March 18, 2024 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Special Meeting

Rationale:  As discussed at the last Board Meeting, during the Administrative Update, we discussed the idea of the purchase of a van.  This would support our driver shortages, new special education requirements and provide increased field trip opportunities to our alternative program.   Ms. Variale, Mr. Caron, Ms. Stabilie and Dr. Sipala will walk the Board through the proposal.  

Van Proposal 

Rationale: 

• Congratulations to Christine Manalo, winner of the Heart of the Arts Award for her work in Unified Music.  A video honoring Christine Manalo and our Unified Music program.
• Congratulations to the IceCats win last week, advancing them to the state finals.

Artists on the Rise Show

The following BHS students had artwork featured in the annual Brookfield Craft Center Artists on the Rise Show on March 9th.
Maggie Atkins
Caitlin Baldwin
Julia Bender
Greta Betz
Mikayla Caprio
Madelyn DeGennaro
Clare Famularo
Ashlyn Germinaro
Sophia Goncalves
Marcus Graham
Aalyssa Loverso
Victoria Mastracchio
Mia Narvaez
Jordan Oberle-In
Rhiannon Ouellette
Ava Real
Lucano Rinaldi
Azelia Rodriguez
Paige Steele
Sienna Troetti
Sophia Trzyna
Emzie Zalaznick
 

2024 Teacher, Rookie, Pillar of the Year, CHAMP, and Friends of Bethel Award Winners 

Each year our schools award a Teacher of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Pillar of the Year.   We honor those individuals in a Spring Reception.  Save the Date, Thursday, May 23, 2024

Bethel High School

Michelle Leary - Teacher of the Year

Jonathan DosSantos - Rookie of the Year

Maura Dundie - Pillar of the Year

Bethel Middle School

Nate Rinas - Teacher of the Year

Brianna Lutz - Rookie of the Year

Denise Sullivan - Pillar of the Year

Johnson School 

Margaret Genuario - Teacher of the Year

Sanya Kayfus - Rookie of the Year

Joe Melo - Pillar of the Year

Rockwell School

Keri Luchsinger - Teacher of the Year

Jake Craybas - Rookie of the Year

Janet Murray - Pillar of the Year

Berry School 

Mandy Esposito - Teacher of the Year

Fran Demers - Rookie of the Year

Michele Russo - Pillar of the Year

Districtwide

Kylie D'Arcangelo - Pillar of the Year

Rebecca Chamberlain - CHAMP Award

Dan Carter - Friends of Bethel Award

Rationale:  The Month of March is Connecticut Board of Education Appreciation Month.  We would like to take this opportunity to say "thank you" to our hardworking and dedicated board members.  We thank you for the time and effort you devote to board business.

Video message from Commissioner Charlene M Russell-Tucker, CSDE.

Video message from Connecticut Association of Public Schools Superintendents (CAPSS) President, Dr. Christine Carver.




 

Rationale:  GIFTS

Bethel High School

• Window decorations for the back main entrance of the school, $3,600, Bethel All Sports Booster Club

GRANTS

• 2024 grants to educators (see attached for details), $19,925, Bethel Education Foundation
• 2024 Excellence in Education Award classroom grants, Total grant amount: $1,000 - $500 per educator, to be determined by Excellence in Education Award recipients:
  Jake Craybas - Rockwell School
  Debbie Tierney - Middle School

Rationale: 

• Dr. Carver's written testimony in opposition of Raised Bill 153:   AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CAREER TECHNICAL SYSTEM 
• Dr. Carver's written testimony regarding Senate Bill 5: An Act Concerning School Resources, House Bill 5416: An Act Concerning Various Education Statutes, and Senate Bill 363: An Act Concerning Assorted Revisions to the Education Statutes.
• Dr. Carver's written testimony regarding Raised Bill 381: Raised Bill 381: An Act Concerning the Teaching Profession and Revisions to the Mandated
  Reporting Requirements.
• Dr. Carver's written testimony regarding House Bill 5463: An Act Concerning Educator Certification.
• Dr. Carver also agreed to work with CPRL, Jan Perruccio (Old Saybrook) and Cynthia Richie (New London) to write this opinion piece in support of the legislative changes to certification.  It was submitted to media outlets and sent to Bethel's delegation. 
• Email - FW: Student Privacy Rights in Jeopardy - S.B. 380 -- A Message From: Scott Nicol

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: 

• Interim Director of Special Education 
• March 19th Tuesday - Public Hearing on the Budget - BHS Auditorium @ 7:00 PM babysitting will be provided.  
• April 4th - Town Meeting -  BHS Auditorium @ 7:00 PM babysitting will be provided.

