North Canaan board welcomes new member, prepares breakfast

NORTH CANAAN — The Board of Education has welcomed to its ranks new member Shelley Veronesi. A unanimous vote at a March 13 meeting seated the Democratic Town Committee nominee, filling a vacancy.

When asked to tell the board something about herself, Veronesi said she has lived in Canaan for 30 years and raised two sons here.

“Now that they are grown, I have more time for myself. I wanted to do something useful.�

After the meeting, board members, Principal Rosemary Keilty and Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain headed for the school kitchen, where they rolled up their sleeves and packed brown bag breakfasts for the next morning.

The double duty was prompted not only by the absence of the volunteer scheduled for the task, but as a show of support for what was hailed as a simple program that is making a big difference at North Canaan Elementary School.

The board voted last month to underwrite the cost of supplying nutritious bag breakfasts during the first two weeks of March, while the Connecticut Mastery Tests were administered.

“The kids loved them, and I heard only good comments from teachers,� said Wellness Committee member Dolores Perotti. “If there was a problem, it was that kids were arriving at school early so they could help hand out the bags.�

The goal, of course, was to help students do their best on the tests.

“It also set the tone. It was special and it made the Mastery Tests more fun,� Chamberlain said.

Board members discussed offering a breakfast year round.

“We talked about it a lot on the Wellness Committee,� Perotti said. “The school nurse said there is definitely a need. A lot of children are coming to school without having eaten breakfast, for many reasons. She hands out granola bars to hungry children.�

Cost is a concern. The two weeks of breakfasts cost $2,200. The school lunch program has long been laboring to keep its head above water financially, while meeting strict menu and nutrition guidelines.

Keilty said the cost of each breakfast was 98 cents. Free and reduced meal reimbursements would apply, just as they do for lunches now, if it became a daily offering.

For now, the board included in its proposed budget for the coming school year the cost of repeating the program during next year’s testing.

Review of physical restraint

In other business, board members took a first look at a physical restraint policy.

Based on State Statute 46a-154, the policy would address children with special needs, such as those who are  required to wear a helmet or other device to prevent them from harming themselves, or for situations that require a school staff member to respond with a form of physical restraint.

General training may be recommended by the board. Enrollment of a special needs student would prompt specific training.

Chamberlain said that training calls for the use of verbal deceleration techniques first, with physical restraint as a last resort.

“Teachers are not trained to use physical means of diffusing situations,� Chamberlain said. “It’s not intuitive that they would want to do that. But they do need to know what is safe, and allowed when it comes to physical restraint.�

The proposed policy will be reviewed again at the board’s April 17 meeting. That agenda will include a look at the school’s dress code.

Keilty said it began with a class writing prompt: Do clothes make a difference?

It has taken off from there with discussions in classrooms and by the faculty and Student Council.

“We are looking at other schools’ uniforms,� Keilty said. “They are not the plaid skirts and blazers we think of when we hear school uniforms. It’s simply a more uniform way of dressing that has eliminated things like low-cut tops and spaghetti straps.�

Students and faculty members will appear at the next meeting with their comments.