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That's it. I'd like to make a motion to take the 1312 complaint. I'll second. So we have a motion on the table and it has been seconded. Um uh I think we should have we have had some discussion. Um so Robert, anything to say? No, just to be clear what you said, Stephanie, if we do decide to take it up, what would be the next steps? You said that we seek legal counsel and then we Yeah. So, the due process in this case based on the research that I've done, I have not had a conversation with our attorney, but in looking at how this has been done in previous cases, um, our superintendent is an employee of the district and has a right to due process, and therefore there will be an investigation into allegations at the expense and decision of the board. uh the school employee uh is entitled to representation likely at the expense of the board and then there will be a hearing process and again it's at the discretion of the board but again I would like the board to consider the fact that the nature of the complaint is legal we are presented with a complaint that the law was broken and we don't have the ability to say yes or no to that.
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We are that is not a school issue. That is not an employment issue. That is something that I feel would is a this isn't the place for that complaint. Legal action needs to be taken if that's truly where the complaintant is at. So I'm not discounting what you're saying, but I would like to hear that from legal directly. Yeah. Well, if it's voted, it's all Could you with all due respect and stuff, could you please be um very specific about what you would like to hear from Well, I guess we have a motion on the table. Second, so guess um All right. So, you um because I want to get that information directly from legal. That's why I that information I think we exactly what Stephanie just stated. I think we need to discuss the 1312 with legal. That's a different motion though than deciding to take it up.
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So you could make a you could table the motion to consider taking up the 1312 and make a motion to consult with our lawyer. That that could be the next step. Okay. If that is something that the board wants to do, then I would I'd go that direction first because once we decide to take it up, we have to now take action to follow through. So it would if if the board wants to consult with legal, I would say table that motion and make a different motion to actually consult with legal. That's just my personal opinion. I'll make a motion that the board table that motion. So you have to table that motion. I'll make a motion to table the motion to take up the 1312 right now to um schedule a special meeting to consult legal on how we proceed with the 1312 and what our legal rights and obligations are.
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Second. Who seconded? Sorry. Is there discussion on the motion to table? I would I would just like to say I I think that we are we are not following our own policy here. Um and but uh if if the board votes to do this, I will absolutely um consult with Pete and uh then we can have a special meeting to discuss that. No, we'll consult with the all of us. That's the motion. Yeah. All right. Okay. The motion on the table is to table motion. Okay. All right. All in favor, please indicate your support by saying I.
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Any opposed? Nay. Nay. Okay. So that's 52. All right. So um then yes. So then we move to um new business IDC healthy food option certification. Okay. Give me a minute. All right. Bear with me. I move pursuant to CGS section 10-215F, the Brookfield Public Schools Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutritional Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2025 through June June 30th, 2026. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups.
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Any discussion on this? Um, I just have a question. Is that going to be like at the football games too? In the That's the next one. The next one I'm just like, "Wow." Do we have a lot of food that we're offering right now that isn't in the cafeteria? In the cafeteria? No, this is just this is just so that we can participate in the national school lunch program. And it's really kind of preuncter. Yeah. Okay. I just want don't want kids. No, no. This isn't changing anything. Cookies or something. No, no, no. This isn't changing anything that we do. Yeah. So we can continue to be compliant. So we have for being pretty insight. I thought we were given apple. So we have a motion on the floor. It's been seconded.
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Uh any discussion on this? Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor? Please indicate by saying I. All right. It looks like it's unanimous then. Great. Thank you. And then the item B. Stephanie. I move the brook that Sorry, let me start over. I move the Brookfield Public Schools Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut Nutrition Standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes, provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekends. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity.
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For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. And location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. Second.
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Any discussion on this one? Okay. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Looks like we're unanimous on that. Who seconded that? Sorry. Was that? Okay. So, old business. Um the bless uh adopted budget. Okay. So um you go Dr. B. Yes. So just to get started and I know Rosa truncated the finance report to so we could talk about this. We had a uh meeting with the uh we were invited to talk with the board of finance about where they're landing in terms of their adopted budget. Um Casey prepared this the two charts before you that she just passed around. Um it's important to know that there's some puts and takes that we'll talk about in the top chart and then in the bottom chart there's some uh uh very strongly anticipated savings we could achieve to kind of meet both thinking through the board of selectman uh budget at the top chart and the board of finance at the bottom chart.
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So I know you said that I kind of truncated this during my finance report. I didn't totally report on the actual ins and outs. So can we just like go through those really? Okay. Yeah. So that's what we were planning to go through, not just the adjustments like the actual like cuts from the board of select menu finance. Yeah. Okay. However you guys want to want to do it. I was Can I do an overview of this first and then kind of just show Okay. So um the the big piece with the board of finance, the board of selectment, excuse me, is um with the town. I think everybody knows we have health insurance with the town. We had budgeted a 5-year average of 4.7% as an increase way back in beginning of December when budget was presented to you. uh within the last month we have found out that it's going to be up to 11%.
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So it's a a significant increase. So uh Mr. Dunn and the board of selectman put that money um for the town and the schools into the budget. So they added that. It didn't quite get us to the 11% left us about $170,000 short uh where we would have to look to achieve some savings, see where we might have some clearer estimates hopefully in our favor. That's kind of 170. Yeah. And that's that's on the top chart and we're and Casey's going to detail the top the the chart. I just want to give you an overview here. And then and then the budget is moved to the board of finance and we just had that conversation last week. Um and in there um ultimately they're around hitting another $270,000 of a reduction uh to our budget, but putting back the special education money um that we know we need with known students for significant costs for next year.
