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diamond are working tirelessly to make that work along with these Walsh our power school guru it's just a lot a lot of work going in on that and then really the need for technology equity access and an additional support in the area of Technology and technology integration is is the future we've kind of always known that but it's really upon us to be thinking about that so those are areas we're really going to be focusing on as a leadership team and starting to vision and think about what we need and what we you know what was the future going to look like we need to be realistic that while we're planning you know we're budgeting for a more traditional start for the school year next year we need to be thinking about the situation and the public health crisis that were in we may have to be we don't know this a distance-learning model again to start the year or some kind of hybrid model where we really look at time and structures and make some changes there that are significant for families and their staff so in in verbal community so we just need to be ready for that I want people to know that we're thinking about those things while no definitive plans have been made we need to be thinking about those things we are thinking about those things and we'll take our guidance from the state connective state Department of Education along with Public Health guidelines and getting near the end oh I wanted to share with you another thing that's very interesting and Gina jump in on this one if if the numbers going up mid distance learning and the fact that we cannot be together Gina why Ghana our director of special education has reached out to the families for trans electronic transmission of special education records and 87% and if that numbers gone up Gina correct many parents are affirmative and want that and we needed to get their explicit permission so we've really moved into in a great direction there the other 13% that's okay we're working on other physicals safe physical ways to make sure records are passed on to parents and parents past records back to us and that's okay that's their choice and we've worked on that together and we accommodate those needs and then the last the last couple of things I want to share is capacity development opportunity we as an organization taking advantage of the time that we've had in the change in work environment for some training there's a lot of webinar work that's going on in all of our different disciplines whether it's our nurses our paraprofessionals not only are there helping students in family but with the shift in the way their time is allocated they're also getting additional training and then our custodial team and this come up in facilities report but they not only have done all the disinfecting and sanitizing from Washington walls top to bottom but now they're cleaning areas that they've never been able to get to because of our capacity issues as well as painting and other maintenance type products of projects in fact the two gym floors have been you know refinished and so forth in the time that we've been out so there's a lot of good work going on I've said a lot I don't know if anybody has questions for me and all I'll stop there thank you John if I could just add because I really bless that Eric is with us and he developed our distance learning website and then I don't know how he taught me I'm very difficult to teach but he taught me how to be a webmaster and I just want to thank the principals and the teachers that are doing all of the curriculum work because on Fridays at 3 o'clock I pretty much have all the curriculum for the upcoming week that that actually I'm not going to name names but I've got people at eight o'clock on Friday morning who have documents to me and the principles work with their staff and the curriculum is provided to me by three o'clock and that gives me Friday night and Saturday morning to work with Eric who corrects my work and I'm very appreciative of his feedback I feel like a student myself and then the principal's after I do that work go on I send them a text or an email to let them know that it's up and then they get back to me with any Corrections and feedback on my work and that's how it is able to be rolled out so I think that we have to really go back to the level of the teachers and their leadership from their principals because I'm just like doing the mechanics of that work and people may not and I'm not trying to like make everybody into a martyr but the amount of work that the teachers are doing and the principals are overseeing to be able to get that work in a fashion that I can then take and immediately put online is countless countless hours of work and that's at the elementary level and then at the secondary level and including Dean's team kind of in that secondary level because of the the format that is utilized to provide the distance learning through Google classroom that work is ongoing and it's seamless and I I'm not actually not really that intimately involved in it except when I can get into Google classrooms because Dean and Mark and their teams are totally responsible for overseeing that and I don't know if even the people that are on this in fall can even fathom the amount of hours and the amount of work and the amount of interpersonal contact that has to go on in order to make what we're doing happen and what we're doing is something that just that people weren't trained for that people have risen to the occasion to be able to do and I feel very confident that no matter what comes our way that given the fact that the principals and the teachers were able to basically just in a turnaround be able to do this kind of work I'm not really even though it's daunting to think of what lies ahead I'm not I'm not afraid of what we face in the future because I think that if we can continue to keep the people that we have on our team and not lose them to other districts because of our calendar and our our contracts and our our budget time if we can keep the people that we have that are so valuable employed that our leaders are going to be able to work with us at ESO Devon myself and Eric to be able to do whatever it is we have to do whether it's you know whether we're back in school the way we were before which let's be real that's not ever going to happen whether we have a hybrid program or whether we have to do distance learning because of a spike in the incidence in in the disease that we are facing now I just feel really blessed that these people are able to do this and it's not easy people are complaining about what's going on in their own homes everybody's got their own little resume of what their life is like but we have to be mindful the fact that our administrators and our teachers are living the exact same nightmare that everybody else is living and they're being able to do all this work while they have woken older kids at home sick parents neighbors in need their own families sick and dying and and it's working and even the people that we know about that who have the most severe inflictions of demise from this you know disease and the current situation that we're in they are still getting up every single day and doing the things that they need to do for the children of this district in spite of their own personal traumas and we can't get into what all those are but just believe me when I tell you that there are people that are dealing with death and destruction and their families but in spite of that with their teams and their leaders their principals in their building they are still delivering to our children and I don't I don't even know how else to say that then just to put that out there and so I'm really I'm really impressed and inspired by the principals and by the the teachers who are really frontline people and nobody can understand what they're doing and the the only thing I'll take a second to throw on to Maureen's point too is if you haven't had a chance to take out a check out the the e-learning site it is there it is linked on our district homepage and for good measure I did I did put it in the chat take a few minutes and take a look at it it's it's really a a great group effort among hall and it is publicly available to be seen so enjoy Thank You Maureen thanks Sarah I didn't know if there's any questions from the board okay I didn't I'm not gonna let you not you guy who's gonna talk is who we always have a habit of all jumping on each other and I want to I have a question for dr.
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Burrell and and a comment for dr. Ruby you know our teachers deserve a lot of credit for all the stuff had to invent and learn we ought to go to work on finding a way to get them CEUs or other types of credit for all this learning they're getting right they you know they deserved I mean it's a small thing but you know there's it's an investment in time it's investment in learning and it's an investment in abilities and we've got to find a way to get some recognition of that so just past that as long as you were talking I kept saying CEU CEO give him credit right find a way and and I just like there's an opportunity there so and dr. bro my question for you is is there a timeline established on the reopening plan I either at the state level or locally I mean I'm guessing there's a lot of parents who are wondering when will I know more and I listened to your comments that I didn't get a sense of is that going to happen in May June July August before we will kind of have a better view of what it will look like and feel like well I could tell you this that the May 20th date as I understand from my listening to the governor and also in my conversation with dr.
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Sullivan yesterday is as still the soft opening of Connecticut so for example in my communication yesterday regarding personal belongings and students being able to get and get their personal belongings or parents being able to pick up medication from the nurse's office we're going to start that plan developing that plan of a very safe and organized distribution however that whatever that looks like with the principals actually tomorrow but we are not the recommendation from dr. Sullivan is we want to we want to be in concert in alignment with that may 20th t today in being on the governor's calling on the commissioners call there was a couple of staff ternoon we are still waiting for for example when they talk about summer school and camps and so forth they're talking about June after June 29th and more information will be will be forthcoming in terms of guidelines and things like that I think the data a week after week if things get better we will start to see what happens with slow Rio or soft reopening I guess they're calling it of of Connecticut and how that goes into what I talked about with dr.
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ruby was just mentioning we we will see but there's no timeline for or promise that it looks good for you know summer school or it looks great for extended school year programming they're looking at that but no hard guidelines yet or schedules yeah my question is more about the fall and what it might look and feel like you know as it is it an in class what do we have to do differently what do we have to do the same how would we deal with proximity issues and things like that and I've gotta imagine I mean there's a lot of moving pieces I do know that but I've got to imagine there's got to be a timeline that says if we're going to do anything different we have to decide that early enough so we can do the logistics of it and that's my question because it's parental logistics as well as district or logistics and and I'm just hoping that whatever's going on at the state level and locally is built in a way that we can communicate broadly with lots of lead time yeah we we don't have the answer to that yet Bob they're talking about trying to figure out what we're going to do for summer and they're not even they're not even there yet to give us that leap down like you're talking about you started to talk about it's kind of three three boxes we're able to get back to school in a traditional fashion secondly is there some kind of hybrid again I mentioned time instructors there's a lot of talk about physical distancing so what what does school look like if you could only have 12 students in a classroom mister coma Ball is actually going to be working with the custodians at the at each of the schools and Act we're going to set up a mock classroom in each of the schools where we make it look like there's 12 students there what's the furniture look like just to get a sense of that while the custodians are there take a picture of that we could all take a look at that together and see what does cafeteria look like how do we figure out bussing with social distancing how does that work we'll talk later when it's time when he when you're presenting the finance reports and we talked about the budget and so forth what kinds of things whether it's technology or cleaning equipment or other things that we need to purchase now why 12 to 16 weeks of lead time so we make sure we have the proper PPE to start the school year assuming we're there and and the the third option is we're back in a full distance learning mode like we are right now and we just don't know and so the sooner we have that information and I imagine that is going to be driven by the results of all these mitigation efforts and we will see but that's that's what we have for now anyone else have questions Maureen got something right I'd like to ask John of course after Maureen so um building on what you asked Bob and what John said I think that one of the things you know you have to all the way I live because it's too depressing to live in the half-empty glass you have to live in the half-full glass one of the positives that's come out of this situation is our being forced to recognize the fact that we don't utilize our educational technology opportunities to the full bloom of what they could be used for and I say that because and I see Alissa shaking her head I know she's talking about you know we have in our district the opportunity even with the level of technology that we have to use some digital platforms that are already part of what we subscribe to with our curricular tools and that being said we need to I know you people get sick of me harping on PD but we need to provide our teachers with the professional learning opportunities to really be able to become very fluent in the use of these digital tools that we have because they've they've never had that opportunity there's only so much that we can expect teachers to do in the short period of time that they have to do it and if you were to go on to some of the educational job websites you would see that across the country and we've discussed this in-house but across the country districts are realizing that they need to get e up on the not IT but ET and ET is educational technology in fact some districts in our state are actually have advertised for and are interviewing for educational technology positions and those are positions that have the people who have the expertise in IT but also have gone on to what universities have been offering recently in terms of educational technology because we need to be able to provide our teachers and our administrators with support in how to not you know how to use a computer or you know give everybody a laptop giving everybody a laptop is like giving everybody an electronic notebook but we need to be so far beyond that and so when we look at I think we need to position ourselves over the next couple months to be able to provide educational services to students and to families no matter what the platform is that presents us B whether it's from koban 19 or what are the the murder Hornets that are coming or whatever comes our way we need to be able to just say we're educators and we know how to support our teachers to support our students and so I think that's when we look at the work that we have ahead of us beyond the May 15th or May 20th date we need to position ourselves to be able to look at what our curriculum is and the curriculum development that still needs to be done and to be able to say that we know that we're providing teachers with the support to build to deliver that curriculum whether they're standing in front of students full-time or they're um they're totally distanced from students full-time or they're somewhere in between and what John talked about in terms of the what are the articulation that that still remains to be seen but it doesn't matter whether the kids are in front of us or the kids are distant from us we have to be able to have the the educational infrastructure with technology to be able to provide that in the classroom or in the home and I think that's the that's the biggest challenge that we face and we can either choose to embrace that and to problem-solve how are we going to have the structures and the supports in place to be able to support the teachers to be able to do that or we can go like this and wait for it to us wait for it to hit us in the face but technology is here to stay whether we have kovin 19 or not and we need to position ourselves as an educational organization to be able to use technology as a tool and not be a slave to technology that I mean from an educational and assessment standpoint that's really where I feel we need to put our efforts Mike did you have a question or comment yeah just a quick question for John's because I get a lot of emails through West Kahn and it seems like there were some updates you said you were part of this cause they they kept mentioning the word thresholds did they mention any specific ones to you or like thresholds and again like that you went out thresholds in order to open up in-person instruction do they mention a specific thresholds with you and not at this not having to define what those thresholds are going to be and and I think what you're talking about with that I saw the gosh his name is escaping maybe the head of our state universities with that a big interview on TV today on news he gets back on campus and that kind of thing but we I was on the Commissioner call and and the governor called today and we didn't get those you know definitions of mark mark oh yeah jerker chain Ojakian Oh Jack you know but no a threshold but never mention a specific you said you're on a call open maybe I mean our big date right now he's obviously May 20th and they talked about getting ready for summer program looking before June 29 so I'm we have weekly calls so I'm sure in a few days some things will start to get to find but I just don't sure thanks anyone else thank you so we can move on to these subcommittee reports but first we have to eat healthy school start times okay so at our last meeting we did sort of two main things one John's done a lot of work with the bus company to start to think about a couple of things one we know that the new school building will be ready and you know approximately two years and the bus the buses will have to be rearranged to accommodate that but also we know that we're envisioning potentially recommending a change to start times particularly at the high school level and so John gave us some of the scenarios that and different tiers you know there's like different the bus has to think about things about in terms of like how many runs they have to do and I might come across clear by the way sometimes I have to move to a different part of my house to get for people to hear me so let me know if it's it's not working and and some of the things that we realized this doesn't necessarily have to do the healthy start time but it's important to know because we are taking two schools and combining them into one and then taking the 5th grade from the middle school and moving it to the new elementary school there will be an increase in busing costs if I don't explain it clearly maybe John can jump in and give the details so there's going to be busing will be more expensive as a result because of of all of those students sort of in one building so that's one thing we know but what works but what the committee is is was sort of coalescing around this idea that what we thought would make sense would - hat would be to have to start time so a start time for the elementary school and then a start time for middle and high school that was something that the committee felt made sense and so at our next meeting which is next Tuesday we're going to look at even some more detailed busing options I think John's and the bus company have developed at least seven different options that we can look at and analyze and look at some costs so we can have some real clear ideas about what we are ready to recommend to the board John you want to jump in on that point or should I continue I think I think that's good for now Jen to share when when the committee is ready to give a full presentation I think we can go to all the scenarios yeah I don't think we need the details yet and then the other thing that we did is so we're working on communicating our findings and the one thing we decided to do is to develop an executive summary really just like a two-page document that would explain sort of well why are we looking at healthy start times to begin with what's the key research what did we find out what did the survey day to tell us and what are some of our recommendations and and and I think what happens is when you're trying to communicate to the public something new if you inundate them with lengthy documents sometimes the message gets lost and so our goal is to develop a two-page brief of sorts that any member of the community could see and understand our thinking behind some of the decisions that were going to make so that we we drafted that we made some revisions and that's almost ready to go oh and then the last step we're going to do which will work on I'll put together a draft and the committee will work on is a longer comprehensive presentation that we want to share with the board so that will go into more details about some of the research what we've learned who we collaborated with in terms of other school districts and experts and then at that point we're ready to make a recommendation so we're ready for a meeting in June if it works with the agenda to make a recommendation to the board on a change in start times and and and just to remind the community is that the recommendation that we want to make would not be implemented for two years and we're doing that intentionally because one we want to make sure people have lots of time to make arrangements and get used to it and think about it because we know you know changing something requires preparation and and but also we want to time it with the opening of the new school which would happen in approximately two years and there would be if we're gonna change busing then it would make sense to make some changes at that time yeah Jen thank you you know the thought on that was you know one swoop you know give everybody the lead and then make the change so we don't have year-to-year changes we just make the changes and and everybody has plenty of time to adjust their their schedules the other thing again I think it's important for everybody to know that mr.
