However, this rise to adequacy, oh, I mean 4%. Is not automatic. districts must advocate for it. And that's what we're doing. We're advocating for it to ensure that we can keep up with inflation, maintaining staffing levels, and support our students programs. We don't want to cut anything. Without this adjustment, our schools may face budget shortfalls, forcing cuts to critical services, extracurricular activities, and after seeing those lists the other day, I was horrified. and resources that directly impact student success. Our superintendent, Dr. Danny Roberto, during the new teacher meeting at the beginning of the school year, always stresses the importance of loving our students. Everybody's leaving. I'm getting worried here. This is the key. We truly care for our students. We ensure that they have the best resources, opportunities, and support to thrive. And that requires adequate funding. Not adequacy, but adequate. This small but impactful increase means maintaining class sizes, allowing teachers to give each student the what they deserve.
Um and we are looking forward to this. Um yeah, it's nice for those of us who've been around over 20 years to see the youngsters coming in. So it is a traditional program called Uhhuh. So strongly recommend board approve Sydney Beach as a elementary teacher. So I'll jump to make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I All right. Yes. Thank you. Um just some news. Um our payroll specialist Sarah Walters and I will be traveling to Fort Wayne uh the first full week of May for the Asmo annual conference. Uh this conference does offer us numerous opportunities for professional development over the three days and just meaningful networking with others that do the same job as us across the state because we are the only ones that do our job here. Um last week I did attend the final session for the leadership academy on Tuesday and Wednesday and pleased to share that I did graduate from the program.
Because this is a normal wake. This is just how construction works, right? Um, so unless it's really against the the spirit of the project, the spirit of our review, what we were looking for, um, then it's probably going to be okay, you know, um, so but it would at least have that dialogue and there'd be no surprises, you know, in the end. So, you view it as like for every project? No, I I think it's before that. I think that they should be made aware. The thing is sometimes I wonder if there's a disconnect between the approval, which is probably read very thoroughly by the applicant's attorneys and what the architect sees as they go, the architect, the landscape architect, as they go through their process and like, hey, this would this would actually be better than this. Oh, we had to change this hallway for fire egress standards, so now we had to change this unit window to be that, right?
This is exactly what it is that we are doing at the end of FY26. 27% of the balances that we have available out of those accounts that you bring up are going to be gone. Okay. And we're hearing from the mayor, and I don't disagree with the mayor on the fact that FY27 is going to be worse. So, if we were to use the full 1.8 million just to get us a level of funding and stuff, that gives us to a projected balance available to us for 63026 of about $600,000 combined in all those accounts because we're ending the year with two projected projected now of FY 63026. if you go to that chart of 2.5 million. So reducing it by the 1.9 million because it's 1.88 million for the level C the the budget that's being presented. So 1.9 from 2.5 that's $600,000 when if you look at the plans that we have for use in FY25 2.2 million of those accounts are to be used to offset FY25.
Is it like a month or six months? I'm sorry. Like when you you you'd mentioned that uh the high school would you would consider moving having the high school start late for we're considering everything. Right. Right. But if you did, how long would that be? Would that is that six months? How long was the demol like what was Oh, no. No, this would be for permanent. Oh, so when we move into the new buildings, we need new start times just by virtue of location of the buildings and everything like that. Oh, for bus routes and Yeah. And so we're looking at, you know, what what would that how would that play out? Um because it's going to take longer to get from the north end location where we are. We'll have a couple of buses out there now, but in when the new building opens, we'll have a lot of buses out there.
We want to make sure that their voices are heard as well and we're not making choices for them. So that's really been a focus in our master schedule building process. So another thing that the master schedule does is it actually um drives our staffing. So what we've done is we have created a a form that all of our case carriers complete and they complete this form outlining what courses a student needs on the that continuum that I was describing to you before. how much support they need, whether they need a co-taught class or an SDC class, and we then count how many course requests there are, and then we develop sections for that. And so, we've changed our staffing to really be based on that. It used to be that we had a certain number of teachers, and kids got what we could give them based on the number of people we had available.
We will now play the videos used at the county selection process and we'd like you to enjoy them. But I'm going to have the the the winners come in front of the board members so we can grab a quick picture and we'll play it as everybody's sitting down. So Amber a new one that doesn't say what the other one says and you'll get more for your [Applause] am a school uh nurse. So a senior health tech uh LVN and I do uh ambulatory care uh for the children just uh making sure that they are safe and uh taken care of as far as their day goes. I also administer medications as needed and respond to emergency situations. Amber is our LVN here at Rancho Verde. when we had the opportunity for her to um move into this position here, we were excited. And she's been able to come in, she's been able to get to know the kids really quickly.
