Ackerman before vote to postpone is withdrawn or voted down just want to make sure that property owner helped us highlight the issues understands you just understands what's what's going on and now that does clarify the mechanics of the of the gryzzl resolution certainly that does also give me some more property and I'm wondering what implications does that mean when one inherits vacated property I guess against their own will or whatever this may be with my own well but what does it mean in terms of property taxes and whatever we can um I can set up a staff meeting for you um come on in or we can talk on the phone okay with the the assessor's office city planner and I can get you in touch with their crime people and if it is something I'd rather not do could we could I defer my right to receive the vacated half slice and just have it be all park I mean that may be something I would want to do I don't know also interesting we can find that out for you right and we have your contact information off I have no idea who made the motion it's Commissioner something then would you like to I withdraw the motion to postpone and I believe come attract of a new second it are you friendly it's been withdrawn further discussion on the main motion Commissioner get Brandel just one thing and that is we pulled up the thanks to Commissioner Mills thank you for the use of your Chromebook here we pulled up the Washington County mapping site the GIS stuff and it's so much more clear and through here and so I guess I would just request for a staff for the future if we have issues around the big vague yellow line you know the Adobe highlighting tool is maybe not appropriate for something like this where it's property lines and people really trying to figure things out and I know this the parcel viewer isn't perfect but it's a whole lot more accurate than what we have in front of us and so I would just appreciate for future reports where we have you know some serious implications for property lines and how it's being used and things like that that we have this whole other tool that is available to our use in perhaps we could have that for our reports so that we can then have a more informed discussion about what we're actually doing so thank you further discussion we prepared for a vote all those in favor please say aye opposed it's approved moving on to audience participation anyone in the audience may address the Planning Commission for up to three minutes is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the Planning Commission at this time so please purchase a podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address the Planning Commission seeing no one jumping up I will move on in our agenda to our Commission proposed business commissioner Mills I would like to thank city staff who came from the back I don't well it's encouraging to know that we have viewers and that you could make it here it is time so thank you very much for answering our question so that we can move so thank you may your performance evaluation reflects hopefully mr.
post Emma is also watching mr. vo for doing her very best thank you any other proposed business I also want to I also want to thank the neighboring the neighbor who came this evening it's good to know that when those postcards go out people do read them and do decide to come down and to figure out what's going on so we appreciate that yes thank you thank you all right seeing no other Commissioner proposed business to have a motion to adjourn move by Commissioner Trudeau second by Commissioner Mills we are adjourned thank you you
five four three two welcome to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson meet the court is brought to you as a public service by the Superior Court of New Jersey in Atlantic and kme counties as well as the Cape May Technical High School to better inform you the public on the workings of the court and the role of the judiciary in our communities our topic community safe surrender what is this program that helps so many people in our community our guests the Honourable Luis Velasco presiding judge of the municipal courts in Atlantic in Cape May County welcome judge thank you John Revere and Jill Hulk assistant trial court administrator in the Atlantic in Cape May counties welcome Joe welcome thank you so my first question explain to our viewers what community safe surrender is and what the event looks like a community safe surrender event allows a member of the public who may have a bench warrant go to a safe neutral place like a church or a school to meet with judiciary staff to determine whether they have any bench warrants and where those bench warrants might be bench warrants that can be recalled are recalled on-site and then if sometimes the person can actually see a judge either at the school or the church or go to a Municipal Court that's close by but the most important thing about the event is that no one is arrested even if it's a bench warrant that cannot be recalled no one gets arrested they they have the option to leave the neutral place with that warrant and and handle it later so no one gets arrested that's fascinating there's a perception July that this is a setup that people will really be arrested and we want to clear that up because this is no way is set up for it to arrest anyone so we'll talk more about that but before we do can you give some examples you said schools churches where else can these events be held well so far we've held them at several community centers at a church and and most recently at the the lighthouse Church in in came a courthouse and why did you choose these locations the towns were chosen because they these towns where we've had these events to an Atlantic City so far one in Pleasantville and one in middle township because those communities do have a higher percentage of bench warrants as well as may have you know some lower socioeconomic population so the people that we you know want to help more but obviously we help everyone that comes through the door judge how important is the socio-economic situation of the folks that come through the door and rectifying it so many people get themselves in a hole with court fines that are legislatively set courts we have very little discretion in setting fines but they get further and further in debt deeper and deeper in a hole and they often just will throw up their hands and ignore it and this gives them an opportunity to address what they owe in a reasonable manner without fear of having warrants in over their head so that sounds like really important work and you explained to me any other reasons why these events are so important well the these bench warrants that are addressed are for minor offenses and minimal amounts however when someone has a bench warrant it might preclude them from getting substance abuse treatment housing a job so someone that wants to address their court matters or get help for themselves sometimes can be excluded from those programs if they have a bench warrant so clearing up these vent warrants allows the person to get more help for themselves and it also allows them to drive you know without anxiety with their kids in the car you know have contact with law enforcement it really does increase public safety seems like it can help their credit and their job outlook as well because they don't have to worry about these things in the background exactly so it sounds like a lot of work are the courts the only organizations involved in these events no this is definitely a partnership you know the local police department is involved not to arrest people but actually there are the ones that have to recall the warrants but they also you know helped us organize the event the local municipal courts and also we partnered with a charity a local charity that will assist us with you know providing volunteers providing the facility and community resources also show up as well and are available to help people so how many people do you typically serve at one of these events we've had between 100 to over 500 Wow over 500 people our first event in Cape May County just last month we served 95 people the one before that in Atlantic City I think that final number was about 525 so it seems the reason why you can have to have these events at a