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Baldwin our high school athletic a middle school and high school athletic director and director of health and physical education k12 has been part of the committee and it really provided a great deal of information about the concerns you know that people have with the high school kids schedule and of course after-school activities and student athletics always gets folded into this conversation and sometimes frankly gets in the way of the adolescent health issue that we're trying to address with more sleep for students and he's been an asset to the team so he would be his in what is a major part of the presentation and what's going to go into some of the details yeah because he's shared with us a lot of data about all different things in terms of athletics and other schools in our league and that so we have a lot of data from him to help us make that decision okay thanks Jen welcome up next we have the finance subcommittee can you hear me okay yep okay so what the finance subcommittees actually met twice since our last meeting we had a special meeting on April 15th and then our regular meeting on April 20th the reason we're having multiple meetings in a month is because it's the middle of budget season and the Board of Finance is doing a lot of deliberating and needed a lot of input for them for from us and so we met on the 15th to really focus in on what are the impacts this year primarily of the closures we've been seeing so that mrs.
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Fernandes could actually report that to the Board of Finance that same evening which we did and we've actually because of various items we actually will under run budget this year because we're closed I mean it's very simple and logical things that like we don't have all the same bussing costs for example we're not running field trips we're not going to any conferences you know all of those learning items we went inspected and mr.
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toasted an excellent job of doing the analysis of what happens if we stay through and closed through May 30th because at that time that's what we had been declared at and then what happens if we stay close to the end of the year so we have a very detailed line item view which we did share with the Board of Finance and it was actually I think very useful to the Board of Finance to understand what the ranges of things that might happen coming off of that we also needed to look at what are we seeing right now in terms of next year and as you all know the Board of Finance is in the middle of deliberating on the next year budget it doesn't go to a public vote this year it's actually decided by the Board of Finance and they have until the beginning of June to make that decision and there's a public hearing coming up where they will present their preliminary views of what that budget would look like and there they've met Rosa I want to say they've met a dozen times Wednesday yeah yeah they're doing it every Wednesday and sometimes on Mondays trying to sort it out and and I'm just gonna pause for a moment it's not our committee report but the board of finances issue is that in the midst of all of this pandemic the revenues of the town dry up or they partly dry out they still collect taxes but when you look at you know collectability issues on taxes not everyone's going to pay on time you'll look at fees like people doing additions on their houses or businesses opening up new businesses that just drives right up and the last time we had that happen was in 2008 2009 I was on the board of Finance at that time so it's a really hard equation for to find it's to struggle with and you can tell when you watch their reports they're struggling with it and they need they've been like a sponge trying to get information from us on what might happen what could happen what could we make happen and and we keep trying to respond to that incessant issue issue management of where are we and we're going to talk about that later in tonight's budget discussion I'm sure more but so we as a 15th meeting we did a first view of some of the exposures we take created a list and then we actually discussed it again as our 20th meeting which was the whole budgetary situation dominated our regular meeting on the 20th I'll tell you all that in terms of this year closing through the end of the year it's getting on close to a half a million dollars of an under run in this year so we were actually looking at alternatives on what could we spend that money what that tax has already been issued it's already been collected it's in the coffers of the town so the discussion with the board of finances may be the right thing to do was spend a little of the budget this year to help save next year because next year will be a problem so I think we came up with just under a hundred thousand dollars I think I mean within rounding of items ad something thousand that we might be able to go pull the switch on one-time purchases that you know that we had an or budget that the Board of Finance thought that would be a good idea for us to go execute on in this year that would actually help next year's budget and I think we're all in agreement with it that that would be a logical thing to do when we have enough room to do that the then the next question is okay there's a remainder savings issue we'll probably go to the fund balance where you know do we use that to offset the tax rate issues next year or do we or do we just let it sit in the fund balance or as a contingency and that's actually with the board of heads of Board of Finance discussion and they're actually struggling with working through that right now on what to do so we actually spent a lot of time at our 20th meeting going through more of that discussion we looked at some of the financial report and and how some of that's actually playing out and it you're actually seeing in the actuals and we talked about where we are in special education costs because that was our big issue this year until about pandemic came along and and we'll cover this year's problem with the underruns that we're seeing so I don't we don't have to ask the town for more money this year with which we had been asking for and we talked about the lunch fund so it's been a busy time kind of working through this with the Board of Finance trying to deal with the issues they're dealing with and and I think we they're making hard decisions I'm just will I'll leave at dinner we'll continue this discussion later this later in the meeting so any questions sorry that rambled okay up next we have keep alright so we had basically two big pieces of the agenda and I'm looking at my notes so I don't miss anything so the first thing is that mark Belinda the high school has been he's met with us a number of times about this concept of having a individualized learning block at the high school and it was a proposal that came as a recommendation from the knee ask report that we wanted to schedule time that would support students individually it would allow for some faculty student mentoring mentor ship excuse me and also perhaps offer additional you know richer learning opportunities for students as well so Mark presented and if you have the notes you can see his recommendation which would have add this time into the day so it would be about forty nine minutes in the day and that would shave a little bit of time off of each of the classes the classes would still be 78 minutes in length but this individual learning block would allow teachers to meet with a smaller group of students again either to do some perhaps remediation perhaps to do some sort of talked about like assemblies or perhaps to go to deeper in some content areas so Marc recommended that to us and the committee approved it so that's if that's something that the the board has to vote on as well I'm not sure or as or is that just something that we recommend the Committee recommends the committee recommends that and then that's on new business Jen for the forty prove tonight okay so that's coming that's coming up in new play and market speak you know in more detail to it okay so so I won't say more than that so you get the big idea and then the second big discussion was what we talked about in our special meeting was the idea of the grading you know a lot of research went into how do we grade in this very very different time that everybody's experiencing and if you remember the concept was that we're going to look at each building differently where the elementary is really about participation and noting that and the middle school is more of a pass/fail and then the high school is a little bit more of a hybrid where there's an opportunity to either have a letter grade or a pass/fail so so I think we talked about that the last man meeting but if there's any if mark if I missed any details and you want to add feel free or we can wait till that later part of the meeting okay Thank You Jen all right so up next we have personnel and negotiations and just to provide you with a brief summary we just entered into executive session to discuss unaffiliated salaries strategy and negotiation as it relates to collective bargaining and the superintendent's evaluations so that's all that's it so up next we have our consent agenda and we don't have one there's nothing on there yeah right okay um so actually before we move on to new business there was a one student that was inadvertently not recognized in the recycling contest so we'd like to recognize them now so principal Renda can can do that um my apologies we had a little mistake with some names we actually left the student's name off Julia Felice Julia I apologized julia was part of the third-place poster her and Olivia were the two students who so congratulations to both and Olivia again Lia I apologize for that thank you and congratulations congratulations Julia Thank You Dean thanks Rosa sure okay so moving on to new business we have the proposed 2020 21 BHS scheduled changes I make a motion that the board approved the changes to the proposed 2020 2021 BHS schedule as recommended by assistant assistant superintendent dr. maureen ruby BHS principal mark Belinda and the Cape subcommittee I don't know if you want who you want to start if you want me to start Maureen that doesn't really matter to me who goes I'll leave it up to Maureen what do you think hey Mark it's all yours alright thanks Maureen so you know the genesis of this of this new schedule proposal is something that you know has really come up in the past several years since I really started at Brookfield High School one thing that we have been certainly lacking to some degree is you know intervention support for kids of all of all abilities so you know I think oftentimes we hear intervention we automatically assume that students that are a lower academic performance level but certainly we have kids at higher performing levels that are challenging themselves in upper level classes that also may need some intervention to help them um you know achieve those lofty goals that they've set for themselves so when I say intervention I just I want everybody understand it's it's a couple different things you know when knee apps came through last year in December one of the things they talked about was the the lack of a tiered SRB eye interventions at the high school there just isn't much outside of offering for students to come after school for extra help is one way that students are provided with some intervention the other way students are provided intervention is on occasion we have student tutors from National Honor Society that certainly help kids during a 25-minute block that exists on B days and then we also have you know the Writing Center students do go to the Writing Center to get some some level of writing support but we know that and then we have some students who certainly receive reading intervention from two of our reading interventionists that we have at the high school as you know we are identified as a focus school several years ago particularly for reading and the huge gap that exists so those reading interventionist have really been working with the most at-risk students to help raise their levels multiple grade levels in reading to help support their basically support their reading levels so you know it we wanted to try something and Nia said you don't really have any anything built into your schedule and after school is a really tough time in twenty-five minutes every other day for a student to tutor another student is really not intervention and we have a lot of data that shows that we could use some support so the idea this actually came up this actual type of schedule is running a couple different schools in New England locally there's one scheduled like this at New Fairfield high school there's also scheduled like this at Danbury high school as well so two very different sized high schools very different dynamics and populations and both do very well with this particular schedule because what it allows for is the actual classroom teacher to provide instructional support for their students and so the way this works you know the way I envision it working and way I've seen it work in several other school districts is that teachers have a core group of kids very similar to how we have flex a or advisory whatever you want to call it right now that they stay with those kids for the better part of four years one of the knee ask recommendations is always that the student has a staff member or a teacher outside of just their outside of just their core academic teachers that they connect with so you can imagine that I if I have a a group of ten to fifteen students you know there's gonna be some students in my advisory in my block this support block that we have it's individualized learning time block that I don't have in my class that we're gonna start on Mondays and call them mentoring Monday so every Monday would be a mentoring time where I would call all ten to fifteen of my students up I work with them take a look at their grades in PowerSchool have some discussions about the support that they need and then help them to schedule and this is a slow rollout but you help them to schedule where they are going to go during the course of the week to get extra support so that allows me and allows students to be kind of self advocates to some degree and help to decide where they need the most help I can help them with the executive functioning piece of scheduling where they need to go and every teacher is available at that time so that Monday would be kind of a sacred time when those teachers are with their their students they work with them if I'm working with Dean then I'll once he's done and I have him scheduled for the week I'll work with joy next to talk about what hers is and then you've got that time that kind of built in you know for the rest of that mentor Monday students are gonna be doing using it as a study hall essentially and getting some work done which is really important because we found in talking to a lot of kids they value the fact that the study hall is really helpful then what happens is Tuesday rolls around and there's some software a software package that I've looked into and and and seen it at work that actually on Monday when I call kids up I schedule them to their teacher so on Tuesday if Dean is gonna go see his math teacher when that individualized learning time comes Dean goes right to his math teacher his math teacher sees on an attendance list that Dean is supposed to be there and Dean can then get that one-on-one help you know or maybe it's small group help and and that's one of the cool the cool things about this program is I can look at Dean and Ken and John who or maybe in the same class or maybe they're in three different sections of a class that I teach of algebra two but I noticed that Dean Ken and John I know we really don't want Ken having any math problems but Dean Ken and John having the same issue in math with a particular concept even though they're in different classes in different sections they're all having the same issue I as a teacher of math can go into the system and pre-book Dean can and John to come meet with me and we could work on that same concept together as a small group as we know the benefit of working in small flexible groups particularly by similar concepts how helpful that can be you know we're also gonna use that time so I see that over the course the week so kids could be going to their print teachers some kids might not need all that helped that particular day so they may stay with me I may have Deb Brooks in the back she's she's got to work she's gonna knock out a project but she's working on a paper she doesn't need help with it on Tuesday so she stays with me while I'm Dean Ken and John they're coming in I'm giving intervention Deb's in the back and we're talking small groups 10 to 15 it's relatively easy to manage in a regular classroom if I've got you know those groups of kids and you know we limit the numbers of kids that can move around one of the other things that Kate brought up and is a really good point was the fact that you know I can also not just use this or intervention for all different levels of students but also provides some enrichment opportunities and have some pretty some scheduled ideas for what we can do for enrichment and some of those things that I think about right off the bat I go right to our stem department we have a technology a technology teacher a teacher of one a department of one and we know the importance of technology and some of the things that we have down there you know that our with our 3d printers alone we've got a student Logan white who has been working and printing these ear savers and giving and helping provide those two local health care workers because he has experience with a 3d printer not every kid in the building has that opportunity what a great chance this could be for students to sign up or to to learn more about some of the temp stem tools I look at if anybody's been down to see the wood shop or the metal shop and I understand there's certainly budgetary implications in terms of supplies but what a great issue for me to have to say I've got kids and a teacher willing to run a woodshop class to help some kids work with construction and model building and and better enhance the work that they're gonna do in their other classes or maybe spark an interest for something they can do in college or maybe spark an interest to take another technology class if they can fit it into their schedule that's one thing I think about I also think about in this day and age with online learning there's these MOOCs these open online courses there's a lot of opportunities for students to take some of these courses from MIT and Harvard and top-notch schools they can take some of these and do some real experience of learning on their own for topics that we as a high school could never really teach but there's an opportunity for us to provide that that block of time for kids to explore that and do some more things the other one of the other great parts about this too is that I can actually use that time to schedule assemblies we have a we have assemblies that need to occur throughout the course of the day throughout the course of the year whether it be the required senior voter registration in the spring or something that leads to the PSAT results or class