Rubin wanted to make sure that I said that additional not very so pretty much let's get a background on our implementation plan for this additional world language so we had the opportunity to survey all of our stakeholders at the end of 2017 2018 of that school year but I don't know if you all recall we had a bit of their problem right so we wanted to make sure that we were visited that survey at the beginning of 2018 2019 to make sure that we have the most accurate results based on the results we decided to begin the exploration process in the 2018-2019 school year with a goal of implementing this additional world language for the 2019 2020 year which mister Belinda and I after seeing all this data that I'm going to present to you are hoping to get a 1.0 full time staff member which would include curriculum development for five sections of the language we would start with ASL one so with the survey results the with the participation of our stakeholders I broke it down for percentage to see which stakeholders participated the most which were parents and students so we were glad that we had that representation with a total of a thousand 155 responses the first question we asked is do you believe it is in the best interest of our students to offer an additional world language at BHS so as you saw we have eighty three point four percent of responding yes so with that being said the community's spoken you know we had to explore this opportunity also recently with a cooperation of mr.
Brenda I have to give him a little shout out we were able to survey the eighth graders as well an 88% of the eighth grade students also answered yes that they would like an additional world language the high school these are the survey results from the two surveys that I discussed so as you saw the top three languages that we saw by far we gave all our stakeholders 16 language choices from the American Council on the teaching of foreign languages so those are 16 languages that you know would be practical to implement so the top three choices were American Sign Language Mandarin Chinese and a town and all the other languages received 89 or below responses as a choice which wouldn't make it practical for us to implement in addition for the eighth grade results that are not included here but that I just reviewed the top three languages were once again American Sign Language was number one Italian was number two and German was number three as we dope addition as I explored even deeper into the languages I saw the top two by far with the responses with the most responses at first were American Sign Language and Mandarin Chinese and it's funny because the eighth grade results reflect that American Sign Language was still number one but for them Chinese Mandarin was actually the fourth language the third one was German second one was Italian but there was still a considerable difference between American Sign Language and Italian and the survey results just to let you know why we chose this language it wasn't just numbers we want a analyzes special features of each language the stakeholders so overall a communication participation particularly student interest the ability we would have to set program goals so once again looking at the practicality of incorporating this additional language the possibility of allocating staffing and budget the possibility of visiting a program model on another school the ability to develop the curriculum investigate the appropriate materials the opportunities to integrate technology we have a great world language lab so we wanted to make sure that that would also complement this program the ability to assess and monitor student progress the possibility of partnering with heritage language communities and investigating key studies of language programs in general so pretty much why was American Sign Language chosen well if you take a look at all the data you know we have our motto the sole reason for the existence of our profession is the student its student interest so you know this is reflective not only of our stakeholders as a whole of their identity but it's also student interest if you delve deeper into the American Sign Language choice by the students we had a hundred and thirty-four students selected as the first choice the second choice seventy-five students and the third choice fifty-six students so out of all the students that participated this really represents 53 percent of the student body wanting this language to be in the high school if you take a look at Chinese Mandarin so even though you know when we delve down deeper into the numbers we only have 25 percent of the student body really having an interest in Chinese Mandarin and also as I explained in Cape you know we we explored also the practicality of implementing Mandarin Chinese by also talking to surrounding districts and what I found when discussing the practicality of implementing this program the Mandarin Chinese program many times like for example I spoke to the department chair at Bethel where their Chinese program is floundering a bit because they rely on a grant program with Taiwan and that partnership with a teacher being new every year is very hard to keep up with that so the practicality aspect of it would be challenging for us not even just talking about the student interest behind it so I also explored why should BHS students learn American Sign Language so this is all data taken from the American Council of teaching foreign languages if you like to think about it it's what common core is to math and ela that's what Apple is the world language so we have here that it's um one of the most widely used languages in the United States if we're talking about setting up our students for future success actually utilizing languages that they learn here in a real world context American sign language is a way to go at least 35 states including Connecticut have recognized American sign language as a modern language for public schools and hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States are offering American Sign Language classes it's primarily used by Americans and Canadians so I hear you know you could see even more data as to why ASL would be practical in our students lives steeply rooted in the deaf community and culture studying ASL promotes better awareness of and sensitivity to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and as someone proficient in ASL our students will develop a strong appreciation for Deaf culture and promoting understanding and acceptance of the language among others so in terms of career opportunities I also explored that you know the most obvious one being interpreters as there's a great need for them in ASL but also professionals in public and private agencies and educational settings mr.
bland and I had the opportunity to visit conard High School and West Hartford and right before the Thanksgiving break and in chatting with the instructor there he just told us of the vast amount of opportunities that his students have there because of their ASL studies how it really truly sets them apart from everybody else in addition it offers our high school an opportunity to be unique so in my study of American Sign Language and you know who offers it I saw that the Connecticut schools with the most solid ASL programs were Groton where it's offered as an elective Danbury where there are two sections Greenwich was which mr.
bland and I will be visiting that program on December 20th and West Hartford which we already visited and like I said here the research continues but these are really the four schools where I saw something solid in terms of ASL teachers certification requirements because I'm sure that's the question on everyone's mind well how do we even go about finding an ASL teacher I looked up the state of Connecticut requirements which would either require a hearing impaired endorsement at oh five seven or other world language endorsement Oh two four and also the law permits local and regional Boards of Education to employ non certified instructors of ASL which that would broaden our opportunities of finding someone provided that the ASL course is taught by a qualified instructor instructor and that the instructor is under the supervision of a teacher who holds a valid certificate now what does that mean qualified so with the consensus of the stakeholder group this individual who was non-certified would have to take the praxis assessment of sign communication and receive a cuff score of a level four in order to be considered qualified in terms of the action plan that is involved in this process it doesn't you know it's still ongoing where we launched the planning process phase we involved our key stakeholders we're in the process of exploring ASL programs we just explored at Conner high school where we had a great experience and now like I said we're going to explore Greenwich high school that even has a more comprehensive ASL program they offer levels 1 through 4 there and where as Conners we only saw levels 1 through 2 there and upon if we do have budget approval then the next stages would occur which is setting a program and student goals for ASL setting long term goals for the program as well as short term goals with an implementation of the ASL program in 1920 in that school year so like I said currently we're still in the exploration state visiting programs and as a result of our visit from Danbury we were able I was able to have a phone conference with them they unfortunately their program is still in development so they were more comfortable phone conferencing with me and they were very nice and sharing a lot of their materials digitally so I would understand what type of resources we would need for the program and in West Hartford as I said we were lucky enough to visit on the 19th of November where we saw an ASL 1 class and ASL 2 class and it was truly magnificent just being in a room that was absolutely silent especially ASL 1 and you have the students signing to each other in the target language just first-year students actually utilizing the language in the classroom it was amazing to see and you know I would only want that type of experience for our students particularly taking a look at the numbers of students right now we have 632 students and our world Language Program which means that 188 of our students aren't taking world languages at the high school so we also see ASL as a great opportunity and this is actually backed up in talking to the staff in West Hartford particularly the department chair and the ASL instructor that you know with the use of wit with the ability of having ASL in the program we get actually what they see in West Hartford is that they're attracting students that think there are non language students or perhaps students that have some disabilities that for example would make a language learning environment pretty difficult for them this could be a whole new opportunity for them to be included in that language learning experience that would be extremely beneficial to them and as I said in Greenwich high school we're actually going to look at a more comprehensive program because of course if we implement this program at our high school our goal is to grow it so we're going to start with ASL 1 then grow it to ASL 2 with a hope of growing it to ASL 3 and hopefully offering all four years so not just stopping at two so during the visits just let you know what we take a look at and where we ask our questions we ask our questions around their program goals they're staffing and