place like a school or a community center because you're attracting a lot of individuals have any of those individuals been arrested now and and some people did have warrants that could not be recalled and they chose the option you know to leave with that bench warrant and they were not arrested okay so some critics will probably say well this sounds like it's soft on crime and the response to that criticism well Jawad as jill has said this gives people the opportunity to get a warrant recalled now they can go look for a job we have the Motor Vehicle Commission on site they have the opportunity to work through driving late driver's license issues and eventually get their driver's license back and be able to drive so if they can get them their lives back in order and hopefully get a job it probably has the advantage of reducing crime rather than soft on crime it's not and it's not a program that is aimed at wiping out all criminal debt that's not what we're there for so now I would say it's not really soft on crime it it has a neutral effect if anything that may help people get their lives get back on track so piggybacking on that it seems like you're bringing folks up to 500 into a place where they can have a one-stop shop where a lot of services are being rendered for them right then and there does that have an overall benefit to Public Safety and maybe save the taxpayers some money I think it certainly does and the pub the benefit the public safety is well law enforcement is not at risk going out and serving these warrants and walking into a situation behind closed doors that they don't know what's going to happen to them the public's not at risk by somebody getting pulled over in a car realizing they have a warrant and speeding off to avoid apprehension this gives the opportunity for them to do one-stop shopping come here get their warrants recalled and maybe get some benefits we have somebody at the middle township event we were able to hook them up with a treatment bed that day to get them into drug treatment because of other problems that they were dealing with in their life so it sounds like this has an opportunity to not only save money but save lives and save individuals from fates that maybe they didn't want to encounter and they've been avoiding all this time when we were in middle township we I saw someone that came up from South Carolina we had someone that came from Maryland I spoke to a gentleman that moved out of New Jersey because of trial support and municipal warrants and was living in Delaware and he had children here this gave him the opportunity to deal with these issues and come back and hopefully re-ignite is the relationship with his children so are there plans to continue offering this type of outreach we have about 30 seconds recently right Joe yes we were planning an event in December that will be in Galloway but again all warrants in Atlantic and Cape May County will be addressed so you know anyone can attend you know but that it will likely be in December in Galloway and then again in Atlantic City and approximately May or June thank you this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we're back with our guests discussing community safe surrender after this message okay they mind if in the first question and I address like open teepees even if they have stuff without marks yeah yeah once we're doing it right whoa where's that somewhere else anywhere it is anywhere else it is judged if we ate no no problem more than one yeah and you can even go as I say but in the last segment you know okay yeah both times and just flows just follow with the answers naturally and if we get redundant and everybody just repeat her right absolutely yeah that doesn't hurt to be repeating especially because we've positioned a lot of these questions were it's into information each time welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we've been discussing community safe surrender and its benefits as a whole to the public with our guest judge Belasco and Joe Hulk so my next question is when people have active warrants and they're interested in coming to an event like we just described what should they know before coming they should know do I that they're going to walk into a large auditorium and we have about 35 to 45 volunteers from the Superior Court from Municipal Court all in uniform pretty much that they'll be able to pick out these people they'll be signed in they'll be given a number they'll be processed through a computer bank that's tied to the internet so we can look everything up on them they should be prepared though to come to one of these events knowing where what they owe do they have a child-support warrant do they have a probation issue do they oke monies to various municipal courts other than just one even if they owe money and it's not on a warrant yet it might be so they should be able to help the screener can come up with all of their information so that we can address the whole person at one time so they need to know what's going on in their lives so that they can better assist us with helping to resolve some of these things so Joe had mentioned that there are certain types of warrants we can a certain type of warrants that we cannot recall starting first what type of warrants can be recalled at this type of event the warrants that can be recalled will be warrants for municipal court cases such as a traffic ticket or a criminal complaint where they failed to appear they just ignored it and did not come to court we can recall warrants where someone has been to court Municipal Court they owe money they fell behind they failed to keep their money up the court issued a warrant that's a warrant we can recall we have some minor in dateable charges more is a little more serious third and fourth-degree charges and if they have warrants for those we have the ability to recall most of those warrants trial support warrants we are doing the last one we did was on a Friday during a work day we were able to recall some child support warrants for people also so we what can be cleared so give me some examples of what cannot be cleared we haven't run into this yet but if somebody has a first or second degree charge very very serious assault charges robberies they're not going to be cleared they're going to have to turn themselves in we have made a decision that if somebody has an active warrant because they received a drunk driving ticket and never showed up in court we're not going to recall that warrant they're not going to get arrested on sight as Jill said earlier but they're going to have to leave they're realizing there's a warrant and they need to turn themselves in as soon as possible so if I have a first or second degree charge and I show up that well I won't that won't get me arrested right then and there but I know that I have to walk out of there and deal with it before it does lead to my arrest yes and we have had some second degree charges that you know could have their warrant recalled it's you know basically my discretion you know based on the scenario if it's something that I think should be recalled despite it being second degree than I do contact a judge to get permission to recall it but you know first degree that's a different story okay so what can people expect the process to be like when they walk in the door well be patient we have to do a lot of background research they can should not expect to walk in at nine o'clock and walk out at 9:30 we do have some snacks we do have a friendly waiting area but it we need their patience it does take some time snack sounds like a good idea something like that so I got my driver's license suspended as a result of some of the issues that I had in my past are my driving fluids is able to be restored it's something like this you know that is a big issue Jawad and unfortunately we can because the judiciary did not suspend their driving privileges that suspension came to the Motor Vehicle Commission however at our last event we had a representative from the regional service center of the Motor Vehicle Commission and I think he must have talked to 30 different people and took their information down they will work with them working through motor vehicle issues whether it be surcharges or restoration fees or whatever