rules. I'm trying to help you. You're actually in. You're you are getting it. So yes, you get a heart back. All right. We're going to get

a standing committee ban, OK. Unless we want to withdraw the original withdraw the original withdraw. Withdraw, Withdraw. OK. And I'll withdraw my first. Thank you. I will withdraw my second. So I I will propose an amendment to revise under the paragraph or quorum. Instead of reading the word standing, it would read for each committee of the board. OK. Motion by Mr. Second. Second by Miss Leblik. Who did what? What? I'm sorry, it was a motion by Mr. Coburg to do committee of the board and then i

t was seconded by Mr. Blank. OK, OK. Is there any discussion on that? Could you just read your proposed sentence info, please? For each committee of the board, a quorum shall be defined as follows, and then the subsequent 3 paragraphs would all read for each committee of the board. And then we'll continue. Thank you. Good. OK, So we're going to need a show of hands in favor of the amendment for committee of the board. In favor. There's eight in favor. All right. So then going back to the origina

l motion on the floor, we need roll call vote, please. Mr. Kober. Yes. This is LeBlanc. Yes, this is Pickett. Yes. Mr. Ryder. Yes. This is a Cree. Yes, Doctor Kalman. Yes. This is Cushman. Yes, Chairwoman Riley. Yes, motion passes. OK, perfect. All right. This is Cushman 9323. So the third of the revised policies is Policy 9323. Construction of the agenda. The recommended revision broadens the means by which a board member may communicate with the Superintendent to request an item be placed on t

he agenda. It also addresses placing additional business on an agenda for a regular Board of Education meeting versus a special or emergency meeting. I would like to make a motion to approve the first reading of Policy 9323 as revised So moved motion moved by Miss Pickett, second second by Miss Leblik. Is there any discussion on this one? Sweet. Can we have a roll call please, Kathy? Yes, this is LeBlanc. Yes, this is Pickett. Yes, Mr. Ryder. Yes, this is agree. Yes. Doctor Kalman. Yes, Miss Cus

hman. Yes. Chairwoman Riley. Yes. Motion passes. Awesome. So last 19325.43, please. Yep. The 4th of the revised policies to consider is 9325.43. Participation at Board Meetings by Remote methods. The recommended revision expands the list of approved reasons a board member may participate in a meeting remotely to now include sickness, disability, and active service in our nation's armed forces. Revisions also include the time frame of when reasonable effort should be made by a Board member to inf

orm the leadership of plans for remote attendance. There is one grammatical error to amend prior to approval. In the first sentence of the first paragraph on page one, under #6 notify should replace notice so that the last part of the sentence reads Such person should make reasonable effort to notify the board, chairperson and the Superintendent at least 24 hours before the meeting. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the first reading of policy 9325.43, as amended, so moved moved by a missi

le blank, second second by Miss Pickett. Any discussion on this one? Go ahead, Mr. Rider. Just a quick question for the policy chair. This is all the Accredit properly accredited policies. OK Are there any other discussion? No. OK, Roll call vote, please. Kathy. Mr. Kober. Yes. Missus LeBlanc. Yes. Missus Pickett. Yes, Mr. Ryder. Yes. Missus Cree. Yes, Doctor Kalman. Yes. Missus Cushman. Yes. Chairwoman Riley. Yes. Motion passes. OK. All right. So we have item B, appoint joint facilities. BOE El

ector. OK. So we have a vacancy on joint facilities and it's a VOE position to fill. And I would like to bring Joe Muller up as the appointee. He's already a building Superintendent over at S Nunduck and he's already been on lots of building committees and he's a hard worker. So I would like to see if I can get him a motion for Joseph Muller. Go ahead, Mr. Ryder, I will motion Joe Muller. And I will also say that he's been on the Joint Facilities Committee before. I've served on that for over 7

years. And there was a period of time where he was on that with me as well. So, great motion by Mr. Ryder. I will second the nomination. I have a second by Mr. Kober. Is there any discussion? No. OK Can I have roll call vote? Kathy. Mr. Kober? Yes. This is LeBlanc. Yes. This is Pickett. Yes. Mr. Ryder. Yes. This is a Cree. Yes. Doctor Kalman. Yes. This is Cushman. Yes. Chairwoman Riley. Yes. Motion passes. All right. Great. All right, Joe, we're going to see you at the next Joy facilities meetin

g. Be ready. We're not going to need it. We have a conflict. Well, we do. That's true. We're going to get to that one. Yep. We'll see you sometime. All right. So board committee reports, curriculum committee, Yes. The next meeting is tomorrow at 5. All right. Finance and Budget Committee, Finance and Budget met on February 5th. We'll have some expenditures we'll be talking about later on the agenda. And our next meeting will be March 4th. Oh yeah, go ahead. I just wanted to bring to Kathy's atte

ntion that in one of those policies, once it passes the second reading, we change the name of this committee. So just something to look forward to in the future. Well, I hope the new name treats you better. OK, good. I'm going to add to the finance discussion. I did go last time we had a presentation was by MML investors and they are the ones that hold the money investment for the TAG program. And I I'm not sure if we need a formal vote, but we have to give them permission to because they wanted