budget they're program models so if it would even be practical to have that program model here their curriculum how their student progress is assessed and monitored their resources and materials that they utilize their integration of technology which by the way there are very jealous of our language lab at Conner high school because technology for ASL was one of the key components to their program the instructor his main resource yes he used textbooks to refer but his main resource was YouTube the Facebook community that he has online with other ASL instructors so technology to the ASL program is absolutely essential of course student interest actually in danbury and connor high school they both said they're fighting off students to take these classes all these students want to take these classes they actually have to place limitations on them the community interest of course as we saw in our survey results we have community interest community partnerships actually in West Hartford as you know the American School for the Deaf is up there so they have a really great connection there but they also mentioned that our our proximity to New York actually gives us a great resource to also have a connection abroad connection to the community and to have partnerships possible funding opportunities and student opportunities honor societies scholarships these are all associated these are all opportunities that we could have with ASL for example we could test in ASL for them to gain the seal of biliteracy which our students are currently gaining with the help of the world language lab so that would be you know that would be amazing that's the end of my show okay so if you have any questions I'll be glad to answer thank you so you're considering starting with yeah and that would be five sections yes do you anticipate interest for five sections yes Melinda and I actually looked at numbers and just based on the survey results and the amount of responses we would say yes this is one of those tough things right where we as we look to predict what happens when you rose a course and it's a bit of you know cart before horse at the same time because we need this approval to go forward in order to even put it in the program of studies which we're gonna bring a cape relatively soon we won't have actual registration numbers until probably March to know what's gonna happen but by that time the budget has moved forward so far you know we would be willing to obviously to adjust you know by the time we get to any sort of reference we've had number as well in advance and be able to adjust as needed to see where we might fall is really hard to predict what numbers could end up being but we do know that there there's a lot of student interest in in this particular program right exactly yeah you know we we want to be completely transparent with that we're not looking to add you know a 1.0 FTE and then say we only have enough for three sections let's see if we can find we're gonna be responsible responsible to the board and to the finances to make sure that taking a look at numbers and enrollment and make them out the best decision for what the program is gonna be not just for ASL but also for the rest of the world language program in French and Spanish and have those discussions but those enrollments look like I'm going to be able to time that with budget as Mark mentioned so you know come May and referendum and we were this forward even if we had a 1.0 teacher that fully made it through the budget process if interest by that time has wane we would be able to come to the board and Justin unless you know we need a point five FTE or something like that so I had a question about one two three four is that a reference to kind of how many classes you would have taken or is there are there standards of proficiency on ASL that students would achieve when you graduated would you be able to say I've reached a certain proficiency and that's something that you you I just never heard the nomenclature on that yeah so actually when we went to Connor in high school what the instructor told us was that they offer currently ASL one which would be like a level one year one ASL two year two and what they're finding is that by the end of year two the proficiency they're actually getting to is that of an intermediate mid which in our world in the world language world that would you know qualify students were sealed by literacy but also they're finding that that proficiency level is way superior to even what the proficiency levels are attaining at college level are because of the language immersion experience that they have there so that's exactly what do students achieve some sort of proficiency level that I don't know if there's a testing that the state does or there's some sort of certification that students achieve certain levels is I just it's it's kind of space for me right yeah yeah so for intermediate mid they would achieve for the state of Connecticut what's called the Cielo by literacy which we would go automatically to their transcript and also on their diploma they get a gold seal okay so currently we're getting students who qualified for the Cielo bio literacy in Portuguese Hindi Chinese Spanish all due to the world language lab I got to keep plugging it and so we're really excited about that and ASL if we were to offer higher levels like for example level 2 level 3 they would also have the opportunity for that and that would make them proficient speakers at intermediate mid I think it's see going to see carnage to see what their level but their 3 and 4 look like now I'm gonna be heard from Connard need to have that comparison to really best program for what our students need what our program might need so we're variant you to see the crunch has you know what is there 1 through 4 I look like their curriculums yeah I just it's for me it's interesting because you know I would think that with four years let's just take that extreme for a moment with four years there's a chance to achieve a something they could use directly in the professional world because that's quite a bit of experience and it's an immersion type of model which I always am a fan of and a level one may be something that you can participate more in a in a world environment by maybe not to a professional but I just don't know the lines there it would be good is when we continue this conversation we do that right exactly and in levels three in level four is that's where they start learning the nuances of the language right so it's just moving from like the basic communication mechanics of the language to actually the actual nuances which that's the difficult part it's like joke in a language or something like that I was intrigued to watch students in different the a SL 1 sl 2 classes as they gave we saw presentations in both classes at both levels and to see the level of the different proficiency level of kids even within that group you know so one student is saying I'm gonna get up and finger spell everything because he didn't know necessarily all the abbreviations for certain things whereas other students were able to make the abbreviations they know takeoff and landing they knew dinosaur we learned dinosaur it was but to watch some students as they spell things out versus those that were able to already hit grasp the concept of what that means it was it was so there's a lot of different nuances in the language that I never had any idea existed it was quite a moving experience to be in that classroom could you tell the group the story about the West Hartford kids working the Starbucks oh yeah so when we talk about community involvement there's actually they're finding a lot of students are being employed by the Starbucks there's a Starbucks in West Hartford where a lot of the people that go to that Starbucks are from the American School of the Deaf so a lot of the customers our clientele are deaf so they're employing conard high school students to actually you know service those people and speak in their language and it will sign in their language and it's just opening up a whole new experience so they can now put on their resume they could make it you know it's not only resume building but it's also community building empathy building it was such a wonderful experience and actually more of those Starbucks are opening nationwide I'm not sure if everybody knows that but that would be you know such a great experience evening expose our students do thank you for all of that research and work that you've done thank you very much Kevin great job so I got a question for the board so the motion on the table is to adopt ASL as an additional world language how do we do that without having gone through the budget presentation I think we're just adapting ASL as a language we're not approving funding for it sure you I am requesting that you see PowerPoint so you can anticipate that sir teaser okay so we can approve the that follows you know through our budget process in if we're not ultimately able to fund it if this is a difficult decision you know come down the road in March or April has to be made then that's the understanding we have when trying to have a start up program the challenges we face any other discussion all right all in favor and it's this this is a really momentous moment for the board because this is years in the making talking about an additional world language last year we were able to capitalize four for the high school I'm getting language laughs I'm giving away the story here but I'm gonna be asking again for mobile for language lab at middle school we're really building our well language program and into marks point earlier having the approval of the world language e ll position in place has just been remarkable for the program thank you the circus ents a lot of hard work for everyone sure thank you to the Cape subcommittee and everyone else involved in it all right next we have approval of open court world analysis gets great forth by recommending motion that the board approved the adoption of the open court word analysis kits for grades 4 and 5 as recommended by the Cape subcommittee a little bit from the Cape and then we could bring Deb up to answer questions I think based on our current assessment data this is definitely an area that needs to be strengthened and this would continue our work that's happening in k3 to continue with it and fourth and fifth it really provides a lot of curricular tools needed for vocabulary development spelling fluency comprehension and most important providing students with the tools needed to break down multi syllabic words and understand the components of words what I loved best about the kit was that it would really be a great resource for our else are yellow students I was able to take the kid home and really dissect it and use a couple of lessons with my students and they loved it and it it proved to be a very valuable resource that we should definitely take advantage of maybe I can ask our director of instruction to farias to come up and talk a little bit about the program is what Kevin that was a really hard act to follow but I'd like to really make sure that we're also making sure that our our learners have the proficiency in the foundational skills of the English language as well and that's what I like to talk about right now so the open court reading foundational skills program really will help us to provide explicit systematic instruction relative to and alignment with the reading foundation standards as part of the Connecticut core standards as mrs.
