[4:08] No, no. You want to everyone excited to
be here for the budget. [laughter]
[4:17] » Thank you. Sorry to interrupt your
conversations. I know it's nice to um
[4:21] see people socially too, not just at
work. So, uh we're going to get the
[4:26] meeting started. I think it's like 9:03.
And uh call the meeting to order. And
[4:32] we'll start with the pledge of
allegiance.
[4:36] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
[4:41] republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
[4:47] justice for all.
>> I just do want to thank everyone for
[4:53] coming out on a Saturday morning. I know
that uh everyone has things they might
[4:58] want to be doing other than this, but
understands the super important stuff.
[5:02] So, thank you. Uh thank you for all the
administrators and uh who've come out
[5:08] today to uh
be part of this process. And I see Doug
[5:15] Harding from finance is here. I don't
know if I'm missing anyone else. Oh, and
[5:18] Logan Johnson's walking in from finance.
So, uh thank you go thank you all for
[5:23] being here. We look forward to
partnering with you on this budget. I'm
[5:28] going to now turn the meeting over to
Oliver Barton. Thank you.
[5:33] » Thank you, Carrie. And thanks board
members, too. You've been putting in a
[5:36] lot of time on meetings. Um my wife said
to me two days ago, you're having
[5:41] another budget meeting. Like I it's
getting to the point where I'm not sure
[5:44] she believes it. That's why I want to
make sure they're all posted on the
[5:47] website. She could check it there if she
has any questions. So um but thank you
[5:53] for being here. Um it is a lot of
meetings but it is very very important
[5:57] and um as we've mentioned in all our
other budget meetings we recognize that
[6:02] this is a particularly challenging year
um across the whole community
[6:06] financially and so we're very committed
to um partnering uh with the town and
[6:13] spending very wisely. So, uh, today I'll
do a very brief recap of Thursday's
[6:20] meeting and then Alicia will, uh, lead
us through a dig a deeper dive digging a
[6:26] little deeper in the budget. Um, and
we'll have plenty of time for questions
[6:31] and answers and we'll be done, um, even
before our scheduled time. So, we're
[6:36] we're really focused on efficiency and
moving along. But, um, thank you for
[6:39] being here and, um, we appreciate your
participation and your questions when we
[6:44] get to that part.
[6:48] over here. [snorts]
[6:57] All right. Uh so that was today's
schedule.
[7:04] Oops. Okay. So um the on Thursday uh we
provided budget books for the board.
[7:10] They're posted online and uh we do have
copies if you need one. Um the increase
[7:17] from last year to this year is 1.4
million. Um that looks like a really big
[7:22] number. I I reduced the font a little
bit because it looked really really big,
[7:26] but um
um those that Alicia will explain
[7:30] further, but that's driven mostly by
contractual cost increases.
[7:35] uh and it's a 2.93%
increase in the budget overall.
[7:43] So, uh recapping a little bit from
Thursday's meeting, uh we're staying
[7:49] with the priorities that we've uh
focused on for the last several years,
[7:53] and that's first off budgeting and
spending carefully. So, [snorts] of
[7:57] course, that means keeping our increases
as low as possible. Uh we're super
[8:02] committed to transparency. Uh, I'd like
to say this budget is almost naked. Um,
[8:08] and I don't think it would pass the high
school dress code because there's we've
[8:13] chipped away as much as possible. Um,
and you'll be able to look at those
[8:17] numbers in great detail. But we want you
to be able to see from the the public
[8:21] perspective and the board perspective
exactly what's in the budget and and
[8:26] what it's for, what we're spending the
money on, uh, and why increases do
[8:30] occur.
And that transparency is very important.
[8:34] That's why everything is posted publicly
and why we want to entertain questions
[8:38] at all of our meetings um now and going
forward. Additionally, we're really
[8:43] focused on a high return on investment.
And I don't mean that in the big picture
[8:47] sense uh as far as our overall
performance as a district, our student
[8:53] performance uh and the incredible uh
environment we create for student
[8:58] learning. but that each part of the
budget is really designed carefully to
[9:03] provide the maximum value for the
dollars that we spend. So that's what I
[9:08] mean by uh high return on investment and
we're committed to doing that across all
[9:13] the different parts of the budget.
So we also presented a little bit on
[9:18] context and trends. Uh there are no new
positions in the budget other than a few
[9:25] positions that we determined were
extremely important and that we're able
[9:29] to achieve uh by shifting resources. So,
we're not adding positions in terms of
[9:34] additional positions in the budget um in
the general operating budget, but we're
[9:39] looking for ways to repurpose a little
bit inhouse and to use some state grant
[9:45] money
um to meet some needs over the next few
[9:49] years. So, um we're also looking at the
special revenue account, the money
[9:55] generated through the basis program, and
we'll hear more about that. On Thursday,
[9:59] we looked at uh into how that provides
for savings across the district and uh
[10:05] Dr. Leaport did some further
calculations for us and um is able to
[10:10] demonstrate um over a million dollars in
savings um actually more like $2 million
[10:16] and and we'll provide that number
exactly um that we save by not
[10:21] outplacing students and uh also have the
benefit of keeping those students close
[10:25] to home and in house. So, it's a and
it's an educational benefit for those
[10:30] students. Uh, but we're also inviting
students in from other districts and
[10:33] that tuition uh those tuition accounts
are very helpful in our overall budget
[10:38] and for funding basis.
[10:42] Um we the part of the other other parts
of the context of course are that we are
[10:47] in the lower 10 lowest um handful of
districts in the state in terms of our
[10:53] overall spending and our increases have
remained um fairly moderate over time.
[11:00] Um
these are the last five years of uh
[11:04] proposed budgets and approved budgets
and uh there were some obviously some uh
[11:11] needs for expanding a little bit in the
middle to meet certain costs. Uh but
[11:15] we're carefully trimming uh and
proposing budgets that we believe are
[11:19] super responsible as far as the the
money we're spending and how we're
[11:23] spending it. And in terms of keeping our
increases the increases as low as
[11:29] possible, um I like to think of it as
the fact that in this budget, in this
[11:35] proposed budget, we've already done this
part of it, right? We have chiseled away
[11:39] over and over to get to where we are.
and Alicia will um provide some further
[11:44] detail on that.
Uh so the last bar on the right is that
[11:48] 2.93%
which is our superintendent's proposed
[11:52] budget for this year.
Uh looking ahead a bit um a week from
[11:58] this Wednesday coming up there'll be a
finance committee board of ed finance
[12:02] committee review of the budget again. So
you have the detailed information to
[12:08] check through. Uh and at that meeting we
can answer additional questions that
[12:12] come up and the board of finance will
review and consider the budget or the
[12:17] committee will consider the budget uh at
[snorts] that time further. Um after
[12:21] that a week after that on a Wednesday is
the next board of ed meeting and that's
[12:25] when we would expect a vote on the
budget by the board of education to
[12:29] adopt the budget. And uh following that,
February 9th, the department budgets are
[12:36] due to the town. And on the 11th, soon
after, the board of ed presents to the
[12:41] board of finance um at a budget hearing
in April, midappril, uh there's a budget
[12:49] public hearing. So, uh that will be here
in the high school auditorium so that
[12:53] there's plenty of room u for
participation and questions.
[12:58] Uh and then I meanwhile we are you know
we do hear further information from the
[13:04] state. These these items are actually um
mostly predicted and decided at this
[13:09] point. The only variable really there is
the excess cost grant um and we've heard
[13:15] on the other the other items on magnet
tuition um ECS which is capped the state
[13:20] contribution is capped um flat the same
as last year. So there won't really be
[13:27] any further information in that regard.
Then uh May 12th on a Tuesday is the
[13:33] annual budget meeting for the town and
they have the opportunity to vote on a
[13:38] budget then. That that is a possibility,
but more likely two weeks out from that
[13:43] um there'd likely be a budget
referendum. So um we look forward to
[13:47] that going smoothly and partnering with
the town along the way. um and obviously
[13:52] always being available for questions uh
and your continued involvement.
[13:59] So that's the quick recap and Alicia has
a lot of detail and information to share
[14:03] with us uh and then we'll do questions.
[14:26] So, I'm taking off all the pages. He
went through.
[14:35] All right.
So, let's dig deeper into the budget.
[14:40] So, I wanted to start with some details
on the increase and really break it down
[14:45] by pieces. you do this you do have this
on page
[14:50] 10 within your budget book um but I
wanted to take some time to talk about
[14:54] it a little bit right so we know that
the increase is about 1.4 4 million and
[14:59] and as we know this piece the biggest
piece is is always salaries. Um so we
[15:05] can see here the increase to those
contractual salaries is 1341 954.
[15:11] Um our second biggest is here is the
travel and transportation. Uh and a and
[15:16] a big piece of that is there is an
increase to the outplacement
[15:20] transportation and we've accounted for
that within the budgetary line. And I'll
[15:24] talk some more about where we started
there and where we are a little bit
[15:27] later in the in the presentation
with the other employee cost. Um that's
[15:33] 50,785
operational fairly small at 15252.
[15:38] But you can also see down here that we
made some reductions to instructional
[15:43] services and supplies and also in the
tuition line. So where you might see
[15:48] that outplacement um transportation go
up for certain reasons, you're also
[15:52] seeing that tuition drop down because it
depends on if there's private, public,
[15:56] and where that outplacement is being
paid to.
[16:03] Here it is in the number form. So you
can see it there. When you look at
[16:06] salaries, it's a 4.31%
increase. Um and that really is our
[16:11] biggest offset. So what that shows me as
well is we start with salaries. that's
[16:15] where we need to start. Um, but then we
also look and where we can trim anywhere
[16:19] else to bring that percentage increase
down.
[16:27] So when we start this submission
proposed with no cuts, everyone comes
[16:32] in, what do you need? Let's talk about
it. Where do we start? Um, the total was
[16:37] 50,2921
155. So, that would have been an
[16:41] increase of 2.3 million or 4.95%.
And this number does not include any of
[16:47] those uh requested positions that were
not approved for this budget cycle. Uh I
[16:52] believe that's about $350,000,
but because we never move them over, I'm
[16:56] not including them within this number.
So, we went ahead and we go through and
[17:01] we have meetings and we slice and dice
and we go through the different lines
[17:03] and really look at the historical
trends. We look at the needs. What's the
[17:07] highest priority? How do we get there?
How do we get the students what they
[17:11] need? Um being as fiscally responsible
as we can. Um and when you look at that,
[17:17] we ended up at at this point before we
submitted it, it was a cut of 966404,
[17:23] which is 2.02% of that 495.
So then once we we go through that, we
[17:30] sit down, we feel good about where we're
at. Um, we feel like we've come in with
[17:34] the most fiscally responsible budget we
can. And that left us with the number
[17:38] that you saw on the slide earlier, the
49, 325,751,
[17:43] and the increase of 1.4 million or
2.93%.
[17:47] And as Oliver noted, this includes no
positions added to the general fund.
[17:56] And so, I wanted to talk about those
presubmission cuts because this is
[17:59] something we don't typically talk about.
we kind of do it and send it and so
[18:03] we're we're building in some
transparency as to the work that gets
[18:06] done behind the scenes before we put it
in the budget book in front of you. Um
[18:10] so at the Ellington High School um we
went ahead and they had submitted like
[18:15] say for a kiln but the kiln isn't can't
really be used. So I'm like well let's
[18:20] figure out a place to put it this year
or let's use some choice funding or find
[18:23] alternative funding to buy that kiln. If
we can do that, we can get it into the
[18:27] school because the need is there, but we
also can take it out of next year's
[18:30] budget. I think when you're looking at
things that you can do that with
[18:34] one-time cost is a good place to do that
because, you know, you're not pulling it
[18:39] out and building a bubble where you've
then got to try and replace that in the
[18:43] next year. Um, it was the same with some
books they needed in that space. Um, at
[18:47] the Ellington Middle School, we sat down
and went over some of the needs.
