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Heat number 18. car number 19 the turbo tiger for Doolittle in Lane b car number two battery from Top Lane c car number seven Marlene Solano and Lane D car number one the reboot razor foreign ladies and gentlemen boys and girls the last he of the race in Lane a we have car number 20 hope it holds a contender for this light b car number three Kimo Wasabi Productions Lane C has car number eight the lucky charm and in Lane D we have car number two battery holding on to a solid first position is Marlene Solana with eight points followed right behind with F1 racing at nine in third place the Maserati F1 with 12. congratulations to all the races this year here's the final race for today foreign [Applause] [Music] Heats between round one and two of the third annual CPS Pinewood Derby race Marlene Solano is our grand winner once again for a 3p with a low score of eight points second place F1 racing Mike Woodson died middle school and in third place Vin maciano the Maserati F1 more importantly let's look at our total scores with a total of 32 points our slowest racer is the CHS art Department with the slowest molasses award congratulations to our fastest and our slowest winners for today thank you all for joining our live production we'll keep the live stream going for our voting through I'm sorry the CPS form for voting throughout the weekend and we'll announce our winners to all the CPS on Monday thank you all for taking your time on a Saturday morning to watch the race congratulations to our winners thank you
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[Music] hey everybody Cat TV news has been on break for the month of January however we will be returning in February in the meantime here's some tech trivia see you guys next week [Music] excuse me um how many stripes are on the American flag 13. good good yeah do you know what America's official languages English what's America's official language um English who was the first president Abraham Lincoln what is the capital of Oklahoma Washington America okay what is the capital of Oklahoma oh Oklahoma City do you know how many states are in the U.S can you name the country in Africa hey hey Jackie um what are the two countries that border the U.S Canada and Mexico okay name you know at least seven countries United States yeah China Japan yeah North and South Korea okay I don't know anymore I don't um which ones have been fighting yeah there's a war certainly yeah there's a war I don't know about anymore Russia Russia and who else who else is fighting with Russia I don't know probably like I ran Iraq I hear them all the time how many cups are in a gallon three okay thank you what is America's official language uh I would have to say it I would have to say English how many cups are in a gallon trying to think of the gallon house it's not is it eight no what's America's official language yeah yeah English excuse me when was the War of 1812 1812.
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good job um name a country in Africa um Nigeria what's the capital of Oklahoma I don't know uh can you name two countries no I can't um 13. how many continents are there how many cups are in a gallon excuse me how many stripes are on the American 13. good job excuse me how many continents are there seven excuse me do you know how many stripes are on American flag 50. okay excuse me can you name a country in Africa um Nigeria excuse me uh do you know how many cups are in a gallon 16. yeah you're right when was the War of 1812 1812. good job how many cups are in a gallon how many cups are in a gallon yeah who knows that many people in this pool cups in a gallon how many states are in the U.S 51. all right and how many stripes are on the American flag 13.
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what two countries border the U.S Canada and Mexico good job what two countries supported the U.S Canada and Mexico all right um name a country in Africa Ghana how many seas are there what do you mean like oceans oh um a hundred okay uh how many states are in the US 50. how many stripes are on the American flag 13. okay are there there are seven continents what is the capital of Oklahoma Oklahoma City what two countries Board of U.S Canada and Mexico all right how many cups are in a gallon what is America's official language um how many cups are in a gallon I don't know how many states are in the U.S 50. how many stripes are on the American flag um 40. that's right um what two countries border the U.S what what countries border the U.S I don't know how many continents are there seven what is the capital of Oklahoma I don't know when was the War of 1812 1812 how many cups are in a gallon uh I don't know just take a guess just any guess like 100.
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how many continents are there continents yeah give me a minute wait isn't there like 300 something like isn't there like a bunch of consonants yeah okay uh when was the War of 1812 oh 1812. yeah all right uh how many cups are in a gallon seven or something name a country in Africa name two countries that border the U.S I'm not thinking right now bro okay picture picture United States what is around it all right uh what is above us South America oh no what is the capital of Oklahoma is it is it is it like Oklahoma City yeah how many cups are in a gallon six what is America's official language English um I'm going to ask you two questions how many states are in the U.S 50. okay and how many stars are on the American flag what borders the U.S there are two countries and Mexico what is America's official language official language yeah America's officially president of the United States George Washington okay and when was the War of 1812 1812 probably okay how many states are in the U.S 50.
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okay how many stars are on the American flag uh 15. okay how many stripes are on the American flag 13. all right good um how many continents are there good question what is the capital of Oklahoma uh Wisconsin okay um when was the War of 1812 um I'm gonna say somewhere around 1813. [Music]
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Good afternoon. Welcome to the Senate Committee on Education. Today is Monday, January 30th, 3:00 p.m., and we are in hearing room 229. This meeting, including the audio and video of remote participants, is being streamed live on YouTube. You will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and on demand video page of the legislaturator's website. This Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:00 p.m. agenda of this committee on education. In the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to major technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on February 1st, Wednesday, 2023 at 300 p.m. in this room 229 and a public notice will be posted on the legislaturator's website. I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings, we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill.