Layton said we do currently have and we're in our third year of implementation with the open court reading foundational skills kits in grades K through 3 and in grades four and five the teachers are really working very hard at trying to call resources from a variety of different places to make sure that they're in alignment with the reading foundational skills which go from K through 5 however in absence of having a core curriculum or a core curricular tool I should say that we run the risk of having some horizontal alignment issues and some equity issues in that it's really teacher dependent versus having a research-based evidence based core curricular tools such as the open court reading foundational skills kits so we're really very excited about the opportunity to make sure that we are providing assured learning experiences for all of our learners K through 5 in alignment with these integral reading foundational skills I don't know if have any questions there's a kit is right in front of mrs. Greenstein yeah make sure she doesn't put it back in her trunk the the focus is really on morphology which is really the study of words and word parts and really building vocabulary through those morphine's because the the words and word parts carry meaning so you'll see those little cubes they are those little phone cubes those have some prefixes and suffixes Cabul Airy cards which provide the e L supports it has all of the digital as well as the hard copy print components that's shown by mrs.
green Stein those are the reading comprehension of fluency passages and what's really great about them is they include the the words that are part of the explicit systematic instructions so it's an opportunity to build vocabulary as well as comprehension and fluency those are the same spelling cards that go from kindergarten all through fifth grade so there's that coherence with the sound spelling cards so students in fourth and fifth grade that still may need that support the scaffold from kindergarten through fifth grade would be there for them so this would be one kit in all of our fourth and fifth grade classrooms or literacy classrooms it would be one kit per teacher classroom yes yes correct we already have yes we do we do and it includes also a digital component for teachers as well as students so there's the home to school connection as well so that there are activities videos and games that are associated with the explicit instruction for additional practice also the digital component for the teachers includes professional learning because there are videos that really model some of the word analysis instruction that they're providing and it cost for this isn't this is in the budget proposal the total cost for implementing in fourth and fifth grade for next year is around I have it in the PowerPoint but about $15,000 materials that's four in total for all of grade four and five correct any other questions discussion yeah I actually just had a context question so you said we've been using the open court weird out third year yes so have we could you talk a little bit about what sort of either measurable or on the use of that program I mean what what you know open court as a set of regular tools is it working well yes thank you for that question as you are aware prior to the implementation of open court we didn't really have any word study core a curricular tool so we were using in kindergarten foundations and then in first grade we were using cast a spell which is really more of a spelling program and then in 2nd through 4th there were a lot of different renditions of resources that were being used so there really was not a lot there wasn't any vertical alignment with regards to the integral reading foundational skills it was there was there was limited assurance --is our students which presents an equity issue depending on the teacher and the experience level etc yes so we're finding now it through data both anecdotal as well as you know quantitative data is that the students really are using the instruction k3 and really using the phonetic you know language if you will to be successful we have a through our dibbles assessments that we're doing as well as the core phonics assessments that we use in grades one actually kindergarten up through third grade one of the things that we're working on right now is to ensure the fidelity of a commentation principals are working with their schedules right now in kindergarten up through Grade three to make sure that we have enough time to implement the program with fidelity so we're looking at a lot of that as well just to really make sure that we've got the fidelity of implementation so that we can really see even greater success with the program and then my second question is actually a mirror image of it so as you've been evaluating this for grades four and five have we actually had the teachers sit down and look at the materials and what sort of feedback are we getting from the teaching staff the teachers have not yet seen the specifics to this program in grades four and five however they are certainly aware of and have been using the reading foundational standards you know as part of the Connecticut core standards so in terms of you know multisyllabic words and teaching morphology and building vocabulary through the use of morphemes that's something that they are aware of teaching of having you know part of the standards and they're currently using resources predominantly in words their way which is a book that's really more really geared towards spelling so I think they would certainly welcome having a kit that has everything they could possibly need to help them with the planning as well as with the implementation so that they are in fact as dr.
baurel said providing for assured learning experiences for all of you know for all of our fourth and fifth graders yes very much I was gonna say I'll be a little stronger than Deb rather than I think they would welcome their clamoring okay thank you thank you any other discussion Hey all in favor aye post Thank You Depp all right thank you for everyone working on that you everyone right and now we have the superintendent's 2019-20 budget proposal it's a test test to make sure the lavalier mic I can hear it it works okay so um all things are light here yeah just the one by the screen maybe should work or the other one maybe one for humor you try that one there you go that probably works better now how's that alright very good so um I can hear that those lapidaire mic is on I'm certainly more comfortable talking to the board and looking at the screen here and for anybody who had my back to I apologize I am clearly I think after you saw the some of the presentations this evening and we had some dialogue no one could be a more proud superintendent of staff and students of what we have going on here in Brookville absolutely incredible and and we're hitting benchmarks and meeting goals that have long been established by the board were in we're nearer history accomplished and so tonight it's a very it's it's relatively brief and slides I think there's about 25 slides in my powerpoint it has a structure similar to the cadence that we've been used to and that mrs.
