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[Music] six the first thing I would like to do is ask everybody to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing because we are going to have a tree of the national anthem from our chamber choir I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all by at the Twilight last we [Music] and the RO the in Pro through the flag [Music] still [Music] star of the of [Music] [Applause] okay please be oh am I on I'm on please be seated Mr Lam andola the floor is yours thank you uh good evening uh this is the BHS uh chamber choir we are here to promote our Winter concert along with the band uh on December 19th Tuesday 7:00 45 Long Meadow Hill Road here the auditorium uh come on out it's a really uh wonderful event 7 o' uh Tuesday night the 19th and we're going to get get you in the mood with a little Carol of [Music] theels [Music] s [Music] everywh [Music] Mr Lam and Dolan chamber chir thank you all very much thank you for coming out tonight happy holiday we'll see you all on Tuesday 19th all right greetings folks thank you and our other treat at this time of year is Mr St George in the Jazz Ensemble come and also provide us with some wonderful selections so Mr St George Team take it away thank you uh we're going to do uh one t for you this evening it's a arrangement of joy of the world and it will feature Brook Stanford on Alo saxs and Giovanni avalone on drums la a oh h he thank you ladies and gentlemen we'll see you on the 19th at 7 right here in the auditorium all right thanks Mr St George thank you everybody what a beautiful gift and thank you moms and dads for coming good to see you all all right so for for some of you uh that could be watching at home or watching the tape uh it's unusual ual for the superintendent to actually begin a meeting of the Board of Education and facilitate uh I'm doing that um as we ready to nominate and vote on a chairman tonight uh before we do that I'd like everybody to um uh join me uh in a moment of silence I want to say a few words before we take that moment of silence uh in honor of uh Barbara Fuller uh longtime legendary custodian and all-around beautiful person who served nearly 50 years she's actually in her 50th year of service here um at Brookville Public Schools uh helping us transition cwood Lake Elementary School um she started her career in 1974 here with us and um couldn't ask for a more dedicated loyal and loving uh employee and it's just the kind of person she was um and we are going to miss her dearly so I ask everybody if you just join me now for a moment of silence thank you very much I do appreciate it all right so it is that time in our agenda that we move to election of officers and so I'm going to start that process um I would like to make a motion to accept nomin ations for the chairman of the board of ed the board for the Brookfield board of education do I have a second to accept that motion second Rosa seconds it thank you Rosa the motion has been moved and seconded we will now accept nominations I will nominate Wendy Young Blood okay are there any more nominations I will nominate Joy Greenstein okay are there any other nominations okay we have two nominations on the floor all those in favor of Wendy Youngblood as the board chairman please raise your hand and say I I okay all opposed please raise your hand three okay any abstentions don't see any we have four to three in favor of Wendy okay we also have another nomination on the floor uh all those in favor of Joy Greenstein as board chair please raise your hand and say I I we have three all those opposed please raise your hand no okay we have four thank you it doesn't look like uh any abstentions do we have any extensions we don't okay um by a vote of four 2 three Wendy Youngblood has been elected as chairman of the Brookfield Board of educations congratulations Wendy I'll now hand the meeting over to you great um I'm a newbie with this so I can help you button up so so yeah just make sure it's up okay great thank you and to do it with the mask makes it even more challenging um thanks everybody I look forward to working with all of you um okay thank you um I move that the board accept nominations for the office of Vice chairman of the Brookfield Board of Ed I'll second um so let's call the well are there any nominations I nominate Roosa Fernandez as Vice chair are there any other nominations wait to nominate myself okay so we will um we'll well are there any other nominations okay so we'll call the vote in the order uh the nominations were made all in favor of uh Rosa Fernandez as Vice chair please say I raise your hand hi okay um all those opposed say Nay n nay okay so it's uh the vote is four to3 Miss Fernandez is elected vice chair um I move that the board accept nominations for the office of Secretary of the Brookfield Board of Education I'll nominate Joy Greenstein I don't accept the nomination okay I'll nominate Sarah deine okay I nominate Stephanie soraa I'll accept nomination okay are there any other nominations all right the floor is closed for nominations all those in favor of electing Stephanie sakur as secretary please say I and raise your hand I it looks like the vote is it looks like it was unanimous did we have a nay vote okay so it's so it passes unanimously okay um I've notice that the secretary typically U makes the Motions on the agenda um Stephanie would you like to continue to do that so we can move along a all you would do is just read the motion it's easy okay okay great okay um so with that uh we would move to public comment except there appears not to be uh anyone signed up for that um so so I don't need to read the the statement about public okay thank you very much okay so now we'll move on to um uh a highlight student representative AA Canton we get to hear from you hi I hope you're all doing well tonight I have a couple updates about what's been going on at the high school um since our last meeting um all high school students participated in mandatory training for the Sandy Hook promise Anonymous reporting system um so that's the see something say something app um so that training included just basic information about how to use the program it's an app um and just what to do if you sense a school threat like who to talk to how to approach a situation like that um another event that happened today was the counseling department um they conducted a holiday card making event and all the cards were donated to a local assisted living facility so students got community service hours feewing that today and it was a really successful event I know a lot of students went um an upcoming event on Friday is Pajama Day so um I'm quoting Mr banda's email um join hundreds of schools businesses and individuals across the state to honor children who must wear their pajamas for days weeks or longer while fighting cancer or other serious illnesses so everyone hopefully we'll be wearing school appropriate pajamas to school on Friday um I have a couple updates for athletics um right now uh the BHS Athletics program is kind of in a transition from Fall Sports to winter sports so with the end of the Fall Sports season the C CIA has recognized some all Patriot all swc all state and honorable mention athletes and we also had two American athlet allamerican athletes um for fall Sports also a good amount of senior athletes have committed to college for their Sports which is always really exciting um in terms of dance team uh this past Thursday we performed at the St Leonard's tree lighting which is always a really good event it's fun to get involved in the community like that um and we're a fall and winter sport so we're transitioning into our competition season um so we're finalizing all of our dances and getting everything ready for that and our first competition is at the end of January um I can also talk about some of the clubs that I'm in for the Brookfield youth commission um this past Sunday we were recognized at the Brookfield Town inauguration which was a really good event and that was really also really interesting since we're a government based uh Club just to get involved with just to pursue some Civic engagement as a club it was interesting to attend um we got to talk to representative Johanna Hayes and a couple other um Connecticut Congress members who were there and with that group we're also in the middle of planning our career fair which will take place in March so we're sending the initial email out to parents um just to gather some information about what careers they can bring to the table for our fair and we're also taking in all of the student input that we received after the event we did a survey um and so some of that was like to include more careers in the Arts so we're trying to focus on those specific things that students are interested in um I'm in National Honors Society um and on this Saturday morning we're running the winter workshop for kandlewood Lake Elementary School um it's taking place here at the high school and it's going to be 50 kindergarten through first graders doing a lot of fun like winter themed activities um like crafts and story times also with NHS this weekend Friday Saturday and Sunday we'll have NHS members selling raffle tickets at the Danberry Music Center Nutcracker um so that's another good way for us to get involved in serving the community and finally for Spanish Honors Society our main project right now is a mural cuz we focus on doing things that promote appreciation for Hispanic heritage but this project kind of focuses just on appreciation for World language in general so we're in the middle of uh painting a mural that just promotes World Language it has a globe and a lot of flags on it and just to emphasize the importance of World Language finally I have an update about the voice for change project that's the project that um was decided on I believe at the end of 2022 um and this is a message on behalf of Vanessa green Ste who is the president of the future teachers of America Club who helped to coordinate and drive this project and she's the head student representative for it and Senor dula who's the teacher representative for this project so this is a quote from her just a little update on our grant and on the progress of the of the benches we have an outside contractor that is ready to start the construction getting the base ready for the benches all estimates have been approved and we have sent our bench that is ready to be ordered to the administration we hope construction will start soon we have a plan and fund to do the six other spaces in the school and once the first one is done it will hopefully happen much faster in the meantime we have been planning and designing our multilingual signage that is another part of our grant this part of the grant is to put up signs for common school areas in languages like Spanish and Portuguese as they are the two most used languages other than English in our district this will help fulfill the climate part of our grant proposal and allow for a safer space for all students and give them more comfort in seeing a language they recognize and that's it for the voice for change update and that brings me to the end of my report thank you thank you AA so before we move on on from from what you were just saying I I think it's really important to give a shout out um to the two all-americans um in soccer that's incredible for for a a school um of this size I think there were 46 all-americans on the girl side and the boy side and so for Brookfield High School to have two is astonishing Riley bgee and Jack Ryan right so incredible and kudos to them and their coaches and their teammates and their families who did all the driving um but that's that's just amazing hopefully the winter sports season will be as fun as the fall was awesome okay so we're going to move now to the next item on the agenda it's written correspondence oh and thank you AA very much yeah you too um so Dr BR did um Amy Foster submit anything for us I do not have anything in terms of written correspondence at this time okay then we will move to uh item seven approval of board minutes um Stephanie do you feel like you have the language GRE sure uh I move to that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended just say reg regular yeah say on the date y so regular 11:15 23 uh special meeting 11:20 23 special meeting 1127 23 special meeting 2 12223 do we have a second I'll second okay so uh Rosa seconds um is there any discussion on [Applause] this okay um so um then we call the vote oh wait no yep oh yes okay thank you um so we call the vote uh to um approve board minutes all in favor please say I I I okay any opposed say nay all right so it passes unanimously um with that the minutes are approved and we can move to the superintendent's update all right thank you Mrs Young Blood I do appreciate it um and since I have the floor I would like to congratulate everyone and uh welcome uh uh to the board as I said in a number of emails I I hope I haven't been overwhelmed ing everybody with emails about the budget and other ongoings of the board to get you transitioned here and ready to go um but really appreciate uh your willingness to serve um as I always say it is the hearted elected board to serve on as a individual member and as as a team um in in our small towns here in Connecticut the the time demands the reading demands and the preparation um uh are really uh phenomenal um we and we do have a retreat uh scheduled for uh next Monday uh evening and uh in addition to that um we had uh participation in a kind of current board to new board handoff a couple of weeks ago kind of get everybody up to speed as best we could in the short turnover time that we have so again congratulations look forward to the work um and really excited to get rolling with uh the planning for next year which is the start of the budget talks tonight um so uh I do uh also want to mention before I get into the report that we are working with Mr Conlin and Dr pep sasi we are very hopeful that we could have a uh a regular board meeting but a special treat to be actually at kandlewood Lake uh Elementary School to hold it in the multi-purpose room on the 20th of December so we're really excited about that opportunity all right so uh a couple of things on communication just to let everybody know what's happening um the first thing is I think most of you are aware uh my Brookfield broadcast District newsletter holiday edition went out um last week um we also early in um November just given the time of year and the fact that we actually had some snow squalls uh today early in November each year and we post it on the website I send out a weather update letter reminding families to have an emergency plan if there's going to be early dismissal from school and those kind of things and how to uh uh access all of the different ways we communicate regarding snow cancellations or delays or anything like that in emergency days so that went out earlier um in November and then the last thing on Communications just ear uh very early this week um I sent out with Dr pep sasi we sent out a uh a co-authored email with our team from kandlewood Lake Elementary School regarding really kicking off kindergarten registration uh of all things things are a little different this year um there is a new state law um where um students are to be five by September 1st which is very different than the being five by uh January 1st as it's been long standing here in Connecticut um the law though isn't so strict um with the September 1 date and so if parents do want their child who is born after September 1st born in the fall to attend kindergarten they simply have to uh in writing let the principal know and then we will go through our typical kindergarten screening process and see how they're doing and make a determination and have a you know a conversation with the parent If the child is ready uh so everybody knows uh it's it's we're handling it in a very family uh Centric and student Centric way here in Brookfield um the students are going to be our students no matter what whenever the time is right for them um we're not looking to exclude anyone we're actually excited to get the kids with us as soon as we can um because again they're going to be our students and so uh with that um we're very open in our screening process excited to have conversations with parents and get the students in as soon as we can one thing that's important to know we looked at our current kindergarten class this year and so people know the effect that this would have on families next year 45 of our 160 plus students in kindergarten this year have a birthday after September uh 1 that's more than 25% of the kids and so there's a lot of impact on families with that families are planning for next year there's a financial component to this we're very cognizant of that all of us have families we get it and so we want to work with our families and so I want to reassure families and reassure the board that the administration and the teaching staff is very excited to welcome the families in and this was the first letter to kind of explain things get the law out there so people understand and we're obviously open to any conversations we need to have starting now and uh after the holidays when we begin the registration process so that's an important one I want to take a little time on before you on um is there like a cut off or maybe I'm I'm thinking about how we plan for kindergarten enrollment and teachers and stuff um is there a cut off for parents to make that application or is it up until the first day of school it's it's up until the first day of school at this point um and what we need to do is in getting the letter out relatively early in the process we're trying to get a sense of the number of kids at this point um and so that's that's where we're at usually in any year and while this won't be a typical year it might actually we might be better off understanding our numbers earlier because we're we're putting the Outreach out there so much earlier and I think more more families are paying attention in the coming year um uh the trouble uh and the challenge comes with those last minute movein and registrations anyway you just get to that point at late August where we we all know school's coming but some people just decide to wait till the end of August and say oh I should register for school and okay well we'll try to find some room the the challenges in space and some other things that um maybe larger districts might be facing or whatever the case may be um we're very fortunate we planned for this in our new school we do have space Not only in the pre kindergarten Wing but also in the other uh spaces in the school so if we had all of a sudden one year where we had a burgeoning of student enrollment we could move a classroom to a different wing and be okay for a year and we could have some swing space so so we're in a good position for that right now um you'll see in the budget tonight though I do ask for an um uh funds for an enrollment report we need to really dig in on that for the next couple of years looking forward thanks got it yep okay Rosa good um I also wanted to um share that we were at the bef Brookfield ation Foundation gala on Friday night it was a great turnout a lot of fun a lot of fundraising done coach Reef was fantastic as the MC as he always is um I'm sure there's Facebook video he's fantastic um uh I wanted to thank uh joy and Rosa and uh and Hala um and Stephanie for being there Stephanie being the resident photographer thank you um and also for Casey and Anna and Bill uh attending as well it was just great to have everybody there and it was a good time by all we were able to sit with uh former board member Mr Beldon and former board member and State Representative Steve Harding also sat with some of us so it was really nice to see everyone so thank you to the bef for working so hard and putting on such a great event for us uh next I want to I interrupt pleas and um today uh at the middle school which is one of the reasons that Mr Renda is not here um today and tonight uh one of the bef grants um presentations is happening it's called a motion into art and Dr Brill and I were able to go over there today and see one of the presentations so this gentleman presented to each one of the well the eighth grade is tomorrow I believe yeah um but it's a great program and thanks to the bef for supporting our students in our community thanks Ann I appreciate you and all of you for going to the Galla so that they can support our kids in our Comm exactly thank you um since we don't have a facility uh minutes or report tonight I did want to let everybody know um and Joy's been the lead on this with the facility uh committee for quite a long time the close out of the BHS guidance roof project and the HVAC project here at BHS have been closed out so those projects are complete so important for the board to know important for the public to know just wanted to make sure I mentioned that in my report tonight um I do have a clees kwood Lake Elementary School um report I did want to let everybody know about classroom Flags I understand there's been some social media conversation about that uh the first thing I want to let everybody know is the flags have been with us on campus since the summer um the issue which is not a Dr pep saski issue or a Dr burill issue or a board of education issue the uh construction team along with the NBC are still the leads on the project the flags have been there the problem is the clip that goes on the boards in the classroom was incorrect when first ordered and incorrect when second ordered and so we hope by the end of the week I think Dave we are told that we'll be able to have the flags up there however we always adapt overcome and improvise like our friends in the military and uh our 86in smartboards have had massive flags on them every single morning when we get on the PA system and uh recite the pledge so I want everybody to know that that's been happening every single day at the school and uh we're happy to report that our actual physical Flags should be in the classroom they've been in the school but not in the classrooms um and uh that's happening this week hopefully uh next thing uh in terms of parking lot and driveway at Candlewood Lake Elementary uh School most people know that the south parking lot um while uh fully fully paved has not been completed in terms of islands and so forth and so it's a it's a bit of a makeshift parking lot with Jersey barriers and our bus company and our parents and our and our staff is doing a great job man managing that um the north parking lot is almost finished in terms of uh processed Stone and stone dust and uh some different barriers to set it up um we believe after the holidays that north parking lot which is much closer to the school than the current temporary parking lot that's by the road will be usable for the winter so our staff will be closer won't have as long of a walk to get into the building um the temporary lot will still be usable um although I think some work trucks might be there over the winter and all so if there's a bad snowstorm snow will be literally brought to that spot and put there um the driveway the second part of the loop of the driveway where buses would come in that will not be completed uh this winter uh it'll be started up again in April so we can get the the final project done on the outside of the school uh that driveway where the original cutout is for the driveway for Huckleberry Hill that is going to be used again as kind of the north entry um uh driveway for the buses and so forth so we're going to do the best we can every body has been incredibly flexible we're very proud of everyone um and so I just wanted to give you an update on that the final piece on Candlewood Lake Elementary School fantastic news the playscapes are in the grade 2 through five um playscape equipment was approved on Saturday through inspection and the kids have been on it all week long really excited about that one thing Dr P and Mr Baldwin and myself worked on in designing this um we were looking at our physical education data and and um also just some of the things that kids were interested in and we've mixed a lot of upper body um uh areas for strengthening as well it's a lot of fun I think Dr P's kids were on perhaps before the inspection I don't know Dave having a good time I don't know if that I don't know if security video might have caught that I don't know um I might have been on if you checked the security video just so you know it's really exciting to be there um and the other great news is the inspection I think is happening tomorrow we're finishing up the inspection uh for the Young kids for prek and K1 playscapes if we get the green light as soon as we have it Dr P will let everybody know and the kids will be able to get out there and play so we are really excited relatively mild week so we're we're excited to get them out there so that's um oh and then two more on Candlewood Lake um the main stairwell we've been talking about getting the main stairwell totally finished with that Tazo flooring now it's totally usable it's safe but there's kind of a rubber coating on it right now the tazzo wasn't able to be completed before opening school we were told all along that was a onewe project we're now being told it's a 2 to 3 we project which means it cannot be completed over the Christmas break um and it'll be a summer project is most likely where it will happen and you could I've asked to can we do this during school you know we just shut down that area and uh the reality is um there's a smell and so forth with with the the mixture that they use and we don't want to put anybody out like that so we'll be patient it's a usable stairwell and frankly I don't think the kids care either way they're having a great time there uh and then the final thing is that stairwell I think has been part of the reason with some of the other finishes we've been on hold with having a ribbon cutting and a building dedication uh so we'll be working with the NBC um and uh you know the board and other folks to decide when we're going to have the building dedication I hope it's sooner than later some want it to be a little you know further into the springtime when the parking lot's complete and those kind of things so we'll continue to have that conversation that's it for Candlewood Lake um I now want to bring up some of the team um and I'm excited to invite Mr Roland our special education director up to come just give a brief update on how we're doing in special education with the crack report and strategic planning and those kind of things thank you Dr burill good evening everybody uh welcome to the board to the new members and it's good to see theard members that benon you push your you start again do your mic up there you go bill right now yes okay thank you my classroom voice you know doesn't uh resonate um so just a quick update from some of the things from last month and going forward um last month Dr corvo reviewed the correct uh specialized program review with you I've also been going to uh department meetings in the building and working with our supervisors to reiterate um the main points of the review and to start putting those pieces into action uh including the professional development that was spoken about and the uh examination of IEPs and looking for more Fidelity and of implementation and goal setting and um data collection and progress monitoring in addition we are uh scheduling our next septo meeting special at PTO for January a few of us were sick in various combinations uh couldn't quite get it together for for December so we're going to have a meeting in January that's going to focus on uh the parent view of CT saids the IEP system uh what it looks like from the parent side helping them to navigate and giving them kind of a guide to walk through because uh unlike IEP Direct in the past uh with CT says everything is done through a parent portal so when parents need to access the documents it's accessible to them but sometimes there's some glitches in there that we'd like to help them walk through uh and finally just to talk about each building meeting with the principles meeting with the supervisors and uh working with parents on attending ppts and hearing their concerns and making sure that we're doing right by uh all the students that we have with with IEPs uh and I'm also working with the the counselors on 504 plans as well so just a quick update on the ongoing progress that we're making in special education uh since my arrival in July and I thank you all for your support thanks Mr Roland greatly appreciated thanks for all you're doing um next I'd like to uh invite Mr Bland up for a brief uh update on the athletic uh program here at the high school and the CIA program review I know he's working hard to get the folks down here to visit us so Mark please take it away all right thank you make sure we're on all right we're good uh so uh update on the athletic program um I appreciate the board allowing me well the superintendent allowing me last board meeting I was um at the semi-final soccer game giving updates all along on the sideline like a giddy little kid uh screaming for our team as they they went along we had a very successful fall season uh and and Mr bald will come and do a Winter summary uh report for the board so you can hear more about that in the coming weeks um the big thing that's on the table is still the CIA athletic audit uh you remember this was initiated uh not La actually the process actually started last year with the goal of finishing it by the end of last school year which did not occur um not from anything other than we there was just so much work that had to be done not on improving the athletic side but getting everything else done so we've already administered surveys we've done our self-study um it's similar to what some of you are aware of is a neas um sort of style of report we've done that it's been submitted to CAC they're now reviewing it there is a bit of a back and forth right um which is a good thing right and I'll share this good piece of news um you know the last conversation I had with uh Glenn larino who's the president of Cass CIA he's like all we're going to wrap it up and we'll we we'll get it out and if we have to come out we'll come out and it sounded like they didn't need to come out and superintendent and I had had this discussion well maybe we' go just to make sure we have some like just one person come out and it there's been a little bit of back and forth to make that happen the Hope was to have that happen in the shoulder season between the fall and winter season that did not happen um I did not see him in his office when I was at Cass today I planned on stopping in and seeing him I was at Chester today he was not in his office when I was there so I will certainly follow up with him I have a feeling he might end up at the conference I'm going to be at in Boston um the next two days so uh as soon as that happens we'll be able to get that uh it's going to be a full report that describes all different aspects of the athletic program uh from coaching and parents and budgeting and and all sorts of things every pretty much every Dynamic that you would expect uh to look at a CIA athletic report uh we do expect to come out very favorable from that perspective um given that we won the Michaels cup again for the I forget how many the 13th the eighth time or something like that it's a pretty prestigious award that we continue to get every year so we have really high hopes but we're also looking if there's things that we can improve and make better we certainly will right we always we always strive for that Improvement so um that's the update on Athletics thank you Mark all right greatly appreciate it and poor Mr longarini he won't get any rest because many of the ad administrative team here are involved in the C so we know where his office is so we will we are peppering the poor man all right um so next I'd like to actually turn it over to Dr man to give us a uh Equity inclusion and belonging update um the the the new board just as a reminder um this was a for a couple of years we had a special subcommittee of the board for equity and inclusion um was it early this fall or was it over the summer um end of the summer end of the summer um the board dissolved that committee um with the intention of moving it more toward the school level and District level to do that kind of work so uh I asked Dr man and some of the uh leaders in the district to work on that so Dr man can you give us an update on where we're at this year absolutely so I'm excited to um hear Ava's report and about the update um from Vanessa uh with the voice for change because it's it's nice to I mean that is the ultimate goal is to partner with students and partner with the um make sure that each one of the schools has a focus on equity and inclusion and belonging um and to so to start that you know we were kind of discerning what the best approach is in terms of after the the dissolution of the subcommittee of the board whether it should begin at the building levels and then kind of filter up to the district or should the district kind of start it a kind of a general approach and then figure out the nuances of each building and also have kind of a cohesive um approach from the district level so uh we have decided to go with the district level first so we're going to begin District conversations we've invited and we're we invited faculty and staff um I'm leading this work with Katherine oo our multilanguage learner and uh World Language uh K12 department chair um and so we sent out a a invitation via Google form asking interested faculty and staff to sign up for one of two or both conversations which are going to happen next week and the following week um to really begin just kind of discernment process where are we where do we feel like you know what are the things that we currently do um and really this is kind of building building off of it's it's a nice opportunity because it's building off of the pathway work that we're doing um through our professional learning approach which is really predicated on the concept of vertical conversations and vertical articulation one of the things that I kind of heard over and over last year not just from um any one particular faculty or from our professional development and evaluation committee but kind of across the district um was the feeling of kind of isolation in each building which happens in many districts um that they just don't know what's happening at the other levels and so so we have a pathway program for our professional learning where everybody is involved in a vertical articulation team um and so this is kind of an extension of that that we'll have this vertical vertical approach to conversations around Equity inclusion and belonging um bringing up uh and so the first step is going to be these conversations and um I'm excited to I Katherine and I have gone to a few workshops at the state level led by the um the State State Department of Education um Mark and I are going to the neas annual conference tomorrow and we are both signed signed up for a few of the workshops that we're signed up for um are around this topic around Equity inclusion and belonging um one of the uh the I was looking at my roster um and one of the ones that I am going to is called designing for belonging um which states a goal uh to be to provide ideas and protocols where schools are intentional about creating ways for a community of Learners to feel that they belong so you know it's kind of right up the alley that we're looking at um we have you know as we've heard our multilanguage Learners we've had a lot of conversation of that over the last couple years um and we've built in some bilingual programs so we know that we have a need certainly in that area and also um just kind of across the district not just within our student body but also across our community um so I'm excited to continue this work and to report back to you fairly regularly and also bring to districtwide ptso um speaks uh that uh Dr burill will be um focusing on and then as we get the goal that I have by the end of the year year is to um make sure that our professional learning plan um if necessary has uh is inclusive of this so we'll be working on this with our PC committee which is the professional development and evaluation committee so that's where we are so good question was there any discussion around um involving the climate committees so that's we talked with the principles initially and I kind of asked did you because that was kind of my initial idea was to start with the climate committees um and so rather than starting there we thought we would report back to The Climate committees and figure out which uh um certainly involve them after this initial conversation I'm interested to see how many of the faculty and staff who come to these conversations are also on climate committees at their schools so absolutely that's a great idea so we will and joy the other the other part about the climate committees they um we'll be reaching out to them through the and you'll hear about this in the budget presentation is what we've talked about with facilities is the beautification and uh physical environment of each of the schools too getting folks from the the climate committees um and not climate like air quality climate climate meaning culture and climate um and also uh utilizing uh the climate committees as an opportunity uh for um the parent engagement student engagement staff engagement work that I'm going to try to do so we're really looking at the the um uh system that we already have in place and different structures and how could we use them and align them in an even more coherent way so we're really excited about the work that's going on and just like um Ava reported that Vanessa reported for the voice for change you know that's it's a way to bake in um climate and equity and inclusion and belonging by creating signage that is multi language um you know and having these uh these physical spaces along with the systems and structures of our um you know of our schedule and different things um the parent square that we're going to you know possibly explore our new website you know those kinds of things um there's so many ways that are just kind of that can be included in that equity and inclusion and belonging can be baked into so um I also have a quick question so this is obviously a first step but it's um you know staff and administrators Etc is there going down the line plans to include student voices in this and the and parent Community as well okay y that's exactly what we we thought we'd start with a A Faculty staff conversation and then particularly at the secondary level include students which would also be a climate committee piece and the voice for change students and and those kinds of things um and then also Outreach to the parents through the district ptso speaks um you know just other opportunities and what's great about this and you listen to Ava's report tonight and I think about way for change and what we're talking about here um this all points to the portrait of The Graduate and the work we're doing with change making and collaboration communicating critical thinking creative thinking and it just is all in alignment you'll see that in the uh especially in the initial throws of my presentation tonight so there's a lot of alignment and coherence work going on and uh those are words we use quite a bit and uh just really exciting so a couple quick uh a couple more things very quickly um I do want to recognize um Dr man and Eric uh they are um exercising some Statewide leadership uh Dr man uh was a keynote speaker uh late last week or was it early this week that was Friday um at Southern Connecticut with CIA for the student leadership conference and so that was great to to see her there and Eric next week uh he is a founding board me member of uh Kettle which is Connecticut education technology leaders and uh he has their first Workshop of the year um with a number of Keynotes and Eric will be leading and facilitating some of the work there with the State Technology leader so we're really proud of him and excited about that so thank you Eric um I've got a couple of things that I didn't put on the report upcoming for January through early spring that I want to let the board know about we be reporting out um on professional development Pathways and how that's going uh on our new teacher team program that's coming up right after the holidays in June and then um Mrs FAS our director of instruction and Dr man along with the instructional coaches will be talking about what the instructional coaches are doing the leadership that is going on uh at CES with um the director of instruction Mrs farious and and also the various roles of the instructional coaches and so forth and then while we're at kandlewood Lake for the meeting next week Mr Renda is going to give a report on the dean of students and how that new position is going and uh Dr man will um be giving a performance index report of our district report card and some of the really great news that just came out of that so we're excited uh about the future uh and ready to get going um final thing on pajama day for Friday that I want to let everybody know thank you Lisa gramling for getting that fundraiser going for us it's to benefit the heart for children's hospital we did hit our goal of about $2,500 and I think we'll be raising more more excuse me over the next 48 hours so we're really excited about that Wendy I'm done it was a long report tonight thank you great thanks very much Dr bro so let's move now to item nine um the subcommittee reports uh we'll start with Finance um Rosa do you have a report on this thank you I do okay so we uh last met on November 13th um at that time we went over the check registers um what that is just for new board members is um the finance committee reviews any check o written over $1,000 um we also went over the October financials um in case um well joy and H will know but I've been reporting that um we went through the same projected short fall so we are projecting a shortfall in this current budget year of nearly half a million dollars um most of that is due to higher than budgeted special education Transportation costs uh and tuition and also lower than expected Savings in teacher salaries and retirements exits um for the new board members we budget for netive $200,000 in the salary line so we expect um a certain number of retirements um and just teacher turnover where we um typically have retirements of very longstanding veteran teachers that are at the top of the pay scale and generally um they're replaced with younger teachers um that are um at a lower at the lower end of the pay scale um and a lot of that is due to uh we're just not seeing those retirements like we normally do um instead we're seeing some more movement in the younger teachers the newer teachers um or we're seeing vacancies in our really high demand areas where if we find a teacher um you know that that teaches physics we need that specific teacher um so I think Dr BR might be able to add some more detail or color to that if you if you guys want some more detail but that is um one of the big reasons why we are um over budget this year we also talked about the food service contract so when uh Candlewood Lake opened it is technically a new school within our district and that necessitated a new food service RFP um we have been permitted to apply for a contract extension with our current provider witson um so that we can go out to bid in the spring and perhaps get a better response um witson was the only um provider to um put in a proposal last time we also went over the pay rate guidelines um we went over some changes in those guidelines and those were actually approved at our last board meeting and then lastly we went over Capital request for the 24 25 year as well as our 10-year Capital plan um at that time there was urgency from the town uh for the board to approve capital expenses um in the 2425 year so we did approve those requests which included funding for nearly 36,000 to complete the cafeteria flooring at wisener that project already had had 35,000 in funding for this current year but needed additional funds to address a moisture issue with the flooring and then the rest of the 10-year Capital plan we reviewed uh the only issue noted was that we can't find a contractor willing to replace um a small section of the seating in the whis skiner seminar room um so we either need to replace the entire seminar room seating um or get creative in terms of how we're going to just replace that small section and that was it any questions just one yeah just one corre the um the Woodson's contract is and I I make the same mistake all the time I call it an extension because they're currently our food service proor but it's actually a brand new six-month contract and the state would say no no it's a new contract so I just want to make make sure thatle of course thank you okay so thank you very much Rosa for that well thank you Rosa for for that um so John did Debbie submit anything for the policy and communication subcommittee um we uh there are minutes but I I can give a quick summary if you'd like great okay so um briefly uh for the communications part of policy and Communications I just went over that during superintendent report so I won't uh discuss any further on that and the uh policy that was discussed that evening was actually approved at the last board meeting uh the policy meeting was directly before and that was the school library media regulation actually um and that was approved um last month it was very brief that was it okay great thanks um so next is the Personnel negotiations I understand that um from uh November 29th that this meeting was entirely an executive session so I don't think that there's any need to report further on that um and then for the security task force um Rosa yep um so on um at our last meeting we spoke with representatives from the iroy pipeline um company uh they're a natural natural gas company with a facility located natural gas right located right behind um whiskin ear um there have been a lot of community concerns regarding the safety in light of their new Expansion Project we did learn um that just so that we're clear um the pressure in the pipes is actually not changing I'm not an engineer so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about it um but the pressure in the pipes is not changing it is just the volume along that project along that line as two lines come together um we discussed uh or I should say they really presented um um a lot of explanation in terms of their fail safe procedures so what happens if there's a leak what happens if there's a fire um and as well as their Comm um emergency communication procedures and their evacuation procedures and how they would communicate with um principal Renda at whiner um police chief gy was there major Franks was there from the police department um so they were a part of this discussion as was Sarah Palmer the town emergency operations manager and principal rendo was there as well um so we really had a lengthy and healthy discussion um about these and we all left feeling confident in the in the current plans so unless you want to add anything Dr BR no I think that that hits it Rosa thank you I was off a little off topic but was there any discussion about relook at the um people in attendance because um consistently some of the same people have been absent for this meeting these meetings for in terms of the actual committee the members yeah yeah that's definitely something we did not schedule the next meeting we talked about some ideas for the next meeting but we do not have one on the calendar but that's something we do need to discuss with the new board members that are going to be on the committee yeah and for the new members the security task force does not have a regular monthly schedule typically um we usually um have a particular topic or uh subject that we want to pursue and get some information on and and really dive deep into with our Emergency Management experts um or law enforcement experts or whatever it might be um so uh once the decisions are made this evening or uh at our next meeting in terms of which subcommittees we'll have to have a kind of a kickoff meeting with the new team and figure it out from there great so that concludes the um committee sub reports or subcommittee reports rather and so we'll move to the consent agenda um I move that the board approve the items listed on the consent agenda as recommended that's new hires transfers and the October financials second so that's Rosa Fernandez seconded the motion um is there any discussion of this NOP okay so then let's um call the vote all those in favor say I hi okay so that's unanimous great thank you um Now we move to um uh item 11 on the agenda it's new business um so this is about the subcommittee meeting dates um I move that the board discuss and approve uh the subcommittee structure and other board representation um yes from January to June 20 from January sorry thank you from January um to June 2024 second okay so uh Rosa Fernandez seconds um I'd like to open um the floor with some discussion I have some suggestions from uh for subcommittee membership but this is just to get the conversation started these do not have to be approved this evening I I would like to if I don't mind if I can interject I don't think we've had a um chance to discuss discuss this as a board together that's typically what's been done in the past so I'm not really comfortable discussing this in public um with our interests and um you know what we would you know choose to be on and our availability and things like that so I would like this to be a discussion approval for next meeting absolutely um then uh perhaps I could um distribute my um get the ball rolling ideas um during the executive session I actually just interject again um I think that's fine I don't think we need to decide on anything too much tonight if you want to decide on the dates how yeah the dates yeah we could definitely agree to the well probably we could agree to the dates unless once the committee is made it's not good for everybody but um I kind of want Finance to be only I I don't know if I'm going to be kept on finance but the finance committee really needs to get going like now I'd like to Echo that sentiment I know that's you know our veteran board members here Rosa and joy have have been on that long-standing members of that committee we do have a meeting on the schedule for next Monday the 11th before the board retreat um and I think you'll see with the presentation of of um the detail that needs to go into the budget work I think the finance committee I'd urge the board that if that's one we could come up with tonight I think we should do that the the rest could could wait we don't have urgent cape work to do or even facility work or policy work to do but finances definitely I think one we need to be thinking about yeah to that end I will volunteer myself to be on that committee I would like to stay on that I think it's important for the two um veteran members to stay on it and i' I'd like um myself to be on it as well to fulfill those responsibilities um so well I I have an interest in two others so um there's someone else that wants to be on it okay on finance you want to not be on finance cor any volunteers or Finance so much it's a lot of fun guys and you do not have to be an expert in really you really do not have to be an expert on finance at all it really is a great opportunity to learn about Finance hits everything I'm trying to sell Finance here but Finance hits everything I mean as long as you have two right as of now as of now as long as we have two we could have it you're absolutely right thank you thanks for saying that then the persuasive campaigns will begin you want to volunteer I mean with a lack of anyone else interested I think we should allow people time to think about it exactly it's a big commitment to your point Jo if we have two we can have the finance we start okay okay so um procedurally then um are these discussions that we will have um I guess we'll table yeah we'll so we'll table this table to the and okay great okay so then you want to agree on the dates or no wait ah yes please um I'm I mean I'm okay the the finance is still second Monday at 5:30 so I'm good with those I dates this on Pace for what we've had this first half the only thing I noticed was June 3 that's a I think it's a Monday for facilities yeah I think you probably meant the 5th the June 5th is a Wednesday oh so that's said facilities typically happen on Mondays as well no on Wednesdays Wednesdays so the is the first Wednesday but so that June third should be the fifth we could switch the third to the fifth to just have it be accurate yeah and I just want to um make mention that the reason for the time the start time it was because of the former chair that was when he was able to get there at 610 for the cap for Cape um that we can make that whenever doesn't have to be would it be hard to decide on dates without knowing who's going to be on what I mean it's uh it's probably whoever's on these committees are going to have to decide whether or not any of these dates don't the so maybe we should wait until we until the sub until the Committees are formed and then decide on the dates as long as we could have Finance on Monday I'm happy yeah no we can I would like to I would like to keep that okay so are you good with when uh Finance on when on Monday I am okay I am that's great so we'll just table and not not vote on anything then right not even the dates we'll wait until we can make a motion for finance for finance we should make a motion for the two new MERS all right I will move that the that two members of the finance committee be Rosa Fernandez and Wendy young blood do we have a second I'll second it okay um so let's call the vote um all in favor say I I all right it passes unanimously okay so the uh the other items will be tabled y um great so now let's see um Dr bril I think now uh it's time for the budget proposal absolutely so if you want to see on the screen all right you can go over there okay thank you unless it's in here all right I'd also like if um board members you have your uh budget binders in front of you the presentation that is going to be on the screen tonight um and will be broadcast is uh in section two of your binder um it's hard to see the screen you're more than welcome to come and sit here if it's easier for you to see the screen um slide seven when I get there has some small print on it but we're going to spend some time on that tonight I think that really is a good solid uh budget driver slide that summarizes everything that we're going for in uh this particular budget all right we've got it up on the screen maybe one more light off that one okay thank you Eric all right so I am uh as I as I said really excited uh to present the budget tonight uh we are really looking at planning uh for next year and it starts in early October and I'll go through the process in just a bit but before that I I want to really thank the administrative team uh Mrs gramling Mrs Reynolds uh Mrs do uh Anna the principes everybody who's had a hand in putting the budget together it is an incredible task that has to happen um and like I said we begin in early fall uh pretty much just before October 1st um and it's a whole process that we go through um before we get into budget numbers and talking about that um it's important to let everybody know what the whole purpose of this is what is what is our vision where are we going with things in our school district because at the end of the day and you'll see it throughout the presentation the budget is simply a financial statement of our values about educating our children that that's what it comes down to and so it's important to start with the Strategic plan everything is in service to the Strategic plan we just had a whole hour conversation throughout all of the different reports tonight talking about por of The Graduate and thinking about all those that feed into to the Strategic plan uh the Strategic plan was adopted in March of 2003 and that really was kind of the watershed moment to really explode and move forward from learning recovery to the new learning and exciting achievement and other things we're going to be doing our mission is always to inspire Challenge and prepare our students for Meaningful and productive lives at the end of the day preparing our students for success in life learning and work and again we talked about the portrait of the graduate which really is is rooted in critical and creative thinking communicating change making excuse me and collaboration so I want to talk a little bit about um kind of our hero's journey Arc here um I think we have before me at least three English teachers here so I I hope I do this Justice um it's important when we use this graphic and we've used been using it for uh uh about two years now um it the the the setting the scene for us was the adoption of the Strategic plan as I was just saying and you could see that um the the yellow and blue graphic there um the one-page document of the iic plan which I'm going to get to in just a second um really that grounds us in our purpose and really focuses our work uh for the next 5 years um and and as you know you have really heard us talk about that and bring back the alignment and all of the work that feeds into the Strategic plan the work the rising action this year is to to crosswalk the data formulate the plan and really work on the portrait of The Graduate that's done as you can see the hands document there that is through a collaborative process uh a lot of that work is happening through the pathway professional development work um that we've been doing K through 12 prek through 12 through that visioning and sense making we move forward and we really at the end of the day we envision ourselves in Brookfield having a worldclass education system uh having great world-class experiences for our students and some people think that's maybe a little hokey or a little corny or very bold and so how are you going to do that we're going to work really hard and it's not going to be easy and and it's not going to be free to get to world class um but in life you got to choose the hard it's hard to be world class it's harder to be mediocre and we are not going to be mediocre and I'm really excited to pursue our vision so the next slide uh is the one-page document this synthesizes about 20 pages of the Strategic plan into one page for everybody so it's very uh while it's there's a lot of words here it's very succinct if you just take your time and look at it it's quite easy to understand understand um not easy to do but easy to understand we boxed off in the Strategic action some key language here and if you kind of listen to me it almost flows into one sentence of what we're trying to accomplish and you'll see the alignment we really are working to develop the portrait of The Graduate how many times do we have to say it if you hear me saying it that's what we're doing so you're getting the hint that's good um and that's prek through 12 the key is incorporating um assured authentic experiences for students which is all about great teaching and learning then investing in technology that uh is really in the form of digital tools and then after all continuous Improvement you heard Mr Banda talking about it with the athletic program continuous Improvement to really make sure and fine-tune our operations and our systems to provide the impetus and the resources for that worldclass highquality education all right let's start to dig into the budget process now as I was saying it starts very early in the fall um there's initial budget discussions with the administration the administration at each School works with their team and they start to develop their budget it really is bottoms up working with the faculty and staff and really ascertaining uh what the needs are um the other thing we do is we work together over time over the next couple of months especially over October as an administrative team um and we work through the budget um and then ultimately uh the plans are distributed uh excuse me disseminated to the central office we work through those plans we work together um and uh we come up with uh a draft uh budget from there in parallel to the the administrative and Leadership work and faculty work um instructional coach work we are working with the board of education on what are the priorities and assumptions of uh the upcoming budget that was adopted uh I believe in at the October meeting uh with the Board of Ed and and so that's a foundational document and just an aside any documents the board has either approved or reports they've received this fall are already online under the 2425 budget that anybody can access they're also linked in this presentation so all of the documents and and the hard work that's going on uh this fall is feeding into this budget tonight that we're talking about um the next thing we do is Casey and I really work on the budget and we produce a status quo budget and then we break down budget drivers and send that to the Board of Education before this meeting uh you received that last week via email and uh as I said it's early in the process you received a uh a a change already six days later when I sent you the update email yesterday and then we have our meeting tonight where the superintendent presents the budget from there the the and it was so important to talk about getting the finance committee established we really start to dig into the budget we don't have to have any pressure on us to dig into the budget tonight the board start to starts to submit questions we will have a Google doc set up to submit those questions we work with the finance committee and we really roll up our sleeves as a team and document the responses to all of those questions um and ultimately through that process uh work through a number of meetings um mostly weekly um after right before the holidays and then after the holidays work with the board at the regular meetings and then ultimately by the end of January uh typically by the second regular meeting the board adop Ops a budget to submit to the first selectman sometimes we have to have an additional special meeting because there's a lot to discuss um from there I'm not going to get into the the the nitty-gritty details after after January uh but in February through April we work with the board of finance and board of Selectmen work through that whole budget process and you can see that's a three-month process and then ultimately there's a referendum scheduled in May so we've already been working on it for two months for some people it's the first night the superintendent's presenting the budget it's the kickoff to budget season um for us it's uh into its ninth week uh of work um but ultimately it's an eight-month project uh process uh in our small Connecticut towns Brookfield we are one of the very first districts to go in terms of presenting the budget in the state and so that's why it's very important I want to reassure everybody while the budget number that I'm submitting to you tonight as the proposal it's a conservative budget in that um it makes estimates to make sure we have enough money in the budget there will be breaks in the budget we already had a favorable break and I'll talk a a little bit about that when I have the numbers up um and we hope for continued favorable breaks maybe in utilities I know Casey's working with our uh purchasing agent we might see some some heating savings uh as opposed to what we have estimated right now so we continue to to to scrub the budget and sharpen the pencil the entire process I wanted to take the opportunity with the new board to get a little bit in the weeds with this one slide that I typically don't use uh this being my ninth budget presentation here in Brook field I typically don't put this kind of pie chart out there about the budget but I thought conceptually it's really important for the board and the public and and frankly the faculty and staff to understand the budget is a financial statement of our values in educating our students this is a human service business education and our resources are put into our human resources and those people are our faculty and our staff and our administrative team and as you can see here nearly 80 if you look in the light blue the health benefits and the salaries take up nearly 80% of the budget quick little story I was talking to my father who some of you know was a superintendent he's long retired now and he said let me ask you how what's your percentage on faculty and staff and I said we're about 79% he said I did a study he was going way back in the weeds and uh he said I did a study I remember it was my my fourth or fifth budget and I looked back historically for 20 years now this was in the 90s he looked back 20 years and the entire 20-y year period the Staffing costs were 78 to 82% of the budget in the district he had been in so that is just a historic number you can go to any school district around here in Connecticut you're always going to be in the high 70s low 80s that's typically where you're going to land that leaves us 20% of a budget it's important to take a look well we have utilities oil gas we need to turn on the lights and heat the schools and cool the schools we're going to do that that is 2 and half% of the budget we've got Transportation regular education transportation and special education Transportation we're going to transport the kids that's 75% of the budget we have uh heavy cost and Rosa started to allude to that in out of District placements from for some of our most profound students with learning needs um and that's 5 and a half% of the budget so there's a little bit of money left 3% for professional development uh Technical Services um and also to purchase supplies whether it's school supplies or maintenance supplies and things like that and I look at Rose and joy they're not because they know this all too well um but they're really this is the expenditures this is what uh a school budget uh conceptually looks like a lot of words on a slide this slide is uh I believe it's slide seven in your binder so you could feel free to look there or Again Come a Little Closer if you'd like I'm going to take take a little time and I'm going to walk through what's actually driving the budget this is a simple straightforward slide you actually have this in spreadsheet form and other sections of your uh notebook as well I think this is going to be something very helpful for the public and all of us as we break through and try to understand exactly what's making up the budget for next year so the proposed budget is well this current budget is $50 m300 th000 The Proposal if you look to the bottom of the page uh is an additional um uh $3.5 million or 6.52% now we all know historically our budgets have never been that large but this is where we're at right now and again I want to reassure you it's very early in the process so let's walk through what the budget drivers are the first thing is that status quo budget status quo budget is a very simple concept to understand and I really appreciate this I didn't do this in my former District before coming here but when I came to Brookfield there the board always expected the status quo budget and simply what the status quo budget is if you take the existing Staffing and services that you provide in Brookfield today in this school year what will that look like next year with inflation and contractual increases and collective bargaining contract increases and so what that looks like as you can see is um a 3.98% increase and so let's talk about what's driving the status quo the first thing that's driving the status quo is health insurance we're our plan manager is estimating a 7% increase there and a 7% increase in health insurance is almost 1% of our entire budget or $473,000 and then when you look at contractual and inflationary costs um you were looking at 1 Point almost $1.7 million or 3.3% increase um and again these are salaries energy Transportation all the things I was talking about earlier that drive a budget uh that you have to do you have to have staff and you have to heat your buildings and you have to maintain your buildings Etc we did find some reductions um we are looking at uh reorganizing reorganizing excuse me Human Resources uh our human resources specialist uh has resigned um it gives us an opportunity to take a look at the leadership model and I'll talk a little bit about that uh as we go on we also have reduced the school counselor position at Candlewood Lake Elementary School this is a position that transferred from whis skiner to the elementary school um the position has not been filled at all this year and the way our mental health staff and other faculty is working with students Dr P and Mr Roland did not feel uh they needed to ask for that position uh in the budget for next year so there's a savings there um AIS tuition for the magnet school in Danbury we have less kids attending there now year-over-year so we could budget less for the tuition that we must pay uh under the state legislation for the magnet school and then I think you heard Anna mentioned parents Square that's going to be our new website solution and also it's going to consolidate all we're so excited about this we're actually going to save money but we're consolidating um uh all of our Communications School messenger um and the like are all going to be uh consolidated and interfaced with the website and there's an app and we're just excited about it there'll be a soft roll out in the spring and to get us ready for summer in the next year it'll be fully Mo but the uh anecdotally um staff here uh parents excuse me they're parents here but they they work in Danbury and they just transition to parents Square absolutely love it as employees let alone as uh parents we're getting a lot of anecdotal feedback and the team is really excited about it so Eric's working on on that so there's a savings there that's the status quo budget 3.98% we've Ros has started to allude to this and we've been talking about it and we've been communicating with the board of Finance uh you know all fall along we have some serious anomalies in the current budget that are real cost in operating our school system that we need to carry forward and plan for uh in in the next uh next year Rosa went into the teacher turnover uh uh savings that we typically build in so I want to just make it really clear what Ros was saying and Rosie did a great job with it but I just want to add to it is we have as as a strategy in the school uh School District here in the Board of Ed and the the town has agreed to this this has been something we've done for years we actually budget $200,000 less than the actual uh cost of the salaries that we know we're going to have because we assume this turnover so it's a risk everybody understands and the town has been very gracious that if we don't hit our $200,000 Mark they have contingency to help backfill that but the last two years last year and this year we're just not seeing that um and the teacher shortage drives some of that we just can't find the number of teachers we we are able to employ teachers we're really excited about that we are not uh short faculty in any way but there are teachers that are veteran teachers that come to Brookfield because this is a great place to work they want to be here but when you bring in veteran teachers they bring their years with them and they're higher on the salary schedule and that's how you meet the needs for students but you don't meet the needs for that risk we take the budget special education transportation and tuition uh Rosa did a great job on this so I'm really not going to explain that too far um except to say that we had six new students identified uh for outplacement now when we talk about outplacement this becomes a tricky uh piece for people we're certainly not going to talk about individual students or anything like that these are children with very profound learning or behavioral needs that um need specialized schooling and that's done through a whole planning and placement team process with a individual education plan six students that weren't identified at the uh at the end of last school year are now outplaced well there's your increase in transporting the students there and paying for their tuition and we are obligated by federal and state law to pay for these programs and so that's a very very expensive proposition um the good news on this which uh Casey has not been able to report to the board the board's finance committee yet and we're gonna present it right now and I shared it with you last night is she did a lot of uh work in reestimating and taking a look at the submission that our special education uh Team put into the state on Friday for excess cost grant our uh our estimate looks like because of the increased cost the state will reimburse us about $198,000 so that really is cutting into that overage uh Rosa as we were just talking about uh enjoy so that's something uh that we've known about for a number of months but that's very favorable for us in the special education department dep very very happy to see that substitutes here's another area that we've been working on for quite a while another budget driver and anomaly we we're carrying forward we're o we're projecting that we'll be over budget in substitutes and so we have historic actuals in substitutes that are more than we budget for and it's really time we seriously uh talk about with our uh finance committee um making sure we true up that that budget line um to cover the absences of uh teachers or excuse me Paras and have enough money and not have to uh take from other uh budget lines to make sure we have enough in the substitute line so we're going to true we the plan right now the proposal is to true that up electricity this is one that's actually quite disappointing at least at this time but again um we want to keep our emotions in check with the budget and really be deliberate with things um we were uh told as uh as late as uh I think it I thought it was this summer Casey it looks like we have August 22 but definitely within the last year we were told in in budgeting um last year to budget for this year with Candlewood Lake um uh a specific number for um electricity and that would be less than the total cost of electricity at Huckleberry and Center school so we built in a savings and and we're have a burn rate now that we're seeing month by month that we're actually using more electricity it's costing us more this was given to us by the engineer that works for tekon and so we're working directly with the MBC and Mr czecho to to look at those numbers again um and of course every month we're looking do you want to add something to that Casey August 2022 is estimate and the update that drove the current years that's right that's right okay thank you Casey really Chang no no and we did get confirmation on that that's where we got confirmation from uh a couple months ago so that's what we have in the in the budget and so there's a shortage there and then the other anomaly this year that's driving the budget for next year is the bus driver shortage athletic Transportation um for us to have a top-of-the-line Athletic program to make sure our kids can participate in a way games and competitions and the like uh we have to transport our kids there Transportation as we all know is very expensive gas prices are very expensive and it's no different with the bus um our kids uh to make sure they get there Mr Baldwin has a heck of a Time Allstar Transportation they've been great with our regular transportation we do not have late buses our kids are getting to school very rarely we had to combine a bus run with all this driver shortage we have to thank Deb Jones she does a great job managing Depot um but after school there just isn't enough drivers to go around for the away away competitions and Mr Baldwin has uh the last couple of years is forced to go to private carriers sometimes it's actually a a party bus sometimes it's a limousine um you know other times it's a it's just a a silly little van obviously always safe and uh so with that um that's an extra 31 ,000 we need we don't see any relief in the driver shortage so we want to be uh smart and put enough money in there but to the tune of $745 as Rosa was talking about we've got these anomalies we're dealing with today that we have to be prepared to budget for in next year's budget so we'll work on dealing with that through our conversations then everybody here's about this and we've got a lot of Educators on our board State mandates the dreaded term State mandates and boy do we have a lot of them in Connecticut um and what I will tell you is um we we have Changing State mandates in uh uh two of these three items and one that's been a standing mandate that we have to uh obliged to so the first one looking at special education transportation and tuition to the cost of just over $100,000 um Transitional services for students students that um have significant needs they're older than the typical high school student they've moved on from the Brookfield schools that were still responsible for in Transitional services um up until covid you kids who qualified for transitional services had to be educated through the age of turning 21 during covid the legislation changed through the age of 21 all the way to Turning 22 the recent new change is through the age of 22 until they turn 23 at their 20 23rd birthday so we need to prepare for that and there's some students who qualify for transitional services to the tune of $102,000 that's another driver um a long-standing state mandate is that um when you have a threshold of when you reach the threshold of 20 students in a school Under One Roof that speak a specific language as their home language you have to provide bilingual um programming we already provide bilingual programming um in Spanish um we have a a full-time teacher that teaches that we have about 40 kids in the bilingual program for Spanish stands to reason now with consolidating the schools we have 20 students at our elementary school school Under One Roof um and if you look in the enrollment report it actually we landed on 20 students so when you hit that number the next year you have to have bilingual programming so we built in a halftime bilingual teacher and we'll be looking for one come summertime and then the final uh new new mandate I think a lot of people have heard this one out there is the K3 science of literacy legislation and so we are uh we received our extension last year so we were able to take this year with committee thanks to Dr man and the team over at CES to work through uh the various programs that the state has identified as highquality uh scientifically based literacy programs I think there's seven and we are in the we're down to about two programs that the committee is looking at to make that decision um in taking a look at our estimates and what the program will cost for us um the actual cost to us will be $887,000 um but the full program cost is about $174,000 and thanks to our team team we applied for the right to read Grant which is giving us $85,000 from the state to offset that to the taxpayers here um so we're complying with all mandates so again status quo budget anomalies now the state mandate driver Last Driver is our investments we need to invest in our school system no secret to anybody is the ARP Esser funds the phasin we're going into our last year of phasing in those federal grants that came in during covid to into the operating budget uh the big push with us was was learning recovery so we went with instructional coaches and summer school and so forth and so the last part of phasing in um we had estimated uh originally about $210,000 but with some fine-tuning in summer school and some efficiencies it's going to be $115,000 phas and you could see it's to continue regular red summer school um the the there's part of the technology instructional coach salary the K12 instructional coach uh in technology and then the uh part-time certified occupational therap therapist assistant and so um we want to make sure we're meeting the needs of all of our kids and that's the final phas in of our uh we won't see that at this time next year when we present for 25 26 then there was federal funds to the town uh those were called the arpa funds and the phase in there is for security monitors uh some of you may recall in 2022 we had a lot of town discussion on what it was going to look like we work with the police department on adding uh sro's to the school armed security guards unarmed security guards and so the to the tune in our district uh right now to the tune of $69,000 uh we have um uh a phase in that we have to do to continue um operating with the existing security staff that we have then we're really excited about illustrative math we've got a strategic initiative here we are getting set with our program Improvement in math um where we saw a lot of gains in middle school is where they were uh implementing illustrative math we're now going to implement that fully at the elementary school and um we're using EX existing uh funds in mathematics that are already in our budget for the uh current program math investigations and so what we're doing is reallocating that um to purchase um the illustrative math program uh to the tune of $22,000 Mr Bland and the team um have proposed a course for college algebra that would demand new textbooks and uh of course that will be discussed at uh subsequent cap meetings with full board approval we don't buy textbooks without approval of the board and a discussion and so forth but we want to get that in the budget now so everybody has a sense that that's in the pipeline and excited about a new course and opportunity for our students in maintenance we talked earlier about whis skiner in the high school now that the elementary school is built really putting our our full focus and attention on uh beautifying and updating the physical environment of both the high school and the middle school and so in the maintenance line You'll see that we're adding about $82,000 into there what we want to do is look at that Marx a Kubo building condition study that we had had and there are a number of smaller level maintenance needs at the school that aren't uh that don't rise to the level of capital Improvement major projects and we want to have some funds in there to be uh to have the flexibility to improve on the on the building and then the last one I mentioned earlier was the enrollment study um a typical enrollment study I checked with um uh with the local resk uh likely about $155,000 we haven't had a comprehensive study since I think 2019 and so that's an investment we need to make with the births during covid the new Elementary School in anecdotally in chatting with some of our Reals in town they are definitely using the new elementary school as a selling tool to get people to buy houses here in town and also anecdotally with the uh aging portion of the population where it's just a couple that uh their families grown and moved on they're starting to really turn over houses and the downsizing here so more families are going to be moving in we need to be prepared for that so that's why we were do an enrollment study a lot of detail there I told you what I'm going to tell you I'm going to tell tell you again and then I'm going to tell you again at the end okay so we're going to understand this budget next thing I want to do we talked a lot about strategic plan we just dove into the numbers of the budget I want to talk about our big four Focus areas strategic plan implementation in portrait of The Graduate development I think everybody's got that the other one we want to do if we're going to be world class in number one we've have got to continue to increase achievement um we I don't want to spoil this but Dr man will be sharing we really had some great growth results um from where we were uh uh a year and a half ago to where we are now in terms of growth so we're really excited about that and we continue to move move forward meeting the social and emotional needs of all of our students and the energizing of the various uh Capital Improvements as we or beautification improvements as we talked about at the schools and budget priority and assumptions talk about all that I link that report on this slide our five big budget goals maintain our class sizes but adjust Staffing to get as many efficiencies as we can and adjust with enrollment our second goal provide a curriculum that's rigorous and relevant and that we know how our kids are doing at all times and is worldclass in learning our third goal is to maintain and continue uh to enhance our programs but always thinking about changing organizational needs and being responsive to those needs the fourth goal technology not only technology infrastructure but digital tools for learning to enhance learning experiences for kids and then finally always and number five providing the necessary resources to meet the state and federal laws that we have to operate under those are our five big goals under goal number one maintaining class size and adjusting patterns there's not a heck of a lot that we have to change this year sometimes there's fluctuations based on enrollment flow and grade levels and so forth this year right now it looks like um we'll need this year going into next year and the enrollment Trends look like we'll need one less section in grade two but one more section of uh classroom section in grade five Dr P is working on that with the team and then the other thing I had already mentioned reducing the counselor um we we don't believe we need that uh position at the uh Elementary School and the case Lo special ed case load report and the enrollment reports are linked on that page goal number two this is the curriculum work this is under uh the the leadership of of course our principles but Mrs FAS our director of instruction and Dr man um I won't read this word for word but I'll hit the high notes for you we need to work toward portrait of The Graduate really focused on our science uh state standards and also on this the Connecticut Frameworks for social studies um developing those assured instructional experiences prek to 12 um making sure that the reading program is implemented I talked about that earlier so I won't go too deep into that um also making sure that illustrative math is implemented all the way now K through 8 very excited about that and excited about the results we're getting and the students I know are very engaged with it um providing PD and planning opportunities for those assured experiences going toward the portrait of The Graduate making sure we could assess the outcomes of RPD through the pathway work and again Dr man will be presenting on the pathway work a little bit more after the holidays uh and talk a little bit about it on December 20th you'll learn more as we go through the the remainder of the year um we want to make sure that we Implement actions in alignment with the program review that Mr Roland talked about we had two program two a phase one and a phase two of program review from uh CK and uh the recommendations and the actions that need to happen we need to support those in special education and then of course the new course uh college algebra and the textbooks we need to purchase the third goal looking at being responsive to organizational needs I talked about the phase in of the ARP Esser Grant and the specific summer school OT and uh Technology support there phasing in of the security monitors the human resources organization making sure we conduct the enrollment study lessening the tuition for the declining enrollment in the um uh magnet school over in Danbury AIS looking at our custodial and mainten maintenance needs being very proactive can't tell you the difference in our facility department and our our maintenance team in not having to run around at Center School and Huckleberry all day long fixing HVAC needs um the schools were aging and old and that's why we went to the new School four or five years ago when we made that decision they're really able to focus and be proactive now and we don't have those needs certainly at a new school so now they can focus on just whis Ander and the high school so that's that's really exciting and we have some great work that's been accomplished at both the whiskin and the high school so um we could start to be more proactive addressing the athletic Transportation uh issue with the driver shortage that we just talked about and then increasing substitutes to really have the actual budget uh the budget meet the actual spend fourth goal is technology you'll see a lot of infrastructure and cyber security here uh I have to thank Eric and the team they're doing a heck of a job here um making sure that we update our classroom presentation stations of course uh smartboards everywhere for our students interactive smartboards uh continuing to invest in our onetoone Chromebook uh program funding the existing cyber security uh protections that we have and the network protections uh building in disaster recovery and continuity planning um making sure that we have all the protective measures we need to make sure we can get cyber security Insurance a Hot Topic cyber security we cannot afford to have ransomware or anything like that so we not only have to be protected we then have to prove that we're protected and always be improving that protection and then demonstrating that to our insurance company so they continue to provide the insurance we cannot fall short on that um upgrading infrastructure for Hardware to make sure we have proper storage and reliability and then um of course for students we talked about our digital tools and making sure we're moving forward there and then finally goal five making sure we have the the resources to meet the needs of all of our students and we have to follow state and federal law and so to that again I mentioned the K3 reading program um we're really excited to get going uh with the new program uh adding the point4 teacher uh for Portugese bilingual the multilingual report is linked right next to that for people to visit um in special education supporting the Transitional services uh to the tune I think I said 100 $2,000 that's there um for the extra year that the local community has to support students uh who qualify and then supporting the actions in alignment with the c reports and the C reports are linked there as well couple quick notes on enrollment this is uh a uh the enrollment report was uh given uh in the at the October meeting you could see that uh currently uh we have 1,16 uh kids at Candlewood Lake uh between the upper school and the lower School uh whis skiner was right siiz this year to 591 students just grade 6 to8 and the high school is steady at about 871 students giving us a total of 2568 kids currently enrolled as of October 1st we project that we'll have a few less students at Candlewood Lake at 1,89 next year that's prek to5 whis skiner um looking around 581 and the high school at 839 and so we look about 60 kids 50 kids less next year again that's right now typically that bounces back up with August registrations that's just something that always happens some interesting facts at the bottom um with covid I think a lot of people um uh I don't think a lot of people a lot of people were talking about um more identification of students with emotional behavioral and learning needs because of the shutdowns and the lockdowns um interestingly here in Brookville we stayed very steady with our identified special education ation population at 365 students it's only up two um in the last year multilingual Learners you can see is up 16 students up to 114 but that's really that's the net number uh the whole point of a multilingual program is to teach the kids English and have them exit the program uh proud to say that uh Mrs abrao and our team uh exited 20 students last year as we entered this year so the net is 36 more students uh 20 new in the pipeline and additional 16 for uh replacing the 20 that exited um in terms of multilingual Learners and then um a significant increase in families um free and reduced lunch which means families that are having very very significant economic difficulty up 70 students 633 out of 2500 I think that's about 20% so or maybe a little bit more maybe 25% of the kids um have economic issues in our town so we have changing Dynamics in the town I think we all know that and we do have to address and serve class size average is always interesting for everybody uh in the blue band at the bottom uh those are the class-size targets that the Board of Education voted on long ago we've steadfast to those and you can see um for 2425 the projected uh by classroom numbers up through 8th grade um and we are just over um when you see red we're just over the uh class siiz range um we're not asking for any new elementary teachers or middle school teachers but you could see that there uh it's important to know in kindergarten we do have a par educator assigned to each of our kindergarteners kindergartens um which makes us a little bit more comfortable and makes our teachers frankly a little more comfortable to have it just over the range rather than having you know 16 or 18 um and being by themselves they were okay we did talk to them a couple of years ago when we initiated moving to halftime Paris and now we're able to to to work toward uh uh more para FTE in there uh they're more comfortable with that model so we're in a good good place there with our class size average and then I just summarize by going back to our budget drivers I will not walk you through this uh except to say we have our status quo budget and then we have three big drivers beyond the status qu the anomalies we're facing this year that we need to address in next year's budget and plan for the new state mandates um and the Investments and those drive us to a 53 m670 ,000 budget or a 6.52% increase over the current year I show one last pie chart for you this is just the increase this year of $3 million this is the increase in the percentage um by the same categories we showed you earlier um benefits in salaries you could see is the Lion Share of the increase I think in the the neighborhood of 60% transportation is a 133% increase the out of District placements are 7 and a half percent we're conservatively budgeting utilities oil and gas now at 10 and a half percent we're hoping that number comes down um supplies uh for maintenance supplies for students supplies for faculty and staff along with some Professional Services uh and other services account for $267,000 so you could see that there is a lot of stuff kind of baked into the budget that we have control over we can make decisions um but it is a human business We Are a Human Service organization and that's what we value the most is the people that service our ultimate treasure and value which is our students I thank you for your time and happy to answer questions or talk about process going forward I have a question um for the electricity at Candlewood Lake is it possible because work is still going on and they're drawing power from the building that we're seeing that is something we talked with Mr czecho about but maybe Casey if there's anything else you want to add to that yeah I I I don't really have much to add Rosa except that that's what I was hoping and thinking to um we've only had two months of electricity bills you know while school is in session on that building oh your button down sorry thank you um um yeah that is something that I that we were we were thinking as well we've only have two months of electricity of of electric bills from eversource on that building since it's opened so it's really kind of hard to gauge at this point um but based on those first two months um we are anticipating that it's going to be significantly higher than originally thought yep okay and we did take those invoices and sent excuse me and send them to the NBC and to tecton thank you um another question I had was on the special education transportation and tuition so it's it's listed under the two under two different areas so is the total impact to the budget just over 1% and it's just that portion of it is State mandated okay that was the only questions I had for now so wait those are separate costs not redundant ones they're the same it's the same cost it's just a state 2% of that increase is due to State mandated costs right yes so so um we're mandated to support students with special needs right we we know that um we have it in the new state mandate category as a driver because it's an additional year to support students that you're count you we typically were counting on we wouldn't have to pay for those students anymore the state takes over at that point and works with the families they've graduated out of the Brookfield Public Schools support and they move on to State services with their family and so that through new state law has been pushed back down on the local communities everybody in the state is facing this we're we're not alone in this every single Community will be talking about this in their budget preparation my question is for Anna um so is there a reason why we didn't want to continue the roll out of um open court like in the early grades the primary so um open court does not it's not one of the approved State programs because it just got approved so uh when so when we we actually do still use open court at this point as you know K3 um so we are not completely F through with our uh discernment and um focus on what exactly we're going to be using as Dr BR said we have we're down to a couple different uh programs right now the program that kind of the the front runner um aligns really nicely with mclass dibles which is what you approved last year um and so um it integrates really nicely uh but we also do have our open court uh programs which we will reflect on and see how um efficacious it is is uh it's it's what we're using right now as kind of our main focus on science of reading as well as the um our main literacy uh um instructional approach um but certainly that could still since it was just uh recently approved and and things are getting approved all the time um we will continue to look at that as we meet we will have to eventually make a decision about you know what we um what we want to go with probably even as the state continues to approve more programs cuz they have added originally they as you know they said they were going to add five they have looked at different things and um they have added a few more um I have a feeling that as they have more school they they just released the uh waiver results and um many districts did not get approved through the river or and they've created now these different um sections of approval some it's not just you got the waiver or didn't now there's transitional and there's um partial so um I have a feeling that the state will continue to approve different programs so there may be things that we um you know find we have already invested in uh what we have found out over the last couple years since I've been here was that even kind of irrespective of the um State mandate there has been a an interest in pursuing other um approaches to early literacy and so it kind of was fortuitous timing especially considering there was this right to read grant that we were able to apply for and get um supplemental money for um so while open court has been something that this district has invested in for a while um I'm not sure that it is meeting the needs of our students fully where we would like to see them at this point so we'll keep an open mind as we go forward but will we take a deep dive with that for on the cape committee or that's something that certainly we probably mean we will bring those that information to you nothing would go forward without you know being brought to the cape committee but as far as actually um kind of the analysis and the discernment and the decisions um in terms of you know what the the the committee of uh Educators would do that work and then bring proposals to the cap committee okay yeah if you can keep that in the Forefront because you know we did invest in that quite recently into that program so I would hate for that to kind of Fall by the ways side especially if it's it was just if yeah if it's if it's working then you know we're not certainly going to try to fix something that's not broken yeah and if we can get like data on that that'd be great to help that decision okay yep that's part of and I think Joy I'm glad you brought if you guys don't mind I'd like to just share a little bit uh Anna mentioned that the uh as of I think it was Friday districts who applied for the waiver meaning hey State we don't like your rule we like our reading and writing program and we're going to stay with it had an opportunity to ask always happens that way doesn't I thought it said something quite profound and now it's not it's not been captured okay um so on Friday uh the State published uh the districts and the districts found out um the districts who I think it was 82 districts applied for a waiver so almost half the districts in the state said we like our reading and writing program we do not want to go with one of the five or seven or eight whatever it is now approved science of reading programs that the state says these are the approved programs um and uh we want to go for a waiver so Friday they found out many districts that you wouldn't think would be would not be allowed to get the waiver um some high performing districts and uh down count districts um have been told you didn't get the waiver or you only have partial uh uh achievement of the waiver and so they're going to have to get direction from the state and scramble a little bit as to what they're going to do um we had interest as you said from uh faculty and staff um we just presented in October we were not thrilled with uh some of our results uh in the language arts area um and so we were thinking this might be an opportunity to take a look really at what we want to do and with the support of the state with the support of a grant so we didn't have to put you know the burden of all this programming on the backs of the taxpayer we asked for an extension to give us some time to think about it to work with the team and um I think that right now is paying off but to Joy's point if we have some programming or some materials that that can help us um and maybe that could be incorporated or whatever we want to we want to think we're not there on the decision yet we we are looking like I said I think we were down to to there was one we really like the way it fit but there were some other ones that we're still considering so um but at some point we do have to make a decision I mean because we have to uh order the materials and with everybody ordering materials the textbook companies are going to have a hard time fulfilling the order so we need to get the order in early make sure it's all set and then have the professional development built in to train up the teachers to be ready to go so we have to be thinking many months ahead the other the last point I just want to make on that part of the the concept of the partial or the transitional um is because there are parts of programs or there are programs that meet parts of the expectation of the state um and so if if districts have for example if they had open court and said this is what we this is what our uh program is and we're standing by it that could very well be well that's partial but you have to add this other portion I haven't um I'll talk with you know Mrs FAS about it and she'll bring all of the information along with the instructional coaches um Julie vau and Aggie Burns will have some um impact in it even though she's seventh six seventh and eth um we're really looking at that six through eight Continuum um and obviously in terms of the early literacy data we go with our mclass Dibbles and and uh acadians data because we don't have we don't test until third grade um in terms of standardized testing that's when the SBA begin so um we want to look at the whole gamut and we also want to kind of consider not only what the state is requiring but also what the needs of our students are across the and to set them up for Success throughout school thank you sure thing quick question on the um with the new cut off for kindergarten is there an anticipation that the enrollment is going to be impacted because I mean 45 now is probably going to be around 45 next year too exactly and so what I asked Dr P to do and he's done it with his team already for us is take a look at those 45 students uh that we talked about that are younger and uh of the 45 whose birthdays after September 1st in this current kindergarten class I wanted to know how many might be having a little trouble adjusting that's the big question right it's all developmental very individual with kids and and the and the family understands their child too and in Readiness um we're looking at five or six kids that we think maybe could have benefited from another year but they're round in the corner and they're doing okay so we don't anticipate a drop off at this point um we anticipate that many of our kids will um go through the screening process and I think family and back faculty would probably be very comfortable with them attending kindergarten so we'll go through that process um it certainly would have made it easier in terms of the school's decision if it was um if that September 1st was a hard cut off like January 1st um the state didn't uh the the legislators didn't make the law that stiff frankly and so the state Department's given us some guidance and then we really each district and I think we like that New England or in Connecticut kind of having an opportunity to make our own decision on that one so thank you though for the great question just one really minor thing on the illustrative is that does that involve training too or is the training done in-house U I'll let Dr man talk to that yeah so we um have uh contracted for professional learning for um actually for all of the grades this year uh a little bit more intensive with four through four and five and then six through eight at the middle school um with uh one kind of introductory uh professional learning experience this year and then next year it will be ongoing with the um continued with the Middle School however we're doing that kind of gradual release with the teachers we have instructional coaches um at the bless you at the um you know at the middle school and the elementary school so they have taken um on a lot of the responsibility um so they'll continue that professional learning so we'll kind of wean folks off at the middle school and then you know focus it more on the elementary school as we roll it outk so so an just to the um the dollars that I presented tonight that's that's the total cost M okay yeah it's inclusive it's it's it's all in there are we going questions okay um that was a really um thoughtful and thorough presentation thank you very much um for the the effort that went into creating it and presenting it um so for um those of us who are new and and for the public uh there will not be a vote um to adopt the budget until late January but this will be a standing agenda item uh until we've officially adopted the budget so board members will have an opportunity to ask questions and the public can also provide input via public comment or email um there's also a budget round table before our next meeting on the 20th at 6m if the public would like to converse more in depth about anything they like or dislike about this proposal that's a really good time to do it okay um I think we are moving on then to the next agenda item which is um old business so there yeah all right um then I I don't believe there's any public comment for the tail end of the meeting marous then um we have an opportunity to decide if we'd like to continue uh to do three main points we don't have to make this decision today but this is the next agenda item is three main points um we as board members get to select what we feel are the top three takeaways from our meeting tonight uh the floor is open to anyone uh to provide put very casual no votes are going to be taken um and in the past the chair of the communication subcommittee wrote These up and submitted them um to Dr burill and to the chair for editing and posting but we can decide um would you guys like to keep it that way or have the secretary do it to write up our our three main points since we don't have a Communications Committee just yet idea then the decision making process has been streamlined so yeah so just you know as you summarized um for you guys um we just kind of talk about what we think are the three main takeaways and then that becomes like a really good talking point and then if anybody sort of comes up to you in the community it's kind of like you know these are the things that we talked about and sort of the big points um I think since I mean the agenda was kind of light tonight actually in terms of like actual um but we did have some big things obviously the budget I think the budget would be a huge takeaway um after that I think maybe the um like um maybe some AA report yeah that's what I was going to say aa's report student successes yes mhm yep and don't forget our entertainment at the beginning the music department yeah that was good too yeah we can plug the Winter concert do I think it's noteworthy for um those of us who are new um that this was a light uh agenda because there's so much information you know I just feel like the don't get used to it well the few items we had were long but um but yeah no don't get used to it but we very much you know enjoyed your I hope you were entertained Mrs Greenstein um uh Mrs yo I just like to say one thing um I I really an anticipated thank you for your support um I I appreciate um the fact that I didn't see wincing uh at the number um with the various drivers in the budget and uh maintaining your composure cuz that there there's a lot there um no superintendent likes you pre- shocked us yes I pre I pre- shocked you last week um no superintendent likes to come before their board and ask for more than 3% I mean we all understand local taxpayers we are ourselves we're all citizens and communities in this in the state um what I would encourage the board to do just in terms of uh communication and knowing what's going on with things during the week as you know I already probably overwhelming you with communication but I'd rather commun overc communicate with you than under communicate um please during the five work days of the week a good organizational strategy because you are volunteers have one time during the day where you check your email I think that's really important to do because you just never know what's coming it might be very important nonemergency so no one's going to call you and tell you something's going on but you you know you want to be with it and stay on top of things there's just a lot that comes out of board sometimes they're as simple as just letting you know there was a fender bender with a bus but you may get asked at a ball game or at the grocery store and not have any clue if you haven't looked so it's just a good practice to check it once once a day okay thank you um are there any upcoming events um that I mean aside from the concerts um that you wanted to or the principes wanted to tell us about I would say stay with the concerts um we we've got that and um we've got the board meeting at Candlewood Lake and we'll have the round table I think uh I think that's that's pretty much okay our principes and the secretaries and teachers are great with getting newsletters and Communications out on a weekly basis so I think our parents are okay right now wonderful yeah with that um oopsie with that um I'll move to the final agenda uh item I move that the board enter into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations as it relates to collective bargaining and personal matters second okay um is there any discussion okay all those in favor I I okay so this concludes the public broadcast of the meeting um and uh when we exit the oopsie when we exit our executive session we will formally adjourn the meeting um thanks to everyone at home for watching and [Music] listening [Music] o [Music] m [Music] o [Music] o [Music] m [Music]