it is to eventually get them restored but people should know they're not going to walk out of this event with their driving privileges back however they will walk out of this event a long way toward that goal of getting their driving driver's license back so they'll be on the road to having their drivers license restored no pun intended right there on that road there right so a person comes with a warrant from another County like Essex or Hudson can we deal with that at our community safe surrender event unfortunately no we only have the jurisdiction to recall the Atlantic and Cape May County warrants so if someone has an out of County warrant we give them the information we give them the phone number to call to you know address the warrant and you know so we give them paperwork and then also after the event the court will notify that particular court that you know John Smith showed up at this event they know to expect him or her and hopefully they will give them you know a little bit of credence for showing up at our event okay so maybe not out of county warrant but how about a Pennsylvania warrant or a Delaware warrant can those be cleared no and actually we don't even know if someone has an out-of-state warrant because we're not checking them outside of the state of New Jersey if someone asks and says they have an out-of-state warrant you know we would just again give them the information but that's all we could do so on average how many warrants are cleared at these events it ends up being about one per person who attends so some people don't have warrants they might just come because they have fines or they think they have a warrant and they just haven't gotten there yet so it ends up being about one warrant per person well this is meet the court and I'm your host Joe Johnson we'll be back with our guest judge Belasco and Joe Houck after these messages okay I don't want this yeah super fast Bob gave me two men with me before yeah that would be good be good welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson and we're continuing our conversation on safe surrender with our guests judge Belasco and Joe hawk so if someone can't pay all of their fines on that day what do they do actually Jawad we're not collecting any money at these events if someone has fines they owe and they work out a new payment plan they will leave with a payment order but what we did the last time and we were probably going to continue this is we have set up three on-site courtrooms so someone will be able to see a judge that day and if they work at their work out their fines they'll be given a payment order and they can leave without paying any money that day now when they get there they should know that our security guidelines require there be law enforcement protecting the judges so they're all there are some uniformed law enforcement officers there they're not roaming the floor they're kind of out of the way and we keep the courts in the back not out in the front where all the activity is so you have three courtrooms going and they get an order to pay their fines but where do they go from there from there they would go to there I mean it's a municipal court whatever Municipal Court they have we have tried to partner with the Municipal Court that is the host municipality so if we're having our next one in Galloway people will be able to go that same day right to the Galloway Township Municipal Court if they owe money to Galloway and pay their fines that they owe to Galloway there or get their monthly payments started there if they off is the Egg Harbor Township or to Ocean City or to another court then they're going to have to deal with those other courts not through Galloway so I have a bunch of different fines can my fines be lumped into one payment you know that would be wonderful but it's a beaut IT undertaking from the whole state of New Jersey so we can't do that right now what we have is we hope that our courts coordinate their payment plans so that we come up with a realistic monthly figure and a person would pay each court so much per month what they owe that would sound like a real benefit so are you able to at these events look up what fines I may have that I don't maybe not be aware of or don't remember can someone look up my whole entire case history we absolutely do that in fact we have found outstanding fines that people did not know about and we were able to address everything and the beauty of that is we can get to that payment plan reestablish before it becomes a warrant so our viewers who are watching this and if they may have a fine or a warrant in their background and they look they're looking to take care of it do they have to wait until one of these events to take care of the fines or if they're inspired can they go and take care of it right away absolutely not most of our Municipal Court administrator's that run our municipal courts and Jill can address for child support but if somebody comes to court and wants to address their fines they they can be set up to see a judge they can probably have their warrant recalled and they can go over their financial status with the judge to get to a realistic payment plan something that they know that they can meet every month and that the court will expect the money to come in every month so that we don't have any warrants so warrants and fines are there the only court matters that are being addressed at these events we have other matters being addressed we have some child support matters that were addressed at all of our events that we've run correct gas child support staff is always on staff we also have information about drug court expungements you know family court information so we address other things but you know most people do come for you know to get their warrants recalled so you mentioned child support and that we can recall the bench warrants but how about my payments can they work out the payments that I have there sometimes yes sometimes no you sometimes they will give the person a court date because they can't work out their payment with the the staff on-site they will have to ask the judge but they child-support will give them all that information and I would have questions maybe for probation officer are their probation officers at these events that can help me with questions that I might have most of the judiciary staff that is working at the event our probation officers because those are the ones trained to perform the background checks so the judge mentioned that there are police there and he mentioned that they hang back but what's that what are they doing there what's their role I mean they're there to provide you know security just in case something does happen but you know they know from the start that no one gets arrested even if they leave with an active warrant and the Chiefs of Police are fine with that and they agree with it to say that on the four events we have run so far the host municipality Chief of Police and law enforcement have been very supportive of what we're doing so I need to get my record cleared and I need help with an expungement or is there any information there about expungements yes we have a ton of information on expungements legal services of South Jersey legal services you know always attends these events and they help people with expungements filling out the paperwork filing it and walking the person through the process so I know there's no guarantee about how much fines and fees can be waived but or adjusted but what's the biggest success story that you can recall about someone who had a large amount of fines or fees and had and had those adjusted or done in a way that they could afford I saw a person at one of our recent events and they came in on a warrant that was about 13 years old their records showed that they had no other criminal activity since then they fell on real hard times they had some addiction issues they lost it he lost a good-paying job and based upon his financial status and where he stands now I was able to give him a better payment plan and give him credit for a lot and vacate some of that fine money that he owed he's very thankful and he got into a realistic position where he could pay and afford a small amount per month well so it sounds like folks who may show up with