Thurm used in her presentation to the Board of Finance in the spring and it really walks through alignment with our strategic plan as well as alignment with our recently adopted back in October budget assumptions and budget priorities there will be nothing until the very end of the presentation that is a surprise I have a couple of things at the end that we'll be sharing with you that are kind of visioning for the future but everything is aligned with what we've been talking about and really breaks it down by goal and I think it's very straightforward very concrete and easy to understand what I'm really most excited about in the presentation tonight is where we've been laying as we talked about open court we've been laying the foundation for quite a long time in our foundational reading skills getting a math program in place and making sure that our students social and emotional wellness is thought through and in financial and regular look into regulatory control we worked on that so we've done a lot of what I like to call fundamental blocking and tackling in education and in our organization over the last three years what's exciting about the discussion tonight is we start to move from those foundational and fundamental things that were doing into some newer more creative and exciting things we talked about the sign language the language program and and there's some other things that we're going to talk about that we've talked about before but I think with more concrete plans this evening so without further ado would like to move things along always starting with our mission statement and our purpose which is to inspire challenge and prepare all of our students to live meaningful and productive lives we want them to be critical thinkers and problem solvers and empathetic wonderful citizens I want to talk for a minute about some very exciting accomplishments that we achieved through the budget work into the 1819 year so we implemented our science program the modules that we purchased the Smithsonian program in engineering K through five and physical earth and space and also life sciences six through eight we've improved the delivery of special education services and our English language services I'm a great deal about that over the last year we've implemented our social and emotional program tool excuse me ruler at whisk in here we're moving forward with that and we're beginning implementation at huckleberry in a center school we've completely nearing completion with all the work we're doing in curriculum development in English language arts and math we had our consultant in with us to work with us for tag and enrichment planning not only working on starting to think about how we might identify students but how we might integrate enrichment into the curriculum design work that we've been working on for so long we reorganized our science and math department leadership to create the stem leadership position at the high school we also reorganized special education leadership from those for teacher leader positions one teacher in school to two supervisory positions those are also 12-month positions there's a lot of value we get out of that with a summer work the technology that canon copier solution that we recently went through we went from a very disjointed system of contracts and leases of 310 machines around the district down to about 70 and we saved suitable amount of money on that and certainly can you talk more specifically to that as we go on with the evening we increase the bandwidth of our data lines our network switches at the middle school our district firewall is very strong now that's been recently implemented we brought our one-to-one program or their movie had the one-to-one program here at the high school we brought it down to the eighth grade this year the students are very excited about that and certainly mr.
Brenda could talk about that we replace aging desktops with a mobile lab of Chromebooks at huckleberry that also needs some more room for some of the therapeutic programming and special education we're working on at huckleberry in physical space purposes our presentation stations are also being upgraded at the in the same classrooms at the high school and we want to continue to do that in the budget going forward we completed our conversion to immunise for financial and regulatory control one of the things we'll be transitioning to this year is a time and attendance system and we hope we can work that through with munis as well we completed our master planning for all the schools in our building conditions study and we'll be talking further about the capital plan we talked to the facility committee tonight moving that forward in a conversation at our next meeting and then obviously the conceptual design has been completed for the pre-k five new school project which is now unanimously moving to referendum a tremendous amount of work I thank the board for all their hard work as we always say the board has the hardest elected job in any community the hours you put in in the administrative team and the teacher leaders that put in so much time into planning all of this and developing the budget for this and the presentations to come forward and develop the rationale for these programs for our students some things we need to talk about it's not all sunshine and rainbows to get this budget for this year we had to make some hard decisions as administrators and as a Board of Education going through this we reduced three part-time clerks we reduced the modern greeter at the high school we reduced an administrative position we reduced the custodial position a secretarial position naturally we reduced an elementary position due to an enrollment decline and we had to make some hard choices in that we had going forward for this year and we tabled school start time study and we tabled the riskier world language lab some things were remembered to kind of set the stage for where where we are right now so some really wonderful things and then some hard decisions had to be made all right so what is the budget look like as we traditionally do here in town we like to present the current budget which is forty two million seven hundred thousand dollars and that was from last year to this year a four point one percent increase our status quo increase for 2019 2020 that means status quo means everything is the same we don't ask for anything new it's level funding in all of our accounts and then it has the natural inflationary increases as well as contractual increases that would be exactly three percent at one point two million dollars if we do nothing different the budget increases by 1.2 million dollars or 3% I have recommendations of 592 thousand dollars which represents 1.4 percent of an increase for a total proposal of 444 million five hundred thousand dollars for a four point four percent increase we'll revisit that broad overarching slide toward the end of the presentation but just to give everybody the number up front and now I'm going to work through the details okay so the Board of Education on Friday when you received your board packet can't put a status quo right can you had these numbers in there was it this light in the budget or no it was the super object so we got to survive my apologies I wanted to walk through the status Kosovo spending which is 3% of the budget for you folks we have salaries which is a big area and that's increasing by two and a half percent again those are all the contractual increases that we have going forward there are already agreed to employee benefits we're estimating at a seven point two percent increase it's not only health benefits there's workman's comp in there there's other things that fall into that category our professional and technical services are increasing by sixty nine thousand dollars at four point four percent property services you can see there's a ten percent increase their other purchase services relative we level supplies there's a larger increase there of $44,000 and then increasing in the equipment area very very small increase there and then in total expenditures of 1.1 million dollars and we'll get into what that looks like we also have a change in revenue that's reduced by 13% that gets us to 3% and again we have spreadsheets we have a budget binder we'll go through them all right so what's driving the budget for this particular year of course I just mentioned inflationary increases contractual increases as well as our collective bargaining those are the salary areas health insurance transportation fuel and electricity we also have increased special education transportation mr.
Beldon mentioned that and his Finance Committee report we can dig into that a little bit however it's important for everybody to know these some things we looked at last year and dr. Cipolla and her team I have to give them a lot of credit our placement tuition is not only projected to be stable from last year through this year and we've been reporting this out at the Finance Committee each month but also steady for the coming year we actually project a net savings in the tuition area and that was a big area last year that we really knocked around however driving the budget those are all placements and transportation are expensive but we have driving the budget some increasing numbers of students with special needs and we do need to service those students also there will be more service provided in district versus out placements so you'll see some changes there I will talk about that curricular tools you just saw the open court curricular tools and programs there's some big investment we have an investment in the open court we have a large investment in our science program we have to buy more modules to complete our science units going forward K through 5 and then there's some unfunded mandates we're going to have a discussion about B as Jen talked about the high school health education requirement and how that all fits in and some decisions we're going to need to make so that's driving the budget all right so our budget goals there's five straightforward goals we want to provide necessary resources to meet the needs of all of our students in alignment state federal there are some half news and some mandates that we must do we want to maintain our class size within the guidelines established by the board and of course we'll adjust staffing patterns to reflect those enrollment changes that we might have and if we can achieve efficiencies will certainly bring those forward to you we want to make sure we're providing a rigorous and relevant curriculum using our best instructional practice best assessment practice and of course to establish beautiful learning expectations for students our fourth goal provided necessary technology infrastructure and making sure we have the necessary equipment and support for our students to thrive in a digital environment and lastly maintain and continue to enhance our programs while remaining responsive to changing changing dates so let's say goal one provide the necessary resources to meet the needs of all of our students there are three positions that we need there should be no surprise to anyone who has some recent conversations about this at the high school dr.