this um that statement here so the intentional right to read I think is is really important that this legislature the state of Connecticut was making a commitment that uh our students are strong readers by third grade and that um in particular they were focused on addressing achievement gaps for children of color and students receiving special education services and those to be Crystal clear are areas that chesher public schools and the chesher community uh support and strongly endorse that uh there's nothing in the intention that doesn't closely align with our core beliefs uh the Public Act um really the at the heart of this um was to address six core competencies of reading and that uh that came from a a um project that I'm going to address a little bit later but the uh the C comprehensive program this is what they said scientifically based reading research and instruction this is from the legislation that a comprehensive program or collection of instructional practices that's based on reliable valid evidence showing that when the programs or practices are used students can be expected to achieve satisfactory reading progress um and that IT addresses the six core areas so the way that they um the SD seems to have interpreted this is that they're going to identify six programs or handful of programs let's say that um they feel meet that definition and as of last Friday we received our ra uh waiver results and it indicated in pretty much every element that the curriculum and resources that we've designed were not on the approved program list basically that you're not using one of the approved can programs therefore you know your waiver has been rejected so I mentioned you know where where did our stuff come from the national reading panel was convened in 1997 to focus on reading to design to really evaluate what uh skills um do kids need what do we need to be focused on teaching to provide the greatest outcomes for students when they're uh publication when their findings were published in 2000 that was reviewed by our community products were reviewed by our community and we made substantial adj adjustments and since that time it's been an ongoing uh reassessment and redrafting of what we do to support our developing readers in grades K through three so we've spent a lot of time money and energy focused on the science of reading going back 20 plus years and designing our own curriculum to address those needs and I think the evidence that we have the data uh speaks volumes about how the efficacy of what we've designed uh third grade readers were number seven overall in Connecticut our high need students performed six those are students that are identified as multilanguage Learners as um uh students with free and reduced lunch and special education services that population was sixth in Connecticut uh those that were identified exclusively for special ed services were second in Connecticut and we had the highest Hispanic or Latino population in the entire state of Connecticut uh we didn't have enough students that identify as black or African-American to have that data publicly uh published uh for comparison and you know that to be fair um the state and they should only publishes um data for subgroups where there are enough students where it couldn't be couldn't be uh individually identifiable so when I say we're the highest performing group in Connecticut that means that there are some districts who might have performed higher but they don't have enough students that the data would actually be published so I think what it illustrates is that you know with a large enough subgroup we're number one in that regard um and overall seventh and it's um I think a pretty strong statement about the reading program in the community looking at last year I think we had 338 third graders 13 of them were considered substantially deficient reading now that is of all students in third grade 13 students the national average is 20% of students we were at 4.7% there were no statistically sign significant differences based on subgroups in our data we've grounded our program in the science of reading if anything we're here to testify that that is effective not that our program is not the implications of changing what we do are substantial financially initially I I wanted to just share that you know the costs ass associated with greater adoption of these programs if we were to just adopt the reading the reading programs outlined here for our students in grades three k through three that's a $536,000 investment if we expand that K through six because it's really difficult to initiate students into a reading program K through three and then flip the switch over in grade four through six um and go back to what we were doing um so if we adopt it K through six that's roughly a $700,000 investment the things that you know the cost that we've incurred thus far in terms of you know work that we've done um because we don't rest on our Laurels we do not um say that oh well it's there's no room for evolution is a as a school system and certainly within the you know elements of reading we continue to evaluate what we we continue to evaluate our resources every five years we do curriculum reviews and we update what we do uh to M sure make sure that we're providing the most contemporary services for our kids and Community we spent $125,000 this year to do that in Reading aside from that $700,000 investment the costs that we haven't factored into that that $700,000 is the hours that would be necessary to implement this sort of shift it's the uh time not just that we pay people but we take away from doing other things that are necessary when we're we're already Beyond successful we want to improve what other things that we do for example and I know this is jumping ahead a bit in the slides but you know purposeful play in early grades that's another area that's required Something That We're evolving in and we've been focused on but when do I do that with teachers that I'm training in a new reading program so forget about all these the money money is relevant but that's not why I got into education forget about the impact on the climate and culture of our staff but our student performance I'm not looking to torpedo other districts who have other needs and challenges but if the people who adopted these programs had the highest performance in Connecticut I would take a step back and we would have already said whatat are we doing we need we need to do what they're doing they they don't have the highest performance as a matter of fact when you look at the districts who didn't um have their waiver granted uh that they have the highest performance and I'm not going to sit here and tell you that sces has nothing to do with reading performance socioeconomic conditions in communities have a tremendous amount to do with reading performance as well but our program program is a proven entity for chesher that works I'm not saying that every school system in Connecticut has to do what chesher does but it works for us um and to spend $700,000 in countless hours to compromise our performance has me sick to my stomach and so you know legislatively that's something that you know I I hope is considered the change in kindergarten age is just another variable that kicks into this at the same time that I'm trying to work on purposeful play not I we I want to say I mean collectively um Marlene probably could pull more hair out than than I could over this issue so when I say I I mean Marlene our teachers our principles um the the Confluence of all these variables coming together is you know a real challenge particularly at this point in time you know I'm not somebody who has a a real history of screaming from The Mountaintop on things or things like that I think I'm very um tempered and and generally reasonable person um but the state and Department of bed never should have said this or nothing never it's unprecedented it it's it's potentially damaging um and I'm really concerned about it and I I'll be honest when it first came out that that was the plan and and they had said that you know the districts must purchase prepackaged programs and superintendent flipped out and Fran wrote a letter that reflected our feelings and was very strong and they said okay well we'll have a waiver process I thought okay that the we'll let the process play out the way that it should and that a reasonable person would look at our program in whole and in Earnest look at our results in whole and in Earnest and find it nearly impossible to come to a conclusion that we need to change but yet that's that's what's taking place here and so you know I just ask for that consideration and Tim we're going to go back you know I I appreciate you sitting through this in my rant if you will we'll go back to our seats and I'll ask you know different members of the delegation and certainly our board if they want to chime in and have any closing thoughts as we wrap up but if there are any questions specific to this and where we are was it a comment Tim or a question a question direct please I don't think you mentioned this or spoke to this you had a meeting only in the past week or two we had a meeting probably a month ago three three weeks ago okay so that was with some Consultants who were hired by the SD and a member of the the SD staff okay did those people so you had a video stream meeting correct 25 minute Zoom meeting you made your pitch you were given the the opportunity for a waiver did those people have the professional courtesy to stay in the meeting so that you knew they were there um two of them did you know one of them immediately turned off the camera when the meeting started um and you know yeah that that is unacceptable and I you know this is a big deal and they just it it they have it it gives the impression to me that they're t out I regret not calling that out in the moment I think sometimes you you uh you uh consider you know these people are holding all the cards am I in a position right now to call you out retrospectively I probably should have uh and I could have done it politely I could have done it politely um and I regret not doing that number one will you send this to us yeah of course you have a paper copy but I will send you the digital copy as well okay if it's here I'm sorry that's okay and um number two when they said that you were denied what was the reason the rationale generally all throughout was that the chesher public schools uh curriculum wasn't on the approved list that's it that your students are way over all of your data that you've given them they just said what you're using is not on my list that that statement was repeated at least five six times through the response to us um so I it it's hard to walk away from that response and not think that that was the the deciding factor uh because it was certainly repeated time and time again um again you know when you look at the legislation I think it's like a lot of legislation it's subject to interpretation um where I vehemently agree disagree is with the way that it was interpreted and the way that it was implemented well who are the who are the five groups where are they coming from what what is the Tie why they only pick these five people I'm making a statement not a question the the five people being oh the programs yeah where are they who chose them why did they choose yeah there was a a group what yeah the group that evaluated and and um put those programs out and there is value in those programs um exclusively I I I don't I would never go with the programs are a resource they are not your curriculum they are not designed to be the end all Beall you know I see an Marie shaking her head you know somebody who's been in um the field for many years they they are designed to be a resource and and that's exactly what France says here reading curriculum establishes what students will be taught and whereas instructional methodologies and instructional materials support how educators teach the students and you know I think um Tim may have said initially one size fits all or something you know that's not we we have a a pretty wide breath of resources that we employ uh to get the results that we we attain and um yeah I mean some of the programs we we do um access some of the approved programs is part of that breath of of resources we use so je I I am literally the only legislator who has a child in chesher schools who's in I have one in elementary one in middle and one in high school um and so I see the quality of what cheser schools is offering I was just telling Tony my 10-year-old just got a letter in the mail that his reading scores they give you a list of the things that that you can read and understand and his is the Connecticut um State jurors manual and he's 10 okay so it's like I to me this is crazy but I do want to say and I don't know if this GNA make you feel any better because it might make it feel worse sde has consistently misinterpreted and overstepped legislation written over the past few years this is not not the first problem that has come across my desk even in the last three to four weeks about completely different legislation where U the legislative intent has been ignored and they've done what they've wanted so that is a problem and it does go back to I I forget was it Adam that mentioned them being underst staffed I mean that is a that is a thing and so um I you know I excited to join with my colleagues but I will tell you honestly you have been greater cheerleader than me because my kids are the ones are benefiting from what you do yeah thank you Rob just the whole thing is very frustrating to to hear about I voted against this I warned people not to empower the State Department of Education just like I admonished you guys a few minutes ago um it's very frustrating to watch this play out exactly as you predict and then have to come back to the district and hear the problem um certainly you can count on me I'm sure you can count on all of us to bring this back to them but I just I I wanted to to just make it clear that that you know there is a distinct difference in the way some of us view what our role is and how much the State Department of Education should be involved in the town of cheshire's uh public education system and I just don't think they should be involved to the degree they are at all and I that's why I didn't vote for this and again I I don't want to keep hammering my point it's just um there is a record about you know how all this happened [Music] so again I appreciate you sitting through the the full you know rant uh you know it's like I said it's an emotional topic for me because as much as things may have been interpreted in a way that uh I wouldn't agree with in the past this one really has the potential to directly impact our kids in a community in an unprecedented way and it it has to be addressed so thank you um like I said we'll pull the screen up and give opportunities for some closing thoughts the union SP it too I was session obviously yeah oh yeah how are you by the way it's really nice to see you good thank you I I want to I know some people were just about seat belted in wanting to jump up and talk and some could constrain themselves and others couldn't I just want to go around and try and um like maybe round robin here is the the best way to do it I I know people want to just chime back in and um in the interest of time and in respect for your time this evening um you know we would not go B bounce back and forth but give people the opportunity to either ask questions or closing thoughts Tim do you want to begin yeah thank you thank you for your comments on the right to read I'm still in my family my son is in second grade so he's directly affected by this next year I appreciate where the where the superintendent's coming from the cost is one thing the Staffing uh professional development is another but this is just so upsetting when we have good performance my son it's anecdotal it's not the big picture but he's doing really well with his reading and to see this coming it just it's it borders on infuriating because it just doesn't it doesn't make any sense because it seems to me the likely outcome of this change will it's more likely to worsen our outcomes than to better them on a uh if we're just GNA sort of go down the line I do have uh I do have one question um which is not the right to read but so I have a a somewhat offbeat but I believe probably potentially the most important question that any of you uh could ever address in your seats but I mean this very seriously and I think this is a a timely question that relates to the intersection of our school board the state government and the federal government so I believe in smaller generally speaking I believe in smaller not larger government I believe in local control per recent media reports the GOP front runner for president Donald Trump is looking to expand government including taking at least partial control of local school systems and school boards this is what I saw I think it was in the Wall Street Journal have you seen this Jeff have you seen him mention yeah no this has only been come out in the last couple days uh I am totally in completely opposed to this expansion of government can any of you so my question is can any of you foresee a point at which you would decide and I mean this seriously the state of Connecticut should secede from the Union you can laugh I'm being totally serious about this there are other states that have already been talking about this I'm talking about a massive expansion of government is literally what they were talking about and I don't like it and I just am curious if any of you have ever thought about it or would go there I'll take the question okay so first off Tim um the first thing I would say is it doesn't just border on infuriating for me the whole episode that we were just doing is infuriating uh there's no question about it I am not aware of what you're saying about Trump um so I mean I happy to look at and I will take your word for it I will not support it it doesn't matter which party uh I would never support an expansion of government okay in the lives of individuals and certainly in municipal government I don't care what party I don't care what person um I go by issues that's it to me that's what our job is um I I mentioned early on that this whole conversation is a little frustrating too because it's not the way we normally structure our debate um but I'm very uh pleased that the way um you know we are communicating it's not not the easiest thing and uh I think that in some respects we we want to challenge our colleagues where they stand on certain issues um but what is important to note is that we're able to do that respectively respectfully rather and um I think people often you know want to see more bipartisanship um that may be true I think what they really want to see though is respect and civility um so I just throwing that out there so um I guess that's all I wanted to just say about that thing is that again you know I don't know about the Trump thing but certainly from a policy standpoint I would oppose it and I would I would do so publicly and I and I am right here it's and it's not so much about Donald Trump it's the concept in general is it just something that could ever happen so I'm going to respectfully answer your question because you did ask a very pointed question would I ever consider seceding from the union no but not because I agree with that policy or any policy like it but because every single one of you know exactly who I am and I fight and if I were to leave and if I were to ask other people to leave that wouldn't mean I'm standing up for my principles and fighting for what I think is right that's the reason why the answer is no but it also tells you everything you need to know that I will do everything possible to ensure that the federal government doesn't come in and put their hands all over this or any Board of Education thank you thanks Tim Emory anything you want to add say on the science on the science of reading um my concerns are that as a um special educator for many years prior to going into Administration those skills that have been identified under this legislation are definitely the skills that kids students need to um learn how to read in those K through three and then use reading to learn third grade and up however the way that this legislation went about it I can't really understand it um those are programs they're not the curriculum you know the curriculum is important as Dr Solen um talk to us about how it was built on a lot of research besides that it's all about the teaching and the methodology that's used the strategies that are used the legislation doesn't talk about any of those things it talks about six or seven programs and I'm not a program person it's it's just not about the program it's about the curriculum the way we teach our students the families that are involved in our education and obviously you can see that chesher is doing it the right way with the kinds of scores none of that was taken into account with the legislation I mean we have some of the highest schools that are ranking using um the esac which the legislature has told us to use to assess our students so we have our students scoring the highest and the waiver being rejected I just don't understand the logic with that so I'll leave that up to you and hopefully in this legislative session it can be reversed restudied Etc and quite honestly I'm in some districts because I consult now that have gotten their waivers and they're sitting around the table much as we are saying how did we get the waiver you know like I don't get it so what a bill proposal that simply said uh that the any school district that is surpassing the minimum requirement is no longer subject to the uh the Mandate itself I I think if if it's looked at over all 169 School District there has to be more than just that I think but it makes sense and that was tried in the education committee and it went nowhere so because I agree how vote go would we it never even came up for a vote but then why are we using the ESC right I mean I am behind you 100% I just this has been talked about and so we have an opportunity soon to be in front of the leadership of that committee and they will hear us loud and clear right Jeff yeah now what they do with it it the it's on them but we will fight and be on it but and honestly there's lots of ways to look at that assessment and the numbers I mean not just who's the highest but the growth index who's making you know improvements why are they making Improvement can we trace it back particularly I'm talking about in the ELA area um so there's lots of ways to look at it rather than however it was looked at and my second thing is um obviously the ask tonight was to fully fund the excess cost grant that would be wonderful if you could do that however um if you can't there are ways to help mitigate the impact on districts that four and a half times could go down to three and a half and then a two and a half and then be a one to one um the pot of money at the end could move from there's three tiers I think from 85% um to maybe 70% 50% we really need help in this area um we were at a meeting today and many of the um superintendents and Board of Ed members were talking about how in addition dist we don't know who's going to walk into our door and when they walk in and they it's a family who has special needs obviously we welcome them and it's a family who has two students that are already outplaced so we go to a PPT and we accept that that could be a $400,000 Bill overnight and not that we as Educators would never turn our backs that's what we do we educate um but we need some help we really do the short answer is it could happen very easily I mean you know the state of Connecticut uh is sitting on a a surplus or at least it was during budget time and uh those things could have been funded I mean our state budget is a selection of priorities I mean the state budget uh included an expansion of health care for illegal aliens uh it created a new uh welfare program baby bonds for people that aren't even born yet but it failed to uh live up to the promises made in the past and obviously promises were made for political support so I mean you know the idea that these programs were created they were supposed to be funded and now they are not is a is a distinct problem and we need to hold people accountable again I mean I I'm in the minority I'm the only senator who voted against the budget okay but I got a lot of good reasons and you know I think if the people of the state of Connecticut knew what those reasons were I think they'd be more inclined to hold their elected officials in both parties account and Ida is 48 years old old and it has never been fully funded by the federal government so it's lot Miss Rosenberg um I mean did and Mar um I just you know for those of you that don't know me I am a curriculum supervisor for another District on the other end of the spectrum so to speak so the the impacts of these mandates I feel on both ends so it's double um I do ask that if at all possible that you can kind of take a little deeper dive into the scoring rubric um so that we can understand truly whether or why we got denied the waiver I mean if you're saying to us that you you're being measured our report card is based off these particular metrics but yet you can't justify fully what those metrics are when it comes to scoring rubric for the reading waiver there's a problem here folks so um so if you could take a moment to do that and you know education is complex clearly and we do have a lot of competing interests so I would hope that you know you take this information and kind of prioritize those competing interests we face it on a daily basis in our day jobs so to speak um but just go with the facts go with the data and hopefully I enjoy this this forum um I appreciate that you come here especially today um for the past two years it's just been one-sided I appreciate the balance of both sides here um and I'd love to see something a bit more frequent more of a after session give us an update because we we're asking you now what's happening later when your session is over so thank you Dr harrian I just have uh a couple questions my first question is how long do we have to implement this if our waiver was denied in that I'm thinking we're coming up on budget season is it something that we need to work into this budget my second question is what happens if we don't comply okay so um I would have to read the legislation again uh and I almost want and not say this on the mic but I'll say it go ahead I mean sometimes if you don't comply sometimes there's nothing written in it that would do anything to you so let us read it pour through it talk to the lawyers you know are we gonna get fine $800,000 probably that's what they say but they don't have staff to implement that's part of the problem with some of these issues is that they Implement these things and then there's no followup or what if somebody doesn't do it what are you going to do but in the case that it happens then unfortunately it may be the time that you're caught and you do get $800,000 F yeah I I I appreciate you know anger uh and God knows I've felt a lot of it over the last 72 hours or whatever it's been um can lead you to to make decisions that uh you typically may not make and I think that well that thought over the last several days has crossed my mind like go scratch what are you g to do about it um I think when we start to engage in that sort of stuff that you know Anarchy is sure to follow and um I don't know I I know that that's not the the model or the tone that I want to set I think that the um the appropriate way to do things is the way that chesher is doing them today by sitting here collectively uh and deeply evaluating the issue with legislators who have influence on that in that domain um and that we that doesn't mean we stop there I mean we certainly are engaged with organizations that have tremendous vested interest in making the changes that we in the room want to see happen as well so um I appreciate the anger response and you know I was very close to needing jury Direction when I first read it the other day but you know that's just my hot take I said that in a very measured voice not out of anger respectfully uh Dr Solen I will say though that Dr herrian and Senator Samson were much more fun well but my first question was was very serious do we need to build that into our budget this season yeah the the um there there is uh some latitude there in terms of implementation date I've read some stuff for like you have to be on the path by july24 you know with implementation for july25 um knowing the state of finances in the world today and that um you know our budget is given the fact that we're a growing Community probably going to have to increase by more than what we've typically increased um it would be really a hard pill to swallow to look at a massive you know influx in Reading uh 700,000 would be a real big pill to swallow I don't know that we could do that and I don't want to take a whole lot more time but there's also um and I'm thinking that you have already uh Broach this a little bit but there are other communities in the same boat that we are and we should be um collaborating with them as well they have they have a different set of Representatives yeah we met with them last night the other right superintendants um and representative you not Representatives not in a legislative sense but um folks from those other communities we met you have a list of those communities yeah did you get a letter or was it just the call so um we were told on December 1st that that we were told prior to December 1st the couple of weeks in advance when we had that meeting that Marlene was talking about the the zoom meeting we were told that December 1st we would find out what was going on and you know the jokes were made about SD loves to send something out at 5:30 on Friday afternoon um we got our email at 645 that said we did not um get the waiver on Tuesday I believe it was the SD issued a press release uh touting the success and included a list of districts that um did not were not granted the waiver among those districts um you know were I I there are quite a few I won't read them all but you know a lot of them we consider peers in our District reference group so you know beyond chesher you have glenberry grand B Madison Madison has some of the highest performance in Connecticut period um new Kanan which has had the highest smarter Balan performance for seven consecutive years in both content areas like I said SCS definitely has something to do with it they were transitional so they were rejected in part uh not in whole um but locally you know North Haven Southington um also West Westport Woodbridge all rejected and when I read you the list of the highest performing school systems in grade three reading you know this is exactly what we're looking to measure um oh excuse me that's the high needs list uh overall that's the special education list I I've come with it all but um you know you're talking about new Kanan Stonington Woodbridge Daran Madison chesher that's the and those people have um those are the few districts in Connecticut that outperform us um I would think that their reading program is pretty damn good we'll reach out to those other legislators and form a little coalition to I'll send you the information I've shared digitally and orally this evening I can follow up with you uh via email tomorrow Mr grippo um I just had a very surreal experience up here it's it's seldom that uh Dr harrian and I uh publicly ever agree on anything never mind have a low five um at the deis um and and that's to and I extended the allance yes and uh to to refuse to comply uh be the the statistics that you presented are so overwhelming that uh I don't know if we have another Choice um but that being said um maybe we'll be able to analyze that at some point but uh I did want to thank all of you uh for you know having full attendance this evening at our our legislative meeting uh it's been quite a few years since we've had all of you here which is great we're missing Jack won oh Jack B oh I've never met Jack so I forgot that's the new District the 83rd right yes I'm sorry Jack um uh but I at least the than that we have a four out of five and that's great um and and to to a lot of the work that we do at least as a non- educator right 99% of the things that uh that we do on the board are related to state law uh not necessarily directive from the state department of Ed um a lot of it is the the department of Ed interprets the law that you pass so in my mind it is your duty to fix it that because a lot of the law that we get especially you know we we're going through policy we're like wow this law really is poorly written and there's a lot of perhaps purposefully I don't know uh done in a way that it's left to a uh a lot of interpretation right and so then that's when the department of Ed steps in and certainly interprets um and so it's really up to you to tighten this law up or repeal it entirely or do whatever you feel is needs to be done to um to correct these types of issues so I just uh again thank you for being here and listening to us and uh please fix it thanks thanks Adam yeah I I'll keep this short I do want to thank all you're showing up this evening because you besides education issues you have a lot of responsibilities other topics in Harford so we're we're we're not you know blind to that so uh um but we're here to help and I remember uh several years ago it might have been represent lyan or Samson or zus is uh I think we asked you know how can we help you and I heard tonight um getting some details from Dr s and what those unfunded mandates are that we believe should be going away so you have in time uh getting some more details what was presented um I think if is you're talking to other districts I know I know you all are uh and other boards if you can encourage them to write in testimony on these laws um upcoming discussions um it helps and I've been spending a lot of time last few years through cab encouraging board members how to do this and I think you're going to see this session many many more school districts board members chiming in one way shape or form not because um um they're against the intent here we all want to help kids succeed we we're not questioning that but it's the cart before the horse over and over again as you heard tonight so I think you'll see more of that and I think that will help you so it's not just a four ofie and chure bard of Ed you're gonna see more folks I would certainly be there um Amar up a great point you know on on the right to read um you know I wouldn't recommend abolishing alog together because even though school districts may be forming like treasure and listen world was trying to improve there should be some skin in the game for us to make sure that we're hitting the mark of the legislation so I couldn't tell you what that reward would be but some flexibility for school district with the measures that Dr Solen and Marina's team have given them that they actually asked for as part of legislation I I I don't know what was missed there um so I don't think we should pick and choose the laws to follow it's a it's a slippery slope I I am angry um but you know I I think about what are we example are we sending for our students right now we just pick and choose things that we don't like versus doing the hard work and the pay to fix them I think that's the path we're going down um so beyond that I'll cut it short because it is almost 8:30 and you've all had a long day as as a team here has had but um I I'd ask you know if Beyond tonight what else can we do to help what else can we do get the word out um and as as other do mentioned we'll definitely check in um but if I saw Mr Samson send an email tonight to the board before the meeting about the things you've worked on and try to that's very helpful um and I know some of you do follow up after a session and talk about what what uh what was done uh cable definitely write up summaries and things like that uh but uh we we'll definitely keep in touch um and we appreciate the fact that you're four of many but we respect what you do out there and thank you for being our voice so and and thank you for this tonight as well again thank you Mr II so for my first experience at a Board of Education meeting you bring statistics celebrating the accomplishments of young people and the state tells us it's no good it just I hope this isn't a vision of what the future is here and future meetings because it's infuriating to me that we can have such success and we have the statistics to back it up and then they tell you it's no good so I assume we have to if we follow along with the state law we have to write a new curriculum and follow a whole new path please help well thank you hey thank you for be for coming out and listening to our complaints but seriously I mean that this is infuriating to listen to and to be a part of um our people are doing a great job and would be a shame to have to spend a lot of time and effort to change you know fix something that's not broken thank you thank you I often have the opportunity to be the voice uh for to really intelligent and talented people then they always make me look better than I am um and I want to give you guys the opportunity Vin and Marlene to if there's anything you guys want to add I'm good very much appreciate your time and all of you as well on the board thank you Senator Samson I said enough although um I'll do something very unorthodox and I will share my cell phone even though I know this is out on uh public television too it's 860 5081 1969 I would encourage any of you guys to call me any people in town who want to call me i' be happy to talk about any of these issues or anything else thank you I didn't adequately say thank you to all of you for coming I do appreciate you and all that you do Senator hokel I just want to be very quick also and just say thank you for the invitation here um this is my first term I've only been through one legislative session so far um I'm not on any of the education committees unfortunately or the early childhood but I think people know in my my day job as somebody eloquently put it I do have um a lot of experience in this area um and I can tell you there are other districts that are just as outraged and I'm hearing them from our Educators our par Educators right up to the top um so it is something near and dear and as U my colleague said I think it's important to hear this so that we can make informed decisions going forward so thank you for the opportunity thank you you know where I stand um especially on this reading issue and please reach out I'm uh excited to work with all of you because I do sit on education and uh you need to speak up you need your voice you need to call me what works what's not working um I'm not going to give you my cell phone over the microphone but I will give it to you after because you can reach me I will likely be prank calling Senator Samson um you get a blocked number buddy you know it's gonna be me um thank you we have a great relationship with everyone on the board we're gonna have conversations all over the place but I do want to take one second to ask some questions if you can give me speed round answers that would be great do my best um uh the school climate survey when do you expect results um we already administered last year's we have the results already uh they should be available on our website what about because I know you guys started to how long does it take to do that because I know that um we just or the parent I'm sorry it was the parent survey or something that I did we did that we did that last spring I talking science surve AO help me I don't remember what I answered okay okay I'm just in my brain I'm conflating and we also have uh work that we're doing this year the pupil attitude about self and school survey that our students have been uh answering that was this fall uh about a month ago probably in my mind everything was a month ago and yeah so that'll be reviewed in January I get that but um yeah uh if you wouldn't mind um I'll try to search for them for all results on the website but I might be reaching out to you for more um you know it's we come here so that you guys can tell us what you want from the budget I get that um but I am also a Chester parent and I am a treasure taxpayer and so I'm going to take my two seconds to let you know what I want from your budget I think that we really need to work hard to implement more programs regarding Sports hazing bullying how our student body relates to one another the simple Act of being nice and I think that there should be more um consequence for children who do not behave nice who engage in bullying and to engage in hazing I don't have to tell the members of the board that there have been some recent concerns in that regard and additionally uh I see them every day and I hear from parents constantly about the bullying here in chesher I understand that federal law kind of hamstrings everybody I get that so let's do more let's do more in talking about it with our kids let's do more in implementing programs my kid went to the leadership program and it was great but it was also fun for him and he got to play games I'm not sure that the programs that are meant to end bullying are ending bullying that's why I want to look at that student climate survey and and I could talk more about this privately because I don't want to out certain students but the lgbtq issues that are happening in our school and the way certain children talk to other children because of their sexual orientation if you knew what was said in those schools you would be filled with as much rage as I am now so I'm going to ask Senator Samson said that budget is a list of priorities if we're going to continue to put our money where our mouth is and do what we feel our priorities on the state level I ask as a parent as a taxpayer and as a legislator that the school budgets there is plenty of money to ensure that there is the proper training and the proper caring of children in your schools that's all I have to say about that thank you sure all right I guess my closing points would be excess cost um you know we talked about how critical that is but I think you know becomes more critical I appreciate the work that the legislature did during the budget to infuse significantly more funding into the educational cost sharing Grant um Chesters as a result our our ECS funding went up about $100,000 but it's been flat at about $9 million for I want to say like 20 years um and you know as we know costs have gone up over the last 20 years uh I I want to be fair and indicate that the SD has offered a a meeting to discuss the waiver um uh as a followup um and so I'm sure we will be taking advantage of that can can we join you in that um I don't know that that's necessary at this point uh but I I know I appreciate where that question is coming from and the um NeverEnding support that you will provide um are you afraid we may say something no I'm not afraid you know I I think that there are certain conversations I'd like to have privately you know with them um and I you know because this isn't necessarily about placing blame or anything like that um we're looking to resolve uh the situation and um we're going to exhaust those those different paths to do so um and again I want to join everybody here in expressing my gratitude for you spending the last two hours with us and as I think Sam said you know uh the opportunity to exchange and dialogue um in a respectful way is is really valuable in this day and age in particular but meaningful for us uh personally and professionally so thank you so much for your time um and with that I guess I'll take a motion to adjourn the meeting Miss Rosenberg do a second Mr perini all in favor that's that's unanimous you guys don't have to vote we're not used to that