[18:52] something is the one of them was a table
saw that I think is like 30 years old at
[18:57] this point. Um and that could break
tomorrow. So when we sit and talk about
[19:01] that, it's like no, let's figure out how
to get this now because the students
[19:04] need to have that and do we have
capacity to get that through some
[19:08] alternative funding. And so we work on
that and we figure out where we can do
[19:12] that and what we can pull out. Um, at
the Windermir school and all the
[19:18] elementaryaries, we I always say, well,
anyone come in and tell us what you
[19:22] need. Tell us what that really looks
like so we know. Um, and when you look
[19:27] at that, we especially with the
elementary schools, we sit down as a
[19:31] group and we talk about the spending
between the three schools. We talk about
[19:34] what that per pupil like looks like. We
talk about the needs and wants and then
[19:38] we realign and cut those numbers down.
Um, so they may have wanted decodables
[19:45] for something or extracurricular stuff,
but we say, "Well, what is the need and
[19:50] what is the want?" Um, and then we cut
some of that stuff back. And that is the
[19:54] same as well with Crystal Lake School,
the lines proposed by the business
[19:59] office. So, these are the lines that
Stephanie and I sit and comb through and
[20:03] really look at the historical trends and
the numbers and figure out what should
[20:07] be budgeted for the next year. And the
reason you see the cut to this is so big
[20:13] um is because it includes a reduction of
salaries. It includes not increasing
[20:19] medical and you'll see a lot of detail
on this as we go through this as well.
[20:24] This is the same like with the
maintenance budget. So the director of
[20:27] facilities submits this and he submits
it with anything extra he needs to fix,
[20:33] increase and improve things throughout
the district. This year we really went
[20:38] through and said, "Well, what do we need
to sustain? What do we need um what is
[20:42] that base that we need to not cause
higher costs later on?" Um and we came
[20:48] in really tight with that. Um and
there's some notable accounts too with
[20:52] that where I'll explain why we kept some
of those increases as well to try and
[20:56] plan for the future where bigger
spending could happen.
[21:00] In the ED services budget, uh we made a
significant reduction there. Um we
[21:06] looked through looked at the historical
we saw what could happen. We know that
[21:11] there was some curriculum there in the
past too. So saying well okay it was
[21:14] high this year why what do we really
need? And we went ahead and made a
[21:19] reduction to that as well. Um and then
you do see a a large cut from the
[21:24] special education. Um and we know that
the special education needs are high but
[21:29] how can we do the best we can with the
most responsible? And one thing that
[21:33] typically happens is they come in and
they put in for an unanticipated
[21:36] outplacement because you don't really
know what's going to happen. And really
[21:40] throughout the budget session, we
usually cut that out because it is a
[21:43] significant cost, right? Hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Um, and so we end
[21:48] up taking that out because it is a huge
impact to the budget. Um, and I think
[21:54] there is a risk there, but we also have
trust in the program that exists and the
[21:57] special education within the schools.
Um, and so we gamble on the side that it
[22:03] may not be there. And we also have the
unexpended fund account that we never
[22:07] want to use, but it allows us to
evaluate that risk from a little bit of
[22:10] a of a narrower lens.
[22:22] So speaking of those cuts, I want to
jump into the medical and dental claim
[22:25] trends. So, this is one um visual I
really wanted to keep in here because I
[22:31] think that year three self- insurance
can be really confusing. Um and so I
[22:37] wanted to look at our claim trends. And
when you're looking at this at this
[22:42] graph in front of you, you can see the
yellow is the total claims. So that's
[22:45] the claims that everyone on the plan
they make. That's what we pay for those
[22:50] claims. The purple is the total premium.
So ve like from that basic perspective
[22:56] you want that yellow line to be lower
than the purple line. Um and as you can
[23:01] see some years that happens and some
years it doesn't. Um and then that MLR
[23:08] that's the medical loss ratio. So you
always want that to be below 100% and
[23:13] the lower it is below 100% the better.
When it's over that means we are losing
[23:17] money within the medical fund. Um, and
so if you look in some of these, we've
[23:24] had a few really good years within our
medical fund, and we've been able to
[23:28] build it up to that target fund amount
that they really want us to have in
[23:32] there for if that really bad year comes
for safety. Um, and we've done some good
[23:38] work getting there with the help of you
guys. And, uh, and I appreciate it so
[23:42] much. And actually on Tuesday, I'm
working to have Chuck come in and talk
[23:45] about this as well. Um, but when we look
at the medical fund in the way that it
[23:49] was budgeted within this budget, because
we were trying to find ways to be as
[23:54] fiscally responsible as possible, I did
no increase to the medical or dental for
[23:58] next year. And so what that means is
when you're projecting out the medical,
[24:04] it says that we're going to we're
estimated to land at about, you know,
[24:08] the 2 million that we started the year
with at the end of this year, but with
[24:11] no increase to the medical fund, Brown
and Brown is predicting that we'll take
[24:15] about a $400,000 cut to our medical
fund. [clears throat] So I just wanted
[24:20] to make everyone aware of that. Uh it's
an impact of about on the on the general
[24:24] fund side of about $183,000
that I didn't put in there and it does
[24:30] risk our a reduction to our medical
fund.
[24:39] This is the salaries and benefits. Um
and as I said before when you looked at
[24:45] the when you look at the salaries alone
and we'll see that as well. you are
[24:47] going to see more of that increase
because the contractual obligations. Um
[24:52] but because of that flat that flatting
with the dental life and medical here,
[24:57] you're seeing a difference of 1.3 or
3.57.
[25:01] Um and that is that is is right on par,
but if we had the medical the benefits
[25:06] increase, that would go up further than
that.
[25:12] This slide breaks down the salaries by
object code. Uh, and I really wanted to
[25:17] explain this because if this is your
first time looking at it or if you're
[25:20] looking at it the once a year, it's it's
easy to be like, well, what's going on
[25:24] here? Um, because you can see within
that certifying line, you can see an
[25:29] increase uh that you would expect. But
when you look at that non-certified
[25:33] substitutes and other compensation, it
looks a little skewed. And the reason
[25:37] for that is because we have two
contracts that are up for renegotiation
[25:40] right now. and that's the full-time pair
of professionals and the maintenance
[25:44] custo and custodial contract. So when
that happens, those lines get carried
[25:48] forward with the salaries and the pay
they have for this year and then the the
[25:54] increase we think may happen goes into
the other compensation line uh because
[25:58] it is not a it's not compensation that
exists yet until the contract is
[26:02] negotiated. So it goes down into a
bottom line of that salary to account
[26:07] for the expense for the next year. Um,
and negotiation for those contracts will
[26:10] happen in the spring. So, we won't have
what that really looks like until closer
[26:14] to the end of the school year.
[26:21] I also want to take a look at utilities
um just so we can see what that
[26:25] year-over-year looks like. And when we
went into um FY25 budget, we can we can
[26:31] see that there was a big increase there.
And we know last year was a hard year
[26:35] for electric. we knew that we went over
in that within the budget and you can
[26:39] see that here. And then we still made a
you know a conservative increase for 26
[26:45] and I've done the same for the 27
budget. Um when you look down below for
[26:49] 27 it's only an increase of 6,095.
Um so what I do with electric is when
[26:55] we're trying to really come in as
fiscally responsible as possible.
[26:59] There's areas where we take risk. So I
take the bills, I calculate, I do an
[27:04] average of what the cost is for the
current year. I multiply that out to
[27:07] project out what the year current year
would cost and I carry that into the
[27:11] next. So there is no increase in there
for if utility cost goes up next year.
[27:17] It's it's making the assumption that
utilities will cost the same. One change
[27:22] I did make is with the construction
ongoing at Windier, the electric bills
[27:25] have been very very high. Um, but we
will have a, you know, we've opened the
[27:30] new wings, they've been doing
construction in them, we've had people
[27:33] in that space that aren't normally in
that space. So, really, we've been
[27:36] running electric on a bigger school than
typical. Um, and now we're going into
[27:41] that demo phase, and the school will be
functioning as it should at the
[27:45] beginning of next year. So, I took a I
took a decrease to the Windir to to help
[27:50] with that line as well.
[27:57] This slide is the out outside tuition
and transportation and this speaks to
[28:01] the outplacements we have within the
district. And so looking at this uh we
[28:05] went ahead and projected it the same um
the same number of students for next
[28:10] year with what those costs would be and
and what we know they would be. So we
[28:16] didn't put in an increase like a 3%
increase for the assumption that there
[28:20] would be an increase to those costs. We
did have that in and we went ahead and
[28:23] pulled that out. And then we also looked
at and we pulled out the un the
[28:28] unassigned placement as well. So we
marked that as zero for next year. So
[28:32] this is with the assumption that all
things will carry forward as they are
[28:36] with the expenses that we know will
exist with no increase to those numbers
[28:42] increase but no increase to the above
that in case they went up.
[28:47] And when you're looking at this table
here, what it goes ahead and ties to
[28:50] this slide, the special services and
outside tuition. Um, transportation is
[28:55] is not in this because um that just
lives in a different place, but this
[28:58] looks at your your private, your public,
your DCF, your magnet, and your VOAG.
[29:04] Um, and this looks at those costs. And I
did want to speak to that as well
[29:08] because I know that it's been asked in
the past like what that looks like. And
[29:13] so we have um overall we have 41 magnet
students. That's the crack, Eastcon, and
[29:19] Goodwin. Of the 41, five are special
education uh and have IEP, which means
[29:24] we pay for their services, and that's
that 52,500 that you see under magnet.
[29:29] So that's for the services for those
students. [clears throat] Um we do not
[29:33] pay tuition for students with 504s. And
then outside of this line, we also have
[29:38] the regular VOAG which you guys had
always ask as ask about and I didn't
[29:42] include this because we're retaining the
same amount of students and we budgeted
[29:46] that forward the same. But when you look
at the VOAG here that is a services we
[29:51] pay for for special education and that's
one VOAG student.
[29:59] I also wanted to go through and I'm sure
that you'll have more question as well
[30:02] but I wanted to pull out some notable
accounts um and just give reasons as to
[30:07] why we see some swings or changes or
increases or decreases um and I wanted
[30:13] to start by looking at services for
business EA EHS right we see a big
[30:17] increase here 13,500
um and this is for new software for
[30:21] early college experience for Yukon
curriculum and this is a class that
[30:25] allows students to get college credit um
and so this is what's needed for the
[30:28] students to be able take that class. Um,
when we look at service accepted
[30:33] cleaning maintenance, uh, I had said
before that we did go through the
[30:37] maintenance budget and we did trim back
a lot, but we wanted to keep the things
[30:40] that we thought were going to be
necessary because [clears throat] if
[30:42] we're going to go over, there's no point
in taking it out because the money will
[30:45] get spent anyways. Um, and this is for
the the the well and the water line at
[30:50] Crystal Lake Elementary School. Uh, it
tends to be a little bit of a thorn in
[30:54] our side and it is the only place left
where we still have a well. Uh, and the
[30:57] past couple years it's cost us more than
we would like it to.
[31:01] » And I think Alicia too, sorry I didn't
mean to interrupt you, but
[31:04] » yeah.
>> Um, it's kind of a catch 22 with that,
[31:07] right? Because we put new equipment in
so we can monitor issues and now the new
[31:13] equipment is finding issues.
>> Yeah. And there's a and could probably
[31:17] [laughter]
[31:19] » So it's it's right. No good deed goes
undone. But it's but at the same time
[31:24] it's catching things earlier on which is
going to offer cost savings.