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of the board to discuss the proposed budget for next fiscal year before we get into that Mr zenski ever will call for form here here thank you we'll stand for to pledge since I was here last time I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you know do we have any members of the onions that wish to address the board this evening as soon as there are none I will turn it over to Mr grippo's chair of the finance committee but for folks that may be tuning in or I know that's been here uh this is our third or fourth what is the fifth meeting of this budget proposal the finance committee uh wrapped up its two-week long journey uh listening to another presentations which probably all the materials are available in the Cheshire Public Schools website all the detail we have is up there and there's quite a bit of it anyone that has any questions or insights into that please take a look and please contact us as far as I know I have not received any specific questions I'm not sure if the email as we see the exactly um we'll check again before the meeting is over just in case people might be sending something in before anything happens tonight uh so the finance committee has put forth a budget recommendation which is a superintendent's budget recommendation for the full Board of Ed and as we tradition to every year the full Board of Ed reviews that and makes a decision and ultimately adopts a budget that may not happen tonight in case it does not happen tonight we are required to have a budget adopted by February 14th so we have a little bit of time that being said Mr grip I'm going to turn over to finance committee report update uh thank you Mr chair um the finance committee uh met uh just earlier this evening and we passed a motion to approve a budget to be presented to the full Board of Ed for consideration of 85 million 872 591 dollars that is an increase of 5 million 208 171 dollars uh and a 6.46 increase over the approved budget from last year or current budget and uh that's where we stand right now uh outstanding yeah would you like me to uh make a motion to get the ball rolling well do you have a motion um I would imagine so yeah questions discussion is going to be on that yeah all right so yeah just yeah I'll make the emotion on the on the motion uh so I'll move to uh uh move that the Board of Education approve a budget of 85 million 872 591 dollars a uh increase of 5 million 208 171 dollars an increase of six point four six percent it's very second I knew it this Harrigan seconds discussion questions okay input here we go from any any board member but any comments at all okay I'm gonna go all right okay um okay so um [Applause] I appreciate thank you for everything you've done and thank you you guys for all that you've done um I I will confess I have major reservations about the size of the increase of this budget and um it just I understand we are up against a wall we're at um almost 96 of fixed costs um either through contracts um you know through energy costs through just any number of contracts that were required to meet and it leaves us so little room to maneuver um and uh uh you know just function um and I have said this in the past um I I just in my time on the board what strikes me most is is the cost what's killing us is mandates from the state and um there's just this assumption that somehow those in Hartford can pass some law or slip it in at the last hour in the implementer bill and our taxpayers will pay for it and don't worry they just won't go out for dinner or another one night a week and there are a lot of people that this is going to hurt this is a right now as I understand uh the formula this is a two mil increase on 34 meals in this town um and I find it rather disturbing that even when we hold legislative meetings uh of the legislative delegation we get two out of the five present um and there are three other representatives and a state senator who do represent Cheshire and couldn't bother to be there with us to discuss our concerns about the growing impact of mandates I am just one lone voice on this board but I sure hope they're listening it has to stop because this is starting to affect our kids in our town and there will be a time where a community is a community of all ages and from young to old and if we are forcing our one segment of that community and it isn't just one segment there are young families that will at some point not be able to afford this anymore we have got to get some relief and um I appreciate your working you guys with with the situation um but as I said I I cannot support a five plus million dollar increase so thank you Mr chair I'd like to make an amendment you made this a okay um I would like to uh amend the motion to um decrease the the budget ask by 619 401 dollars um I went through the budget you know at least at a high level trying to get into the to the line items here and um I think that reduction uh preserves all of the so before we get into this question so you you propose to amend the motion on the table to reduce the increase by six hundred nineteen thousand four hundred one dollars yes Faith seconds we now have a discussion on the amended motion which reduces the increase by 619 401 so Mr gripple would you like to continue explanation ah thank you Mr chair uh so that would be an increase of four million five hundred eighty eight thousand seven hundred seventy dollars uh which is still an incredibly large number um uh but as we've as uh Faith had mentioned previously uh a lot of this budget is contractual increases for the most part um but we also have to keep the taxpayer in mind uh and we we I know the superintendent has mentioned um you know potential grandless growth uh we don't know what that is right now we have to assume maybe it's only you know one percent as it has been historically we don't know if it's going to be more or less uh we don't have any uh commentary from uh town hall right now um we you know we do know that energy prices are way up uh we know uh that we have contractual increases for salary and benefits we have our medical benefit trust fund which I think was an increase let's see according to this is 10.6 