So, uh 100% my support and I do know several students too who have have gone through uh the little whacker training and ended up in uh following it as a career path. So, thank you. >> Are you ready? >> Uh sure. I know that pretty much my colleagues have have covered a lot of this, but um I did want to just say that, you know, I mean, we've been postco for a little while, but it hasn't been that long since since co and just to add that WACA was literally our lifeline during CO. um we had, you know, whether it was videoing of the sports, whether it was um our town government, which was always in uh conversations about what was happening during co um it literally was our lifeline to the residents of Ashland while while we were trying to make the best of a of a really crazy situation.
And the Cable Act gets us started early, almost two two and a half years prior to expiration. So that's a a federally prescribed timetable. So that's what even though the expiration date is somewhat distant. Uh it the law does contemplate this early startup because in some communities it can be complicated where they're first creating a studio or locating a studio of place. Um here we have an ongoing operation that's been very vibrant. Uh the access your your community studio. So it's it's not as complicated. Hopefully it will uh continue uh or increase current levels of support. So that's really the overview that I have. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Thank you very much. Okay, we've opened up for public uh comment. If there's anybody here this evening that would like to speak on behalf of WACA TV and Verizon's uh um negotiated contract which is up 2028, please feel free to come to the podium and anybody that's listening uh via uh platform uh just raise your hand and we'll be happy to call on you.
>> So, it gets to be >> Go ahead. >> I don't want to say it gets to be easy. It's not easy, but it does get to be somewhat black and white with numbers where things equal this and oh, we either have money or three pairs equal a teacher. I wanted a teacher. I had to give up three pairs. I've lived this. Cut 26 teachers because you built a new school and now you don't have the staff to put in it. Yeah. No, >> I get it. But I think there's some things that need to be taken care of that >> would bring some goodwill from people, >> right? Incredible costs, >> Right. But goodwill might bring money back. I mean, >> oh, yeah. No, there's that trade-off, right? Keeping people in the city and not going to whether it's other private schools, school choice, charter schools.
And so, um, that process, I like to be inclusive. Um, I like folks to know where they stand. When I do have to make staff reductions, I have the conversations with those folks prior to my submission of the budget. We sit down and have the conversation. Even if it's not um even if it's a potential for the position to be reduced to say your position is going to be discussed. And so, you need to know this is the situation. this is this is potentially how it can go. Um, you know, it is it's definite that the position is going to be reduced or there's potential that it can be reduced. If a budget if if a position is going to be discussed, we have that conversation with the staff person first. By we, I mean me. I have a conversation with the staff person first.
Um as that is really the pivotal moment from where we go from like learning to read to reading to learn meaning that you have to obtain reading skills in order to be able to study at the higher grade levels the content like think science and social studies which has a lot more intense and academic language. Um, and so this really just spells out our legal obligations under um under uh current Connecticut uh state statutes uh to offer that summer school programming K3 uh for anyone that's not achieving at that benchmark. Um there is and again these are the CA policies. There is one sentence and it's repeated two times that I'm going to just bring your attention to. Um and it's here at the end and it like I said it's in two different paragraphs. It essentially says um that if a student does not participate in that summer school offering, he or she shall not be promoted to the next grade level.
So part of the proposal talks about pilot projects. So if if SFA were for example to do a P3 on uh DOE land, another way that P3s are done is that um there's this thing called availability payments. So availabil availability payments are payments that a public agency makes so that the building that is built, owned and operated and financed by the private developer. Um our right to occupy it and that building be kept at a certain condition is made um you know we pay for it through these availability payments over time. So, you know, we we wouldn't support that either unless we could get operating funds over the, you know, usually it's like a 65-y year uh ground lease that would help us pay for to be there in the building. There's also a lease back option in the um pilot, you know, you know, so that's funds, but that we would have to have and pay to to lease as as the DOE.
to see where are we really effective and where do we have areas of growth based on what we're doing. It allows for better better tracking of integrated reliability which is which is mandatory. So Frontline is a giant company that does a bunch of educational software. We already have them here for two of the three modules that they offer. We're just going to add the third module. And that was after discussions with the BRAA, with the BRAA, and with uh the district leadership to sort of unify the process. But we can't continue to do hundreds and hundreds of staff evaluations on an Excel spreadsheet. It just doesn't allow us to do what we need to do. >> And then the staff training, is that for the administrator, those that are going to be evaluating or is it a little bit of everybody? It's everybody. So, it's we we are going to between now and then uh between now and September is when all of the backend work will be done to build out all of our staff in the system, get all of their observations, evaluation modules set up.
