So, you know, a lot of this is going to be an educated projection based upon what we know today. And based upon the plan that should you decide to operate as a standalone special ed program, what staff numbers do you need, in what places, what class sizes, how many therapists do you need, and so on. To really try to get you all a firm number to understand what the impact is. And so, after taking a look at all of that, you know, the the big takeaway that I have is if you were to operate as a standalone program rather than in cooperation collaboration with other school districts for your special ed cooperative, operating alone, you're going to spend a very comparable amount than what you're spending now. So, the difference is is a rather small number. In some ways it's less, in some ways it's more, but overall, it is very very similar to what happens in a year over year.
She gets the ball over the restraining line. Spartans really that's that's been the difference maker bow I think so far in this uh this game so far. The Spartans really really winning a lot of the draws. I mean when you can control that draw then just go right into the offensive zone. So oh. What's that? Well, Mack Whitwer gets hit with a charging call. I think it was a charging call. Looked like a charging call. Could be. Normally the only times I see a charging is when you back into somebody but nevertheless Mack Whitwer did good stick check from behind. Jane Pelletier in on it. Pelletier turning around shields the ball away scoops the ball up and away and it'll be Minnechaug ball. Oh, Minnechaug switches the field over to Lusic. Ball can't get handled. Lusic turn around. McEachnie with an empty stick check. As Sergiyenko comes up with it.
So if there is a language barrier, they will help provide that to our our teachers. We have one administrative assistant. Um she works in the front right when she comes in. She services every single student in our building. She also services every single staff member and every single parent in our community. Um she welcomes them all. She takes care of them between whether it's graduation or helping with uniforms or helping with translation or helping with the buses, uh field trips, event coordination, everything. That's what she does as part of our team. Um then we have myself, Bill and Kate as our as the deans and academy leader. Um we do, you know, we hold students to high expectations to our core values. We do behavioral interventions. We do restorative justice with our students between peers as well as between teachers and students. We support teachers in the classroom if they need some help with behaviors in the classroom.
Um but yes, thank you for for talking me through that, and I think that July is reasonable. And I still think that that I still think that we can get the work accomplished that we have set out for ourselves in that time by having people at sworn in or appointed in July. And then really like setting our meetings and kind of sticking to a like we can lay out a real here is when we are addressing each of our topics, you know, kind of a >> [snorts] >> a structure for ourselves. Um to meet the May 2027 deadline. So, that being said, our June meeting is the 10th, so we definitely want to have the first wave of outreach done by then. I don't see that being a problem. That's 2 and 1/2 weeks from now. Two full three almost three full weeks. Um and then our July meeting is the 8th.
Um And he he was not well liked in Granby. I know that's one of the reasons why he left there again. Um personally, he did very poorly by my own child. >> going to allow for any personal comments. Okay. Well, High level, please. Yeah, I heard you. I heard you. Okay. So, that's fine. But I'm just saying that um I've heard excellent things about the assistant super current assistant superintendent. And even though I had suggested last night maybe an assistant superintendent isn't needed, hearing from other parents, I would say this gentleman needs to be retained. But there you do obviously have too many administrators or too many administrative costs. Although, I also would say you need to inform the public better about exactly how many administrators you actually do have because the rumors out there are that there were 35 new administrators added in the last 5 to 10 years.
Joshua built a trail bridge over at Riverbang Farm Sanctuary. So if you go hiking over there, you will use it. [applause] The second Eagle Scout from Troop 92 is Patrick Roth. [applause] Patrick built rebuilt a section of a damaged trail bridge over at uh Fresh Meadows Land Trust property as well as installed uh new trail signs all throughout the property. [applause] Um, the scout master for troop 198 could not make it, but they had one Eagle Scout, Wyatt Jawick. [applause] [applause] Uh, you may have actually seen Wyatt's uh, Eagle project because he renovated all the stands of the baseball fields here. >> [applause] [applause] >> Hi. Um, I am here to recognize our Gold Award Girl Scout. Um, from the senior class, the Gold Award is the highest award for Girl Scouts. Um, it's only achieved by about 5% of girls nationally. Um, in the town of Cheshure, U.
Um I also wanted to say that neurodiversity affirmative practices are not district-wide and I would really love to see that. And I will back up the point earlier about um aids and interventionists being so important to our schools. Okay, that's my first three things. I'll try to breathe. >> [laughter] >> Um my main point I want to talk about is continuing to hire Ms. Cesteroni and I'm going to try not to cry or look at you. >> [laughter] >> Um as a full-time kindergarten teacher anywhere in our district, preferably at HC Storm where we are. Um and if we do that, consider maybe giving a temporary one year approval while she has her provisional license, um, knowing that this is not something that necessarily we're going to approve for everybody with a provisional license, but in her case she is the exception and this would be a one year, uh, opportunity for her to meet the full standard.
