I've I've started going to all those meetings to share our budget uh situation and make sure that um our parents are fully aware of the process uh that we're engaged in. And I I have a handout to to share with you that um I've been sharing to kind of contextualize what's happening with our budget. I think it's important that our families are aware. This is in addition to an an annual dinner that I host for um our parent leaders in the district just to get kind of give them a lay of the land. I mean, uh, that's not exclusively on the budget, but, um, it's important, I think, for people to understand the context of where we are, uh, with in the face of our growing enrollment, uh, the additional staff that we've add to try and maintain our ratios, uh, that we've had over time, uh, we've, I know the board certainly prioritized that.
And why wouldn't you stand up to to support your procedures? I mean, you can't you can't do oversight on your you can't refuse to do oversight in your procedures and then also stand up for the budget, for example. Like, this is part of your charge as a school committee member. It's just part of what you do is to follow these policies. So, it's kind of a no-brainer. I mean, we we have to do it if we want to be in line with our policies. And also, I'd love to know what I mean, I'm on apparently I'm on this facilities and youth subcommittee. I don't know what that is. So, I'd like to know what it is, you know, and I'm not saying that I wouldn't agree with it. I'm just saying I don't know. So, I can't agree with anything until I know and until I know what you all think and we have voted as a body.
and then the the um reductions that the the board made um to make every effort to try and retain staff, but our budget could not really be any leaner than it is today. So, um on that handout, you will see the um the schedule for the town council. Uh Emily and I will be presenting to the council on March 11th. Um and then like I said in the interim, I'll be meeting with PTO's from around the district. Um finally, I just want to give a a quick report on the um presentation of the conference I attended last week in the presentation that I gave with our friends from the Meridan Public Schools at the National Conference on Education. Uh it's the national conference for superintendents basically. Um really valuable. I had never attended before in my 10 years as superintendent, but really valuable experience to to hear so many great ideas from around the country.
Even if I disagree, what Liz Leon said, you disagree, but you commit because you're committing to the will of the body. But if the will of the body hasn't happened, then none of this exists. Does that make sense? >> Okay. member Goodwin and then I would like to add my two cents. >> I'm listening to what you're saying and kind of chicken and the egg. Um but everything I've read um the chair um assigns subcommittees um and the subcommittees existed. Goals were given to us by a previous chair for those subcommittees. Um so I'm just looking for clarification. Are you thinking each time there's a new chair we should recreate or revote or on subcommittees or I'm just thinking >> only if the subcommittees have changed? So we don't have to revote on there being a policy subcommittee. We don't have to revote on there being budget and finance, ad hoc redistricting, community engagement.
There were probably a couple thousand superintendent in attendance at central office people. I've never seen that many educators in my life at the Nashville Convention Center. And um Mark, the superintendent in uh Meridan and I gave a presentation with a couple of folks who work in central office in Meridan on uh social media applications for district leadership. Uh was really well attended on a especially given the fact that it was kind of creeping on happy hour in Nashville on Friday right before I left. But um we had about 40 superintendents in attendance and uh it went really well and we were proud to represent our area. So um just a great experience and I can't wait to talk more about some of the different things that I learned in that in that process and and how we can bring those to the Chester public schools.
Those are our subcommittees. We've already established that they exist. We don't have to vote on them annually, but if we choose to add warrants to the budget and finance, we have to vote on that. If we choose to add handbook to policy and program, we have to vote on that. If we choose to create a new subcommittee called facilities and uses, we have to vote on that. The policy says the subcommittees will be established through action of the committee. >> Okay. The committee chair can appoint the subcommittee chairs and its members, but none of us can create a new subcommittee without the vote of everyone. That's just how it is. >> Makes sense. >> So, the only thing in place is the warrants. Do we want to add warrants to budget and finance? Do we want to add handbook to policy? Do we what are we going to do with the redistricting ad hoc subcommittee?
