April 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  Gifts
Bethel High School

• Most improved student baseball tickets hosted by the Hartford Yard Goats and ProHealth, $35, Monica Black, Easton, CT

Rationale: 

• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Protecting Student Health - B. Argentine
• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Student health and safety - J. Young
• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - 2025-2026 Budget Plan - R. Vazquez
• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Legislation - C. Carver
• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Fwd_ [FirstSelectman_70362] Budget Cut Concern - L. Petitti
• Letter of Support - Support of Raised Bill 1561 and 7277 - C. Carver, S. Clayton, BOE Chair, D. Carter, First Selectman, N. Ellis, BOF Chair
• Request for Letters of Support - Superintendent Communication - State Raised Bill to Increase Education Funding - C. Carver
• Follow Up Letter-NSLP Removal Harmful Chemicals - Ellington Board of Education
• Bethel CT Public Schools Mail - Concerns About Proposed Nursing Staff Reductions - J. Kurtz

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: 

• As you are aware we administer the PSAT and the SAT in the Fall and Spring.   The SAT data is used for state accountability scores or SAT day.  Mr. Troetti got the scores back over break and there are some real bright spots, noted below.  
   
  Please note the "official" SAT data might look slightly different when the state publishes it, as they have a way to scrub the data to account for student movement.  It is usually very similar, as we do not have that much student movement.   In addition, although we have access to state data, we do not yet have access to comparative data or information about our DRG or regional data.  Please also note, all students, with limited exceptions and inclusive of students with disabilities and multilingual learners are required to take the 11th grade "school day" SAT. 
   

  	BHS Spring % at Proficiency		State Spring % at Proficiency		Notes
  	ELA	Math	ELA	Math
  Class of 2026 Juniors	71%	41%	58%	31%	SAT School Day - 1st time taking SAT
  Class of 2027 Sophomores	77%	51%	60%	36%	6% increase in ELA & 12% in math from Fall
  Class of 2028  Freshman	76%	46%	58%	33%	6% increase in Math & 10% increase in ELA from Fall

  
  Here are links to the full charts:  
  Class of 2026
  Class of 2027
  Class of 2028
• 2025 BPS Awards Celebration:  May 22, 2025, 4 PM - 6 PM, at the Amber Room.  RSVP by May 10th.  See the attached flyer for details and the RSVP link.
• Update on HVAC Project at BHS
• State Budget Update 
• Budget Update 
• Health Insurance Update 
• School Improvement Presentation Updates JS & BMS April - BS, RS & BHS in May 
• Strategic Planning Update - June Report to the BOE 
• Vision of a Learner Committee Update 

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

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Key Points of the Briefing: 

• We are bringing forward the following senior elective curricula that has been revised in the ELA Department including: 

  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Curriculum

  • Gender Studies Curriculum

  • Honors Literature

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EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBLE USE OF THE DISTRICT’S COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS Policy

ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS REGARDING EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBLE USE OF THE DISTRICT’S COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS Regulation

 

Policies for revision with marked revisions are from Shipman and feedback from AI Community of Practice. Please note that these policies were revised last year by the Board; however, a month after we revised them Shipman updated the language to include AI. It is appropriate to bring them back to the Board committee for review.   Both sets reflect the appropriate use of technology.  This set of policy and regulation reflect employees, and the next agenda item is the policy and regulation for students.  

Rationale: 

STUDENT RESPONSIBLE USE OF THE DISTRICT'S COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND INTERNET SAFETY Policy 

ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS REGARDING STUDENT RESPONSIBLE USE OF THE DISTRICT'S COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND INTERNET SAFETY Regulation

 

Policies for revision with marked revisions are from Shipman and feedback from AI Community of Practice. Please note that these policies were revised last year by the Board; however, a month after we revised them Shipman updated the language to include AI. It is appropriate to bring them back to the Board committee for review.   Both sets reflect appropriate use of technology.  The first set of policy and regulation reflect employees, the second, students.   

Rationale:  In the December 2024 Shipman Policy update, they indicated that they updated the policy to clarify various uses of employees' social media and those uses that are subject to different consideration under the first amendment.  They also revised the policy in response to Lindke v. Freed (2024) in which a public employee might post something that is deemed "mixed use".   

Policy 4118.51
Regulation 4118.51 

Rationale:  This policy needed to be revised due to Section 18 of Public Act 24-41, requiring Boards of Education to provide benefits equal to those provided by the federal FMLA to non-certified employees who have been employed by the Board for at least 12 months and worked at least 950 hours for the Board for the previous 12 months.  The policy also made edits to clarify that the employees' available accrued sick leave runs concurrently with unpaid FMLA leave.  Given the thoroughness of the Shipman Model Policy, we have deleted the regulation.  

Policy 4152.6 Family Medical Leave 

Rationale:  This policy was recommended for revision based on new guidance from the Connecticut State Library, Office of Public Records Administrator.  It no longer permits public agencies to maintain internal digitization policies in lieu of seeking disposal authorization.  

Policy 2232
Regulation 2232 

Rationale:  The US Department of Education recently issued the 2024 Title IX Final Rule on sex discrimination. It brings the Title IX policy back to the 2020 version. This was originally approved by the Board of Education on December 17, 2020.  

Policy 5145.42
Regulation 5145.2
Appendix

 

Rationale: 

State statute allows a Board of Education to formally set graduation at its first meeting in April.  The Administration is recommending Friday, June 13, 2025 as the Graduation Date.  Saturday, June 14, 2025 is the rain date.

The last day for students will be Friday, June 13, 2025  (half-day).

The Board will be asked to vote to approve the graduation date. 

Rationale:  Annually, the school principals present their school improvement plan aligned to our district's Theory of Action and our Strategic Plan.  In October, they presented Part I.   As requested, the Principals are returning to revisit their progress towards meeting the goals, strategies, and action steps previously outlined.  

School Improvement Plan - Johnson School & Bethel Middle School - Part II