these events also may be looking for answers or other places is there information on housing healthcare and drug treatment yes all that information is available we have drug treatment resources we have housing information and housing resources available almost any community resource that you can think of is at the event so it sounds like an event like this is a one-stop shop for someone who may be trying to get their life back on track or maybe had some past historical issues and now they're trying to work those out because they can are there any is there anything that you would say to our viewing public that they should know about coming to an event judge we'll start with you well I would tell the public that this is not a an event set up to trick them and to get them arrested that the judiciary our volunteers are there to help them and we realistically want to work with them and put them on a plan that they can achieve success they can get a job they can work to get their driving privileges back they can take care of child support and they can essentially turn their lives around and that's what we're hoping for that's great and jail thirty seconds for you I just always tell people it's a judgment-free zone it's like plan of fitness we don't care why you have the bench more and it you know it doesn't matter what the backstory is we're just here to help the person and there's an old Japanese proverb fall down seven times stand up eight so we're hoping that these events help the person stand up for the eighth time well that sounds great and I hope that they're able to do this too and that our messages will help folks who are in need bring themselves to one of these events if they need it well we are just about out of time I'd like to thank our panel judge Louis Velasco and Joe Howe for joining us today on meet the court and I'd like to thank you our audience for being with us this is Joe Johnson - bye for now
good morning big Hollow today is October 19 it is the 41st day of school see this is wbh a news I am Lexi and I am Amanda today for lunch there will be popcorn she can make chips potato smiles green beans watermelon and now tomorrow for breakfast there will be mini bagels graham crackers orange has a blue juice and milk we have some friends celebrating birthdays today Addison as you see Michael Evans this weekend Katherine oh hey Bo Mayan F Ryan F Isabella Lopez I love Reeves pain P Shuma shook MA Sandu please one of the office space on your birthday book yesterday my question was as to make the number of students in our school that speak Spanish at home the answer is 85 Twitter is pain W from team Claro Scott please come to the obviously without your price based on that question is what what is the most famous Mexican fury we have a special announcement we are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month the Spanish word of the day is May amo which means my name is and now we will observe the silence please stand for the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all how a fabulous Friday and remember Tiny's comes everyday everywhere thanks for watching
Jesse [Music] okay we are back with our audio working at this point thank you for your patience everyone recommend motion that the board approve the minutes listed Lowe's recommended regular meeting on 10:30 18 stressfull also great time your life so has great opportunity for families its opportunity together thank you just to let everybody know we talked a little bit about this at the last meeting administration has begun the budget development process under new business tonight we'll talk a little bit about assumptions and priorities as superintendent to the board business we're also engaged we've talked about doing classroom walkthrough construction around visits and to thank mrs. Farris for organizing those and our principals for organizing the actual school visits to date the administrative team has this fall over the last two weeks conducted almost 350 visits to the different classrooms and walls a great opportunity to view the specific areas of the release and student engagement and the setting of purpose and expectations that were looking at to see how that's being implemented there's such a nice opportunity in there as well and speak certainly mr.
Rendon today we've been on the same walkthrough team and the opportunity to connect with students and actually talk to them about what they're learning and frankly I know this is kind of silly to say but the happiness you see from the teachers and I really don't think it's an act to see the administrators in the classrooms where we all spend our time shooty spending our time in terms of the value of what's going on it's all about what happens imagine a classroom and so us spending time in there is really appreciated by the teachers as well and again not pretending to connect typically have conversations but there's there is it's been really nice almost 350 over the last couple of weeks and it will have a second round in probably February and then one in the spring as well and the other one I want to let everybody know about and I'll share a little bit later we had the new building project presentations both of Selectmen finance last night pretty good turnout a lot of communication and follow-up in terms of social media and so forth and school messages but I'll let Collette continue on that a little bit later in our meeting interestingly I want to remind the board that a couple of years ago the construction of the Shabak agricultural high school as part of region 12 was approved and all the neighboring districts will in next year be sending students going forward for agricultural education to chef Scheib operation 12 currently students go to not a locker for okay and so those students who are already enrolled in on walk will continue through their grandfather that's not a problem at all but new students so current eighth graders who want to go to agricultural education will go to debauch the I believe they broke ground either this week or next week and it's an addition to the existing high school so that should be completed and ready for the 1920s we're so the more conversation will come about that but I want to make sure you had a heads up and I did meet with Miss Bennett who's the new superintendent region 12 meeting last week about this interesting they invite mr.
bowl and our high school principal up to the podium two items that I want to let everybody know about and Mark certainly talk a little bit more detail he says some conversations and it was alluded to by joy we received the BHS 50th reunion class letter they're playing at every union for next year and looking at homecoming days for next year and the like and then also it very excited about a lot of preparation that swung into the December this coming December Nia's turn over to mark for those who a it is to share a little bit more sure I have been in contact with a gentleman graduated from the class of 69 also graduated from MIT old several several patents to his name he's quite the interesting character we've been trying to connect to email me I believe last fall so fall wondering when the homecoming 2019 game was going to be October have to slow down a little bit give me some time we'll get to it but the excitement is there because he's so connected with that particular class and so he's done a ton of work along with some other of his classmates they're actually combined as I know the board received letters correspondence there - I believe the class of 68 69 70 and me 67 there's going to be four different classes they've gone so far to find faculty they've gone to the yearbook looking to see if they can find any faculty understanding a sadly a lot would be deceased at this time but they did find a few faculty members who are actually planning on coming to the reunion you know so that's their and excited to do so so I actually got a chance to meet with Jack last week weeks ago I think it was and so we talked a little bit about planning what that's going to look like and you know they're really excited to get started we're gonna recognize the football game that night they're looking to do a local some sort of reception whether it be I think probably that Saturday homecoming to do something there myself dr.