percent which but I think on just on the trust fund basis might actually be higher than that uh just outside of the line item um so we're facing these these increases um but like I said I like to still keep the tax bear in mind um and so uh what what this does it preserves the the positions that the superintendent has asked for in his budget that would be the Four elementary teachers the the 1.6 uh or 1.4 bcba that uh was it I don't remember off the top of my head I could probably pull it up here but all the basically the positions that were asked for in this budget um and it also uh preserves the the cushion for fuel electricity and our energy contract uh but it basically strips out everything else from instructional expense um and support services at least by by my account by the way I did the math um so that's so it's basically a budget that only uh pays for all of our contractual uh increases and uh gives us cover for uh potential energy costs and of course you know energy costs could go down maybe be in the next six months I doubt it but uh it could happen so that that could leave us with a little more Headroom uh going into May um but that is my reasoning for the motion yes and um so I'm wondering if Mr Griffo can give us May talk three or four areas that would make up the 619 thousand four hundred and one dollars uh uh the the the areas that are cut you mean uh or well not increased yeah um where do we get the most uh the uh majority of the decrease in increase uh would come from Support Services it would essentially be uh any increase asked for uh would be flat lined with the exception of line 732 which is the uh the uh energy contract for 38 162 dollars that'd be a majority of it right there um and then um maintenance and operations um any increase asks for with the exceptions of line 410 and 620 which is the uh fuel uh and electricity um increases that were uh budgeted for for next year everything else would be zeroed out at least as far as an increase will go so there's still let me see there would still be uh four point six million in maintenance and operations there would be uh let's see 7.3 million in Support Services and uh 4.5 million in instructional expense so could you give me that line item and support services for them uh Support Services the the only line item that would be increased would be line 732 which is uh for thirty eight thousand one sixty two that's for our uh um actually what it's called our energy contract for the LED lighting that we did uh several years ago so now I need to go further deeper in and see what's being affected if you take that much out of Support Services foreign so all it's all these other lines right yes 3 30 to yes okay so who's gonna explain to me so what's gonna happen if we do if we wipe out that sure the easiest way to um identify really the implications of that are under the support services tab each at each account number there's an overview of what that account provides so you know whether it's other Professional Services whether it's uh you know our our rentals and leases Communications all these different lines are addressed there so you know simply rentals and leases I imagine you know the cost of the Town swimming pool may go up for example which we pay for or you know our golf for athletics or whatever that that'll likely go up we would um you know offset any increases there against other lines if it's flat funded that's how we would manage it would that necessitate Jeff for Dr so long would that necessitate increasing the Student Activity fee you mentioned a couple well you know that's a proposal this is a you know management of the budget um I didn't hear that is a recommended strategy to address this I think you know I appreciate that's kind of a last ditch effort um you know last Stitch uh intervention if you will to offset budgetary accounts and if we were to increase the current Student Activity fee is 125 if that were let's say increased uh to 150 150 dollars it's about thirty thousand dollars for every twenty five dollar increment you increase that so that would be a relatively nominal offset on a six hundred thousand dollar reduction in thirty thousand dollars I guess I'm grappling with this like let's just not have any increase in the whole area of of our budget which just seems really irresponsible to me I'll just say um I wonder Dr Solon what does that realistically mean for our schools how our schools operate we won't have as much paper we'll be praying for good weather because our and we don't want our energy costs to go up or we're not going to plow the the um parking lots when it snows what are we not going to be doing well if we don't have a budget for Support Services I mean the budget would be 7 million seven thousand 288 I hope we could do something with seven million seven thousand two eighty eight if I stick flat [Music] the budget in within that line item yeah oh yeah the the um the reality in a budget when you design a budget for a school system as large as Cheshire is that you know just like any other budget with your home or whatever there are variables that you can't predict in the next 365 days um it's certainly fair to say that uh we are a very lean operation um it was in the presentation we spend four million less than our peers a thousand dollars per student less than our peers so that gives us less wiggle room before you impact service but there will be things for instance the sheer weather that operate favorably in things that don't operate favorably like maybe uh not in the certainly not the case this year but let's say outplacement costs which can have pretty significant variability when those things happen we Monitor and adjust throughout the year and we've obviously been quite successful in doing that over a long period of time to to find success obviously as as lean as we we get particularly as we grow we have to monitor even more closely and determine you know if anything were to happen like uh Mr crippo mentioned the medical benefits line and we may have to turn back to the town I'd like to think that over the last year and a half two years there's been a demonstrated um Mutual effort on both parties the council and the the Board of Ed to