our in our districts work one-on-one with children to meet them where they're at and bring them along um so that they become lifelong Learners with this act we have taken a top-down approach a one-sized fits-all and told our districts forget the individual treatment forget the individual work just do what we say it is not productive it is not healthy so I really urge you to work hard to either correct or resend this bill thanks uh I'm just going to ask if there's anybody else from the public and then we can certainly engage in dialogue anybody else Pam no all right um in that case I do want to just take a moment to acknowledge our guests here this evening uh we have state senators and representatives to um engage the board and the community in dialogue about uh legislation impacting education and so uh please welcome state senator Rob Samson state senator Jan hokel uh state representative Leslie zubkus and state representative Liz linahan uh ladies and gentlemen thank you for joining us tonight I know I I speak on everybody's behalf uh when I express my gratitude for you taking time out to engage in this conversation I know Liz you wanted to respond to the the comments about the right to read please it here or there um there is fine you know if you guys don't mind sharing the microphone they can hear yes okay great um so first of all Faith thank you very much um you know I just want to make sure the public knows what we're doing um so thank you very much and thank you for your time on the board uh your work is greatly appreciated so thank you very much for that um and thanks for bringing that to our attention and I'm sure we're going to work together on that I just want to say that with the new board coming in there's going to be a lot of work that is going to be done for them to tell us what we need I think we are extremely fortunate to have anarie cullinan uh especially when it comes to this particular subject who has um had many many years of experience um with these programs itself and also um she's very familiar with the state level so I think that we are positioned as well as we can be uh to move forward and do what's right and best for chesher now that you bring this uh to our attention I'll be sure to work with the new and especially uh Mrs cullinan to kind of see what we can do um when it comes to getting a waiver or even just advocating for what we do here in chesher so I think that's really important thank you very much Leslie thank you um thank you faith for bringing that up um I sit on the education committee it's my first year this past year going into next year it's my second year I will tell you I love it it's a great committee to sit on um this is a huge issue when it came up we fought it because exactly what you said Faith there are schools that are above the benchmarks and they should not be put into this category of having to do something that they're already doing extremely well it should be focused on the schools first that aren't doing it and so that's what we've been pushing for I will tell you um I have a meeting with the two chairs coming up in a couple of weeks and uh with some superintendents and that is one of the topics um that is going to be discussed for this legislative session because they've all said they want to fix it and help and work it and we're going to hold their feet to the fire to do that so I just wanted to thank you appreciate that ladies um the we are we we have a few items that we prioritized as areas of focus for us legislatively and I'm going to share some printouts with you uh as as well as anybody in the community who would like to follow along and um it doesn't necessarily fall in order we do want to address the right to read uh that is something that is Faith mentioned we learned about late Friday night that uh we had not secured a waiver um and I just want to go through a little bit of the history of that not so much necessarily exclusively for your benefit but also the community uh and then hopefully we can have some quick conversation afterward about your perceptions on on the various items we raised sure Dr Solen if you wouldn't mind indulging myself and my colleagues for just a couple of minutes we do have something that we would like to present before we begin would that be okay oh that's great thank you all right great thank you so uh we wanted to take a moment we recognize um that elections can be hard and we work well with everybody on the dis and we want to continue to do that uh but we also think it's really important to take a moment and give thanks for thanks are due so um although my friend Tony paragini is likely going to kill me later um look at his face he knows I do this stuff um I would like to say to you as the outgoing chairman Mr paragini that we are very very thankful for the work that you put forward myself and my colleagues the entire delegation Leslie we had a flag flown in your honor over the state capital and we' like to present you with that slide [Applause] I'll just I'll just give a little bit of history for those who were watching um the state capitol police actually fly um a flag in honor they salute the flag in honor of him uh and they have a letter here that certifies that this happened and when it happened and uh that every single member of this delegation wanted this to happen for you because we are so thankful for you so I wanted everybody to hear that so let's take a picture [Applause] more uh I uh L representative linan has a habit of catching me off guard a lot uh but thank you very much this was very unexpected um none of us do this for this whether chair or not we're going to continue uh do what we're doing but uh it's nice to recognized I just want to say uh we cannot be successful if we don't have good board members and uh we have five returning members that I believe are outstanding we have two outstanding new members so the team makes this happen so uh that's want to recognize the whole board cluding faith and Andrew are not here that's a big part of success too so thank you uh I don't take compliments well for some reason so let's get back to business but thank you very much congratulations Tony and um is I passed out to uh excuse me over I'm sorry over there um we identified uh as I mentioned before a handful of items collectively uh as a board um that we felt were worthy of conversation um this is not an exhaustive list but things that we felt were uh manageable and priorities uh for us at different degrees um the first is the existing and potential mandates on education this is not a new to topic for anybody here obviously but um I took the time to print out uh the 50 pages worth of mandates to impact education I will email this to you because I just didn't feel Vin would kill me if I printed this many pages out um so it it's pretty comprehensive and um really is a Soup To Nuts um all sorts of items in here and I think you know our request and I I know that members of our delegation are really sensitive to this this because I've heard from you uh as actually I just got an email from Senator Samson I a half hour ago maybe uh with some upcoming information you know um I know that both parties and our delegation are really good about connecting with the board and with Administration to get feedback uh this is a broader issue obviously you aren't the only four who write legislation for the state of Connecticut so um any consideration that can be given into uh a period to evaluate information before it gets written into law things that go into the implementer bill make it very difficult for us to respond to um things that um have been on the law you know on the books for many years um if we could just set up a pathway to bring those up for reconsideration as well uh that may be outdated that affect Our Lives more regularly than the Contemporary issues you're navigating uh that sort of opportunity would really be appreciated uh By Us please gonna talk as we go through this or at the end what's your preference I certainly up to you guys I just have a comment on go ahead um so I know you and I have spoken about this your 50 pages have you uh notated which ones that we should get rid of or is it just a list of everything number one and number two as I had mentioned to you um the chairs and the uh leadership of the education committee all they talked about this past session was we want to get rid of mandates but no one is telling us what mandates so I encourage you to tell us what mandates I will fight on the committee to help you get that done um but we need to know I need to know because honestly when laws when we were debating these things in committee I would say well that's another mandate that's another mandate so more mandates came out this session as you know um so I need help from you guys as to say okay maybe this one but not that one or do this different or however sure and and I appreciate that request um to be fair I have not shared the list and uh ideas that I feel might be uh things that we could revisit with the board and I'd want the opportunity to do that before I you know discuss that publicly or share it for movement you know I'm I'm the superintendent but I you know represent the thoughts and feelings on this group so Tim you want to add a point just a point of information for Clarity on this what you're talking about is delivering something to our state delegation by a certain date by a certain point in time so that's your this is your short session coming up Fe before Fe so that's it so we would need to talk so you probably right yeah okay thank you yeah and can I add that um Leslie's right obviously the talk was let's get rid of a bunch of mandates but quite honestly when we said okay what mandates are definitely going they are ridiculous Things That No One Ever follows anyways um and I can't remember exactly what it was but it was something along the lines of towns had to celebrate totally unknown holiday that in this past back in like 1940 something right so it's I mean so all of those are going to go away but I you know I think it's great what we're doing but please be mindful of the fact that if we don't get our asks in there the ones that are going to go are going to be ones that likely will have very little impact so it's really important to work with us prior to February 1 that's that's helpful can I just add something to I don't know if the microphone's picking up but should so people at home can hear very good so just following up on that I I'll Echo the comments of my colleagues regarding the mandates um I'd also like to just simply say uh and it's odd for me to be saying it because I I think I have a perfect record of not voting for any uh mandates on a local uh Board of Ed edification but um the fact of the matter is that sometimes there might be a mandate you want uh I'll give you an example which is this past year there was a uh a mandate to uh require a financial literacy class and I was the only Senator to vote against that mandate because I was keeping in mind uh the request that I hear from my town officials all the time which is let us decide you know we believe in local control we want to make sure that uh it's our local Boards of Education running the school system and not the state or the State Board of Education and I take that very seriously I I'm a firm believer in local control and rightsizing government so um but but at the same time it was a difficult vote because my colleagues were very much in favor of it uh we all know that uh generally speaking these mandates uh sound good I mean even the right to read mandate you know it hasn't worked out in a favorable way for a lot of places but it sounds good and when you're a lawmaker in hardford and you've got people leaning on you don't you want kids to to have the right to read you know it's a very difficult vote so it is much um uh needed and very helpful if we hear from you guys to say this is a good one we want you to support it this is a bad one we don't want you to support it it'll go a long way to helping us um at least you know have something to lean on too so when I stand up on the floor of the Senate and I say I'm gonna vote no on this mandate and that is because I heard from my districts or my towns in my district and they said that this is only going to make their job more difficult thanks I we we appreciate that you know I think that's just underscoring as well the point that Liz was making about getting to you before February 1st to support you and and making those decisions and uh arming you with enough information to feel comfortable you know because I appreciate what you're saying about paint anything painted in a certain light you know can be pretty convincing um and it's hard when you aren't all experts in every single field that you manage law for so it's really difficult but um thank you for for that we will definitely get you information um and I think this tonight is one of the first steps in that process right trying to express what some of the challenges are for us uh kindergarten the uh change in age something we certainly support uh the challenge I think was the implementation uh it was so expedient that it it as you know presented a lot of challenges for both families and Educators uh there's a lot of information that that Beth B has shared and um you know CA and others have have shared about uh some of the Challen challenges of starting um kindergarten before age five and that I think we're one of three states in America that that do that uh that start before age five and so you know it's not so much the issue of moving that start date to September 1st um The Early Access that challenge we don't do that any place else and and getting in the habit of evaluating and determining you already see a lot of inequity across Connecticut and the way that people are doing it it's very subjective um just don't generally feel that's a positive thing for students so um please thank you you know I understand um the data uh that really supports that I get it right but we're also we have so few spots for daycare available in the state of Connecticut school and daycare are two entirely different things in what their practice is but when it comes to a parent who needs a job it doesn't matter to them which one so I guess my question to you is the waivers that are coming in are you seeing a lot of waivers um so we're still going through the process and we have had requests for waivers um and I think you know to acknowledge the the board um we also appreciate even in a community like chesher uh that can be an issue preschool access and so rather than just saying you know we're not going to provide any options um the board pivoted and is providing next year a transitional program that is reflective of uh the Early Childhood learning standards um provides a full day program along the the the treasure public schools calendar at a very reasonable uh $5,500 cost for the full year wow and so you know we weren't in that making that decision to profiteer we were making that decision to provide access to families that we knew would struggle to get that um how many kids can you take how many spots um right now we just opened it up was it this week or last week we opened it on Friday Friday of last week we have 18 fill so we already filled the section and we said in order to be able to accommodate families and Ure a spot that you know you're waving the evaluation process to sign up right now and we've already had 18 people we anticipate uh based on historical data that we're going to have about 60 students that fall into this birth range between um September 1st and and in January 1st and so to already have 18 signed up for that transitional program probably speaks one to maybe access uh to a degree to to child care um it speaks to I think faith in our school system uh that we're going to provide a tremendous program and the value but like I said we're not out to profit here we wanted to retain staff because that's a real issue that this uh law puts before communities where if we have in this let's say in this in the Chester's example 60 less students enroll um I'm going to be cutting teachers at a time when it's really hard to hire grade teachers and I might not get them back and so this retains our staff and it it keeps people imployed it also provides tremendous access to a tremendous you know program that um with all due respect to most child care providers can they cannot provide yeah Bravo skill so you I really commend the the board for making that decision and is there anyone um here who's been in Cheshire for more than 30 years okay do you guys remember Readiness yes okay is is this kind of similar to Readiness but beforehand so it's not age it's about ability are you looking to find to get there at some point or is it only going to be about the the four to five year age so the program that we've designed right now because we have a Continuum of services we already offer a preschool program uh for students Head Start Right um Smart startart Start and we have um a preschool program for students who have been identified for special services and uh peers to join and we've run that for many many years um and so we already have a Continuum this is really this program specifically is only designed for students that were born in that three Monon window um and we're only planning on doing it for the one year because we felt like you know people in the subsequent year have had time to you know understand that this was coming down the pipe and that the we also had um you know they also are probably already in an established uh Child Care situation with without having to already disclose that oh no my child's going to kindergarten and then finding out that that wasn't really available to them as the chair of the committee on children one of the things that uh I will be looking at this year is actually how to open up more spots um for daycare and that includes tax breaks for companies who open them on site so on and so forth by the way I've tried to do that though three times let's hope this is Magic Time number four but but hearing this can you guys put together something um that would tell me in addition to having people continue to pay the $5,500 if I were to create a grant program to bridge the gap until maybe the federal dollars for Universal prek come down or something like that what you would need um for year per year of that the biggest issue frankly that we're gonna face is space um we just don't have if we you know had 60 less students and that's how we're able to provide the space now and districtwide all students who are in this program will have to go to one school at Darcy and and um when we close that building in a couple of years and looking at all of the space issues that we have that's going to be the primary challenge that's why if we we had considered you know do we even talk about expanding uh Smart Start which is really subsidized and really doesn't cost us anything um if you know that's a great opportunity for families but we don't have the space to be able to accommodate it right now so I ly I think that's a great idea uh I just want to be careful because this program it's and you know the board made a decision under the guidance of Dr S and M uh Solano that you know we want to bridge that first year um impact of families that weren't prepared to go out and pay 20 $330,000 for daycare and cimit our system so we're going to do this for a year you know we'll see what happens during the year if the administration board want to do something different but it's not to replace daycare you know this is the early start the kids are a little younger we only get them in our program you know it's a full day it's it's full day and they're learning you know at that level so um I'm hopeful that everything else that we the team does here that that will grow in popularity I just don't think I want to commercialize that Beyond its attendant purpose but um your your idea sounds great if we can get more kids and Smart Start at start early on and and enourage folks yeah so so really this was uh we're fortunate that we have the space at Darcy for now um you know that's not going to be there well we'll see what happens in a few years when the school new schools open but but if it was the opposite where we were full we probably won't be able to do this and put those families in a terrible situation not being able to uh right have that the first year so but great idea thank you um in regards to the uh the waiver that's mentioned in our packet uh we had a pretty robust discussion about it in policy last month I think it was last month about how our School System supposed to sort of establish criteria for the waiver considering that our kindergarten teachers aren't trained in preschool right they're not certified from preschool right give or take and so there was a a question as to you know a sort of a chicken in the egg as to there was no real guy guidance from uh Department of Ed as to how we were supposed to determine what a you know who would be eligible for a waiver or not and so I think that's one of the things where we really need clarification uh as to you know as we help students transition uh into this uh new uh I guess new age group um that uh there's some guidance there that I don't think we have yet to receive so yeah go ahead hi um I think that you're hearing tonight is that we're really very happy that folks have followed the research and are looking to change that kindergarten starting age what puts us in an awkward position is the part in that legislation that says that um if a parent wants the district will conduct an assessment we've always uh worked under the precipice that no matter when the kids come to us we will this language has said you want them to start early and that's a terrible way to and to welcome them into your schools and to create a love of learning when a mom or a dad might be saying I I need to go back to work I need you to take this child for us to almost you know put a judgment on that and there isn't a really good assessment tool out there so my team has been working with companies and and evaluating all of these assessments to determine which one is going to be the best for our district and is going to do right by the children so I think everything in there is very supportive I think we would really appreciate not being bound by conducting an assessment I think I just want to add on to um Dr so and Mr GLE Miss lano's point is you know this whole thing I want to say could have been avoided if we had a longer implementation timeline right we need to do our research um specifically to the screener because this doesn't obviously impact just cheser um and there is no valid and reliable screener currently um to measure whether or not a child is appropriately placed at this moment in time so you're you're putting us in a situation where we have to scramble and again not appropriate so yes we welcome the change in age what we don't welcome is the pressure to have to get done tomorrow um it's just not appropriate the other thing I want to make clear and this is an extended conversation that you may want to look into is this certification Factor like Mr gripple just mentioned some teachers are prek um certified only others are K3 there needs to be some flexibility in the certification especially in this time where we're having difficulty finding Educators thank you and you know um which bring brings me to a question we are just four people four votes out of many 183 um so if we can't ultimately get that waiver out would something would a um an across theboard state provided waiver be helpful if we can't get it completely gone I mean like let's look at Plan B so you're you're having a hard time finding an assessment tool well if she's sitting in education and arguing that we shouldn't have to this have to do this over and over again and the answer is just know from the chairs but she says hey well what about the State Department of Education creates an assessment tool and it's for all the districts to use so that you're not scrambling on that is that at least a good second prize I would agree that yes give us some sort of um model but going back to write to read don't say we have to use that model sure but provide something if you if if you want to use it exactly that's what I was going to say exactly what you just said um I think I'm passing this to Senator Samson I think the intent was good the implementation was horrible and um I give you Kudos because you're able to adjust but there's a lot of school districts that are not so um I think you're unfort fortunately I think you're a littlee of the game unfortunately it's a terrible situ ation to be in so thank you I just wanted to uh interject very briefly this is a little bit awkward kind of situation the way we've got it set up here and uh you've kind of kind of jump in to have a have your say on anything but I do want to point out that there is another perspective on some of this stuff um the items that you're referring to a lot of them uh were part of House Bill 6880 which was an act concerning teachers and Par Educators and I just looking through the list of items that are in there I think it's extremely overreaching I voted no I don't know how my colleagues voted on that particular item but the the fact of the matter is I I believe it should be up to the town of chesher to decide what the school start date uh is for kindergarten age um or rather you know with the with the the age date you know what I'm talking about the timing um you know and and not to some uh bureaucracy it's certainly not the State Department of Education which has no Authority and no oversight from uh the people um the legislature um is elected just like you guys are by the residents of the the community um the uh State Department of Education is a bureaucracy created by appointment only uh it's it's highly partisan and uh it's uh in a in the current area under a democratic Administration they're um big fans of top- down uh you know uh Central planning and they're going to decide a lot of things for us if we let them so I I just not to be partisan that's not my point here I just want to point out that I don't want to leave things up to that bureaucracy to make decisions and I would be a strong advocate for returning as much power and autonomy back to you guys to make these decisions as possible and not simply say we're going to let the Department of Education create the mechanism to solve the problem that they've already created for you that's all so I respectfully disagree with this idea that uh we let every town in Connecticut um decide what their start date is um you know you know we have people that move from town to town let alone state to state and I just I think uh if we just have this cut off date which we do now it's it's really helpful and it's really the waiver that we're talking about this idea that that we're giving families we're giving parents and families this idea that well that cut off data is just a suggestion and all we have to do is assess your child if you really want them to start I was referring mostly to the assessment process more than anything that they've created this problem for you by establishing that requirement for an assessment I agree with that part but I disagree with this idea that we have a start date and now the suggestion is we're going to let them create the assessment tool and I'm like it's a chain reaction I'd much rather leave that up to you with the process I think it's uh I I love I thank you everyone that's chined in I I appreciate the fact that um you want to help the Department of Education help all school districts help us right I I will say this I uh I've come to a new appreciation for the Department of Education over the last couple years I spent a lot of time talking to folks there and I know Dr Russell Tucker has a lot going on I often wonder if that department is being staff enough so so yes if if our Educators uh can help them create a assessment tool will they actually be able to have the help to do it I think that's the other challenge because great ideas and I don't think any of us are questioning the intent of some of these we appreciate we know you're not the only for only four people voting all these things there's a lot more uh but I often wonder if they need more help so they can actually pull this off and a little bit more of a head start to miss rosenberg's point about you know instead of rushing into it now they're rushing into it with a short staff so I'm just putting that out there so I do see that I think they give some help there but yeah you're right they're very very underst staffed it's um it's a point of contention between them and the legislators all the time but if I were writing that bill it would not fall under SD it would actually fall under oec and I think oec would be able to do that much quicker or at least procure something the office of Early Childhood um I'll just add last I'll be the only other thing is they should include you in the process that's help the ones with your feet on the ground and so when they come up with these ideas they need to include you to say this is reality out here and this is what will work and what won't thank you and you know um maybe to address Senator Samson's Point um we C can just hit on the next few items real quick I'll present um I'm sorry was there another point over here uh before just as I this thought we'll hit to you Tim real quick but uh we'll hit on these next few items uh and I wanted to as I mentioned earlier give a quick overview of right to read and then maybe each of you could kind of chime in or ask any questions and allow the board the same opportunity Tim yeah so with regard to the kindgarten age it seems it makes sense to me without having seen the data that if a kid at that age is four months older they're probably going to have better outcomes later my question do you Jeff does anybody know what is the point of measurement of the outcome and by that I mean I'm a December baby I was four and a half when I started and I think I turned out okay maybe not great but I and and one of the things that my mom said to me just growing up she said every year up until third grade the chesher public school would try to keep me back a year first Readiness Readiness no I didn't do Readiness first Readiness first grade second grade third grade and every year she said no no no is he is he learning everything he get along with the kids and it was always yes so I just kept progressing but one thing that she would always say to me um for me in particular or what she told me she told the teachers at that time was I'd rather give him a chance to spend that year After High School rather than at home with me because he's not going to be in school for another year because he's cute and I want him home when he's little um but my question is on the measurement of the outcome is it based on the year when someone graduates high school or is it sort of the equivalent of for those younger kids incorporating that post high school year and not everyone graduates high school I get that but I'm just speaking generally I I think the outcome would be the measurement should be against young students who would have had that extra year because I see it as a switch out between a year of prek or a year of post High School sure so um I I can reach out to oec to see what sort of data they have available that addresses those things okay because I hear you know the the point that you're making is perfectly clear and makes sense that you know if you're starting um let's call it kindergarten early versus college early what are the different implications on either end right so yeah um I can ask if they have any sort of data around those things and not unex this to be a big discussion I don't expect anything's going to be changing on this I'm making a point here yeah that it's fair question measurements or outcomes should be measured against uh appropriate points data points and and they're both appropriate data points um I just wanted to uh make one more comment um I know representative Lan had made mention about uh uh federal aid for I guess prek or something like that and um so has there been a a um an analysis of the financial impact for communities that cannot afford um that additional year of of preschool because I know that like uh my wife and I we had the means to pay for that additional year and my son entered school at the age of five as one of their you know one of the oldest in his class because we thought that that was good for him uh but that's an ADD additional year of of uh of expense that we incurred voluntarily but now you're telling the entire state that they now have to incur that additional cost instead of sending their child at the age of four and a half so I was just wondering if anyone had thought about that Financial impact yeah you know what this happened quite a few years ago um and it hasn't it hasn't gone through but going off of memory I believe that the universal prek package was actually fully funded by the federal government so um the cost to towns was to be minimal um local municipalities because it was a federally funded program so um but we're not anywhere near that I mean uh I believe it passed the house never went to the Senate um and then it just sat for years it is something that Biden wants to do who knows if he'll be in um so right now I mean it's just a pie in the sky idea but um you know if the Democrats take back the house they keep the Senate and then they get the White House again maybe it'll happen and at that point the bill will completely change again and the plan will completely change so I I can't give you an answer right now because there's really nothing fully implemented I just know that it's something that federally they really want I I was more asking on the state level since this we're not doing that at the state level there is no bill to do Universal pre no no no I understand but right now A a citizen who has children who were anticipating having their child go at four and a half now has to come up with the money to pay for I'm sorry then I misunderstood um I'm say yeah I meant on the state level okay yeah you know what that I mean that's why we're working really hard to make sure that there are more open um slots for daycare the governor did just uh put together I believe an apprenticeship program to help um people open more home dayc carees uh once again we're going the children's committee will be put for putting forward yet another bill but see it's the short session which means that we'll put forward a bill to put um to give tax breaks to companies who pay for subsidize or open their own child care but then that's going to have to go to finance and God only knows if there's going to be time in a short session so I think it's probably not going to happen right away way but the conversation is happening and as you all know government sometimes moves at a you know glacial pace so I can't promise you anything's going to happen but it is very much on our radar uh that we need to help families it's one of our number one priorities thank you sure so um maybe to pick up the pace here a bit you know CU we'll be serving breakfast at the rate we're going and um so we'll hit on these items at a at a high level and then uh have some opportunity for dialogue before we close uh the first item was the uh the next item I should say is reading which I was going to hit upon later special education uh excess cost grant that is uh the cost of special education has risen astronomically uh we've built inhouse programs to better support our students not only because of the cost we've been doing this for years because we believe we could provide it uh better more efficiently and in our children's home neighborhood which is Meaningful for families uh but the the cost uh as I said is continue to grow the state uh has an excess cost Grant share program where uh when a student the cost of students education exceeds four and a half times the per pupil expenditure for us it's roughly $80,000 uh the money in an excess of the $80,000 uh is calculated across all the students we have that cost that much it goes to the state and the state theoretically gives us that money back however it's only funded at a point where they can't cover all the costs across the state so we get a fraction of that money um that those resources those uh services are hard to plan years in advance because CH kids needs change and um we have done a lot to try and make uh special education as coste effective as possible um providing full funding for that excess cross cost Grant would be very beneficial indoor air quality uh the um working group deadline um has been shifted to January 1 2026 with respect to evaluating the HVAC needs in our schools um having all schools evaluate their HVAC needs at the same time across Connecticut has done a lot to drive up the cost of that service um and the demand uh is just taking forever to get that sort of information um back from vendors so uh if we could address the issue of providing sufficient time to study and and uh design these things then hopefully we can better meet that Target we all believe that providing high quality or you know air um for our students and staff Community is really important but the the time frame uh really wasn't reasonable the national school lunch and breakfast programs uh the the programs are tremendous and we appreciate the um opportunity to offer them it's a federal program but the the um the thresholds you'll see in the chart for annual gross income for uh family to qualify for free meals the annual gross income has to be below $339,000 in Connecticut that that is not reasonable um the reason I think this doesn't get a lot attention is because we have communities in Connecticut that qualify for free meals on whole in the urban centers if you live in a community like chesher and you're not making um you know if you're making $40,000 with a family of four you don't qualify for free lunch um and to live in a cheser community with $40,000 is almost impossible so um what hasn't happened is that you know places like Connecticut haven't adjusted these for the reality of living in Connecticut where it might work in Alabama it doesn't work here so just consideration of that fact yeah I just want you to know we are considering that yeah uh and so the way it would work is the federal money is going to be the federal money we can't change that right the state has to put something on top of it my proposal last year was that we went to the United Way all method which Alice is asset limited income constrained and employed those are households that um are well above that poverty limit but they're adjusted for what you need to make in order to live in your local community it does go by um not even by um District it's like it's almost like a dur system right right so um we are looking at that uh but our um our uh budget you know we're we have a lot of overages but those overages are getting smaller and smaller um so I don't know if we'll be going to full Alice but there will be another proposal this year I mean right now we we provide free breakfast and there's Federal money you know that that was left that is providing free breakfast to all students um regardless of how much money your parents make and you know we're just thinking that a shift there would be beneficial why Alice funding would work so prevailing wage was the last item um we respectfully request you consider elevating the prevailing wage for renovation projects to at least $500,000 um right now it's at a $100,000 threshold I don't know the last time it's been um elevated V prob I don't know four years ago remember that but oh that's new construction right they only raised the new construction to a million they haven't touched the renovation and what we'd love to do is renovate you know do little um you ties in with the HVAC we having an HVAC evaluation done we already have actually a quote but that's a renovation job and you know this is is relevant to us for that just to manage your expectations the current political climate that it's likely too large of an ask to pass right I'm just letting you know this has been on your agenda for years and every year I put it in every we're still talking about it so yeah I I think um it's one of those things where we don't want it forgotten I don't know that it has been forgotten but um but I always tell you where it's at yeah yeah yeah I appreciate you guys being for oh sorry no you're I'm here to listen to you yeah I'm just were we going to cut over to the right to read because I just had one other thing I want wanted to mention before we get to that so yep we're going to go to right to read now for a minute but go ahead yeah no I just I I don't know if this was our opportunity to talk about the few items that justs much shorter this year but the conversation is is longer but I just address things very you know just back to the the start of this conversation which was the right to read and the mandates and so forth um just to clarify my position which is that the State Department of Education certainly has a role to play but I I want to see their role more as an advisory one we got remember that you know we we live in a representative system and you know people are elected to make decisions uh it's the only way our system truly works when you have people that are poed to positions that that cannot be removed you know and can uh hold a lot of power um it's danger I just discourage any um efforts to empower the State Department of Education in ways that make your lives more difficult and you know the thing is the balance of power shifts the balance of power shifts in the Town Country balance of power will eventually shift in the state and in the country um and it should be the elected people that have the chance to make the changes at that time if it's all in the regulatory scheme and the bureaucracy it'll be hard for either party to dig out from changes that the other one made when they were in the power to make that happen um you mentioned the excess cost Grant thing obviously that is a big concern um there's not enough time here to discuss the problems with the way our state budgets money um you listed half a dozen things in this conversation um just since we've been here that the state of Connecticut has promised to towns to constituents uh that they haven't kept um you know the uh the funding for uh School Lunes you know promises made promises not kept um you know the funding for uh the ex excess cost Grant uh and so forth those are just all part of that we've got to make a point of holding our elected officials even if they're in the same party that we uh Define ourselves at we gota we have to hold them just as accountable as we would people in the other party and and I try and do that myself um the labor policy um the prevailing wage issue I happen to be the ranking member of the uh labor committee uh and every year I bring uh a number of the labor issues you've brought to us in the past um uh forward including that prevailing wage issue uh and I've asked my colleagues on this panel to help support me and um I would just encourage them to come back next year uh because we can actually get something like that done if I had some democrat support in that committee and that's what needs to happen Okay but but it would make a big difference uh between you and me representative if I went to Senator Kushner who's the Senate chair of the labor committee and I said I have two Democrats from one of my towns who will support support this initiative even if we moved it a modest amount I think we could get something some inertia going that's all I appreciate the um positivity but I I have to be completely honest knowing the entire caucus and knowing the speaker and knowing the governor and I just don't see it happening and I would love to tell you I'll be your biggest cheerleader with the largest pom poms in the place but I'm also going to always be honest and serious that I do not believe there will be any movement the only thing I'll add to that is if we come as a force it may not happen but if we're all on the same page and we all come through at least we're working for you because that's our job I would encourage matters we don't know if we don't try we have not tried okay Leslie and I have put the bill in every year I'm not trying to call out my colleagues here but it's not a matter of just the other legislators we need somebody you know um if the the municipality is asking us for something I believe it's our obligation to try and carry that water and I do it every time um and that's it I just want to make one final comment about the the agenda I noticed that Juvenile Justice Reform which is something that I think is still a major issue and something that's been on your uh agenda the last several times I was just curious why it was missing but this is the Board of Ed not the Town Council so they don't really get involved in that and well okay um point taken although I do think that uh it's a factor when you're talking about Juvenile Justice um and the fact that um you know we're witnessing uh greater crimes at younger ages and it's certainly impacting the school system in numerous ways um but I since it's not on the agenda we won't talk about it tonight but I just do think it's something that is worth discussing uh down the road that's all and just a final comment about all of this which is I encourage you to track US I mean you guys know what you want to see from policy please follow what we're doing know that our rhetoric matches our actions um it's very very important to me it's one of the great frustrations I have is that I um people say a lot of things but when it comes to actually doing them that's a big difference all right with um that I know we have a number of comments can can we just hit the right to read and then close the whole story at the end um and unfortunately because we're having some technical issues can uh I asked that the board move down behind the the tables there so you can actually see the present thank you sorry for the inconvenience yes we got front row [Music] seats you know as I mentioned at the uh beginning that you know I appreciate that members of the delegation probably have a much better sense of what's going on but you know for the benefit of anybody who may be watching is well I just