• Parent-Teacher Conferences are next week.  
• Supt. Evaluation Meeting Dates
  • June 13, 2024 - BOE Special Meeting, Executive Session - Supt. Eval. Part I, 5:30-7:30 PM
  • June 20, 2024 - BOE Special Meeting, Executive Session - Supt. Eval. Part II, 5:30-7:30 PM

• We hosted Science of Reading Learning Walks with our State partners and colleagues from New Milford last Wednesday.  We started to analyze some of the data collected in the process of implementing our K-5 programs. 
• Last Friday, the Admin Council and our broader leadership team conducted Instructional Rounds at Johnson School, with a focus on our district Theory of Action, intellectual engagement. We have now done Rounds in all five schools.    
• Last Tuesday, I attended the Superintendent Network.  The theme related to instructional improvement is around innovation.

As we begin to wind down the school year, there are so many great events that highlight the accomplishments and talents of our students.  A few highlights that are not worth missing (flyers below) include:

• Anything Goes, Bethel High School, Performances March 15th - March 17th.

• Winter Guard Friends and Family Event, Friday, March 22nd at 5:30-8:30 PM, Bethel High School Gym

• The Military Ball, Friday, March 29th, Aqua Turf (BHS Cadets & Invited Guests)

• Bethel Education Family Board Game Night, Wednesday, April 3, 6-8 PM, Bethel High School

• STEAM Fair, Wednesday, April 24th, 6-8 PM, Bethel High School

A reminder to accept or decline the BOE Committee & Board meeting dates calendar invites as it is an efficient way to know who is attending and if we will have a quorum.  If your schedule should change and you are unable to attend a meeting that you accepted, please just let myself, Scott and/or your committee chair and Sue Pare know.  Please note, that you must be logged into your BOE account when accepting/declining the invites for us to be able to see your response.

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

Rationale: 

Summary of the Briefing:

• We have been using the instructional resource, Bridges in Mathematics and Number Corner for several years and have written a curriculum aligned to our programs, including supplemental materials and priority lessons that better meet the needs of our community. 

• Our K-5 math curriculum includes:

  • fluency work places

  • rigorous and authentic problem solving opportunities

  • conceptual build

  • use of consistent models 

  • deliberate work with the math practices embedded throughout each lesson

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

  • Focus on the major work of the grade level

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

  • Supplemental resources including, but not limited to Concept Quests, Tools for Teachers, Graham Fletcher Fluency tools

Rationale: 

Key Points of the Briefing: 

 

• We have an increasing number of students who have a strong background in speaking and listening skills in the Spanish language either from learning the language from family members or living in another country for a period of time. This course will serve to empower these students by  celebrating culture and working towards increasing their bilingual abilities in all the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. 

• The students enrolled in this course will learn the 8th grade Spanish curriculum with an emphasis on teaching the heritage speaker. Linked is the Spanish for Heritage Speakers Curriculum.

• Units include:

  • Unit 1:  My identity, who am I?  Grammar Focus: present tense, irregular present tense verbs, possessive adjectives 

  • Unit 2:  Food and restaurants   Grammar Focus: irregular present tense, formal commands, interrogatives, comparatives and superlatives, introduce past tense - regular and irregular 

  • Unit 3:  Vacation/Travel  Grammar Focus:  irregular and regular past tense, present tense, indirect object pronouns, verbs like Gustar 

• The general objectives of this course are to develop competence in students’ reading and writing skills, to master certain grammar concepts particular to native/heritage speakers, to help them improve their presentational skills and take into account the experiences and influences of their bilingual and bicultural upbringing.  This course will place an emphasis on having a pride in one’s culture and sense of belonging in the community. 

• This course will also help students to connect with others with a similar cultural background and gain a deeper understanding of their family's language and traditions. 

• Just as with our other 8th grade language courses, upon successful completion of this course and a passing grade on the final exam, students will earn one high school credit.

  • This credit does not count towards GPA at the high school but will appear on the high school transcript as a passing grade.  