Cipolla reported a couple of meetings ago on caseloads there at the high school was where the highest caseloads per special education teacher in addition to that we've gotten feedback that the teacher the there is some more need for co-teaching and some other opportunities with special education teachers of regular education teachers being responsive to that making sure we're servicing all of our students and having manageable caseloads for our special education teachers so they can meet the needs of their students I'm going to be requesting a special education teacher for the high school in addition to that we talked a great deal about a month ago about the expanding enrollment in need in pre-k asking for a second section basically of preschool we already have one section of pre-k this would be another section of pre-k with a full-time teacher and then lastly at Center School in support of students with special needs especially in the speech and language area and in support of the increasing enrollment and needs in the pre-k area a speech teacher for center school so those are three full-time teaching positions that I am recommending in addition to that I mentioned earlier when we when the board just approved the three position for new pair of educator positions two of the positions that will be covered in the grant this year I will be putting into the budget for next year there is an offset there and we'll talk a little bit about that because again the special education department not only in our placement tuition we're saving about fifty thousand dollars there's some other savings going on but I wanted that up there so we'll be asking for those two new positions our next goal maintaining class size within guidelines while adjusting staffing patterns to reflect the enrollment changes this is our oath there's not much change going on K through 8 in a number of regular ed sections at Center school our sections remain exactly the same so that's that's budget neutral in the sense of positions of course there's contractual increases at huckleberry the total number of sections won't change we're going to reduce a great two section but then we have to increase in grade four the way the enrollment is laid out and at the middle school there is no net change we have 38 regular classroom sections it's the same as it is this year so stay very steady enrollment all right goal 3 providing a rigorous and relevant curriculum so I talked a little bit about science before we need to purchase our Smithsonian science program we need to purchase the new modules the additional modules in grades one through five and that is an investment of a new ask of one hundred twelve thousand dollars to purchase those in addition to that with a technology based program called St math not only provides enrichment for students it can be used as an intervention and acceleration model for students in K through five and that is a $52,000 ask for the licenses for that many students to be on it it's a non verbal program so our students who struggle with math because of a language issue really can excel in this program learn the math concepts of their enormous sense they need to learn the open court great foreign and by program we just talked about the board just approved a fifteen thousand dollar investment providing instructional supplies and building based supplies and science refurbishment kits now just so you know the science refurbishment case I'll talk about that in a little bit it's actually a level fund but it's not a new asking dollars I just wanted to show it there because it goes in line new science modules we're gonna be buying just like we buy consumable workbooks with different programs year to year we have to buy refurbishment kits for the science program that we've adopted and then the last two pieces continuing to provide our intentional and aligned professional development opportunities and the curriculum work we're doing I put that there because it's a significant investment although it is decreasing in the request we're making for next year it's a hundred and forty six thousand dollars and it's decreasing by twenty eight hundred dollars but it is a significant investment it's important while level funded the board knows the kind of dollars you're putting into this in addition to that we had a lot of discussion last year about extended duty that was the work time to pay the teachers to actually write this curriculum after they receive the professional learning whether that was after school summer time on a Saturday and then bring those work products back for review with dr.
Alcott dr. Ruby and mrs. Ferris that is a ninety one thousand dollar investment it's decreasing we're not asking for as much as we did for this year and frankly what we're finding is it's the capacity of the people in the actual time to do the work so we looked at our history we looked at our experience and this is an area where we don't have to spend quite as much to still get the same work done and then of course we adjust our timing as time goes on goal for provide the technology infrastructure we talk a lot about that for the most part the technology budget you'll see is level funded but I want to talk about the investments so we're going to move forward on updating a lab at the high school it will likely be for the art program we want to finish the upgrades to the set the SEM presentation stations at the high school there's an investment there you can see a forty six thousand dollars continue to increase speed and reliability and more access points you can see the investment there sixteen thousand dollars we want to modernize our switches at huckleberry to increase capacity that's thirty five thousand dollar investment it's level fund it's not a new ask but that's what we want to use money for a key investment you heard the success in the envy of other districts with our world language lab at Brookfield high school we want to bring that similar experience down for our students with their world language programming at the middle school last year we asked for a world language lab mobile world language lab at whisking here and that had to be a tough choice we had to make them talk that out of the budget we want to make sure that that is in there and that experience is there for our students last year's ask some of you with some of you have razor-sharp memories so I want to let you know was $47,000 last year we've continued to go back and Eric has really sharpen the pencil with Kenan and they've looked at things and more realistically the numbers fifteen fifty one thousand four hundred dollars to make that happen our final goal maintain and continue to enhance our programs and also be responsive to changing needs the sign language teacher full-time you can see the investment for the teacher there there was a significant task from the high school from the athletic department for a strength and conditioning coach we've been fortunate here in Brookfield that the Athletics Booster Club has sometimes gifted the funds to have a strength and conditioning coach but it's not consistent the high school is asked this is a certainly Steve you talked to this preventive injury prevention strength and conditioning obviously for our athletes and certainly if we have that kind of a coach not only the athletes could benefit from that but other students could benefit from those experiences and wid they think it's about 60% or maybe just over of the school participating in sports not only for the three seasons during the school year but we want to have this in place over the summer individual who can do this kind of coaching in addition to that you've seen the work that's going on with deca our business department we want to have a we need more time with our students and so we want to bring in a team leader to help coordinate some of the the business work that goes on there and so we're looking at a team leader stipend of thirty nine hundred dollars as you can see there and this is going to connect with something that talked about later in the presentation in addition to that mr.
Brenda had asked for an increase in club opportunities co-curricular opportunities for students for this year that had to be cut out of the budget he's asking for those again and we want to make sure kids get experience in an art club and allies a diversity Club and there's some safe it's there for staff who would be involved with advising those gloves and then we want to revisit and go back to the school time study consultant it's the same number that we put in for this year that we had the table really excited about this and I think as time has gone on we're exploring beyond school start times I want to really dig into school schedules and I know Rosa is really going to be leading kind of educational initiative for us here as a board about sleep and about other wellness opportunities that can involve this consult to help us out so this is a big bigger than just looking at start times there's a lot of things with wellness regarding students sleep that will evolve start times that could also involve our schedules and how we utilize time which frankly is our most precious resource with our students so I have that consultant out there okay so those are the big picture things it's a lot to take in what I want to walk through now is things that are immediate needs that are really the happiest things we need to be seriously thinking about before we get to my final recommendation I want to show you so an immediate need is we have to be in alignment with the science Sanders we've already started the program we need to move forward and making sure our teachers have the aligned science materials in front of them so we need to purchase the science modules okay and that's a new ask of $112,000 remember I mentioned science refurbishment cases before that's going to be an annual ask going forward but in the line where we purchased the refurbishment kits at each of the buildings it's actually not a new ask of new funding it's just how we're going to allocate the level funding that's there from each building to purchase those refurbishment kits but they go hand in hand I just want to make sure science is a big push this year aware of that the open court reading program and the stst math in terms of curricular tools really believe staffing we have to get these three teachers into the budget the pre-k speech and language and special education teacher at the high school we have ie piece to follow we have mandates and it's the right thing to do first is we need to make sure we get these in and then again I wanted to share with you we're going to we have we're going to prove the pair of professionals to get those positions in place now we will need to fund them in the next budget and there are some rejected reductions to contracted services that christine has been able to achieve a neighborhood of $150,000 that you'll see that offset the increase in the so those are immediate needs now I want to talk about creating tomorrow versus maintaining today there's some other things that aren't immediate half dues but I think if we're going to be Brookfield and we're going to be unique and we're going to offer tremendous experiences for our kids these are things we need to do so the lab we've asked for for one year this is a priority I think all of us can speak to who had experience with a lab experience of students at the high school it is really important to continue to enhance our world language program at the middle school for those students there's another opportunity and I talked to you about it about a month ago that dr.