elections or motivational speakers there's any number of different reasons that we have people come in that we value and right now what we do is we end up having those exclusively pretty much second block that's because first period the day is tough because you want to make sure everybody's there last period is the same issue our lunch period is an issue because it's a there's a lot of moving parts and so you end up having them pretty much always during second period and those second period teachers if you end up with that second period class and you know that throughout the course of the year there's gonna be some assemblies it's tough because you know you're gonna lose some instructional time we can run some of these assemblies during that 45 minute period we can also use some of that time for clubs and activities you know if there's gonna be you know the National I'm Society can meet at one point in time or the Key Club which has a huge enrollment we can use that every once in a while we can schedule times and I have some ideas I've talked to my my colleague principals and and really have a pretty fair idea of how they schedule some things out and work some some opportunities in here because our building kids that are involved in athletics or extracurricular activities and they they're forced to choose you know do I get extra help or do I go to this game and maybe it's not that extreme on some occasions it is or do I choose between my different clubs if we know we have one club that meets seldomly maybe we can run that during one of these periods and then we know the the one that meets every week after school the kids can be a part of more things this certainly does take a little bit away from from the you know the instructional time right and so we've had that discussion we've talked to teachers about what this looks like because you actually are reducing the instructional time that they have this 83 minutes we're also reclaiming so it's really you know when you look at the Flex a and flex B and several of you have had students either currently or previously have had students go through school with flex pay and flex B it really can be a waste of time is the wrong term but it's not a good use of time I think there's we can certainly use that better and rotating kids to the cafeteria in three different waves is something that the cafeteria can handle in terms of size in terms of the schedule itself there's enough time between the lunches 15 minutes that they can actually hit reset and get themselves ready to go and on to the next shift so the biggest drawback really for for teachers and educators and that point is that yes you may be somebody who has a third block class and it might be split right you might have some time before lunch and then time afterwards if you look at that schedule but you know and while there might be some reduced time you know I would the conjecture I have and the and the things that I've heard from talking to other districts that have implemented something like this yes we may be taking some shaving some instructional minutes off the actual course when it meets but with the intervention time you're allowed to bring kids back up to speed and you're gonna gain that time back in class because you can actually continue to move forward provide intervention and keep moving forward so it's it's a different model way to look at it and the last thing I will say is I've been very very verbose at this point looking at the time that I've been talking where we are now in terms of Kovan 19 and what it's gonna happen to kids and they come in next year we know they've lost no matter how much we're trying there's always the summer slump well we're gonna have the summer some slump plus two months at the very least and so there's gonna need we're gonna need to find a way to provide some intervention to get kids caught up and back up to speed I couldn't tell you exactly what that's gonna look like but I know we're gonna need to find that time and I imagine there's gonna be there's gonna be some bigger holes particularly with our struggling and high needs learners you know our students that are receive special education services that right now Frank they're not able to receive the same level support they get they're in school so there's gonna be some catch-up time we need it is just lucky is the wrong term because I don't feel lucky about the timing it's just coincidental that I'm presenting this that I've talked about it well before and November and the Cape committee knows I've had this conversation before this was planned or talked about well before this happened it just does coincide very well to allow us to provide some additional support for kids as they need it without them having to spend extra time after school and I think it really could provide a lot of good support so there's there's certainly pros and cons but I'm ready to take that on and you know it really it does what we need it to do I think of the high school level and and the fact that I've seen it be successful in two other local schools you know New Fairfield and Danbury two very different sizes of very different populations and I've got really good feedback and visiting both schools it's I think it's the right move here for the high school I just want to add on to that this is not a new concept this is a concept that schools have been using since like for the past 15 years I can say that because I know of schools that have been using it fact I have children that went to schools that use this a long long time ago because my kids are old but I'm not and the thing that I think that is really important that Mark said is that this is not something that is a knee-jerk react or a response to the situation that we're in this is something that has been thought about for the past two years because we know even before Gnaeus came in and told us we knew that they were going to tell us that we needed to have an improved SR bi system but given the schedule that we have even with manpower questions if we had tons of service providers that could have gone into the high school to provide us RBI we did not have the infrastructure or we couldn't operationalize that because of the schedule so we've been talking about this for well over two years as mark noted this is in the Kate minutes from in the fall so it is not a knee-jerk response to either COBIT 19 or the knee ask situation that we're in this is born out of very reflective considerations based on the needs of the students in the district which is what the whole point is so I I really can't see how we cannot do this and in terms of any concerns that people have about taking time off of the the block scheduling to be able to procure the numbers of minutes that we need to provide this service the students at all ends of the continuum the research is pretty clear that it's not really the amount of time that you spend on tasks but rather it's the quality of the instructional support and feedback that you get for the time that you're putting in so there is no downside to taking the minutes off of the of the box to enable mark to garnish this time from the limited time that we have within a school day amen thank you dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Ruby yeah well I remember being a part of this conversation when I was on Cape so has been something that we have talked about for a very long time and it's something I'm we budgeted for so you know proof that we have been talking about this for quite some time does anybody have any questions or comments discussion on this okay so we will now proceed to vote so all those in favor I okay thank you the vote is unanimous thank you very much I appreciate it you're welcome presentation mark thank you okay so we can move on to old business and the Board of Education budget estimate for the 2021 school year there's no motion for tonight and there isn't any formal action that we need to take but there is some information that everyone should be updated on and hopefully that can you know lead to some discussion and questions and everybody can sort of hopefully get together and we can hopefully connect on on some thinking that we can we can share together but the proposal that is currently being discussed probably as we speak right now the Board of Finance is meeting right now but the proposal that's being discussed is a further 1.1 million dollars in reduction to our budget for next year and that what I don't think that was ever part of the discussion until the town learned that they had this massive loss in revenue that Bob had talked about earlier what is nice is in response to that news there has been this and you guys have been copied on all the emails so we've seen this huge outpouring of support from residents to keep the Board of Ed budget intact and raise taxes as normal but you know it's because people can't have their voices heard at the at the ballots you know it's nice that they are still very much trying to be a part of this process but in the event that you know those messages and the Board of Finance has to make these decisions we need to discuss the very real possibility of some very large and drastic reductions so dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Borel if you you had already shared with us some of these very general areas that we will likely have to take a look at so do you want to could you go over those again just to kind of refresh the board's memory sure so just keeping them in some big kind of chunky areas without getting into super detail depending on whether the conversation goes this evening the first thing we talked about and Bob mentioned it in his finance report was looking at some one-time purchases to pull them out of next year's budget we actually titled it pull heads and so some of those items that we can purchase whether it might be some one-time purchase for furniture or particular texts or the Flex scheduling software that Mr bland had just talked about those those areas add up to somewhere in our range of eighty one thousand dollars eighty five thousand dollars somewhere in that range other areas that we're taking a look at is transferring in some red revenues so taking a look at the cafeteria account and the Student Activity account and using some of those funds to offset next year's budget and then we start getting into the things that start to hurt and the reductions and so we hit supplies materials and books and we'd really squeeze down some of the accounts at each of the buildings based on the actual spending which is lower than what we budget for because of budget freezes annually professional development specifically misses errands who works with us with Teachers College and language arts significant reduction there being we just actually executed of them random of agreement with the teachers union today mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Claus and the team were very cooperative and very understanding of the budget circumstances facing the board of IDI and the panel in general and they have an account where there is an opportunity for teachers to apply for individualized professional development that by contract we have to fund for twenty thousand dollars per year and David cooperated with the board and elected to eliminate that opportunity just just for the one year next year so to continue to help lower the budget and contribute to helping the situation we then get into some of the other things that I know start to hurt even more we do need to look at our K through six elementary world Language Program we get into situations like this it's so difficult the only place to find 1.1 million dollars after some of the items I just discussed is you have to look at personnel 80% of our budget I say this all the time 80% of our 47 million dollar budget proposal is personnel and that's salaries and benefits so that's an area that is not a half - it's not a mandated program and it's something we have to look at in addition to that we need to look at our investments that we put forward this year things that are on the table are the additional TESOL teacher the math interventionist which coincides with supporting students in a math area which is an area that we do need improvement in and it goes right to mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Blandings presentation on the need for intervention math tutors we really want to bolster our elementary math intervention program and math tutors would be very helpful there that's an area we need to look at in terms of investment and then the recommendation for after-school after regular school afternoon security services at the high school not only to keep an eye on things in terms of the students and the student body moving about the school but really keeping an eye on the facilities itself after school because right now our custodians are working our coaches are coaching our advisors are advising our students are engaged and you know no one's actually securing the building so those are that was a recommendation that had come come forward we've also seriously explored again we're talking about finding remembering 871 thousand dollars that was the initial reduction back in February to now an additional 1.1 million dollars we talked about reinstituting pay to participate that's something we're proud of and happy to take away four years ago and it's something we will have to bring back we estimate looking at the a schedule that would probably bring in somewhere between 90 and 110 thousand dollars we can is going to build a model the principles are getting participation rates for different activities and athletics to him so we can actually take a look at that and then in addition to that we have to look at class size that's the next place you go some of the the areas we're looking and specifically at the k2 for area and those increased sections that we put in the budget in kindergarten and in grade one as well as looking at sections in grades three and four so though that you know in and of itself with some other pieces in those areas if we look hard enough we can get to that million dollar mark and it's going to hurt and we're going to lose programs and we're going to increase class size as the major pieces that will kind of be noticeable impacts on people on the students the rest will be lagging indicators as it typically is and I'll take a bit you know over time we'll see the decline in performance and things like that and and my biggest concern I'll just say here I know dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Ruby and I gave dr. Ruby had her moment tonight and I really appreciate her really sharing about educational technology and envisioning the future and getting ready for it and in this particular case what we're talking about the budget in almost all measurable areas our district has trended in a very positive direction significant achievements our science scores in fifteen eight fifteen eighth grade for the very first year the science test came out we're amazing our ranking at the high school is doing extremely well the middle school has been seeing increased achievement I mean all over the place we are performing at the top of Derby right at the top of a few other districts and yet our per pupil expenditure remains the lowest enduring vehicle talking about 20 or 21 different districts so there is an incredible value that the citizens of Brookfield receive for for the education that their children get and for the cost and so I know it's tough time I'm not by any stretch living in a fantasy world but this is very significant and it will impact our students and I just can't say it any other way so I'd like to get some sort of feedback from other board members and in terms of your reaction to this news or questions that you might have like did you want to say something I don't think anyone wants to go first I think you're right I'll start it you know my my reactions and I'm still know so you know I looked over the last budget numbers as far as increases and it doesn't look like we've had a 5% increase in quite some time I know can I ask what cutting 1.1 million dollars brings our percentage to two point three four two point three four I mean that's uh that's that's uh that's pretty low so I say last year last year was three point two five year before that 2.82 two point eight five so it's definitely you know it's like it's almost on par with our previous years all right the other thing you have to you can't like almost look at each individual year as sort of as partying is is the special education the big that's the big test of one big driver yeah that's two percent yes I mean if you really are sent I know can't write it I feel like the only solutions there are more legislative but also I mean more investment in the short term to cover it for a long term which we obviously don't have room for so both those solutions matter in this conversation at this point I know I've advocated already for the world language program I know that's gonna make a lot of people not like me but as far as an objective measure and it does seem that you know that time it's not like that it's not like we cut the program and it's and it's a total loss I'm sure that forty five minutes a week can use in the handwriting and social studies so I did I do want to point that out I know I'm gonna look like the bad guy and you know I guess just the guests get started what's the number savings if we caught world language just there's over 200,000 yeah it's a nets out to approximately well there's in this particular model that we're talking about would be it would affect four of our Spanish teachers Casey six and part of that is that we would we talked about we would have to backfill that because the the students that time needs to be made up the way the the scheduling of the students is the way the the teacher prep Tory time works and we would take advantage of that opportunity through as Mike started dimensions of social studies and science curriculum extension but again there's a lot of summer planning that would have to go into that so what we would do is we would probably we would reallocate for teacher FTEs that would be specifically certified in Spanish and we would still bring in two more we would take four out and bring two back that we would have to do to extend those other areas dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