I would say right now I'm looking so we haven't done in the pharmacy. You're above benchmark on the pharmacy. So you are utilizing higher so you're having higher prevalence on the pharmacy side. So it might be a blend of the two because there is a little bit of yes with the inflation coming is pushing that up but also the RX spend is a little high too. >> Good observation. Uh jumping to that pharmacy side, we're doing the same thing. U no normalization with RX though. Um the inflation uh the normalization is not there. Those are all real and true. So there's no adjustments. So you spent 1.3 1.5 and 800,000 this year on RX claims. The only network discount adjustment is as [clears throat] we were meeting with as Valley Schools was meeting with UHC um in November and looking at everybody's claims where they're at and um they identified multiple programs they try to sell us.
Um, and so, you know, when what really strikes me is when Rob was talking about just the community connection and when you think about Ashland and you think about all we do in Ashland, it's like WACA kind of weaves itself through every single part of our community and brings us together. And so I'm really thankful for the work that they do for for for Barbara, for Paul, for the whole Wacka crew um and all the the volunteers that that give their time. It's it's a tremendous resource for the community and um I don't know how we could do our job without you. So um so thank you. I held I held my comments for for the last um the reason why I have done that is because WACA and I go back over 40 years. We started out at U Elliot Street going down a long corridor to get to a one room studio off of 390 Elliot Street and then from there the show started.
Just unmute yourself and identify yourself and you'll have the floor. Let everybody jump up at once. >> I I can get it started. >> Yeah, if you'd like to. Um, >> so I know the superintendent had sent a letter and and I think he was going to his intent was to try to be here tonight, but he didn't know if he was going to be able to, but um I certainly have drafted something um in support um Barbara [clears throat] and Bill's request, but uh so I can just read it into the record. So, um, as town manager for the town of Ashlin, I'm writing to express my strong support for WACA TV. It's an invaluable resource for Ashland's residents and an important partner in our efforts uh to promote local government transparency and civic engagement. WACA TV serves as a primary media outlet serves as the primary media outlet for public meetings and community programming that help keep residents informed and connected.
So, one of my one of my big concerns, and it's been it's been going on forever, um it goes back to whenever they reopened the elementary schools, is at four corners, there's a pair in each classroom. And we always were told that was because ACES was there. There are special ed programs and disabled children at each elementary school. So I really find at this point in my life and as somebody who's lived Greenfield public schools and I listening to all these parents and teachers too, there's an equity in staffing in Greenfield and I would like us to look at um a parent in each elementary classroom. Federal Street has a behavior program which can be intense. Newton has um seeds which is the children um you know, who have de developmental needs. And it's still a struggle. It's still a fight between the three schools because nobody wants to take a new kid from another school.
Um, and then we go through different iterations of the budget. I present the budget. we discuss it with the board and they will either accept or they'll send they'll send me back with some um a bottom line number that they need me to get to and then I'll go back to my department heads and to my principal to say you know we've got to reduce by so many thousands of dollars and where do we think we it should it should come from and where do we think it's going to have the least amount of impact on student program and student experience. I think that's my philosophy. It's the the least amount of impact on student experience is is generally my goal. >> Thank you. It is important that schools work closely with other city departments and city boards. Could you tell us how you have successfully worked in these environments and what you will do here to develop these linkages?
Um I would recommend that we change that language to may not. There are a number of different circumstances in which students, you know, may or may not be able to participate in that summer school programming. And I I do not think that we should be just blanket, you know, keeping students back. There are a number of different family circumstances. Um, and so I look at the offering of that summer school as an extra added opportunity for learning. Um, but we really are not in practice retaining students from just a simple you did not participate. And I I do not I know the shall not is is language that some some people will interpret differently, but I I would recommend we're more explicitly um that they may be considered for not moving forward, but that it's not a definite I agree, Kelly. >> I agree. Yeah.