work very closely together and uh I hope they would be understanding of the fact that this budget being lean that if next year there were some sort of unforeseen circumstance that we could document um that we've been otherwise living within those means that they would be receptive if we had to go back and have that conversation but again you know you're trying to predict out 365 days things that are going to go up and down um I think we can work to live within that it's okay and um and I think where so if so I want to preface a few things so these are Mr gripple's ideas for line items um at the end of the day no matter what the budget is that ultimately comes back from the town the user CEO and Vincent will figure out how to make it work as you see fit you may not touch this line we're not there yet but suffice to say if things stay flat in certain categories is is it safe to assume that like this year I think you're holding back expenses at 60 we would that would that Force you next year depending what comes back it's not the full ask or something that's you know less than what you would consider safe when you have to hold back spends even more to see how the year goes before I mean UB40 when we talk about monitoring and adjusting throughout the year I mean we yeah we certainly don't release discretionary money and I think you know when Dr Harrigan talks about you know what are the implications there's less discretionary money right right I mean and I think this ham and others have mentioned you know that a lot of our um budget is dedicated toward contractual uh increases and so there there isn't a lot of discretionary money so we hold back that smaller amount and I think that's what I'm saying it makes us a little bit more susceptible to fluctuations outside of our control and in that case I mean worst case we would ultimately have to turn back to the town to explain that and solicit more funding worst case Mr chair I would like to uh can I amend my own motion yes you can um I would like to amend my emotion um as I'm sure all of the administrators and teachers watching perhaps uh uh also that you know when I went through uh Norton school they always taught me to check my work and so I did miss a line as I'm trying to preserve all contractual increases um I would like to um uh amend my motion to decrease the original budget original approved motion by 514 470 um for a total increase of four million six hundred ninety three thousand seven hundred one dollars that way that also um at least by my calculation also preserves uh line 510 which is our um Pupil Transportation contractual increase for datco and uh I'm sorry Mr griffel it's 514 000.
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you have a roll call for corn please here I think as we plant Stanford Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and good evening everyone tonight is uh two meetings it's uh the first first one is our finance committee meeting at the whole where the finance committee along with uh additional board members can have additional questions on the budget and we're hopeful that the finance committee will move a budget along to the full board to discuss and then following that meeting uh on around 7 30 depending how things go we have a full board education meaning to actually discuss the proposed budget that being said before we get into our discussions are there any members of the audience that wish to address the board as soon as there are none and again thank you for being here uh Mr grippo I'm coming over to finance thank you Mr chair um so over a series of I don't know I think it's been four budget meetings we've reviewed uh certified non-certified salaries employee benefits and structural expense support services and maintenance and operations um the uh superintendent during his presentation has asked for a budget increase of 5 million 208 171 dollars which is a um the total increase off of last year's uh approved budget of 6.46 percent um our last meeting we all had a chance to ask numerous questions of the superintendent and staff um I don't know if Mrs Rosenberg did you have any questions before we vote on a motion to move out of Finance no I didn't know forward to the full okay very good um so uh we've we've kind of heard a lot of information we've been digesting that information so what we're going to do right now um as you can see uh so the the finance committee will make a motion um and we'll either vote to approve that motion or not um and then that motion will then move to the full board for the full board's consideration um so the motion I'll make a motion um that the finance committee um approve a budget of uh 85 million 872 591 which is an increase of 5 million two hundred eight thousand one hundred seventy one dollars or uh six point four six percent uh for the uh 2023-2024 budget is there a second okay there's a second from Sam um uh now we are now in discussion is there any comments or um amendments to that motion no this is for the finance committee so not yet yeah so um last night well over the weekend uh you all received um the questions that I had as I went through the supplemental information and I did not do a last minute check on my computer to see if um if you guys have responded it was a lot of questions delivered at the 11th Hour on a Sunday um I'm sure you were all loving faith and but um can we just go through some of these and just see where we stand okay thanks um so bear with us all so um what positions I asked what positions um are or how what and how many I should say are covered under the administrative uh superintendent and assistant superintendent with a total um outlay or budget outlay of 451.046 that would be me and Miss Solano uh exclusively all all-inclusive of salary retirement mileage okay so the chief executive oh you got him okay I'm sorry I'm sorry so then we have the chief executive entry that covers I'm I should know this probably better uh or Chief Operating Officer sorry that would be Mr Messiah okay okay that makes sense thank you um then I'll just go to the you thank you for answering this sure um number nine so when I added up all of the line items for birth to three it came to 438 to 100 438 112.