dr. real what did we do prior to that program I don't know why we have to backfill because that's k2 for those two teachers the one I'd center one at huckleberry what was that prior at that time well what I could cut I could tell you this is the way the Spanish program is implemented is as a special and if you need to teach your contract you have to have those preparatory times so I will let su dr. Drew be raising your hand and certainly we have our principals that elementary principals I could jump in so go ahead dr. Lee so I'll give you a little bit information and the principals can back this up but before we had this as a specialist I'm it was taken out of social studies time and so at the middle school we do not need to backfill and Dean jump in unmute yourself whenever you're the expert in your school but in the middle school we do not have to back fill in with an additional teacher because we would then give back the time that we're taking out of social studies and give back the time that we were taking from you and H so it's a wash but in because the teachers were still getting their prep time Jean did I say that right yeah so that at the middle school a couple years ago and Melissa and particularly Mary Rose since you've been in both schools my understanding is that the time was taken from social studies and then recently we redistributed things and we made Spanish be a special and so because that special time is when teachers have their prep and meeting times we would need to replace something but because we know the importance in terms of children being able to apply their English language arts skills and their social studies and science skills we would want to instead of back filling it with you know taking that time from that was being used as a special for Spanish and being able to supplement and enhance our social studies and science because at that time is contractually needed to be able to provide the contracted time for preparation and meeting time and Mary Rose or Melissa you can add into that clarifying if I can just get clarified though when Vanessa and Mason specifically were at those schools the Spanish teacher pushed in it wasn't during the classroom teachers prep time because the classroom teacher was still in the room that was an addition to their already special during that day it centers teachers weren't even cut you off to a specialty full-time at center school prior to Spanish becoming a special so the other special seekers picked up they have all the kids had an extra special block each week so they would have the four specials and then they have another they'd have an extra dose kind of special so they would rotate through they have you know like each month they have an extra special like an extra period of PE for a month and then the next month would be an extra period mat music then so that's how they brought you to step on mary-rose but our specials teachers did not have a full-time complement of classes I do remember out there yeah so in order to in order for them to have a full time job they were given these extra periods of enrichment or whatever term you want to use and that provided the teachers with their prep time and meeting time we went to looking at the specials teachers for what time they actually provided specials instruction and we went down to 0.7 because that's literally what they were providing and some people thought oh kids were getting less or less visit or less whatever but they weren't they were getting what they were getting before but the teachers weren't providing the we we weren't employing full-time teachers to provide coverage for prep time in changing to the specials rotation everybody was teaching so we cut down the hours so that the special teachers were actually employed for the time that they provided instruction and the the Spanish teachers were providing Spanish on full time on a rotational basis and does that make sense joy just yeah what we did yeah oh we nobody was so we actually took off of the specials time to represent what they truly were teaching we didn't take away any specials from students that was the misconception and we we made Spanish rather than a push in two content area time we made it a special and that took up that gap that teachers who were not didn't have a full complement of teaching responsibilities we're providing extra so that the teacher other teachers could get their prep time does that make sense yeah it makes sense you know Facebook and everything about kids were getting less music nobody was getting less of anything we were just in terms of the human resources and costs to the taxpayer for what they were paying we were actually delivering what people were paying for and and thank you Mormon for explaining that because that was a budget seat besides being a in instructional adjustment it was a budget saving move during conversations just like this two years ago so that's part that's all part of that so they were actually they were employed for what they were teaching and so there was that point seven like Maureen said so there was some shared teachers between the two elementary schools in that pilot that was on in our efforts to be truly transparent about what Peter teachers were doing with their time because we were in such a tight well we're always in such a tight budget situation we're trying to make sure that we're actually using the taxpayer dollars to deliver the services that we're saying we're delivering so I just want to make sure I'm clear on the scope of the problem here so we're are we talking about I forget the exact number but you said somebody somewhat of around $800,000 was the initial reduction plus a potential reduction of 1.1 million so we're talking about roughly two million dollars yeah yeah almost actually two million dollars this was eight hundred and seventeen thousand was the first cut and one its we keep saying 1.1 it's 1 million one hundred and sixty eight thousand almost 1.2 million we should make sure we're very clear we're going to cut two million dollars from the budget let's say that number very clear into the community yeah that is absolutely the reality the Board of Finance isn't doesn't have to make that final determination until June 4th so I think they're gonna have a pretty firm idea of what where they're gonna land in terms of the final reduction you know probably tonight or next week because then the following week is the public hearing and it can change even after the public hearing but historically it doesn't very much so you know tonight and next week I are pretty much you know the nights that are going to be the final decision-making nights for them so so can I do some numbers with you all and see if I can put this into a visceral feeling I'm sitting here you may have noticed me futzing around with with my spreadsheets so and our presentations so the numb the numbers the numbers you will hear from the Board of Finance and from the first selectmen is that they have cut a million almost a million to out of the budget and that gives us a two point three four percent increase on the bottom line if you remember our our we had a decline in revenues Oh from year to year and ken has told us in the finance committee meeting that that might actually be even worse because we're seeing some special education risks from where you know reimbursement risks from where we were before but with the budget we had two point three four percent yields a two point one 1% increase in spending what that is is nine hundred and fifty two thousand dollars from year to year nine hundred and fifty two thousand now I will tell you that nine hundred and fifty two thousand is from the original budget base from last year from the current year not including the teacher the extra kindergarten teacher that they funded for us they actually went back to the original budget when they did that so really be more like one point nine percent from the way we've been looking at it but that's nine hundred and fifty two thousand I went back to look at our budget presentation the increase year-on-year in special ed costs that we have to deal with is eight hundred and forty eight thousand that means we have seventy know we have about a hundred thousand dollars to deal with inflation contractual increases the teacher that they didn't include in the pace which is eighty five thousand dollars and anything else we might have wanted to do we have B no no year-to-year increase oh no year D it's actually a decrease of you I mean it's it's a deficit yep it's a prop this is huge this is this is trying to either we're gonna have to go to all the unions and say we need to have a year where no one gets a salary increase which is as we all know really hard and not necessarily fair but we may be faced with that or we're going to be talking about decreasing our staff the the the the the Spanish teacher is a minor thing I say if that gets us a couple hundred thousand dollars we're talking about ten more teachers past that and taking programs out an increase in class size and we should not I I can't tell because I've had unfortunately Wednesday night meetings all this month that I haven't been able to go to the Board of Finance meetings but I'm not sure they really gotten under the math of how dire this is and on top of that they took out the entire locker room project out of the budget that was part of their solution on the town site so they hit us both on the capital side and they've hit us on the on this side this is dire in terms of what it does to our school district so if we're not we're not at a point I don't think tonight to be able to start grappling with it but these are big decisions were going to be faced with and molasse we had this was in that risk that that recession period in 2008-2009 and it took us most of the decade to catch it back cut the school district back up I don't want to walk away lightly from this and this is you know I'm not placing blame on anybody but something that I think as a board it's worth considering at a very at a very serious level is the advocating for having the town charter support the the Board of Education I have written seven letters of recommendation for very high quality teachers in the past week just one week because these are people who are not tenured we're highly coveted teachers confidential you know people don't want you to share who they are obviously but they got pink slips because our the way our our our town works is you know we don't have the we have our referendum when we have it later than other towns and I can I can well I can offer you this other districts have if you go on CT reef this isn't my this is an opinion this is fact you go on to CT reef which is where school districts host their openings you can see all the open for teachers that have been posted in the past for five week six weeks and people are applying for those jobs because they're afraid of their own jobs they have family support just like all of us do and I can't not write a letter of recommendation for a high quality teacher I mean it's part of our response I talked to them I can't promise them anything I can't say oh don't worry you won't get cut I talked to them about what their job is like if it's a high school job and they're the only person that teaches that I'm like seriously no matter what happens you have to have your job because we won't be accredited if we don't offer this but that isn't enough to make somebody who has a responsibility to a family or income and and benefits medical benefits particularly especially in this particular time feel like oh yeah okay don't worry I'm good I'll just hang out and not apply for a job and so I personally since I oversee our HR department with Terry I worry about the position that we're put in because it's not just it's simply not just replacing a body with the body we as a district because we're committed to the professional learning of our teachers so that we have positive impacts on our students when we lose a teacher that we've had for one year two years three years or more we're not losing just a person we're losing all of the investment that our PD people our PD dollars our administrators have put into these teachers by mentoring them and evaluating them on a regular basis and that's that's a loss that we don't quantify but I can assure you that when we hire a new person even if they're an experienced teacher we have to reinvest in that person because they come from districts that it's out on is online now that we're measuring student achievement of the standards in on there they don't even know what measuring standards standard achievement is because you can't do it in an online format if you're if you're really doing that so we have to indoctrinate and professionally develop these people when we bring them into our district because you have supported us in doing the work that very select school districts across this country are doing we are blessed that we've been able to invest in our curriculum development and our professional development so when we lose a teacher we don't lose a body we lose high-level investment that this district has made into these people and I find that personally because that's my work I find it to be tragic in terms of what it does to the students and the organization because no matter how great our principals are they can't make up for that lost time that goes away when a teacher leaves us I couldn't agree more green that's unfortunate you're muted and Maureen we oh we have a teacher here Alisa Larson is a teacher she can tell you whether she likes it or not how much time and effort we put into our teachers in terms of PD it's almost like overdose PD right Alyssa but I that we have transformed the way our teachers think about about teaching and learning and it's been painful it's not easy work and these people should get credit for the the type of dedication that they put into not only showing up every day and doing what people know now is a very hard job like if you it's hard enough to do it with three people in your kitchen these people are doing it with 20 kids in a classroom and on top of it they're diving deep into the standards they're learning new ways of teaching assessing and those people walk out our door and go someplace else where we're literally crippled and so I think that that's something that unless I articulate that and and and share that information how would people know and those are that's like putting money in the bank and whatever interest you get on it if we ever got any interest on money we put in the bank that's another story um it just gets taken away well we have real dog Alyssa do you want to say anything go ahead I don't know what does that mean you're speaking the truth my my husband was working my son and he walked out of the room he goes I can't do this you have no idea what it's like to work with a kid like him and I was like oh you forget my job so I mean it is it's it's a different thing that it requires a lot and as a kindergarten teacher I'm sitting here listening to this the numbers and I'm thinking about the fact that might mean we don't get our extra kindergarten teacher and that terrifies me not not just because of high class sizes because we're professionals and we can do with what you give us and what the town gives us but it terrifies me because these kids have have not only gonna have the Summer Slide they're gonna have what they have on top of that and I'm worried about what what's gonna happen with these students when they come in if we are having large class sizes because I've seen the impact with just two extra kids in my class and it's a big change and just the students that are coming into us behaviorally have been different year over year and it's changing in you know a different way every single year and it's harder to teach at my level with the behavior interruptions and with all the academic needs that they're gonna they're gonna need this coming year I just don't it's gonna be a different kind of story moving forward basically but like I said we're professionals and we can do with what you give us but I feel like if anything we've learned that about ourselves over the past month that you know these 15 hour days and whatnot we can we can do it but we would love whatever support you guys tow for us and I know the town is rallying behind us and that makes us happy as well so thank you Alyssa Thank You Alyssa so guys I would I would just suggest that we have to take a little hard look at not going after what we have but focusing in on maybe this isn't the year to go do the things we added to the budget right because we did add some roles to the budget right and maybe we have to take a pause on some of those we got to look at things that don't affect jobs right we got to think about class sizes but then look at every other possible thing that we could defer or avoid and it may mean things like we don't get some technology equipment that we would have otherwise had it may mean that we don't do some of the books it may mean that we go to the Board of Finance and say that under run this year I want to use next year right I want to use it as a as a way to deal with this issue it may mean a lot of things but I'm kind of with Alyssa I don't want to go after the core of what we have because that's that's what we have to keep strong and that's my view and Bob just so you know if you you know if it's appropriate as the conversation unfolds there's there are some key areas in addition to the poll Ahead's that we've already discussed with the Finance Committee the special meeting and so forth for the for the use of the additional funds and this year's budget debt to help us you know technology PPE cleaning equipment and in addition and then looking at a non lasting opportunity to make sure we have the you know the right class sizes things like that so this all kinds of I would also observe that right now we're being relatively sanguine about the fact that we might not have spending exposures year when would come back to school right why I asked earlier when what would be the timeline for one we know what the approach will be but yeah you know I could envision a lot of different things that would be required depending on how we come back to school like how often do you have to go clean right maybe we need more people to go do real cleaning for a year right it does protect our students and our employees maybe we need to have different bus runs right because that's how you got to deal with things and so John my question earlier wasn't benign it was we meet we're going to need to know what the real exposure was what the real plan is so that we can figure out what we got oh and we're gonna have to do it early enough so we can get ahead of the curve on on budgetary matters and things like that and you know what we don't go back into school the budget would be lower right because we've learned that already you know how you know if you don't have people in the buildings you don't spend as much money but I'm hoping we don't have that I'm hoping we have a way to get kids back into the classrooms but I don't before we actually sort of maybe go looking into some of those those scenarios you know I really need sort of an understanding of where we all stand in turn in the green I'm hoping we can coalesce around some sort of agreement in terms of what our roles as Board of Ed members are in this whole process because one of the things that you you may actually hear from residents who are supporting you know a zero tax increase and things like that you know we have an other than the 817 that we cut we haven't done that search that you're talking about Bob where we we really look at okay well what are the things that we can really do without and I think that sort of puts us in a really precarious position because of course these are all things and program and people that we have fought to put in this in our district and so saying we can do without them is sort of contradictory to our entire mission so that's my personal belief but I would like what you guys think because there there is you know a very real possibility that had we gone and done that meaning proactively cut into our people and programs that this cut wouldn't have been as drastic because we would have been viewed as more cooperative that's not our job so roses point I do think we we do owe we have to show that to other boards or select men aboard finance that we are taking the 1.1 million very seriously we're not just we're not gonna you know oh well yeah this is a dire