December 13, 2018 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Regular Meeting - Annual Meeting

Rationale:  This action is required by State Statute and needs to be posted with the Town Clerk no later than December 31st.  Dates can be changed at later dates to meet the requirements of the business of the Board.

Rationale:  The success of our school system depends on an effective working relationship between the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools.  This code incorporates those standards and responsibilities most critical to productive Board and Superintendent relations.  Board members will sign the Code of Ethics for 2019.

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: 

Summary of the Briefing:

• We have been using GoMath as the core instructional resource in Grades K-5 since 2011. The contract is expiring at the end of this school year.

• Our District Math Council engaged in a program review of three other resources: Bridges in Mathematics, Eureka, and Ready using specific criteria from EdReports and the Oregon IMET (Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool). The team selected Bridges to pilot.

• Several teachers did a site visit in Middlebury, CT to see the Bridges program.

• 15 teachers at Berry, Rockwell and Johnson piloted a unit in Bridges.

• The District Math Council unanimously recommended that we bring forward Bridges in Mathematics to the Board for several reasons:

  • Conceptual build

  • Use of consistent models K-5 in mathematics

  • Deliberate work with the math practices is embedded throughout each lesson

  • Multiple opportunities for application and transfer of learning within and across units

  • Major focus on discourse among students

  • Skills taught through layering of standards (not one standard at a time)

  • Use of relevant and authentic tasks to build understanding of concepts

  • The cost to fully outfit our K-5 classrooms with this instructional resource is  $104,169.58

• Includes classroom packages with student books and teacher manuals

• Bridges Educator Site- 7 year free subscription including Spanish translations of student materials

• Buildings would purchase consumables after the initial year

Rationale: 

Summary of the Briefing:

• Students in Elementary Discrete Mathematics will have the opportunity to earn three College Math Credits through the University of Connecticut Early College Experience (UConn ECE) program.  Topics of study will include, problem solving strategies, counting and probability, graph theory, deductive reasoning, number theory, voting methods, and the mathematics of money.

• Adding Elementary Discrete Math to our Program of Studies will enable us to offer a college credit-bearing math course that is not restricted to students taking advanced math courses.

• This semester course will be offered to juniors and seniors who have successfully taken Algebra II as a prerequisite course.

• Summer curriculum work (2 days) will be needed to prepare for the launch of the course in the fall of 2019.  The cost of this work is $826.80.

• The UCONN ECE program restricts textbook choices to two specific textbooks.  We recommend Mathematics Beyond the Numbers (2014), 2nd edition.

• The textbook:

  • Supports problem solving using real world data and applications

  • Builds conceptual understanding

  • Integrates technology providing tech tips for teachers

• We are requesting 30 copies of the textbook at the cost of $2924.44.