I hope that you know. Yes, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it and I'm excited to hear about the payroll and the adjustments. I from you know I have a good friend who works in the system and has complained about every you know this person's getting paid. So the fact that we are addressing it and we're having this conversation is exciting because I know that that conversation is taking place in the community in our district. So you know we're moving forward that's very important. So thank you for all the effort. That's the important thing on the grants that are part of the financials. I do want to thank Angela uh for the the two types of reporting. Uh to my my preference would be the second type which I say the second type I think would be pages 7 through 10 which breaks these grants down by classification.
Any questions? Yeah. Can um someone speak to a lot of the issues at CLES like the rooftop unit uh why that wasn't under warranty given that it's a brand new building. Um seems like a lot of issues going on with the new building. Yeah, I can speak a little bit a little bit to that. Um so while it is a brand new building in in in theory, um a lot of the equipment has actually been in place and has been operating for a lot longer than students have been in the building. And so it is a lot of those those items are outside of the warranty um window. However, um this one unit in particular that um failed. Uh we did reach out to you know made sure that the NBC was aware that this unit had failed that we were informed by the vendor that it was outside of warranty and they worked with their um you know their contacts and stuff and that was uh handled and addressed by the um by the vendor itself.
It gives a tremendous amount of information relative to expiration, who handles it, etc., etc. So, I would, you know, make a recommendation to to, you know, perhaps at the next board meeting if the the board for the finance people would let me know which of these um reports they prefer to have. uh whether it be one or the other or still a combination of both. Um that that certainly would uh be helpful. The only thing I'd like to ask Angela is um at that point in time and maybe at the next board meetings if on those items that show federal grants if you can just aster those and come up with a subtotal or put a little footnote in to how much money that is because one of the agenda items is prepar to talk about grants and in totality. I just like to see how much money or federal grants.
So that ended up being um you know not an expense that we had to incur to correct that at the M we talked about at the NBC meeting last night and I think it was fixed and then they're looking at curbing or something on one of the units too. So where there's a I mean they're watching it but I mean they know there's a pretty long list. I have a question about the um alarms at CLS. Can can you um can you update us about I don't know which of you would know more about that. Um the the sensor was moved. Is that correct? The motion sensor. Can you talk a friend to that? Um the what the um the panic alarm or the Yeah. Is that is that part of what what this is about? The the alarm system? what what uh what Rob was referring to was the um the the alarm system in the classrooms and the different wings um are motion sensors and they're very sensitive.
Mike, if you could just move that up a little. Um, I'm not even sure what you is this new format. Yes, sir. If you can bring it up a little bit more right here 10,7 that's current year plus the carryover. No, that's No, that's the total for federal. Oh, yes. for federal. I'm sorry. Yep. Oh, okay. State is above it and miscellaneous is uh on the next page. I got Okay, I missed it. That's great. We we're trying to do some revisions. We have till like May 1st. That's another big project. You know, we have a lot of staff in in the grants that some of which some of those staff members that are that are vacant are also in the in the grants. So, you know, it's hard to um you know, once you set a grant, you have to kind of spend it according to the plan, then you got to get approval for revision.
So Dan has been getting um alerts that the alarm is going off, you know, multiple times throughout the night in the middle of the night. Um and so he had Seammens, the the vendor, come out or it coming out to see if he can adjust the sensitivity. Um because, you know, if there's multiple multiple s sensory motion dete, you know, sensing um alarms going off throughout the building and it looks like somebody's moving throughout the building, that's one thing. But if it it happens to be these sporadic things that are happening and there you know folks are called and there's no actual um emergency um it's just the the sensitivity of it. So Seammens was going to come out and take a look at that. Okay. So a concrete um understand I just actually was there with Dan today and we were talking about it.
So, we're we're you know, we don't have a lot of manhel on this uh end as as well. I'm trying to also do do these as well as some of the other folks that are listed. But um trying to go through to, you know, to see what lines have been spent already and unpack that in each one of these and then um see if we can get approval for revisions so we don't lose the salary and benefits that go with those grants for the people that we that were not uh that are not coming out. Right. You know what it was, Angela? When I picked up the hard copies in the office, I didn't have all the schedules available. So that's why I missed, you know, I asked for that was in front of me, but that's Yeah, no problem. Yeah, thank you. Angela, thank you for including the page numbers, too.
