February 22, 2024 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

• Congratulations to the Boy's Indoor Track Team for winning the SW and coming in 2nd in the state meet. 
• Kyle Kurtz won gold medals in the 55H, Pole vault, and 4 X 200 M relays, helping pace the team to a dominant SWC championship! 
• Greyson Golda took home gold in Shot Put throwing 54’2".
• Talia Graham earned silver in pole vault.  
• Esther Ribeiro, Everett Salmon, and Matt Tarzia came in 3rd today at SWC’s and Endrit Brahimaj came in second overall.
• Congrats to Bethel’s Alexandra Roberts for finishing 3rd  out of 125 girls in her CT HS ski race.
• Congratulations to the debate team at Bethel Middle School. Aarna Doshi, Trisha Sharma, and Radha Sinha finished second in the open division.
• Congratulations to the Debate Team at Bethel High School.   Bethel had an excellent performance at the tournament at Pomperaug High School! On the varsity side, Willa Zalaznick placed 5th speaker overall! Simar Soni was 7th and Josephina Howard placed 14th individually. As teams, the team of Willa Zalaznick and Jack Woleck were the 7th place team, Simar Soni and Georgia O’Conner were 15th, Andrew Santiago and Josephina Howard were 17th, and Ella Bassett and Claire Bray placed 20th!
• BHS Jazz Band performed at the 2024 National Jazz Festival in Philadelphia last week. 
• Thomas Patten was appointed to West Point Military Academy.  Congratulations on this honor! 
• Congratulations to the Bethel High School NJROTC academic team for placing first overall in the northeast regional Brain Brawl competition.   For the second year in a row, they are heading to the national championship.  Congratulations to cadets Preethika Shenoy, Rohan Sinha, Jonathan Keener, Mikhail Kolupaev, and Joseph Sacchinelli.
• Congratulations to National STEM Challenge Finalist - Disha Lal (BMS, 7th grade). Disha Lal was declared a finalist in the recently concluded National STEM Challenge. The competition was open to every 6th -12th grader across the country and out of all the entries, only 280 participants made it to being a finalist. From Connecticut, only 7 entries made it and from Bethel only 1. There were multiple themes with Environment, Space, and Technology being few of them. Disha decided to design and build a prototype Mobile App and Smart Donation Cans to make donation operations more seamless, encourage people to donate easily, and thereby reduce food wastage. Attached is the project presentation and the introduction video is linked here for reference.
• Congratulations to the Bethel High School Marching Band.  Bethel High School Marching Band has been promoted by USBands to the Open Class of competition, representing the top marching ensembles throughout the country. USBands serves as the national organization for scholastic music performance with over 550 high schools participating and hosting 100 events nationally each year.  The Bethel High School Marching Band has qualified to compete at the 2024 USBands National Championships at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on November 1-2.

 

Rationale: 

• State Department of Education's Connecticut Educator Support Funds Initiative: Helping our Teachers with Classroom Expenses - (DonorsChoose) - The State Department of Education has allocated $4,000,000 to provide educators in the State of Connecticut and the ability to purchase materials related to two goals outlined in the attached memo. We have an established procedure when teachers have used this process in the past.  Use the link to see what types of grants our teachers have received from the State Department of Education, please click here. 

Rationale:  No reports for this meeting.

Rationale: 

• CAPSS Blueprint Update 
• CAPSS Public Policy Agenda 
• Press Release -Statement from Education Stakeholder Coalition - Urging Inclusion of Educators In Conversations About Pedagogy and Literacy
• Scott Clayton, Board Chair, letter to the Town Clerk regarding the appointment of Bill Foster, BOE member, as ex-officio member of the Parks & Recreation Commission for a 1-year term.
• Email - Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Ellington, CT BOE Legislative Advocacy - 2024
• Email - Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Gratitude and Farewell to Bethel Public Schools - D. Mazzucco
  • (Policy 5118.2 - Children of Non-Resident  Positional Staff:  Qualified Tuition Reduction)
• Letter from CES to Dr. Carver RE: Open Choice Program. (Open Choice Programs FAQs)
• Written Testimony to Appropriations Committee 

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: 

• Reschedule the March 19th BOE meeting to Monday, March 18th due to a conflict with the Town Budget Hearing. Will also need a Curriculum Committee the same evening at 6 PM.

• CABE 2024 Legislative Priorities

• CABE Day on the Hill, March 13, 2024 

• WCSA 2023 Survey Special Education Needs

• EdSight Mental Health Worker Report - SDE recently released a report on mental health workers in districts (on EdSight). Our district data is wrong. We are in the process of correcting it. They have underestimated the number of staff. 

• BOS Approval of Fire Pumps BMS & BS - The BOS approved the bid waiver and recommended the BOF allocate the funds from the capital non-recurring funds.

•  2023 Cohort Graduation Review - It is slightly up from our last two year's data.  Of particular pride is the increase in our high-needs population graduating in the four-year cohort.  You can compare it to previous years data by looking at Edsight.  I am particularly proud that 100% of our EL learners graduated in four years.   Something to pay closer attention to is our Black students.  A reminder that you see variability with our students with disabilities because some of them stay with us till 22.  A reminder, this data includes Bethel High School, TASK (alternative program), and any students that are out of district.  
  