So if if I could make one point about P3s from a public school facility perspective where revenues are not generated, uh it costs money whether you do it the way we do it or the way the private sector does it because the construction costs don't change. So what changes? What is what is different? Um, for a non-revenue generating project, one thing you might get is guarantee that it's operated and maintained for the life of the project in a certain condition and and you pay for that. So, you have to pay for that. That's not free. Um, but then, you know, you run into this issue of privatization. Um, so you have to be sure that you coordinate with unions who usually operate the the building janitors and so forth. Um so I think what we think you know in our testimony we said it would work for charter schools because charter schools have a lot more flexibility right they um actually currently seek private funding private partnerships for the campuses and facilities because the univers the DOE does not build private charter school facilities.
And then before September, we get six hours of training. We get to bring it up however we want. So, what we will do is we will provide two different uh or excuse me, three different virtual sessions for staff training. When I say virtual, it is a person from frontline presenting directly to our staff. They just don't have to go to one location. And then we will provide trainings for administrators on how to use it as well. So that is part of the expenditure is the training to do that. In addition, we will get ongoing training as needed from frontline. And then we get every year obviously if we wanted to change our model or add pieces or take pieces out, they would do that for us as well. Is it considered professional development training? >> It it could be considered professional development training in the initial phase.
Um a lot of them we just quickly look at and doesn't think it's going to bear fruit. There was one that our consultant said would probably be beneficial and we're implementing it next year. um uh UHC is implementing next year. We've authorized them to. It's called RX Advisor. It happens behind the scene. Uh but it is something and it's not a lot. It's only reducing the projected RX spend by 1.5%. But it is something that they're going to work on the background to make sure that we're build looking for certain discounts in certain marketplaces that if there's a discount out there, they'll grab it and apply it and then reduce the cost. So, we send it to a thirdparty consultant to verify so that we're not listening to a sales pitch and getting rosecoled glasses and thinking everything's great. They confirm that they do believe this will save money.
So Ashan and WACA, like Brandy said, has weaved into our into our community in more ways than one. The different program programmings that have been offered, the uh the constant upkeep with all the new shows or the different shows that have been provided over the years. Um I know some have been award-winning. I won't say that, you know, some of us were recipients of some of those awards over the years and uh it wasn't the fact that Barbara and Paul uh were the mainstay of all that all that work and hard effort and the many other volunteers that were involved. Uh it was a very difficult time um to put on a show if when you have a co-host that was a microphone hug. And I won't say anything bad about Dave Iusi, but [laughter] uh but David loved the microphone and you know there would be constant battles getting that mic back and forth from one another so we could at least get our points across.
Its coverage of government meetings, town events, and other civic programming provides reliable local access to information that people need to understand and participate in the decisions that shape our community. WAC Wacka TV's consistent local presence helps ensure that residents can follow key discussions about town services, municipal priorities, and budget matters even when they cannot attend meetings in person. This public service strengthens accountability, reinforces trust in the community, and supports an informed community as well. Thank you for your continued support of this important local resource. Uh, sincerely, Michael Herbert, town manager. >> Thank you, Michael. >> Anybody in the vote? Sure. >> I'm surprised I'm not seeing any hands or someone >> I know >> jump up. Maybe they didn't hear. I don't know. Um >> I I I think Rob Silver is here to um to speak. Um Joe, >> yeah, he hasn't raised his hand yet.
That fight is still there. I hear it. And with our special ed numbers of 20 some odd percent, it makes sense to have supported classrooms. you know, the the class size versus supported classroom. I kind of want to >> look at that, >> okay? >> Because one of the things um when you look at all of the research around improving literacy and you know lowering our special ed numbers, um creating supported classrooms, um and then the other thing is more reading specialists at each elementary school. We have to do something different for reading and it really has I think has to do with staffing. Um right now there there used to be one reading and one math. I don't know if they're paid out of title one or if they're regular budget. Years ago they were title one, but they've been shoved into classrooms when teachers are gone like they're subs.
So yes, we um because we have the three member towns, we have select people and um in the case of Mansfield, we have a mayor. Um there are finance boards and select and select people from those different boards and there's a variet there's there's varying degrees of interaction um between those boards. Um during the last few budget seasons, those interactions have become increasingly more important because times have gotten tough and we've had to tighten our belts and it's become, you know, much more important um that we work closely together. So um as well as with our um state reps. So we we have several times a year um a couple times a year um municipal meetings where we ask our um select folks and our state reps to come and give us the kind of the state of the state of of the towns and what are the pain points.