situation yeah we could we could say it's a dire situation but we also have to put some solid ideas to present to them and then you know look all these things really cut I don't want to cut the world language program I'm just saying as as a way if hey this it's kind of low-hanging fruit at this point where we can also cut something save save a couple hundo it's not like a million dollars but you have to start somewhere northern coup so this is what you have to start somewhere so I'm not like I don't want to do this but we have to show the Boris look these cuts if we if we're started a 1.1 million dollar cut these anything we cut in that one is is hurting hard and I'm hoping that if we we don't have to do 1.1 million and we can show that even even a two hundred thousand dollar cut into 1.1 million is a lot and they can back us on only shorting it you know I know less than 1.1 million that's all I'm saying I think there is an opportunity and I thought this this is what where you were going with this Rosa is and I just want to kind of back you on this is we have to show that where we're taking serious like here's an idea serious cuts that hurt in effect kids on a day-to-day basis and teachers on a daily basis and then hopefully it doesn't end up to be one point ones like you said it doesn't typically change well let's let's let's let's hope that it does in showing how much it hurts so it wasn't it wasn't entirely where I was going where what I just to sort of bring you guys up to speed in terms of what my communications with the Board of Finance has been was since this whole cold enclosure has happened I have been and I have been on Ken and John and everybody to go in and tighten the budget as tight as humanly possible I mean let's find every single savings we possibly can let's get creative you know managing this fund or that fund and funding things with you know just different budgetary management strategies but aside from that there's a line that I don't cross personally which and I don't think a Board of Ed is should be crossing which is proactively cutting after that you know finding efficiencies and stuff without affecting actual operations is one thing I am not I don't think we can cut beyond that unless we are told to what I have told them and I've shared with them John's the tears that we talked about in our last meeting we talked about again tonight they are very well aware of where we will have to go next so we've already identified 90,000 dollars and pull ahead items that we can safely reduce the budget next year there's also another sixty one thousand in just regular budget to actual adjustments and things like that that we can that we can pretty safely make or the 52,000 from the from the student activity fund so we can we have come to them with you know multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars you know I think it was like two hundred thirty three thousand or something in terms of safely reducing the budget but I warned them that after that it is people and things and I don't think we cross that line and I hope you agree with me but I don't think we crossed that line unless we have to I totally agreed it I just feel like we're getting really close to that line where we have to considering you know the reduction in tax revenue I don't think we I don't think we fit the iceberg on on how how reductions in tax revenue are gonna affect town boards this board I mean everything joy what do you think you've been quiet well I mean I kind of grew with Mike I think that we need to you know discuss possible cuts I think it's you know part of our responsibility to do that I get the you know looking for efficiencies and doing everything we can to squeeze out any little things that we can but the reality is if we do have to make these big cuts that we have to entertain these conversations you know and they're not going to be easy you know I I have some thoughts but I guess when we're ready to have the tough conversations I guess we can do that Amy or Jen anything this is painful yeah yeah you know I guess what's frustrating is in years past I you know the Board of Finance came up with the number that they felt was a responsible budget for the town to be able to handle and that number was given to us to me so I feel like this year should be no different I don't know why why they're not approaching it that way other than the fact I mean it just sort of feels like they don't be the bad guys but somebody has to make a decision about the number and then we can react to it but I agree with you I don't think we should just proactively say okay we don't need seven teachers or or look at sports sports is eight hundred and something thousand dollars out of our overall budget so so what are we gonna say we're we're gonna cut half our sports willingly no we're not gonna say that yeah I mean I think ultimately we're gonna have to rely on John and Ken and Maureen to say if it's two million dollars you know this is our recommendation for how we could still function as a district - two million dollars like but the reality is that's a lot of people and I think we got to remember what John and Maureen said like it's gonna set us back ten years just like the last time and that's just that's just it's that's just the way it is and you know I think the community needs to hear that they need to understand it I need the Board of Finance needs to hear that and understand it that this is going to set us back ten years and ultimately if we have to do that we're gonna do it because that's our responsibility but yeah I mean I think we we say we're trimming everything possible we're putting things off like Bob suggested technology maybe it's got a weight that's all within our responsibility and then if they say two million dollars then we have to let a lot of people go Rosa do you get there did you put it on there in their hands a little bit and asked him yeah what and what was their response they were very disappointed that we didn't actually make any real reductions to be very frank that's what they said I I'm I'm trying to still understand why we are on different pages process and roll wise you know the Board of Finance was elected to weigh all of the priorities in town but the Board of Ed has one priority only and so I don't think that it is our responsibility or role to proactively offer up programs and people that we have fought to get as sort of sacrificial things to solve a problem also I don't think that creating a problem with the schools is a way to solve anybody's problem financially in terms of kovat so I mean that I I just am really at odds with sort of understanding where their thought processes but yeah generally they were just very disappointed that we didn't make any real reductions so could I just share a story from what I what if we went back I'm sorry somebody else talking cuz I'm getting interviewed for had you go ahead okay what what if we went back with a number that included things like technology and things that we can hold off on purchasing whether it's supplies technology so everything we can think of that's not personnel or probe you know whole programs like K through six Spanish can we can we you know do you think that's worth and exercise worth doing and $600,000 and and more and more technology is only gonna be tens of thousands of dollars well the other thing you can't forget everybody is dr.
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Ruby articulate articulated it quite well no matter what model I'm back with in the fall we can't put our head in the sand about technology we have to have it part of the under-run this year and that additional money that would be part of the plan to spend on technology it doesn't mean you can take it out of next year's budget I'm telling you squeeze this budget down you know those accounts we talked about we found 61 thousand dollars based on the budget freezes budget to actual that everybody kept analyzing and talking about we never spend what we budget because we have to freeze in October because of the issues we have because our we have a razor-thin budget we have some polar heads design but at the end of the day we cannot cut all of our professional development we cannot cut all of our extended duty for curricular development one by one I mean we're distance we're doing distance learning that's technology correct yeah exactly and so we if we it doesn't matter when people talk about it may think oh just don't do PD for a year don't develop the curriculum number one we have an obligation and and and frankly mandate that we must do these things but in addition to that the old saying I've said it my entire life if you don't move forward you fall behind and we have to keep the district moving forward so then we have to weigh the priorities while we're moving forward what our particular programs or investments muck about do we slow down on some investments when we look at class size some of the investments we have are because of increasing enrollment and so those are areas where we might be saving jobs because we're not adding those three sections for example or you know those kind of things we're doing everything in our power this is not done in a vacuum we work with our departments we work with our principals we sat for another three hours the other day it went through these same things that's why we talked about trying to get some revenue through bringing back pay to participate I know it's a regressive tax on parents but we've got to come up and just to go back to what Jen said we've already reduced in taking some in taking some accounting risk frankly with not up in 17,000 last month where we I think was April 1st we made the final decisions we are not we took 300 thousand dollars out of special education because we were considering that a contingency we took another risk because of salary underruns of another 120,000 and other things we did and we met that 817 got us down to rap 5% from the 6.8 original proposal this is one point one six seven million dollars we have to find when I get through about $200,000 $250,000 of things PD material supplies the pulla heads which are positive that doesn't hurt anybody then we start getting into the programs and the people I mean it is just no other way around it I've been saying it for five years I love being in Brookfield but I gotta tell you we do this exercise every single year and I don't know what else to say we put seven months of blood and sweat into this budget and we find ourselves here having the same conversation again and eventually you get the people when you get these significant reductions you just do and it's a horrible conversation to have to have there's no you have to operate the district and there's no point in having staff if they don't have materials you gotta have materials for the teachers to teach I mean it just you get to a point that it's just a point of diminishing returns are are you gonna say something um in reaction to what I was saying earlier oh yeah I am but I what I want to tell a story I don't mind but I agree philosophically our job as a board is to advocate for our education of our students and to create a teaching environment that is bar none the best place to work because that helps our students it helps our teachers it's all the right thing to do so we there's not a single one of us that shouldn't be advocating for education right number one we are as though as a community board for working with our partner boards right and that we need to recognize that the Board of Finance is dealing with a real issue it's not a fake issue it's not a attitude as well there might be an attitude issue but there's but most of it is a real issue that is this issue that what happens when when revenues decline right that's really the question and so so so I think to answer your question is I do believe our job is to advocate and not just walk in the room and say hey let's just cut this and cut that and cut that that's what's not the right thing for a Board of Ed to do right so I want actually the story I wanted to tell was I went back with when when I got the note that says here was mr.
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Dunn's reduc proposed reduction of one point one six eight I had this deep memory of being the vice chair of the Board of Finance in 2008 and what we went through in that and that loss of revenue the two things happened and it's happening again exactly the same way first of all revenue dries up right it's most tax percentage of people who behave taxes on time but more importantly fees and we haven't yet seen the fees the the things from the state that might come hit us right because they're theirs they're always way behind but we had this big revenue decline and the presentation we made to the public hearing and I went back and pulled it up said not only are we gonna lose revenue but our residents are hurting we have to actually have those lower tax increases we can so if we're gonna have a low tax increase and have dried up revenues both of those are in this budget that means we have to cut back on spending right so that was a actually there's a scale in that presentation well the first salvo we did was we went in and we said we're gonna cut the budgets by a lot we had a public here we asked the Board of Ed what as a board of Finance at the time we never doubted what the board of Ed's job was the board of heads job was to add for education they also needed to respond to the realities of what the town was facing so that's that's very different than come bring me voluntary cuts right then which is what you're getting Rosa is it's more of a react to the situation as opposed to I'm here just I'll just cut the hell out of it what the hell but the Board of Finance at the time we asked them to go back and think about it and they couldn't find enough cuts right it was our they were cutting out bodies they were finding everything that walked to save money as a reaction to the cuts of the Board of Finance owned and took responsibility for we then at our public hearing and we filled the entire auditorium at Brookfield High School there was standing room only that year in terms of the budget because our parents heard that this was what the reality of the situation was and I had the joy of standing up and making the presentation to that group the outcry of the town was high and as a result as a Board of Finance we went back and instead of going to the town and saying oh we have to have a 1% tax increase and cut spending we said we're gonna have to have a little bit more room on the spending and so we actually came back with I think it was a 5% tax increase which was high you don't go advocate for 5% tax increases but the trade-off that we dealt with was ripping the schools apart and we weren't willing to rip the schools apart and you know what that budget passed on the first try but it was partly because people spoke up and partly because the Board of Finance listened to the Board of Ed and said we can't get that kind of money without really hurting education so we need to help frame that and we need parents to speak up and we're all parents right parents to speak up and say we'd rather paid a little bit of taxes more and not hurt our schools because the board of they're also taxpayers and parents it's not black and white and so the board we need to help foment that same type of discussion I'm not an advocate of high tax rate increases I really am NOT but it's really hard in this equation when the when the revenues dry up because you yeah now you're all of a sudden faced with an either/or either I got to raise taxes to get enough money to keep supporting schools as they are or I have to cut spending and capital projects on the town side and departmental staffing on the town side in order to make it up and it's a hard decision and I lived through that so I'm thinking long story short I would suggest that we need to respond to the cut and tell them realistically if you want to keep doing this we can go so far with what we know and we've done a lot of that homework but we're not finding anything else we can find short of starting to dismantle parts of our educational process and we need to be very articulate about that and I think Rosa you've been doing an admirable job of that I want to thank you as our chairman for representing us well I'm truly it's hard to sit it was Board of Finance meetings and take the that you have to do excuse my language but it's it's almost not fair at times but it's a reality of what the Board of Finance is dealing with because that's also a reality and we just need to be able to respond in course so and still pay for the best education we can do so so that I'm sorry I'm long-winded about that play with a little bit because I've lived through this so how would you suggest then we in terms of our actions respond I think we need to [Music] we dust off the tiered analysis and say here is to your one here's to your two years two three here's Tier four and here's implications of those and be very clear that anything past that is going to be increasing class sizes or taking programs away which we are not willing to advocate I'm not really advocating for any would take and I think you've done that I think it might you know maybe we take it a little step further by pushing everything that walks maybe we have to throw in pay for plot and say paper to pay to participate into that accession it's maybe we have to go say we're gonna have to have a lighter support for our special ed students and please don't come yell at me about that but because I do very deeply care about our special ed students but we're spending a lot of money there but you know in the world where everything gets squeezed everything gets squeezed so we have to be very careful as how we go back but I think it's I don't see a million two without taking a lot away I really don't but I think we need to keep going back with we've done our best to analyze it and show it to you and think about it and tell you what that implications of doing such a reduction would be so that they can make decisions not in a vacuum but in a well-seasoned well-thought-out way well so are you so are you sort of suggesting a more something a little more itemized below each tier I like what Mike said is we really got to go back and say we thought about it we've we've looked at every Rock and we've looked under it and and and I think we had parties I just know we've already done a lot of that so I don't think it's I don't think it's tuning a I don't think the types of lifting rocks we have to do is tuning a number in there I think it's we're gonna have to cut here we're gonna have to cut there these are the five least painful cuts we'd have to do in there and show them that that in fact is painful and I'll tell you what I think you can find five very painful cuts and we still won't be anywhere near one point two yeah but that's my point you know not not to know fine cuts that are painful and then kind of I'm not saying like we should throw ourselves on the mercy of the Board of Finance Court but I do think we have to show them to Bob's point about the presentation how much cutting ABCD perks like that's like cutting this looks like that go to cutting a kindergarten teacher was brought up I'm sorry I forgot her name the the teacher they're cutting kindergarten teacher looks like this classroom sizes you know whatever whatever you however you can clients by education I'm sure dr.