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Um, and that's in the amount of $620,000. So, generally speaking, board of selectman put money back, but not everything we needed to achieve in terms of the health insurance. Um, but it was extremely generous. The board of finance extremely generous supporting us in the area of special education. However, it doesn't get us all the way there when we actually put the full budget together with these different expenses. So, we had to find an additional 270,000ish um amount uh to get us. So we have some areas we can talk to now where we believe we are going to have some significant savings. Certainly can come back for the April 9th meeting with a more detailed plan um after this discussion. So Casey, can you go through and walk everybody through the charts, the general statement there? Sure, absolutely. Um so I'll just go kind of line by line and start at the top.
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Um as Dr. Burl noted, the uh first change uh on the board of selectmen um that they um added to our budget was the increase to our health insurance. Um we did get the final numbers uh from uh the state uh partnership plan and it it is coming in at 11%. So that is a that is a real number. Um also uh I thought it was prudent um in in speaking with uh Mr. Roland that we do increase other professional services um related to spe special education based on some ongoing cases that we think uh will carry over into next year where additional services are are needed. Um, so I did increase that account by $32,650. Um, and these are again all known uh known new information at this point. Um, the next area is uh the next two lines uh the decrease in the OPED which is uh um our pension contribution account and a uh another board of selectman reduction of $170,000.
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Those were the changes um on the board of selectman side. We also have some real numbers coming in that we know about from our disability insurance, liability insurance, group life insurance that there's no increase to those um costs for next year. So there's a um decrease there and those in those accounts. And then we are eliminating the head ski team coach um from co-curricular stipens uh just due to lack of interest in students with with our student group. So that brings us to a u a 4.04 04% increase over our current year um budget which is which is higher than the original uh board of ed approved budget. Um and so that brings us to sort of where uh we would consider going next. And part of the discussion with the both the board of selectman and the board of finance was um in the special education costs and really sort of trying to to get a a a um a more realistic estimate of what we think we're going to be um starting at next year with our special education costs.
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not just on the students that we absolutely 100% know are, you know, outplaced and will be outplaced next year, but also who who is fairly likely to be going into an outplacement um situation, whether it's uh because it's expected to go into a transition program or um you know, other known factors um uh about different cases that um that Mr. Roland is aware of. And so in looking at that and also looking at we had some fairly significant changes in our transportation costs for a couple of runs based on changes in um in those cases. Um and so all of that combined the um the the few cases that are either now known post adoption of the board of education budget or highly likely um and any changes in in existing cases. Um again likely largely due to transportation was an increase of $620,000 and $620,511.
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That is inclusive. That is net of um excess cost grant revenue that we would be getting back on that overage. And to be fully transparent, at the time that we did this estimate, we were expect anticipating um excess cost grant reimbursement of 60%. We now know this year we're getting 72.8%. Um, but again, this is a best guess at this point. I I'm going to say leave it at that lower amount um and and see see what happens. So, that's the 6251. We also did um add some a small amount of funding for a superintendent search um in anticipation that um the board might be going in that direction uh to hire a firm. And you know, estimates are anywhere from 10 to $20,000 for a search firm. So, we put in $15,000 for that. Um and then and then how do we how do we get to the to the number that uh you know the the board of finance is is wanting us to get to and and is a reasonable ask of taxpayers and this is where we thought we could find um some savings and at least for discussion.
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Um we do anticipate that we could have some savings in salaries uh from the the turnover in the superintendent um position. Uh so we have a reduction there in the salary that new salary negotiations line of $40,000. um just due to um not you know the uh the current uh anticipated enrollment at CLES, we do believe that we can um reduce one uh one section further at CLES and still you know stay within our guidelines of of um of class size. There is an anticipated retirement um in that in that building. And so that would um that's a real number that that you know a little over $100,000 is uh a natural attrition. Uh that position wouldn't be be replaced. So we would realize that full savings of that salary and then and then corresponding health insurance with that um I estimated at again we have um a lot of uh you know new teachers young you know young folks you know not married or you know just married.
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So, I estimated the corresponding savings and health insurance with any FTE reduction at a um the cost share to the board of ed for a single employee um just because due to riffing and stuff it would likely be someone that's you know less senior. Um so that half of that 28618 um is the corresponding health insurance to that section. And then the one position if we were were to get to that um you know the 4.8% 8%. Um the one position of a new investment that um you know in in speaking with Dr. Burril uh what he thought uh he would look at first would be that new climate coordinator position um because it is not a required position that we have um certainly and looking at the the new law would be a very um valuable position to have in a a district and very useful but um is is not uh you know essential and necessary.
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So, um, that gets us to 4.8%. Um, I don't have written down the exact number that the board of finance, um, came to us with, but, this is actually, I think, $2,800, uh, lower than what the board of finance, um, arrived at in their own, um, deliberations. They arrived at um, $55,439. That sounds that sounds great. So, yeah. Yeah. So, we're um, so we're right there. So the I have a question. So the top line item 533000 other professional services. Does that have to do with legal and special education or is it No. So it's just like I um Yep. It could be IEES. It could be um uh like a Brookfield Learning Center, you know, tutoring, things like that. Yeah. Nothing to do with uh legal. And then you know my other question which is obviously not even but the special education exposure, right?
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It's a big number and I'm like I'm really concerned going into next year knowing that we're where we are right um that if there are things that we can put money because the exposure I mean if the board of finance does not bail or fund special education overage like where are we going to be next year? Well this this proposes to put that full $620,000 in the budget. No, I understand I know you're worried about I understand that $620 on top of that isn't going to make a difference because we're never going to hit $620,000. Like we've never we've never stayed at budget. So my concern is that we look at other cuts in order to The problem the problem is is that if we propose those cuts, the board of finance will put those cuts forward to the town. So we don't actually Yeah.
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