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For people participating remotely, please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify. When I call your name, unmute yourself and your time will begin. After your minute is completed, staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in orderly and efficient manner. Thank you. Our first agenda item is Senate Bill 106 relating to education. authorizes the Department of Health to require the Department of Education to report Corona virus disease 2019 case counts and other related information in a manner most appropriate to public health and safety as determined by the Department of Health. Testify We have Superintendent Keith Hayashi. Aloha Cher Kidani, Vice Chair Kim, members of the committee, Keith Hayashi, Superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The department stands on its written testimony and support of this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
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470 dollars so there is a motion the current motion yeah uh instead of it being a six hundred and nineteen thousand four hundred and one dollar uh less of an increase up it to 514 470 making the new budget increase amended motion would be 4 million 693 thousand seven hundred and one dollars that would be the amended motion if there's a second [Music] Andrew seconds so the amended motion has increased the budget by four million six hundred eighty three thousand seven hundred one dollars good question yes can I just get the correctionalized through the sudden change again uh well my my rationale in making the original motion was to preserve all contractual increases and preserve um the uh um position uh additional positions asked in the budget as well to keep our class sizes at uh 18.1 or thereabout and uh preserve our special education integrity um in order to do that I missed the uh the contractual increase for Deco so I wanted to add that back in thank you to the chair is there before we go back and forth and changing I know the super for those at home their superintendent has brought forth to us some reduction you know Alternatives and I like to see if he can at least go through some of it so that we can get all the figures out there in the open sure you know I want to be clear I mean these aren't this wouldn't be my recommendation obviously right I made a recommended budget um in you know consideration of potential impact yeah so uh without the song emails today is not uh reduction recommendations there are again a heads up that we may not have consensus potentially approve the full budget request and lieu of that um if he did not receive the full budget request what might be some areas he would look into to make up the offset so I think we have a list of things that made me want to sure I mean you know it's up to you frankly and looking at Mr grippo's proposal it's not wildly deviant from some of the things that I would recommend um you know first and foremost and I I appreciate this board's historic effort to focus on providing resources at the classroom level and I think that you know has certainly aligned with My Philosophy over my tenure superintendent the last eight years or whatever it is um and Mr grippo's proposal does retain the staff I think that first and foremost is Mission critical it does retain the class size I mean our Elementary class sizes are at a historic high for the last decade not unreasonable but not a place that we want to make reductions obviously our middle and high school Staffing is really at a place a threshold that we want to try and retain um so looking at non-classroom oriented lines as he does in that proposal I think is probably if I knew that we had to make that reduction the places I would be going um I respect his rationale understanding that things like bus transportation contracts going to increase period end of story The we know that it's a thirty eight thousand dollar lighting review you know these things um are legitimate increases and I appreciate the rationale there so all in all you know I don't know that I'd make dramatic changes to the proposal on the table if indeed I was asked to reduce by the amount on the table I just want to add a point of clarification well that point it's not an important thing so we use the average of 18.1 class students per class but if anyone is able to see the enrollment um tab of our budget book not every class is going to have 18 or fewer students there are some grades they'll have 20 21 22 23 starting to lower grade levels there's lower so I don't want the public kind of false perception that all classes would be 18 it varies the average turns out to be that way if things stay the same so there will be class sizes like this year and I think the police appointing enrollment is maintaining what we currently have and some of those classes are our sizes are 20 21.
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and then but the revenue is posted at four hundred thousand so is that we're supposed to be self-sufficient are we not I'll ask to carry that one so yes birth to three is is historically been fully funded and that comes from a combination of three sources the State Medicaid and also parents Medical reimbursements the uh the number that Miss ham quoted 438 000 112 that's that is the total that's recommended in the operating budget when we budget Revenue which goes to the town we tend to be a little bit conservative so we budgeted four hundred thousand dollars of Revenue going to the town because if we don't have this amount of expenses than the town Revenue goes down so we budget just a little bit like if we don't hit this level of expenses we won't expend it so that's how we've been budgeting the revenue we always take a little bit off when we recommend to the town what they budget for Revenue because we don't know that we will meet these expenses but if we do it will be reimbursed okay okay thanks um and then um I noticed that we had budgeted for a hundred and forty thousand dollars in overtime for Secretary of clerical and um secretary clerical custodial and maintenance things arise over the course of the year um like different uh events that we may need to expend over time for or burst pipes and various things where we need to employ people on overtime we work diligently not just uh in central office but at each building level to limit the use of overtime to the greatest extent possible but through throughout the course of the year across our numerous buildings sometimes that occurs and this is the amount that we budget for Ben can you talk a little bit about where we have historically performed relative to that number I want to say we're pretty you have it actually in the written comments there um oh okay and that's just the longevity payments but where have we performed relative to that number uh in overtime in the past it varies to the budget you know the things that cause overtime include meetings such as this on the maintenance side so the building maintainer does cover these meetings so they are paid overtime and on the custodian side we are typically you know pretty close to budget we don't have a lot of vacancies typically without maintainers on the secretarial side where we incur over time does have to do with some of the openings we have and we would prefer to pay some overtime then hire an additional person on the secretarial clerical side so there's a balance but overtime is generally approved in advance for um you know the the secretarial staff where it needs to be approved and where we incur over time for an opening to cover an opening position there's an offset on the other side because there's a vacant position that we're not paying the person for thank you and then um I did have a question about the Quinnipiac program and we were and um ramnan had told us that we are going to be um streamlining it and what exactly does streamlining look like um you know the total expenditures were 100 budget expenditures and 195 945.
