May 19, 2020 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

Rationale: 

The Bethel Public Schools received federal & state funding for general education in the amount of $420,356.

Title I

The purpose of Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, is to provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps.

The Bethel Public Schools will be receiving $285,353

We use this money to support our Intervention programming in the district.

Title II

Rationale: 

 

• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Re_ Thank you - M. Paulsen
• Correspondence - Re- Public Hearing - John Crouse

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: 

Graduation:  Graduation guidance is expected to be released by the end of the week.  We have a conference call on My 15th with the Department of Public Health to answer Superintendent questions concerning graduation.   BHS did a survey with seniors and Mr. Troetti and I conducted a focus group.  Overwhelmingly, they want to have some type of "in person" graduation and for the most part are not interested in a virtual graduation.  Mr. Troetti is working on a plan to submit to the Department of Public Health (locally) which would be similar to a "drive in" model.   We are waiting until the guidance comes out to move any further in our planning. We will keep you updated on our plans.  

8th Grade Moving Up Ceremony:  Mr. Watson and his team are coming up with a plan to honor the 8th graders.  We are working with the Director of Public Health and the Town's Emergency Operations Manager.  We will provide more details at the Board of Education Meeting.  

Extended School Year Services:  We are expecting guidance to come out this Friday which outlines the conditions with which we can offer services to students with disabilities.  We anticipate it will be similar to Summer School guidelines and will be similar to those for summer camps.  As a result we have started to order PPE and thermal thermometers to temperature check as a screener for students and staff. 

Reentry Planning:  We have begun to research and start to plan for reentry in the Fall.  While we have not received specific guidance from the State, there is certainly a lot of information available based on the reopening of schools in Europe and Asia.  There are a lot of implications to implementing social distancing guidelines within a school and we are working on models.  We will share more detailed information at our regular meeting in May.  As is true with Town Hall, we will be starting a gradual reopening of School and Central Offices after May 20th.  We will not be open to the public, but will start to have staff work on a staggered schedule to maintain social distancing.  Like town hall, we have also ordered plexiglass barriers in locations (school and CO) which have public interface.  Those are in fabrication and we anticipate to have them in place in the next few weeks. We are planning a Parent Zoom meeting next week to talk about public health implications for opening schools.  

Food Services:  We are exploring if this program will continue into the summer.  It looks like the funding for the program will be funded through June 30th.  We are working on a plan to see if we can make this happen, as many families rely on this service.  A reminder that all school lunch programs run on a separate budget than the district operating budget.  They only intersect if the program goes into deficit (which it did this year).   In addition, we can refer families to a program in Danbury which runs through out the summer if needed.  

Strategic Planning:  The strategic planning committee will begin meeting and providing input virtually.  We have drafted a revised mission statement and core beliefs.  Next week we have set Zoom meetings with the Strategic Planning Committee and hope to present a revised document for the June BOE meeting.  

Bus Company:  The bus company has revised the bus routes for the realignment in the fall to our new schedule.  I have asked the bus drivers (since we are paying them and we have plenty of diesel) to start practicing the runs on a regular basis. We had so many issues this year with new drivers and inconsistent times because they did not know the bus routes, I want them to practice frequently.  

Rationale: 

Rationale: 

There were minor changes to this policy to align with changes in Policy/Reg. 3541 - Transportation.  Specifically, the policy was adjusted to reflect the K-2 adjustment in having a parent/guardian present for bus pick up.  There were no other adjustments made.  

 

Policy 3541.24

Rationale: 

Policy 1230

This policy has not been reviewed since 2010.  In addition, there were also some suggestions in a recent CABE update, that are reflected in the revision of this policy.  The revisions include:

• Approval process for new orgnaizations.
• Purposes of organization.
• Use of district logos. 
• Requirement of those organizations to be a 501(c)3.  

 

Rationale: 

6163.1  Policy and Regulation Library Learning Commons. This policy has not been revised since 1992 and really should reflect the learning commons model, which is appropriate as we renovate the spaces and create 21st century library learning commons spaces.  This policy was reviewed by our Supervisor of Digital Learning, who oversees our library media program and recommendations were incorporated. 

Note: policy and regulation title changed from Media Center to Library Learning Commons to reflect the Learning Commons model.

Went to Board for first reading 3/5/20

 

Rationale: 

Policy 6141.321 & Form 6141.321

As part of our review cycle of all district policies, we decided to review policies associated with technology.  This policy was reviewed by our Supervisor of Digital Learning, and recommendations were incorporated.  

Went to Board for first reading 3/5/20

 

Rationale: 

6141.322 Bring Your Own Technology -  As part of our review cycle of all district policies, we decided to review those associated with technology first.  This policy was reviewed by our Supervisor of Digital Learning, and recommendations were incorporated. The policy has not been revised since 2011. 