perilla imagine swimming for the board they really like to speak do some tours we're gonna make that Friday if spirit week which is a kind of interesting day as Maggie talked about that Friday blue and gold week we're gonna bring them in anybody that's willing to come come in and get a bit of tours in the building and see classes it's kind of see modern day 50 years later looks like we're gonna make a big event of it that day including the pep rally we're gonna recognize them so we're really gonna celebrate you know 50 50 years his Jack's father was there's a plaque there's several plaque from the building but in 1967 there's a plaque his father was a superintendent or on the board some at some point in Thomas we've actually found the plaque the other day was his dad's name on it from 1967 he was to the board which one it was but we're really excited to help them out and so it's gonna be interesting process homecoming date I thought I'd have it by now we don't have it now with a principals meeting next week or decide our league affiliations for next fall we play against hopefully not North Haven again because they did beat us last week but HR to see if we can find any records of current addresses or contact information for any former employees to see if we can get them invited so that's a great an interesting process I'm looking forward to it for next year context right there second thing that dr.
burrows doesn't talk about is Annie ask you'll see a lot of stress eating coming my way as I come up here for the next month and a half as we get ready for the descending of these sixteen people from all over the state and actually one for Massachusetts as well as they come here December 2nd through the 5th one of the requirements that we're looking to do is that first Sunday December 2nd there's going to be a kind of an afternoon reception so the the visiting team will come to the local hotel that we booked for them they'll meet there initially then they'll come to the high school a Sunday afternoon at that point in time they'll do various activities they'll talk to they'll be at a panel presentation done in the auditorium a combination of students and faculty will do a panel presentation then there's meeting with parents they'd like to talk with a part of Education members I don't have a firm date yet excuse me time yet so what that's going to look like I'm also very aware of some of the issues that could go along with that our visiting chair her name is linda van Wagner she was a local superintendent in I believe region 15 I believe she was for a while or I can't remember exactly where she was she was a superintendent in Connecticut she's gonna be the chair of our visiting committee and she's meeting with John and myself and the rest of steering committee next week so hopefully has some more details specifically as to what times we're looking for and then some of those things about you know the board meeting if you all get together and I remember this from our board retreats are we talking a quorum is a support meeting now so we have to be very aware of those sorts of procedures and rules to make sure we're in compliance with everything we need to do the role of the visiting committee when they come in these 16 different people is to really take a look at our self-study the work that we've done for the past year and a half evaluating seven different dimensions from core values and beliefs and learning expectations curriculum instruction assessment school culture leadership school resources and for learning and community resources seven standards we've written reports we've collected data we identify strengths and needs and weaknesses things you do get better they're gonna get that reported about a month before those sixteen visiting committee members they're gonna be assigned to a standard and they're gonna be reading it before they come and when they come on that Sunday they dive right in and the goal is for them to come to the school for those next four days and validate the self-study that we had they're gonna look to see is this actually happening you know what's going on what can be commended for what are some recommendations of things that we can do to make it better and that's an every ten year process so it's a pretty intensive four days you'll see a very stressed staff I think the part of our most stressed about that Sunday afternoon the visiting chair will pick I believe is 32 different teachers and ask them to come and have a one-on-one conversation with a committee member where they bring their student work and talk about their courses and what they do that starts right on Sunday the parents can animal talk is it's quite an experience be more confident to give you some more specific details as far as timing for the responsibilities for the board hopefully everything would lend to next week a better idea this is they're only doing business 2019 2018 and 2019 then after that they stop their 10-year cycle of doing this and they're coming to a more shorter every few years cycle because they find us more valuable this is constant revision and taking a look at what you do rather than every ten years and so the financial burden that goes along with that you know the board was able to approve a significant amount of money you think about single hotel rooms and what it's going to cost for three nights for 16 single hotel rooms that alone is a pretty expensive cost so they're looking to change some of those expectations moving forward but this will be my staff will cannot wait till Wednesday December 5th at 2:30 when the presentation is over from the visiting committee and a resounding sheer comes from the crowd as the visiting committee walks out everybody cheers and part of that I've been on both sides Belford when we were visited and we shared as soon as they left and then when I was on a visiting committee and half asleep walking out so good question so what they'll do is they'll they'll actually over the course of those four days believe it or not each of those committee members they usually paired up in a team of two they actually write you know when I was there I think are reported of being something like fifteen pages you write it over the course of four days you don't sleep much as a visiting team member and you write a full report that Wednesday afternoon the committee chair will give a kind of general overview not gonna give you specific details as to their actual report compared to our self-study things they found that well the things they think they're probably right after that the chair of the committee actually has takes time it goes through Anne Rice 3s most full report will send edits to me you know so I get a chance to preview it it takes a couple months for that to happen then it goes out to their editors it comes back and then once I have the final report from them then that's when I share with the board and the community so it does take a couple months for that to happen a review process for her to write it for me to make sure there's nothing that they missed and give feedback on that which is a nice it's a very collaborative process which is which I appreciate so in case there's some feedback on it and then I imagined by probably before the school years out will have that final report on from the Commission I'm just curious about how do you work with the faculty to get ready for something like what does the process look like when did you start how you engage everybody well this this process they're able to push back the ESP to actually be accredited last year December 2017 we're supposed to be they look for volunteer schools to push back because of all the transitions that it happened in the district I think they gladly didn't have enough people to these schools that are on cycle to get value anyway so we gladly said well we'll take that extension and so really since I've been here my first year we didn't do a much work second year we started the process of getting people ready and then really the bulk of last year our time spent doing the self-study we spend time with teachers and faculty meetings we talked about the process so it looks like we do our best to alleviate all kinds of fears that they may have what this looks like we've had enough committee enough staff who have been out on business to themselves that they can really share what it's like is the teacher to come in and be observed because not only will they have those interviews on Sunday they come back to school for three straight days so you know they will set them off the student shadows so they may shadow Maddie I might say Maddie you're gonna follow you through three of your classes you'll see the other classes that she's nervous and it's that part with students is really valuable because you know not that you know staff posts they're certainly their best foot forward right when we have these conversations but we know if you really want to talk to the kids and and you'll tell them exactly what's really happening on the building so you know we do our best we got enough experience to the staff that they've been to these visits and try to prepare the teachers as much as possible with possible questions that might be asked we're in the process right now collecting sample student work so they're gonna have a heaviness box represents different courses different levels and different rates and that's one of the things we're working on right now getting a thank you and then Thank You mr.