So a concrete example is a classroom teacher had some kind of decor over their window and where the apparently where the HVAC kind of blows it was moving that and that's been causing an alarm to go off and so they did a walkthrough and they're like we think that's it. So the teacher was gracious and took that down and that area isn't going off anymore. So that sensitivity so you know we can give kind of expectations and direction to staff too about you know certain areas you don't want to hang things in certain areas if it's going to cause a motion sensor to go off that kind of thing. So, the good thing is they're sensitive. Yes. The bad thing is they keep going off. So, you know, but we don't want it to be like a car alarm where you don't pay attention to it either.
Yeah, this looks great, Angela. Yeah, the page numbers help. That was a difficult one. And this is such a quick turnaround time from the discussions that the committee members had relative to the comments they had on the grants wanting to see who's responsible the time period and stuff like that. So I think it was a worthy discussion. The turnaround time to fulfill the information for the committee members was terrific. So uh I I I thank you again. It's really good. Do any of the committee members have any comments on a brand? You were saying you wanted us to choose the format between this and what and the other one the last time. Well, there were two types. One was a general one and the other was classified by by the category. Oh, okay. Yeah. Subtotal. But like this one here doesn't really, you know, this was like the original one, but from this we got a little bit more creative and say could we get this, this, and this.
I mean, you you never want that to happen. And the alarm the the the the um like false alarms at at CS, the panic Yeah, the panic button. So, yeah, there there's there's supposed to be a relocation of um one or two of the panic buttons. There's several throughout the building and um I don't think that's occurred yet. Um that's a needs to be done and again as Rob talks about we're we're in this this between area where we really essentially own but we don't own because we don't have the full uh the full sign off uh with the NBC from OG at this point because there's still all those punch list items. You know Dan Dan excuse me um Paulo and Josh Flowers they had a walk through on Thursday afternoon. They were there you know on schedule walking through and you know they had their list and they're going through.
So it evolved to the the next type of format that we had. I like Yeah, I like the last one. Yeah, I I concur. And maybe if maybe if we can just take an a quick consensus now. Do most of the committee members agree that the schedule that's on the the screen now is the one that we'd like to have? I do. I do. I do. Okay, great. Is Julie, I do. Okay. Thank you. So, makes it easy and in the future then eliminate the other one and just stay with this. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So moving to the uh next uh agenda item was the issue of the the federal funds and what I meant by that was Carrick can pretty much give us an update. I know she explained a little bit at at the board meeting but things change daily as to what her feeling is at this point here.
So, um, again, it's it's, uh, a little frustrating, a little irritating. Why is it taking so long? Believe me, I I live it every day. So, it's very frustrating. At the same time, we could be thankful Paul and Josh and the NBC team are not going to let anything slip through. They want that building, you know, perfection, and they want it for the long haul. I mean, these buildings need to last like CES, they need to last a hundred years. So, um, we really want it to be perfect. And so, they're they're not letting anything just kind of go unnoticed. And if something um should have been done a certain way, they're going to call the the subcontractor on it and ONG as the general contractor and make sure it gets done right. Um even if it's a little inconvenient, they're they're going to stick to it for the long haul.
Is anything been decisive that federal government is is going to penalize us or take away any funding from us? Sorry, Richard. I didn't mean to cut you off. So, my meeting with the state is uh Friday is this Friday. Okay. So, yeah, I'll know more. Um I did happen to reach out to a couple superintendents. I talked to the superintendent in Stamford. they are in a sim similar crossroad and um you know they the way that she approached it and you have to get permission I guess but that school she kept them on she's just on a corrective action plan they have reduced revenue from the from the the number of students that they're able to get and she started to just let in the Stamford students uh because she was in the same boat she's like how can I justify having under an underenrolled school and so they they take they took the hit on the reimbursement um and I think They're kind of gradually just going year to year on it.
Is the exterior sighting that blew off, is that like a malfunction in, you know, how it was installed or is that like a freak thing or that I don't know the the cause of that? I'm not sure. Okay. But I can I can try to find out for you. Yeah. Um, and the rooftop unit that failed, is that the same as the airtop unit that had the leak or those are two separate units? I'm not sure. I think so. The rooftop unit failed. There's I think it's different. I think the one that is leaking is over the gymnasium and I think the one that failed um is is different. Um Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, are we set with facilities? I just wanted to mention quick um I know an email came in um regarding the fitness center and the main turf scoreboard. So, if we can put that on the next agenda to address I don't know if anybody um got back to the person that wrote.