[31:30] » Yeah. And we've had a we had a leak in
the line last year as well. Um so it
[31:33] tends to Yeah. tends to be
>> just wanted to
[31:38] » Yeah. [laughter]
>> Um and then also maintenance projects
[31:42] Crystal Lake. Um that was something we
kept in as well. So at this point not
[31:47] much over but that project at Crystal
Lake ended over 10 years ago. And so
[31:51] we're starting to see really that wear
and the tear in the floor. Um, and Greg
[31:54] proposed this number because if we start
with that maintenance and that upkeep of
[31:58] that floor, it's going to save us money
in the long run where if we don't do
[32:01] this and we let it go, we're going to
have to pay to replace that floor or
[32:05] we're going to have to replace pieces.
So, we're trying to be proactive and get
[32:09] ahead of that as right a little over 10
years ago, we had a brand new space. So
[32:14] let's try and upkeep it without
wondering why the floor has to be paced
[32:18] and how much that cost.
Um the next one we look at is repairs
[32:23] and hardware a uh service agreements in
the technology and this is continued
[32:28] improvements to our network
functionality and security. Um this is
[32:33] really important because there is cost
savings that comes from this right this
[32:36] is our cyber security. This is how safe
is our data and all information related
[32:42] to that. And what happens too is
especially now with the insurance world,
[32:46] not many people want to give you cyber
security unless you pass a really good
[32:50] um cyber security audit and you're doing
really well. And our IT department has
[32:55] always been really good at doing that.
That our cyber our cyber insurance if it
[33:00] increases it's not a lot um because they
we tend to get multiple quotes and we
[33:04] can choose from those when they come
along.
[33:08] When you look at this repair
audiovisisual equipment, um, so this was
[33:12] added because we have some speakers
throughout the district that need to be
[33:15] replaced. We would like to get these
mics replaced that are sitting in front
[33:18] of you. Um, and just for better
meetings, better when we have the annual
[33:22] town meetings, um, and really replace
some of those items throughout the
[33:26] district that we've talked about for a
long time but have not been able to do.
[33:32] Here you see the transportation regular.
That's an increase of 72120.
[33:37] That is for students. So that is a
contractual increase. I do want to say
[33:41] that last year we ended up reducing that
number because we know that right now
[33:46] and there has been a bus driver shortage
and we do have issues with attrition
[33:51] within the bus driver world. Um but what
happens with that is if a bus gets
[33:57] looped combined something happens we
don't get build for the bus that didn't
[34:00] get used. So last year when I evaluated
these numbers, I made a reduction based
[34:05] on how often that was happening and the
savings we were seeing because of that.
[34:10] Now we continue to work on that and
improve it the best that we can, but I
[34:13] also don't want to assume for cost that
may not exist. Um, so I went ahead and
[34:18] built that contractual agreement
percentage based off what was budgeted
[34:21] for this current school year.
Um, and the transportation gasoline
[34:27] regular. So this is that gasoline um
that goes with that. And when I looked
[34:31] at historically um it was always
underspent to budget. So I went ahead
[34:35] and made a cut appropriately to that
based on what I saw. Um when you look at
[34:40] technology subscriptions uh in this past
year you guys saw it the new website got
[34:44] launched. So along with that new website
launch there was a um a reduction to the
[34:49] cost for that website and that's why you
see that reduction in that line
[34:52] specifically.
Um technology subscriptions elementary.
[34:57] This was just the elimination of some
subscriptions and we replaced Seesaw
[35:01] with parent square which was a savings
as well. Um I do want to say like I keep
[35:05] saying this like we continuously look at
things to see if we could find something
[35:09] that can save us some money. Uh like
it's conversations we're having all the
[35:14] time and this just makes me makes me see
it more. Um I also made a reduction here
[35:20] to travel administration conference and
this was something I had looked at
[35:25] taking away from in the past. Um, but
this year when I looked it is it is
[35:30] historically always underspent. So I cut
it down to what's been spent in the
[35:34] past. And then this last notable count I
have is technology equipment technology
[35:40] schoolwide. And this is to account for
cost and replacement and breakage.
[35:44] Right? So this is another one of those
things. If we spend less now, we won't
[35:48] have to spend the more later. Um, again
we have a really good IT team that can
[35:53] fix computers and do certain things. Um,
and also when you see this increase,
[35:58] there is going to be an increase to the
cost of RAM due to the AI demand. Those
[36:02] words are from Arthur's mouth.
[laughter]
[36:05] Um, so we're accounting for that as
well. [clears throat]
[36:12] Two other notable accounts I wanted to
bring up is textbooks and supplies
[36:16] English across the elementary schools.
This is that consumables for C CKLA
[36:20] curriculum and the total increase for
all three schools is 3691.
[36:26] Um we continue to move that through
sections as the years go on and that is
[36:29] the same with that textbooks supplies
and math. That is the illustrative math
[36:33] curriculum and consumables as we move
those into the different sections
[36:37] throughout the different years.
>> And Alicia, those are obligations
[36:42] through legislation. Correct. Like these
are
[36:44] » those are Oliver, right?
Um so uh the reading curriculum is it
[36:50] was required K through three but when
our team reviewed uh that resource we
[36:54] found value in actually rolling it up
through the grades as well. So uh we're
[36:59] using that all the way through grade six
at this point. Another reason for the
[37:04] increase is uh in the first year of the
new curriculum we were funding it out of
[37:08] the ed services account
>> and then now we're we're kind of pushing
[37:13] those costs onto the school side of the
budget. So school by school. Um so
[37:18] that's another reason for that shift.
>> Thank you.
[37:25] » That's the total for all three schools.
>> Yeah. Total for all three elementary
[37:28] schools. Yeah.
[37:32] » And what and the last thing I really
wanted to talk about were our areas of
[37:35] risk. Um because we look right and we we
measure the amount of risk that we think
[37:40] is safe to take. That's it's weird to
put risk and safe into that same
[37:44] sentence, but um when you're budgeting,
they they tend to go together. Um and so
[37:49] in this budget, there's a reduction of
$100,000 to certified salaries, and
[37:54] there's some history to that. So two
years ago, we made a reduction to
[37:58] salaries of 120,000. We did this for
unanticipated
[38:03] retirements and turnover. Um because you
typically you do see a savings there. um
[38:08] we exceeded that 120 that 120,000 two
years ago. And so in this budget there's
[38:15] in this budget this current year there's
also a reduction of 120,000 and that
[38:20] number was chosen based on looking where
we were under historically and making an
[38:24] assumption that we could base that based
on the information.
[38:28] In the current year we're projected to
be about $19,000 over in certified
[38:33] salaries. So we missed that mark a
little bit. Um, so what I did is I I
[38:39] still wanted to take that because I
think it's a risk that we can take, but
[38:44] I didn't want to take 120, right? We
missed the mark by 19,000. History told
[38:48] tells me we can usually hit the 120, but
where's that where's that spot where we
[38:53] can take um the best that we can. Um,
and so I went ahead and did a reduction
[38:57] of a 100,000 there. I think that goes to
speak to what Oliver was saying the
[39:01] other day as well. Like we always look
and we always pay attention to that, but
[39:05] sometimes when when teachers come in and
apply, you want to hire the best for the
[39:11] stu the students, whether that be step
two or step 10. Um, and also sometimes
[39:16] your pool doesn't always have lower
steps in it. Um, and you have a really
[39:20] great teacher that that you have to
hire. Um, so to say, we'll be looking at
[39:24] that as the year as the year goes on and
into next year as well.
[39:28] Um, there's also a zero increase to
medical and dental. I went over that a
[39:32] little bit within the medical slide. So,
that will come at a risk of a $400,000
[39:36] reduction to our medical fund. Um, it
hurts. But, we started at like 500,000
[39:42] and we're up to two 2 million. So, it's
it was a place that I wanted to take to
[39:47] see if we could take that risk knowing
we're trying to come in as as best as we
[39:51] can. Alicia, can you tell us where um
the Brown and Brown would like us to be
[39:56] in that fund?
>> 2 point it's
[40:01] » 30% of the
>> It's like 2,100 or something close to
[40:05] that, right?
>> Yeah.
[40:08] » Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
>> Yeah.
[40:11] » Um I also as I explained earlier, I base
utilities on current year cost. So if
[40:17] the cost of utilities goes up there
there's a risk there and those amount
[40:21] those lines would go over budget. Um
there's also that reduction to the
[40:25] windmir electric b with the hopes that
once that building is done we're going
[40:29] to see that efficiency. We're
[clears throat] going to see those costs
[40:32] drop because we're not going to have as
big of a building being supported. We're
[40:35] not going to have people plugging things
in that aren't usually there. So we're
[40:38] going to I'm hoping that we see a
reduction in cost there. And I we also
[40:43] did the reduction of the uninticed
outplacement. Um and so planning that we
[40:48] won't have another outplacement and we
took a reduction based on that. Um so
[40:55] I just wanted to make sure that we were
very open and honest about where we took
[40:58] the risk and what that risk looked like.
[41:03] And now I'm going to leave it for you
guys to ask whatever questions you may
[41:07] have.
Should I
[41:12] Yeah.
[41:18] Does anyone have any um questions for
Alicia or um Oliver?
[41:26] » I was diving in the weeds with the
stipens and those increased. Was that
[41:30] more than we did last year?
>> The stipens. Page 44.
[41:38] » Did you say 84?
>> 44.
[41:45] this. We talked about this. It's because
when you're seeing that bottom number,
[41:49] you're seeing that severance adjustment
support for the 134700. Is that what it
[41:53] is? Are you looking at a specific line,
energy?
[41:56] » I was just thinking
coaching activities, that's what we
[42:02] increased last year. Is it more than
last year?
[42:05] » So, those go up. Those go up about 2.9%
each year. Yeah. But you see that big
[42:10] bottom number because of that severance
line. Yeah.
[42:15] » I'm gonna ask probably the an unpopular
qu uh question.
[42:20] » Yes.
>> I think First Student has a monopoly.
[42:24] Have we looked into other companies
because
[42:30] we've had issues, but is there anything
better out there?
[42:35] » We have one more year.
>> Just a point of order. Um, I just just
[42:38] want to We really have to keep this
tight because that's really outside of
[42:42] what the meeting is.
>> Well, it's part of the budget.
[42:45] » It is, but now we're talking about like
a busing changing busing contracts. I
[42:50] just don't want to go too far down that
down that rabbit hole just because it's
[42:56] not on our on our agenda to talk about
busing contracts, but you can certainly
[43:00] talk about as it relates to budget.
Okay.
[43:03] » We have one more year on that contract.
It'll and it'll go out to bid.
[43:07] » We'll we'll evaluate at that point.
>> Okay.
[43:08] » Thank you.
[43:12] » Does anyone else on the board have any
other questions as to what's been
[43:15] presented?
>> Yes,
[43:18] » Alicia. In the past, we've gotten a
sheet that tells us how the uh choice
[43:23] money has being spent.
Um is it uh possible?
[43:30] I didn't see it in this year's budget.
You can see that on page 85.
[43:39] And Miriam, if you want more details
into what those lines entail, I can get
[43:42] that for you as well.
[43:52] Do you see?
[44:00] » I must have um had trouble with the room
writing.
[44:04] » It's 118 pages and it's tiny.
>> Thanks.
[44:08] » So, I have a couple of questions. Go
ahead. Um so as we look at this budget
[44:14] and the summary that you gave us Oliver
I guess um
[44:18] and it is it is
um
[44:24] very minimal right in in the scheme of
things. So, how do we
[44:31] maintain um or grow our
um academic excellence with such a low
[44:40] budget if our number of students we're
up 25 we're going to be up 25 students
[44:45] year-over-year.