It means providing updated textbooks, technology, resources that prepare our students for a rapidly evolving world. Just think what goes on in one month. How much changes? It means keeping our schools safe, our facilities well-maintained, and our staff supported. The cost of living increases have gone up. Without this increase, we risk losing vital programs, extracurricular activities, and that's not what we want for our students. It's a loss for our entire community. Strong schools create strong communities. They attract families, increase property values. Yes, they do. and ensure that the next generation is equipped with the skills they need to succeed. Let's be clear, this is not about e excess spending. This is about responsible investment. 4% ensures that we continue providing the quality education for our students. So I urge you, support this increase, support our students, support our schools because when we invest in education, we invest in a brighter, stronger future for all.
Thank you. Yes. Um the experience was valuable to get the leadership training as well as the wealth of resources that I gathered through that and strategies to be able to implement into the business office team. Um business office items, we are beginning the transition from a 26 pay schedule to a 24p schedule. Um we've had meetings over the last year discussing that. Um, our anticipated effective date will be July 1st over the summer and we are working on transition documents and we'll get those sent out as soon as they are available starting 1st and 15th. Uh, we right now are looking at the 5th and the 20th. Okay. Um, we do continue to monitor legislative activity in the general session. Today and yesterday were very busy days for us. Um, we are continuing to watch those bills as they pass through the second house and go through the committee.
Just it's a ripple effect. So, but I don't know sometimes that the the designers at the end of this is getting, you know, is is reading through that document, you know. So, I don't know how that if it's a reminder to the applicant, please have your designers list blah blah blah of these changes and at some point before applying for the before applying for the per building permit, if you have changes, you know, we need to see them. We need I kind of like that that approach makes sense. So then there and but again I think as Deepa had said this is like a you know we we get the drawings we look at them before the meeting we're like hey nine out of 10 of these are like yep I get it but kind number 10 kind of bothers us. Can we you know why did you make that change?
Our FY26 budget is built built on 2.2 2 million going into FYI27, we would only have $600,000. That's creating the gap that the mayor is already talking about on the city side. What we are doing is sound fiscal practice of management at the same time trying to balance the needs of the district for FY26, FY27 and beyond. There's no shenanigans here going on regarding what it is that we're doing with these revolving accounts. Any other questions from any other members? Member Denive. Andy, I have a question that might be really silly. It's just a question about the chart. Your percentage change. Are these just positive changes? Is this a positive number? Brackets or negative? Yeah, brackets are okay. You're higher than number 60. Thank you. I'm Yep. You know, math is a while ago. Thank you. So, these are negative numbers, right? If you look and see, but I I want to It's worthy of going account by account in two years from our school choice balance that we're projected to use at the beginning of FY25 to the projected ending balance as of FY26 is a 48% decrease in the funds available in school choice.
And so, what does that do to transportation around town? We're taking another close look at, you know, our times now are not good because Cheshure High School ends and we dump a lot of buses onto Route 10. I don't This is no news to anybody who lives in town or has driven through town. Um, and it gets really, it's a log jam and so our buses end up late to the next building. So, those kids get dismissed late. So by the time you get to our late opening schools, Highland and Norton is pretty backed up. I mean there's a lot of issues. We have met with uh not just uh Luther and Vinnon and myself, but uh with um Chief Drife, uh Sean Kimble, uh Dan Bombaro. We're trying to evaluate what other options might be available to help ease the congestion and facilitate better transportation around the whole town, not just for us, but for everybody who lives and works here.
through this shift in the master scheduling um building process, what we've really done is made sure that we have enough staff to meet all student needs rather than trying to fit the student needs into the staff that we had available. And that's a huge shift and it may not sound big, but for our kids, it's huge. So the next thing I want to review with you is our SAI model. So we are in year two of full implementation of our SAI model. We started three years ago with some pilot schools that were willing to do it. Then we got some more invol involved and and participating and then we went districtwide. And the SAI model does not change the instruction that students are getting. What it does is change where teachers are spending their time. We used to have RSP teachers and we used to have SDC teachers and they stayed in their various locations on campus teaching the kids that fell into those categories.