So my conversation Friday is really going to be what does you know if we do do an off off road come off you know how do we on offramp ourselves from the model or can we stay on it and have a slow burn and continue continue but still maintain some of the revenue that's coming in. Um so uh and and then you know are there penalties associated with that if we do that do it that way. Um and then you know one way or another whatever we do it has to be gradual. we cannot just flick the school um send students back uh to their home. You know, we have a commitment to those students um to see them through that we've had we have agreements participating town agreements andus that we need to honor um and you know if we ever do anything in the future those towns will not likely do business with us uh if we don't you know treat treat folks fairly in this process.
So, that email um I the way I read it was it was a plea to the board of finance. Okay. So, because we had had those items on Yeah, it was probably Yeah. The way I read it was same thing like with the um with the boys um lock room. So, we can put it back on to talk about and like maybe what the next steps are and stuff, but I think the email specifically the way I read it was to the board of finance because the capital planning committee correct you're accurate. Correct. But the way in the past it has to start with us at the committee putting it back on. Got it. Just want to make sure you didn't addressing the All right, let's move then to finance notes. Okay. Uh we last met on Thursday, March 13th. Um after going through the check registers, there was one uh one question um that Aaron had and that was addressed during the meeting.
So um and also we need to be able to um add the lost revenue in would actually be a driver in subsequent uh future you know budgets to come. So we would have to gradually uh absorb that. Now could we could we you know absorb that with some things next year? Yes. Um we're going to have to but um we also have space issues in other schools and things. So there, you know, some some of our problems in other places can be solved with um, you know, with with with the potential open space at AIS. So we're exploring that. I'll know more after Friday. Okay. And so you were talking about specifically AIS situation. Correct. Just AIS. Yeah. Okay. My my question was related to the federal government and the DEI. I'm so sorry. No, they were both related. Uh, and and Yeah. So, Jim, maybe we could hold that up until next week until you come back with the the state, but it it's just to me you hear so much and you get confused on it on the national level what they're doing with federal funding, etc.
Um and then we went over the uh February financial report. Um the biggest month-to-month change um is thankfully a reduction in our overall um net budget shortfall and that's due directly to the state legislaturator's uh funding package that um will come through. We haven't actually received the check, but we are anticipated to um get that additional excess cost revenue of about $200,000, which um reduces our net budget shortfall um which removes that necessity to perhaps go to a town meeting. Um so we had had on our agenda um possible action regarding that, a recommendation from the committee, but that's actually not needed. Um we talked to um our communication came from Marsha Marian, the town finance director, and she said to hold off um because now our shortfall is small enough that they can likely deal with it without having to go to a town meeting.
And it changes every day. Something gets issued and then two days later somebody claps back with nope, that's not correct. We're gonna, you know, there's or have a stay, you know, in executing this. So, it's it's hard to keep up with. Yeah. Um, you know, we were riding the roller coaster. I I I'm sitting back a little bit and just like, let's wait for some of this to flesh itself out. Um, without knee-jerking. Um, you know, we have 10 million in federal grants is our exposure. Um, you know, and and I think, you know, there are a couple things on there that I think, you know, they're actually more at the state level that are red flaggy for some of the things like our increasing educator diversity grant. Um, which is I think we have two of those for like 240 something, thousand. Those those are kind of the question mark ones where we're like is, you know, should we be spending this money?
Um in terms of old business, we discussed um some of the reductions that uh the board of selectmen and board of finance have made and I'll we have that on our agenda tonight, so I'll just gloss over that. Um, and just in our miscellaneous discussion, um, I relayed a communication, uh, Dr. Bril had proactively reached out to me and just wanted the committee to know, um, regarding his, um, upcoming resignation and an annuity entitlement that we as a board had previously established over several years. Um, he want just wanted us to know the value of that. Um, the process for how it will be returning to the board. The board does own it. He's not entitled to it. Um, and so thank you for that information. It's good good for us to keep an eye out for it. Um, and then obviously when those funds are returned and the timing of which we don't really fully understand quite yet.