Um
[44:49] so, how do how do we where's our
breaking point for that? like how do we
[44:54] maintain and still grow our student
population?
[44:58] » Yeah, thanks. So, um there's a lot of
work that's done on the professional
[45:04] learning side of improving uh improving
instruction and refining practices and
[45:09] sharing best practices uh across the
classrooms. So, we want to we guarantee
[45:16] a great educational experience in every
classroom. Um but we know that over time
[45:21] through collaboration and new learning
for teachers uh we can continue to uh
[45:26] improve the educational experience and
the learning experience for students.
[45:31] We've been investing in the curriculum K
through six and uh so we're we're seeing
[45:37] as we roll roll in illustrative math
we're actually going down the grades as
[45:41] we uh to roll in that that program. uh
it's really an excellent and challenging
[45:46] mathematics program and uh it's working
really well for us to be moving it down
[45:52] through the grades. Along with that,
there's a lot of teacher learning uh
[45:55] that's necessary because implementing
that well and taking full advantage
[45:59] [clears throat and laughter] of that
curriculum requires uh some shift in
[46:03] instructional practices and teachers are
receiving training and um collaborating
[46:09] with each other to uh learn to implement
that curriculum really well. That's true
[46:13] on the the reading side uh K through six
as well. Uh this is the first year for
[46:18] example that we're using Amplify which
is the uh core knowledge language arts
[46:23] vendor. First year we're using that in
grade six. So um those are two of the
[46:30] largest areas where we're working on
improving the program and improving
[46:34] instruction over time. There's work in
collaboration across the entire district
[46:40] by teachers. So the middle school's been
uh using inquiry groups and refining
[46:45] instructional practices, visiting each
other's classrooms. So a lot of that the
[46:50] like the bread and butter of instruction
is something that we are attending to uh
[46:55] very significantly and those small
increases you saw on the curriculum side
[47:00] uh are around implementing those new
programs and purchasing those uh
[47:05] consumables on a yearly basis. Um so we
really are investing more in
[47:11] professional learning. Uh we're also
doing that at the leadership level. Uh
[47:15] we're working with partners for
educational uh leadership and doing some
[47:20] uh very uh I would say challenging
uh work together on how we're going to
[47:27] lead for instructional improvement over
time. So that that's really the core of
[47:32] it, the bread and butter of it. Um the
challenges in the budget though are are
[47:36] definitely real and I don't think um it
is necessarily sustainable
[47:43] year-over-year um to not continue to
invest or to to need to invest a little
[47:49] further uh in the positions that we
identified for example
[47:54] um on that side. So this year we were
able to be very strategic and creative
[47:59] in um providing for four new positions.
Uh one's a point4 but so it's it's not
[48:07] uh 4.0 FTEES
um through some uh some adjusting and
[48:12] restructuring and use of grants for next
year. But the reason that that's showing
[48:17] in the budget, the other positions that
we're showing are because that we
[48:21] believe years out over time, we'll
continue to need to look at um ways to
[48:27] um enhance our staffing a bit.
>> Okay. Um, I would also say that list
[48:32] that you gave us of positions that um
were not included in the budget, it
[48:38] would be helpful, I believe, um, to
board members and to the public if there
[48:43] was a brief summary for each one as to
what value it adds for student outcomes.
[48:51] Um, I think that that would be helpful.
Um, and the other thing that I wanted to
[48:56] point out, um, that I didn't see in
here, but I think is important of note
[49:02] is, um, a discussion around the basis
program and the fact that, um, and we
[49:09] just were at a legislative breakfast
discussing outplacements. Um, the cost
[49:15] savings that we see not only in in the
district, but for the town. Um, you
[49:22] know, there are upwards of 22 students
that we keep in district
[49:26] um that save us a a total cost of a
little over $4 million. So, if we had to
[49:35] outplace those students, it would cost
us an additional $4 million. Now, if we
[49:40] pull out excess costs that we get
assistance for, that number drops to
[49:46] roughly 2.5 million, but that's an
additional savings that we're seeing
[49:52] here. Um, and I think that that's of
note. Um,
[49:57] » yeah, thank thank you for bringing that
up. I did look that up. Um, as I
[50:00] mentioned, Dr. Leaport had generated
some numbers for us based on the actual
[50:04] enrollment at basis. Um and that was
2,488,248.
[50:10] So that aligns with uh what you just
said um the 2.5 million. So that comes
[50:16] from not needing to spend on
outplacements because we provide an
[50:20] excellent opportunity for those students
inhouse. They're closer to home. Uh the
[50:25] high school students can take classes at
the high school. So they we're working
[50:29] towards transitioning some students um
back to the high school. Uh but that's
[50:34] also very important in their educational
experience that they when they need the
[50:38] challenge and the setting uh for some of
their classes to be at the high school,
[50:43] we could do that. With an outplacement,
we can't. They're in one they'd be in
[50:46] one very small school with more limited
opportunities,
[50:49] » right?
>> But the savings is is very significant
[50:52] there.
>> Absolutely. Um the other question on
[50:55] page 27
um you said that um one of the concerns
[51:01] for Crystal Lake is
um closing open state grants as an
[51:07] immediate concern. What can you explain
that?
[51:12] I know you're looking at me funny. Um
okay. So if we're looking at Crystal
[51:17] Lake Yeah. It says um immediate concern
is housing preschool program closing
[51:23] open state grant. Can you explain?
>> Oh, so that that has been closed at this
[51:27] point. That was a note that was left
over from last year.
[51:30] » Jen always finds all our mistakes.
>> No, it's okay.
[51:34] » Okay. Thank you.
>> Um but yeah, that has been audited and
[51:36] and and when those funding that funding
came back, um that's what actually
[51:41] allowed us to find a way to do the floor
up there, uh which was done over the
[51:45] summer this year.
Um
[51:51] the other question I have is on uh the
NESDEC
[51:56] study. Um they're projecting that we are
going to constantly decrease. Um so
[52:03] where is that 25 student increase that
we're and and and do you feel the same?
[52:09] Do you feel like there's going to be a
decrease yearover-year? I I don't
[52:15] » Right. honestly don't love that study. I
don't feel that it's
[52:20] » completely accurate, but um so where are
you seeing the increases where they're
[52:24] not?
>> Just just in in way of context, I know
[52:27] it's being streamed. So this is a study
that's done to project
[52:33] uh how many students we're going to
either gain or lose in the future.
[52:40] Correct.
>> Right. For
[52:41] » Right. I just want to make that clear
cuz we use acronyms and then sorry. No,
[52:46] that's okay. Just want to break it down.
>> Yeah, thanks. Um, yeah. So, NESD is a
[52:50] very it um it's a regional uh New
England school uh development education
[52:57] consortium and uh they do a very
intensive study of um not only our our
[53:04] they look at our current enrollment. So
we do that also like rolling students
[53:08] up. Um but they even look at factors
they they do predictions further into
[53:13] the future by looking at births in area
hospitals, housing starts, changes in
[53:18] real estate. Um and so they put a lot of
different factors in that and that shows
[53:24] approximately a 15 student decrease per
year long term. And that's true across
[53:29] the entire Northeast. Uh if anything in
Ellington we've slowed that down a
[53:34] little bit. Um and our number is our
number here is from our specific
[53:40] students rolling up specific students.
What we know about the choice program um
[53:45] the demand for prek is also factored in
there and that we see locally and that's
[53:50] very high. Right? So from the birth to
three uh programs we have um an
[53:57] increasing demand in prek for um for
young kids. So that's a factor in that
[54:01] also.
>> Okay. Thank you.
[54:07] I've got a couple if you're if you're
done, Jen.
[54:09] » Sure, please.
>> Um, so you've done a really good job of
[54:13] talking about all the cost savings that
you've tracked down.
[54:18] I'd like to hear a little bit more about
the sort of the other side of that. So,
[54:22] can you So, sort of two parts maybe like
on the risk side, what's what what are
[54:29] you losing sleep over on the risk side?
Right. and and on the
[54:33] » say the whole budget [laughter]
>> and and and on the sort of on the other
[54:39] side, what are the what are the
opportunities that we are passing up on
[54:43] educationally in order to exercise some
of these savings?
[54:47] » So, I'm going to talk to the risk side
and then I'll let you talk to the
[54:50] educational side. Um
I think on the risk side and so I'm
[54:55] going to speak to my experience
specifically is is is when I came in a
[55:00] few years ago uh we went into a budget
freeze and then the next year we also
[55:05] went into a budget freeze. And so I feel
like even though we saw the increase go
[55:09] down we've rightsized some things and
got us in a good place where we don't
[55:13] need that. as we go into the risk. I I
think what I lose probably sleep over is
[55:18] that we're coming in as tight as we can
um with the hope that the risks play off
[55:22] in our in our favor. Um in that if we
continue to chisel or come in as tight
[55:28] and chisel in future years, are we
building an expectation that's going to
[55:32] put us in a place for a fiscal cliff? Um
because if we put us in a place for a
[55:36] fiscal cliff, it's not going to be like
we can risk or take. it's going to be
[55:40] that there's no choice to add this back
in and it'll cause future cost. Um, so I
[55:45] know that's a really big picture answer.
Um, if you were asking me or if I'm
[55:49] saying the one I wish we weren't taking,
it would be the medical fund because
[55:52] we've worked really hard to build up
that fund. And one bad year um can ruin
[55:58] that fund. And we save over a million
dollars every year by being self by
[56:03] being self-funded. um and that would be
the biggest risk.
[56:10] » Um so on the educational side and uh how
we're investing in that I would say one
[56:16] of the challenges is around hiring. So
we uh Alicia referenced that a little
[56:20] bit earlier but um for every position
that we hire for every teaching position
[56:25] for example uh we're looking for trying
to find teachers towards the lower end
[56:31] in cost. There are some positions where
that's really not feasible. Um sometimes
[56:36] in the in the special ed um area uh we
don't get applicants in the low lowest
[56:42] cost ranges um or that might very much
limit uh how we're able to select the
[56:48] best possible candidate. So uh it's not
uncommon for many for in some pools all
[56:55] the applicants to be on the higher end
of the scale and that puts us in a very
[56:59] challenging position financially. So I
would say that the hiring pressure is
[57:03] one uh one area where having more
flexibility would be great. Uh another
[57:08] thing that we're uh tracking over time
are the field trip experiences for
[57:13] elementary. Uh we asked parents to help
contribute to those at times and uh
[57:19] we've dialed back a little bit. We were
you know there was a Boston trip that
[57:22] we're now doing through Sturbridge
Village. So providing the same um or
[57:27] kind of meeting the same content to a
degree uh but trying to do that locally
[57:32] and closer to home. So there's some
areas there where uh we're hoping not to
[57:37] have to cut back any further. Um there's
a projectology trip that's really
[57:41] valuable on the science side. Um, but
we're also looking for opportunities
[57:46] closer to home that are almost kind of
self-created or created through through
[57:50] our teachers and our science lead so
that we can find uh experiences
[57:56] exploring science in communities closer
to home.
[58:00] Um,
so those are those are a couple areas I
[58:03] know where there are costs that um we're
being very very cautious about and
[58:09] sometimes there are benefits to um
spending more money and and providing
[58:13] experiences for students that go beyond
the regular classroom. Uh we will be
[58:18] investing in um new science curriculum
over time and uh we've talked through
[58:23] that with curriculum committee. Um, and
that is also a stretch, I would say, on
[58:28] teachers because they they've learned in
the lower grades, they've learned new uh
[58:32] literacy curriculum, new math
curriculum, and now we're rolling in
[58:36] more science. Um, and we'll also be
revising the social studies curriculum
[58:42] over time. So that that is an area where
we would like to be able to continue to
[58:48] invest in um summer planning time for
teachers and professional learning that
[58:53] really supports them in doing the best
with the curriculum resources we have.