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Murray couldn't speak more to that as far as an itemized list lisa smiling at you and then put on the list eliminate athletics all right there's no nothing mandatory that says we have to have bath let --ax show them that we can eliminate all athletics and what's that gonna do to our school districts the effect gets their attention or even not all but i mean maybe it's middle school athletics or maybe it's all freshmen athletics or well if we want to get to two million dollars we have to eliminate them all yeah and I for one would go there before I'd cut teachers yeah I mean I saying I mean and and it pains me because I had kids who were athletes and but you always have your priorities you have to deal with and by the way half that Board of Finance has kids who were or are athletes so they're they're they're gonna be sensitive to that too and you know we got to do it in a way that we're not throwing things you know what it's not throwing things under the bus right I mean so I want to be very deliberate in what I tell them and I don't want to just you know throw a laundry list out there so I think that is something that we need to sort of start to coalesce around is what is the next message that I tell them you know when is the public hearing I don't think it's until the I want to say the twenty first the twenty percent do they have a chance to do well we have a audience in front of them between now and then the thirteenth next one next Wednesday next Wednesday and potentially the Wednesday after that if I'm correct about the public hearing date so yes definitely next week and they will be expecting an update burper one I think we all ought to go to the meeting next Wednesday every one of us yep virtually course is there a special place where those links are because I've done the Board of Finance meetings only on YouTube I haven't been like in the zoom where's the zoom links it's the town website Mike you have to go to UM like if you go to Brookfield CT gov and look for the boards and the Commission's they use the same provider website provider that we do and it's I can find a youtube channel I just can't what they do they do it a little differently than we do what they do is they actually post both links on their agenda um so you actually have to go to this to the town website find the Board of Finance find their posted agenda and then when you open up the agenda they have the zoom link to participate and then the youtube link right at the top of their agenda so Eric I'm calling you next Wednesday right I'll be here for you I'll send you guys an email yes that would be helpful um it was quite a list so Rosa I think we ought to intelligently respond to them without going in and saying there's yeah we ought to draw a line that sighs things but don't advocate for them right that would be that would be the tone I would take as a Board of Ed we can't we cannot and will not and should not be advocating for cuts that we think harm education yeah and and but I do think it's fair to show them the analysis of here's the things we're going to be forced to do with the reductions that you're proposing and we are unhappy about that right and that is a fair thing for us to be telling them and being very articulate not as much on here's the dollars of the cut but here's the implications of the cut right here's what it does to education of our students and for our families and then so the number one we ought to share that with them I think that's fair and if we participate without necessarily advocating for cuts secondly I think we ought to share that presentation with the public I think we ought to we ought to make sure on our on our three items this is number one on our list of the three items I think we ought to and it ought to be a tone of struggling with 1.2 million dollar reduction that the Board of Finance is contemplating and here's when the public hearing is if you want to weigh in right we can't you know we and I don't say that in a way of inciting anger because that's not what I'm my goal would be but I think our parents need to know what's going on and and what the implications of that are and and I think the Board of Finance needs to also hear from parents if they are upset about that which I suspect they will because it's the only way you make an intelligence and balance decision and that's what I lived through before we actually decided to not sell for his aggressive a tax rate because it was too hard you know back in 2009 and I actually dug up those presentations and my goal and one of the things on my list is to send it to my friends on the board of Finance right because I as they should see how did we work our way through with and and it's not easy I just I've got to give you just my two cents work that's that's harder to deal with that equation than it is as hard as it sounds you know what we're dealing with here their equation is extraordinarily difficult because they might be talking about to hold the spending we want to do a ten percent tax increase I got to go do that math but the revenue losses it could be extraordinarily high tax increase just hold even and that's what we were faced with back then can I ask what the board would like from from me and and may I suggest do we need to have a may I ask do we need to have a special meeting prior to the Board of Finance meeting next Wednesday can just focus on this we could just provide many items that get us to one point one and one point two million dollars did show how it hurts it obviously put the implications together for you before actually do that I was just texting with one of the board of finance members and I was very mistaken in terms of the public hearing date it is apparently next Tuesday the 12th so we will not have a meeting with them prior to that public hearing though we will have an opportunity to speak there as a board not just as residents has there been a notice of the public meeting yes I thought it wasn't until the week after but I have not seen a notice but I have trouble finding things for their meeting so I don't know but are they making you did you get any feedback on how their meetings gone not yet I'm gonna ask going back to John's idea on a on a meeting before I be I don't care when it is I think that's a good idea and I think that that helps John with whatever you know presentation we're gonna put together I'm sure John's gonna be a huge bar that I think we should give him as much input as possible because do we finance with anything before if there is a public hearing on Tuesday can we no no so Debbie just just I think they have to finalize their proposal for the public hearing a week in advance or close to a week in advance I think it's five days in advance before a public hearing so the public has a chance to see it before the public hearing so I think tonight is probably if they're their public hearings next Tuesday tonight they're finalizing the number they're taking forward to the public hearing and then they will meet right after the public hearing they're gonna vote on so I think that we don't have a chance to influence what they won't bring into the public hearing I do think other than other than what Rosa's tried to do already oh but I do think we could ask for an audience with them but I was on their shoes I'd probably say no let's just do it public hearing or after they will have made their decisions already in terms of what we then present to the Board of Finance in public sort of collectively at the public hearing I still think it's a good idea to sort of get this more detailed so that the public is aware because they can I mean the Board of Finance does have the power to make changes after the public hearing and really that's what the public hearing is for so I suggest that and you know what nine times out of ten we never changed anything after the public hearing the years we had that revenue problem was the year we really thought about it so this is the this is the one year where I would think that that's exactly how they got to work on yeah so back to John's question what exactly do we want him to produce with cannon and any other any other details that we might need I mean I think it's I guess mostly just a sort of I guess more hard numbers on the tiers which which investments you would likely suggest but not advocate we reduce you know if faced with this you know one point one number and I can I can certainly do that and I could be prepared we can we can put that together the going into a public hearing though the board needs to be unanimous and coherent with the superintendent as to what those items are and many times and this is the democratic process I have brought over the last five years recommendations and ideas forward and they haven't been exactly what the board wanted to do and so we had discussion and debate and done exactly what we're doing here tonight and come up with something different so my suggestion would be that we don't go into Tuesday's hearing with me providing a list on Sunday or Monday to you and that's it you know I'm not one for continuing that have multiple meetings the fewer the better I usually say but perhaps we have to have a meeting where we go through this and have that conversation doctrine uh just for clarification because I might have missed something but I mean we've been meeting and going over that tiered list for like ad nauseam mm-hmm I mean so like we've done that as yeah and also what I need to do beyond yeah you know I know the board I you know I have a rough list I can I can produce tonight if I have to I mean that's what we've been doing we've met like three times and done the same thing over yeah administration but the board needs to decide you know I talked about pay to participate as a solution tonight rather than cutting opportunities for kids so that's so I just want to make sure that like leaving here we kind of you know Rosa looking at you know what the marching orders are so that we know like what's different in terms of what we have to do under John's leadership that compared to what we've already done because like I don't know how many more meetings we can have to do the same thing over and over again we've done that already like what's different I'd like to you know add a suggestion dr.
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Rubin that's kind of pity he gives back piggy backs off what you had talked to us about several months ago I know we we say we don't want to touch class size but enlarging class size doesn't mean better teaching I think if you look at the surrounding schools and other districts in Connecticut in New York and other states we are low in class sizes so I think that's an exercise I would like to look at and I think that's a perception out there that we increase class size that means less opportunities for our students and their education it's gonna get slashed and it's just bad for kids but that's not that doesn't necessarily equate to that it doesn't mean better teaching right there's a couple other variables now that are in the mix on that because we asked for math tutors because we need math support if we we cut those out of the budget than increasing class size without the support staff does change the scenario and the other thing that we didn't talk about is cause we didn't know about it is what's on the horizon with re-entry plans and this is what bob was hinting at before one of the system what are the scenarios and I've talked with John we talked with with the principal week and leadership group we really need and this goes right back to what Bob was talking about we need to have three scenarios for what is gonna happen when we come back because we don't have a crystal ball you know this isn't what that eight ball or whatever it is in a little black ball we turn over and gives you the answers we need to have like three scenarios one full steam ahead or back in class two all bets are off we're in the same position we're in and if we are we can't continue the way we are this was a band-aid you know to to to get us through this is like we broke our leg and we needed a crutch for a while and then there's three and this is where the class size for no no really really gets us into a kind of a quicksand situation is if we're in a hybrid situation where we have to come up with different scenarios for different grade levels as to when who goes to school when class size is going to be a critical piece because we're not going to be able to put whatever the class size let's say a class is 22 kids of kindergarteners we are not going to be allowed by law to put 22 children in a classroom with social distancing regulations and so there are there's a lot out there that we've been looking at because Europe is ahead of us in what they're doing with their with their children in terms of their re-entry and their hybrid plan so we don't have the answers to that but we've definitely been discussing it so the the class size piece is not as simple as it was say six months ago but you're absolutely on target because we have low class sizes and the community values that but just to be clear I was a kindergarten teacher I don't like having 8 million kids in my class I had 27 in the morning and 27 in the afternoon that's 54 kids a lot of kindergarteners but the research is clear even at that low level that it's the quality of the teacher and the context of the school that really makes the difference not how many kids are in the class so that whole concept of class size now has become much more complicated because of the unknowns that Bob was asking us to look at so Moorea Moorea I want to add one more unknown is that the closure of st.
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Joseph's School may impact our enrollment so we looked at that I'm going to contact you know I've been in contact with the principal a couple of times and they only have 60 some-odd kids in their school and the key thing that people need to be aware of is they're not all Brookfield residents so they're not all coming to us and we actually mary-rose gee I don't have the numbers in front of me do you remember how many kindergarteners from Brookfield they have I think they were there 12 in pre-k I think there are only two kindergarteners and like a lot yeah so very we have very low numbers of actual Brookfield residents that are in the census as shared with us that was very yeah so that's it's kind of interesting data and thanks for bringing that up because I think yeah my my wife was a teacher at st.
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Joe's and it was sixty percent between sixty percent of their population was New Milford or Bridgewater and right and and about 30 percent was Brookfield and as their as their population declined it even went more towards as a percentage more toward New Milford and Bridgewater and the reason is trustingly enough it's the Brookfield the last outpost of Fairfield County and and Litchfield County doesn't have the same strength of a diocese in terms of education as Fairfield County does so a lot of families who wanted to send their kids to a parochial school in the southern part of Litchfield County sent them to Brookfield because that was the closest school to Litchfield County and that was why that would that mix look that way interestingly enough there were more Brookfield kids at st. Rose in Newtown than there were at st. Joe's and in in that's what I was just gonna say Bob and so the the real question that we're Appling with right now mike is getting more information on the pre-k kids and we would have to we by law have to take the pre-k students with special needs so we have to do that and I don't know that there are that many students but the other pre-k kids that are enrolled at st.