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Thank you, members. Any questions of Superintendent Hayashi? Next to testify, Kenneth Bank testifying for the Department of Health. Good afternoon, chair and vice chair. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I'm Sarah Campbell, state epidemiologist, uh, speaking on behalf of Dr. I think in the department of health today we stand on our test written testimony as submitted in support of this measure and stand by for questions. Thank you. Thank you Sarah. You look different behind your me. It's been a long time since we've interacted with you. Thank you for being here. Members questions. Thank you. Zuri Aki testifying for office of Hawaiian Affairs. This testimony is in support. Gerald Gerard Silva not here opposes. Susan Colola Davis also opposes recess. Thank you. Sorry, forgot the protocol. It's been a while. Uh so anyway, this um bill, Senate Bill um requires no longer requires the Department of uh education to report to the Department of Health weekly uh COVID counts.
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so um this one point that out it matters so yes I am so this is the difference for me um on what this superintendent gave to us we have line items and we can clearly see what what actually is being it's like Dr Solon uses a scalpel to show us whereas Mr grippo takes a hacksaw and just says every every increase goes in this entire Support Services category everything that's not contractual so I really appreciate seeing where things what's going to be actually affected because from this list there's only um 100 and 83 000 668.
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what will our savings be there when we streamline I assume and I understand too the transition program um in our obligations there our legal obligations if you could explain to me the involvement of Quinnipiac because I as I understand the transition program it's you know it's a transition into life as opposed to I just read this as are they going to go to Quinnipiac if you could enlighten me and help me on this one yeah it would be it I'll certainly ask Robin to elaborate a little bit further but basically there are two programs that we run out of Quinnipiac one is a more of a life skills uh based program where we're teaching students self-sufficiency and uh holding down certain jobs and being able to do things like you know run on a routine on a schedule follow directions uh do jobs that are like basic clerical sort of work or retail skills things like that that program will be sustained at the level that it it's currently operating at the other program when you talk about supporting students to move on to college at Quinnipiac we've we've had students actually go through that program and stay at Quinnipiac to earn a degree that is a college preparatory transition coaching really around executive functioning skills and supporting students in that respect that's staffed by a special education teacher and a para Educators based on the number of students that we have enrolled next year we have very few students enrolled we have very high end for special education service support at Cheshire High School so we're taking the teacher who was at Quinnipiac for the last several years in shifting that person and IA we have numerous IA vacancies right now shifting those that person and support staff to Cheshire High School to address the demands that we have there Robin I don't know if you wanna oh Robin's not here yet but um you know that I think that pretty much covers what we to Robin can elaborate at 7 30.
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So it's um by request from here on in. So um there being no further testimony, are there any questions from the members? Thank you. Do we even need a measure like this? I mean, I know we want to get rid of the environment, but do we have Yeah, I I'm not sure. Department just give it anyone requested. Yeah. I mean, that's basically what it's moving it out so that because it was required previously, we had to have a bill that changes the status. So, it is by request. We could just I mean, we could just refill the whole thing. Yes. Further questions, members? Thank you. Moving on to the next item. Senate Bill 414 relating to education establishes the Hawaii Educational Expenditure Trust Fund as a separate fund of the Department of Education for improving the education and supporting the programs benefiting the students of the Hawaii public school system.