has been adopted public comments and agenda items are there any public comments at this time okay seeing none we will move forward to review and discussion uh item a budget stabilization update Dr Fus thank you so much trusty s voson this evening we're gathered here today to take a look at the recent updates for our budget stabilization committee our committee has been working um very diligently in reviewing our budget and considering different options uh for the board in terms of meeting our $6 million resolution for reduction uh to put into place for our first interim budget for coming our next upcoming meeting so with that I'm going to hand it over to our assistant superintendent of business Kevin Franklin so he can provide more context for the meeting and introduce our budget stabilization committee facilitators all right good evening um so uh our two facilitators who have led the committee um are Craig mccalpin and Michael Taylor Craig's been um with the committee for the entire um time since the the creation of the committee and then Michael joined about halfway through um earlier this year so both Craig and Michael will be presenting the results and Josh and I will be here to answer any detailed questions about any of the financial data all set okay well good evening Board of Trustees superintendent Fuentes uh other employees of the district community staff everybody who's joining us T night remotely just would like to First actually say happy holidays to everyone uh it feels like the holiday is coming in on the rain so coming from Southern California it was nice to see uh things a little different up here um I grew up in the Bay area so I do always like to come back but uh just want to thank you um and uh thank you for having the time for us tonight to kind of share um what we've been going through for the last uh I think it was May of 2022 is when the committee was first formed so we've uh been meeting together a handful of times and uh tonight we just wanted to kind of come up with an update and kind of share with you um the recommendations that have been made by the committee so to get started I think I have the clicker here maybe there we go so to start the so start the presentation tonight we'd like to start with the agenda we're going to have uh kind of four main points that we uh put on the agenda for this evening the first one will be the budget stabilization committee what we'd like to do is just kind of share with you briefly the purpose the history the rules some of the steps we've went through just as a committee the second one will be the challenge which essentially is kind of why are we here why are we at this point tonight is what we want to do is some of the main um parts of this will be the recap the Santa Clara County Office of Education letter and then talk about some of the structural issues that have brought us to where we are again tonight today with this challenge which is the declining enrollment the structural deficit the overall structural deficit is a fancy way of saying if you will a deficit that's been ongoing instead of just kind of a a one time or a short time that structure deficit means a deficit has been kind of ongoing for years and then lastly talk about the covid money and how that has played into the district and the and the multier projection the myp and then the the most important this really is is students right at the end of the day why are we all here is students and so what we really want to also focus on is what is this going to what is the impact to the student learning experience at beresa going to be because of all these all these U monetary issues that we're going to be discussing then the third part will be kind of the main part of this presentation some of these at the beginning just because of nence of time and it's holidays and I know everybody's very busy we'll try to go through some of these a little quick so please raise your hand if you do want me to slow down but some of this stuff is more of a history part maybe we'll try to go through that a little quicker so we can more focus on the number three which again is talking about the pros and cons recommendations so I want to make sure we have the time uh for that part of the the main part of the presentation tonight and then finish with the next steps will be the last part okay so the purpose in the history again um this is kind of what is a purpose and again the budget um the BC the budget stabilization committee is an advisory capacity only again we were brought together to advise overall what's going and so part of this um is the understanding of the budget development and I I I want to share that Connor who's on the teamsters it really warned my heart I have to be honest about two meetings ago he he used the term structural deficit in the middle of all these conversation it just I think both Michael and I felt good even Josh and Kevin as well of hey we are really starting to discuss this and it's really maybe sinking in in terms of some of the issues that we're talking about so I know that made us all feel good in terms of uh some of the some of the these tough discussions that we're having but again also part of this is the transparency the involvement the consideration of budget Improvement opportunities when we say budget Improvement opportunities want to focus on that is not only expenditures right that's also the revenue part of bringing in the money to the district and looking at the revenue so just want to make sure that we um focus on not just one versus the other and then the last part again there the committee is why Where We Are Tonight which again is the rec the proposed recommendations to the superintendent and Board of Education and that's where we are tonight but before we go any further I do want to just thank uh personally you know on behalf of Michael and I both um just all the members who were on that budget stabilization committee it is not an easy committee to be on you know you're dealing with with tough subjects you know but I just want to really thank all those folks hopefully they're listening in tonight but just want to thank them uh for their honesty for their discussion for their questions for their their pullback if you will because again some of this stuff is not easy to discuss when it again is going to affect the students of the district and the education so just want to thank all thank all of them and also as well Kevin and Josh have been just uh uh really helpful in terms of you know answering any questions that we have you know we're outside Consultants so we're trying to come in from afar if you will and look at the overall Financial picture of the district but obviously we need to get some information from them so just want to thank them as well for um for for for the information they provided but also there's the local part that we are not part of this District that they really have been provided us so just want to thank them as well and then the history so why are we here so again as we all know and again I'll try to go through these a little quicker so we can focus on the Meat part of this presentation this evening but back in 201920 the Santa Clara County Office of Ed advised uh the district to start looking at budget stabilization plan because they were kind of concerned about the the long-term fiscal picture of the district and so then back in uh 2122 they required uh the board to to adopt a resolution which they which you all did I should say back on June 15 of 2021 to adopt resolution 2013 talking about identifying $6 million in reductions in 2223 and 2324 so again just want to share the quick history for maybe those who are also new to this conversation this evening about where the path has been and where we're going forward and then the the stabilization committee was formed in May of 2022 again I was part of that initial as an outsider to be brought in and part of the reason for the simple real reason for Budget stabilization committee is to just get a lot of stakeholders from the community and have them all brought in so that it's not just maybe one or two people or three people sharing ideas you're getting Buy in from a lot of different folks that are part of this part of this District so it's a great great way to bounce ideas off so again the committee was formed and um we had eight meetings and again um referenced one recently with Connor but had a lot of good meetings started off virtually and then uh it was nice to be able to meet in person I think that also really um generates good conversation when you're able to see people face to face then again as mentioned um myself and Michael Taylor are the two independent consultants and I think uh shouldn't use the word lead I think just facilitate we didn't lead this in terms of lead but it was really facil facilitating the conversation so again um the committee um representa representatives are listed right there and again just want to thank them all for for this uh for this and I think you guys will appreciate in terms of the documentation and the um what we're going to provide tonight the detail and the thought process it went through um again not easy decisions but I think you'll see that a lot of thought was really brought into everything that we're going to be presenting tonight the perceptions so this was um this was just kind of a question we tried to start off the whole part of the budget stabilization committee with and this is kind of like you know the the part about what are we here for what are your budget perceptions what what is kind of the word on the street if you will and so I think it was very interesting you know to see to to kind of hear from folks saying we don't trust it we don't know if the numbers are correct we don't why is there always this Doom and Gloom feeling that's going on so it was just very interesting to kind of hear people's of of feelings about what are the perceptions and and most of them were negative and so that's where our job was what we kind of want to do is start off with kind of budget 101 we're going to start explaining to you some of the parts that bring up the budget we're going to share that with with you as the board in a moment here as well but just kind of hearing those negative perceptions and then number two is just how do we get beyond your budget Perceptions in in terms if they are negative so communication again that's a key part I I know myself and some of the board was as well at the csba Symposium last week um in San Francisco and obviously that's a big part that was brought up in a lot of different semin regardless of what it's about people in the community want to know because it is their students or their or their neighbor kids or whoever it is but the communication is a big part so we've really tried to make sure that we're constantly sharing and communicating the ideas and what's being brought out of those stabilization committees and along with that is just transparency again a very important word and all parts of life but especially in education so especially with dollars and then the ground rules go through these uh just quickly but again we just want to just want to share this with you as well tonight that this was a committee that we you know we don't just kind of show up and talk that we had very specific cific expectations and so these are some of the ground rules that we talked about just one speak at a time um each person has their own views and we have to be respectful of that give everybody a chance to speak you know we ask people sometimes to raise their hand it got a got a little hot a few times but nothing out of control at all but there's a few times we said let's you know take a step back uh because again these are tough topics um so again and just uh gree to make an effort to stay on track ask clarifying questions so again I think we had very communic very good communication throughout the uh the meetings that we had um and again kind of the last to um especially the last one or second to last excuse me each person reserves the right to disagree we all don't have to come there and and and agree with everything but let's at least hear each other out so I think it was very uh open open conversations that we had okay so now we're going to get kind of part of why are we again here tonight what what is the the challenge if you will of why we have a budget stabilization committee for the district so again as mentioned with the Senate clar Office of Ed um a letter that was brought to the board in the superintendent back in August of 28 uh excuse me August 28th to 2023 they gave they were concerned about the financial future of the district in terms of where where the multi-year projection shows that the numbers are going to be going forward and again quickly I know Kevin and Josh had probably talked about this but an myyp is going to focus on the current year that you have which would be the 23 24 school year and then the two out years which are the next two years that are going to be forthcoming uh so they're going to look at that but obviously they're going to have a probably a larger view overall and look at the out years as well past that um so they provided an approval of a conditional approval if you if you remember back to a few months ago and essentially what that means is they're approving your budget if some certain things are met and the first requirement as we noted on the presentation here was to submit an updated NP on October 9th with proposed Revenue increases and expenditure decreases so again that was what was just a simple proposal again nothing was in um in concrete or anything like that at all but that was a proposal and now on the very the last two week put some quotes on there about I continue to have concerns for long-term from health of the district and then the last one is which is truly where we are today by December 15th I'm requesting documentation of and the key word here is detailed detailed board approved stabilization plan so again why we're here tonight so that's what they want to see now what they want to see is the uh the action if you will of proposals now becoming approved um reductions in the budget so does anybody have any questions on on this piece so far okay so this is the the main one of the main reasons why we're here right if everybody looks at this you're going to see a downward slide and this is obviously about enrollment this is how many students are in the district and this is essentially the main reason why we are here tonight because the district has had a decrease since 201617 to 2526 is documented here even went back a few years before that but why we're here today in terms of what needs to be done is an enrollment has dropped but the problem that the district had is that the expenses have not um been reduced to offset these enrollment so the next slide um not to give away what the next slide is going to be I'm sure everybody's looked at it already but you're going to see the same downward slide whereas what you want to see is that almost going flat or up obviously but the point is just simply that reductions in expenditures have not occurred and so that's where they need to follow this enrollment history Trend so just want to um make a few quick points on here and um I'm G to flip to my notes because I want to make sure I say this number correctly if that's okay but on the if you use sorry for this on 2122 if you see at the bottom and then to 2223 you see that the district had 6,258 students enrolled and then the next year it dropped down to 5,940 so just to look at my notes that was a drop of 318 students but just to show the gravity in terms of the dollars and what that does to your budget that and using a round number if you will this is roughly but there's obviously different factors for every student every student has a little bit of different money that they're going to bring but let's just use 12,000 just for conversation sake right now roughly about what you'd get per student that's $ 3.81 million that you lost just in that one year by this decline in students so just W to just want to use that as a a reference to show the gravity of this decline enrollment and the Steep decline that's gone on for years now do want to at least share some overall positive news again I would like to to share that these um the numbers in blue are from I believe that was beginning of October is that correct okay so those were the the calpads or the excuse me the census data for that time period so you can see that you actually had had a little increase the green boxes are represented at un audited actuals that's essentially when you close the books that was toward the the the middle of uh of middle to end of August and then the report was presented to the board in September but what this is showing is that and I apologize the the the red dots went over the top of the numbers but it was projected for this year to be at 5,893 but at that point at the beginning of October it was currently at 673 so that's positive news so don't want everything to be negative tonight but that was at least positive news that there are some kids coming but again the the the caution if you will for right now is just simply it is still December there's still many more months in the school year um and historically there are a lot of Trends sometimes where kids will you maybe not come back from Christmas break or families move so again just want to use that as positive news but that's something to be really obviously watching I know the team here and the team that they have are obviously watching this because this is a huge huge factor in many many decision um so anyway does anybody have any questions on the enrollment history so one thing to note here is uh preco 201920 uh the enrollment was 6,800 and as it came out of covid it uh dropped to 594 and now it's 6,7 so this so the the net preco today is about 8 800 780 students give take and that translates to about eight8 million would I would it probably yeah I don't have the math yeah one year yeah in in you know one question was brought up a lot in the budget stabilization committee meetings is where are the students going and so we did a little bit of analysis to look and one factor I thought that was very interesting is is obviously in this Tech Community that BS is obviously very much located in there are a lot of people that see looks like they're on work visas and maybe those visas are ending or maybe their job went somewhere different but there's a lot of students that fell in that category when we kind of did some analysis to to try to understand because of course and I've gone through it myself my sister-in-law brother-in-law they were probably like many people here moved to Texas you know we've all gone through that um but but an interesting one was just the tech sector jobs that people weren't coming back to this area and going somewhere different so that was a big part of the decline overall but there's obviously numerous factors going to neighboring districts going to private school home school I mean there's there so many so many reasons I have a quick question again can you so you pointed out the 2021 to 2022 and then the to the 2022 to 2023 number can you repeat how many students and how much how many students we lost and how much that is equivalent to in dollars again yeah and again it's not an exact number I was just trying to make a reference of using 12,000 but from 2122 to 2223 it's always hard to say the 20 it was 318 students MH and then at $112,000 per student the loss in Revenue in state aid if you will to the district was $ 3.81 six million 3186 3816 3.8 one6 million yes okay or 3.8 million and I was just using that as a simple just to to try to drive home the point we could obviously do the math on all those and kind of see the change uh but just wanted to show the gravity in terms of what this slide is really representing and so as I mentioned the next slide unfortunately has the same Trend and that's again the real unfortunate big big issue of of kind of why we're here tonight um and you can see it's a structural deficit and so what I'd like to point out as we just look at this slide and kind of let it soak in is if you go back to 1718 it was up at 25% and so this is representing the ending fund balance which is at the top of the screen and so you know what is fund balance and use let's just use our own personal lives right we we have a job we bring in x amount of dollars and then we have all these expenses that we're going to have throughout the month but how does our bank account end at each day or the end of the month that's kind of essentially what the ending fund balance is your revenues minus your expenditures and kind of where you finish off and so what this is talking about is unrestricted dollars that in again back to 1718 it was 2 2.46 and now the concerning part is in 2223 and forward now you're at 3% and why I would just want to bring up 3% right now you've probably I'm sure Kevin and Josh have drilled home this kind of number to in the past but 3% is the reserve for economic uncertainty that districts the size of beresa need to maintain in the state of California so if you go below three that's when all of a sudden more things like the letter from the Santa clar County Office of Ed are going to come come forward and so 3% is just kind of a big deal number if you will in terms of that can allow you um excuse me that's not going to allow you that's I'm trying to think of a better word that going to essentially make the budgets and all the reports be qualified and there's going to be be a lot more um looking at all the numbers and a lot more analysis that's going to be done by the county and potentially by the state as well so just the big concern about this slide again is it's following the same Trend as the enrollment in terms of declining where because what you as I mentioned at the beginning what you'd want to see is as the decline is going on the expenses are going to start um going down because you know you're going to have less students to to sustain all those expenses so the problem is again showing the slide it's going down and now you're at that 3% so this is where again why the letter came from the S clar County Office of Ed and we need to make sure that we get above that because again if one small thing can change that to where all of a sudden you're below the 3% so is anybody have any questions about this this was a lot of time was spent at the budget stabilization committee meetings uh as well because again this is um kind of what kind of what the the number if you will that the gentlemen here have to live by in terms of really kind of focusing on because this is what the multi your projection is really focus on all the time every single year so yes so uh looking at 2020 or 2020 2021 2021 2022 uh there is about A5 million doll drop uh 20 2020 during the time we did get a lot of uh uh onetime dollars and uh uh we were there was no uh Ada U what is it called penalty or anything like that right uh in spite of that we had that that that um that drop whe whether not able to during that same time period but if the if the Ada is uh held true if it's not there's no penalty with um because they didn't do the Ada adjustments right for for one year um so why I'm just I mean I I understand it it'll be uh the number will drop but I'm just curious why it's just such a steep drop yeah so there was the Ada hold harmless but at the same time in 2021 um 2020 2021 to then 2122 there was covid relief but there were there was also a lot of the requirements of you can't reduce the number of Staff you couldn't lay anybody off you had to maintain Staffing levels and then we're also facing requirements of um you know challenges that were things like um virtual you know learning and then returning to the classroom and all of those things and so um we didn't necessarily recognize all of the revenues also back then but we had this deficit spending issue already built into the budget at those same Ada levels prior which is why we got that original letter in 1920 stating that um we needed to start uh developing a stabilization plan at that time so the deficit spending already existed and it continued and was just exacerbated by the pandemic so even though we did get some of those revenues they were restricted in their one time and they were not within the unrestricted side of the general fund we still had um those High expenditures on the unrestricted side and those did continue and as Kevin said um just to kind of piggyback off of that and that's where the term structural deficit comes on this is kind of the slide that drives home the point to that that to that term structural deficit you can see the deficits been continuing and by deficit just meaning the overspending and so it's making the ending fund balance go down year after year after year so you're saying the five million drop from 21 to 22 is mainly due to expenditures that we had to do relating to the pandemic that onetime dollars did not help us with so we had to cut into the ending fund balance is that am I understanding that correctly yeah so we were already deficit spending to the to around the $ four or five million Mark at that time and so those revenues came into the restricted side of the budget and we did have additional expenditures there and we did move some of those expenditures there but there were other things as Craig mentioned as the students Dro we need to reduce expenditures we were already over staffed in Prior years and that and then we had to maintain those Staffing levels so you know we're always kind of playing catchup with um our student um Decline and Ada decline so those in 2122 we should have been making adjustments from the 1819 1920 school year and being overstaffed and then what happened was we were having to stay at the same Staffing levels that were already high and having to continue that while also um paying for additional um additional uh costs due to the pandemic okay I think I'm slightly understanding it but it doesn't correlate this the slope on the enrollment history seems a lot more stable than the ending fund balance history I'm just so intrigued as to why the slope is so much higher between the pandemic and 20 and the following year after that and so is it only because of declining enrollment because if enrollment is kind of like stably I would expect the drop to be from like the 20 22 2022 and 2023 the 318 students that drops be higher than the 20202 2021 do you know you know what I'm saying I'm just trying to figure out like why is that slope higher I I'm just not really understanding yeah so I mean they're not going to always correlate anyway but the other thing that we had too a lot of our we get different amounts of money per student depending on grade level so um at that time we had middle schools that were very large 7800 students and now they're around 600 students and that those large groups that generate higher dollar amounts per student were exiting and then they're being backfilled by students who have a lower uh Revenue dollar amount per student um so that's part of it um and so you're not going to see that exact match and so then we're also having to then make then adjustments to our staffing um and then also in 2122 to 2223 we also had things like um our uh retirement incentive things like that where yes we're going to save money in the future but they're starting to be expenditures um going out as we're having to pay some of those uh retirement incentive costs that's just one example um but that's why also am I missing anything else Josh I think there was um then there's just some of the other factors that are still at play to increased special ed costs things like that special requirements um those all continued to rise inflation um rise and cost gas I remember um just from I think in March 2020 to uh June 2020 I think or was it 2020 I think it was in 2021 and I'm looking over at Dan because Dan had to come over to us and say in within like two or three months they spent double what they normally would spend on our buses and our White Fleet within like a two or three-month period and they had we had to just increase our gas purchase orders and then gas continued to shoot up and we had to then increase so we had we had large increases in those type of expenditures that were unplanned and that you know there's not an amount of students that can make that up and those are just increased costs um but yeah Dan visited Josh and I a few times within like two or three months because of how quickly um those costs were were Rising another big cost just because I thought about it between 1920 2021 and 2122 is a liability insurance has gone up I think over 500,000 so it's liability insurance The increased inflation and then middle schoolers also graduating out so that's why there a lot of those are just some of the factors different factors okay thank you okay move on to the next slot oops oh here we go so this is um one slide and let me go back just one quick second I just want to make a quick Point as we move forward on our presentation we will see this slide again in a moment and what this is going to do we're going to see different numbers toward the last three years um Mr Taylor is going to make a presentation about some of the recommendations and how those will affect what the numbers look like so just want to share that we're going to see this slide again then the next one I'll show um just kind of briefly here and then the next slide as well so I just want to make a quick point to tell you guys the next three slides we'll see again but the numbers are going to look different uh but with this slide just um this is one that actually has the restricted so the number that's obviously jumping at everyone when you look here is that 12 uh point is that six I have glasses on I can't even see it 12.6 million and what that is representing is the restricted dollars and the main piece of that was covid and the reason we're just simply bringing this up and obviously we want to share it here as well but in some ways for a lot of districts um I was going to say in California but I think Nationwide our company's working with some districts outside of California that covid kind of put an umbrella over some of the expenditure issues going on and everything looked good if that's a simple way to say it kind of a layman terms way of saying it but it's because there was all this money so maybe weren't having to deal with some of the issues in terms of like hey we got to look at some of these Cuts we need to look at some of these issues that are causing us to have a structure deficit covid kind of masked that and so I just we just wanted to make a quick point today just to show you how big that number was for your District also within that is some of the new restricted um programs that have come out recently as well so I don't want to say that that number is 100% covid but there's elop um art music has come about now so there's some new restricted programs have come about but just wanted to show you the gravity of what Co the dollar amount that your district and so many other districts got in the state of California and then the the last slide before we move on to the to the next part of of the presentation the recommendations and this is the deficit spending I know Kevin just mentioned the term deficit spending what this is doing is showing is obviously the black line across the top there if you will is um zero everything in red is where the district you know it's it's kind of like if you know if Grandma gives you a dollar and then you go buy a candy bar it's a125 well maybe you got got a quarter from your friend or somebody else that's kind of defit spending you really only had a dollar but you spent more than it was that's essentially what's going on here and this is showing that we went back at 1718 for this slide that it's the district has had continual years of defit spending again this is part of that structural deficit term that we've used and then recently it does show and and Kevin if you want to expound on that at all just because there is positive news if you will on that last year but again that's barely above the line that's not necessarily ending the structural deficit by any means um and so if you want to expound on that just since yeah and so then just to also that as Josh reminded me too one of the one of the main reasons too that you can see here the 2122 which correlates with the ending fund balance is um we had salary settlements also that were 4% and then I think even our our off schedule got paid out in that following year so the salary settlement cost over $3 million for that year as well so that's part of that increase in the deficit spending on the unrestricted general fund side um and then what you can see here too is that we had deficit spending projected um for this current year the next year and then a slight positive and that's because we're trying to incorporate reductions uh due to the declining enrollment um and adjusting for Ada and then we also had the adjustment for uh the increase in students that Craig mentioned earlier so we had that increase we recognized that when we submitted our multi-year projection back in October to the county um to get the actual budget approval as part of what the condition was for their budget approval and so with that led to higher Revenue in the out years and so that that ended up um taking us into the positive in the third year so um the increase in students this year is great but it doesn't really bring any actual additional Revenue this year um because we're were funded based off of a rolling average of our prior three years so um unless you have a current year Ada that's higher than that average so yes we do have more students this year we'll probably get a little bit more supplemental income uh supplemental revenue for those students um but as far as lcff dollars there's no increase this year that increases realized in the next two years so you know that's kind of a good thing and a bad thing because you have an influx like we do this of TK students but we don't get um recognition for those students and the increased cost that's associated with them until the following year so hopefully that makes sense okay well anyway I'm gonna um introduce Mr Taylor thank you um for the time I might jump back up as well but just want to say these are tough decisions to make um myself and both Mr Taylor have been cbos for years at districts and we've gone through a lot of the same stuff so um I do appreciate the the format that the superintendent set up for the budget stabilization I think that was very wise to just have again that transparency in a lot of different stakeholders inolved so I think that was really a um a lot of good conversation came about so from that we'll kind of talk about the recommendations so I'll let Mr Taylor have the podium well thank you correct good evening ladies and gentlemen um what I'd like to do before we head into the next set of slides is to provide a little more context based on what you just heard Craig has done a very nice job in kind of setting the stage as to where the district has been and also the challenges that the district will continue to face if some hard decisions are not made so let's start with the context I'm adding a little bit more context let's talk about covid Co has had a tremendous effect on school districts even now that were past covid as I want to say your name member board member Joe H hog yeah so your point about the significant decrease in that one year and then in the next year you see a spike in the restricted column and that's because of a huge influx of covid dollars so covid dollars kind of came in the trickled in at the very beginning during the pandemic and then there was a massive infusion of dollars to districts so that could be a one of the reasons that you see that huge decrease because districts had to buy PPE right away and all those covid dollars didn't show up just in one day it took some time for those covid dollars to actually come in so there were two factors one covid and the impact on School District as far as additional expenditures second declining enrollment as Craig mentioned the district has been losing kids for a number of years and you've been losing millions of dollars in revenue for a number of years and when you have a healthy ending balance you can absorb that but you can only absorb it for so long because that ending balance at one point will run out it will run out the other thing I want to commend you all for usually when we give these kinds of presentations people have math anxiety because we show a lot of numbers we show a lot of graphs and I got to say you guys are doing a really good job in keeping up and asking some really good questions so let me see if I can get this going recommendations so a big shout out to the committee we had some passionate conversations and I want to use the word passion because there were some passionate conversations about some of these issues this is aough tough subject a lot of different opinions a lot of different viewpoints but that's good for the conversation and these recommendations that you're about to see are result of those tough conversations those different perspectives coming to the table and not having two or three people sitting in a smoke filled room and coming up with the grand plan the budget stabilization committee was a collaborative effort we're all voice were allowed to be heard so recommendations and I'm going to go through each one of these separately and right now you see a blank slate moving forward well let me just explained the green those are Revenue recommendations renting leasing District property selling District property and the yellow are expenditure reductions and we're going to go go through each one of them separately and talk about the pros and cons for each one of them and allow you to have to ask questions about every one of them so one of the questions we were asked well when is this funding for these recommendations when would the district be able to use that funding in the first year this year not going to see any funding from any of these initiatives because we're already into the fiscal year and selling District property is a long process consolidating and merging schools is a long process Staffing reductions and we're going to talk about that in just a few minutes that's a process that doesn't happen in a couple weeks doesn't happen in a couple of months and a supplemental early retirement program again it's a process does not happen in a couple of months so the first year the year that we're in now you're not going to see any any funding drop to the bottom line now that changes when we get to next year where we see we have the potential of about four and a half million dollar being available to the district to address its budget and fiscal challenges item number one renting and leasing empty sites or classrooms a possibility we estimate about 76,000 but it could be higher it could be less and it's not guaranteed and again we're going to talk about them individually next year in 25 the following in 2526 selling District property is probably the big ticket item and during the committee when we talked about this a lot of the members said Craig and Michael $42.5 million we done let's go home not so fast not so fast and we're going to talk about this in detail consolidating emerging schools if you have declining enrollment do you have excess capacity at your sites and the answer is probably yes do you have do you have a school as an example that has a capacity of 800 but only 350 kids in them and is that an adequate utilization of your school district facility it's a rhetorical question but I think this is an area where the district could realize some savings some potential savings and we're going to talk about this in detail also item number four and this was a very contentious issue within the committee very difficult because you're talking about people's lives you're talking about their income so we spent a lot of time talking about this but the challenge here is when you have declining enrollment and you're losing millions of dollars and your expenditures are not being reduced correspondingly that's going to catch up to you and that's where we are the declining enrollment the loss of millions of dollars in revenue and expenditure staying relatively constant has caught up to the district and as Craig mentioned the covid dollars helped mass that because that infusion of millions of dollars but those are one-time dollars and they will run out in fact eser 3 will run out in September of 24 so again just providing that context so you fully understand the gravity of the the situation item number five supplemental early retirement program a lot of districts use this as a method to have people retire and we give them an incentive to retire I think based on Kevin I think you've all have done a a supplemental early retirement program about two or three years ago so I'm not sure if you when you run the numbers there's usually uh a technical term is scanogram how many people are eligible to retire and if the number isn't big enough the program doesn't pencil out the financials do not pencil out and right now it was brought up as a recommendation but it's probably based on preliminary data it's probably not going to pencil out so again these are the initiatives and also when you could expect to see the benefits I.E the fin financials or the dollars associated with each of those benefits in each year so I want to come to a full stop I know I've just presented you with some information there's more to come any questions Sir with the supplemental early retirement program if it does materialize there is a cost involved um to have those uh employees retire so does that offset some of the other that would I would imagine it will offset some of the other costs savings that that we might have so as a rule of thumb supplemental early retirement plans the way districts essentially derive savings by is getting a large number of teachers to retire but districts are usually always forced to also offer the supplemental early retirement program to classify people and because certificated salaries tend to be higher that's where districts can actually realize some savings and districts realize Savings in either not backfilling those positions when people retire or they bring in a relatively younger teacher at a lower salary and the districts realize the Savings in that increment the more I would say mature teacher is probably at the far end of the salary schedule you bring in a younger teacher and you have a salary differential so there are two ways to derive savings the salary differential or not backfilling positions so hence you a question if it does if you have enough people specifically certificated a Ser could work and it also depends what kind of incentive you give of them if you give them 50% of the salary 60 70 I've seen districts give 80 to 90% and those are some very healthy retirement incentives so um any other any other questions will you be going over how you got the numbers like the 756k and the 42.5 million later um yeah and I think we we we did some prelim we don't have the actual calculations but we did preliminary calculations for each one of them and so um so we're not going to go through the exact calculation no okay but we can provide that information on how those numbers were derived yeah would be useful for later thank you any other questions okay now for those of you who have math anxiety we're going to talk about numbers so you just saw as Craig presented a similar slide there are two fundamental changes well actually one what one of the the important changes here is unaudited actuals the District closed its books for last year and was able to realize an increases in its ending balance which means that the beginning balance for this year was a little higher I think it was about 427,000 or thereabouts so that helped the second thing and in yellow below at the very bottom of the slide you see the budget stabilization committee recommendations of three and four let me go back consolidating and merging schools and Staffing reductions are included in these numbers and as you can see the district's Financial picture improves let me just give you again a little bit more context when you look at the very have a when you look at the far end of the of the graph when you see the look at the far end of the graph and you see this trajectory downward you see that the district has an ending fund balance of above 3% which is fine as Craig mentioned the state requires that a district of this size have an ending fund balance or at least 3% set aside for economic uncertainties you've come down from 22% on average elementary school districts in the state of California are around 20% on average you're now around just above 3% you're hovering above 3% so you're very close you're just barely being able to meet your financial requirements now this includes the Staffing reductions and also the school consolidation initiative so the financial picture gets a little bit better let me just offer again the similar Slide the same slide but also includ cluding the restricted dollars and that big blip that big spike those are the co dollars and I think the district is just about out as as far as Co dollars are concerned and so again those those covid dollars a lot of most districts in the state of California received a lot of covid dollars and we're able to use those covid dollars I think it's also important to realize that with those covid dollars there was a lot of flexibility the question that we got all the time was Michael can we use it for X can we use it for y well the language is kind of it's not very clear and that was on purpose to give districts as much flexibility with using this funding and dealing with the pandemic so again the district's financial situation has gotten better specifically because of recommendations number three and four and the deficit spending has also slightly improved and again if I could direct your attention to the very far right instead of one small green bar now we've got two and so again because of these recommendations the district's Financial picture has gotten better again structural deficit we're still projecting a structural deficit for this year but moving out into the out years it looks better again with these recommendations um I just want to we're going to get into each one of the initiatives but there's some important information that you all need to be aware of if if you're already not aware of it we just recently learned from the legislative affairs office the Lao that the projected Cola for next year is going to be an anemic 1% I'm sorry it's 1.27% let me repeat that one a cola of [Music] 1.27% your fixed costs your steping column the cost for utilities that's a lot higher than 1.27% so that's what's on the horizon the other major initiative the state of California delayed collecting tax receipts from April through November estimated tax P receipts projections are down $26 million billion I'm sorry billion billion those are two major initiatives that we don't really have any answers for yet and we're just dealing with our current situation with a one% cola and we had for next year we had I think 3.9% in the budget or in the multi-year projections how is the district going to address that what's the state going to do with a 26 billion dollar shortfall in Revenue receipts we don't know yet we'll have to wait until the governor comes out with his January budget proposal so before we get into the individual initiatives any questions okay renting leasing District property the pros and I was made aware I did not know this that pros and cons do not have apostrophes and have always used apostrophes so thank you Bara for reminding us of that or allowing us to make that grammatical adjustment so renting leasing District Property Pros as was seen in the in the slide before the previous slide estimating about $756,000 now it could be higher it could be lower but there are no guarantees here it would essentially establish a regular income stream and IT addresses the structural deficit problem con limited funding outside entities on School District property getting comfortable with change and again there are no guarantees um potential available sites at the very bottom Birchwood former district office existing classroom space so just wanted to highlight that and then so I'll just kind of add on since I know that you had the question about how did we arrive at some of these numbers so what this particular dollar amount is is the projected Revenue if the pedmont road district office is rented out it's currently up for lease there's an RFP out and so that's how we derived that figure um Birchwood is currently um under a lease agreement but of course things can always change there's limited term to that lease and so there's always potential with that particular site as well so I just wanted to bring that up um to help clarify where those numbers came from and just for further clarification the dollars from the Birchwood lease agreement is not part of the 756 because it's already a component of our existing Revenue correct and because we've had the peont road uh office um listed for leasee and there had been interest at various uh points in time uh this dollar amount has already been included in our multi-year projection so the change that would come about from the leasing of that property would be if we leased it and we going to receive more revenue or if we were going to receive Revenue at a at an earlier date um you know or if we leas at a higher amount per square foot um that dollar amount was also generated from I believe leasing it at um uh us still utilizing a portion of the site and um we are now going to lease the entire the entirety of the site so that number could go up um but again that's all just based on the lease terms um if and when we do have a tenant and so that's why it's not in the current year it's in the the two out years um and then of course leasing of any of the other sites or additional classroom space would generate dollars over and above that dollar amount but just to be conservative we we did not project anything higher than what was currently out in an RFP right now it also does not include the potential of leasing out the group of Portables at Birchwood um that's in the currently Le agreement with mil pedus Christian [Music] School was land leasing considered in rental property or was it only for existing facilities so with this this was for we didn't have a lot of discussion about land lease but what I can tell you from the research that I've done with uh a land lease the site that would be um the one site that would have potential for a land lease would be the Pont road district office property versus either Birchwood or um Commodore um which would be um the vacant site that we have over kind of in the Vincy Park area um and the reason being is that typically you have um you know commercial properties that are interested in the long-term land lease or apartment complex um and I don't think that either Birchwood or Commodore would be a viable apartment complex or or commercial type site um but the pedmont road location potentially could be um so there would be that potential but that was not discussed in detail with the with the committee they didn't bring that up it was more of leasing out current facilities um or the selling of property which is on the next uh slide sell a sale of District property we had a lot of conversation about this and at the very bottom potential sides Birchwood former district office and commodore projected revenue from a sale almost $43 million part of the pros is less property to maintain reduce Insurance liability the challenge here as we get over into the cons as we look at a structural deficit 42 and a half million dollars is a lot of is a lot of money however it's onetime money and it really does not address the district's structural deficit issue so even though it's a large sum it's onetime money and we all know one-time money if you keep using it at some point it will run out so potential 711 committee not that that's necessarily a bad thing but it's a process but since these were not from what I understand these these these uh these properties were not used for educational purposes or at some point there was a waiver that was extended correct so the pedmont road office and commodore have never been used for anything um other than their original intent which was an office or vacant uh land uh the Birchwood site was previously used as a school and that's why milp Christian School is leasing that property but it was surplused in 1984 and so I don't believe it would need to be surplused again and so since that property had been surplused uh we would not be required to go through the process and so as we continue to look at the cons what are the legal implications from what I understand the city of San Jose has some specific parameters as to what who owns the property and again Kevin if you could just elaborate on that I can go ahead and elaborate on that so just knowing that um the city does have their Ur you know their large Urban PL in um vision and so any uh change in zoning of properties that we would want to do in order to match uh a potential buyer would have to go through the city of San Jose uh permit process uh currently if that intent is not in alignment with the city of San Jose's urban planning Vision it has potential to not be approved and then also since this would be a process the earliest you could probably see the funds would be 25 26 so that's a ways out Michael can you also please clarify um when you sell property uh the usage of that funds are there limitations for example yes so getting back to number two legal implications so it's not necessar it's not necessarily true that just because you sell District property that it all goes to the general fund there are strict guidelines established in Ed code as to how much of that funding from the sale of surplus property can be used in the general fund so those are also some of the limitations associated with the sale of District property now could you use it for some major deferred maintenance kinds of issues yes but to Mo to transfer all into the general fund there are there very specific limitations on how much can be transferred Kevin I don't know if you w to yeah and so there are some um legislative flexibilities right now that um allow for a broader use within the general fund those um uh those do expire though June 30th 2024 and so my understanding is that for you to be able to have that broader use within the general fund you have to be under contract with um whoever you're selling the property to by that time frame you don't have to have completed the sale but have to be in agreement with that and then even after that there's a process like Michael mentioned so even though you have allowable use within the general fund you can only use it for one-time expenditures and those expenditures have to be approved by the state allocation board so you have to come up with a plan of expenditure submit to to the state allocation board for approval and then they will uh approve that usage or disapprove the usage within the general fund um so that could help alleviate some of the strain on the general fund and some of that deficit spending but again it has to be approved by another entity and can only be used for one-time expenditures so they couldn't be used for ongoing salaries but it could be used for other one-time costs within the general fund so is there a is there a percentage U of that is assigned that we can use in the general funds for salaries and things like that so with that flexibility no but um but I don't know what the parameters would be that the state allocation board is looking for for allowable use and of course you only have a certain amount of of one-time type expenditures within the general fund so being that you know over 90% of our general fund expenditures currently are for salaries and benefits those are ongoing costs that are not one time in nature so that in and of itself limits the amount that can be spent for one-time purposes that doesn't mean that you can't set dollars aside so I believe New Haven um utilized this flexibility many years ago the only other time that I'm aware of that this um this provision within the Ed code was uh flexible uh to allow this and what New Haven did was they set aside a certain amount of the property sale um as reserves um that they will not touch to always maintain fiscal solvency within the district and then they had some other um one-time retirement costs that um they put in their plan uh for expenditure and then some other Capital facilities projects and things of that nature but they did use a portion of it as a one-time um kind of payment into the general fund to set aside for um economic uncertainty and that was allowed at that time of the state allocation board how long ago was this case New Haven I want to say it was more than 10 years ago but you could still find it on their website they still have that there they still have the FAQs about the process they went through and then how much was set aside at that time with the provisions that New Haven had still even apply if it was a decade ago yes because it was the same when they brought on the new this flexibility that was enacted I think two years ago for property sale um it's the same Provisions so it's the same rules and requirements and I think historically if we could point to New Haven's case if that was something that we as a district wanted to do I think we would have a strong case with the All State allocation board to approve a plan similar in nature I I would just add that there's probably if the district does decide to pursue this particular initiative that it's very important that you all get a legal opinion because of the different all of the different possibil ities and that you stay within Education Code government code as it relates to this particular issue any other questions on the sale of District property so I have a very specific question and I apologize it's a very specific question for various commodor property um so there there is a lot of incentive right now uh with the under the the inflation reduction act for school districts to build um to lease land for EV charging uh stations uh and there's like deep discounts for for school districts or tax credits for them to bring up EV charging stations I think the Comal property like it's it's right in the middle of the neighborhood it's a open next to a park there's nothing going on there that could be a prime location for something like that if uh if you want to look at something that yeah that was something that that we did internally discussed I've had some of those discussions with staff um a lot of it is is paying for that onetime upfront cost um and then how do we maintain that how do we staff something like that but you know if that is kind of the next question is if you know property sale is not something that that the board wants to do um we need to look at other Revenue generating ideas for the property um a lot of the ideas that we have unfortunately come with a lot of upfront cost and a long uh time to recoup those costs but uh we did look into um we did start to look into the charging stations um we were looking at some of the portable ones um but a lot of that is just infrastructure um there's no infrastructure there right now and so that would all have to be installed that would all have to be uh paid for UPF front and so that is something that we could take a deeper dive look into if that's um if that's what the board would like us to do for that potential property um and so then I will mention that the $42 and a half million dollar that you see on here under the pros um that is kind of derived from what either the Commodore or Birchwood properties would net as a uh property sale just using comps for about a 10 Acre Site um in the area um of course if it was the pedmont road office um space that's um that's a lot less acreage I think it's around three or four acres versus 10 so that would not net that much um Revenue um but those two sites just because those are the larger sites um that was the number that was used and specifically because the committee had um been talking specifically about the commod property that was why that dollar amount was um utilized for for this plan 10 acres or 9.9 yes it's for the whole property including the fields except after I think either 4 or 5: PM and then the fields are um utilized by the district um but again because this is a long process miled Christian's lease expires in a little over two years um I don't know that that would prohibit us from um being able to uh look into selling of that property if that's the direction that's given um I think there's also um less strict optout or termination language within our lease with them um with the least extension that we gave previously it was having to give a three-year um heads up um or three-year notice for them I don't believe that the language is um is that long anymore so um but again the process is a long process it would probably take one to two years um to sell that particular site we would have to rezone that site that's site I think is either is zoned agricultural just like uh the district office property so it would be a long process where I believe mil petus Christian could probably stay at the site for the entirety of the lease I kind of like the idea of doing something with the Commodore property not necessarily selling it what are the options there um you know to keep it but yet generate some revenue from there such as the like charging station idea how about like you know sports facilities or something like that that could be rented out right so sports facilities we talked about especially when we were talking about the purchase or the remodel of the former district office property um and what that would entail and I and I think we even had run a scenario where Sometimes some of the developers would come in and say we'll do this and and we can maybe help develop a site like that we didn't get any um interest on that we we had the idea of sports properties um the cost to put in a sports property on on around 10 acres would be relatively High and the amount of Revenue that would come in from leasing out property for sports um it would take a long time to net um positive um gains out of that um but that is something that we we had thought about um the other thing that we had thought about besides um the charging stations we thought of storage facility um I know that it was even brought to our attention that there's a high demand for boat storage um again I don't know that the community in that area would want something like that um so we have ideas um it's just you know then do we want to uh how how much do we want to look into them and and are they realistic in uh bringing in uh positive revenue for the district yeah and these are you know more long-term things but you know like Commodore perhaps and you know and we don't have to sell the whole property right so for Commodore or for birwood if we were to decide to sell one of those it could be half of that a third of that and it could still a developer could still do something correct you know maybe build some homes or something like that yeah and that that goes for all of our properties so not even just those ones that are vacant or that are under lease uh some of our properties have a lot more field than than what um our schools currently utilize or they just have areas of um just dead grass or weeds um that just aren't utilized At All by the schools so that could be analyzed for all of our properties as well yeah actually that's a pretty good idea so not just you know the vacant Properties or properties we aren't using but there might be school sites that have extra land especially you know the ones that where the enrollment is kind of low um and I don't know if there's a requirement for a certain am number of students or just for a School site in general if there's a a requirement um but maybe you know at least selling bits just bits here and bits there could could get us there and it' be a whole lot easier than selling like say 10 acres right I think the key to to remember with the selling off of a piece of property is the length of time that it would take for us to do that analysis or to have a real estate consultant do that and then actually have that listed and go through all the legal um items that we'd have to go to go through to sell off a piece of that land to realize the actual general fund um flexibility that would have to be done in the next six months um so I'm not sure about the feasibility of that these were highlighted because these are already Surplus properties uh with the district so the requirements that we do it within the next six months that is only to meet the current flexible legislation change that current exist without that flexibility though that Revenue could be placed where only Capital facilities projects or um maintenance right I mean but that's as that money could go to that but then the savings there from that from those revenues could be used for other things now right so most of our capital projects are all gone are all done through the bond not through the general fund so we don't have any how about like maintenance and stuff like that it can't be used for routine restricted maintenance so it wouldn't be able to be used for our daily um maintenance issues that we have it has to be for actual Capital facilities um projects okay and you're saying six months because of the June 30th expiration of that flexibility law essentially now if that gets extended I don't know if it will if it does um that's why it's good to have these conversations because if there is that if they do extend that flexibility um then it's good to know and we can we can continue to look into some of these ideas the extended flexibility is that from a state Bill and it just has a Sunset date yes is any do do we happen to know any legislators who may be working on a bill to extend that is that I haven't heard anything about advocacy towards that that some I've been mentioning in my meetings because we're not a district alone that could benefit from having that particular um language being extended past June so it's not a priority of like csba AXA no I have not seen it on anyone's list formal listing yet but a lot of those platforms are being developed right now and that's not to say that with a lot of the talk about school consolidation that it can't be brought back so as more schools have unused uh School sites due to the fact that enrollment is declining um throughout California um it could definitely be brought back um but I haven't heard anything what's the ACT call or the law that's on setting I have to go and look up the exact one but I can get that for you yeah yes please we can ask people in the legislature yes so the 42.5 is that the the net cost or the net um say revenues from potential sale of all three sites or just two or no just one one one 10 Acre Site oh one 10 Acre Site how much is one acre so I guess it' be four about $4 million yes so if we were to say you know like one acre at the Birchwood C campus or something like that yeah so former district office property on pount road would be about 10 to 12 million okay but we wouldn't have to sell so I mean I'm just saying we don't have to sell the whole property we can because I'm not a fan of getting rid of property because we don't I mean first of all it's you know it's an investment to have properties with the price of real estate the way you know the direction it's headed and then we don't know the needs of the The District in the future right I mean we're looking now we're looking five maybe even 10 years down the line to 20 30 years um you know land's going to be much more scarce population are going to be higher so the district might need then but you know I think that if we have a 10 Acre Site maybe you know being able to sell one acre um and we have you know a couple of properties that are like that it's two acres Etc and that was something that the that the committee did talk about and um and so um I think when we get to the next one and talk about uh School consolidation that's where the committee was then more open to the the sale of a whole um site like Commodore because if we do consolidate or merge schools then there would be a vacant site um then available as well and that we would have then unused property so if there was growth um in the future they were they were um satisfied with knowing that there was still a a property that uh we could utilize again as a School site so um that's kind of some of the discussion the committee had Is it feasible to sell something or like get that agreement within that six-month period though like is that some like a Poss have we done that before in the past or like is there history that school districts are able to get an agreement within that six months so that's a good question I did talk to our really real estate consultant about that um you know if we had things in place um which some of the sites do some of them already have a waiver Birchwood and the the the pedmont road property have waivers already it's um it is feasible it's it comes down to the city of San Jose and and and is it part of that plan or not and can we can we do that and come into contract the developer so when I talk to real estate consultant um there's current uh Pleasant and UniFi is currently going went through the same same thing and they were going to sell a property one of them was a 10 Acre Site similar to Commodore and they got under contract within um two and a half months and they had they put out an RFP and they had uh six developers bid on the RFP thank you so the district wouldn't have to do any kind of uh rezoning or anything that's something so say the the former district office site has it's I think agriculture right so the developer potential developer would then purchase side and they take care of everything that's actually contingent so that that offer for sale um is contingent on that resoning happening to their favor so that's sort of the holdup of what's happening in Oak Grove School District right now right Commodore is currently zoned residential right and so that's the only one of those three sites that's residential um at the moment right okay any other questions on the sale of District property so as you can see a lot of moving Parts a lot of legislation involved a lot of parameters um this legislation the way it currently stands is about to the flexibility as was mentioned earlier is about to expire could the district maybe take advantage of that six-month period possibly um but it's a process to sale of District property and um I think this is a good segue into the next issue consolidating and merging of schools and Michael before you go on I'm just gonna add to the board that uh this evening because of the six-month time frame that we have with this legislative piece we are interested in getting feedback from the board regarding sale of District property Andor any of these ideas you've had regarding land lease and and um specialized projects on the vacant land that we have at the Commodore that we get feedback this evening so that we can then move ahead and reach out to other Specialists to be able to bring those um potential opportunities back to the board okay so I just want I know you're hearing a lot of information so I want you to let that resonate before we go into the next area because we we will be seeking Direction at the end consolidating and the merging of schools again this is a a result of declining enrollment as I mentioned earlier this is not unique to beresa a lot of school districts within the state of California have experienced declining enrollment and so they're faced with a situation where they have excess capacity at their schools as I mentioned earlier a school with a capacity of 800 might only have 350 kids is that the adequate utilization of that school facility space most likely not but a lot of districts are looking at this and had the opportunity I think well I saw you all at the csba conference last week in San Francisco at a one of the breakout session centered around school consolidation School closure and I think they had six breakout sessions and I had an opportunity to go to maybe four of them so this is a Hot Topic a lot of districts are wrestling with what to do with this excess capacity at their sites generated by declining enrollment so we did take a stab at this and had I would say a robust conversation about school consolidation School mergers and so looking at the pros uh reduced number of combination classes opportunity for Teacher collab ation improv differentiated instruction so one of the questions that I asked one of the panel members at the csba conference do you have any data any metrics to support that the consolidation or the merger of schools actually helps with student achievement and the answer was we don't most the consensus is that the that the inform that the that the um that the results are mixed at this point but you do have the opportunity as is outlined on the slide to reduce the number of combination classes the collaboration among teachers would be improved and also the opportunity for differentiated instruction item number two under Pros generates about a million dollars and we do have the calculation for that the specific calculation working with with Kevin uh and also a cost model that we have we've done a few of these ourselves as a firm working with District on consolidating