  Boys Volleyball & Athletic Van 

Rationale:  We have applied and have been approved for the allowed extension.  Our plan is to bring the plan to the March BOE meeting as a regulation for Policy 4111.3, Minority Recruitment Plan.  We will provide you with a copy of that plan shortly and finalize it at the March BOE meeting.  

Rationale:  Monthly Data  -  We include in the BOE agenda the monthly data as requested by the BOE.  

Rationale: 
Key Points of the Briefing: 

• We are bringing forward the  US History 32 curriculum (Grade 11) for approval.
• This course allows students to gain a perspective of our past and our national heritage. Concepts are taught in conjunction with historical events in order to improve student understanding of continuity and change over time. Students examine both domestic and foreign issues and make judgments about their impact on the development of our nation.
• The focus is on skills including, but not limited to, our global competencies, historical thinking, inquiry, respectful discourse, analytical reading and writing.
• US History 32 Units include:
  • Unit 1: Slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction
  • Unit 2: Gilded Age, Progressive Era, WWI, and the 1920s, Harlem Renaissance
  • Unit 3: Great Depression and World War II
  • Unit 4: 1950s America, Post WW2, Cold War and McCarthyism 
  • Unit 5: Vietnam, Counter Culture, and the Civil Rights Movement
  • Unit 6: Modern United States, 1970s-Present

 

Rationale: 

Key Points of the Briefing: 

• We are proposing that we move to using the science instructional resource, OpenSciEd, at BMS. Currently we are using STEMscopes. 

• OpenSciEd is an open education resource; therefore, it is "open" to districts and there is no cost, other than science supplies that may be needed for investigations. There is money in the BMS building budget to purchase science supplies. 

• This is a high quality instructional resource rated highly by EdReports because of its alignment to the NGSS, it’s coherence and scope, along with its usability.

• OpenSciEd is a comprehensive middle school science program that empowers students to ask questions, design investigations, and solutions, and make sense of the world.

• The program is:

  • Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problem

  • Driven by Student Questions

  • Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence 

  • Collaborative - WE, the class and the teacher, figure out ideas together

  • Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all

• Each OpenSciEd unit includes an assessment system that offers many opportunities for different types of assessments throughout the lessons. 

  • Every lesson has a lesson-level performance expectation and a three-dimensional learning expectation (Disciplinary Core Idea, Cross Cutting Concepts, and Science & Engineering Practices)

  • Progress Trackers are included- a way to synthesize the lesson level learning in relation to the unit concepts and phenomenon

• There are multiple resources accessible for our teachers:

  • Teacher Handbook - Provides overviews of features of the OpenSciEd units and resources that are likely to be new to many teachers. Each chapter focuses on a different feature. 

  • Teacher Resources and Tools - Provides a collection of all OpenScieEd tools and resources that can be used and customized for other units. 

  • Professional Learning Materials - There are six different professional learning sessions that support the classroom materials, starting with the Curriculum Launch. All the professional learning resources are Open Educational Resources (OER) so they can be downloaded, adapted, and shared. 

Rationale: 

Key Points of the Briefing: 

• The BMS ELA program has been piloting an ELA open educational resource,  EL Education- Second Edition selected by the BMS team.

• The program:

  • Includes guiding questions and big ideas, content connections, technology and multimedia, independent research, and optional fieldwork/service and extensions

  • Requires use of the global competencies: critical thinking, collaboration, discovery, inquiry, and problem solving

  • Assesses learning through models, reflection, critique, rubrics, and conferencing

  • Builds equity through a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all

• There are 4 modules per grade level and each module has 3 units and includes supporting materials for teachers and students, including guidance for supporting multilingual learners.

• Assessment- Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts program has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

• There are multiple resources accessible for our teachers:

  • Teacher Guide

  • Supporting Materials

  • Student Workbook

  • Guide for Multilingual learners

  • Anchor Text Guidance

  • Curriculum Tools- including conversation cues, language dives, and family letters

• There is a listing of required trade books needed. We have been purchasing them using grant funding. 

• This is a high quality instructional resource rated highly by EdReports. Per the EdReports review texts are of high quality and include rigorous reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language practice. Students have the opportunity to engage with texts and tasks that promote knowledge building and are engaging. Supports for teachers to implement the materials with fidelity are clear and include guidance for differentiating to authentically grow students’ skills.  

Rationale:  We need to finalize the 2024-2025 calendar for the next school year.   As outlined at the last meeting.  There are some changes:

• There is not a need for three professional development days prior to school starting, so we moved the professional learning day back to October.  From a staff learning perspective, this is a much better model.
• We moved up the staff professional learning days and students' start dates by two days, to begin the last week of August.  Starting with a half week is developmentally more appropriate for our preschool and kindergarten students.  Moving it up two days also better aligns with all of our neighboring districts.  
• We had to move the conference week to align with the PSAT date.  
• We made the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving Holiday a non-student day. We actually gain 1/2 of a day of instructional time by making this change.  I will bring data to the meeting. We also have significantly higher student absences on that Wednesday.   

Rationale:  As outlined at the last meeting, some changes to the proposed 2024-2025 school calendar are carried through to the 2025-2026 calendar. The draft 2025-2026 calendar is presented to the Board for acceptance.