The Board of Education appointed Deborra Zukowski as a new member of the board in a 2-0 vote during a Tuesday, August 13 meeting.

Zukowski fills the vacancy left by former BOE member Donald Ramsey, who stepped down after submitting a letter of resignation to the board on Friday, July 19. The letter of resignation was effective immediately, and the board could then pick a successor through a majority vote of the remaining members from the same political party as Ramsey, provided the vote occurs within 45 days of him leaving.

Since Ramsey filled a Republican seat on the board, the BOE’s remaining Republican members, Brian Leonardi and Shannon Tomai, handled the vote.

Two candidates had submitted their resumes and applied to fill the position according to Leonardi, who thanked them both for their interest in being on the board.

“It’s a difficult job, and anybody who’s willing to sacrifice their time and energy to sit on the board deserves commendation,” Leonardi said.

Tomai seconded Leonardi’s comments of appreciation towards both candidates, saying that it was wonderful to speak with them and that she was honored they were willing to devote their time to the board.

While Leonardi said that the two candidates were excellent, both he and Tomai ultimately felt that Zukowski would be “an excellent fit” for the board; with Leonardi saying that he believes Zukowski has demonstrated her dedication to Newtown through serving on commissions and committees for around 14 years.

Zukowski also previously served on the BOE, both as a member and as chair. After originally being voted onto the BOE in November of 2019, she was later voted to become the board’s chair in December of 2021. Zukowski went on to step down from the board last November, choosing to not run again.

“This board has very important work ahead of it to help support our new superintendent and also drive towards the goals that we have for this district, and Deb is in a position not only to hit the ground running, but also to bring her valuable experience to the board as well. So for those reasons, I’m very excited to endorse and have Deb join the board,” Leonardi explained.

Tomai expressed that she was appreciative of Zukowski for coming back to the board, and said that she looked forward to having her participate again.

While Zukowski was unable to attend the meeting in person, she did connect online to share her gratitude to the board for choosing her as the new board member.

“I very much thank you for your confidence in appointing me back to the board. I will do everything I can to work collaboratively, to ensure that our new superintendent can succeed, and that the good work that has been happening over the last few years continues,” Zukowski said. “So thank you. Thank you very much for selecting me.”

Preparing For The Upcoming School Year

BOE Chair Alison Plante then welcomed Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti to her first BOE meeting in her new position, with her appointment officially taking effect Monday, August 5.

Uberti shared that she has been “quite busy” since her appointment. On her first day as superintendent, Uberti said that she launched a weekly Newtown Public Schools update about the upcoming start of the school year.

“It is a work in progress, but I’m hoping that having a regular newsletter that goes out to the entire community will provide a glimpse into all the wonderful things that are happening in our schools,” Uberti said.

She also shared that the launch of the newsletter led into discussions about the information available on the district website and calendar, and how the information on the district’s Google Calendar is not up to date.

Uberti said that they have been working to clean everything up and hope to roll out a new website, at least for the district portion by Tuesday, October 1. Once they have an efficient process for developing the weekly update, she says, they will then move to expand to a district social media presence.

As of now, Uberti said that their main focus is on preparing schools for their opening this fall. New staff members will be in next week according to Uberti, and will begin their new staff orientation Monday through Friday at the Reed Intermediate School Library.

A variety of activities is planned to “help them feel prepared for their first day,” including the long-standing bus tour, which will be led by Newtown Federation of Teachers Union President Trent Harrison. The bus tour, Uberti says, gives them a chance to go around town and see the community, and culminates with a stop at Ferris Acres Creamery.

Uberti went on to share that all staff will return for convocation on Monday, August 26, and have two additional work days that include professional learning time, faculty meetings, student walkthroughs and bus runs. Meanwhile, students will return on Thursday, August 29. Both that Thursday, as well as Friday, August 30, will be two-hour early dismissals.

“I’ve been in all of our schools in the past few days, including last week, where many people were gracious enough to let me take their pictures ... but our schools are looking good,” Uberti said. “They’re slowly taking shape, and I’m assured that they will be ready for the first day [of school] on the 26th.”

The BOE also discussed the continuation of school activities funds during the meeting. According to Plante, this is an annual board action required by policy that, consistent with state statutes, has the board “approve the existence of activity funds to provide supplemental educational opportunities to district students, and to provide for other specific purposes the board considers desirable.”

These activity funds are approved by board action, and the BOE considers the continuance of these existing funds on an annual basis. Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia said that these student accounts are held by the students, and can only be used to benefit them for co-curricular and extracurricular activities.

When asked by Tomai how these generally tie into the budget, Gouveia said that they are considered special revenue accounts and are not part of the general fund at all.

According to Gouveia, the elementary schools use these for field trips, while Reed Intermediate School and beyond are wider in variety, where they start to be used for field trips, sports, and extracurricular activities.

Uberti said that something they could look at is to determine whether all those clubs are active, and if they are not, then consider how they can bring those balances down.

“We are hoping to come up with a plan to try to [bring some of these balances down]... provide ideas and speak with the advisors, speak with the teachers that oversee some of the clubs, but it does take time,” Gouveia said. “There’s 160 different accounts at the high school, the middle school’s got 70, and Reed has about 20.”

After additional discussion, Plante said that it makes sense to table the topic for next time, and to do a scan of the accounts to confirm that there is nothing defunct or dormant in there.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.