Ruby and I have been trying to think through when the timing might be right to put in place some summer school opportunity for our regular ed students who are struggling and that is a summer school starting with our elementary students for for reading specifically to give them a little extra boost in the summer when you look at programming and you look at staffing for a program like that we estimated be seventy six thousand dollars so those are those are two programs in terms of staffing we want to move forward we need to think about okay there's the hafta John just talked about speech and language you talked about education position bus do but there are things we want to do is Brookfield because we're not just about compliance we want to have the best experiences for our kids we want to talk about getting an enrichment teacher CAG teacher a leader in this area for enrichment for our students in place that's what it would cost to bring in that and remember we work with it in Richmond consult and I've done a little bit of reporting back to the board so that's what it would cost to have an enrichment teacher in place we want to move forward with our sign language teachers that's not a half-two but in Brookfield I think it is a you know it's not mandated but boy what an experience this is gonna be in a long term long time goal for the board you wanna get that in place the time study consultant the strength coach in the clubs as additional opportunities for middle school students so I want to kind of bring together my recommendation between the half to slide and the moving forward slide because you know there's two considerations we need to think about when we think about what the recommendations are moving forward we have to really think about the timing of how everything's going to roll out but we have to think about change process and how fast can our faculty move and our administrators move and how much can can we handle with everything else we have going on so we don't have to do everything in one bite next year we might look at putting things off for an additional year I just walk you through my ration out here and you can see what I've done oh I'm gonna skip through that for a second and I want to just walk you through here so moving forward on my new asks I want to show you some things the modules I'm recommending we move forward on science modules I just include the science refurbishment kitchen so you're aware of that but that's not a new cost the open court reading program the st math and the world language lab i'm recommending we move forward in those curricular program areas in terms of staffing i'm recommending we move forward the pre-k teacher speech and language teacher the special education teacher the two ABA pairs the sign language teacher strength coach business team leader the clubs at whiskey here and then there's adjustments for Social Security in there move forward on the time study the second year in row talk about that I'd like to move forward on that and then professional services is actually I have in there because you have to see how the math works out when you look at the spreadsheets is actually a savings of one hundred fifty thousand dollars that gets to the one point four percent increase on asking for of five hundred ninety-two thousand dollars well you don't see in there are two things and I'm looking at capacity of this staff to plan accordingly and move forward on one is the summer school reading program that would be something new and frankly with all the curriculum design work and everything else we have going on I think it's something we can postpone for another year and spend a little more time talking about fleshing out and thinking through how we might make that work in addition to that you don't see in my recommendation the enrichment consultant slash talented and gifted teacher for next year and again that has to go with change process and timing with all again with all the curriculum work we're doing we want to integrate enrichment into the curriculum design work and I don't think we're far enough along with the new curriculum work or can you get another year under our belt and get more of these products in more of this curriculum in place so we don't overwhelm our teachers who are learning new curriculum adjusting to new curricular tools well that's science in there for that fifth is going to get new reading program and also throw at them now you've got to do all of this new enrichment and there's a new consultant there and so forth I'd like to take another year to think that through well what we do during that year is really look at that identification process and get that down that so I want you to know that so we're not just putting it on the shelf and not thinking about it so there is the ask going forward I wanna go and talk a little bit about leadership for creating tomorrow we're gonna go back a couple slides I'm not asking for these for next year but I want the board to be thinking about that and I am thrilled to death if you had my mood meter right now it'd be in that high yellow area I'm really excited about this something we've been talking about we hear from the community I'm sure will come up in some me ask report saying do a little more guys I think he can really do great things for a kids and certainly stuff I wanted to do I started my presentation they're talking about blocking and tackling fundamentals they're these this is fundamental of what we need to do as citizens as culture and it hasn't been an area of focus and that's frankly the beautiful artists we saw this evening we've got kids who excel in this area we've got magnificent staff in this area I think we could do more for our students and we need to explore it and as you can see in world language in ëall when you have a leader who is an expert in that area what you can do with programming we need to do the same thing in the visual and performing arts I'm proposing we start really talking seriously about bringing in a curriculum specialist which would be at the level of like Miss Holly and world language or mrs.
Spencer in humanities or intro mr. Hill and stem to lead us in K through 12 Visual and Performing Arts as some descriptors up there this totally aligns with critical thinking and problem-solving it aligns with character and connection it aligns with communication and collaboration and being creative and innovative it helps students when we look at the visual and performing arts as an academic subject not as an extra thing and we really integrate it into what we do and we really embrace it and value it as a community we've heard from our community I know they want this and at the same time academically in terms of leadership and executive functioning skills being really focusing individual performance helps our students so I've defined for you what a T a leader in that area might look like it's up there for posterity so we can have further discussion about it there's another leadership position I'm super excited about and again we've heard from our community and I know this is this is an area I wanted to go as well and I think the time is right to talk about this publicly and that is a director of community partnerships and civic engagement what we do here is again enhancing our strategic coherence plan reaching out for our community not only elected bodies our organizations or volunteer organizations in the this community in Brookfield and beyond to strengthen and build partnerships that be somebody who do that for us it would help with internships with students it would bring us not only people think about this with capstone and internships and high school students we would want to bring this down to the middle school and as we think about the new school project and we think about the concept of the fifth grade academy that's the real age to talk about authenticity and relevance and getting kids out into the community and bringing the business community bringing our elected officials in aligning our civic goals and our Civic social studies standards with authentic and relevant experiences we need someone to lead us in this area so these are two positions and to leadership areas I really want to think about becoming number focus areas for us so I'd like to just stop there show you the ask again the status quo the five hundred and ninety two thousand dollar ask for new and that you can see a four point four percent increase so get you square you back and then I just want to show a couple of factual pieces that are in the PowerPoint the enrollment chart very important for people to understand our enrollment is relatively level last year at this time we projected projected our enrollment to decrease and it actually increased by twelve students I told her to October so right now we have two thousand six hundred forty eight students next year will protect predict projecting excuse me two thousand six hundred eighteen students that would be a decrease of 31 students but our history tells us that's probably not likely to happen and in fact I think there's been some recent changes that principals were telling me with we just had what is it ll we have a hundred eleven students in e ll with an increase of 15 from last year we just had two more students moving register special needs students we have three hundred and seventy six to divide needs that that's 40% or our enrollment that's an increase we roll that over 20 22 state average is a little higher like in the last community we have a 496 students identified as free lunch that's underneath ooze like there's a class very repellant you look really really really is read frankly target as you can see it's said enter tool hourly instead of 28 with target of 19 well they're very range 21 they're true to our shirt and in follow our history so it was read by the twenty point one students is projected so we're very close to target not even just being within range at whiskey near 21 to 23 in grades 5 & 6 and you can see we're doing well there and we're a little above in 7th grade and the current 7th graders are bubble class so of looking at 8th grade that's the one that's still a little large okay just want to show you that we're gonna give you your budget minor in just a second a reminder when we talk about our operating budget this information will be updated in the next month so we'll adjust this but the data that was out from 1617 our per-pupil expenditure is fourteen thousand five hundred and twenty four dollars that year and the state average is sixteen thousand five hundred and seventy six dollars so so there's a two thousand dollar difference between our per pupil expenditure and state average and indirect B as you can see our comparable economic reference group districts were at the bottom I also have a budget history slide here I'm not going to walk through this but you could see there is some alignment with the budget requests and inflationary increases over the last ten years Capital Improvement another area we need to discuss but we have a lot to talk about from this meeting tonight not sure how much the board is going to want to talk after the president and we'll bring the capital plan forward for the 19th and I'd like to have a discussion with you and I also have some links for people there will be key links up there for anybody in the public that wants to look at the strategic plan or budget assumptions in white is tonight's meeting and video we'll put that on there so it's there and I also have some references there not only you know some links and other things we were using when we talked about those leadership positions as well people are interested in taking a look and that's all I have thank you for your time so hopefully we can have a robust discussion you're very welcome I know it's a lot to discuss right now and we're gonna want to take a look at the budget book before we dig deep in I know last time what we did is as we looked at the budget book and we had questions we emailed them in and then those questions were these fine replied back and we had these questions before the next meeting I think that's a good place to start as well what I'm gonna ask this time is that we email the questions just directly to dr.