Lana and the last thing I have is just to share with Ward in my position as the president in the Western Tennis Association here in this neck was we have a we called a meeting of the legislators that are up for election candidates and we're having a meeting on Tuesday morning over to Dan very high school up there black black box there we really want to share the the work the leading work we're doing in our area with the regional efficiencies group and the work we're doing on a show share with them the good of the work we're trying to save the special education transportation recently in technology the collaborate work we're doing with data privacy but also the data privacy some of the other unfunded mandates we want to share with them what unfunded mandates mean and what they actually do to us with specific examples because there is legislation out there and talk is legislation there's proposals out there that may be home legislations about forced regionalization and we want to explain to them in context that we already do this and it works well and to be very careful when legislation is crafted people do not always think of the they certainly don't think of the unintended consequences has today and the layers of bureaucracy and actual costs that was on some things aren't funded say we had that meeting for at nine o'clock on Tuesday morning over Danvers just wanted to let you know we're working on that and that is all I have does anybody have any questions gosh all right so can any reports we have facilities first that would like to mention Porter should be table that the next time so mr.
Caldwell gave us an update on the HVAC unit the cost of the project most likely exceed $200,000 he'll be meeting with two contractors a structural engineer to determine if any additional work needs to be done to support this unit dr. storm damage update that was Kunia roof repairs are complete the contractor did have to return a couple of times to fix some leaks we review this cool-dude work order report we discussed energy conservation project options and decided to revisit the study done by Honeywell two years ago mr. Cole also updated us on the status of the search to fill the maintenance mechanic vacancy and some ongoing projects that are continuing are the high school parking lot wine painting the bleacher inspections gym equipment high school press box senator school playground equipment with senior portables and the bus company building roof if the kappa buzz project to cover the excess cost probably not okay do we have plan blank for it is - I think we need to see we need to see how much it is first and we're still working and we don't have the final report from the structural engineer yet okay because then you know what our options are okay yes thank you thank you many other questions okay yes hey so Finance Committee met on October 9th and it was actually a relatively brief meeting we went through the August financial report it's still early in the year but we are seeing some underruns in the salary line because some TANF it's there and we got an update on some of the special ed costs that actually transportation is start we had an overrun the last time we looked at it and that's actually diminishing we're still over but it's less than we thought because of the work of regional so that was a good discussion we asked mr.
post if each month long.we did it he would give us a summary of the big pluses and the minuses so we're gonna start with situating that starting in this coming month so we'll be able as we get start going through the year we'll have at least the big changes and gonna be able to talk about that more explicitly here but overall the financial the we're actually I believe we will have an opportunity to talk about sending on you know because of the underruns some sending on some things but maybe not as so that's good there's no issues we got an update on sales tax and if you remember we had a member of the public bringing to our attention a lot of information on sales tax and applicability that was good because we actually found a couple of instances and we're working on how we're redoing the in particular the yearbooks and any other items that are above the club levels for tax so but yearbooks is the single biggest one that and that may be actually changing how we sell your books instead of having us do the sales tax and collect it and a lot of school districts do that we also reviewed a couple of small funds that are related to the schools that are old not very actively used and there are things that in our budget deliberations over the last couple years we've been wanting to get all of that into our one general fund well there's two that we made a decision to go ahead and cancel out the fund I think there's a plus and one and a minus and another and it'll actually help us so that's actually another chunk of positive news albeit small but can we'll need to bring as specifically a budget change because anything that did flow through that will now have revenues and expenses in our budget so we'll have to do a PLUS loan right applause on expenses to appropriately capture that and we agreed to review that in our December meeting and bring it to the board so that's coming we finally we we talked about a special education and particular around Medicaid reimbursement and if you all recall we have an initiative to start being able to get some Medicaid reimbursement for our special education costs and there's been some meetings with different parents groups and you can't insist that's against the against the rules to insist by communicating well what we're trying to do those meetings what we're trying to do here actually getting some people signed up to allow us to do those Medicaid reimbursements it's a good thing for the district so you know if your parents are out there listening we urge you to help because it helps you know us provide as much service as we can at the lowest possible cost good and but we're that's still perhaps our biggest budget risk at this point as our budget become much more clear in the next couple of months when we start getting the paints were services that are being mined in september/october because we can get a lot of consent for but they're not and the only other thing we talked about was the what was on the agenda as a budget assumptions document so we'll defer that while we get there so any questions Thank You recommend a motion that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended resignations second okay all in favor I proposed okay old business owner we met as dr.