[58:59] » Good. Thank you. I I just wanted to make
sure that it was clear to folks that
[59:05] there are opportunities out there that
we are we're we're passing by because
[59:08] we're trying to keep as lean as
possible. And I think it's important to
[59:12] hear both sides of that of that balance.
Um the other question I had was uh
[59:19] with respect to like one-time grants,
are are there um are there resources
[59:26] that we dedicate to pursuing those or
does that fall to individual
[59:34] teachers or administrators to take it
take the initiative to track those down?
[59:40] We don't currently have resources um to
be able to go out and search for those
[59:44] and apply for those type of grants. It
does fall on the staff within the into
[59:48] the different schools and the teachers.
Um for example, right now is the grant
[59:52] that they have here within the high
school. Um it was a teacher that went
[59:55] and applied for that and got that grant.
Um so I look sometimes when I can. Um
[1:00:01] but the time to really write and apply
is very hard. Um, so the resources for
[1:00:05] that is teachers doing it on top of
their duties to look for those monies.
[1:00:10] » I think also there was a sizable grant
and I think Miriam, you may be able to
[1:00:14] uh speak more to that uh that uh was
obtained recently.
[1:00:21] » Yeah. So I'll have you talk to that.
>> Sure. Uh so uh Brandon Hubins and
[1:00:27] Leticia De Jagger um administrator and
teacher at the high school uh
[1:00:34] uh pursued a grant through the choice
program that provides opportunities not
[1:00:38] only for our choice students but other
students. Uh and that's quite a
[1:00:42] significant grant. Um the private
foundation grants tend to be super
[1:00:47] competitive. uh this is a grant that um
we just had a great alignment between
[1:00:53] the work that they wanted to do that
they envisioned and imagined uh in terms
[1:00:57] of student experiences
that happened to align very well uh with
[1:01:02] the funding in place at the state level
for that particular grant. So, I think
[1:01:06] we were very fortunate there. Um, and,
uh, hiring someone either hourly or a
[1:01:14] part-time position or a full-time
position for seeking grants, I don't
[1:01:18] think would really, um, on on the net
really bring in resources for the
[1:01:24] district. I think that would be a
substantial cost with a not a huge
[1:01:28] probability of big money coming in. I
think we want to continue to leverage uh
[1:01:34] the grant for example in that choice
area and the choice program as a whole
[1:01:38] in a sense provides some flexible
funding that um does uh does allow for
[1:01:43] certain opportunities and and
investments uh as noted here but that
[1:01:48] those will include curriculum um and
some experiences for students. So that
[1:01:53] that particular grant is is amazing and
very valuable, but I don't think we're
[1:01:58] going to be in a position to actually
hire folk someone to uh pursue grants
[1:02:03] more aggressively.
[1:02:07] » Does anyone in the public have any
questions that they would like to ask at
[1:02:11] this time?
[1:02:14] » Logan.
>> Logan Johnson.
[1:02:18] [clears throat]
>> Hi, Logan Johnson. Uh thank you uh very
[1:02:22] much for your hard work Alicia and
Oliver in putting this stuff together
[1:02:25] and the board for uh you know all your
work uh in going through it. Um couple
[1:02:32] of questions some of the things that
have come up before. Um the first is for
[1:02:38] the electricity I know previously we had
some sort of agreement for a fixed cost
[1:02:44] for the electricity sort of what's the
situation with that?
[1:02:47] » That agreement is in place. We actually
have a new agreement and we actually uh
[1:02:51] partnered with the town this time so we
could get the lowest rate possible to
[1:02:55] make us the biggest piece that we could
be and that is um taken into account
[1:02:59] with this with this budgeting numbers.
>> Okay. And just as a quick followup so
[1:03:04] that really what that means is that when
we see the increase in the electricity
[1:03:08] costs that's a really a function of
increased usage. Um, no, not usage, but
[1:03:14] also when you look at the bills, when we
lock in a rate, that's only locking at
[1:03:18] one piece, right? So, what we've seen
over the years is they're adding more
[1:03:22] into that delivery fee or they're adding
in other fees. Um, and a good example of
[1:03:27] that is we've seen the electric bill at
the high school double some months and
[1:03:30] it's not it's not the actual kilowatts,
it's the it's the delivery fees and
[1:03:34] other fees that get added below that.
>> Oh, okay. All right. So, that's that's
[1:03:38] very helpful. Thank you.
>> Welcome. Um
[1:03:41] uh another piece is just um
there was um there was some discussion
[1:03:48] on grants and and I thought that was a a
great question, Carl. Um
[1:03:55] the and I'm only asking this because I
noticed that there was specific concerns
[1:04:01] about the central administration for
technology and there was some discussion
[1:04:05] of cyber security. I know that there are
state grants related specifically to
[1:04:10] cyber security and a lot of things can
fall under uh school security. So
[1:04:17] there's a lot of grants that are
available um that could address those
[1:04:21] concerns and just sort of a question
about general direction for shared
[1:04:25] services in terms of sort of merging the
technology more between the town and the
[1:04:31] school. Is there something is that
something that we've looked at and is
[1:04:38] that something outside of this budget
for this year?
[1:04:40] » Um, I believe that and and I'm pretty
sure it's been like like a year now, but
[1:04:45] actually our last director of
technology, Aaron Fiss, he did get he
[1:04:48] went out and wrote a grant and got a
technology grant. Um, the grant applied
[1:04:52] to like past expenses and and then the
year before this and he accounted for
[1:04:56] all of that. So, this is based on having
that as well. um we do tend to look when
[1:05:02] we can because we also need a new
generator for the high school. Um and so
[1:05:06] what will happen is is looking for
opportunities and finding that it's
[1:05:09] finding the capacity to get those grants
written and submitted. That's where we
[1:05:12] that's where we run into the struggle.
>> Yep. Um
[1:05:15] » and I do think too Logan speaking um
from shared services committee we have
[1:05:21] aligned town and schools as much as we
can but keeping bearing in mind we have
[1:05:28] different systems. Yes.
>> Right. So we have to sorry I didn't see
[1:05:32] » no no I yeah I
>> so that we've we've aligned as much as
[1:05:35] we can um but we get to a certain point
where town has a different system than
[1:05:40] we do so there's a cost difference there
but the on the school side uh we have
[1:05:47] started taking over doing all of the um
fixing right the the any technical
[1:05:53] issues that the town has the schools now
handling that instead of them going out
[1:05:58] or contracting out for that. So there is
some savings there.
[1:06:01] » Sure.
>> Yeah. And I mean I I think some of the
[1:06:03] other recommendations are probably more
long-term and outside of this budget,
[1:06:07] you know, like merging some of those
systems and
[1:06:10] » Right. Right. Exactly.
>> Yeah. Those that's outside of this
[1:06:13] budget, but I No problem. I just just
was bringing it up.
[1:06:17] » No, it's great thought. It's great
thought. Thank you.
[1:06:19] » Um the audience um one
>> Yeah. I just um with the grants, I just
[1:06:24] want everybody to um understand that we
actually do go and look for grants in
[1:06:28] every department. So, we're on our third
year of uh the social work grant. So, it
[1:06:33] was not approved in the budget in the
year three years ago. So, we went and
[1:06:37] looked um and the state had offered a
grant. So, we ended up with $320,000
[1:06:42] for three years. Within that grant, we
got a social worker and then we ended up
[1:06:46] being able to put in uh BCBA hours that
were also not approved. So um every year
[1:06:53] we are looking all of us um and we do we
do um you know allocate money to from
[1:06:59] the grants. So that's something
important also with shared services. Um
[1:07:04] I have conversations all the time with
area districts Vernon Summers um Summers
[1:07:08] approached us the other day and said hey
have you thought about maybe us going
[1:07:11] together with a transition program. So,
we are always looking for opportunities
[1:07:16] with our neighbors to be able to support
and share um beyond the grants.
[1:07:23] » Fantastic. Um sorry, I I had a whole
litany of questions just as I'm zipping
[1:07:28] through. Um
uh back to the electricity, just a a
[1:07:32] quick question. Um I know normally when
you have construction projects, you
[1:07:38] know, the cost of utilities are baked
into the project costs. Is is there a
[1:07:44] chance that some of those electricity
costs for Windmir can can move from the
[1:07:48] operational side and out of the general
fund and into the project? So, as far as
[1:07:55] I know, they are not um because they are
within the school building. I can talk
[1:08:00] to the professional that knows all of
that state funding law and see what can
[1:08:06] be done. Like the trailers that are on
site, they have their own meter. They
[1:08:09] pay their own electric bills. Um but the
electricity in the school runs into the
[1:08:13] electric bill. I've broached the topic
and it doesn't seem like it is a
[1:08:17] possibility, but I'll double check on
that to be sure.
[1:08:20] » Okay. From a logistics perspective,
obviously it's hugely challenging um
[1:08:26] operationally to be doing the renovation
that we're doing uh and the rebuild at
[1:08:31] Windemir by living in the school while
half of it's under demolition. Um but
[1:08:36] the spaces uh end up overlapping in
terms of the the spaces that they're
[1:08:41] working on um are part of the building
and not metered separately I think is
[1:08:46] what Alicia is referring to.
>> Oh yes. No 100%. Um yeah I was just
[1:08:50] wondering if you know it's really
ultimately if the state would accept
[1:08:54] some sort of allocation of you know or
some sort of estimate but uh perfect.
[1:09:00] Now, for the excess cost grants, um I
didn't see like a percentage. What are
[1:09:05] what are we estimating in the budget for
a a percentage?
[1:09:09] » So, when we budget for the excess cost,
we assume that we're going to get 70%
[1:09:13] reimbursement. And so, we budget for
what's left um because it doesn't fall
[1:09:17] because of the way that it's built
within the general fund, it doesn't fall
[1:09:20] on our revenue line because it's the
fund accounting. So, we put it back
[1:09:23] against the expense and budget for what
we believe is needed.
[1:09:25] » Okay, great. No, I was just because I
know previously we had budgeted lower at
[1:09:30] times, but No, so we're going
>> Yeah, last year I think we had assumed
[1:09:33] this year there'd be a 60% reimbursement
and there was some uncertainty about
[1:09:37] that. Um, and so we did we did account
for that, but we did uh assume the 70
[1:09:42] for next year.
>> Okay, great. And yeah, one last
[1:09:46] question. Okay, just just so I
understand, I know that under the
[1:09:51] summary by department, I see for
athletics I see, you know, the 537,000.
[1:09:59] It's on page 39 if anybody's looking.
Um, that 537 is that all in does that
[1:10:05] include the cost of the athletic
director or where where might they be
[1:10:10] accounted for?
>> Did you say page 39, Logan?
[1:10:12] » Page 39 of the budget book is the
summary by department and
[1:10:16] » Oh, yes. My department includes
salaries, right Stephanie? That I'm
[1:10:19] speaking correctly to that.
[1:10:25] » Yes.
[1:10:31] » Yes. That includes all the stipens. That
includes all costs related to athletics,
[1:10:34] including salaries.
>> Okay. So, that includes the athletic
[1:10:38] director.
>> Yes.
[1:10:39] » Okay.
>> Oh, yeah. No, I assumed he was. I just
[1:10:43] wasn't sure.
>> Yeah. I and this might be a little
[1:10:47] controversial. It's just that when we
see a $537,000
[1:10:51] line item and I and I know they're like
150,000 in salary before benefits, I
[1:10:58] mean almost half the cost of the
athletics program ends up being for the
[1:11:02] cost of a person to run the program.
>> I do want to say that he's the director
[1:11:06] of athletics and wellness. So, he also
oversees the curriculum for the PE um
[1:11:10] the student wellness for the district as
well. He is runs and is the chair of the
[1:11:14] wellness committee in the district. Um,
so it is more than just the athletic
[1:11:19] director.