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things that I would that I would go for in reducing the budget which is a drop in the bucket so this number of 500 470 is um I guess I'd want to see where exactly the superintendent would find that 517 thousand four hundred and seventy sure um you know Dr Harrigan I think it I I appreciate the question to be honest um with that number just being thrown out now it's kind of hard for me to to go back and identify specifically where I would adjust relative to the proposal on the table and to be clear I didn't mean you should do it right now okay I'm sorry figure out you give it a shot but you know yeah um I I know you didn't mean to to say that my number was arbitrary and then I pulled it out of thin air um at least I don't think you meant to say that maybe you did um arbitrary but it's it's not it doesn't consider the effects when you just are looking at a number and saying this this all goes in this category it's it's not for me it's it's not seeing what the results of doing that are going to be in our school right and and just a few minutes ago um uh superintendent mentioned that when in May after we get our final number back from the from a council then we will they will determine which line items will be affected most greatly right and it's hard to know right now in any sort of finality uh what line items you can hit exactly right because we don't know what our final number is our medical benefit trust number might improve our Energy number might improve the town may decide you know what uh Mr grippo you're entirely wrong and we're going to give you our the full ask of the superintendent who knows that never it's never happened that's true um but I think that you know we have to make some educated guesses and we have to make some hard choices because not only is there going to be in an increase from our budget there's going to be uh you know potentially an increase on the town side there's going to be additional debt incurred because of a uh that the town needs to plan for for our new schools that we're going to be building of 166 million dollars this is all going to be on the backs of of the townspeople and I know that the townspeople understood that when they voted for the school project but now this is where the rubber meets the road and I feel that at least by reducing the budget in a sensible way that this increase of 4.6 million is although at high is still um uh gives the resources that our school system needs to continue to be successful I respectfully disagree with all of that exactly what you just said it doesn't if we are not careful and I guess the audacity to think that the superintendent proposed a budget that was so far off that was over 500 000 off um and seeing some of the places like increasing Student Activity fees and and increasing class sizes to be on the list of some things that would be affected in order to get there well let's be clear no one's proposed to increasing Student Activities fees that's just a my opinion red herring that's thrown at the table it's neither here or there I wouldn't support that I don't think any board member will support that and so we're not proposing that but let's see what happens you know come April but we do get back I hope that's not the case but I understand you're in 10 am um and I mean please continue on uh if you did I want to say is there anyone else that's been sitting around has any questions uh yeah Tim thank you Tony uh Jeff when I look at the list that you gave us not your recommendation but General guidance sure uh I see three positions three teaching positions do you think there's any chance if this if this happened do you think any there would be any chance that those would result in layoffs or just because you have some attrition typically in a given year yeah I I can't I don't I don't know it would because the any reductions that we would make would really be targeted um you know based on class sizes uh likely at the high school level it would definitely result in higher class sizes and reduction in service report or and or course offerings I mean that's a uh decision that we make if you know things are dire and because it would be targeted by a certification area it may result in layoff then it may not be covered by so if if um arbitrarily speaking if the Cantonese teacher retires them using classes that we don't even have they retire but I need to cut the hockey teacher well it's not it's going to result in a layoff of a hockey teacher you know again I'm using classes that we don't offer to just illustrate a point rather than to alarm anybody or provide misinformation so yes it could okay um [Music] yeah so I'll just I'll just make some general comments first of all I want to thank uh staff Jeff your whole team for everything you do and putting this together I appreciate it and especially when it comes to changes in the budget I know that's probably the most part of a budget most difficult part of a budget um one of the big concerns for me is the groundless growth we are having it um but we just don't know what it is I don't even think we have I don't even think we have motor vehicles yet at this point um oh with regard to let me back up for a second I should ask this question before with regard to a potential Student Activity fee are there any kids who get excluded I'm not saying a one-off but I mean do you have a program in place to ensure kids are able to get involved you know if there's absolutely okay absolutely okay thank you for that have we ever had a discussion with the town about an energy trust fund the reason I say it is specifically because of Ukraine and the volatility um and even if it's not a trust fund but a discussion with the town like if things get crazy and then I'll add another question and just to be clear on this for the 12 months of the next budget year do we have our rates locked in for any of our fuel types oil gas electricity so I'm going to defer to Vin yeah on those you're talking about for the 23 24 for the upcoming budget 23 24. just through the end of this year okay do you have do you have a reasonable expectation that you'd be able to lock in rates or just can you lock in gas rates and we could if but just not warranted at the price levels right now so okay gas in particular where you're still on uh floating rate you know the eversource standard rate for you know our schools okay which is you know I know this is a period of very high energy prices it served us well the prior three years so you know hopefully things do settle down but you know that that is a risk in the in the budget it always is and we'll typically go out to bid on our fuel prices I'm talking about diesel fuel gasoline heating oil those won't happen until um you know late in the fall for the following fiscal year and usually what we'll do is we'll contract to to buy the fuels we need but not necessarily lock in price so the the price locks are dependent on you know what's available in the market okay so it seems like we do have exposure there in a significant way I mean the headlines I'm reading about Putin and Ukraine starting you know going back in the next month and that is a significant factor in the cost of fuel and energy it's just the reality of it so that so I guess I thought of having a discussion with Council about that you actually put that as one of the three points in at the cut on your coverage sheet Global energy um okay uh yeah this is this is five million dollars is a big ask um I'm comfortable with a reduction of a half million dollars whether that's the guidance provided by the superintendent or Adam's suggestion um I'm just talking in the general Bar Park uh but at this time generally speaking I'd prefer to follow the superintendent's guidance um I appreciate all the I appreciate all the leg work and that heavy lifting that you did Adam and looking at this stuff but that's generally where I would defer I think you know at this point um this isn't a formal proposal that I had put on the table this is a more or less a selection of a menu for the purpose of moving this forward I think it makes sense if I may to adopt if we're going to you know adopt the reduction to adopt the budget as presented by Mr grippo with the understanding you know this is in our first year doing this it's going to go to the council it's going to there's going to be great consternation over those numbers and as Mr paragini said it's going to come back to us again and at that point typically uh in May our team gets together again has an updated lay of the land revises all of the budget lines uh to a place with the allocation that was provided to a place where we think is appropriate and then the board adopts that so any adjustments that I might make or you know months down the road yeah understood and I appreciate that kind of Samantha and then Mr purple can you just clarify your 517 470 again because I did appreciate the point of reserving positions but I just wanted to kind of hear and make sure I heard it correctly um yeah so the uh the reduction uh at least in my mind uh comes from the uh comes from instructional expense support services and maintenance and operations and it's has been up put earlier this evening I guess I uh I would be uh putting uh I would in my mind having a zero increase on every line uh every line item with the exception of of course all line items and certified salary non-certified salaries and employee benefits right those all are maintained um and then the uh in the increases ask for inline items 4 10 620 and 732 which is all of our energy cost increases electricity Fuel and our energy lighting contract and oh I'm sorry inline 510 for uh our transportation contract increase as well with deco everything else would be zeroed out in my mind which of course is non-binding that's just oh I came to my calculation currently of a reduction of 514 000.