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Joseph's that are Brookfield students while we would love to be able to take them we only have so many spots and so you know we're not obligated even though we would want to we'd like to you know eventually expand our pre-k student preview program because we know how critically important the early years are but given all the other issues that we're dealing with we're really not in a position right now to expand pre-k other than what we're what we absolutely have to do because we are obligated and we want to obviously fulfill that obligation to meet the needs of the special needs pre-k students so that's very important to us that we take care of that you know in the best way that we can so I think by the way I think what you said earlier is you shut that magic 8-ball and you got asked again later so you know I really think we need to we need to like get a little bit back on track in terms of what do we really need to put together for the public hearing in other words john has given us these tears is is this are we happy with that or do we want to go somewhere else first if we're asking you know oh well let's throw in athletics or freshman sports or middle school sports we have to tell John to get those numbers together so we need to sort of start to call us around sort of an idea of where we want to go first second third what prophet said earlier you know excuse my naivete and I don't want to do this but you mentioned approaching the unions and you know no no nobody takes a salary increase next year is that's something that's happened in the past I've gone to my memory no but that would have that would be going across the board and not just teaching staff I think that would follow suit we'd have to do it with every Union and what you yes you have to do it's not something you that you would just make you would actually have a conversation with the Union edge and see if there would be any will to go there all right if you were to try to mandate something like that you're talking about collective bargaining and the tie up and legal fees and battle you would fight wouldn't be worth it in fees time morale etc it would have to be good-faith effort trying to go back and forth if that was something the board I'll go back to it from the same point of view you step back from it all something gives somewhere right it's either you're gonna have less programs you're gonna have less salary you're gonna have higher tax rates and it's all about finding the balance and so even the Union will have to deal with that right they might have fewer jobs or they may be we have lower pay increases and that's they're just different ways to attack the same solution and everybody reacts differently to those right and and I know I got again I've seen that in discussions I could never predict how the Union as a group of people would react but you know they may say no we'd rather have the pay increase and we'll take fewer jobs that's that's an answer right so is we all in it together let's take a smaller increase and keep the jobs yes I think people might do for a year they might not do it for three years what they might do it for a year but it's not until you have the discussion you don't know but something has to give I was just gonna say if if the hearing indeed is next Tuesday I it sounds like first we have to find out if that 1.16 8 is really the number the additional number that we have to cut I mean is that well right now we're not really getting we're not actually voting to get rid of any of those things but we do need to I think well you know we're trying to say is that we need to be able to vocalize you know the very real implications of those cuts you know and and sort of respond to the Board of Finance and turn you know in a way that says here is you know what we would likely do and we're not advocating for that but these are the implications I'm just saying do we know that's indeed the number or was there a chance that tonight based on letters we've received could they could they change that number they could have I think there's there's their meeting is still going on right now so I don't know if that's final but I wouldn't be I wouldn't hold out for too much of a change I mean we we could get lucky but you know I just don't know maybe we could talk him into a lesser cut but soon they're gonna hear say oh yeah just kidding 1.1 million away they're gonna ask for something I'm just hoping it's less than 1.1 million dollars so we don't have to make these no no no one here sitting here because we're like I wanna be on the boards I wanna know one is someone is I mean I think you in the wrong spot but what yeah I think we just have to form a rationale it doesn't have to be a proactive cut or whatever just a rationale hey this is what this looks like this is what this looks like that's it that's what that's all that's all I'm saying but might I have a question for John and Maureen just cuz I'm not really good on the understanding or whelming are saying of hiring teachers at certain tiers is there in the union contract or maybe even with the board can we say hey you know we're not gonna hire teachers at a certain tier is that gonna do anything I mean I'm just I don't know if this actual thing I just yeah like it's pretty simple the board has never directed the administration to hold on a particular step and not to hire above that the board has actually said hire the best people and we've done that so we've hired first gear people who are the best people and we've hired 15-year veterans who have come to us from lower Fairfield County to be in this community and working with us and I understand sometimes well left is a 15 year veteran yeah or sometimes that's the best choice and we go with that because we want the best person in front of the kids and so dad could somebody who's at the max salary and it could be somebody in the middle and it could be somebody at the very beginning of their career that's why can budgets that step seven with the masters it gets it's kind of in a nice nice safe space there so we have to easily typically hire a spectrum from beginning to do better in our summer hiring I mean this is there a way we can make a commitment to a lesser or not budget budget for a lesser steps less let's step seven maybe Step five we can make that commitment if we def commitment it is saying if the best person is in the room but they are more expensive there can I just say so can we have cherry in this conversation there are I think that she can speak to this as the expert in a jar but and she can correct me if I make any mistakes but when we there are regulations for hiring teachers it's not like so roses the board chair she's got a sister-in-law who's a teacher we we call her in we interview a bunch of people and we hire her in spite of anybody else's there well we hire people terry has to fill out forms with the state number one what was the position number two how many people applied of all the people of myself if we sometimes we have and the elementary principals can tell you we have 300 people apply for one position we have to review every single online application that we get we have to have data on on on the pool of candidates so when we let's say Alyssa was applying so she's in this pool of 300 people thanks for being here unless you're making it so much more real um there's 300 people in the pool we we are gonna hire Alyssa Terri helped me out whenever I make a boo-boo here and we have to fill in this form and not made Terry does it or 300 people that we interviewed of the 300 people that we interviewed 200 were qualified meaning they went to college for whatever it is they're trying to teach they have certification and they're there okay of the 200 people that were with that were qualified we interviewed X number of people and then there's some justification of why you why you interviewed those and not the other people and then of the people that you interviewed what was the outcome of that how did you get to hiring Alyssa you can't hire Alyssa because she's roses you know sister-in-law they keep track of all of that and so they would be looking into if you hired all teachers at the bottom salary that would be a red flag you know as to like what are you doing in Brookfield well we hire people we certainly look at you know like if there's somebody you know if it was Mike and Bob and they were you know kind of they had similar backgrounds and whatnot and Bob is older and he had 35 years in New York and he was trying to collect his his retirement New York and then start in Brookfield and Mike is only got 10 years we're probably going to go with Mike but we are in our rights to do that because they're equivalent in terms of how what their scores were on their interview forms we have those documents which they can they can ask us for so they can see how we rated them what their letters of recommendation are so there's so it's not as simple as saying what you stated because we're in a unionized environment we're a public entity were not a private corporation who can just hire in a different manner I don't know at Terry did I do okay no absolutely I mean when we report these numbers to the state it we we also you know you're also its contingent on the pool that you've got so you know to Morrie's point you're gonna look at you're not only gonna get people who are out of certain level and that's all you're gonna look at you also then compared to the job description that you have so if we're looking for someone who is norton Gillingham trained versus something else we might have to pay more for that training but that's what we need so in addition to reporting everything to the state like we do and on some we may have to report that we only have three candidates some math positions we only have three candidates you know for candidates like some of the science roles physics those are tough to fill so you're not gonna get somebody at one level for that kind of a role yeah that was kind of like my question I kind of knew I kind of knew the answer I just was maybe just kind of I don't know maybe see a that yes this is something we can do or because I admit the physics is a good example I think mark went there was a one applicant and he was he'd been tension teaching for a while I don't mark still there but yeah I get that sometimes depending on the subject you have a limited amount I'm kind of wondering - Maurice point does the town charter allow us less access to really good teachers that are out of tier 5 or T or six know how Charter does we do it all okay we can answer this question in terms of black and white you can't do you can't go all new teachers you can't do almost various teachers the question I would ask yeah and you'll lean into the wind a little bit in one year when we're having such a revenue loss issue right that's an infant that's a more interesting question to answer in the frame that you just put it in if because students who are new teachers who may have had excellent experiences and be very high quality just because you're a new teacher doesn't mean that you that you're not a good teacher I've hired many over the years many many first-year teachers who are excellent we have them in our district but those students are applying during their senior year to openings as they're posted because they want to get a job their parents are going to get a job get a job and so they're applying to jobs as they pop up and because people's school districts are looking for the highest quality teacher at the best rate that they can get if they apply to school districts that can hire them earlier than we can they're gone before we get to them - Maureen point you know we we see now on CTR eat many of the physicians are posted now schools are finishing up even the colleges are finishing up their distance learning they are students are graduating now they're getting their certification and they're looking to be hired those certifications will be done by the state by June and they look in a secure job by June well look nobody has a scooped a budget yet in the state so how are they posting it and we're not well I I can't answer that I just can tell you if you look at CT Reap there's a lot of positions used to go there I can tell you I know for a fact in our western Connecticut region region 15 approved there's either last week or the week before and I don't know which ones have approved and one having both we're typically later by two weeks it's not and not in our neighboring towns we might be a week off may I think there's one town that goes a couple weeks ahead I've been watching this for years for some of the towns and some of the HR folks in how they do it you know Dan berry hires without a budget they have a very high turnover we do not so with when it comes to Danbury they hire because they know they're going to have a spot for those teachers a lot of their teachers sort of become building subs and they wait out and then when a teacher leaves or goes on the leave they pop them into into the rolls especially at the elementary levels when they can you know they have a k-6 certification or a one through six certification now so the way that they do their hiring may be a little different we hire for positions Danbury fires a group like a pool the other thing is when we're competing for new teachers they're younger so they're the majority of them not all are not settled they don't have families and so they're not restricted geographically when they're applying so we're not just competing necessarily with our neighboring towns we're competing with a much larger geographic pool of school districts and I can't speak to what all their budgets are but all's I can say is that districts to post on CT reap starting in April or and teachers are applying for jobs and school districts are you know they're trying to get what they can get out of that that initial pool so it's it's tricky I mean look we do really well we have phenomenal teachers and we get very good teachers so I'm not saying that you know we don't but I think you're always better off if you can come up at the beginning of the curve I think the hard part was trying to lean into the wind as you said and higher on the lower end of the celery scale is we don't always know we have to replace I get 300 elementary school applications I get three applications for say a high school math teacher yeah there's also just you know cuz I said on the UM I said on the interview committee last year for kindergarten teachers and just so you're aware that the kindergarten certification has changed so teachers who have been teaching longer actually have that k-6 or K you know K 5 or K 8 whatever it is certification whereas the newer teachers that come out they have to be early education certified so then they're only certified pre-k through K so when you bring on a teacher like that they don't have the ability to move them across grade levels when the the levels shift so I remember that being something really difficult that we had a hard time with when we were looking to hire cuz some of those new or higher teachers are only certified grade one and up so you have to almost go to those those teachers with more experience to be able to bring in a kindergarten teacher so that's and since kindergarten was one of the positions that you were looking to maybe add that's probably one of the reasons why ken was looking at that level because you kind of have to go to those teachers with more experience and she's right when we look at that we look at someone who maybe isn't going to just be able to fill the kindergarten role as you know our moves changes our classes a band flow we don't just want a teacher who can do k that also to Alyssa's point if you look at the schools less people are doing that so there's a small even a smaller pool of people who are getting certified in that pre-k to K so it lessens even that is even more there's good point Alyssa so this is interesting but I think it's getting us away from roses question you guys remind me of some of my classes I've had over the years who like to get off from tangents I'm pulling you back so I guess Rosie you were asking are we comfortable with the tears that John has already given right and I think it's there something else that needs to be added in or more detail right I could update it Jen with more detail based on the recent meeting on I think it was Monday with principle team etc so you know I can get a tighter version of that to everybody in relatively short order yeah and is there anything that we wanted to definitely add like do we want to put pay-to-play back on there do we want to you know put freshmen sports sports but I mean I know the town has leagues I know some popcorn coaches that would love to have you know those kids on their teams on the on the 14 you I believe so I mean I have some I mean this does seem to be some rationale I mean I'm only here anybody on like hey this is reason you should keep it but I have some rationale for I mean I know what's freshness worth I believe it's only like $17,000 I'm not saying only because I think every thousand should count we should we should put every thousand dollar down but I mean I'm willing to hear anyone out to you know want to keep the freshmen sports or or or maybe maybe I'm wrong somewhere by do believe the town does provide a park and rec sports or that age group as well yeah I'd have to I'd have to get into that with the athletic director I don't know the answer to that off the you know for all those kids who participate as freshmen like I just could not answer that tonight well I think it's define are we allowing but you know if you're gonna cut freshmen sports it's not every sport has a freshman team around you know so you're looking at things like football possibly basketball you know those are the two big ones field hockey for girls baseball you know see you're you're not looking every sport but as I want to be clear that it wouldn't you know you're not looking at it across-the-board cut I think to your point Mike $17,000 and the grand scheme of what the whole budget is for sports I think you're right that it's it's a relatively low number I mean that's that's number I have written down here that was a while back was yeah proposed but you know all the sports that you're mentioning I believe there's a Park and Rec solution also if you know I mean this is kind of ridiculous conversing to say anyway I mean if a freshman girl is good enough to play varsity basketball then that freshman should still be allowed to play at least they should still be allowed to try out for that just because they're freshmen they can't block like if you don't mind adding another idea that we could explore not all middle schools have ab sports and we do and we spend about $200,000 on middle school sports in the majority of the students who play middle school sports are also involved in the youth sports I think when you take something away from the high school it's the entire experience of that four years for the students and you know we need to be thinking about that so we could think about the opportunities that middle school teams have in park and rec leagues and travel leagues and all of that and by 26 we can hear you there is a you know there is an argument to be made that maybe middle school sports you would look at first before you would look at freshmen sports ok well that's why I asked the question earlier I just I just need to know what the where the board is that because I have a