>> So, okay. So, he's probably not in that
[1:11:22] athletics.
>> He or he's probably or is he like
[1:11:27] » his salary is fully in there?
>> Fully in there. Okay.
[1:11:30] » All right. But he's providing other
services. Okay. Yeah. Um, and just on
[1:11:35] the programmatic side, I do want to
point out that over 50% of our high
[1:11:38] school students participate in athletics
through the course of the year. So we
[1:11:42] really do feel that we have a robust
program that uh students and families
[1:11:46] really appreciate as
>> for their own development but as part of
[1:11:50] the culture of the school.
>> Oh, sure. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not
[1:11:54] suggesting that that's something we cut.
I just wanted to make sure I understood
[1:11:58] and and I was just wondering how
something like that compares to the
[1:12:02] other schools that are in our our I
think there was a comparison the DRC,
[1:12:08] you know, do they do they have a similar
profile in terms of using an athletic
[1:12:13] director in the same way and and that
sort of thing?
[1:12:16] » Yeah, generally districts um of this
size do. um that some try to get by with
[1:12:22] a part-time person, but we have found
that that wasn't providing the quality
[1:12:26] of athletic experience that the
community was looking for.
[1:12:31] » Okay.
>> I would say South Windsor has both an
[1:12:36] athletic director and an assistant
athletic director. Now, they're a little
[1:12:39] bigger than us, but they have two
administrators just for athletics. So,
[1:12:44] um you know, definitely something good
questions.
[1:12:48] I have two questions, Crystal Banville.
Um, first, you mentioned that there is a
[1:12:53] huge demand for prek um in town and with
a lot of centers clo, you know, the one
[1:12:58] in the center town closed down. Um, do
we have a long-term plan to kind of
[1:13:02] leverage that need because it's a
potential for an increase of revenue if
[1:13:06] we extend that program.
[1:13:11] » Our challenge for that is space. Um so
we don't have the classroom space to
[1:13:16] expand that significantly at this time.
Uh thinking long term, I think we do
[1:13:21] need to um cooperate with the town on
long-term uh facility and strategic
[1:13:27] planning. And so we want to start those
conversations uh in a way that would
[1:13:32] then be building the infrastructure. U
the high school is overcrowded. Um and
[1:13:37] then you know there's a ripple effect
through the other buildings as far as
[1:13:41] how our grades are configured. Um so
long term I think we we need to think
[1:13:45] about that um with the board.
>> Okay.
[1:13:48] » And the town.
>> Y
[1:13:50] » yeah. So with the preschool program too
Sarah's Sarah here
[1:13:54] » Christie I just want to do a point of
order though here. I I do want to make
[1:13:57] sure that whatever the discussion we're
having is as to this budget. Not that I
[1:14:02] don't want to have these discussions. I
just want to make sure we're, you know,
[1:14:06] following the process.
>> Thank you. Thank you for the reminder. I
[1:14:09] just want to let you know that this is
something that we analyze every year.
[1:14:11] So, I appreciate the question.
>> Um, and then again, I want to echo what
[1:14:16] Logan said. You guys did a great job.
This is a very reasonable, conservative
[1:14:19] budget. I think taxpayers are going to
be really happy. Um, as a parent, my
[1:14:23] concern is, um, are we investing in any
technologies this year? um you know, how
[1:14:29] are we going to be competitive with
districts that are offering STEM
[1:14:32] programming and robotics and um all
those other sorts of programs that are
[1:14:37] really what kids are going to need in
the future.
[1:14:41] Again, I I do just want to caution
everyone to to make sure that we're
[1:14:45] staying on topic with this budget
because we do have the agenda item. So,
[1:14:50] I don't want to go too far a field and
it doesn't mean that we can't discuss it
[1:14:54] um in future meetings and put it on an
agenda. So I don't want to
[1:14:59] » address what's thank you for the
clarification.
[1:15:02] » What's in the budget this year for tech?
>> Right. So um to be honest, our biggest
[1:15:06] investment on the science side is our U
K12 science uh specialist and uh she has
[1:15:14] pursued grants. She's run robotics
programs in other towns. Uh she uh
[1:15:20] received a grant to do a drones program
at the middle school uh which is very
[1:15:25] popular. Uh we recently expanded to some
uh the technology for gaming um some
[1:15:32] gaming computers at the middle school.
So there's some uh enrichment programs
[1:15:36] uh related to that at the middle school
level and she'll be expanding the uh
[1:15:42] science experiences. She's actually
attending a conference soon. Um but our
[1:15:47] investment is in that position and and
that's really our biggest strategy.
[1:15:52] » Thank you.
I have a question on page 39
[1:15:57] on
board of ed. Can you explain those
[1:16:01] figures?
[1:16:08] I So, right now, Lenora, I don't have
like all that detail in front of me. Is
[1:16:12] it okay if I pull that and give you a
call on that? Because I my assumption is
[1:16:16] going to be um
[1:16:23] you stumped you stumped me. [laughter]
[1:16:28] » If the question was on page 39
>> the department summary of department
[1:16:34] uh board of ed 42.
[1:16:43] We do have some costs that are
applicable to specific board costs. So
[1:16:48] um in one year we purchased tablets I
believe for the board. So there are some
[1:16:52] board specific costs.
>> So each GL
[1:16:57] » Yeah. But
>> each of our
[1:16:59] » it's going up 135,000.
>> Each of our GL codes have these
[1:17:04] different department codes within them.
So, anything that's spent within uh
[1:17:09] department code 42 would roll up into
there. So, your question was what makes
[1:17:15] up the 477452?
Is that the question?
[1:17:19] » Basically, yeah.
>> Okay. We can dig back into the detail of
[1:17:22] that that we have all of those details,
but to come up with that off the top of
[1:17:27] our heads would probably be impossible.
>> Would that be part of salary? Is there
[1:17:31] any salary in that line item or no? Uh,
I don't believe so.
[1:17:36] » Howard's not
>> there. [laughter]
[1:17:39] » You didn't know you were getting a bonus
for
[1:17:41] » I'm not saying salaries to the board of
ed. I mean salary in that line. Not not
[1:17:47] for the board of ed members, but is
there [laughter]
[1:17:50] any salary that's attributed to that
that line item? No, Lenor, we're not
[1:17:55] getting a pay raise. [laughter]
>> So, no. If you flip, but if you look
[1:18:00] » if you flip to page 41, when you roll
down the codes, that department code 41,
[1:18:06] it's the third section. So like that
very first line,
[1:18:10] 1001
01 is the department. I believe that's
[1:18:14] center school if I'm thinking off the
top of my head. Um that's location
[1:18:19] department code
for 1 2 3 4 5 in. Um, so there's no 42s
[1:18:27] within there.
>> So, but if you look at um non-certified
[1:18:31] salaries on 112 on page 43, you're going
to see the support um for the
[1:18:37] subcoordinator systemwide that that is
included in that that number. Correct.
[1:18:42] So,
>> there is salaries in there.
[1:18:45] » So, the support BOE would I bet it's
probably the stipen for the minutes. So,
[1:18:49] it's probably the board meeting minutes
stipen is in there. But but what I'll do
[1:18:55] is I'll go ahead and just pull all the
detail of the different lines and send
[1:18:58] it out. Yeah, the sub coordinator. So
I'll pull it and I can give an
[1:19:00] explanation as to why it's in there and
I'll send it out. It's probably easier
[1:19:04] than you guys going through every page,
>> but it's not the superintendent salary
[1:19:08] that's that's in there, but it could be
costs that are associated with the
[1:19:11] board. We do have uh leg legal costs
sometimes. Uh we have we're if we have
[1:19:18] an expulsion we have to you know pay for
legal to come and and be part of that.
[1:19:22] Would that cost be part of the board of
ed cost?
[1:19:25] » Yes.
>> And so is severance and adjustments for
[1:19:28] teachers.
>> So we can get an itemized
[1:19:31] list of that.
>> Yes.
[1:19:33] » Okay.
>> Yep.
[1:19:39] » Hi Charlotte Ward. Um, I was asked to
ask for myself and for others if someone
[1:19:42] could just explain pages 17 through 19
of how our staff to our studentto staff
[1:19:48] ratios along with per pupil spending and
return on investment comparative to
[1:19:54] comparable districts. So I understand
like everyone compares ourselves to like
[1:19:57] from a parent standpoint to South
Windsor or Vernon etc. But just when
[1:20:02] we're looking at the budget for general
knowledge of parents who are not privy
[1:20:06] to any of this insider knowledge um and
just want to know like are we investing
[1:20:10] in our students? I think that this is a
great way for them to kind of get a
[1:20:14] quick view. If someone could quickly
just kind of give us the the short and
[1:20:18] dirty on on that would be really
appreciated.
[1:20:20] » Um yeah, unfortunately I So I will
attempt to do that. kind of speak to it
[1:20:25] like how how it all relates to right
>> how we're running cuz
[1:20:29] » the public hears often that we are
running lean and that we have a very low
[1:20:33] cost per pupil and I think people worry
does that mean that my kids are missing
[1:20:38] out
>> and right
[1:20:39] » if if someone could just explain that
related to the budget
[1:20:42] » I'll give you an example of it it's
extremely nuanced and complex but I'll
[1:20:47] give you an example so um uh if you were
to plan a community around cost savings
[1:20:54] things. You would design a middle school
that had a perfect multiple of a 100
[1:21:00] students per grade level so that you
would have four sections of 25 students.
[1:21:06] If you happen to have a community that
is that size already, you have a huge
[1:21:11] efficiency because you have two sections
or two groups uh of 100 students. So 200
[1:21:20] students per grade splits out across
four core content areas very
[1:21:26] efficiently. If you had 130 students,
you end up in a very strange
[1:21:32] configuration and your class sizes would
either be super huge like in way into
[1:21:38] the 30s um or quite quite small in like
17 18 area. So there's some efficiencies
[1:21:46] that come with just having the luck of
being a community that's a multiple of a
[1:21:52] 100 students per grade. That's one
example of the variation across those
[1:21:56] different districts.
[1:22:00] » I think that's helpful. So thank you. I
think it's very helpful for people that
[1:22:02] don't know that insight. They just look
at the numbers are like south should I
[1:22:06] move to South or you know. Thank you.
>> And I would also say Charlotte are there
[1:22:12] programs we're missing out on? Mhm.
Absolutely, 100%. There's no there's no
[1:22:17] doubt about it. But what the what's the
tradeoff, right? Um do we want to go
[1:22:23] through three referendums? I don't um
>> I don't either.
[1:22:28] » So, but at the same time, are we
providing an excellent education for our
[1:22:33] students? Absolutely.
>> Yes. And I I want to say I don't I've
[1:22:36] not heard one negative comment any
one negative. The only questions that
[1:22:41] have come are we are hearing, it is
already out there. I've already heard
[1:22:45] from multiple people like we're getting
no money. We're going to spend no money.
[1:22:49] That's what they're saying. And I I can
understand that and I appreciate that.
[1:22:52] From being on boardman, hopefully we can
make this all go smoother. But from a
[1:22:57] parent standpoint, it's concerning on
are we missing out? And it's no fault of
[1:23:02] anyone here because you're being
directed to do something. Y
[1:23:05] » but I parents want to be informed and
empowered to have a voice and this is
[1:23:10] very overwhelming and they stop at page
like 20
[1:23:14] » right so the only questions I've gotten
so far are on the very beginning and
[1:23:17] they look at numbers that they don't
quite understand right I I'm trying but
[1:23:21] I don't know all the details of it and
they are they are frightened is I think
[1:23:25] is a good word they're frightened that
we are not building our schools that
[1:23:29] we're not investing in them don't fault
any of you at all that's not to say they
[1:23:33] are happy But our future generations of
our preschool classrooms, are they going
[1:23:38] to be if we're not spending money, are
we going to keep up with our peers
[1:23:42] towns,
>> right? And
[1:23:43] » that's the concern. And I I hope that's
voiced by more than just me to people to
[1:23:48] everyone that people want to spend
money. They want to invest in our
[1:23:51] students.