emerging school so we do have a very robust cost model to help us gener uh generate potential savings it would reduce expenditures and keep in mind that when you're consolidating emerging schools you're probably going to have some redundant positions do you necessarily need two principles do you need eight custodians so those are some of the tough questions that you have to a uh uh answer it allows for the repurposing of schools ensures efficient use of District uh um facility assets and it allows you to look not just at one or two schools an initiative like this allows you to look at the entire District we're working with a district now where we're looking at the entire district and looking at where is most of the decline happening and what actually makes sense when it relates to consolidating and merging schools now one of the unintended consequences is when you merge two schools that there's probably going to be a vacant site then the question is District what are you going to do with the vacant site and again that's another process a district that I worked with about three months ago that V one of those vacant sites was going to be turned into a sports facility it was a High School District a lot of Athletics and they needed more space for athletics so one of those vacant sites was going to be turned into a sports facility um IT addresses the structural deficit because you will be reducing your expenditures and again most of the reduction in the expenditures come on the Personnel side now are there some savings on Material supplies operating expenses routine restricted maintenance yes but a majority of the saving come from Personnel reductions now one of the ways that districts can help mitigate that reduction in Personnel is Again by not backfilling retiree positions also not backfilling vacant positions some of the cons staff and students have to move you will have personel reductions because of redundant positions there could be there probably will be some negative Community feedback because this is a very emotional issue people are very passionate about their schools especially neighborhood schools my great great great Granddad went to these schools I dare you these are some of the these are some of the comments that you get and they're real but there's also a financial reality associated with keeping schools like that open we worked with a major large District up in Northern California Elementary School capacity is 600 150 kids in the school you have a lot of excess capacity it can be a lengthy process our recommendation if you decide to pursue this give yourself a long Runway give yourself time do not do this fast think it through have a committee with multiple stakeholders to really talk about all the possibilities communicate to the community get feed back listen listen then communicate some more and if you communicate that's great and you will probably do a nice job in communicating but there will be someone that will say no one told me there will be one or two or three or four no one told me so communication having a a good communication strategy on this particular issue is very important getting comfortable with change and the earliest where the funding would be available 25 26 so that's Downstream but definitely within the realm of the possible so that essentially and then also at the very bottom the node you'd have to set up again it's a process a separate committee to help facilitate this conversation about what's possible so one note about the the fund uh the amount of funds generated from this particular uh recommendation the $977,000 is an average of the an average of the average cost of a middle school and the average cost of an elementary school so it's an average of those two so we we took you know what is operating one of our elementary schools typically cost what is operating one of our middle schools typically cost and we average those out so an elementary schools about $700,000 or so in savings and a middle school is around 1.1 or $1.2 million in potential savings ings so that's where that number was derived from so again this number is is um flexible of course if if this does move forward and it's an elementary school only then the amount uh of savings that it would generate would be less if it's a middle school it would be more if it's both an elementary and a middle school then we would have a significant uh amount more than that um in savings so typically the the process to um from start to finish to close the site School site uh takes like a is that a year that it takes or is it so the process to make the decision on which schools that would be impacted I would say takes anywhere between four to seven months where the committee gets together and then comes up with a number of options presents them to the board you have a number number of community uh meetings to talk about what the committee came up with and then again giving yourself a long Runway give yourself about a year for planning for the closure and also the welcoming school might need some modernization efforts to welcome the new schools from the school that would be essentially closed so a year gives you enough time to do that get the facility the new facility the welcoming facility ready and also get the community as much as you can on board with this change yeah and I think to some of what the committee discussed too is that this is not necessarily black and white that it's this school or this school or it's in a certain fashion so I mean there were other ideas discussed of how can we reconfigure schools is that a K8 is that making you know one of our schools School sites a K8 is it k6 that c certain School sites is it you know there's a lot of options and so those are options that could be discussed that will change those dollar amounts um just dependent on what um what we want to do as a district and so like Michael said there could be some reconfiguring of School site so if if a K8 was something that we wanted to look into then that would you know the site would have to be chosen and then we would have to make adjustments um to that site so if that was taking one of the middle schools for instance and and having that become a c 8 school then of course playgrounds would have to be added classrooms would have to be adjusted to have um kindergarten students and some of the younger age students in restrooms so some of those um are costs that we would have to incur incur uh to do that but those are ideas that the committee um discussed and they know that that's then going to be further discussed by another committee on how to do this process but those are ideas that were discussed uh during this process so one sorry oh go ahead I'll add later yeah so one thing you just mentioned K six uh that's been in my mind for a while but uh I was uh not sure about the logistics of how that would work but anyway my um question is and not to alarm anybody in the room uh if we decide today to close one particular site uh for example uh from today it would take a year give or take to close it site um 2022 23 24 and then we immediately realize the revenue in 25 26 or is it still one more year after that it would be 25 26 so as soon as we're currently in 2324 we would have the process go through and into the 2425 let so let me just add there's three phases to the process and they can vary in terms of time based on the conversations the first phase is going to be the longest because the first phase will be an initial committee that comes together and there's quite extensive research that has to go into this process there's lots of variables that's going to be considered um you know they'll have to look at enrollment of every School site they'll have to look at what are the trends of the incoming Kinder students uh incoming sixth graders for every site uh they'll have to um examine the facilities are the you know what is the condition of the facilities so when we have um you know a vacant site how is that going to be in terms of uh easily accessible for lease or whatever we choose to do with that site right so all of those components this committee will review um they will also uh review traffic patterns you you know safety zones um where do children live in the neighborhood what's their capacity to get to a new school uh the legislature uh passed a recent uh Bill knowing that Statewide California is facing declining students and that school consolidation is going to be something most districts are going to have to address uh there's now an equity analysis that's required to be done by this committee so that's another review process so that phase one is going to be the most extensive then um once that committee uh PR presents to the board different scenarios different configurations that's where the uh programming will also be discussed there right what is that vision for learning environments for our children is it K8 is it k6 what does that look like so all of those topics will be discussed with that committee then once they present that to the board then at that point the board would make the decision you're not making a decision to uh close or consolidate schools tonight we're just looking for direction to commence this acttiv this committee to do this review process and then they will bring that information back to the board and based on those scenarios created by them then the will the board will take action based on that feedback if at that point the board does decide to move forward with saying okay we like you know when one or two of these scenarios the committee has provided and it does involve you know School consolidation or merger or creation of a new type of school then um we'll go into the board will take action to approve that recommendation then we go into phase two phase two now is another committee which is the 711 committee which now has to uh there's lots of Regulation State regulation that that group will need to adhere to to determine what do we now do now that we know which sites will be available for potential lease or sale that committee will do a review process of that and bring that recommendation back to the board and simultaneously I would recommend we'd have another committee over here on the side that is also working on transition of those students to their new locations because you want to make sure that there's planning for that in terms of addressing the needs of those families of those students of the staff how to welcome them into you know a new school site so so that would be another planning process if that makes it a little bit more clearer of what those steps could include any more questions on consolidating and merging of schools okay so Staffing reductions the pros the funding would be available and there specific positions that have been identified and they're not listed here but what we have is the potential savings are not backfilling those positions so the funding would be available next year and next year would be about $3.7 million and the following year would be about 4.1 million dollar and I want to make a distinction that the 3.7 would be ongoing and then so you would have an additional 300 or 400,000 tacked on to that 3.7 to get you to the 4.1 million the district recommendation to help mitigate the impact of this use retiree positions and vacant positions and not backfill them to help mitigate the impact of this Staffing reduction District probably should look at it Staffing ratios teacher to student ratio at each of the sites are you at 24 to1 are you at 30 to1 how does that align with the current contract this would definitely address your structural deficit because you are reducing expenditures on an ongoing basis cons layoffs that is just one of the consequences of this particular initiative and then also the potential negative morale so funding would be available next year at the very bottom right you see in yellow the number F FTE certificated classified and management then I know Michael pointed this out too the the Lao putting out the co at about 1.27% um a reduction from the current 3.94 down to 1.27 would be just under $2 million in revenue for us so if that's what the governor's budget is in January for next year as far as the cola and then again just because that's the statutory Cola because of the tax revenue shortfall is the cola going to be funded that's another question to ask is there going to be any backfilling of that will they fund above the Cola with some of the rainy day funds um any of that um we have to take that into consideration so an additional one and a half to $2 million um in additional reductions on top of this may be necessary for us to uh identify between now and the second interim so this this information just came out last Friday so it's all relatively new which is why it's not in our first interim um we're moving forward with the 3.94% but that's what's going to be um necessary between first interim and second interim is is the recognition that the revenues could uh drop as a result of the cola being calculated at a lower uh percentage and so to add on to that and I think you just alluded to it Kevin is we don't know yet and how these two issues are going to unfold but is this an opportunity for the state to use its rainy day fund and is it raining a lot of districts will be impacted by this so it seems that this would be a perfect opportunity to invoke or use the r day fund to make sure districts are not severely impacted by this information and then also I'm sure you all know next year is an election year and so things can happen let me just leave it that way quad question yes so those are those are positions that we've come with that would get us to the amount of savings that we specify here which um get us to a balanced budget um that you could see on those previous slides and get us into the positive in that about $1.2 million or so on the third year we don't have titles at this time the certificated positions on the first line and Kevin correct me if I'm wrong but that also is inclusive of what we typically do year toe based on student enrollment yes so that takes into account some of the um positions that we already plann for in reducing because of declining enrollment from year to year and so uh so knowing that going back to the pros side in terms of the process we always go to any retirees those will be counted against those numbers any uh staff members that move out of the district you know for New Opportunities Etc that will all go against those figures and uh we will not backfill you know those positions unless required to do so so that's our first attempt so you know I know that um for certificated there's a long um Lane for them to tell us for retirement you know they don't need to tell us right away but we would encourage our staff members to let us know if they they know that they plan to retire if they know that they're moving and are going to be going to you know a new workplace the sooner we know that information the better it will be for us and to support to the staff that do stay with us so that way we can uh provide more accurate numbers of what we need to um reduce and that's you know and that was brought up multiple times at our committee meetings is that this plan is a fluid plan and that's exactly why you know depending on what retirements we have that changes some of those figures if you know it's some of the the higher cost staff that retire maybe that number goes down um of course like I mentioned with the lower Cola we will have to potentially increase those numbers and that's why the plan also needs to be fluid and we need to have multiple um items identified um just beyond um Staffing uh to try to help uh balance our budget does the same go for classified stuff same cor correct with classified as well um and then in terms of timing of when do we know when what these positions will be we will have to be able to have those positions identified by February because our February board meeting is when uh we need to make decisions about any potential reductions that we're going to have because all of our employees um it is a state requirement that they be informed by March 15th if they're going to be released how about um custodial staff and uh and M it's the same for all staff that timeline but did we identify I mean the so when we just say classified we're including all factors all factors but again uh we can only reduce staff if they're not needed right so uh so there's going to be staff that even if they leave it's going to be a position we still need so that's where that evaluation piece goes in because there are services that were required to provide that certain positions must be maintained in the district uh and so I go back again to reiterating the sooner we know from individuals what their plans are the more helpful that will be and there always is the possibility that if someone receives a a March 15th notice and we find out you know later on that a person's retiring or moving that has that same position they can be called back in but you know there's rules around that too um but the unfortunate thing is we have to give notice very early just so to so people can prepare and and make plans for their families right so that's where that March 15th deadline comes into play the difference between that and a hiring freeze so again a hiring freeze like Dr vent has mentioned there's certain positions that are required so um you know a strict hiring freeze um we could Implement and not fill positions but there's positions that are required so there's for instance par educator positions that are required um you know so if we had a hiring freeze we would still have to hire those those folks so um it's something that we're definitely looking at and we're valuating every position um that's vacant um during this process and that's those are the first positions too that we would look at as far as um as far as eliminating our our positions that are vacant positions or INF filled positions those would go first yeah I mean if we have to resort to Staffing reductions obviously as you said you know starting off with not filling the positions where people retire or they leave um but then you know maybe hiring frees to seeing seeing I know I know there's positions that you can't you know not replace people that you have to replace them just to meet the the state U you know requirements but right um you know maybe we could look at that as well um yeah yeah and then in addition to that um in terms of looking at that priority Focus right looking at retirements first re-evaluating vacant positions do we need them do we not need them you know as people leave evaluating those positions do we need them do not need them then the other reality too is we also brought in a lot of positions with covid funding to support covid needs and those dollars are now exhausted so that would be the next layer of positions that we would look at is positions that can no longer be funded by those one-time dollars that we had right and I will say that's one of the things that happened over the past two to three years with covid that's out of the norm the state gave uh a lot of onetime dollars with the caveat that school districts maintain and use that those dollars for Staffing however we don't have temporary positions and so unfortunately we have a level of Staffing that's funded by one-time dollars that then expire and that's typically not the recommendation when you have one-time funds is to use them for Staffing because they're onetime in nature um there's other positions too that may seem like they a vacancy that could be eliminated but um the reality is that they're filled by then contracted position for instance um we've had a vacant HVAC position HVAC technician position since that person retired um we haven't been able to fill that position so we've had a contractor that has to come out and and do the services when our HVAC units break down because we don't have the staff on hand to be able to address those issues so that that's a position where it's unfilled it's not necessarily mandated but it we incur a much higher cost because the position is unfilled and so the the elimination of certain positions like that don't net us any savings actually filling the position would actually net us the Savings in in this particular instance so I just wanted to point that out that all of that type of analysis has to be done when looking at all of these positions um especially ones that are outside of um the ones that are directly in the classroom how about looking at um you know reduced hours and furlows for staff as well as part of Staffing reductions since it's all Staffing that's possible and so one of the things was uh Staffing ratio so we actually have um one of our administrative regulations that does State the number of hours for certain staff clerks secretaries Etc and so that is something that we can look at we are over um those ratios in some instances and so we can make reductions there um furlows again that's something that is a negotiated item and that we would have to approach our bargaining units about that and with furlows too um there's certain number of uh required school days there's uh staff that are required to be in the particular classroom for those amount of days but that's also a possibility right yeah I mean because that's something I would suggest if we're going to look at staff reductions that we look at every possibility not just cutting positions but also possibly you know reducing hours for staff that that are going to stay on right because it's a shared pain um I think among everybody and then also uh furlows and obviously you know that's something that like you said has to be negotiated maybe have those discussions correct any for the questions on Staffing reductions and again this is this is hard because we're talking about people's lives and so we do not want to proceed lightly with this and um but it's definitely an option to help with the financial situation here at the district the last recommendation was the Ser supplemental early retirement plan and we did talk at the outset about a Serb and we're not quite sure at this point based on the data the certificated data if this would pencil out and the district just did one I think was it two two years ago yeah we have two more payments left for the the previous one so um if you all remember the pr previous one was a pretty lucrative um incentive and so I believe to achieve around $700,000 in savings we needed at least I want to say it was a dozen uh certificated staff to take that uh incentive so if something similar were offered it would require a significant amount more uh of staff to take that incentive and I don't know that we have that amount of eligible staff now that doesn't mean that an incentive would have to be structured in the same way um but just giving that as an example but we are looking into that and trying to get that data from uh our financial advisory wait you said that this was done three years ago how many um folks left because of this incentive how many individuals believe it was 19 total is that about right Josh you remember 19 yeah and that do you know how much it neted off the top of your head it was around 700,000 so that's 19 inclusive of both certificated classified management okay so you have two you said you have two more payments of from the last yes and how how much is that in how much is it per year yeah yeah so around half a million so when that those payments and those that that expenditure will drop off of the multi-e yes and that's that's included in our predictions yes right now that last payment is in year three but soon we'll make it in a few months when we generate next year's budget year three will be a new year and that will drop off so our first payment for that particular plan was in uh 2021 [Music] that paying no it was five years yes it was five annual payments um and that was for 90% of uh the salary so ladies and gentlemen we've been at this now for almost two hours and time has flown and I want to thank you for your attention for your for your questions and I want to go back to one of Craig's original slides where he talked about perception well the budget problem isn't real I hope as youve gone through these slides and looked at this information the budget challenge is real the county has weighed in and you saw some of the excerpts from the letter the county has serious concern concerns about the district's Financial viability so at this point the district has control on how to address these issues moving forward there have there are districts that have lost control and someone from the outside has come in and essentially tells the district what to do at this juncture as you look at all the information as you assess the information you all still have control and so as you look at the last bullets as far as next steps as Dr Fuentes has mentioned getting some direction on the sale of District property and also on the possibility of school consolidation as the district is wrestling with this issue of financial viability at this point the district is okay it can still meet its Financial Obligations but as you can see it was ending balances are running very thin and recommendations number three and four have have were included in the graphs but really no decision has been made yet on those so um December 13th is a pretty important date where the district will ask the entally approve the recommendations made by the budget stabil stabilization committee and and the recommendations and then also approve the first interim budget so with that and then the last bullet we are waiting for the Governor's budget for 2425 and that will come out in the beginning middle part of January so that concludes the presentation uh pending any questions that you might have of of myself or Craig any comments from Dr fenes thank you um first I do want to allow the board if there's any additional questions you have the opportunity for that otherwise we'll move into the the first bullet and so um as we look at all of these recommendations that have been put forth and that the committee has discussed you know our the first recommendation with leasing is already in process right we are we have our RFP out for the um the pedmont park location we have an existing lease with the Birchwood location uh we have potential with additional Portables and classroom space and we're open to you know maximizing those lease opportunities and we'll continue to engage with our partners in that area to bring in any additional Revenue that we can um the next bullet was the potential um sale of property that requires also additional analysis we'll have to update uh reassess those properties to get more current value and also look into you know whether it's Parcels if it's whole acreage you know what are those combinations thereof um do we want to generate an RFP to see what that interest would be there's all of those thoughts to be considered um you also brought up additional ideas for repurposing existing land like Commodore you mentioned the ideas of the stations Etc I know um Mr Franklin shared a bit of the research he's done but if you would like to see that more formally we can provide that so you know what how that cost out and what that potential is so let's start with that item you know what is the feedback from the board what would you like to see us do so I have one additional question that's not on here and we didn't really discuss it but it's um so Contract Services district has um I know some are you know required and some are specifically funded by the state but can we review those as well just to see maybe we can make some savings there yeah so we look through all of our contracted services and we've done that analysis to make those reductions there's potentially some areas for reduction um in some of our special ed contracts in particular um but we have done that analysis and we don't have we pretty much made those reductions already and anything that we currently have in contracted Services is because it's required so again there's some of those areas too like I mentioned with like HVAC services and things of that nature where if we have staff that can do it we would we would realize the savings but um at the moment we don't have staff in certain positions but if you'd like a a report analysis of that so you can see what that looks like we can provide that to you yeah I think that'd be good just you know so we know and then so the public and everybody else knows as well sure yeah it's embedded in the documents but I know gets to look at yes and so um regarding the sale of property yes so you know I think that looking at various options for that is my opinion um you know so not only looking at entire Parcels because like I said I'm not you know too uh keen on selling entire you know sites but possibilities of say selling portions of them also uh you know like the commodor site um it's a you know it's a nice site it's already zone for residential but perhaps uh you know I think that neighborhood could also use an amenity so maybe a combination so if developers say willing to or open to the idea of maybe you know doing cash in an exchange so an exchange for um you know certain amount of land there's cash and also like infrastructure for some amenities for the community or something we uh we can use to generate some some funding um you know just different different ways of going about it not just straight sale of an entire parcel and all that stuff kind of you know brainstorm the rest and you know some other ideas um so that one and then um I think maybe the and I know again I wouldn't want to sell the entire pedmont you know the the former district office property maybe looking at a portion of that and then a portion of the Birchwood I I don't know I mean i' like to keep mpus Christian as a tenant because it generates Revenue there but if we have you know 10 acres there and you know they're not using the entirely or there's a portion of that that's also Prime some prime you know potential residential land there so I will mention that there's a potential tenant for the pedmont road property um we just heard about it yesterday so um so that was new and new interest um and so we're trying to gauge the seriousness of the interest and the um from what I've gathered so far they're they're inquiring about a lease because that's what's in the RFP they um are also interested in purchase if it was available for purchase is my understanding um but again it we'd have to um actually meet with them and so that meeting's um we're trying to set that meeting up in the next week or two to gauge that interest um and again with Birchwood um you know my opinion on on Birchwood from the last lease extension with miletus Christian is that the site needs significant upgrades I don't know what the long-term viability is of them as a tenant in its current status because of the concerns that they mention with the site um how much it cost to upgrade it so that's some of the things to consider with that proper there's a question of are they going to be a tenant tenant I mean they've been a tenant for it for 40 years 40 years but I I don't know how interested they are in upgrading that site um because that's we saw it needs a significant amount of of work I think just uh for clarification for staff I know trusty jenez it's it's your interest to explore potential Parcels for sale not whole sites but what about the rest of our trustees because we need consensus from everyone so my position is that um one item that I'm actually opposed against is selling any any District property and um the reasoning for that is uh I just look at the history of what baresa has done U going back to I'm not sure exact day when we sold the property at Beres Capital the the old ber school I believe that was about 35 40 years ago actually talk with a parent that went to that school so I know it it's not DEC it's not many decades ago it's pretty pretty in recent memory and I don't know um what the situation was back then uh I think it was either in the late 80s or early 90s when we sold that product property but we're in the same situation we we're in now I don't know what the what we use with the revenue for that property so I'd be interested in learning how much we sold it for how much it's valued now have we held on to it right so I don't know I don't know exactly when it was sold um and I wasn't doing research on that but doing research through board and items for a different purpose back from the 80s what I do know was that the the district was either directed by the city to sell property um or um or it was the district's decision back then to sell uh certain properties because there wasn't um for instance a a bond available to upgrade facilities and so I believe that modernization that was done in the in the early to mid 90s was done from the sale of the properties and so I believe there was a there were a few different uh sites that were sold back then in the in the mid to late 80s early 90s um and those funds I believe were used uh for some of the modernization of some of our school sites but that I don't I don't have the exact that goes back to while saying that money could have been um gained through a bond those you selling property so we we lost essentially millions of dollars that we held on to that property and same goes with the Flickinger site about 20 years ago we we sold that site too and where's the revenue now it didn't address the structural deficit we're in the 80s and 90s we're we're faced with the same problem I believe and we we we released a lot a huge chunk of our investment 20 years ago we did the same thing and now now we're faced with the same issue we've never addressed the structural deficit so I believe uh this my position is land is very valuable in this area and is an interest of the district to uh maintain those property for future Investments um whether through uh different types of leases or developments on those properties U for example the the Birchwood property we held we've held on to that property and that we're still gaining revenue from it as an ongoing revenue and same with the decision for our uh when we moved to this district office um we're leasing the we're we're intending to lease the pedmont road office and we're going to gain an ongoing revenue for that too so I believe that's a better choice and much more wiser investment for the district is to develop and leas our property opposed to selling it uh same thing with um I know we had a conversation um about portion of the CAU Park the district own a portion of that Park too I don't know what happened to it but somehow we gave up a right or we sold that property you know how how do we benefit from that so that's that's something I'd be interested in so I think that those properties were some of the ones that I saw that were sold for Capital facilities projects because that's what those revenues that are generated from the sell property are intended for but I couldn't tell you exactly what projects those were um one thing I will mention that the committee discussed because they had the same um Viewpoint that that you have too with the the the value of the properties and how valuable it is to to keep them um and that was something that that the committee kind of struggled with um and I don't think we mentioned it why I'm just bringing it Forward is that what the committee's intent was with having those as number one and number two this the lease and then the sale of properties was because they wanted to try to keep um and maintain the services and level of services that we have for our students they wanted to keep as much of the reductions out of the classroom is possible and so that was why they landed on those as the top two because they struggled with the same kind of um concern and and with not addressing the actual structural deficit but they saw that as a way to um Help The Help the the current situation um while maintaining uh the same level of Staffing and services for [Music] students right we're we're kicking the can down the road it doesn't go to programs salaries for employees really correct and that's what our listening to all of the uh all of the presentation and um I am opposed as well with selling our properties I think we should keep them but if we I would prefer that we as a district um look into the leasing of it because as Ka mentioned also that property is so valuable between now and the future and we are in a location that it can go up and up in so higher and higher so I think um it would be best to look into leasing our property rather than selling them off what's the I'm sorry go oh what's the potential of leasing um you know properties such as Commodore or say Birchwood after mopa Christian School decides or if they decide to not continue the lease is that is that something that we we see that there you know there's a pretty good chance of that's going to happen it just depends on thep entity and what they're looking for um you know so it's really hard to say without having put out the RFP that's part of the research we would have to do to be able to bring back um uh working with our real estate partner and having them be very creative with different types of rfps to see what generates interest right not yeah I also want to remind everybody that we purchased so we have another property that we didn't have you know even a few years ago when we got this one so uh you know we have more property now than we've had had in in in a while so that's also that provides a chance I mean we gained an acre and a half here so selling maybe an acre and a half somewhere else um that would pretty much you know um put us kind of in a good place for you know several years while we did other reductions also that you know would be ongoing reductions to uh to uh cut that structural deficit um you know I I so it's kind of a you know give and take right like we gained a property and and selling a piece of one I don't think would be it wouldn't be a net loss basically uh well first of all I just want to first thank you for the presentation this is really difficult work and this is a really difficult conversation to have but it's a necessary one to ensure that we have fiscal solvency within our district and my opinions are is that I am on the same page I don't want to sell whole properties but I do agree that we could sell small Acres like a small amount just to see that immediate um dollar amount come in and to take advantage of that June deadline that we have and I am on board with leasing our properties as well but I am particular particularly interested in land leasing the sites that do not have facilities and similar to the excess sites program that the department the housing department within the state has I believe it's under the jurisdiction of the governor spe I think it's dgs that handles the excess program the state uses the state also has a lot of excess sites but what they do is that they lease out that land to get revenue and to have other developers do what they want with the land so we wouldn't be responsible for the maintain maintaining that land or anything like that and so that's something that I'm particularly interested in you know housing is a housing unfortunately is a commodity here but it is a lot of money if a developer comes around and says you know I want to develop something here but we still own that land so it could net us something very high since we still own the land and so it's kind of a compromise between selling and leasing because you know they are allowed they own everything that's above and on the land but not the land itself and so we still gain that Revenue um from renting you know using that land and it is something new but it's something that I think would be really good for the district in the long run but I recognize that this will be a long long discussion and it will have a lot of research I don't know any districts you know off the top of my head that is pursuing something like this but I would really enjoy and see if barasa could come to something that we could do I mean it also doesn't have to be housing it can also I'm very interested in the EV Chargers idea I think that's a really good idea and to especially take advantage of the federal government's programs and I would also encourage us to reach out to the county to see if they may be interested in our lands I don't know if any if the office of Ed would have anything that they would like to use from us or any other County program I know that um even though the state and the city is facing more of a deficit the county has a bit more of a cushion so maybe they might have extra um to help us with as well so those are my thoughts on the issue then just to answer one of the questions you had before we did look up what the Senate bill was that gave that flexibility and it was Senate Bill 98 and that was uh enacted June 29th 2020 sorry s SP what 98 98 yeah okay only one to provide my thoughts on this um so uh land leases I mean I it's very interesting and to Echo the sentiments of my uh fellow board members I I'm not in favor of selling at all um maybe bits and pieces but that doesn't look um that doesn't sound very appey to me but U retaining property is definitely uh something we should um you know consider we should not be selling anything uh with the land leases um especially For My worry is with the with building of uh of homes San Jose is now doing a multi multi level building like uh they're doing on Capital uh they have like a seven story building coming up over there so My worry is if we do lease out or uh do something like that um is there is there potential for San Jose City to come to us come after us and say you're going I'm going to put up like a seven story building in a neighborhood full of single family homes is that something uh you can elaborate so the beauty with land leasing is that we are still the landlord so we have the power to say okay um we have the power to go out in the market and say okay we want this building we it would essentially be an RFP but you know for what we want on the site and so we don't have to say that we want like a 10 story high building right but we would have we would still own the property and we would still run into problems with the city of San Jose but with the city of San Jose they are a pro housing City and so they would want a little higher density but what they're really looking at and what I believe they would be akin to is like forp plexes duplexes like homes that are slightly densified so these so a lot of the neighborhoods within Bara is a lot of single family homes you know it's just your regular like you know you have a garage whatever it's like everything that you look around but the city would be akin to something like with that's softer density like town homes or something that has like the ability to house four families instead of just one but still looks like a house like if you walk in Downtown San Jose in District 3 you'll actually see a lot of these Victorian like they look like Victorian homes and they have like two different doors like that's a duplex so that's something that um would be interesting to look at or like we could even look into something similar to around like honestly the BART station like has lower density housing and like it could fit inside the neighborhood so it's not like you know I don't think the city of San Jose would be opposed to that and we do have um contacts within the city to ask like preliminar preliminarily and developers also have contacts within the city to see like what the development they're looking at would be like and see the problem with the oak grve um the problem with Oak grve is that the district asked them or the developer brought them something that was extremely low density and the city really did not like that but if we are able to come up with a plan or work with a developer who's more familiar with the city and and the develop or and the planners within the city we don't have to run into that issue like having someone who's more familiar with the city and what they like and what they don't like we may not run into that problem and understanding that process my understanding with the oakr site is that it's too low density and it doesn't match what the city wants but if we have a high enough density the city will leave us alone you know like they'll be like we need housing and it's like we want it to fit the character of our neighborhoods and like you know I think something that's like mid density like what talking about like something similar to what we have in like not downtown core but like the outskirts of downtown you know those Victorian homes duplexes forp plexes you know those kinds of um opportunities could be there but that of course this is a long process I'm not saying that this is uh going to be an immediate return but it's something that I am personally interested in and I think is something that school districts could do in the future so my understanding is any type of lease like that would be eligible to be used in the general fund however um we would still have the the rezoning to do for all of those sites because even though Commodore for instance is residential I believe it's low density residential uh in zoning and so it wouldn't have to be rezoned to do something um like that even if we were to do a land yeah so that is something so someone um that does do Workforce housing uh reached out today um to try to set up a meeting to discuss that and so yes um that is possible um but even with that just with the cost um a lot of a couple of them that I've seen it doesn't pay for the entire uh project because the projects are pretty significant in cost and so you'd have to find other uh means to be able to to offset that um but there are some instances where developers will fund the entire amount and then you have an agreement um over time um to recruit those funds so I think just based on what I'm hearing uh this is definitely a topic that's worthy of another of potentially a study session that we can bring forward with um I know our our Council uh Herold Freeman who works with us on our properties is very um knowledgeable in land leasing Workforce housing and all those options that districts are pursuing so we can certainly look at that and that idea is not F to this six-month window so it's it's something that we do have time to dig in and see uh if there are potential Partnerships that can um be established for that type of a of a revenue stream the one other idea that I have had um I think we spoke about it maybe once um uh was to build a Center of Performing Arts in the U in in berasa because I don't think we have one um Center of Performing Arts where you know we can have music programs or you know arts and culture uh some some facility like that uh in uh in our district uh even if we decide to uh close the site maybe we can build a Center of Performing Arts there maybe that could be in partnership with other school districts that can benefit from from having a Center of Performing Arts where they can uh have the flexibility of uh having the performances um at off-site location um so something like that is also also something to think about uh to to uh uh to look at utilizing some of those uh lands and trying to see if that would you know help us with some kind of uh uh Revenue stream generation I don't know how much uh it will but uh but utilizing those sites effectively in a meaningful way uh but yeah it does need more discussion for sure so the uh you know the idea of lease it's a good one but that's U it's time you know take time I don't know how and we don't have much time right uh we have to start either generating some Revenue pretty soon here or make cuts and so the other option right is Staff layoffs or school closures um so in the meantime until these ideas pan out we'll have to look at reduction now and or closing schools so that's kind of the tradeoff whereas you know that's why I'm you know again I'm against selling land also but that's it's like having money in the bank and not using it and then you know starving um you know for a few days just because you don't want to use that that money or if you have stocks right you know because it appreciates in value um so I mean that's just something you know I think that people should consider are we ready to make the decisions of you know uh releasing staff and closing School which to me are much uh uh less Savory choices than say you know selling an acre of land here and there know I think that going [Music] back about schools I don't know the data behind it the research more beneficial compared to K I'm not sure if that's possible because what I I I like to avoiding uh elementary schools I think that's a more impactful uh communi because kids younger kids they live closer to those schools they can walk parents drive into that school close I think maybe work conversation have maybe move some of those six back to elementary school like neighboring District maybe CL middle school because I know the cost saving is a lot higher at the middle school level I think that's a conversation worth having to because I know at the middle school level they're at a vulnerable vulnerable age and we need to give them much services and programs as possible and um if there's less if there's one less Middle School more programs and services can be made available to those students at those two schools and also just look at an they have two middle schools and they have a much larger District than us so I don't know how that done but um I think that's convers conversation to have but I think that's one of the best solutions that we probably need to explore again it all goes back to just just the numbers we've lost a quarter of our our students we're still maintaining you know the same number of schools yeah yeah that's correct and uh exactly the suggestion that you put up for consideration is what this committee would do they would go through and they would explore and do the research for all of those different types of configurations um and that brings us into the second item that we're seeking Direction on is just the ability to be able to move forward and commence this committee and the phase one process of doing all the data analysis that I described earlier so that way potential scenarios can be brought back to the board for consideration I would say we should move forward to with starting the committee to review and great idea to uh to close a Middle School uh for higher cost savings and consol and bring back k26 I think it's a good idea I'd say nothing's off the table right I mean we have to make Cuts so um I'm open again I don't want to do that but if it comes down to it you know we'll have to I just think there you know there other options we can explore as well oh yeah yeah I wouldn't want the direction to be to look at closing a middle school I would much rather the direction to be consider options because I don't want to scare our community in saying that we're going to close one of the middle schools I want them I want us to evaluate all the potential options and give proper notice so I I would rather not um direct you know Elementary or middle I want them to look at everything first and then and that's exact yeah that's exactly what they would do they would and maybe create a scenario we haven't thought of as well that would also be the task of the committee yeah I would I I would really wait for the recommendation rather than because I certainly I closing schools is never easy and moving stuff is very difficult and laying off people is even worse so um I would just go I for me personally I would prefer that we we look into it research it carefully and um and go from there okay as far as Staffing cuts when was the last time we had made layoffs it's been many years uh none during my time here and so this is my seventh year yeah my understanding from talk with some of the principles that have been here long term was um I think in the 2009 2010 time frame somewhere around there great trending with with all the other school districts uh things were pretty bad before 2012 so between 20 like 28 to 2012 I think that would be my guess I wasn't a board member but just kind of knowing and kind of knowing some history from some past board members okay I was asking that because I just fighter myself been working in a district where we we don't do layoffs I don't remember ever making any layoffs during my 10 years so I know for the past 15 years we haven't done any layoffs uh but just going back to um you know the potential staff reduction I just want to be transparent are are we talking about reduction in programs because you're talking about not backfilling people but a lot of these like areally position you got to back because there's classrooms you can't just you know eliminate teachers so we talking about like red reducing like instructional coaches or like elimin that program or what what kind of programs so definitely looking at itinerant staff because we want to make sure we are far removed from the classroom right you you still need to maintain you know your classroom teachers your support staff that are in that class room with those students that's the priority but we would look at itinerant positions um we would look at our management positions um examples I know like have been brought up in the past so in terms of so in terms of uh certificated staff when we look at what are itinerant positions that are not providing um that don't have a roster of children right it's our instructional coaches as one group we have our social workers as another group everyone else carries roster of children uh whether they're a specialed specialist or a classroom teacher so those would be the itinerant positions for classified um we have all of our Paras you know they all support our students directly in the classroom we have instructional Associates that support students directly in the classroom but then you have all your other operational um support staff where you do get into the discussion of the level of service that you want to have your Librarians your health clerks your um your office staff your custodial custodial support you know some of the um some of the positions that we've increased Service as a result of the covid pandemic is we've increased custodial support at the sites we also created um additional clerk position at the sites to help support with those Health needs so there those are all new services that came with some of those onetime dollars and then like I said with management every division right now is reviewing all of the support team that they have and we're looking to see how we can restructure and realign responsibilities there good thank you for that so that goes back to U my proposed solution of protection merging schools if we merge schools and we close one schools we could we don't have to those positions have a school that we're closing so that way someone does retire or res in the district um you know we have to replace that principle that custor staff medch the social workare that being Clos I think that that addresses the issue of Staff ruction as well yeah and those were the discussions that the that the committee had and Michael brings it up all the time about soft Landing long Runway um and and looking at those positions and so knowing that that's the direction we would look at some of those positions as we start this process so that there aren't those those uh layoffs that that need to occur and so if it's looking at consolidating em merging schools like you mentioned then when we do have those retirements or those resignations then we would look at not backfilling at that point and how do we support in the meanwhile until this process concludes so I have a question how permanent are school closures well does that make sense the question well Birchwood was closed 40 plus years ago so the chances of a school say you know in five 10 years time say the enrollment numbers go back up uh the chances of opening reopening a school are slim to none basically based on Tom Williams report I I was just gonna say keep in mind that our demographers report is a is a five to seven year time frame and he has our enrollment continuing to decline throughout that period but it would take three years to close the school so that would put us at within four years of his last it would take a year oh a year starting from today uh it takes again it depends on the conversations of the committee I can't timestamp that uh but the intention would be to work through the process so it could be realized for the 2526 school year as you saw in that slide on where that savings would impact our multi-year budget yes you're correct um those uh transitions went into effect this year yeah I think I mean we we know of instances where it's been done significantly faster um and that would not that was not the intent of the committee and not advised right would just add there there was a district in Southern California that ended up closing four schools within one year and the outcry from the community was tremendous and again is as I've mentioned before give yourself a long enough a Runway to get this Initiative off the ground and plenty of time for the community to provide its input so I attended a breakout session csba conference discussing schools there was tremendous push back on the closure ofo schools you got you know very hostile you know law enforcement was calleded the rest would be made to school board members parents were upset but by the time the school Clos parents are coming school board members thanking them because now their students at the schools that are being that are welcoming those schools because their students are now getting more services and programs as a result of that because now they spreading Services programs multitude of schools now one school students at that one school programs and Services I think that's Tim goal that sometimes and that's why going back to Middle School level that at that age you need as much service spread AC schools more beneficial for student have it you know two schools and at at the middle school level a lot of times parents are driving students across the distri a lot less impct op neighborhood that's I like and just so the board knows um what the existing reality is in our schools you know um there's impacts at both elementary and middle school that's being experienced right now so you know at the elementary level and we'll be sharing um site specific enrollment data with the board next week at our regular board meeting and you know our we have two um two elementary schools that are under 300 students uh one of them is under 250 students and the result of that is increased combination classrooms right so that's a very challenging programming um experience for those students and they've already been experiencing that for a few years because they've been uh below 250 for a little while uh and then in addition at the and then on the other side with the the Middle School programming the impact as trustee uh NN said is programs and services reduced elective offerings trying to maintain our music our music programs choir uh not being able to offer offer foreign language that we'd like to be able to do right that requires additional Staffing to have those elective offerings there um so there is opportunity to be able to increase those program options for our students when we have more Consolidated at one site than what we currently do so I would just say that the programming is being impacted at both levels currently and that's definitely a big part of the conversation that the committee will engage in and especially you know um uh our parents are going to be part of that committee as well so it gives them an opportunity to also share what is that learning experience they'd like to have for their child what do they hope for in terms of programming and supports in their schools and that will also help inform the committee with the different um potential scenarios that they may create and bring back to the board for considerations no I understand understand the impact of um you know uh having really small schools too small right too low enrollment but I'm just worried about you know the Optics of you know we have all this excess land um potential funds right and now we're going to you know close schools as opposed to you know just the Optics of that in the community and then so now we have even more Surplus land right with more if we consolidate schools so are we hoarding land and you know cutting closing schools what's so that's my concern so that's why you know my feeling is that nothing should be off the table when it comes to looking at um re generating revenue and then also savings yeah the committee was really um specific about that as well so it's good that you mentioned that because we did mention that when you do do a school consolidation or merger and you do have that um additional School site that's why the top priority was according to the committee to lease the vacant property because that was what they saw as a way to then generate Revenue in addition addition to um just the the cost of the the closing of the school site and so that's that was very intentional by the committee to place the sell uh the leasing of um vacant sites as number one so um one thing just want to clarify also just to um as this question so sale of a property the realization from the of the revenue from sale of a property uh the time line is longer and the the funds are more restricted uh versus closing a particular School site and the the funds are um the revenue realization is almost uh immediate and the funds are unrestricted is a accurate Yes except that we're not generating revenue from the reduction of the school set what we're doing is we're generating a savings um and expenditures so until um something that space you know once it becomes available correct but those funds are are more more unrestricted than the funds of from generated from sale of a property lease revenues are unrestricted completely so but sale of property is entirely restricted um with the exception of this s sp98 flexibility yeah but our direction today wouldn't be to sell a property it' be just to explore what that would look like and kind of what that would do right I mean it's not you know we're going to go sell the property tomorrow or List It Up for for sale tomorrow it's exploring how much can we get what are the options so that's why I don't think it's you know a good idea to not even look at that to not even consider that any further feedback I think as a important that U we truly do need to address our structural deficit and um not just kick the can down the road however we do it um I just want to put that out there um I think I would also add for the board that given um given the amount of funds that need to be recovered whether it's through reduction or increased Revenue we're going to need to do a combination of these recommendations so I don't want anyone to feel like it's one over the other most likely it's going to be a combination of multiple points of the recommendations being made but knowing that the reason we focused on the the sale of property or specifically land Leasing and school merging is because there's additional research that needs to be done in order to continue to bring that forward for conversation and decision and we want to make sure we prioritize staff's time in that in those you know directions that the board would like that feedback on so while I still remember thank thanks to both of you for your work and thanks to all the community members for putting together this presentation working hard and having those tough conversations uh if uh we haven't already said that uh one of the one of the things uh that stood out in the presentation uh just as a matter of perspective I we we as board members as uh people that are involved in the school district May understand this but uh from a Outsider Community uh member perspective uh this slide number 13 I don't know if you can if you want to go back to uh the slide number 13 that shows the ending fund balance history um it shows uh it's it's 22% down to 3% uh from a Outsider uninterested party Community member uh perspective which I was not too long ago that's that's steep drop uh without attribution uh looks like mismanagement to me right from as a complete uninterested party so uh along with this this data if we can publish perspective of uh you know how these funds were used we understand that there's increase in uh you know all the costs uh salaries and and so on and things like that that's perfectly fine but uh just to to add um appropriate attribution to this chart would be helpful so if it does get published uh on our website or something like that uh I would suggest having links to specific uh why uh on this otherwise it looks a little odd that's just my just my feedback the N gotcha yeah and we can do that there's um FAQs that we have that kind of talk about some of these things right now on the website um it doesn't necessarily mesh that story together necessarily but the other thing that I want to remind everyone too is that over the same time frame we've had in huge increases in retirement um uh contributions that that are statutorily required for stirs and purs that weren't necessarily projected um five six seven years ago and those are unforeseen things so so for instance like the the district stirs contribution I think eight years ago was around nine or 10% it's 19% now so that's a 10% increase on all of our certificated salaries be it management um teaching staff what have you same thing for stir or for pers perss has gone up even more than that and pers is um around 28% and that's not what it was five or six years ago significantly lower and those are those are very significant um impacts to the budget that um were not foreseen they're they're analyzed year by year and then and then those rates have been raised um so I do want to point out some of those things too because that's the narrative we do try to explain with all the different budget presentations um you know and then like I mentioned before liability insurance and those type of lawsuits just in the the four years that I've been here it's more than um it's almost tripled in cost so I I completely agree like I said from right for us we understand um so but when it gets projected uh without that that uh that you know reference point uh it becomes like what is the school district doing kind of a thing right and we don't want we don't want to project that kind of a image so right and so that's good to know so that we can help tell that story more clearly on the on the website issu are you any like situations where we can address that issue for example setting up trust contributing to that trust pay help pay those contri yeah so we have um uh fund 17 or fund 20 fun 20 right is the is the OPB it's it's typically for for um our contributions that are outside of our pension costs um you can set that up as a as a um irrevocable trust and you can earn and Michael's even mentioned setting something up like that um but it's a matter of then having those dollars in there right now we have the flexibility from the county to utilize those dollars to support our general fund right now um and so if it's um if we set up a trust we wouldn't have access to those funds and so that's kind of the dynamic but is specifically to pay for um the increases to purs and stirs um the board would have to take action to actually set something up like that um and and it would have to be done in a in a trust like that other districts have taken action when they had high reserves to to commit funds specifically to the increases to stirs and purs but unfortunately what what we experien in the Bay Area we just have a higher cost of living than than everywhere else and that impacts all of our families that puts the pressure on on us as a district to to compete and have those High salaries so that um you know our folks and our staff can afford to live in the area or at least close enough that that they can they can work here and so that's just some of the financial pressures that we have and I've mentioned it before about how low our our um Revenue per student is and so that's just um there there's nothing that's specific to it and what the governor has said and a lot of his budgets are here's some one-time dollars that should address your retirement issues but you know they're saying you can address your retirement issues keep your Staffing the same increase services for students provide social workers provide counselors because all of our students need this coming out of the pandemic for learning recovery and so with a district like ours that you know does not get as much revenue per student because we don't have the the amount of unduplicated students that that generate the the onetime dollars that that we were getting um it's just that balance of how do we do that do we do we allocate those funds towards the additional retirement cost to keep Staffing the same and so we've been juggling that over the past couple of years um so really you know what we've been trying to do is is through advocacy for the governor and the legislature to actually dedicate um specific funding or to reduce those rates um that had happened in the past pre- pandemic but coming out of the pandemic it was more of just here's some onetime dollars that we'll give to you and and do what you need with it and that's how the the governor address the issues as like a final note I just want to say that you know as we go through this process um my number one will always be considering the student I want to make sure that our students still have the best quality education and that you know if they need Services we still provide it to them as much as possible especially their highest need students um usually their families are the ones who will be desperately impacted by the decisions that we make in the future so I always want to emphasize you know cutting away from the classroom reserving our mental health you know facilities or people and folks they that they need to continue to be supported and so that's always going to be my guiding um northern light in this process because I really want to make sure that our most affected families communities um aren't as hurt by this and we land standing on our feet we land softly but I'm confident that we can get through this Dr FAS can you summarize what what are the next steps sure thank you sure so as we mentioned before uh in terms of the recommendations from the committee that the leasing options are already at play and we're working through those and hopefully increasing opportunity with leasing the um Staffing reduction component is an on going review process as we look at the mobility of our staff and the the decisions they make and I went over the priority of how we will evaluate that that will come back to the board in in February in order to meet a March deadline wherever we land at that time then in looking at here for um property sale consideration so what I heard were two things I I heard one uh the interest in land Leasing and exploring what the opportunities might be there knowing that that is a longer pathway but we have the we have the ability to be able to research that and start to look at potential possibilities I heard um strong intent on not selling property from the majority of the board um but potential looking at Parcels what would that how would that play out so we can certainly do that um but knowing that um when it comes to property sale the higher interest is going to come in the entire property we we already know that but I did hear strong disregard for moving forward in that direction and then uh again the final one was looking at school consolidation and I heard approval to go ahead and commence the committee to be able to start doing again that's going to be a lengthy phase one process of looking at all the different variables um and as I mentioned there's new state require requirements that we need to follow too in doing that analysis and that'll be part of that committee's conversation okay you're welcome and then also the the Staffing reductions oh I me I mentioned that that that it would go through the priority process that I mentioned that we're looking at retirements first Mobility re-evaluating vacancies seeing what matches there um but then you know we are going to have to meet that quotient numbers that we looked at and we'll have to bring that to the board in February uh for Action um based on where our staffing is at that point in time we'll have another discussion on Staffing later I mean I guess we're gonna have discussion February will be for Action okay once we know because that's a that's a moving there's moving parts to that depending on people's decisions for themselves on where they are for retirement New Opportunities Etc but our like I said our our priority is to First Look at at retirees to look at vacant positions what can be eliminated with vacant positions that will all count towards those numbers and then uh you know and then re-evaluating positions that we currently have uh based on funding positions that are funded on those one-time dollars that are exhausted right will go down in that order we look at uh reduction hours and furlows as well that'll be discussion with our labor Partners gotcha okay thanks [Music] School configuration MH okay all rightn move toour hi thank you everyone have a good night yeah thank you Michael and Craig for your support in this conversation appreciate it thank you everyone thank you FMA I'm going to end your call okay have a good one oh just you still there uh let me call you on my cell phone okay because you're still on the speaker thank you all right on