So, um you're looking at some pretty substantial savings right there. Jason, do you have a comment? I just wanted to It's kind of already been said. My biggest concern relies around the context, but in in the economic context of which it's done, right? And so, we've got a lot of unknowns heading in our direction over the next year or two. Um and we could say, "Okay, we have this done say in September and October." And the bottom can fall out of the market, right? And so, then does that make this data relevant um or not? And that's just kind of my wonder. It's not necessarily a concern. Um I'm but I'm just wondering if it's if it behooves us to wait until the start of the school year next year to do it. I understand that they probably change the contract price, but just the context of the economics situation that we're in is is my concern.
We still have kids to take care of and a family to take care of. And so this employee did have four days of leave without pay um that were communicated well with the supervisor on that one. Again, we have um an employee who was going through what ended up being an FMLA situation, but did run until it was FMLA did run into one day of leave without pay listed on there. Um that was a certified staff member. And then we have another certified staff member who at the end of the year in May was out of days and did have to for illness reasons take two days off. And so those would be leave without pay. Again, this is something that I want to address moving forward, look at it, see where we're at. But I felt in order for us to stay in compliance with our policy that I needed to bring these to you and have you um make a motion on it.
So, if the primary concern of do we operate as a standalone program is the fiscal concern, I'm here to tell you that those are quite minimal. And so, you know, obviously finances are not the only reason to make decisions in education. We we often often and primarily have to look at quality as well. But still, if you all believe that you are able to operate a special ed program at a higher level a higher level of quality through your own services rather than as a standalone program, then fiscally I'm here to say that there's not a concern in doing that. That you would be able to do it sound there. So, um let's dig into that a little bit more. So, um your estimate of your expenses for what the town is going to spend on its own, you know, and what we know are outstanding bills, um we're expecting to spend about 4.3 million.
Sergiyenko gets the ball over the 50-yard line. Giving chase by Parsons. Good job by Parsons to stay in front of her. And they get the ball over to Kozeb. Kozeb all the way back out to Taylor. And Minnechaug will set up their offense. Sergiyenko kicks the ball back over to I don't know that Lusic. Lead to Kozeb all the way back up to Taylor. Looking Kozeb and Taylor looking to do a two-man Good job by Byron to stay with that. Never easy to stay with the quick and speedy Kozeb. And Gianna Byron does this. Kozeb kicks the ball back out to Lusic. Lusic going around the back of the cage. >> [snorts] >> Lusic still with the ball. Kicks the ball out to O'Connor. O'Connor out to Sergiyenko. Sergiyenko back out to Taylor. Taylor with the ball looking to try to go by Mac Whitworth.
We um also make sure that our number one priority is safety, that we're coordinating safety, that we are keeping to our expectations, that we're all safe. We keep our doors locked. We don't let anybody in. We have our IDs um and that we don't let visitors in. We also are mental health liaison. You're going to hear, but we have an adjustment counselor in our office, um Jamie. Yep. and she is really really been a huge benefit and we'll go a little bit more into that a little bit uh in a minute about what she has done to help with the mental health of our students. Um over the past few years we've seen a really big uptick in mental health. a lot of students have been um go into partial treatment or full treatment for mental health and she's really been a great bridge between students who might be misbehaving, why they're misbehaving, um if they're engaging in unsafe behavior and helping with that.
So what do we what would we say about having people submit their interest form by Monday the 15th? We meet the three of us on the 22nd. Go through those folks. Pick cuz I'm I am hopeful that we'll get more letters of interest than we actually have slots for and we will have the ability to like really put together a solid advisory committee for this and then that gives us a few weeks to get our list, get some of our alternates, make the calls to confirm that people are still interested and available cuz sometimes things change in you know, a couple of weeks. And then have our slate ready to include in the agenda by Friday the Friday, July 3rd, which is when materials tend to go out. The Friday before our meeting on the 8th. Does that timeline make sense to folks? Mhm. Okay, cool.
Well, that I can that can't possibly be so cuz there can't possibly be that many administrators. If there are, there's something very wrong. So, I think you really need to make it clear to people how many actual administrators there are and how many secretaries those diff- different administrators have. Um and if you have to do something creative that will not hurt the children, then cut a principal and um have you know, the yellow two elementary schools share a principal. It's not ideal. It's not something you want to have permanently, but in dras- drastic times, it may be what you have to do. You can have head teachers in each of those schools who, if there's a discipline issue or something that needs to be addressed with a parent, can address it, but they also work in the classroom. And then, if you have regular, consistent paraprofessionals who know the classroom and know the teachers' teaching style, they can cover for half an hour or an hour while that head teacher, who does make some more money, but not like an administrator, can deal with the issue.