Borel or Ken yourselves and not CC everyone I think last time we CC the board then I think we run into the problem of maybe saying it's so sad or I agree with so-and-so and then we're actually opening up to a meeting so I'm just gonna because when they reply to all the answers they say list everyone's questions I think we'll still have the benefit of of seeing what everyone else is asking in those answers as well but do we have any kickoff questions no there's a lot of information came at you so I understand and I also could walk you through the binder and Ken had a couple of things about the spreadsheet he wanted to share with you tonight but we're ready for questions whatever you'd like to talk about I have one question about the presentation when you we're talking about the two positions at the end yes Silicon Community Partnership and the visuals Performing Arts you're looking at that not for next year but this is something yes it's not it's not for next year but I wanted to use this use the the bully pulpit here and use this occasion to share with the board my vision and what I've heard from the community as areas it's time to start talking about these areas and I see us moving forward in the next couple of years really seriously starting the dialogue this year and getting trying to get those positions in place going forward and that's why I wanted to bring them up tonight and certainly happy to have those conversations at the appropriate times throughout the budget process I just have a comment to make I remain concerned about social studies and I'm disappointed to see that we don't have anything in the budget this year our students are doing poorly in social studies and it's very important subjects one of our core subjects and I'm disappointed not to see anything sure about that so so we're doing a lot of curriculum work in the area of social studies and we have the materials for the high school and that the middle school in the high school are working on in there and they're building instructional budgets but maybe Deb if there's a couple of things you could talk about where we're at with curriculum design with social studies and kind of how that's fitting into the work that's going on give some context in perspective we are in the process of doing curriculum development really k12 in all of the content areas the focus k4 has been primarily at least first in ela and math however we have started in phase one which was really to build the year-long context tool which is where you bundle the standards and really make decisions as to what's developmentally and you know appropriate for you know in terms of what you know we're in the pacing of the year you're going to put certain standards so there has been some work in terms of really unpacking the c3 frameworks the Connecticut core standards in terms of social studies we do have a k-12 social studies curriculum team that meets every other month this year and we do talk about the social studies curriculum so we are working on curriculum in social studies however at this time it is not something that we're looking to purchase a curricular tool to support the c3 framework so we're really starting to try to even unpack the standards and really develop some inquiry based instruction as well so one of the items we've talked about in our k-12 social studies curriculum team has the question formulation technique we did have Steve Armstrong who is the Connecticut representative if you will for social studies in the state of Connecticut and he's come to talk to our k-12 committee and we have been looking at at least including the the inquiry into our social studies instruction and talking about the informed action piece which is also part of the c3 frameworks which is something that dr.
Burrell alluded to in terms of that you know vision toward the civic leadership so I hear what you're saying we certainly do you know want to do more with social studies but also as dr. Burrell said we really have to pick out priorities because we can't bite off more than we can chew so to speak so where we're trying to make sure that we're doing things that make sense in all of the content areas so it's not like we're not doing anything in social studies but at this time we we don't see you know it is a priority in terms of purchasing a curricular tool [Music] I just remember last year when we were talking about it [Music] what we're not up to the standards that we should be with social studies and to here it is just disappointed okay [Music] I had a question about PLL this time last year we were very concerned about the increase in e ll students and adding an e ll tutor do we feel like we're at a point now where we can handle any increases next year or is there a plan to add to the e ll staff first year no plan to add I could certainly bring Kevin up if she'd like to talk a little bit about that we're having tremendous success with the model we have now which is the one teacher with the two tutors and then through one of the title grants we're looking at there a third tutor opportunity so please counter yes so we actually in addition to myself we have a nice assault team in place we have the k12 TESOL teacher and we have an al tutor at center we have another one in huckleberry and as of today we just hired one for the high school and also was Kinnear so yeah yeah so we were very comfortable with the model we have now so it actually worked out through all that discussion this models actually worked out famously for us and you saw the results last month that Miss Holly was shown in those two new positions I'm sorry to interrupt with the new two tutors that's worked into the budget that we have now or is that with the grant that's part of this with a grant the title that's headed to tutors into the budget for this year for 18 19th right so those tutors already in the budget yeah okay they stay in the budget okay so it's just going for everyone is in the title great got it okay great thanks thanks go all right any other initial questions I know I need to dig into this there's a lot here I understand and end it the one thing to just remind that remind the board to remind our audience is that we're one of the very first districts in the state that begin the following years conversation and we we traditionally did this at the lot the second meeting in December and that would just break for the holidays and you have all these burning questions you have to wait til til we get to the new year whereas the board asked asked me last year can you be ready for the first meeting in December and I and we did that I think that gave us that extra two weeks really gave us seven full weeks to vet the budget and really exercise things so it's a lot of work to get ready this early in the year but I really like the fact that we're talking about it this early it just gives us more time to process things and so on the 19th in two weeks we'll have a lot of questions will come to us I'd ask can we have questions by Tuesday maybe next week so it gives us a week to get ready and if there's because it might be some research that has to happen with some of the questions that the board is asking I think that's the 11 that'd be really great if we could do that so so that's the other great opportunity by going this early in the year because there's plenty of time to talk and really get I think a solid foundation and understanding what this budget is all about prior to the holidays so then we have to do some really nitty-gritty work over the course of January and remember the process is we have to get this to to the First Selectman by the end of January if there's no questions at this time I just think take a minute to literally just walk through the binder so you know what you have in front of you and I want to turn it over to Ken because he has some area section 3 is an area he wants to just do some quick review with it with the board before they before you have this by yourself and you're trying to make heads or tails of it so section 1 is very straightforward it's our budget assumptions and priorities and obviously though with the board members there we'll eventually add into section 1 a transmittal letter which would be from Colette to mr.