• Students who are ready can move to Spanish 3 at the high school.  Many students will advance to honors Spanish from this course and will be on a track to take AP Spanish, as well as become prepared to take the Seal of Biliteracy Test. 

Rationale:  Key Points of the Briefing: 
 

• We have been piloting this School Leadership unified arts course this year. Students work on improving the culture and climate of the school based on needs of the building or problems they are facing.
• Leadership areas include, but are not limited to, work on:
  • Pay It Forward"—students developed a ticket system to encourage positive behavior and the idea of passing on the kindness
  • Students work closely and develop activities with peers from the Learning Center (Cooking, crafts, inclusiveness)
  • Students created videos for incoming 6th graders to explain everything from opening a locker to student routines
  • Building Emotional Intelligence, global competencies & RULER lessons
• Students can elect to enroll in this course during the 6th grade unified arts block
• Curriculum work will be planned for the future.

Rationale:  We are required to submit the plan by March 1st.  However, we received the extension to submit it by April.  This regulation outlines how we implement our Minority Recruitment Plan.

The template was required by legislation in the last session. We can't change the template it is required by law.

Regulation 4111.3 - Educator Diversity Plan

Rationale:  Nepotism - This is next in line with our Personnel Policy Review.  Shipman had much better language in this policy and one aspect conflicted with the BOE bylaw, conflict of interest, so I made some suggested changes.  Since I reviewed the Conflict of Interest bilan, I thought it was appropriate to include suggested revisions.  

Rationale:  I am recommending the deletion of this policy.    Assignment is negotiated as part of contracts which the BOE approves.   

Deletion - Policy 4113 - Assignment of Professional Personnel

Rationale:  Recommend deletion. This is a contractual issue and is included in language within the contract.   

Deletion - Regulation 4114 - Transfer/Reassignment

Rationale:  Bylaw 9270 - Conflict of Interest

Board of Education Bylaw - Shipman had much better language in Nepotism policy and one aspect conflicted with this BOE bylaw, conflict of interest, so I made some suggested changes.

Rationale:  This policy was suggested for revision by Shipman and Goodwin.  The current Board of Education Policy was from 2001 and did not reflect many legislative changes ov there the years.  As a result, the policy got a complete overhaul.  Due to the fact that there were so many changes to the policy itself, we are recommending deleting the regulation.  The policy includes:  

1. Legal disclosures at the time of application.
2. DCF and other background checks.  

Policy 4112.51 - Employment & Student Teacher Checks
Deletion - Regulation 4112.51 - Employment & Student Teacher Checks

Rationale:  There were several legislative changes that occurred this session affecting substitute teachers.   As the policy had not been updated since 2005, there were a number of other suggested changes to the policy.  Those changes include: 

• Background requirements for substitutes.  
• Use of building substitutes and daily substitutes.
•   Statutory change in using the same substitute from 40 days to 60 days.  

Policy 4121 - Substitute Teachers

Rationale:  This policy is not in compliance with federal and state law.  Specifically, you can not refuse a student a lunch, nor can you give students an alternative lunch.  Lastly, a parent can not be required to pay off a lunch balance.  

Policy 3542.43 - Food Service Charging

Regulation 3542.43 - Food Service Charging

Rationale:  There are no suggested changes to the policy, only some to the regulations.  There were many suggested changes to the regulations.  


Policy 5112.4 - Disenrollment
Regulation 5112.4 - Disenrollment

Rationale:  This policy has not been reviewed since 1992, therefore many of the attributes were outdated.  In addition, there were a number of legislative changes that were included in this revised version of the policy.   The highlighted areas reflect both the law and district practice.  Dr. Sipala, Director of Special Education and Pupil Personnel made the suggestions that are reflected.

Policy 6159 - Individualized Education Program/Special Education Program

Rationale:  The Administration of Medication policy required an update because of some legislative changes to the use of Narcan in schools.  All the adjustments are due to those changes.  This policy was reviewed by Mrs. Davenport, the Health Services Coordinator.  

Administration of Medication 

Rationale:  There were legislative changes on construction and posting of agendas.   In addition, in reviewing the model Shipman Policy, there were some language items that were clearer than our existing bylaws.  

Bylaw 9323 - Construction of the Agenda

Rationale: 
Job Description - 2.08 - Special Education Transition Specialist

Rationale: 

Job Description - XX - Substitute Teacher