to 10:15 just for everyone here in attendance this is what we've done so far just to prepare and get the word out November 28th a Community Partnership panel with Miss Rita Lloyd Mills we passed out these flyers at at the meeting November 28th a week ago Tuesday also with Mr eron Cooper at isda Mr Bo Johnson in the Alo Chamber of Commerce He also mentioned he was going to making announcements on the radio station November 28th also we pass us out to Oasis coffee whipsy chairman Mr Mike Robertson volunteered to be a team leader on that day so he's going to be here to help Mr cotton our grounds manager get this going Miss Melissa Moreno from our Red Raider renovation team last week pass picked out the Flyers to pass out to local businesses and also miss Angelina Valen make sure we have a announcement in the AL news and so that's uh we want to make this a a routine a habit it's our fourth cleanup the first one was a year ago at this time December 2nd then we went March 4th baseball field and softball field and then uh we went I believe August 12th at the the football stadium this our fourth one so we love to have everyone here it's a great way to build community I think he's going to be here he said he's going to bring his paint brush can he come and work on Saturday no okay so uh please everyone please come over uh our facilities and operation team is working on the locker rooms right now to have them ready so when you come on Saturday we're going to focus on the four locker rooms the gym the lobby area so please come on by uh Mr President of the board that concludes my report sure we have as many people as possible okay thank you very much next item on the agenda is the awards and recognition Okay we have um our student of the month superintendent student of the month and we're going to start with our seventh and eighth grade so first we have our seventh grade teacher Miss onare right there okay um members of the board administrators fellow teachers ladies and gentlemen good evening in the data from SSA go in the year 2022 the number of us us birth with the name Valentina total to 4,000 what's in the name Valentina originated from Latin word Valance which means strong and healthy the great seventh superintendent award for this month is Valentino rir time true to the min of her name she makes strong impact to her classmates with her Readiness to help especially her eel classmates who are encountering challenges with the English language she is creating strong noticeable Mark among her school M she has friends across grade levels too she has healthy balance of academic life and extracurricular activities she is diligent and consistently selling in her studies getting a in almost all subjects she implies every steps moves shakes shouts and cheers why because she is also a member of AHS cheer ltic te she maintains a strong and healthy Positive Vibes in various situations circumstances and activities and in which she is busy herself with Valentina Ram our chosen superintendent ay of this month keep on living what's in the name Valentina valence in Latin word you are Valentina strong and healthy respectful responsible and ready to [Applause] congratulations ready have Miss will good evening everyone good evening members of the board Administration my name is Williams and I am pleased to introduce the recipient of the superintendent award for the eth grade I had the pleasure of being MMA teacher for past year and a half and I have been her home room teacher since the beginning this AC here it has been my observation that she's one of the most respected reliable helpful and of her group she maintains a high standard of performance in her work in all her classes and does nothing in half measure she's Junior High School student council president as well as a member of our school's sh SP NE of these activities have impacted her performance in her classes and she still finds time to help others in explaining something that another student may have a bit of trouble deciphering her grace and confidence have not been intimidating as she's open Pleasant and welcoming to those she meets she's held in high regard for by her friends and we see this in the way they interact with her or refer to her in conversations if Emma is absent from school which you said earlier her absence is felt in her class by both teachers and her parents she has strong family support and in anything in anything she does and that support adds to her confidence Poise and success her parents are always present to cheer her on and encourage her I've used the words Grace and Poise more than once in my introduction and this is because those are the words that come to mind when I start to write this introduction for her to me she is em mother graceful ladies and gentlemen [Applause] Dr Dr Lance members of the school board teachers parents students uh good evening and welcome we are here today to celebrate acknowledge and award the students who have made a positive impact those who have acquired an outstanding academic achievement based on excellence and growth as a teacher of AO UniFi School District it is for me an honor to be here and award princess montis with the superintendent student of the mon award what can I say about her she's a great student that she that is known for her outstanding grades but I would also like to recognize her that she's also very sociable and responsible a great athlete that she belongs to the basketball and she lead team princess we know that this is not your first time receiving this award right so let this been for you and for all of us an example that have hard work and dedication face off princess congratulations to you and your parents this awards for your whole family so let us give a great Applause Soul two good evening um Dr L members of the board parents students good evening everyone um this is my honor to present to you by the way I'm Miss Mrs maningo I'm a Mathematics High School teacher it is my honor to present to you the sofom mar superintendence award uh which will be given to Jared Moore um congratulations um he is in my geometry class and I've really observed his dedication toward his work his consistently high level of commitment and commendable attitude he de demonstrates toward his work in the class are truly nor noteworthy it's evident that he approaches every task with dedic dedication enthusiasm and a genuine passion for learning what makes his achievements even more remarkable is his respectful demeanor towards both classmates and teachers his positive influence creates a viant and inspiring classroom environment for everyone this recognition is a testament of his unwavering work ethic respect for others and impact that he has on the ire academic Community congratulations on showcasing such exceptional qualities and I have no doubt that his future endeavors will be marked by continued success and positive contributions well done congratulations to the parents okay so may I present to you now jar MO I know right thank you we're grandparents parents went to Japan okay good thank you thank you one more awesome thank [Applause] you um good evening Dr L and to the parents everyone it is my honor to present to you tonight our Junior superintendent award she is a Jen G for greet she shows perseverance and passion for long-term goals despite her joining the cheerleading team she sets her priorties right e for excellence she is excellent in both academic and behavioral aspect she's a straight A student and she sets an example to her classmates by coming to school regularly and doing her class class work religiously and for modest she is humble and quiet in plus she does not brag and remains consistent in all she does ladies and Gentlemen let's give a rounding Applause to the junior superintendent awarde Mara [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ki good evening everyone good good evening to our members of the government good evening to our adal and the parents and the award who are here today and to our to my fellow teachers and and and um I'm thankful to be part of this celebration of wins wins of our dedicated students so there is only one word that can attribute to our award today tonight this month and I coin it into a star she is a star in grade 12 class s stands for shines she shines among her ears her intelligent ideas a directed class discussion into a fruitful one and that's her she knows that and T takes initiative in getting the classwork done she always does and a to complete the star asserts herself well in front of others and her ideas are really you know giving everyone another way of another what do you call De motivation to impark on a different learning Paradigm she's always ready to learn and always ready to extend help right please help me welcome ladies and gentlemen our superintendent student of the month from the 12th grade class br [Applause] allson we always do a group picture so we always to keep yeah it grade let's look at M's Camera Awesome grandparents come here miss fernandz junior junior come on up angel F on now ready one two three one two three uh Mr President members of the board that concludes our our most festive long list of uh wanted to save the best for last for December they have a big group to see all the parents here he gives us a lot of great pleasure we want to continue this tradition we started this in February of this year we're going to keep doing it again we'll start all over in January we'll go back to 3kk and one and uh justas just keep it up um have a great holiday season you're more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting I know I'm looking around Mr mon told me he's gonna take notes until 8 o' so uh you guys are welcome to stay if we understand if you want to go have dinner enjoy the rest of thank you we'll save you some oh yeah that's all right like kid was having fun all that nice hearing laughing during a meeting a lot okay okay so our next item is the consent agenda and I'll make the motion to approve the consern agenda I'll second it Mr Hopkins hi Mr K I miss Olson I miss Rodriguez hi Mr D approved okay first Personnel item is the approval of certified after school tutors Mr President members of the board the following certified teachers have submitted interest in after school tutoring Monday Tuesday and Thursday after school I Rec the approval ofers as ano okay may I have ation move we approve I'll second Mr KES I Mr Hopkins Mr betri hi Miss Olson hi M Rodriguez approved 5 zero next item is classified employment of teachers Aid Amanda AA Mr President members of the board Amanda AA has been interviewed in background checks completed for the position of PR professional amend this first St of employment will be January 8 2024 recommend the approve of the employment of aul as a profession I have a motion as so move we approve I'll second Mr K J I miss Olson hi Mr Hopkins Miss Rodriguez hi Mr Guthrie approved 5 to zero okay next is classified employment of facilities and operations Department of Angel thores Mr President members of the board Angel thus has been interviewed for the position and facilities and operations Department Angels employment will start on the completion of satisfactory references and receipt of an ivp fingerprint card recommend the approval of the employment of Angel Torres in the facilities and operations Department upon receipt of an i fingerprint card okay may I have a motion on that I'll make the motion I'll secondly okay Miss Olson I Mr Hopkins Mr kures I Mr Rodriguez hi Mr Guth approve I Zer next item is the approval of increased Pro hours at Head Start miss one did I oh oh yes I did so next one is the classified employment of facilities and operations department for Andrew Kelly Mr President members of the board Andrew Kelly has been interviewed for a position in the facilities and operations Department Andrew's employment will start on the completion of satisfactory references and receip of an i card recomend commend the approval of the employment of Andrew C in the facilities and operations Department upon receipt of an ivp fingerprint card may I have a motion on that I'll make the motion I'll second Miss Olen I Mr Hopkins I Mr kurries I Mr Guthrie M Rodriguez approved 5 to zero okay now the next item is the approval of increased Paro hours at Head Start yes Mr President members of the board the special education director and the Head Start Administration are requesting additional contract days for oneon-one AIDS Candace Moore and Kelly Braun headart will be holding classes on MLK 15th of January and extending their school year out until the 6th of June this will add an additional nine days to each of their work agreements recommend the recommend the approval of the nine additional work days for Candace Moore and Kelly Brun as PR professionals working with the start okay I have a motion I'll make the motion I'll second Mr ker is I Mr Hopkins Mr Guthrie M Rodriguez hi Miss olon hi approve 5 to zero next item is Declassified recognition of per Melissa FY Mr President members of the board Melissa how do I say that last name fi yes par professional tacher a has submitted her resignation with the AO Unified School District her last year work will be December 8th 2023 recommend the approval of the resignation of Melissa PTI got it as a teachers Aid PA profession okay may I have a motion on I'll make it I'll second Mr Curtis rich is I Mr Hopkins Miss Rodriguez hi Miss Olen I Mr Guthrie approved 5 to zero okay and the final Personnel item is the extra pay volunteer position Mr President members of the board the individual below is asking to be considered as a volunteer coach for the corresponding positions Mr Lonnie Guffy the third volunteer boys basketball recommend the approval of the above individual for the correspond position I have a motion I'll make it second Mr kurri is I Mr Hopkins I miss Olen i m Rodriguez hi Mr Guri okay so it is approved four to zero with one abion or and recusal yes okay on to business items of which the first is the approval of the fiscal year 24 budget revision Mr President members of the board in accordance with Arizona revised statutes RS 15- 905 and 15- 910 by December 15th the board May revise the school district annual expenditure budget after notice has been given and a public meeting has been held attached is the district annual budget expenditure budget revision recommend the approval of the attached fiscal year 24 budget revision okay I'll make the motion I'll second okay Mr Hopkins Miss Olsson I Mr K I miss Rodriguez I Mr Guthrie I approved five to zero next item is the approval of the 2024 board meeting calendar Mr President members of the board the board is expected to adopt a board meeting calendar at the beginning of each fiscal year additional board meetings may be scheduled the 24-hour notice scheduled meeting dates may be changed within a 24-hour notice below are the proposed study and regular session meetings for 2024 yearly calendar is attached with affected holidays marked in red and meetings marked in blue the dates are below the administration is recommend amending the above dates as scheduled board meeting dates for 20 2024 we should it should see 2024 okay may have a motion I'll make it I'll second I have a comment on this one too didn't catch after looking up the other Mondays when we looked up the policy there uh I want to point out it says scheduled meetings may be changed within 24hour notice but from the way the policy reads that's only in the event of like an unavoidable emergency and that that generally the best way to change the dates is to have the board vote on them so it was like if we know there's not going to be a quorum or if there's a severe weather thing the president can reschedule a meeting with 24 hours notice but it's best practice if we know we're going to have to change it that we go ahead and you know vote on it at the previous month's meeting but that doesn't affect the voting on it so just want to point that out I caught itre well the person who made the motion can you I'll make the motion that we make sure it's for the year 2024 who second second okay any more discussion no Mr K is I miss Olsson I Mr Hopkins hi Mr Rodriguez hi Mr Guri approve five to zero okay next item is the request for termination of the association between a USD and asba I would like to make the motion for a indefinite table of this item I will second that okay Mr K is I Mr Hopkins I miss olon hi M Rodriguez hi Mr Guri that's approved 5er the final business item is the sports updates highlight re highlight re okay Mr President members of the board um uh there was aest a request for this uh agenda item at the last meeting you should have in your board doc um spoke with Dr shabot and also Mr y just to brainstorm uh some options and and once again these are just some brainstorming ideas so you have uh if I remember correctly M Mr Guth stated High School track and field and also Junior High Athletics and so um what I'll go ahead and do pass there's some options there we just went ahead and put first first we put uh for the high school track is fi we put down that the track does need major renovation so everyone is aware of that uh we came up uh first in talking with Dr chabos then with with Mr one option could be flag football in the spring confirm with the ca if a flag football league is available uh this would be an opportunity to kind of like serve as a pipeline for the students in junior high to practice varsity plays once they uh go out for the football team some options right away we came up with there some games ver Buck guy heilen say s Simon is that how I say it Santa Rosa Middle Schools Babu K Aloma School District their school so these are just some Initial Ideas we came up with uh Miss vuela did also provide us uh today with h the ca junior high school timeline for this year it's tentative so you have in front of you some of the options so the the season three is what would be next from December 5th to March December 12th to March 4th season for March 6 to May 14th so there are some ideas there uh of course this is just the very the initial planning planning phases but at least we're looking at it we're talking about it so uh this is for you to um for your information and we'll go from there um any questions comments or so besides pulling a a deal around the track to level it out and line it what other Innovations do it mean it's a dirt track right right concrete is an issue I know I know we would have to we would probably would be the best bet is to just have Mr on uh with us just trying to get some kind of in-depth assessment of of of the track of what exactly is needed I know the curve right the Cur are not are not up to code they're curving so we want to have a track and fi team but at the same time we don't want to have it be a liability situation where we have potential injuries because the track is not up to cold so um we do yeah go ahead our track our track pretty much FL against the stands which which isn't allowed anymore for safety reasons I forget the number of feet it has to be away and and we'll look into it but I have not seen a dirt track in maybe 15 years but I haven't been to a lot of small small schools a lot of rural schools so I'm not sure if it's still allowed or not but I know that they've gone to you know everywhere I've been they gone to servicing that's a lot of the little towns you drive by you'll see that as well so being no no I never had a home track me since the 70s and 80s so we had track teams and they just traveled to different track meets right and so um I'm not proposing that we have a home track meet I'm just proposing that we have a track team and the the track be used for practice right yes and then the teams could go to I think they last before they used to go to meets huh you know and so there be like several schools you know that yeah I'm G tell you you know so and it just gave the kids a we just have some kids that need to run need and they don't they're not good baseball players are not good softball players right and so it just gives them something that they can do in the spring and and so are very talented there's years I've had football teams that would have been better cross country team than a football team right cuz all those kids are great Runners and you know Eric's Aunt Mrs Cameron pushed for track for a long time and um and so actually raised a bunch of money so there could be a track team when she was on the school board and it never really got off the did it never really got yeah and so I just as youve said very well i' just like to have all the kids involved in something even if we had five people on the track team that that went and participated you know at least those five kids could play we have golf anymore which I understand why but we don't have golf anymore so those kids don't even have that option anymore so this may be an option for some kids that do do any other sport to actually have sport but we have to remember too that tracking field is not just about the running I mean there's other events got the field events discus long jump high jump you know there's a lot of other events I think that the kids have can have an opportunity to participate in other than just the running the reason why you say the running is because it's the cheapest and easiest to get that and then after a while if you have enough participation then you can get all the hurdles and all the other things you know we still have quite I think we still have like four mats up in the the storage the big the big like four foot ones don't know how good they are still but yeah to have a body yeah well there there there's the there there's some options there we you know one that you know we did list down because Dr shol Mr and I were first talking about football right some kind of flag football seven on seven I know they they they used to they I don't know if they still do that in the the valley but years ago High School summer they would have seven on seven eight on eight so by the time now I'm just going back to AIA experience by the time the state playoffs came around most of the Phoenix teams would always been the state titles because they started their seven seven on seven eight eight in the summer two catch up so so passing leag here it's a flag football boys and girls so these are just some some things to look at and we just wanted to awesome so there was a Le outside the ca at one time called Sor leag and it was made up Junior High teams and they were from a to is that what it's currently called now yeah I'm pretty sure yeah and and so they they compete in basketball desert I think they compete in baseball and softball now who picks all that up right now Dr suto is Parks and R yeah Parkin Rex picks picks all that up now and um so I mean that would be a question that that you know that you would maybe have a parks and W and see if they're going to continue that and whether they like the high school to pick it up you know the school to pick it up the advantage to the school picking it up that I always saw with a big Advantage kids have to make grades Park and wreck you just play right you don't have to make grades the kids who are in the snor desert Le it is called snor desert Le they do have okay they changed it I don't know about the parks and W but the schools that they do play do have the um the grade requirement to or eligibility and so I always thought that was an advantage that they would have to make grades because we had that Allstar all the way up to high school and then suddenly it would never eligible for the four years of high school you know and Mr G we do off for gol and we did last year as well we just didn't have anyone sign up we advertised it we had um some volunteers I know some folks that work out at the golf course that would love to have because they' also put them to work and give them you know parttime historically who played golf was a kid of our Filipino teachers because of the fact that we don't offer health insurance for the kids a lot of them played golf other than other sports because they thought there was a less chance of getting injured and so it was it was true I always thought it was a good recruiting thing for for Filipino teachers to say hey we we offer Golf and and you guys could come down your kids could could be on the golf team right I I know Mercy's kids and everybody else's kids were on that team at one time and so we both white used to play golf I used to playl play golf too and but um you know we can look into it I these are good options uh golf FL football boys and girls Sor desert Le desert not can I be the the pesimist and all this the biggest disadvantage to all this is somebody has to schedule all these games right so it puts more work on your on your ad that does the scheduling and then the second thing is you have to provide some sort of transportation to get them to the track meets the coach can drive right that's what we've been doing anyway but the coach can drive and so those are the two disadvantages that I've always heard reasons why not to have have these teams too hard to schedule and too hard to transport them but um the teams are huge they could go in the van in the little bus right and the bus drivers could the coaches could drive those buses more kids we get involved in sports the less problem we have in the community I maybe we can at least start just Dr both m i just try maybe we can focus on what what one sport can we at least try and hit one sport and it's worth a shot just talk about the options the challenges what we have going what can work and um try and see if we can at least try and get one sport and get something started the next we try and get a couple more at the junior I so it's it's a start at least we're talking about it you know what I found over the last year that anything that you want to do you get done I haven't seen you take on anything that you haven't you haven't got done so one U one concern I have about with the track even though as Lonnie said they didn't used to have the meats here and it wouldn't need to be up to the the standard for having Meats at it would still be a safety concern for our students to be practicing on that track if they hit that curb running you know there's a good chance they break an ankle or at least sprain it bad enough to be out then my assumption is that there's a safety reason why they don't build them right next to the bleachers anymore because again if somebody takes a fall in that outside Lane could Hur you know hurt themselves hitting they could hurt themselves hitting the bleacher so I would be curious if we were going to try to do that if to see if we could get an estimate for what it would cost to get that field to where it to get the track to where it's safer and if there are funding sources grant funding sources available to do so I don't think I mean it would ever be feasible to be able to move that track far enough away from the stand now yeah I don't know what I don't know what the distance ISB right visitor side both sides okay both of them yeah I wasn't sure what the what it looked like on the other side but and again I think um we could mow down the elementary school move that somewhere else and and what I was starting to say again is that I still think cross country if there's student interest in it cross country would be a good another good option because it's another low impact Sport with low physical risk and it's and it's and it's less less expensive than a lot of the other sports because it doesn't require as much equipment for we need to get some with the big red for Galaxy drop everybody off behind the a to start running you know back in the day Alo high school was known for its track field and for cross that doesn't surprise me because I know the auton people are legendary Runners of this okay are there any more questions or discussion on this item thank you thank you for that upate we'll follow we'll see what what is the most realistic that we can do in the spring give it a shot I guarantee you the community is behind this they want it they have for a long time okay if there's nothing more our next item is the possible possible new agenda item for next meeting does anybody have an agenda item to propose other than the ones that were proposed last night which we got to tonight okay then so something that I find really weird every time we do it is why we vote on somebody resigning because we have to by law yeah statute statute the reason the reason is because um oh well we can have after I can answer later it's not okay so may I have a motion to convene and move into an executive session I'll second it okay M and we're wait we're go we're recessing from regular session to go into executive correct okay okay uh Mr Hopkins Mr KES I miss Olen hi Miss rodrig is hi Mr Guth Hi 5 to Zer we are in executive session okay don't forget