to change the way that they allocate some of the funding for stocks and bonds because the market changed a little bit. So they made some suggestions. And so we're going to need to think about that at some point. Yes, Madam Chair, since I missed that meeting, I am meeting with the business manager tomorrow to kind of discuss that and I'll report back with more information. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Cover. I appreciate that. And I think we also wanted input from the curriculum committee before we m

ake come to that decision as to how how the program is to be, to be run. Yeah. Yeah. And we did ask some questions as to how much money could we? I saw the answers came through. How much money could we take out additionally without harming the longevity of that? So that was another thing that we'll have to discuss. OK, All right. And then Policy Committee policy meeting meets next Tuesday the 20th at 5:30, OK. And leadership, we had our meeting, we met jointly with the town council and we met ou

rselves and it was basically a lot of things that you heard this evening. And I'm sure we will have multiple meetings coming up as well PK pre K5 school modernization. Can we take that off Kathy now? OK. And then joint facilities 28 ended up being a non meeting and they just kind of talked about what was going on. So because there wasn't a quorum. So hopefully Joe Mueller now being on will be able to get to the quorum and get moving again. Can I just add to I think all of our names are now on th

ere and we're going to get it in but yeah no. So thank you to Cheryl and Jim Nasuta for for getting that settled for us. Yes. And their next meeting is on the 22nd and we have a special meeting that night. So that was the only thing I wanted to bring up, right. So hopefully there will be plenty of people for a quorum without us being there. JFK Building Committee, they're meeting again tomorrow on the 15th, Perfect. Joint Security Committee, next meeting is the 23rd of February. It is. I thought

it was Marche. Well, Friday the 23rd, we have, like, on hold. And they said if we didn't need it, we'd. Yeah. They scheduled the special meeting of the committee for the 23rd. OK, All right. I don't get those emails for some reason on that one. I don't know why. OK, All right. And then the Mental Health Committee, Doctor Callen and I asked Mr. Longy to send the survey to the secondary principals and also to David White, who is the coordinator for all the counselors. And when we get that back ne

xt week. So we will, I'm sorry, we're waiting to hear back from everybody next week. And then from there, we will start to look at all the data for the district, see what the needs are. Do we have a timeline on that? I just think about kind of hearing tonight's presentation and the impact of your work, maybe hearing kind of some of the those comments might be helpful in our some of our decisions you will. OK and Enfield Cultural Arts. OK. All right. So #13, approval of minutes, regular Board of

end meeting minutes, January 23rd, 2024. I need a motion to approve. So moved, moved by Mr. Cobra, second by Miss Pickett. Can I have a show of hands in favor? Oh, I probably should have asked if there was any discussion, but since we've got, I was just going to abstain. Although I did watch the meeting afterwards. I was traveling for work, so I watched it, but I wasn't there. But then it looks right. But I don't want to vote because I wasn't there in person. But OK, so we have seven in favor an

d one abstention, all right #14, approval of accounts and payroll, Madam Chair. So I'd like to report the Finance Committee met on February 5th to review financial statements for the month of January year to date and examine various documents related to finance. The review of the committee concluded there was nothing significant to report to the board. I move we accept a Superintendent certification as follows. I hereby certify that in the month of January, total expenditures amount to $7,375,66

7.03, broken down between payroll totaling $4,965,439.31 and other accounts totaling $2,410,227.72. All payments had been made in accordance with the approved budget and are properly recorded for within the books of accounts. Copies of approval for check invoices are properly documented. Prepared by Lorena Cisneranos, Business Manager. All right motion made by Mr. Kober, second by Miss LeBlanc. Any discussion? Can I have a show of hands in favor? There is 8 in favor and none against Madam Chair.

I'd also like to state that the Finance Committee met on February 5th to review grant and Head start expenditures for the month of January year to date and examine various documents related to finance. The Committee's review concluded there was nothing significant to report to the Board. Therefore I move we accept the Superintendent certification as follows. I hereby certify that in the months of January the total grant and Head Start expenditures amount to $408,000 and $81.94, broken down betw

een payroll totaling $371,595.69 and other accounts totaling 30. Thirty $6486.25. All payments have been made in accordance with the approved budget and are properly accounted for within the books of accounts. Copies of approval for check invoices are properly documented. Prepared by Lorena Cesanos, Business Manager. All right, motion made by Mr. Cover, second by Miss LeBlanc. Any discussion. OK, can I have a show of hands in favor? There is 8 in favor and none against. OK. Phil, do you have ano

ther one or is that just two that concludes the accounts payroll. Great. Thank you. All right. Do we have any correspondence and communications? No, just a clarification. When I mentioned the lunch Bunch link, The lunch link that is a collaboration between Enfield Food Shelf and Enfield Loaves and Fishes. And the address is 96 Alden Ave., which of course is where the Enfield Food Shelf is. But both groups got together to do this for us. So I just wanted to clarify that I said Infield Loaves and

Fishes, but I gave the address of the food shelf. Both groups are working together to do this for students. I just want to clarify, it is at 96 Alden Ave. This is the pick up for the lunches. Thank you. Thank you. OK and #16, we have a need for executive session, so I'm going to need a motion to go into executive session. So moved. Second motion made by Mr. Ryder. Second by Miss Pickett. A show of hands in favor. There is 8 in favor and none against. So we will come back out of exec session and

then vote to close the meeting, but otherwise we're good to go. Good night.