dubrow had mentioned for the presentation yesterday at seven o'clock a school project to the Board of Selectmen and Finance I want to thank everybody that worked so hard to bring it to that point and worked with a presentation last night there was a lot of long hours put into that it's appreciated I also wanted to shout out to the BHS Honor Society and Key Club for providing the city services last night that was appreciated and I know a lot of people wouldn't have been able to make it without that following the presentation the the email address went live as far as the address that people can mail in and ask questions that is new school project at Brookfield PS dot org we also posted the presentation online starting our email Q&A because all of the questions that people ask will the answer and then post it to the website we are going through all of the questions asked last night by both board members and by the public there were some really great questions that we're asking I think some very valuable answers given so I've just finished compiling all those or fact checking to make sure it's all there now we're gonna start the Q&A by posting all of the questions that were asked last corresponding answers as well next step forward on this will be the Board of Selectmen meeting on November 5th where they will be deliberating the Smith School proposal should they approve it it moves to the Board of Finance they will start their deliberation the November 14th meeting although it made it clear that it's extremely unlikely that they will call about that right they want a lot of time it's a it's a big project it is a big commitment a lot of material we're going to be providing them with a lot of material prior to that decision once that is hopefully approved by the Board of Finance then we would set a referendum date preferably early spring we're looking towards March do you think that the confident that we will meet March yes do you mean will they approve it it would have to be a position yeah yes we have to be approved 45 days I believe yes their their goal would be five years well so are they planning on calling special meetings or regular meeting signs I think we've depended upon where they're at their deliberations discussions as to why they would call social media or not and one of the other things that was that there wasn't the full financial plan that was I think some of the word ever is exerted when do you anticipate that that's going to be in a folder given to every Board of Finance member within the next few days they are going to have it there's a lot of detail there that we just thought giving it at the special public there just wasn't germane to the conversation they'll have it in their hands probably the next couple of days I believe and the last thing I wanted to say was a huge thank you because I think you did an amazing job sort of taking all of our sort of beliefs and passions for this project and sort of compiling it into a really really easy to understand and it's easy to do when you believe in it so passionately I have taken that presentation and we distilled it down into some bullets a narrative points that I think we might distribute to everyone here even just to have some type points to it so hopefully if you should all be sending that out within the next day you're sorry the real detail Colette that or finance numbers in or a selectman knee is the compilation of the town and schools 10 year capital improvement plans and how that all fits and where the gives and takes are you know so if center school is closed and if focal Barre is demolished what does that look like versus you know renovate is new and what does it look over the next four years while we're waiting that projects a lot of those kind of questions so the detect item project part of it was the building condition study for the school buildings and so that all those those figures and numbers and projecting out bonding and so forth is really important to the decision making process and a lot of us I'm going to be having theirs to let everybody know that decided thought this is maybe a little premature but since I agree with Rosa the way you described it was so succinct but yet it really hit on all the main points maybe we could think about in addition to handouts and fliers maybe creating like a short little video sort of like reminding maybe with you and John sort of talking about it or maybe with some of the visuals of the potential school in the background to second a couple of minutes long but it's something that we could use to sort of put on the website or put on face book page but it just does another way for people to hear the talking points but also maybe see visually I think people got excited when they saw the pictures of what a new school looks like weakened so that in the background with your description I think sort of sends a nice motivating tangible message that we could use that'd be great the feedback I got three moments remember one collapse when you soak right you talk about why should we do this and other were the visuals schools the first many people seen the picture of it but then they shows them what that learning environment was 80 years and 60 years and and that's the fundamental reason you know that and so this is an opportunity for our town but those are the three things that people heard the most I think that they registered on that number but it's an investment and sort of going back to a little bit about what we're I think again might be a stopping point for some people just building we still have stuff so I don't know at one point in this process or what committee is responsible for doing it but somebody should at some point start pulling in people and saying like listen let's let's say this passes that referendum what we're going to do with this space and kind of getting at least some rough numbers in terms of what is it going to cost to just maintain just bare-bones is good central office potentially put some office space in there if it's needed you know so we have to come up with some kind of plant no but yes we do have the figure as to what it would cost it will cost to maintain center school just keeping a title that number we've set as $30,000 which we actually deducted from our energy efficiency number we conservatively added twenty thousand five to make up for any contingencies that may happen maybe any unexpected repairs or something like that so we made $50,000 that will be deducted from our energy savings which is why we only reported two hundred thousand dollars energy sings but yes and that question was asked last night what do we do with it it's harder to include a budget if you don't know what it's gonna be it's sometime we do get a little bit more in right maybe producing a video I think that what we need to get us through to the referendum is sort of a comprehensive communication strategy that shows how we're going to deliver information to residents whether it's through town meetings our website our Facebook page mailings videos and I feel like you know saying yes we're putting the presentation on the website is sort of a little passive like people have to go and find it and I don't think I mean we see people don't come out to meetings they so I think to put the onus on them to go digging to find a presentation or to go through our past presentations is making a big assumption that people will take the time to do that so I'm thinking of something like maybe once a week or every other week we put something on our Facebook page like an interesting fact or a tidbit about the new school project did you know that you know we're making a fifth grade Academy did you know that we're designing an Early Learning Center did you know that the school will be set up with distinct neighborhoods so that kids don't have to cross through another neighborhood things like that I mean sort of like high-level important facts that will get people excited and will keep