I just wanted to give you a quick little intro for our first  performer tonight, Samantha Maderos. She is not a student here but she is our wonderful student  teacher who comes and volunteers every Tuesday after school to help with the music group. She's going to be performing a really special song, ‘O Holy Night’ and if she would  like to say something about it, she can, but she might just launch into it. So, give it up for Samantha. [Applause] [Samantha] Hi, so I picked this song because it's very special  to me because well, every day, every Christmas time that I had the opportunity to perform while my mother was on this Earth, she would nag me every single year about ‘O Holy Night’. It was her favorite song. She’d be like, “When are you going to perform it? When are you thinking?” So, even though she’s not here to see me, I really wanted to perform it because it was really special to her, and I want her to see that I'm finally doing it.

W family people around the bed and C in the hospice nurse did pronouncements I was the last one to to talk to him to hold his hand left hand left hand hot the hot and once he was pronounced I said to the side and the wheelchair was there have my brother and sister they opened up saw the emotion on their faces I said my last so I let them take in the moment this town is what made this is what made the sonies I invite everybody to open up the m re.com to read the obituary it's not lengthy you bet already know it's not lengthy you're going to see a real young man picture of him and um the visi hours I wrote it down with it's it is public The Vision hours would be uh 8 call at 8:30 in the morning to 10: the mass of St 10:30 in the in the burials at Wildwood Cemetery we wouldn't want any other way to be public because um this this family that grew up in Ashan my father grew up in Fram and Ashan is worth the time to say say thank to him and now he's back reunited with his W Ruth Ruth Simpson the Sony after 24 years so I'm saying in public m.com thank you for the briary notice I myself was taking care of him for nine years with the hospital people nurses everybody all the medical side and to see the phases of what he went through was tough but we're the Sony proud and I was at at the moment so I'm I'm saying thank you to mice and to my family we have now sealed the past wounds we had me and my brother are the same me and my sisters the same we're all together this is what families do and my dad who is a strong Italian waited to the the last second before he said goodbye on earth now he's up in heaven the gates are open and my mother's there thank you thank you Mark thank you um any anyone else for um citizens participation so I don't see any raised hands or anyone else approaching the podium so I'll begin with the agenda uh the first item on our agenda is U vote to close the tax classification a hearing so Michael if you just want to talk to us a little bit about that sure um so this is basically a formality at this point um as you know the board uh voted to go ahead and open and continue the tax classification hearing until and we can't close it until after town meeting uh just so we can incorporate all the U Appropriations if any that are part of town meeting and I believe that Susan had provided in your packet the language of the boat from last year um it's there at the very end and so it's it's essentially a motion to close and approve the tax classification hearing okay are you ready to I think so I move so uh motion to reopen the tax classification hearing second all those in favor of opening it say I I okay and then um motion to approve and close the tax classification hearing I'll second that motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I oppose motion passes unanimously great I would also note that Candi is here um for and she's what item is she here for um she's here for the whole meeting Rob oh she's boy what did you do robon maybe she's interested Rob so that perk your ears right up be a a long meeting so yeah I um believe it was item D which is the discussion about the approved senior workof program oh okay item D so unless you are here for the whole meeting well so 7:15 we have a public hearing is it something we can discuss in five minutes should reason wait D oh okay that's at the end of the list oh there it is at the end of the list of um LIC I don't have it on this one okay it might have been on the more discuss the community block grant monitor has been solved discuss the vote on the opin nope it's on the updated one that was updated on Monday oh all right well isn't that what Diane sent out to us today all right so when we get to that part mark Mike just except that we it's not on our agenda it is on the one I think it's got posted so I think I think we're okay there okay all right so all right so now we're on to uh do you have it Joe no so something changed between what Susan sent and then what Diane sent us yeah so it changed on the Monday oh right but I printed out what Diane sent out today and that did not have the updated this is the one I printed up from D is it on oh I apologize for that cuz I I am looking at that one right now and no it's not on there you're correct so do we know it definitely got posted um I'm checking that right now if not you might get to come back again think about that no I I think did you post it actually I actually think we could you know even if it's not yeah it's it's on the one that's posted good all right well let's let's go ahead was there any other information we needed for that or we're just going to talk about there well Jen was going to provide kind of like an overview about things and Candy you know if you want to start what we what got voted and approved at town meeting right and so now we're doing okay very good so we'll move on to that when we get um and also just so you know yeah she's here oh oh nice good um okay we have 3 minutes before 7:15 all right any you want to do the consent agenda I think so is anybody want to talk about anything on it no it's on the consent agenda that's why we don't talk about no no but people we pull it all the time I'm just asking if someone wants to talk about any of it um okay actually pull motion to pull motion to approve the consent agenda minus Item B which will review I'll second that all right all right so all motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I I those o motion passes unanimously okay so now we can talk about Item B yeah so my only question um because the item says I know we've received a a request from the um ashin Town Forest committee to reduce the committee size from Seven members to five voting members and it says in one or more associate members do we have how do we know how many associate members we currently have and to say it was four we have four um okay yeah this is updated Pages if you um I think there I have no issues I have no issues changing the the voting number um the numbers of voting members but I was just curious pretty sure we have four um on the Town Forest committee there's four Associates associate but they're only asking I was one or more oh so they can have as many as they want in this language I was curious what the what we had and what the language you know like just so any in terms is anybody have any concerns or issues in reducing it to five voting members and one or more I would think for them it makes it easier if they only have five then it's easier to get Quorum and to actually have a meeting Seven's seven is a seven can be tough yeah I I would also advise when um committees do come to you with expanded membership requests that you heavily evaluate it because I know nobody likes to say no to people but we do this is not the first time where we've had a situation we've gone up and then we had to go down and one of them this was this was five members right I think they they they us yes y yep I think that happened in space that happened I remember why a few times okay the other thing I would say is moving forward is that if someone has a request like this instead of putting it into the consent agenda let him come to a meeting we can give us we if we can get an update at the same time on what they're working on I would say moving forward if a if a idea committee asks for this kind of thing put them on the our agenda for the next meeting and then that way we can have a conversation but I move that we accept the request for the Ashen toown Forest committee to reduce the size from seven to five voting members and Associate members as they see appropriate I'll second motion's been made made in second all those in favor say I I I uh none opposed motion passed unanimously the Town Forest committee committee size has been reduced to five members and one or more associate members all right thank you for that now it's 7:15 so now it's 7:15 I'm going to open the U public hearing uh for an alteration of license premise to Warren Conference Center uh notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing regarding an alteration of license premise submitted by flick international corporation DBA waren Conference Center and in the alteration would include changing the license premise to include all the buildings and grounds within the Warren Conference Center and in complex excluding the parking lot Warren Conference Center in 529 Chestnut Street ashin Mass 01721 a public hearing will be held in the matter at ashon Town Hall 101 Main Street on Wednesday December 6th at 7:15 this meeting will be conducted in person however participants are also invited to join the meeting via zoom using this link and list the link uh parties wishing to be heard in this matter should appear at the time and place indicated above interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street Ash mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Robi at sroi Asin mass.com signed Robert Shar chair select board Okay so we have a motion to open the hearing so moved second moot motion's made in second all those in favor open the hearing say I I I motions hearing okay uh the motion's open sorry so do we have a proponent to come forward or a presentation representative of Y hi come on up and stand at the podium sure yeah go ahead if you have something you want to just as kind of a Prelude this is um a request for an alteration of the license premises to include the basically the whole buildings and grounds with a couple not notable exceptions and um Kim sternik is here from representing flick and uh Kim would you like to basically present your case and certainly uh we are a group-driven property um we are we have recently transformed one of our one of the buildings in which will become a small Cafe called Henry's place um and we're hoping that we'll be able to serve alcohol and we thought it would be easier and better for our business and for the community to premise the to license the entire premise including some of our field areas uh all of our events are all group-driven they're booked ahead of time we wor it's not open to the public the Henry's place will be open to the public and will serve as an outlet for light fair and hopefully beverage um for our new Community Club that we have started about a year and a half ago um as well as to our guests on property as well as to the general public anything else um according to this agenda um I'm to ask if there's anyone um anyone else speaking in favor or anyone opposed to this license um requirement come forward raise your hand if you're virtual or come forward to the microphone if you're here we get any notification via email from anybody I don't recall seeing anything thank you okay so any further information comments questions from the select board just a few so um is this to expand just to include Henry's place or are you looking to then have it be able to do well we're hoping we'll throughout the whole facility like I know you put a tent up in the summer um and you do events there so right now if you do an event there you can't alcohol there correct okay so you're looking to basically say okay we want to rather than cuz right now it's just in the lodge if I'm correct just in the lodge so we're adding other there's an addition being put on that's we broke ground on couple of weeks ago so that's going to be that's also in the alteration where's the addition being put on we used to have a patio area that was covered on the back side of the Hayden Lodge we've removed that we're going to be building a a about a 2,800 square foot uh room to be named and that will serve as meeting space as well as general function space okay um there'll be a deck outside of the dining room area which will enhance the experience for our guests there um we would also like to be able to utilize the fields it offers us the flexibility to do community based events as well as um to the to private events as well we had a lot of call for people who want to do fun things out there and the licensure would is somewhat of a drag okay I'm good go ahead you good Mr chair go ahead thank you um one quick question uh does that include the uh beach front as well beach front State Property so that's the that would absolutely I just absolutely not it would be within our property lines okay thank you yeah almost set thanks I have a a couple questions so um one of the in in our packet one of the locations is guest cabins so we have four cabins and I think that that was our corporate office those are overnight accommodations we wouldn't be serving alcohol okay cuz I part of the hotel it's okay I was just trying to figure out I think they wanted to incorporate everything but there's no those are rented privately and we wouldn't be okay serving alol um and the and the times and things are I don't think I saw that in our in our packet is there um is there limitations so we're hoping to amend it to our existing license which is a 1 a okay to 1:00 a.m.

And, even though I never really got to tell her while she was here that I appreciated her at the actual performance, I still get to tell my dad that I really appreciate him, and all the times that he’s driven me here so that I can do this. So, this is ‘O Holy Night’. [Applause] [Solo Piano Music] O holy night, the stars [Music] O holy night, the stars [Music Stops] I’m just gonna get that one more time. Sorry all. Thank you. Appreciate it. [Laughs] [Music Continues] O holy night, the stars are shining brightly. It is the night, of the dear savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ’til he appeared, [Music Pauses] [Music Continues] and the soul felt his worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices. For yonder beams, a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees. Hear the angels' voices.

and all events are um 4 hours or less y I saw okay um and everything is is even if it's out in the tent there's the appropriate oh yes absolutely gotcha okay because we we have not done a um a premise I don't think we have any we don't have any premise licenses right now so you know I'm looking at this as like you know I think that if that if we were to to do a premises license I think the W I think this is the place to look at to do yeah um so you know I I I completely uh I can I I kind of I going through the map and how you guys are laid out and how how everything functions I think you know I don't I don't have um a lot of concerns with your process because it seems like because it's so event driven it is and it's not sort of a I don't want to call it a free-for-all but that's you know because that that that would be like my concern is if we had a premises license that was not controlled I guess you can say um then I would you know I would I would want to make sure we had some parameters on that so of course one of the parameters I thought I think it was mentioned in the uh in your packet that the parking lot was excluded from this location from I believe you can't yeah well we wouldn't do that anyway you can't serve alcohol in a park no but I'm just saying that was one of the restrictions that was on the for state laws yep okay I Michael yeah go ahead anybody Kim I just wanted to to clarify um so except for Henry's place all the other times alcohol will be served in the other places that's going to be contract pre-arranged contracted events yes is that correct with the exception being that we would hope to be able to offer beer and wine perhaps in the in lobby or something if you were a transient guest that was staying okay but the only bar that we would have open to the public would be at Henry's place and it's really cute and tiny I love it that it's called Henry's place isn't it fun do sound that's great that's great any further deliberation discussion before we close the hearing no um anyone to speak against it I asked before no one but caught one or two more people on so okay just remind people you can raise hand function if you'd like to speak let's see is anybody um okay motion to close the public hearing so moved a motion's been made I just said it oh okay second oh yeah sorry it's good she caught that that's good uh motions been made in seconded to close the public hearing all those in favor say I I oppose none Claud are you voting or participating I see you there she may have just turned just be listen I'll leave and then motion to wait I have to declare so we close the public hearing okay y very good go ahead motion to approve the extension of the Warren Conference Center to a premise license as presented in our materials I'll second that there you go Motion uh as to approve the license have been made in second all those in favor say I iOS license has been approved congratulations thank you very much thank you good luck we will we'll be interested to see how it goes so we may ask ask you back in six or eight months to find out how it's working for you great thank you good luck thank you all right the next is the public hearing for a livery license applicant is Anthony Gomes I'm going to ask the vice chair if she'd be so kind to read it my voice is giving out thank you notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing regarding an application for a livery license to Anthony J Gomes 14 Upland Road Ashlin Mass o 1721 a public hearing will be held on this matter on Wednesday December 6th 2023 at uh 7:45 I believe oh so then we need to wait I'm sorry we need to wait thank you nope I we will wait to read this until 7:45 we can go on to old new business so that's the annual license renewals which we all have a long list and I think we decided we don't need to read it we can reference the list by having it on our agenda then people can see what has been approved so um and this is all of our licenses in town this is this is like all all the the liquor licenses this is all the um common Vic license any sort of amusement Bard all of those lodging yep that's good yeah just it's good to describe it for the public what we're all looking at here so all alcohol restaurant all alcohol retail wine malt restaurant wine malt retail Amusement Billiards Class 2 which is used cars class three which is junk and Salvage uh Club common Vic entertainment hobby lodging and taxi and Livery Livery I think it should be junk and Salvage not or is it junk and Savage Salvage okay Savage Savage junk Savage it be a first in the state it would I move that we approve the list of licens renewals as presented on the agenda I'll second motions been made and seconded all those in favor say I I oppose none motions been all the licenses listed here are renewed all right thank you businesses for staying in Ashland all right so I think the next one is um discuss the community uh block grant monitoring process and followup so if you'll recall um uh I as chair was sent a letter a finding letter um from our management of the Community Development block grant fund that had to do with and Michael will talk about it but um the um we hired a subcontractor to oversee some awards um uh and help to for businesses who were affected by the uh covid uh um um epidemic and um there's some issues with documentation of I think of my recollection of losses from from those businesses and then some of the business actually didn't respond to tell how they use the funds and um ol hlc whatever their new acronym is was not happy with um our subcontractor's management so they sent us that report and Michael has um my understand has done some extensive followup on that and so he's ready to tell us about how that's how that's going yeah rob you actually summarized it pretty well um uh there if just if everybody recalls um we were awarded almost a $5 million microenterprise Grant um to distribute to businesses that were impacted by covid um we uh select well we weren't given much of a choice on who we could select but basically we subcontracted with mass growth Capital Corporation to basically administer the program and so they um they're the ones who set things up um they used a state supported portal for all the documentation purposes um and so fast forward to 2022 late 2022 early 2023 and going back as the executive office of Housing and livable communities went back through and looked at the documentation basically kind of an audit they sampled a few different businesses and they saw that there wasn't necessarily uh the documentation that that was required that needed to be there and so that is what they are bringing to our attention and asking for our help in terms of U reconciling that um and so basically what uh we're doing we're trying to work with mass growth Capital Corporation although Beth is doing a lot of this herself reaching out to these specific businesses to try to obtain the documentation that is being required um so far we've really had very little luck um with with regards to mass growth Capital Corporation but um and I mean we're finding a couple businesses are actually out of businesses out of business at this point so uh best working on that we've got about another month um in order we have about a month in the time frame that executive office has given us to put our response together and and um and put forward so we hope to have more information at that point in time and what we have to do is we have to submit uh essentially a letter that says that we will comply with you know future Grant um obligations and internal controls and things of that nature um so we'll need to do that you know at the beginning of the year uh questions yeah just one question so if we were made or for forced to work with this particular vendor uh and they didn't follow up with what they were required to do do we have any I mean any recourse yeah or are we are we on the hook for anything because they didn't do what they were supposed to do I think that's yet to be be seen so um you know according to the letter that we have received it does not look like there's any Current financial pen penalties that are on the table they do say that um we cannot um basically contract with mass growth Capital Corporation again unless we submit to the executive office what that agreement is and they feel comfortable that mgcc can handle it okay um to answer your direct question I think if there was a monetary you know penalty imposed we would then have recourse to go back to M go back based on the agreement that we had signed with them good thank you Michael was that one of the companies that the state suggested the towns use yeah I mean it was pretty kind of this de broker by MPC yeah and I think it's important to note that we're we're crossing over a couple different administrations here um which I will say I feel has something to do with this um because amazingly like when we received this money they the state meaning the state wanted to push it out like right away and get it into the hands of these businesses as soon possible so I think you know under one Administration we were given certain instructions and mass growth Capital was given you know certain instructions and then you know with the new Administration coming in which admittedly is probably on the hook you know for any kind of um any kind of consequences associated with this yeah well I think was you know when I read it I was you know and I've been involved in these kind of relief programs as well I was a little surprised at well first of all that they didn't get good applications from people showing the need um and then the businesses you know their lack of response and the fact that it sounds like you're still having difficulty with some of these uh you know that's really very disappointing and somewhat unusual that they wouldn't document you know I did a PPP loan many of us probably did you know you just had to follow the documentation it sounds like these people aren't even bothering to do that and um are these are these any bu I I know this is a huge Grant and involves are these any local businesses that are I I do not believe there are any Ash businesses that were part of the 16 I was just reading that I was a little surprised at the kind of um it was a little Mass gr it was a little slip shot but you know I think they also expected kind of conscientious response from people who are getting these grants and it it sounds like there's a lot of resistance and that's that's very disappointing some unusual resistance or B basically um just Lac ofical attitude indifference and this is you know you get people complaining about misspent government funds and this is you know unfortunately but I but I was also thinking if a business got the funds and then they still weren't able to stay in business well that's true at this point fa you know once they failed because of Co even if they got these funds they they have no incentive to reply or to fill this paperwork un that isn't the case though you you got active businesses that are not responding is that correct apparently a couple have come back or it's come to our attention that they're not in business anymore I think the way you know Beth is approaching it first of all is she's emailing these businesses herself to establish a paper trail um and you know we will do our best She'll follow up with phone calls we'll do our best to get the information that we can even though this really should be Mass growth capital I was going to say because it wasn't Beth that got the businesses to work with us right it was mass growth Capital that well it's not just Ashland right number of communities and I believe it was 23 communities in each of the communities local officials in each of those communities helped identify the businesses that would be um utilized and mass growth Capital Corporation was really kind of the administrative agency that set up the submittables platform which was um you know the platform that they used for all of this documentation held the money you know all of that good stuff let me ask a question it was um I assume that that this was not the only block grant that was given to mgcc if it's like a state thing but we're not the only one so I'm I'm curious if if you've heard from other um sort of administrative groups of these block grants if there's other issues in other communities and they're kind of dealing with the same issues I don't know if you've heard of anything I have not heard that I mean Beth did say today that it seems like Mass growth capital is being sued okay I'm not necessarily sure by who or whom or What entity but um were receiving some more on other projects well we're the subrecipient we're the we're probably a sub recipient there Sub sub recipient so everybody's liable well that's a good point because I think the State dollars were coming from the federal government re H and then yeah I'm just I was just curious because if there are other communities that are dealing with this issue and it becomes a bigger issue because if it's a federal thing where the documentation isn't there and then the state is trying to crack down on how this was administered you know if there is some sort of liability with mgc potentially you under audit so anyway that's just my two cents but it sounds like they're going to sounds like they're being reasonable as long as we're making a good effort and I'm glad that be unfortunately had to take it up but I think it's important for our own 16 16 well technically it was 14 because they they sampled 16 two of them had the required documentation like a not a good not a good ratio that's B 100 but how many businesses benefit I mean like oh gosh 60 to 100 businesses benefited from this program overall but they did a random sample right no no I understand that um so they just sampled the wrong ones yeah I'm kidding but that's what happened um okay you'll keep us posted on anything else one one kind of procedural question so what was the total amount that passed it passed through our finances right yes is it going to be part of our financial statement uh 4,950 th000 um that was the the total amount yeah so that'll be under our financial statement at the end of the year right I mean it's it will under under I think it's already passed it's different I think it was already on yeah right oh okay did it change our filing requirements at all because it was over didn't change our filing requirements and and actually it has been like our books have been audited since then and CU wasn't it 2020 or 2021 that this program was so it already happened it's done done and gone okay all right well thank you and hopefully be able to keep up the air all right where are we now discuss and vote on opt out for vote by mail oh yeah don't mind um Jen I'll turn it over to you to start it off the mail we're just going to pull this one right yeah the vote by we're going to pull the vote by mail I'm sorry oh okay yeah Cindy was waiting for some information from the state um and we checked right before and she still did not have that okay okay so then on just D discuss and vote on the town meeting approved senior workof program oh this is it this is candi's moment okay so um as you know um last week at town meeting we reaffirmed um our commitment to the senior tax workof program and then accepted sort of two Provisions one rather than having um a maximum amount each year that you can um earn it was a number of hours so up to 125 hours and then also allowing somebody who's not physically able to complete the hours um have somebody else um do their hours in their place yeah so we did a um just looking at our program it allows the select board to outline the program rules and so I just wanted to sort of um discuss some of those changes candi's already received several inquiries or at least two or three inquiries um for people who really want to start right as January there was nothing in our packet to no yes so yes um so in January just to um get started and then if you conceptually agree with the direction we can put together the rules um and do it as of January and do it as of January do our first meeting in January we can we can sort of airm it but then can start moving forward assuming getting people placed um so um it's 60 and over um which is that's did not change um previously we just had yet had to be a resident Homeowner of Ashlin we're thinking about adding a for minimum of five years so be here in town for 5 years to be eligible for that program um obviously you have to occupy the property for which the taxes are going to be um and so that if you had somebody that was going to work off your hours for you um the the law and the guidance from the state is that that person should also reside in that home yes so media family member not like landlords or right so immediately reside in the home um so the person who's working off needs to reside in the home as well yes is that does that make sense though sorry so it could be a spouse or it could be a child it's it's an immediate family member could be but a child May no longer live with them right I think about you know we have some senior citizens in town who are the parents of people who live in town and could it be that they at least live I mean if they don't live in the residence they live in town or something I can't get clarification but we can have immediate family and if it's required by law keep it in as maybe immediate family makes sense but okay um I'm sorry go ahead so this wouldn't work on behalf of anybody that uh needed community service hours would come and work for that individual ual per se you meaning like a student that needs Community it couldn't be dually it couldn't be du it they can use it both ways yeah so it have to be one all right thank you um previously we had a a not to exceed sort of gross annual um income for residents we've sort of looked around there are communities that do have a cap um many communities do not just with sort of your it's a service that you're working off and um and so you can either be you can also be eligible for the exemption if you if you met those um income so we were thinking about at least for this first year try that out have no no limitation in terms of what you're earning no no no income limitation for someone who wants to do this yeah so anybody who's over 60 that's able and that meets the requirements and can sort of it's really about basing uh matching skills with what we might need as opposed to um the income eligibility do you have an idea I mean like what do we so over 60 I think most of us don't think of I guess I'll speak for myself if people who are just like around 60 is not really being needing this or maybe not having in income we think of older people as generally receiving this do you have an idea like over 60 like what do we talking about in terms of numbers and so we we're going to actually have a cap for this for this year for 10 um is we also don't have unlimited number of opportunities I see so we still have to manage what's the cap did you say 10 10 we're thinking 10 last year we only had we only had three people participate last year um I think maybe our top maybe how many was the total six is and and the idea six and the idea now is in instead of a dollar amount it's ours and depending on if I I understand it correctly depending on what they do will determine what rate they're credited at correct so they make they'll make minimum wage so $15 an hour and so we can go up to 125 hours we we've previously been at 50 because our cap was really low and this so we're thinking 100 hours which is actually a lot of hours to do in a year um and so if we cap it at 100 hours at $15 an hour for 10 people we're talking about $115,000 you know they get $1,500 per person and for for the bud be potential 15,000 okay um and that's really all all the changes and so what we'll do is we'll create create little um blurs for the Departments that need work and that way we're able to match skills and then they would fill out paperwork and we would be able to place them but if conceptually we can agree on that I can put a um a rule document together to sort of and we can confirm that in January but at least candy can start working on getting people in place so that they can start working their hours so could this be you know like someone you know works in the clerk's office or so DPW needs someone to file or could they use this for working at the polls so typically we don't use it for working at the polls it's usually um but we we often have staff um in the clerk's office that's one of the Departments that does um usually participate uh senior centors sometimes the library um and then I think maybe the food pantry we talked about but there's some opportunities to expand it and we'll make sure that we have and people can sort of tell us where they're also interested and why are you doing 60 plus why not 65 plus that's the that's what the law says yeah oh the law says it has to be 60 plus oh okay but so you're talking about only 10 people so do you select are you going to select people like what happens if you get more than 10 yeah come to the microphone come on up here K you you've been here all this time you do something I know well um Candy Wilson I'm the director of the senior center also an Ashland resident um so my understanding is um can you repeat your question I just want to I just so there's 10 I just don't know what kind of demand I would the folks to the skill set that they have so we wouldn't necessarily want to place somebody in a role that they couldn't right but I'm saying what if you get more interest more requests than 10 so it would have to so other towns we could do it as a lottery it would have to be done as a lottery and that's what other towns are doing as well but we felt like in the last five years we haven't had more than six and so you know even if people are more interested because now we've had a little bit more public discussion um because it was I think been a a bit of time since we implemented and so if we even double that um and so we felt like 10 was a decent number it sort of matches I think Hollis or Hoppington has a similar uh cap some of the larger departments have um bigger CS is there a date that people need to like decide that they want to participate by or so typically the program runs January to December so they have to complete their work hours by December um 30th okay so I'm just thinking you know if it's rolling in terms of like if you didn't participate but most of the folks that do want to participate want the whole calendar year although 100 hours doesn't seem like a lot it is when it's it is 7:45 but are we okay are we agreeable to I think we're yeah so thank you and I'll turn this over to the to run this hearing so thank you thanks candy did you I'm sorry did you have a question sir about this I have a letter for the public oh yeah we're about to start that we're about to read that so if you want you can step up um so it's now 7:45 notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing I guess I should put my glasses on regarding an application for a livery license for Anthony J gos 14 Upland Road Ashen Mass a public hearing will be held on this matter on Wednesday December 6th 2023 at 7:45 p.m.