>> So appreciate what you're doing. But
[1:23:54] » and I think that kind of goes to my
point of the question around where's our
[1:23:58] cliff, right? How long can we sustain
this before our students aren't gaining?
[1:24:04] Um, and and that's that's a valid point
and it's a valid point for parents and
[1:24:08] and honestly, are we missing out on some
things? Yes, we absolutely are. That
[1:24:14] list starts some of that, but that's not
even the program side of things. Um, so
[1:24:19] it's a it's a trade-off. Absolutely. But
yes, yes, to speak to that, it's true.
[1:24:24] » I had a related I'm sorry.
>> Hold on one second,
[1:24:27] » Charlotte. I think um if you can lead
people to um our return on investment
[1:24:34] the ROI information and I don't know if
that's in the budget
[1:24:38] » book
as
[1:24:44] » well that tells if I'm correct that
tells the public that we are doing quite
[1:24:51] well. we come in at number seven
um on the return statewide on the return
[1:24:58] of our investment which should say to
people that we are doing the best we can
[1:25:04] do
um with the money we're spending we're
[1:25:08] getting a great return and I think that
[clears throat] you need to
[1:25:12] tell people that
>> so I do think that people hear that I do
[1:25:16] but when you look at this and you and
they're looking again probably not
[1:25:19] knowing the whole details and South
Windsor has reasonable spending that is
[1:25:23] less than ours and is number one they're
asking should we be doing more no one's
[1:25:28] discounting anything that's being done
they're saying should we be doing more
[1:25:31] does that make sense I'm not getting
across
[1:25:33] » clear right so um the framework we use
for that is really around continuous
[1:25:39] improvement so when I was speaking
earlier to the way that we're investing
[1:25:43] in the capacity and collaboration of the
faculty uh those are really really
[1:25:48] important investments and they're an
investment of time so they don't show up
[1:25:52] in here as well um or as clearly. Uh but
we are super committed to uh continuous
[1:25:59] continuous improvement in our
instruction and instructional practices
[1:26:04] and the resources that go along with
that are the curricular resources that
[1:26:08] we're purchasing and uh the teacher
specialists who are supporting teachers
[1:26:14] um not only supporting students through
direct intervention but supporting
[1:26:17] teachers in their planning and uh in
their classrooms. So that that's a staff
[1:26:22] investment that we're super committed to
and it's part of the the return on
[1:26:27] investment in terms of the educational
outcomes we're able to get um without
[1:26:33] spending a lot of extra dollars beyond
what's in this budget.
[1:26:36] » I also just I want to point out we
didn't spend time um looking at this,
[1:26:43] but I know in the years past we have. I
don't know that it's necessary, but
[1:26:47] there are plenty of school districts out
there that spend a lot more money per
[1:26:52] student and do not get the test results
we get, do not have the excellent
[1:26:57] programming or are able to keep students
in district like we are. So,
[1:27:04] spending more money doesn't always mean
you get better value. what our jobs here
[1:27:11] to what we're here to do as uh the board
of education is to look at this budget
[1:27:17] and say and we thank you for the
superintendent's proposed budget. Uh at
[1:27:22] the end of the meeting, it'll be our
budget and we're going to look to say,
[1:27:26] are we using our resources as best we
can uh at as efficiently as we can and
[1:27:32] get and and still giving every student
the opportunity for educational
[1:27:40] excellence and that's our goal. So, we
all are consumers. We all know that just
[1:27:47] because you spend more on something
doesn't mean it lasts longer or is
[1:27:51] better. So, we always have to keep our
our uh focus on that as well. It doesn't
[1:27:56] mean that hey, if we had some extra uh
dollars, could we do more? We might, but
[1:28:03] we might not get any better results than
what we're getting now. uh the balance
[1:28:08] this year uh that I am hearing from the
town is they're going to have a big
[1:28:15] challenge and we also have to think of
the people that live in our town that
[1:28:20] want to continue to live in our town and
want to be able to afford to continue to
[1:28:23] live in our town. So that's the balance,
right? like if we uh do not be
[1:28:31] responsible with our money, then there
are folks that might have to leave a
[1:28:36] town that they love that they've
continued to live in because their
[1:28:39] property taxes increase. So, we want to
be very mindful of that, too, because we
[1:28:46] know that we're the biggest budget in
this town. So, I I think that everyone
[1:28:51] wants to be able to everyone I know on
this board wants to be able to give
[1:28:56] every child the best education we
possibly can
[1:29:00] regardless of funds. Uh, and how can
[clears throat] we do it in the most
[1:29:05] responsible way? So, that's our job to
to do. It's not that we want to be cheap
[1:29:12] or just do the cheapest thing possible.
It's
[1:29:17] ba balancing that always that concern.
So, is there anyone else that has any
[1:29:22] questions on the board? Oh, yes. I just
Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you first,
[1:29:25] Lenora?
>> Yeah. Oh,
[1:29:27] » go ahead, Lenora. Uh, two questions. Uh,
we have uh student to staff ratios in
[1:29:33] the um budget book. Do we have teacher I
mean, excuse me, studenttoteer ratios
[1:29:38] somewhere? And the second question, do
do we anticipate that um uh we're going
[1:29:44] to have to make further cuts, make this
budget more lean once it's submitted?
[1:29:51] » Um
well, so [clears throat] on the teacher
[1:29:55] ratio,
>> that's a question for us, [laughter]
[1:29:57] » right? Um
yeah, I wanted to ask that myself. Um so
[1:30:04] on the um in in relation to your
question on teacher to student ratios we
[1:30:09] do report class sizes um in the under
the enrollment section. So I think
[1:30:14] that's would that would be the best
place to look at look look at what class
[1:30:18] sizes look like. Um and so I think that
would be the best indicator there. The
[1:30:23] um those ratios uh seem a little strange
because um the there are full-time
[1:30:30] teachers who are doing intervention with
flexible small groups of students or
[1:30:36] supporting um uh the the three teacher
leaders for example who do the
[1:30:41] curriculum work K through 12. Uh
certified staff also includes uh school
[1:30:47] psychologists.
So that uh certified staffto student
[1:30:52] ratio often seems
um a lot uh a lot higher staffto student
[1:30:59] ratio or lower like a lot smaller number
of students to staff when you look at
[1:31:05] those ratios because that certified
staff includes positions beyond those
[1:31:08] classroom teachers. So the best place to
look at at class sizes on the enrollment
[1:31:12] part. Um and then obviously in in
relation to further cuts, um we've
[1:31:19] looked very hard and and cut a lot. Um
and the budget book includes a page of
[1:31:24] the cuts that have happened already and
Alicia provided some summaries of that
[1:31:28] in the presentation. So there were
massive cuts that got us to this point
[1:31:33] and from our perspective this is
extremely lean and um further cuts would
[1:31:39] be uh definitely start would definitely
impact programming. You
[1:31:44] » I'm the question mainly regarding you
assuming we adopt this budget uh should
[1:31:52] we reasonably expect that the the town
will come to us with the expectation
[1:31:57] that we cut further? Well, I don't know
that that's an answer. That's a question
[1:32:01] he can answer. So,
>> well, he can tell me whether or not he
[1:32:04] can answer. [laughter] Oh,
>> right. So, that's not within my purview
[1:32:08] or control. Um, obviously, we'll
collaborate and work with the town. Um,
[1:32:13] but um that becomes like the next the
next step here is a week from Wednesday,
[1:32:19] the uh finance committee of our board uh
will review the budget again and then a
[1:32:25] week after that is our standing board
meeting. So, the board uh would have the
[1:32:29] opportunity to vote to adopt a budget uh
at that time.
[1:32:34] » Megan,
>> um yeah, I just wanted to say this is
[1:32:37] kind of goes on that, but also to what
Charlotte was saying before. Um I'm I'm
[1:32:43] of the mind that I want to spend like I
I want to put as much money as we can to
[1:32:49] our schools. Um, you know, and
especially when I see that there's
[1:32:53] $550,000
going to athletics and about $40,000
[1:32:58] going to music, art, and theater arts. I
am a theater kid. I'm like, give the
[1:33:02] theater kids more money, please. But I
get it. This year is not the year for
[1:33:06] that. And I think it's our job as a
board, as a board of selectmen, as board
[1:33:11] of finance to work together and make
sure we communicate in ways that parents
[1:33:16] understand how important it is to pass
this so that in future years when, you
[1:33:21] know, when we get through this rough
year, maybe we can add services, you
[1:33:26] know, but let's explain it to them this
year how this budget is the best budget
[1:33:30] for us. And let's do that in ways that
they understand and get that
[1:33:34] communication out. And I think that's
really important as us as parents um
[1:33:38] standing in those lines waiting for
pickup and all of that to let people
[1:33:43] understand that this right now is, you
know, the best for us and that we aren't
[1:33:51] skimping. They are get still getting a
great education and that they have to go
[1:33:54] and vote. And I think that that's really
important and up to us to make sure that
[1:33:59] we get everybody out and voting um the
first time, not the second time.
[1:34:06] [laughter]
I I just just briefly a comment. Um I I
[1:34:10] just want to caution folks out there
when they are looking at the proposed
[1:34:14] budget and because you did mention how
we spend a lot of uh you know a
[1:34:18] disproportionate
uh number on athletics versus the arts.
[1:34:22] Um, I I've been on this board a long
time and I I can tell you that uh this
[1:34:28] district is committed to the arts, but
it you can't just look at that one
[1:34:32] number. You have to look at what the
student participation is as well in
[1:34:36] different activities. Uh, and that's
that's important to look at as well
[1:34:41] because you you could have something
where you're spending a lot of money,
[1:34:46] but then we have a lot of students
participating in it. So, it it it does
[1:34:50] matter in that regard, too. I just don't
want folks to take that away because
[1:34:54] that's not that's not accurate in this
in this district uh in terms of our arts
[1:35:00] and music programs. So, but I think it
would also be helpful. Sorry, Oliver. Um
[1:35:06] if we had uh because I think the other
piece of that too is there's ticket
[1:35:11] sales
>> that are
[1:35:13] » That's true.
>> around $60,000 that offset that. There's
[1:35:17] also paytoplay. So students are
investing into that program. So if we
[1:35:22] had those amounts that offset that
number, that would be helpful for people
[1:35:28] to have that information.
>> Yeah. I just don't want everyone to take
[1:35:30] it at face value. Thanks, Jen, for
adding that as well.
[1:35:34] » I mean, I still think it's okay to spend
more on arts, [laughter]
[1:35:37] » you know, but I agree that's, you know,
>> I'm not I'm not I'm not trying to oppose
[1:35:42] your opinion in any way. I just want to
make sure for the public that they
[1:35:46] understand there's a lot more to just a
number they see on a page.
[1:35:50] » Yeah.
>> And I'm working to gather some of those
[1:35:52] numbers as well and I'll have them for
our our finance committee meeting so we
[1:35:55] can look at
>> Thank you.
[1:35:56] » Is there anyone else that has any other
questions? Oh, Liz Nord, hello. I didn't
[1:36:01] acknowledge you. I didn't see you are
hiding back there. Come on. Uh can you
[1:36:05] pass her the mic, please?
>> On page six.
[1:36:10] On page 16, you have the additional uh
positions. And I do realize it's a 0%
[1:36:18] increase. Um there is a particular grant
I'm interested in knowing a little bit
[1:36:23] more about and that's the seed grant.