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okay and and then just with regard to all right so the transitional program um is there is there uh would it be is it something that could be taken into Cheshire High School um and out of Quinnipiac and would it be more efficiently and less expensive to run in the high school as opposed to at Quinnipiac we've looked at the costs of of Quinnipiac versus what we can provide Quinnipiac in terms of what it offers as a college campus and their physical therapy graduate program that exists there we receive a lot of benefits from that program at no cost so our students work with their graduate students and benefit from that resource there so it really is a mutual benefit so we don't pay what we would pay if we're just sending students to Quinnipiac per se and they have access to college dorm space and things that we use to coach our students on those life skills with so in evaluating that it is returning a high return on our investment there where we didn't feel it was was given the reduction in the number of students that are doing the college transition program the cost outweighed the benefit and that's where we made the adjustment there so we're constantly weighing that based on the number of students involved in the program okay I'll learn pressing ones but I'll look at the others thank you for your time on this um Ben I just had a quick question um under um maintenance and operations um line 410 which is I guess is like the first page there um under that Public Utilities that increase of 155 000 is that supposed to cover our um uh uh anticipated increases in electricity and fuel for the District this coming year it's that line is electricity electricity only yeah there's other items in there but the bulk of that increases electricity other items are water sewer those we're not anticipating increasing so the bulk of that increases electricity and then heating fuel is in the 620 account which has an increase of the 133 000.
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To testify, Superintendent Hayashi, please. Kudani, Vice Chair Kim, and members of the committee, Keithashi, Superintendent, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Um, Superintendent, could you just give a brief um description of what this um trust fund does? Yes. Um, the fund would go beyond the department's existing authority or trust funds by allowing for the deposit of state or county funds into the fund uh the acceptance of non-monetary assets and authorizing the non the hiring of an investment manager and a third party to oversee the administration and expenditure of funds. Also, I have Brian Deputy Superintendent Kurt also here to answer any additional questions. Thank you, Superintendent.
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four seven zero off of the recommended budget uh thank you and I just I would support it if we could you know later on ensure that we preserve these positions hold tight these special ed programs that Robin proposed as much as possible I know these are just options based on the superintendent's suggestions but you know every item is an impact to classrooms no matter what so I think your proposal is reasonable so thank you I know it's been faith I know it's been stated so uh what Dr Solomon gave us for ideas is this moment in time and I at the time today please don't rush it and obviously didn't so those those those are areas today those are probably not the areas to look into in April May um so between now and we have to adopt a final budget you know as you mentioned 210 think about what may may not happen with our medical benefits they may Hold Steady may go up a little bit it may save us a couple hundred thousand dollars to be added to it um who knows maybe the Town Council may make another uh contribution to the reserve fund outside his budget which may which may make up this difference we don't know we'll see um we're going to be closing out this fiscal year in June you know we'll see if anything is left over from encumbrances if that can possibly so um I it's not a definitive list is all I want to say so please keep that in mind I'm sorry uh great now um I I I I support what Adam has proposed here and um I just a couple of things to point out in uh nothing we can do about it because this is the system as it is but I I really kind of take issue with the whole budgeting process because we're going into this kind of Flying Blind normal um budgets have an estimated Revenue we don't even know our revenues so um we're shooting in the dark here and I don't know how to ever fix it because I know that it's all part of elite you know a legislative process and a charter process but um uh you know as Tony just said it's a moment in time and we you know last year we were looking at 130 000 in snow plowing and we're never going to get a flake of snow watch it snowed this weekend but um but the point is we do reconcile at the end of June we do move this money around and and as needs arise there are areas that are not drawing what was anticipated on you know January 31st 2023.
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