O, night divine. O night, when Christ was born. O night, divine. O night, O night divine. [Music Ends] [Applause] Thank you so much for listening to  that. That was a bit of a mess. I was a bit nervous, but I wanted to take  some time to thank you for all coming to the ASDB Christmas Concert. Sons of Orpheus. This is their 25th year performing, and it’s an amazing group of singers.   They come every single Tuesday to perform and  they have been doing an amazing job rehearsing. They’ve worked so hard and the songs are so much fun. And I’ve had an awesome time getting to know your kids, and getting to hear their stories. Getting to just see them grow and have their experiences. And I really thank Kate for letting me come here and help out with this group. I’ve known her for so long and you know, after all this time, getting to have this experience, get into the world of music education is amazing, and I really hope that you enjoy this concert.

at the Ashen Town Hall parties wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public hearing or can participate via Zoom interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit submit written comments to the ashin select board Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashlin mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby sroy Asin mass.com um I move that we open the public hearing as read I'll second that okay okay uh so we're opening the hearing so if you could come up to the microphone sir oh we should vote right I yeah I I we vot okay 41 call the V yeah I'll call the votes s okay so this is now our public hearing yes my are you Anthony I am Anthony jigs okay um can you tell us a little bit about what you're looking to do and what you're looking for with this license well I'm retired like a 72 years old sitting at home for nothing I need to do something myself with the liy license I met the other day one of my friends he said why don't we apply for the liy license I said how how do I do that if you go to the town hall they will assist you love it so uh that's why I'm interested to uh make some little money okay and can you explain a little bit about what your business is going to do for the Family Maintenance so you're you're going to be a liery service yeah certain hours are you going to have a special car I I have a car okay and I don't know how many hours I can do it but I will try my best okay more hours and um so theivery it's you're going to just do it from your home yes any signage at your home or anything like that no okay um so we did have we did have someone email I I don't know if it was one of your neighbors they had some questions but we were able to answer that um one of the concerns was operating 24 hours a day would you think you'll be pulling out at 2 am.

[Applause] [Audience Member]: Looking good, kids. [Student] Yeah! [Applause] [Student] Does anyone want to say like, ‘Happy Holidays’? Be quiet! And I called you out, James. [Miss Kate] I need to remind you how much courage it takes to be up here on stage. So, thank you for supporting your friends. [Applause] [Music Plays] [Students] Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all  the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all  the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open  sleigh. O'er for the fields we go, laughing all the way. Ha Ha Ha. Bells on bob-tails ring, making spirits bright. What fun is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight. Oh! [In Spanish] Cascabeles, Cascabeles, Fa La La La La. Que alegría todo el día, que felicidad.

or yeah no problem but the idea is you're just going to use your car yes and from what we read you're really just looking to do local trips help people get different places yes ma'am okay okay any questions just on the on the application uh Mr Gomes uh the business name and you put down taxi delivery license permit what is actually the name of the company that you'll be running it's not not that company is running from my home I understand that but you have a business name do you have a name for your business just Anthony goony just Anthony go okay thank you okay is the difference business name and Anthony G if if you wanted to have a business you could have a business name or just can be Anthony goes that's fine too yeah I can change a letter on right yes you would just need to let us know that okay yeah yeah um any other questions from the board do I have anybody via Zoom either here to support or uh go against this Livery license request if you do please use the raise hand function down under reactions to let us know and I am seeing none there's a little hand there but I think it's the cursor um that's Jen's hand um okay so seeing nothing on um of questions to be asked uh I'd like to uh make a motion to close the public hearing I'll second that great uh all those favor of closing the public hearing I I that carries 4 z um any other discussion or debate no okay I move that we approve the taxi delery license uh permit for Anthony J Gomes at Upland Road Ashlen Mass I'll second that great uh all those in favor of the motion I I opposed zero and that passes you are officially in business as a taxi and livery service good luck thank you congratulations congratulations thank you all right thank you y um can he give you I mean we could take it here now but you might have why don't you hold off because you might have some other yeah why don't you come back yeah and come back during normal business hours during business hours to pay everything and get a stamp and everything tomorrow y you can do that tomorrow great what time should I come so we're open from 8:00 to 4:00 or 3:30 I'm sorry any particular time I anytime anytime between those hours thank you so much you're welcome you're welcome good luck thank you all right well thank you um Madame Vice chair for handling that for me I appreciate it so that brings us to number six on the agenda if I if I'm tracing this right to Priority project update uh from the town manager yeah um so downtown I think I don't think there's been too much of an update since the last time we talked about it thank you and thank you Candy it's good seeing you um essentially uh the road work is done um as you can see they've done a really nice job we're at the point now where we have a monetized punch list and we're going through those um and uh so hopefully those can get resolved without too much angst and too much drama and you know they're small things like there's a couple concrete panels that are cracked some of the bricks are cracked a lot of those have been replaced already um and so the next step is really to start moving towards um taking the poles down uh one question that I've talked to you about a couple of trees and different plantings and is that part of the monetized punch list or okay I mean I know we we won't do anything now that has to be a spring thing but um and so the next thing is moving towards taking the poles down and so Verizon is finally moving and getting a lot of their equipment installed Comcast is in a pretty good place um they're essentially waiting on us now at this point um eversource has a lot of their equipment in um they do have a delay with Transformers that they need um we need about 12 Transformers um we've got about 10 the required ones so we're still waiting on two Hopkinton and their project is having a very similar experience um I've said as long as we're first um you know I said that with Karen's office on the phone and I put put them in a bad spot um so uh so want to acknowledge that and how are the connections to the homes and businesses going the underground connections so we'll put that out to bid in January okay um as part of that we've had some I don't know for those of you that were at the tree lighting or maybe the manora lighting last year um we seem to have some issues with that electrical circuit so we're going going to include yeah the hot chocolate effect it was not it was not good um and so we're going to go ahead and incorporate fixing that as part of the building connections oh good good good so that work will be done in the spring and then once that's connected um we energize the system make sure everything's working and then we start the process of taking the wires down and then the poles so ever Source anticipated having that done mid 2024 the poll is down okay so we we're still on track for that yes great and yeah it looks the downtown looks great especially with the the holiday lights up and everything yeah I I will say to add to this uh the milpond SLO way observation deck um so the deck is been completed what needs to happen now is and DPW is doing this work um there's a little bit of an incline that needs to be done to make it ADA Compliant and so they're working on that they're working with Nic oara with um you know getting the right granite and stuff for that to make it work and thanks to Nick so so that's downtown uh moving on to Public Safety uh we do have some news there Jen you want to talk about it sure so um the correct doors um have arrived which is great news yes and so uh they've been working to take one door at a time down one you know set of doors um at a time so that we can continue to operate and uh they've coordinated with the fire department so they're moving apparatus to make sure that they can maintain um their ability to respond to calls um we have two fully operational and the third should be if not today in the next day or so um and they'll doing one at a time and so over the next two to three weeks we'll have the rest of the Bays done and complete they do look um a lot nicer they're definitely can even just when you look at them you can tell the quality so I'm really happy that that um has happened I think even the opening the opener that it's a lot quieter um even the hinges the sizes of the hinges are like double maybe um which have they done first the the one closest to the the school like you're going up the hill so you're going up the hill and you can really tell that's I figured I'd ask I haven't been by there for a few days yeah so there's a you know the window um when you go back go by at night it's super evident in terms of so that's done and then solar is also complete um that is also done so really just working on some last minute um uh punch list items and then a couple of the change orders that had long lead times and so that's really you know really wrapping up this point nice that's great okay okay minda school I think probably the big news is that we've got the playground open uh since our last meeting um and so we uh that was that was a fun a big thing fun thing to sign off on and uh so the kids were really really appreciative of that you know the other thing we're working on is with you know some of the new infrastructure funds that came on board or came online I should say there's the opportunity for municipalities to take advantage of energy solar energy tax credits that we weren't necessarily able to before because well we don't tax get ourselves taxed um so the rules have changed a little bit around that um but that's the good news and so we might be eligible for a significant amount of of money um based on those credits for the Mendes school and its solar project that's the good news the bad news is that nobody's ever done this before so we're all kind of like figuring out how it works going along so where where because it's not did we set we didn't create solar for that right on the window it's solar ready it's solar ready and then it's also got other energy effici gy right I mean has a lot of energy efficiencies but okay can we utilize the uh public safety building for some of those tax credits as well um I think that would be credited to the school to the school project solely the school project okay yeah but it piggy back on it yeah yeah okay so that's Mendes um Valentine so we've been at the 90 the barn has been at the 95% complete stage fors a couple weeks now um it it looks incredible um what's still remaining is they have to do finish up a little bit more of the flooring which is the uh you know 2in roughs on boards um and then also the barn doors so the barn doors have been painted and they've been you know protected um that's happening in the shop those should be going up pretty soon um and then after that one of the final pieces I don't know if you've noticed this but there are a couple of doors that we basically restored um on the sides sides except there's a sizable step down so Doug is actually working with nicara again to you know procure some uh some Granite steps for those sites but you know it's it's pretty utilitarian of course and but it's it's pretty nice we we have a date on our calendar right for January believe it's 27th or 29th oh I believe for the Forum 27th or 29th yeah let me let me double check I'll have to go back to my notes but we did establish a date I think it was the 27th the 27th is a Saturday so it must have been the 2th 29th okay Monday because I had a date of the 22nd so if we pushed it out to the 29th that's fine okay yeah did we have that on our schedule do we get that I just don't I know we talked about it didn't we had talked about it so okay the 29th perfect and then you know nothing really on the Warren District so think that's pretty much wraps up Priority projects and I'm just I'll renew my ask to have the upper Charles Trail put on this list here yeah thank you okay well public safety building should go off soon so that would be good no good Mena school should go off soon well except that we still have all the field work and stuff to do true true and new the new traffic patterns have already started yes and it worked out it's worked out pretty well so far there's no backup of any of the parents that are usually parked on on conquer Street Goodbody they shouldn't have been parked on conquer Street at all since the Mendes opened cuz they were pulling up along the back the buses were too oh no the buses were using the they were still a tack right now everything is working well oh good yeah everything's working well hopefully cuz boy there was a lot of planning there's a lot of there's a lot of space there for sure okay Town manager yes so I've got a couple items here on the agenda and a few items that are not on the agenda so I'll start with the ones that are on um so special town meeting recap obviously we had town meeting on Wednesday last Wednesday um we had about 81 81 people attend um so not a giant town meeting but we didn't have much on the warrant we only had eight items um all items passed um including our free cash appropriation which um funds our long-term liabilities and then also our Capital program um town meeting approved the 41c and a half exemption which provides tax relief for seniors um we did uh do the senior tax workof program as as we discussed earlier there were a couple of land related things one a donation from the Bell property and uh also an easement on High Street so both of those are being worked on by Lisa you know to finalize that stuff and move it forward um and then the liquor license uh the authorization for the board to submit a home R petition for the liquor licenses we need to start working to put that together for the board to to vote on and uh the other two were CPC articles so um and so those passed as well so I thought um thought all in all we we had some sound issues uh and we had some AC issues yes AC um but those were resolved thanks to our crack team at wacka and the people that they work with as well as our facilities team um so that was it was fixed in relatively short order so it was it was a good meeting great um so other items Michael yeah so I have um so it says up here update on the clinician and that's the um jail diversion program clinician so uh the town and her police department has contracted with Riverside uh Community Care um who has uh selected a person to work with us um as our clinician for the JDP program um it's local resident Kirsten quern um so she uh she has uh started her training process and and everything so we think she's going to work out really really well um I think many of you probably know Kiren nice what did you call the program Michael the jail diversion program jail diversion is in is it a ride along or just kind of like a call it's kind of a it's really call based call based yeah so she'll respond to yeah okay um there there are some Ride Along aspects to it as well nice uh the other things I had so you know first of all um we just had we just had a great weekend um in terms of events um so Saturday we obviously had the Holiday Stroll in the tree lighting and uh the town just looks smashing uh have to give Beth a lot of credit it's like a Hallmark moment I've had more than a Hallmark movie I've had more than one people more than a handful of people say that y um but we do have the lights are just professionally done so and it makes a huge difference um the stroll was a big success you know our vendors we had increased our vendors by a third um they ended up you know doing being wildly successful oh that's the tree lighting was successful Santa made it um in that freezing cold and you know he had a long Santa was very warm he had a a long list or long line of people who were waiting to to tell him all of his good stuff or all the good stuff that they want for Christmas so everything went off pretty well um Santa spent a lot of time in Ashland Santa yes at The Corner Spot day so wow so that was pretty cool um and also what was going on Saturday was our conference of plan open house and so we had set a goal as a steering committee to get a hundred people participate as part of that um we had just shy of 160 we had 159 uh provide feedback so it was really really great the room was was always busy um want to thank everybody who was involved um with putting that together including the consultant and our working group Yolanda yourself folks Kate and Beth um want to thank the Mom's Club for providing um that was kid activities um and so the kids drew what they liked about Ashley and what they would like to see in ashin those were the best those were so fun to see I think I think the consultant's going to scan those in and it's going to it's going to be part of yeah we talked to you know the best one was a popey's chicken the popey's chicken more rainbows cuz you need more rainbows the I I mean they were all good but I really like some of the realistic ones you know like looking for the skate park and different playgrounds and different things but the more rainbows was good Popeyes was fun so but again there was one that I questioned somebody had said no Waste Management you know no garbage trucks yeah trcks but I question whether that was a child here draw this picture Kid you never know never know great it was drawn by a coyote it was but it was it was awesome was good a lot of good conversation lot of people so we should have more a Consolidated look at that feedback um at our next steering committee meeting yep so I'm looking forward to seeing that I did get a chance to scan some of the Post-it notes and it looks like there were some really good feedback provided yeah and there was a lot of part you know thank you guys for doing it and Michael was there and all the steering committee members a lot of enthusias a lot of a lot of members were there it was good very helpful um and then on Sunday we had uh the dwali event which is basically combo town of Ashland and um Ashland Indians Club um event and that was great Brandy was there with us uh they actually collected uh $300 to donate to the food pantry oh nice um and uh it was it was a great event a lot of the kids performed um and it's just amazing the kind of talent that we have here from dancing so this was different than the one that they had back in November right yeah okay so this one was at the middle school it's usually at The Corner Spot yeah they had they had the rung goalie and the um okay so okay that explains it the one they usually have at The Corner Spot yeah so it was it was good it was really good good and it was at the middle school which was good because Sunday the weather was lousy and it would have been a miser they would had to cancel it if they had landed outside so good and then the last thing I have is just I mean I've brought to your attention the fact that we have some issues with the roof yeah um and that was on our list for 2024 to one of our goals to get done so we're expecting bids um on that roof uh fixed to come back in January 16th right so yep um we successful this time around so um so yeah I'll keep you updated on that how that goes and uh jendy do you have anything okay I think that's us all right thank you so we're ready for board reports Y and Claudia if she want to say anything just raise your hand but we'll start with actually what Brandy has her poem so we thought we would have Brandy do her do yes finish on that how could I have Miss forgotten that all right very good she has her poem so we we'll let her do her last all right so Joe why don't you lead us off sure I'm happy to be lead off hit not a problem they need to be able to hear you yeah they may not want to uh the holiday lighting and holiday St like Michael said it was an awesome time um it was nice to uh see Santa back and doing the things that uh they enjoyed doing um I had heard that uh four four children sat on Santa his lap and they came from the Ukraine and their families are here in town oh wow and um each one of them they were separately they had come through the line separately and one of the elves had told Santa that um they're from the Ukraine so Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas and they said Peace in my country that was it yeah that was it for Santa I can tell you that right now yeah man oh man out of the mouth of babes I just wish our world leaders could hear these things and make those decisions but anyway um it was a great time I enjoyed it um the Ashland uh traffic study committee uh we met a couple of weeks ago and one of the biggest concerns right now is is is speeding uh in and around the areas uh uh many areas of town and so we've been talking about that we've been talking about you know the the uh possibility of putting speed bumps in if that's a you know uh something that could happen uh the other is more visibility whether our police police officers out there doing right are um even if they just gave you know written warnings instead of written citations that you know hurts the pockets of you know of anybody because there it's a lot of money you know with the additional fees that they put on the uh the citations today uh it's just not like $25 speed fine now it's plus 150 and and and other things so you're looking at $300 to $400 uh at a whack but anyway so we're talking about that uh I just want to make mention that we have the uh employee recognition uh luncheon uh this Friday at 8 right so on the 8th which is it's always a fun thing to do and uh the manur lighting is uh December 10th from 6:15 to 7: and I'll hold this one for for Yolanda cuz I know she's a lion so she would hype up on that and um just to uh it's been a tough week for well tough weekend uh for the town of Aram we lost a lot of uh great residents in town uh just recently uh uh Helen blong is saying her passed away she was an assistant teacher uh she she was a teacher's assistance for over 25 years at uh in the Ashland School System very loved and very caring person and I wish her I wish her peace and and and rest and her condolences to her family the prel family another tragedy uh that just happened over the weekend um and uh Mr Don Gus guess used to look at us when we go visit over there and uh he just said I don't know about you boys and that's exactly what he would say I don't know about you boys and we there was there was a hidden message in there and we all got it we believe we all got oh yeah and then some and then lastly my uh my godfather may you rest in peace Richard Morini we just lost him the other day and we uh buried him today we miss him so that's all I have to say but you know what in the Christmas of thing in the spirit of Christmas you know what they're all with they're all up there looking down at us and they're smiling and proud of all you guys so you know I will not spoil Christmas I will enjoy that and I will keep them in my memory with a smile in my face amen that's itk good job thank you a couple things again congratulations to Beth Reynolds and all the people who supported her the stroll was such a big hit so many vendors were so happy um and it was nice to see Subzero open they were I every time I walked by I'm like oh I'll get and the lines were too long get longer they so ice creams I believe 265 that's great so congratulations to them and to everybody who who participated I know for all the businesses it was really good so what a great way to kick off our holiday season um a couple things coming up so the Lion's Christmas tree lot is still open as you said um they're expecting it to be sold out probably sometime this weekend so if you haven't gotten your tree yet go grab one there and as you know it all comes back either to the community or lions ey research so great organization and it's always great to go see people there tomorrow morning is our December senior breakfast uh also at the senior center there's all kinds of events I think next week There's a senior party there's something the following week and Senior the senior center is for people 16 and older so if you want to go and meet some new people and have some fun inexpensive events it's always it's always a fun place and they're so welcoming so check out their calendar they have all kinds of fun stuff going on you guys are always welcomed as a guest of me if you want um a couple of other things so this Saturday the 9th is illuminate Ashlin starting at 4:30 it starts at amar's dance I think you can go on Facebook find out information about that a lot of different performances all around town I think it should be a nice day uh also just that you know there's a bunch of holiday events hopk having happening at hopkington Center for the Arts they have a couple of concerts they have um some vocal concerts this weekend as well throughout there's a comedy night all kinds of stuff so if you're looking to get into the holiday spirit check out the hopkington Center for the Arts and if you'd like a smaller a bigger Nutcracker at a different theater uh The Nutcracker at the Norwood Theater and I always like to plug that one because that's the one I work on um and that is nove December 15th 16th and 17th always if you've never been to the Norwood Theater it is a beautiful space to see a performance it's um it has been refurbished back to its original from the 1920s wow very nice yeah cuz at one point it was two movie theaters and they took that all out so that's a fun one um let's see and I think that's all I have just except to say you know happy holidays to everybody um be there for your friends be there for your neighbors be there for your family through this through this time of year and may we all get safely into the new year yep thank you that's what I got I have one more thing to I forgot that uh Santa is going to be doing a townwide uh run through parade on Saturday on Saturday stting at sir right yeah we're going to be using quiet sirines I don't never heard of a quiet sirene but it ought to be interesting yeah so well that's good so keep uh keep look on Facebook cuz I know the uh route right has changed a little bit so just keep an eye on that and great thank you Jo just watch for the sirens so we're not currently scheduled to meet this month so we won't meet till after the new year so happy New Year to everyone and um Yolanda your discuss your some of those events reminded me um Holliston on the upper Charles Trail does a first night y that culminates in that tunnel I don't know if people but I would you know if you're available first night it's a great kind of and it shows the kind of potential you can do with a rail trail in terms of the things they do there's also a new one in Framingham for first night on the that makes sense Charles of course of course they what of course of course what's what's their Trail no um Chris was it the no it's not on the Chris Walsh Trail it's the um if another town successful with something just trust framingham's going to take it but so Framingham has a first night event yeah but the Holliston Trail event is a lot of fun and they have that area down there Blair Square now is completely done they did such a nice job there a fful anyway fun event for first night um so the only thing I wanted to um you know I had a good talk so the news is MBTA did post that the station is reopening December 23rd I think many of us heard um and they are going to I had a good talk with M Mike m Molly the um the uh the commuter rail coordinator um manager and um is we will get a detailed kind of description of what happened it's just that these kind of releases have to go through the governor's office so there's kind of a a kind of a delay from the time they post something and that we get the so he's very aware of our interest and I think they're going to schedule I think Senator spilka's office has requested some sort of ceremony so people should plan on that um Co I don't know but I imagine it would be that day but I'm not sure but we'll be hearing about that I think so yeah so that's ni nice and I did have a good discussion with him I'm sorry yeah what is the 23r Satur yeah so I'm not sure what's going to happen so we'll we'll see I guess um I think it would be nice if they came and did a presentation on what they did I don't know if we can request that we can we can always request it especially virtual or virtual you know let us know what improvements what was changed and I didn't I didn't think they ask him that but we are he is going to give us a description was it what color what was it painted we didn't get asked of colors I did have a good discussion with him about you know safety in general and they are taking it very seriously actually doing an investigation we'll share a report um and both for along the tracks and at the Main Street crossing apparently there's some improvements that they've already done I guess Statewide so uh they're very um aware of the issues and are working on it we should be hearing more and kind of in line with that I was just going to you know maybe talk think about if maybe have a meeting in uh January or February to kind of follow up on kind of uh CommunityWide safety and wellness issues both kind of a broader range and I discussed a little bit with Michael and maybe Kristen uh would be here or something like that well so more to come on that I presume people are interested and think that's a something that would be helpful so useful so um all right so that's that's it for me and without further Ado I'll turn it over to Brandy for our what has now become a a holiday tradition yeah so um so this started my first year on the board um this your fourth one this Fifth Fifth yeah is it really one yeah oh yeah oh my yeah I think time plus yeah no it is I guess we can't call her newbie anymore no no Claudia is our new newbie um but uh this has become kind of like my favorite thing that I do is the last meeting we have I just kind of it's like a year in review in poem form so um and it's gotten longer so I apologize in advance it was a full year it was a lot of so um so Ed to Ashlin 2023 2023 was a very busy year making huge progress on projects we can cheer our public safety building with doors was finally complete a beautiful facility for the best fire and police on the street we celebrated the opening of the new minda school with amazing technology and a rooftop learning space that is so cool work continues on 126 sidewalks are almost done maybe getting closer to the end fingers crossed everyone downtown is really beautiful with the lamp posts and the brick and the painting of the lines the second time definitely did the trick we look forward to the polls coming down next year and no more aggressive bees that we have to fear oh lots of work on The Barn at the Valentine all built with historically approved materials to make it shine the finished Hall house was gorgeous with reclaimed elements of Warren's days after much discussion about staying true to the plans which caused some delays the community center reopened after the repairs happily no more water damage even after a slight pipe leak scare our Board of Health held the successful Ram Clinic over at Keefe provided much needed free medical services to those who needed relief our housing moratorium was nixed by the state and planning for MBTA communities with minimal Town impact would be great the news came that the economic development Bill finally came through will help fund new sidewalks starting with Route 135 it's true hopkington honored Ashlin for a 100 years since the marathon start line moved presented us with many Marathon Treasures unexpected but we approve the EPA is returning with funding for a second round to remove deep contamination Underground we started to work on the comprehensive plan with 29 committee members from throughout Ashland despite some challenges and vision Ashlin plans for our future and we boarded a school bus with Ed and Michael for a three-hour tour after years of asking the MBTA came to work on our sad train station with the goal of safe commuting lighting and our plentiful parking which will be a celebration we worked on our budget and are looking ahead tough choices are in our future support more funding or cuts and services instead we said Thank you to Steve for his 12 great years and Claudia has made an impact right away that is definitely clear we reluctantly increased trash fees we exited Civil Service finally as planned denied the Spencer statue to be built on Community Center land we gave our graduating senior Scholarships in baa baa grants 2 celebrated marathon runners retirements and the goofy guy Gyros girls Lego crew loved the Rangoli at dwali fall fast a Corner Spot came together at the nyanza healing Garden a beautiful tribute that means a lot mini golf at the library Board office hours at the farmers market both were new we were sad to miss Ashland day but with all the rain what could we do Holiday Stroll and Town Hall trick-or treat both bigger than ever with downtown businesses joining in which was so neat lots of good stuff coming our way Starbucks with a mural we shout hooray Clover Road Tap Room is coming to the old fire station congrats to Subzero ice cream opening in its downtown location the OPA Charles Trail gets a green light and a rumor about pickle ball that is sure to excite the Ashen Arboretum AKA Cadillac paint will be a beautiful Park this year with Trails we can't wait the project at the Mill building is gone for now but we will see if it comes back in another form as a 40b town meeting said yes to the dog park whether there will ever be a tree bylaw is a question mark for me personally I completed my first year as chair I now thoroughly appreciate all the work needed to be truly prepared I love the work that I do with all of you and the amazing Community we serve with everything that we do our town staff and volunteers are the best I have such gratitude our town is so very blessed and as we approach the end of this crazy Year I wish you and yours so much holiday chair very nice and we've done a lot this year very nice you could put all yours together be like a history of the oh yeah you know that's true true put them in some sort of volume or something this is why I don't have any decorations out for the holid oh you can't use keeping you busy yeah so but I love doing this this is like one of my one of my favorite things that how long take you to do something like this um like I take one night and I just like write down things and then then I think to myself how am I going to ever get this like into any sort of form and then it just kind of starts coming together it's pretty chronological right you try to they try to do it yeah or at least like put things together that make sort of sense that's nice so it's fun and like I said it's a good it's a good way to avoid doing all the other things that I should be doing that's how you prepare for the meeting yeah but but uh you know it's it's been a good it's been a really good year and I it's it's funny because when we were at the Festival of Lights on Sunday I said this and it's really really true it's like it's just I'm seeing this weekend and how this weekend came together especially like so much gratitude so much gratitude for our community all the people that work really hard to bring all this stuff to our community for all the volunteers including all of us that spend so many hours and people people I don't think people have any clue what it takes to kind of keep all of this together um and it's just it's I'm I'm walking through downtown on Saturday I'm I'm like this is why we do this this is why this is this is all worth it because because this is these people this community is all just it it it's love so that's you know that's my take so yeah we're not doing it for the salary that's for sure no we're not not even the pension I just found out there's no pension damn yeah incre it 100% thank you it's great yeah we would be remiss if we didn't thank two people in the far right of me no that's true this is our end of year meeting that's true so thank you very much for everything that you've done for all of us uh your leadership and your guidance has uh definitely made Ashan a much better place this year again and we'll continue as we keep this the boat the the HMS asham going straight forward and doing the things that needs to get done it was a revolution yeah thank you so thank you both well said Joe yes very well said good okay so happy holidays everybody and happy New Year happy Hanukkah um what's that oh Claudia oh she's applauding thank you Claudia hope everything's well we're sorry you can't be here with us and PR kiddo yeah yeah so we'll see everyone first meeting in January January 3rd is it January 3rd okay yes all right well thank you all so that's a good night from the ashin select board meeting and happy holidays and new holiday you all motion to adjourn oh I guess we should do that yes all those in favor joury say hi thank you happy holidays everybody ho Merry Mary

Hey! Cascabeles, Cascabeles, Tra La La La La. Que alegría todo el día, que felicidad. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one - horse - open - sleigh. [Music Ends] [Applause] [Music Plays] [Students] Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house Christmas Eve. You can say there's no such thing as  Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe. She was drinking too much egg nog, and we  begged her not to go. But she forgot her medication, and she stumbled out the door into the snow. (Ooo) Then we found her Christmas morning, at the scene of the attack. She had hoof prints on her forehead, and incriminating claw marks on her back.

Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house Christmas Eve. You can say there's no such thing as  Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe. And we’re so proud of Grandpa, he’s been taking this so well. See him in there watching football, drinking  Coke and playing cards with cousin Mel. (Ooo) Christmas without Grandma, all the family’s dressed in black. And we just can't help but wonder, should we open up her gifts or send them back? (Send them back!) Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house Christmas Eve. You can say there's no such thing as  Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe. Now the goose is on the table, and  the pudding made of fig, and the blue and silver candles, match the hair on Grandma’s wig. (Ooo) I warned all my friends and neighbors, better watch out for yourselves.

They should never have gave a license to  a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves. (Sing it, Grandpa!) Grandma got run over by a reindeer, (Not a caribou!) walking home from our house Christmas Eve. (She wasn’t running!) You can say there's no such thing as  Santa, (But what about..? I don’t know) but as for me and Grandpa, we believe. (Sing it, Grandpa!) Grandma got run over by a reindeer, (I don’t know who did this!) walking home from our house Christmas Eve. (It was in the middle of the night) You can say there's no such thing as  Santa, (What do you mean?) but as for me and Grandpa, we beliee-ee-ee-eve. Merry Christmas. [Music Ends] [Applause] [Music Plays] [Students] On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a wren in a palo verde tree. On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave me to seven javelinas, six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, [Laughing] four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight manzanitas, seven javelinas, six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine saguaro cactus, eight manzanitas, seven javelinas, six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ten prickly pears, nine saguaro cactus, eight manzanitas, seven javelinas, six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eleven mariachis, ten prickly pears, nine saguaro cactus, eight manzanitas, seven javelinas, six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree.

Oh, Christmas! My true love gave to me twelve weeds-a-tumbling, eleven mariachis, ten prickly pears, nine saguaro cactus, eight manzanitas, seven javelinas, six, spicy tacos, five diamondbacks, four coyotes howling, three gila monsters,  two prairie dogs, and a wren in a palo verde tree. [Music Ends] [Applause] [Student] Now, two steps back, everybody. [Applause Continues] Two steps back, everybody! [Applause Continues] [Student] Hello, everyone! [Audience] Hello! So, for Christmas it's all about  unity and togetherness. So, besides all these beautiful students singing their  beautiful songs, I've also invited some amazing, beautiful dorm staff. [Laughing] And I hope you enjoy the song that we’re about to sing. It’s one of my favorites. [Music Plays] [Narrator] Alright, you Chipmunks. Ready to sing  your song? [Theodore] I'll say we are. [Simon] Yeah, let’s sing it now. [Narrator] Okay, Simon? [Simon] Okay! [Narrator] Okay, Theodore? [Theodore] Okay! [Narrator] Okay, Alvin? Alvin…? Alvin?! [Alvin] Okay! [All] Christmas, Christmas time is here.

Time for toys and time for cheer. We’ve been good, but we can’t last. Hurry, Christmas. Hurry fast. Want a plane that loops a loop. [Student] I, I want a hula hoop. [All] We can hardly stand the wait. Please Christmas, don’t be late. [Kazoos Playing] [Narrator] Okay, folks. Get ready. That was very good, Simon. [Simon] That’s a relief. [Narrator] Very good, Theodore. [Theodore Chips] [Narrator] Uh, Alvin. You were a little flat. Watch it. Uh, Alvin? Alvin..? Alvin?! [Alvin] Okay! [All] Want a plane that loops a loop. [Student] I still want a hula hoop. [All] We can hardly stand the wait. Please Christmas, don’t be late. We can hardly stand the wait. Please Christmas, don’t be late. [Narrator] Very good, boys. [Chipmunks] Let’s sing it again! Yeah! Let’s sing it again. [Narrator] No, that’s enough. [Dorm Staff] Yeah, again. [Music Ends] [Applause] [Song Starts Abruptly] [Laughter] [Student] So, let’s sing that song again, why don’t we?