September 20, 2018 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

Ben's Bells Belle Award - BMS started the school year off with a "kind" bang! Our very own Amy Mannion was honored as the summer season winner of the Ben's Bells Belle award. This award is given to a community member who consistently promotes kindness through words and actions. Ms. Mannion is compassionate, empathetic, and always there to give a hug or lend an ear. She takes pride in lifting her students up and showing them their true potential. It is a safe bet that most of the veteran staff at BMS has spent a few minutes in Ms. Mannion's office being reassured that they are doing everything right and that all will be okay. Ms. Mannion gives her time to multiple boards and committees both in the school district and in the greater community area. She is a role model to her students, colleagues, and most importantly her family. BMS is lucky to have her on staff. We can all learn something about being kind from observing Ms. Mannion. Congratulations Ms. Mannion, you are more than deserving!

Unified Sports Program in the Top 30 in the country -You may have seen that recently on social media I shared that ESPN named Bethel High School's Unified Sports Program in the Top 30 in the country.  The link below has the story!  

Special Olympics ESPN Honor Roll

A huge shout out to Mr. Caron, Mrs. Budris and the Coaches at both the MS and HS who have developed the program.  I try to attend a game each season and they are by far the most inspiring and fun events we offer! 

Sara Mass Award

 This years recipient of the Sara Mass Award was Mr. Larry Craybas.  The award is provided to a person who has provide a positive difference in the force of educational process for residents of Bethel, with trough one noteworthy action or by the cumulative effect of many actions over a period of time.  

Induction into Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall Of Fame

The late Ralph DeSantis, Jr., our former BHS Football Coach will be inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame at an annual ceremony in November.

Ralph had an overall coaching record of 149-55-6 and the football team was the Class MM runner-up in 1988. Mr. DeSantis won five Western Connecticut Conference titles and four Briggs Division titles. Mr. DeSantis also was named CHSCA Coach of the Year in 1990. The Bethel High School football field was named in his honor in 1993.

Grants, Gifts and Bequests:

James Patterson and Scholastic Book Clubs Giveaway - In Rockwell School news, Mrs. Guarino's class was selected from 127,000 teachers to receive $500 and 500 Bonus Points from the James Patterson and Scholastic Book Clubs Giveaway.  Mrs. Gurarino submitted a short essay about why she believed her class would benefit from this giveaway and her submission was selected.  The funds will go towards further building Mrs. Guarino's classroom library to ensure that every student in her class finds great books that they love reading.  Mrs. Guarino also plans to aid her students in choosing a few books to send home to Rockwell families in need as holiday gifts with the help of the social worker.  Congratulations to Mrs. Guarino's class!   

Rationale:  The purpose of this presentation is to provide the Board of Education an update on our major work for the 2018-2019 School Year, aligned to our strategic plan and the Board of Education goals.  The presentation will be accompanied by a document which summarizes our data for the 2017-2018 school year based on multiple indicators.   We will reference the data as it illustrates our work as a system.   In the presentation, we will take an indepth look at our increasing and shifting enrollment patterns to address student needs.  

Rationale: 

• Letter to Public Site & Building Commission Barrier Request, from Dr. Carver

Rationale:  (Please note:  The Board welcomes Public Participation and asks that speakers please limit their comments to 2 minutes.  Speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them.  The Board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Bethel Public School System.)

Rationale: 

We had a smooth opening of school!   Our teachers started August 24th with professional learning sessions and preparations for the start of school. Dr. Brooks and I toured all of the schools on Wednesday.  We visit each class to welcome our students and faculty and wish them a fabulous new school year.  True to tradition within the Bethel Public Schools, our teachers were engaging students in developing a positive culture and climate within classrooms and the school! 

 

We had an amazing Convocation again this year.  Convocation is a time to welcome staff back, establish our focus this year and develop the team.  Our focus this year will be the same as last year, to develop critical thinkers.   The emphasis, grounded in research, is that expectations matter.  Children rise to the level that is expected of them, so we need to ensure that we are providing regular opportunities for our students to engage in rigorous instruction.  We also reinforced our goals around developing a respectful and kind culture.  As I have shared in the past, Convocation Cup is a team building competition between the schools!  This year’s winner was Johnson School. 

Rationale: 

Attached is a sample Bylaw on the Board's Use of Social Media.  Since it concerns a proposed new Board bylaw, the Policy Committee is looking for comments from Board members as well as committee members, in order to review for purposes of suggesting revisions.

The Connecticut Association of Boards of Education is recommending BOE adoption of policy on this topic.  

Rationale: 

This is the second reading of the policy.   Therapy dog programs have been extremely beneficial to our students, causing in an increased demand for programs.   Developing a policy and regulation would help to formulate guidelines for use of Therapy Dogs within the schools.  Two of our employees, Lois Brockmann (Physical Therapist) and Danielle Egan (Media Specialist) are certified handlers for Therapy Dogs and have participated in the development of this policy. Building administrators also had an opportunity to review the policy.  

The board asked Mrs. Yonsky to confirm with our insurance provider that development of such programs would not effect coverage.  She has confirmed that it would not.    

Rationale:  This is the second reading of the Civility Policy requested by the Board of Education.  Passage of this policy fits nicely with the 2nd Board of Education Goal around developing a respectful culture.   The policy addresses standards of communications, examples of disruptive communications and actions and broad consequences for those actions.  This policy is a model from Shipman and Goodwin.  The Board requested that I check with our attorney on some of the language in the 2nd paragraph.  I will have the feedback from Rebecca Santiago for the meeting.  

Rationale: 

Presenters: Suzanne Rodgers, Accounting Supervisor & Dave Arre, IT Supervisor

Prepared by: Theresa D. Yonsky, Director of Fiscal Services

Topic: Copier/Managed Print RFQ/RFP and Recommendation

Importance of this topic to the Board: Operations and fiscal prudence

Key Points of the Briefing:

1. An RFQ/RFP was issued with three parts: First to submit pricing for 28 copiers on a 5 year lease agreement with annual lease cost and service quoted at cents per print, second was to submit pricing on managed print services quoted at cents per print, and third was to present an executive summary of vendors’ approach to our Bethel Public Schools account.
2. 7 professional and comprehensive responses to the RFQ/RFP were received.
3. A committee of three: Lauren Cunningham (Town Purchasing Agent), Dave Arre and Teri Yonsky reviewed and analyzed each of the responses independently and then met to compare results.The list was narrowed to three.T. Yonsky called/emailed with follow-up questions and called references.D. Arre did technical research on the products proposed.This feedback was shared with the committee.
4. The committee members completed their ranking of the vendors based on 40% price, 20% service, 20% experience & 20% executive summary.

We are pleased to recommend Base Technologies as our vendor of choice.  Base was the number one choice of each member on the committee.  Base submitted the second lowest price by $1,770/year and it was $9,582 less per year than our current agreement with them.  Total annual cost proposed is $114,450.  Base is a local Bethel company, only 2.3 miles from our schools and has delivered on their promises of good response time and excellent service.  The last five years have been a successful partnership with all machines in the fleet still running well.  The software to manage printing on a networked basis is included in the price.  With this savings we will continue to standardize our printer fleet and continue to move toward more centralized printing.