list that can get us to one point one six seven I alluded to it verbally tonight but I need to know if there's a particular area that I didn't talk about in general terms that the board wants me to put in there in lieu of something else perhaps I need to know that so I can get that to you so then there's consensus with the board and we're coherent in a conversation on Tuesday night with okay can we consider as Bob eloquently put it leaning into the wind as far as hiring Gators I don't think it would be a fool's errand to not to cannot budget at the step seven with the Masters I think that's a good number with the help I don't know you're asking and just a reminder remember John talked about how we really you know decided to be a little risky on what we're budgeting for teachers like we really are being risky and we're hoping that pays off and now if I just I I think the worst thing we do is tie the administration's hands to say a lot of districts do it they say hire the cheapest teacher and Lama I'm like I'm not advocating for that I know not just because I'm assuming there's an interview process I don't want to hire no no right but Mike it becomes a cultural thing over time if a boy there probably are places where boards prep pressure administration to do that and then that becomes a culture of a district and things like that can kill a district so I would strongly speak out against and I just feel like if we're gonna talk about cutting all these academic areas you have to put athletics some sort of sort of athletics be a balance and extra killer yeah yeah what what's the number on ke to play John if we did eliminate pay depression if we participate it's a rough number now because we haven't we haven't developed the model yet because we need to talk to the board I mean this is part of the process in the last iteration five years ago he brought in around I believe eighty five ninety thousand dollars in the iterative we developed since Monday ninety where am I looking here and I apologize give me a second I remember the ninety thousand savings three ninety four thousand dollars but again we would look at the swc League see what the other districts do look at the pay rates you know there's all kinds of things you can do so that might be it might be more revenue and again that's something that's not a half to two two gents earlier point and looking at athletics but we believe in the experience so can you pay to participate and that's a way that you fund these things now it's only one hundred thousand dollars but it's a hundred thousand dollars so you know these are all difficult decisions I just need to know where the board stands and and we can we can make the numbers I don't think we know the answer John to say what we stand until we know what the options are so you know we're in a little bit of a chicken and egg in your question okay well I mean I have a list so if you'd like in all honesty I could have Ken actually has it we can email it to you and we could work that we can work through it right now you know work through that list we can do that okay let's do that ken do you mind emailing that everybody and if you could include Eric as well Ken so if we have to put it up on the screen while we're waiting for Ken to do that Rosa have you gotten any input at all how they're going to run their public hearing no we may not be offered an opportunity to discuss except as members of the public in up until at least last week there was going to be you know at least a slide or maybe even two from the Board of Ed that I could have spoken to but you're right you know that things could have changed so yeah they're gonna want those slides to be we can do it and those slides aren't going to say we can do it right so it'll be just getting the slides into the presentation does so I did just get I don't know if it's an official vote but it seems as if the conversation has turned a little bit with the Board of Finance and they it looks like they have restored about four hundred thousand to our budget so we're still looking at you know close around six seven hundred thousand that we'll need to find but yeah that's definitely than one-point-two and 400,000 another 800 K so bill things pretty sizable yeah yeah want to look at this list then or do you want us to rework it to the new number I want to look at the list you got for tonight yeah is this a prioritized list sort of in yeah this is pretty much how we we benchmarked it and went through okay you can you can see on its way it's coming now back again [Music] when Manuel Miranda is a certified teacher looking at the emails from this afternoon anybody else received it I just got it so do you want me to just walk you through this is there is it every concede on the screen I take yeah okay so the first is to pull a heads up tier or section if you'd like to call it that that adds up to about eighty one thousand dollars those are things we would buy with the under run and the budget this year since we're not gonna be in school for the remainder of the year this is not everything that we're thinking about purchasing with the under run but this argument in talking about the twenty twenty one budget these are the areas these are these one-time areas we would look okay then so so those are things it don't hurt us that actually help the budget two other things that help us oh excuse me I'm looking there at the additional revenues books supplies and materials two things that that work in our favor our transfer from student activity as I alluded to and transfer from food service account their papers at lunch monitors and then you start to get into where it starts to sting we tried to keep it as far from students as possible in this particular section here this is the book supplies materials this is the instructional material area I talked about where year over a year over a year we don't purchase everything we aim to purchase because we're on freezes and that was that argument that the Board of Finance looked at it and talked about budget to actual so our principles really work to squeeze this down it's not ideal and in total among the four buildings we save seventy one we propose we can save sixty one thousand we reduced by by I think more than half now Amanda Erin's professional learning specifically in the English language arts area and it limits a lot of teaching and learning for our teachers which transfers immediately sometimes even the next day to our students we have limited that as a suggestion as I talked about working with the teachers union that's the individualized professional development account we had already reduced about sixteen thousand dollars from it and we wanted to keep a little bit in there back on April 1st we've zero that out and we just executed that MOA today then we talked about elementary Spanish we had a lengthy discussion on that almost every single year there's four Spanish teachers in the k-6 program the total is three hundred fifty six thousand dollars and then we talked about the back door the two teachers and the rationale for that front apply the supplies that go with that program would be forty three hundred dollars okay so you're looking that savings is a net of about 182 in the investments that we've put forward the math interventionist TESOL teacher it's about one hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars those two two positions the math tutors and the security service that's another seventy four thousand CD you know you could see the implications right bringing back pay to participate and then the to get to the 1.1 million looking at being targeted with the enrollment investments in K and 1 so we wouldn't actually lose a person necessarily and then looking at the class sizes and three and four and reducing there and you can see to the right we have what the new class sizes would be based on those sections there we didn't want to touch there was consensus that the group leadership team that wanted like any sections in second grade considering what the first graders had been through and affected their transferring schools so trans excuse me to be to the from Senator huckleberry and then you can see the requisite physical education staff that we're going to hire four point one to match those sections and then for furniture instructional supplies and textbooks that go with those sections so that got us to the 1.6 1.1 6 9 and we've shared this with the Board of Finance no this is real they're landing on 400k putting back because it's like this last category almost threw a penny yeah and you'll notice in here we have paid to participate which covers you know activities some of that Lennox obviously which was the other opportunity that some of the board members suggested should be on this list so don't see any reason to go redo the list no I mean I really really do not like the math interventionist or the math tutors or the TESOL teacher being on that list but those are big numbers no matter what you have to get to these big numbers is its personnel eighty percent of the budget is people there's just no other way to get there and I know a lot of people out there think there's all kinds of places and they have better ideas and every time I get a better idea from somebody it's something illegal that I can't do this is not that if there was better ideas we would ring them forward we don't want you doing anything illegal you know I just gets to a point that we you know we just we've worked on this for seven months and you know it's hard work and thoughtful and it's Karen and it's John I know this is not an easy question for you to answer but I feel like it's never put on the table for like the curriculum specialists at the elementary level I feel like I want that to be you know to be looked at you know we're doing really well in the areas of reading and math we've made a using strides in the in the many years that since you've come on board and Maureen and those are big numbers and I think that we have a strong staff and you've built a solid foundation and you've brought us back you and Maureen I've done an amazing job with that and I know you're gonna stand by your staff your central administration staff but I think there's a perception out there too that it's it's a hard conversation to have a night and I feel bad saying it and it's a hard hard discussion to have but I I feel like it it needs to be put on the table I don't think it's fair to say that let's go straight to cutting teachers when we don't look at those higher numbers that come from those higher positions so the first thing I'd ask Joe just thank you for the for the nice words when you say curriculum specialists are you're talking about our teacher level curriculum specialist positions are you're talking about administration so the huckleberry math curriculum specialist that those curriculum specialist positions there's two of those those are teacher level positions right and they like curriculum they lead professionals Walnut they run data team they're they're a major part of the reason that we made the you know I could just submit to you that without these positions we don't make the progress it's the combination of everything I agree and with that and with that I know I've said it before in it and it's not an easy thing to bring up but for me for instance what one of them does is what I do in my district and I'm paid a stipend a very small stipend to do what they do in addition to my role as a teacher so there's creative ways to kind of fill those gaps and I would I would love to do what they do I think that it's it's a great job to have and it's a it's it's an advantage to have but I think that there's ways to work around that you know choose something that we need to cut right now and bring back the look at bringing back but I think it's worth exploring and I appreciate where you're coming from joy and the sensitivity you're trying to bring it up with I just I I would it would be on the list if I thought it was something that we could tolerate these are the things that in this situation we can tolerate and continue to move the organization forward I think you can start to go there again I think we just immediately start we start going backwards and we see here too we really see those are three the lagging indicator and achievement and it just starts to drop off again so yes that's my concern with that the tough tough sell for me because I think that I think that the backbone and the foundation are your teachers and I think that many would agree that they may not necessarily need those curriculum specialist I mean I know it's a it's a huge support for them I don't know anybody else feels about it but I think it's worth discussing I kind of Kirsten how much it would how much dollars it is of the teaching position right and sometimes it's more than for example that's the range yeah you know all the interventionists and all I mean I start I've had a nice education over the past six months but yeah I guess I'm just kind of curious on the numbers there likes it I don't think I don't think this list should be this is what we're gonna do I think this list should be this is what these cuts look like that's met that's all that's all I said from from the game's meaning is what does what does 1.1 million dollars look like and maybe we can you know we can work with board slaking Board of Finance because it's not just for five-course Lachman obviously you know they're making big decisions too so we have to you know I'm saying we're working very hard but I think we should just again show what looks like I got a messed up screen so I'm not I don't know what I don't know at this point yeah I'm not um you know I'm this is not sort of my area of expertise to sort of prioritize this list you know I think we've trusted jump to do that and I think you know he's shown that you know despite our the budget process in Brookfield we have moved by leaps and bounds so I think I think I would like to see maybe freshmen sports or middle school sports may be added to this list you know above the investments but other than that I'm pretty good with this list yeah that's what that's what it is that's what I that's what I've heard yeah I don't know if that's their official boat but yeah I think the logic on this would be we would this list would become $400,000 less of reductions right we want to put out there more than one point no no I mean cuz what Bob said right I mean that sort of is the four hundred thousand is pretty much that last category down there right so means everything above it would still be pretty much on the chopping block and I know I would personally rather see you know athletics involved more heavily in the reductions compared to you know the these investments yeah yeah I agree with Rosa we can't I mean because because it's not official I think we should show like hey look that that 400,000 there is you know a lot of teachers well that's a lot of that's a lot of teachers and I think the board the board here our Board of Education is not voting on this at all tonight so if there's some adjustments to the list then you know where we can move athletics in or something like that I mean that's we can do that time for the Board of Ed to make decisions on this we find that's affirm 400 number would be all agreed just get rid of the increase elementary class size that 356,000 just eliminate that from this list would that be the first thing everyone wanna see restored um I don't know I mean maybe that's a conversation for another night but I was gonna suggest could we wait and see what the number is after tonight's meeting and even if we have to set up a special meeting is it too late to set up a special meeting for tomorrow like we have to notice it ahead of time urgency meeting and constitutes so Friday or Monday have a special meeting and finalize where we are based on a real number yep I think that's the right time angry do you think we need to have another discussion before the public hearing yep I just want to add in to like so many people so many parents are gonna be losing their jobs that pay to play is not even gonna be possible for people so you're cutting opportunities for children they even have that up especially low-income families right no I mean I absolutely really do not want to bring back but I don't wanna do any of these no I know none of this is easy and they want to do any of it right but you know I if you know we have a gun to our heads then you know I guess I'm gonna choose curriculum over extracurriculars you know and I think before we go there that's when we have to really return to like what are our values what's important we need to go there first before we sort of do that but you know just to echo Joy's point is one of our values equity right opportunities for all kids and the reality is when you have a pay-to-play thing it's not equitable it's not equitable it means that kids who can afford it play and the other kids who can't don't so I think that would be a good beginning like let's say what what are our key cornerstone values and then you have the conversation from there yep all right um so we'll be forthcoming with a special meeting on Monday then and we'll finish this up we can be prepared for that we we should have a firm the finance for that evening as well thank you sure all right so um let's move on to the new school building project um just have a small sort of update for you guys the NBC is currently proceeding through the design development phase the drawings have been sent to the construction manager and the architects estimators for some cost estimates and so they'll get those estimates back next week after the estimates are received there's gonna be a reconciliation period they're gonna align those two estimates and then produce sort of a final estimate and depending on that cost the NB C along with us as a board may make some joint decisions regarding the scope of the project and then the final design deliver design development package will be presented though there are some things that we have to work through in terms of budget I mean the scope has has crept up quite quite a bit considering the need for the extra classrooms so that's something that we're gonna have to just figure out in the next couple of weeks and that's it any questions on that all right so let's get to our three main points which yeah budget budget budget recycling follows for this item let's do those it was something happy yeah and then um yeah I don't know if you guys want to either do the there wasn't much alts on our agenda but we could talk about the schedule changes or I think there was a shout out for nurses day I'd be happy to put something on there my mom's a nurse and while my patients are nurses and they're it's not easy I wear a I wear that face mask all day in my office and what I just patience that's not justice that that's not easy right and teachers and school nurses day yeah their recognition happy things if they bought the body part got that right Debbie all right Amy I don't think we have any upcoming events right oh we don't have that I know alright um so we he'll have an executive session after this meeting so but that's gonna be on the Google Chat right okay so um that one short right yeah so are there any other questions or comments related to anything from tonight all right if not then this will just conclude our publicly broadcasted portion of the meeting and thank you guys for hanging in so Pete and I will see you soon see you soon
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