>> Um just a clarifying question here. When we originally cut your proposed budget and you came back to us with a sheet on how you would get there, I realized that was a quick turnaround. >> Yeah. >> Sounds like just reading this maybe you've made some changes to that because I recall it was five elementary teachers and we went to four >> as part of that. >> It was six and we went to five. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> that's what it was. So, yeah. and we we added the two middle school >> positions too. >> Um but yeah, it was six elementary initially and then we went to five. >> But yeah, there were there were some things uh Matt that were kind of outstanding that Emily and I are still working through. Um you know, nursing being one of them. We had a a nurse take another position this uh this week.
And what are we doing with policy and and pro and program? I mean we I don't know who's I mean there are there are positions on here that I haven't agreed to do too. So like also I'd like to know what the charges are that of the work that we're supposed to be doing. So I tried to lay out all the motions in order. Uh Stacy has the motions that they would want to make to make their work happen. So, I tried to make it as easy as possible with the ration. So, I hope you all had a chance to look at them. >> So, I'd like to weigh in um for at least one of these the specifically the adding the handbook to the policy and program that was actually done under the previous chair. That was part of the previous setup. So, I didn't feel that that was me adding something new.
Uh the 27th will be her last day at Dittle. And so, you know, that'll be a position that we're going to reduce next year um to meet the budget. And we have made every effort to try and avoid student facing, but there are certainly service implications um when we are at the point where we are uh with the budget. So, We are still working some through some of those reductions and pinpointing them. >> Any other questions? >> My question is um at when you present to the council on March 11th, is that um is that a presentation followed by questions? >> Generally, yeah. Uh, typically I'll give a presentation to the council and council members will ask questions, but it's never um one and done. You know, uh, I'm sure I'll probably be at one more if not all of those meetings to respond to questions and advocate on behalf of the board and our our school system.
Um, if we feel like we never voted on it the first time that it happened, I'm so happy to vote on it now at the in this meeting. As for adding warrants to budget and finance and the facilities use subcommittee, I am wondering does not taking the vote at the time that we put people in those committees and had those committees constitute an action of the body in order to say we say that they exist because we voted that they exist and we voted the people into them. Now, what I can admit to me having the Mayaopa here is that I did not provide you and I should have with the written descriptions of what each of these committees do. I've done some due diligence after the fact. One, that hasn't been past practice, but we can do better than what we've done in the past.
>> Thank you. So, if if anyone on the board wants to uh attend some of these meetings, that's usually a good a good time to hear where the where our town council's coming from. >> Is that all you have for us? It >> Are there any other questions for Dr. Solen? >> Wait, so that March 11th meeting is a public meeting or not? >> Yeah. Okay. I just don't see it on the Cheshire town. >> Yeah, they I I'm not sure why it's not up there yet, but um I I wouldn't say these are absolutely set in stone. Okay. But there I got this from uh Noel Shepard, the secretary in Sean's office yesterday. >> Okay. Because I would be encouraging people to come and that I want to have to be Oh, wait. Actually, you can't come. [laughter] >> Right. So, it's >> Oh, no.
two, we should actually have at least for the standing subcommittees written into our policy uh manual, those descriptions should exist as sort of an evergreen. We shouldn't need to recreate them. And so, um, you know, I think that that's something that I have committed to drafting and having for you for your eyeballs at the next meeting is the descriptions of all of those. Um, I don't believe that we actually do need to resend the vote in order to make make whole some of these other changes. I'm thinking about other times when we've amended policy. We don't have to resend a policy in order to enact a new policy. We just update the policy. Um, >> but it's not a policy to vote. >> I see what you're saying. >> It's just it's just sticky. It's just sticky icky language procedure. That's what it is. But yeah, to your point about the ad hoc subcommittee, I was the chair of the ad hoc subcommittee for pol for handbook that was separate.
Any meeting is definitely public. Great. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. If there is any sort of change, I would certainly send that out right away. But okay, >> this is um as of yesterday. I think it's pretty good. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I see no old business on the agenda and I see a chairperson's update. I've been sitting in tonight and I just want to we are running low on time here. So I will forego anything except to say thank you for all the hard work tonight and for getting some so much business taken care of. Um and then I would call for a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to >> and a second by Tim. All those in favor we are adjourned. Thank you very much.