Dunne when we move this forward and adopted from the board to the Board of Selectmen section 3 is all of the different spreadsheets it's really the nitty-gritty budget detail section for teacher and administrative salaries and the breakdowns there section 5 is our classified staff when and those those sections are occupational and physical therapists our para educators clerical positions custodial positions in the like section 6 goes through all the different enrollment and caseload reports and class size reports that you received last month of actually back in October those are all there for reference the capital plan again we're going to talk about that on the 19th so it's not in the binder yet that is section 7 and section 8 has two pieces in there it has one sheet if that's all those grants and revenues that we talked about and there's also a glossary that was an idea I forget who came up with that but over the last couple of years there was yeah a lot of alphabet soup and a lot of title this the federal that come up and it's important for people to understand what we're going to do is this document will be scanned and set up tomorrow it won't up on the website and we will have it as a link my PowerPoint from tonight along with this presentation the link to the video of the presentation tonight as well as the link to the binder will be school messaged out to everyone tomorrow hopefully by the end of business maybe earlier and then post it on Facebook and on the website as well so everybody has access to it in the community I'd like to turn it over to Ken now you want to walk through section three Ken sure section three is set up pretty much the same as theirs the current year's budget the first page is a note explaining that the budget documents included the anticipated adjustments to the 1819 budget the second page is the super object status quo summary that you got with your board packet last Friday the next three pages is the budget by object again set up just like last year showing those budget adjustments and then showing the superintendent's noon allocations coming up to five hundred ninety-two thousand dollars and you'll notice at the bottom of the second page and the top of the third page are all of the revenue items that we've talked about and then following that is the detailed document of eleven pages which again goes by object but gives you a lot more description of what's driving some of the status quo adjustments that we made then again when you get back to us with specific questions well answer them for you oh joy is your for the bus saying line the transportation yes is that in one of the first three pages of that [Music] transportation is object number 5 5100 it's on the page 1 of 3 in page 711 [Music] for general transportation [Music] we got a lot of homework so it can just some of the and it's a question we get every time is there's always a couple of big drivers that are that are kind of trend type things like fuel costs eating costs insurance costs what how have you established those year-to-year growth assumptions well for the health benefits in talking with our insurance broker established the interests the increased rate of the seven-and-a-half percent and I used the contractual employee premium shares to reduce that doesn't come up with our number for diesel fuel and eating oil we actually locked in last week we locked in rates for next year that are lower than what we are paying right now for this year Wow good yeah that's good just have you as mrs.
Mary Ann has she also used the same seven and a half percent on employee benefits do you know I don't know I don't believe she has they they're far behind us in process they don't have to have their budget I would suggest we before we actually present the budget that's always she's making different assumptions that always become so same one also our procurement the managers standing I'm talking about blocking integrate some things like yeah they locked in its with us all and it's also yes we did at the same time okay because those tend to be I mean I looked quickly at it and the single biggest driver year year is the health plan yes so it's always an assumption at this point yeah that's why it's interesting to know where it working you know the rates with the partnership plan have been pretty steady over the years okay so that's it gives us a little bit of coverage and you never know for sure well and we don't get the renewal for that until probably March or April which means they're not in sync with budgets budget cycle that all of us towns needs work from it so that's accurate probably ought to go on record as they kind of get they're active and not surprising okay thanks won't spend more time on that I'm sure [Music] any other questions so we'll have the first round of questions and hopefully within the next week and look at those back and I'm sure that will precipitate if you're warm in there and we'll obviously keep this as a standing item in our agenda for our meetings going forward thank you I appreciate you listening and I know I know there's a lot that came out there's a chock-full agenda tonight and this coming at the end was a lot of information I do appreciate and I anticipate a tremendous discussion going forward and I really look forward to it I think the last last couple of years we've really fine-tuned the process and I think we arrived at a very rational budget by the end that's very good for kids and I thank you for that okay that moves us into Oh business and we have a new school building project just to discuss there's been a lot that's happened since we last met during our last meeting the school proposal was unanimously approved by the Board of Finance on Monday the Board of Selectmen move the project to a town meeting and that will be January 15th 7 o'clock at the auditorium the only action that the town meeting is to vote on a referendum date the recommended referendum date is March 5th of Tuesday March 5th during that meeting though there will we will also be giving a presentation of the new school proposal maybe more detailed and you know including the financials and for those that weren't able to see it before so there will be obviously the opportunity for input at that time as well moving forward we're going to really know that we have the approval of all of the boards and unanimous approval which is a really great thing we're gonna really start moving forward in our communications with the town and with all of our stakeholders we have the video that was just produced and put out and now we can really just start going into groups and meetings I think I've shared with you all the communications plan and the list of really stakeholders that we need to reach out to what I'm going to ask of all of you if you don't mind is to take a look at that list I can email it to everyone again if you'd like see if there's any groups that you have special ties to you're invested in that you might be able to set up meetings for I'm happy to go with every meeting if unless you backed over yourself really the men are presenting it we have her fact sheets we have our bulleted points we have the video we have enough great content it's just a matter of bringing it out to as many people in the town as we can any other questions discussions I just want to compliment I don't know who was I know you were a big part of it but it was so professional and I think it just in a short amount of time clearly told the message with visuals to support so I think you know the more that we can get that video in the hands of community members I think they'll understand the value so thank you to Colette and and I don't know very professional I made with a lot of love I'd like to share about the two pieces on communication the you know having just gone to two faculties this afternoon really it's a succinct video to your point Jen and it gets to the discussion going and it gets the information out and thus far it doesn't leave people with you know that again in the bubble of the educators with that many questions I mean it really tells the story I'm working with Jeff from tech town architects he's working on display boards that we could have a few in different key community areas that lay it out in a more visual sense people can read at their leader whether perhaps in the library Senior Center town hall places like that maybe one at each school oh and another item moving forward I forgot to mention was that on Thursday that's tomorrow dr.
Berlin myself will be doing a presentation with the Planning Commission as well that is another step required moving forward so the Planning Commission has to receive the project and opine on it I think is the official wording of it we'll be bringing you the video along that's right so you get the other half of this family yes thank you the town meeting is going to be January 15th 7 o'clock at the high school auditorium at which time they will be recommending it's me we can't state it as an actual referendum date because it's not official until it's voted on at the Town Meeting but they are recommending a referendum date of March 5th and just for everybody who's listening on capital projects referendums have to be 45 days 45 days well you tell me it's 45 days for the minimum so that's why it goes out in the March so okay thank you everywhere it's you know roll up our sleeves and hard work is just beginning I think trying to get it through that brings us to three main points there are a lot of points on the first the first point is that there's a lot of points yes budget budget well reviewing the agenda to do the open court [Music] we're skin Roza like roll the open court into the budget part third point something else uh you know what I'd like to see the third point would be discussed the upcoming schedule on the new school building project it's the most important thing we have going there so you can reiterate the dates they're coming because I think even though some of these others are also very important that's the big picture big picture its budget or we could say it's the port's something any schedule not sure that's gonna peak too many people's interests all right upcoming events okay at center elementary school is early dismissal this Friday December 7th at 12:15 for PLC there's a PTO meeting on Tuesday December 11th from 6:30 to 7:30 at huckleberry hill elementary school there's early dismissal this Friday December 17th also 12:15 dismissal for PLC grade two concerts are from Thursday December 13th through Wednesday December 19th at whiskey near middle school this early dismissal this Friday December 7th with an 11:30 dismissal for PLC this 7th and 8th grade student leadership field trip to prospector Theatre on Tuesday is on Tuesday December 11th from 8 a.m.