Parents and educators who teamed up for a district advisory council spoke at the Board of Education’s meeting on January 7 to share plans and ideas the group has for the district.

Those plans and ideas include a partnership with the Newtown Senior Center and ways to increase voter turnout for the town referendum in April.

Last summer, as Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue explained at the meeting, she “put out an invite” for parent and staff members to be part of a new Parent Educator Advisory Council (PEAC).

Dr Rodrigue said the volunteers “were really willing to be a part of this grass roots committee to brainstorm areas they would like to support or improve upon as members of the entire school community.”

After an initial meeting last August, Dr Rodrigue said the new council began its work “to promote a partnership between educators and parents that will embrace core values, further a common language for all stakeholders, and support district priorities in the best interest of all students.”

A Peek At ‘PEAC’

Newtown Kindergarten-12 Health Education & Physical Education Coordinator and Reed Intermediate School health teacher Michelle Failla explained the evening’s “peek at PEAC” would include representatives from the council’s three committees explaining efforts and ideas. The three PEAC committees are Partnerships, Communication and Branding, and Budget.

The Partnerships Committee presentation, offered by Hawley Elementary School teacher Deborah Lubin and district parent Mary Murphy, outlined a new effort with the Senior Center to have students in kindergarten to twelfth grade visit with seniors at the center. As described by Ms Lubin, the plan includes having teachers voluntarily signing their classes up to do different activities at the center in a given time each month. Parents would be invited to attend the events, too. There are four classes piloting the concept this school year, according to the presentation.

“We’re so excited,” Ms Lubin said, adding that past partnerships with the Senior Center have generated new relationships between seniors and families in town.

The Communication and Branding Committee presentation, shared by Newtown Director of Pupil Services Deborah Mailloux-Petersen and district parent Denise Strong, explained the group worked to help make the new district website more consistent for each school, and it worked to archive district communications to make them available for parents to find on the district’s website, newtown.k12.ct.us. The committee is also planning to make a video to share educational programs in Newtown schools.

The Budget Committee representatives — Ms Failla and district parent Dr Christianne Golesky — explained their group is preparing for the April referendum with the hope of increasing community engagement and awareness of the budget process. A “school budget vote experience” is being planned for each school so students learn about voting ahead of the referendum, with the hope that the message will spread to parents. Ms Failla said ideas include lessons around the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed citizens would not be denied the right to vote “on account of sex.” Dr Golesky also shared the committee has a plan to use social media and connections through parents and friends.

Dr Golesky added that following next week’s planned presentation of the district’s 2020-21 superintendent’s proposed budget, the Budget Committee plans to share a “short highlight” of the budget, and it is hoped district administrators will communicate budget information to increase stakeholder involvement.

Winter Break School Projects

Also during the meeting, Facilities Director Bob Gerbert, Jr, shared an overview of school building projects that were completed over winter break, while students were not in school. Mr Gerbert said those projects included an abandoning project for an unused fuel tank at Middle Gate Elementary School for roughly $10,000; a Newtown Middle School project to install some acoustic ceilings and light fixtures for $24,000; a $2,000 NMS project to repair tiles that were safety concerns; and replacing some carpet and baseboard at Newtown High School for $25,000. Other projects included fixing a rotted waste-line at NHS and installing a combination water fountain and bottle filler station at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to Mr Gerbert.

The school board also approved the district’s monthly financial report for the month ending November 30, as presented by Business Director Ron Bienkowski. The report shared that since the previous month the district’s estimate for the Excess Cost Grant has been submitted to the state, one project to rebuild a circulator pump at NHS has the potential to cost more than $5,000, and receipts for local tuition and miscellaneous fees were accepted. Overall, the report shared, the district’s financial position improved from the previous month, and the budget will “continue to be closely monitored, with any further impacts being shared as appropriate.”

Policies Discussed

Later in the meeting, the school board discussed, approved, rescinded, or postponed decisions on some of its policies, which were brought up for first reads at a meeting last month. At the previous meeting, board members were asked to submit questions directly to the school board’s policy subcommittee so it could investigate them further before the second read. The school board then spent nearly two hours on January 7 discussing those policies, which ranged from time, place, and notification of meetings to monitoring products and processes.

A Celebration of Excellence at the start of the January 7 meeting highlighted the NHS football team for winning the Class LL state championship. A photo and story from that celebration will be in the January 17 print edition of The Newtown Bee.