So, >> but okay, >> that was dissolved. So, you're saying that >> I'm saying >> through its dissolution, we took a vote to add it to the policy. I'm saying that when I looked at what Glenn presented at the beginning of 2025, that was the name of the committee that he had proposed at that time. And so I just copied that name. >> That's what I'm saying is so I didn't feel like I was creating something new. I felt like I was continuing the subcommittee as it was laid out at the time. I am admitting that >> because you and I and Kate were on it and Glenn wasn't on it. It was different than policy. that that that was not the paperwork that we had that I was going off of with the names and titles of how our committees are described. >> That could very well be it.
>> Um, mayor, >> I think we just talked tonight about spending money on a mediator and I just found that a very difficult one to read to vote to resend the committee appointments. Um, I am I never wanted to be on the policy committee. I don't like writing, but I've read through them and I know that there are three subcommittees that were mentioned, I believe, to the best of my recollection and I I think there's a a way to accomplish things in a congenial manner. I agree on the um facilities one which has been named a couple of times and um you know at another juncture make a motion that we not tonight because it wasn't on the agenda to define that a little bit more but um I think any one of those things could have been could be accomplished in a different way if if we were so far away from following our own mandate.
Any other? Yes, child. >> So, I did just go to the website to pull up the meeting materials from January 2025 and it does say policy program and school committee handbook subcommittee. Um, so that was just what I pulled up there. Uh but I guess the question I have is what is the consequence of not rescending and what is the consequence of rescending? So what's obvious to me consequence of rescending is needing to go back and do everything again and what does that mean for the subcommittees that are already in process working and then I'd like to know more about the ramifications and consequences for not rescending by just going by past president and making whole now. Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with rescending anything. Committees do it all the time, especially to backtrack just to fix things. Um, and I don't think there's any I mean, I don't think there's any ramifications for that.
And also, I wasn't saying that we're scrapping appointees like or that any of the work that the subcommittees are doing is moot. Like, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that we don't have them. We haven't voted on the things that we're supposed to be doing. So, we should vote on them and we should know what we're doing. >> I guess that's where I'm a little confused because if we resend the vote, that's the whole thing wiped and so we'd have to revote on the slate, right? >> Well, we'd have to I mean, the chair chooses who goes into the subcommittees. That's their purview. Okay. So, the only thing that we'd be changing, I mean, I'm sure that if we vote on making sure that the subcommittees are whole and that their charge is correct and that we all agree on what we're doing, the chair will just slot everybody back in and that's fine.
That's the will of the group because you all already said you were fine with your appointments. But it's the question of the actual subcommittees that's the problem. Where is the redistricting ad hoc subcommittee? Are we even doing that anymore? if we're not, we should vote to have it have it dissolved. And when that came up last year, we had issues with that and somebody had to bring up that motion and we defeated that. So there's merit in talking about what we do with our subcommittees. So also, what is facilities use? What is that? What are we doing? What is that about? We need to find out and and talk about it. It's not about winning or losing or like getting what you want. That's not this is not a personal thing. This is just about the procedure. That's all. It's just about knowing what's happening.
I mean, if if it said So, you pulled it up. So, if it we voted on having um handbook into policy. Great. Wonderful. Great. Okay. But now we got to figure out what to do with warrants. And that has its own policy. So, if we're putting that in budget and finance, guess what? But we have to change what the policy is because the policy says one person can sign. But I don't know what the vision is, what your motion is about having warrants in budget and finance. Do you want to change that? If you want to change that, then we have to send it back to policy. So it's just just like these steps that we have to do. And if we don't follow the steps, then later on things are going to suffer. So we just follow them. As boring as all of this is, it's just procedure.
because I look at I look at the list and I'm like I don't know what I'm serving on or what I'm doing. >> Well, theoretically, say we tabled this motion and went through the other motions that addressed most of your concerns. If we satisfied those, then would there be a need to resend still if we just fixed those things first? That that's what I'm saying because it's a what comes first and what needs to come first. So the part that I'm not fully on board and convinced with is if we do need to resend versus we need to fix the problems >> because you can't go back to a motion that everybody has voted on and change it. You have to resend it and then make a new one. Like you can't like Robert's rules I believe does not allow you to be like oh remember that thing we voted on last week?