Will that be um a one-year grant or will
[1:36:29] that be continued over the years?
>> Because then the salaries have to be
[1:36:34] added to next year's budget. That's why
I'm asking.
[1:36:37] » Right. Uh that is true. So
>> Oh. Oh, hold on one second, Oliver.
[1:36:41] » No.
>> So, so just in reading, initially we
[1:36:46] heard um Liz that it was 3 years that
they were going to guarantee this is
[1:36:52] legislature we're talking about, right?
So, at any given moment, and that's not
[1:36:56] a that's not a riff. I'm just saying it
it it is what it is. Priorities shift
[1:37:00] and change. Um but initially they said
three years but House Bill 50002
[1:37:06] um states that it's going to continue.
So is that absolute? Nope. Um but um
[1:37:17] we're you know it's it's $117,000
the grant. So and and it's money we're
[1:37:24] going to Yes. Is there a potential for a
fiscal cliff on those positions? Yes.
[1:37:29] But again, we're building risk in here
to add value.
[1:37:34] » So the seed grant is supposedly
guaranteed for three years.
[1:37:39] » According to the bill, it says it's it
it's beyond that.
[1:37:42] » According according to the bill um and
the other grants that are being used,
[1:37:50] » I'll defer to you on Oliver there. She's
asking about the other grants being used
[1:37:55] in for the positions that are no cost to
the district,
[1:38:00] » right? That that is it. It it is
predominantly the seed grant in relation
[1:38:04] to those positions.
[1:38:08] » Um and then with the other ones, there
is some movement and changes that we're
[1:38:12] analyzing um to absorb those costs where
one will be absorbed through the basis
[1:38:17] program.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?
[1:38:20] » Thank you.
[1:38:24] board.
[1:38:27] » Thank you for your excellent work.
>> Yeah, thank you.
[1:38:32] » A great question.
>> Yeah. Um so, so uh in in way of process,
[1:38:37] we are now accepting the
superintendent's proposed budget. This
[1:38:40] will now become the board of ed's budget
meeting. We have to vote on that at the
[1:38:45] board meetings.
>> Yeah, we got to wait.
[1:38:47] » No, right. But now we're taking over.
>> Not until we vote on it at those
[1:38:51] informational today, right? So, the um
on on the 28th at the regular board
[1:38:57] meeting, the board will have the
opportunity to adopt
[1:39:00] » a budget.
>> Right. But now we're going to we're
[1:39:03] going to be working at at the finance
the next meeting that we're going to be
[1:39:08] having is the uh finance committee to
review the budget on on January 21st.
[1:39:14] » That's correct. and and we'll be looking
to discuss this this your proposed
[1:39:18] budget to hopefully figure out what
we're going what we're going to be
[1:39:22] adopting on the January 28th.
>> That's correct.
[1:39:25] » Thank you.
>> I just have a
[1:39:26] » sorry if I misspoke.
>> Sorry, just a one quick question. Um
[1:39:32] feedback from the public. What is the
best way that we, you know, for example,
[1:39:37] if I'm asking the public to to give some
feedback on this on this budget to the
[1:39:42] board, what is the best way? And for
anybody on YouTube watching or watches
[1:39:47] it, what is the best way to get feedback
to the board, to the to the district?
[1:39:55] What what's the best way that you want
to hear from people? Do you want them to
[1:39:58] show up on the 21st? Do you want them to
email? Do you want them to call? What
[1:40:02] would you like?
Um I would say if it's go ahead
[1:40:06] » if it's okay with you Carrie um that
they can reach out to me um with any
[1:40:12] inquiries, questions um so that they
have one central location to go to and I
[1:40:17] will get answers to them and I will take
the feedback and respond. I think too if
[1:40:22] if the public wants to will we is there
is there ability to uh stream the
[1:40:29] finance committee or do we not do that?
We don't typically do that.
[1:40:33] » No, we don't. We will.
>> But everyone's welcome to come to the
[1:40:36] finance uh committee uh meeting on
January 21st at the board of ed,
[1:40:43] » right? And then there is public comment
at the full board meeting if um I mean
[1:40:48] we appreciate direct communication uh
through uh Jenzen as as our um
[1:40:54] » finance chair.
>> Finance chair. Um, so I, you know, that
[1:40:59] that's a way to to start right now, but
um, public comment could be at the board
[1:41:04] meeting as well.
>> And there's also a public hearing on
[1:41:06] April 14th as well at the auditorium.
[1:41:13] » Yeah. The only reason I I mention is
because I know like in a you know, when
[1:41:17] we have the public meeting in April,
there have been complaints. People feel
[1:41:21] like, you know, we didn't know this
process was going on, so on so forth.
[1:41:25] And I mean as as you know
representatives the public we obviously
[1:41:30] want that to not we don't want people to
feel that way. And so, you know, at
[1:41:36] least for my part, you know, we all want
the budget to go through the first time
[1:41:41] it, you know, and part of that is making
sure that the public's aware and and
[1:41:45] present. And uh and so anything we can
do to get people in the door in January
[1:41:50] to be aware, you know, because they're
going to they're going to hear 2.93 or
[1:41:55] or whatever it is. And that's, you know,
that's always the immediate and visceral
[1:42:00] reaction. and we always have that uphill
fight. Um, so that's why I just wanted
[1:42:06] to ask, you know, what is the best way?
And so emailing,
[1:42:10] » you can always send an email, but I
think the chair from communications, Jen
[1:42:15] Mullen, does an excellent job of of
getting the information out in
[1:42:19] conjunction with uh Tracy who helps out
with the communications. Uh there all
[1:42:24] the meetings are posted, Logan, and we
do our best. We have
[1:42:30] tons of communication that goes out now.
You get like text messages and
[1:42:34] everything else.
>> This is not a criticism. I'm I'm not and
[1:42:38] I don't want any
>> I just don't know how else we could what
[1:42:41] more we could do to be communicating
that if folks have questions or concerns
[1:42:47] there certainly we have several
meetings. So even if somebody has has a
[1:42:52] conflict, this is our third meeting on
the budget for opportunities for folks
[1:42:58] to come and to ask questions. I think
it's always been a known issue. I've
[1:43:04] served on the rec commission and other
committees in town and
[1:43:08] there's always going to be somebody
saying, "Oh, I didn't know. How come I
[1:43:12] didn't know?"
I I we've tried so many different things
[1:43:17] to get the communication out there,
whether it's through social media or
[1:43:21] newspaper ads or anything like that.
There's always going to be a group of
[1:43:25] people that don't see it and don't know.
So, Logan, if you can solve that,
[1:43:31] » do we send out individual emails to all
of the parents regarding uh that
[1:43:37] » that each parent gets an email?
>> Everybody gets an email. It's on the
[1:43:41] front page of the website. The webs, the
new updated website's got all the
[1:43:46] information out there. Every parent gets
an email as far as what's going on. They
[1:43:51] get multiple emails because they also
get emails. I know um Mr. Mitchell sent
[1:43:56] one out from the high school talking
about the issue. The individual um
[1:44:01] schools all send out their Friday emails
and note that as well. So there's
[1:44:08] maybe it's an overcommunication I which
I don't think is possible but
[1:44:12] » No, it is possible to be in I know there
are also people that don't look at the
[1:44:17] communications corner. They don't look
at the emails from the principles on
[1:44:21] Friday. I don't know how to make that
any better because if we were to stop
[1:44:25] that communication, somebody would say,
"Well, I didn't know." Um,
[1:44:30] » sure.
>> I think if people want to know and get
[1:44:34] involved, they they certainly can.
>> I think you're also going to have the
[1:44:39] set group of people that feel like
blinders is the way to go and they don't
[1:44:44] what they don't know they isn't going to
hurt them, but then they're the ones
[1:44:48] that say, "Well, I didn't know."
>> So, I don't hear criticism in that. I
[1:44:53] think I think we're just looking to see
make sure that the public is aware that
[1:44:58] we do want to hear from them and I think
we're just looking to see what the best
[1:45:03] avenue for providing that kind of
feedback should be.
[1:45:07] » Right. So, Logan, if you want to have,
you know, and and everybody if anyone
[1:45:11] has any questions um or if they have any
comments or something they want to add,
[1:45:16] I welcome their email and I will answer
them within 24 hours. Tracy, is that
[1:45:22] something we can put out on the website
>> and and perhaps send an email blast
[1:45:30] » just saying, you know, this is out there
and if you have any questions, I mean,
[1:45:35] sorry, Jen.
>> No, it's all it's all good. I I
[1:45:38] [laughter]
I get very excited about the numbers.
[1:45:41] Everybody knows that.
>> Everybody knows that. So, I I don't have
[1:45:44] a problem with that. But to to go back
to Charlotte's point too and and
[1:45:48] somewhat to yours Logan, um I think we
did this last year and we need to do it
[1:45:52] again this year is that one pager that
kind of summarizes everything um and get
[1:45:58] that out to people too because that was
very helpful I think last year for
[1:46:03] people to say okay if you don't want to
if you don't want to sit down a cozy
[1:46:07] fire and go through 119 pages you can
read this one pager that kind of gives
[1:46:11] you the summary of everything. So I
think that would be a good idea.
[1:46:15] Thank you, Logan.
>> That was my last comment. People really
[1:46:18] like that. I got great feedback on that.
So, Charlotte, again, that I think that
[1:46:22] was very helpful because I do, to Jen's
point, I mean, on the board selecting,
[1:46:25] we have the same thing. People come and
they say, you know, we didn't know. We
[1:46:28] can only engage those that want to be
engaged, right? Like we we can't make
[1:46:31] friends with people that don't want to
be our friends. We can try. I love to
[1:46:34] talk. Um, but to that point, I think
putting it out that one pager was so
[1:46:39] helpful to get those people that were
kind of like on the fence of being
[1:46:42] involved. it was easy to digest and
helpful and it stopped a lot of
[1:46:46] questions of of being unknown. Um so it
just puts into his perspective for
[1:46:51] everyone. So I appreciate that. Thank
you.
[1:46:53] » Uh so we will put into that
communication the process what's
[1:46:58] happened to date the main like takeaways
big points from the uh three meetings
[1:47:03] we've had so far. Uh and then look
forward including the dates for uh the
[1:47:09] additional dates coming up on the school
side. Uh and then those larger town
[1:47:13] meetings where the board of ed has a
presence. So we will definitely get that
[1:47:16] out.
>> Um I think that if anybody wants to at
[1:47:21] any time, not even just during the
budget season, but at any time contact
[1:47:26] uh the board of education, there's many
ways to do it. One is just to send the
[1:47:31] email. All of our email addresses are
are on the website. And also too, we do
[1:47:37] have public comment at every single
board of ed meeting where people are
[1:47:41] allowed to get up and talk to the board
about anything that they want to talk to
[1:47:46] the board about. So, um that that
communication remains open regardless
[1:47:52] whether there's budget budget or not. In
addition to that, if folks do want to
[1:47:57] attend our committee meetings, our
committee meetings are public as well.
[1:48:01] you're welcome to come and sit in a
committee meeting if that's um if
[1:48:05] there's a certain particular interest
that you have. So I welcome that. Does
[1:48:10] anyone else have any other questions?
>> Great. I would entertain a motion.
[1:48:14] » I move to
>> Oh,
[1:48:17] okay. Miam. And then a second
>> is is uh Lenora
[1:48:25] uh to adjurnn. All in favor?
>> I.
[1:48:28] » All opposed. Uh, anyone abstaining?
>> Wait, no, I oppose. Let's [laughter] say
[1:48:35] » all abstaining. Motion passes. Our
meeting is adjourned. Thank you very
[1:48:38] much.
>> Thank you.