Brianna will be the second girl since I've lived in town for 20 years who's received this award. So very proud of her. Um, a girl must identify an issue in their community and complete a take action project to address that issue. They need to demonstrate leadership. They need to build a team to work with them. They need to make this project measurable and sustainable and have a global connection. Uh, a Girl Scout working on these projects needs to put in at least 80 hours of personal time. Brianna Hawkins, if you want to come up. Um [applause] Brandice Goldward Project founded the faith um friends organization collaborating with her church St. Bridget's. She brought church volunteers and together to provide a curriculum based in education especially for children with learning disabilities. She worked with education mentors, education experts and mentors at St. Bridges to develop a curriculum, provide training for volunteers, and build a trusting and safe space for candidates to enrich their understanding working towards achievements of their sacramental milestones.
Um, I'm going to quickly talk about all the reasons why. Uh, she has two years of experience in this job in Batavia public schools and she would be at a salary step that has lower pay because she has been in Richmond and not licensed. So, it's beneficial from a financial perspective. We're saving money by hiring her. We know the quality of her work. There's zero risk. She has two years of demonstrated classroom success following the curriculum, taking data, and demonstrating positive learning outcomes and stand- via standardized assessments and hands-on functional skills in the classroom. Staff and parents would give strong recommendations for her and already have. She is focused on relationship building with students and families and we want the content to continuity of staff. Recent concerns have included the use of screens and technology. She's the exact opposite of that. She's very hands-on. She is very movement-based in her learning and provides many sensory experiences.
Well, and keeping in mind, too, that this salary study, even once it starts, takes 5 months. So, we're going to see some changes over the next 5 months even so some of that will be definitely captured in the in that time. Absolutely. I just don't want to spend $30,000 on something that is like, "Okay, that was because the economy was growing or whatever." You know, and so yeah, absolutely I agree. It's going to take some time. There's going to be some lag with that. But again, that's just a wonder not a not a like red flag. It does it does fit into the district strategic plans, of course. Um goal five especially I I I think and the um Yeah, deliberately budget for recruiting and retaining exceptional staff. It's going to be tough. I also don't want to delay Jason only cuz like I get your point cuz it's a concern clearly.
It would be my recommendation at the time for you to approve these. Um, but it is your decision as the board to do that. I'm happy to answer any questions that I can at this time about those. >> So, if we approve them without leave without pay, if we didn't approve them, what would what's that mean? What really [clears throat] how does it look? >> If you don't approve them, they [clears throat] still take they still take the leaf. They still get docked. their pay, but at that point then I would need to note in their file that it was an unapproved leave that they have taken and then it kind of goes down the disciplinary thing that again I I don't feel that we have the structure or the setup for I don't feel that that was the intent by any means of the employee and I just think this is again that policy that is a little messy and I'm very happy that we are going to be looking at it and addressing it moving forward.
Um but that being said though, you know, we have you know, some special ed costs that are still going to come in that we don't yet know. Um and we'll talk about this here in a minute with our special ed cooperative bill. Um, so this is really two dates and then what we can project out so far. And so FY26 is 25.6, so that gives June 30th of '26, which obviously we're not quite there yet. So that is a actual estimate. We then took, in working with your special ed program, what are all the staff members that you would need if FY27, which is 6/30/27, you were operating alone? Um, how much would we spend? You know, based upon the staff members that you're expecting to have on hand. Um, and so that estimate would be, you know, 4.6 million. And so it is, you know, a 7% increase, but it's possible that your FY26 is going to increase beyond that 4.29 million that I have there because June 30th is not yet here yet and we don't have 100% line of sight as to exactly what our bills are going to be, which is part of the issue of, you know, not operating alone.
Takes his gets a shot off and Taylor ends up getting a a goal for Minnechaug to cut the Spartans lead down to to five. First half scores were Sergiyenko with a goal and O'Connor with a goal. For the Spartans, it was Whitworth with four, Illingsworth with two, McEachnie with one, and Ava Pellegrino with one. Nevertheless, Minnechaug is up on the board to start is up on the board first in the second half. There were some good defensive plays in there, but it's just they were in the zone for so long. They wear you down, so. Yeah, and good job by Minnechaug to find those find a seam and get a shot off. >> Yep. Back up on the draw with Taylor and Whitworth. I think pretty soon this this sun's going to play in a big part of the game. >> Yep. Getting into the eyes is Mac Whitworth with the ball.