Went to Board for first reading 3/5/20

 

Rationale: 

Per the Board's request, we have modified bylaw 9327 with the recommended language from Shipman and Goodwin.  

Discussion from Last Meeting 

At our last policy meeting the Board requested that I contact our Attorney at Shipman and Goodwin with specific questions regarding use of social media and email.  Attorney Santiago's responses were emailed to the committee and are recorded below:  

These have been incorporated into Bylaw 9327

Went to Board for first reading 3/5/20

 

Rationale: 

Recommendation of FSMC for 2020-2021 with 4 one-year optional renewals

Key Points of the Briefing:

 

* It is important to the Bethel Board of Education that an excellent Food Service Management Company administer the food service operations for the district in accordance with all of the regulations of the National School Lunch Program under the direction of the USDA and the CSDE.

* It is important that the FSMC manage the food service operations with a financial break-even or better result; otherwise the BOE operating funds must cover any loss.

 

Recommendation of the Review and Evaluation Committee:

1. Three comprehensive proposals were received in response to our RFP. The RFP was developed using all requirements of the CSDE.
2. A review and evaluation committee was formed including Lauren Cunningham (Town Purchasing Agent), Courtney Martin (BOE Member), Suzanne Rodgers (Accounting Supervisor) and Teri Yonsky.
3. Based upon the independent scoring of the stipulated rubric, the committee chose Sodexo.Several highlights of their proposal is as follows:

1. The highest year one guaranteed profit of $180k and the only proposal with continued guaranteed profit of $180k each of the next four contracted years
2. A history of good management here in Bethel (27 years)
3. Highest score/ #1 choice of each member of the review and evaluation committee
4. The submission of a very comprehensive & innovative proposal with strong evidence of capability.Strong investment of dollars in food and excellent use of the USDA commodities (guarantee to spend 50% on fresh items), financially sound organization, current district manager is extraordinary, and a history of being flexible and not resting on laurels.

Rationale: 

Key Points of the Briefing:   

* Raising student lunch prices a modest amount (5 cents) at all schools.  Elementary will be $3.00 insuring that the district meets the minimum required Paid Lunch Equity by the USDA and Middle School and High School will be $3.35.  All student lunch prices include milk.

* Leaving all student school breakfast prices at $2.30.

* Adult meal prices also need to comply with CSDE guidelines. Adult breakfast will remain at $2.75 and Adult Lunch will be increased to $4.25. Adult lunch prices do not include a beverage.

* Bethel’s prices are similar to other school districts in this area and across the state.  We remain just above the paid equity requirements.

 

Summary of the Briefing:

1)    To raise the school meal prices to cover increases in labor and food costs and continue to have the school lunch program run at or above break-even and to meet the USDA Paid Lunch Equity requirements.

2)    To set the price for reduced priced breakfast at $0.00 instead of $0.30 for the year 2020-2021.  This will continue to encourage participation in the breakfast program and insure that our neediest students are fed each morning.  The cost to the board should be less than $2,500.

3)    Action Requested of the Board of Education: Motion needed.

Rationale: 

Pursuant to Board of Education Policy, the following tuition rates for non-resident students attending Bethel Public Schools are recommended:

 

                                    2017/2018       2018/2019       2019/2020       2020/2021       % Increase

 

Elem/Middle                $12,543           $12,769           $13,137           $13,595           3.349%

 

High School                $14,472           $14,732           $15,156           $15,685           3.349%

 

These tuition rates do not include transportation.  Additionally, Special Education rates will be calculated as needed based on the costs of a specific program with related services.  The Special Education costs are not discounted.

Rationale:  Projects:  As a follow up to my phone call last week, we met again with Rizzo and our Owner's Representative last Thursday.  Now that school has officially been canceled for the rest of the year, all spaces were turned over to Rizzo.  Rizzo is still experiencing intermittent labor and supply chain issues due to COVID, which is causing some delays.  In our meeting we prioritized the spaces that need to be completed by the opening of school, 2020.  They were meeting with their subcontractors and laying out a plan.  The delays themselves have not impacted the budgets for the project, merely the timeline.   At the last PBSC meeting, an update budget was presented (in the monthly summary attached).  The overall project is about the same.  The environmental contingency at Rockwell has been expended.  Any future abatement will need to be applied to the owner's contingency.  Based on Feedback from Johnson Staff and our Athletic Director, we have revised the color scheme for the full size gym at Johnson School to align with the Bethel High School colors, as we do anticipate using the gym for high school events.  In addition, there was a change order to do extra cleaning to support spread of COVID as recommended in CDC guidelines.  Our Owners Representative is exploring if those expenses can be reimbursed through FEMA.