She has a wonderful balance between that motherly side of taking care of kids in the health office. She knows and understands that they're coming in, they're their tummies are aching, they're not feeling the best, something's going on. Um and she takes care of them and make sure they that they feel that love and that concern. And she also knows how to balance that out with um making sure that they don't repeatedly come in and always want to be in there and and abuse the um her services. I believe I should be selected uh because I always put my best foot forward. I'm always just try trying to do my best. Um I have compassion for the students as well as the staff because I am a good employee. I uh always try to be positive and try to find the solution to a problem. I believe Amber should be the county employee of the year because of her dedication to the health and safety of our students.
Thank you. Anyone else like to approach the table? I needed that. Thank you. My name is Matt Ward, one sul. I had the opportunity to look at the tape because I only came to the last meeting late. Superintendent, I just want to say your presentation was very thorough and I want to just say to you that you outlined it in about as clear terms as I've ever seen. So, I just want to tell you that straight up. Okay. Secondly, and these are my words having been on the board, it was irresponsible of the board to have had successive zeros in the manner by which this went down. short-term gain has comp could potentially put you in long-term pain. With that said, we also have to deal with the sensitivity of where the Clifton body politic is right now, which is yes, in in some kind of dream world, we could always shoot for adequacy and then somehow pump up the dollars, but you have to live in a real world that exists out there.
They have until Tuesday to pass everything through the second house, go back to the original house that there are amendments. Um, we're hoping that that goes through pretty quickly and then by the end of the month know what our restrictions are for the next two years. Um, we will keep you up to date on that as it comes through. Um, our selection committee has met to go through our RFQ for insurance. Uh, we have some interest in insurance agents and we look forward to presenting a recommendation to the board at the next meeting. That is my report. Thank you very much, Dr. Yeah. So, three West Athenian Drive is getting closer and closer, but not quite there. But um it's looking very sharp and and getting into the final stance there. Interior punch with CSO has been completed. Uh and Steve and Randy did a great job working working through those pieces very very quickly inside.
Can we smooth that out a little bit? You know whatever. And it may be too late from the other side to really have the designer go through changes because your drawings are all kind of almost done. And at the same time I what I have always in my professional life been afraid is setting process that is not just true for today but for tomorrow. All of us may change and go out of it. We may have a planning board who's not in this industry, right? Um, and how would they kind of look at this process? Would that be really helpful for them? And what is that scale that way? Because if you leave design to interpretation, it's very hard. Listen, right now we have a board with designer and an architect. Let's let's take care of it. And the thing is if a future board finds it useless, they'll erase it and recycle.
circuit breaker even though again it's statutory regarding what it is and how it is we use it is a 3% decrease from the beginning of 25 to the projected end of 26 transportation is an increase in funds available for it and that is mainly because as we've reported out before we had one the cosmascus overbuild the district on a run that wasn't included so we had a credit which is why when you look at this chart there are no expenses that we have coming out of the transportation revolving account. Again, the all funds approach, we could have we could have allocated 200 grand, 400 grand out of the transportation revolving account, but with the credit, we chose not to to then help us out in future years for transportation. And that's so that's a 7% increase from the beginning of 25 to the end of FY26.
So, um, we're spending a lot of time on it because we we see an opportunity to improve traffic flow for the community if we can. Uh, and so we're looking at a lot of different things. Thanks for that clarification. Sure. Yeah. I I just want to thank you and the team for um taking the time to really look into that because as you said it is an opportunity to um get some things right and we'll probably won't have that opportunity again for a very long time. So you Well, interesting that you say that the thing is because there was a uh a bill in the Connecticut legislature this year that was going to require later school start times for high schools and that was put on hold, which would be really upsetting if we spend a lot of time and then set up our start times and it comes after that.
What we do now is we have teachers who co-e let's say English one nth grade English. They are in the gened classroom working with a a content area specialist in English delivering the instruction. Then that same teacher now goes to the SDC classroom, takes that same curriculum, those same assignments, the same projects, accommodates it to meet the needs of the students in the separate setting and provides that same level of rigor and instruction to our students with disabilities in the SDC class. So what the SAI model did was really helping to improve the educational experience for our kids. It reduces the number of content areas that our teachers are teaching. And it allows them to become um not only education specialists, meaning that they they're the ones who specialize in accommodating and modifying curriculum, but also to become content area specialists, too, because they're not teaching different things.