them excited from now till the referendum so that yeah unpack all the details so that they don't have to go digging and sifting through past presentations and lots of data and meeting minutes and things that we're very close to but the community might not be I think that's a good idea that's really digestible yes share the information in a way that's accessible digestible people could share that with others they can understand it and they can share it I mean that's the beauty of social media they read something and they say look at this they're gonna have a 5th grade academy and they're gonna have you know an enclosed courtyard with whatever I also think you can't just rely on social media either there's a lot of people who don't do that so I'm thinking you know as part of a comprehensive its how do you get something in the delis and then the Panera's and in a shop right you know you work with places where people go so that they know some basic information on a poster right or so that size that they can then say where do you go for more information and build excitement right this you know I just and are we gonna go out as one two three of us at a time and offer to go meet with community groups either neighborhood groups or organizations or like I don't since we're organized we're so focused on this meeting that was going on we got and it's got to be in parallel to the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen not after agreed now should that development of the communication plan be the responsibility of one of our one of our subcommittees or should we do that together I think we should sort of determine where that might happen and then then we can all figure out how we can participate sitting on a board of that job or is it interesting question technically it's the NBC ad-hoc committee and we haven't work on the communication plan but we certainly have the direction that we can go forward with that and so I think things like this are valuable yeah I'd love to take over I would love to have a role and I think we need as many people out talking as we can so so yeah let we'll pull something together pull everyone in I'm not sure if the communications subcommittee has discussed at all but you love to have those ideas as well and we'll go forward from there and maybe we can present it to the board and see if the board has any other ideas or suggestions that can go forward with it and then the obvious question that goes along with that is who pays for those communications how do you know how do we how do we create a video and do mailings and create posters and the mailings will come from the town we've discussed that it'll be you know it can be set up from mainly the the ad hoc committee approved by all of the boards it would go out after obviously after the Board of Finance has approved it so we have a definite referendum date that we can do it we have to be very very careful with that mailing because it can not suggest how someone should vote during the referendum at all we have to just lay out the facts it has to be cleared by council and everything else because if you do any suggestions or both then you then you really run into issues but you're referring to that one piece of mail writes out and informs people right in the forum about the project you can have you can have two pages of facts we can say what does the building gonna look like well how does it affect the taxpayers what is the date what are we could even just put everything that we had in a presentation the advantages of the new school proposal we just can't say this is why you should vote for it we can just put out the facts and that's it so it's a fine line you know we'll run it through council but but it's it's done because it's not all the time but before that right then you then you start getting into a cost implication so we'll have to examine everything yes there might be but it would but there is a huge time commitment I don't have anybody who have ever been in any kind of video production but a two-minute video can take days to make you just need to understand that isn't what you see is not what goes on behind the scenes and for every minute we spend on this project which is critically important we're not smart I as administration and not spending running the district and the other things we need to do so this is a huge undertaking and to to alleviate people from feeling they had to dig for information a very simple message was sent out to everyone on our open community list today for school message which had the actual video that was live streamed last night of the presentation the presentation itself the Facebook and the website and everything on there and on the website and the Facebook page for this project everything from two years ago when we first started this project it's archived there's anybody's really interested could could dig around but in terms of the surface things that were just recently out there right there for everybody to just click on it happen there I just want everybody to know that but Clint and I are more than happy to pursue this for sure there's no doubt about that in that regard and bring along anybody who's interested in putting fliers together and having meetings getting the word out in meetings sitting in the library as a matter of fact Thursday I'm scheduled we haven't advertised this yet because you people can't take that many emails and things that come out on them either we have to be cognizant of that I'll be at Panera with dr.
Cipolla next Thursday morning not only to talk about learning and general things that are going on here talk part of public office hours but we'll invite people if they want to talk about the building project and what's going on so we'll be there I'll try not to eat too much and I'll watch my calories yeah so said subscribe to the town wide email also get the presentation sent to them today as well which it's I think it's helpful for those that maybe are not within the school district and in for those not within the school district we get it out to Helen del Valle the social services mr. Don and they they posted on the town website and everywhere else as best we can so we do get it out there so just to be clear because I'm still a little confused is so the NBC is going to handle a larger communication strategy or should we have a parallel one for the Board of Ed in terms of our communication my assumption is that it will be handled with the NBC ad-hoc committee but I certainly think we need to take suggestions here and perhaps even duck some of it into this it's a good one to flesh out it's a good one to determine thank you I think we would have a better path forward to the next week or two because I think we can do a lot on this point as a board I will say when we did the high school edition that were at least three to five minutes so don't don't under under estimate the amount of communication we needed so we did this two referendums on that project so that book part of why there were a lot of mailings but the it is a lesson learned right this is the biggest investment the town will make in forever we've never made an investment that's large in our history and probably won't make something that's large in our foreseeable future so this is a big deal for a town like this it's a great deal for a count like this you know and the big scheme of things but there's got to be a lot of people who are going to look at it and say that's a lot of money and I just got to make sure I'm really comfortable with it and and so it's it's important to communicate in every way we can everywhere we can I agree so I don't know if the policy communications is kind of tacked on a policy committee because we thought communication start would be somewhat small now the policy parts pervading and it looks like communication part is getting kind of big but if if you guys want to send stuff my way and we can talk about it at our commune excommunications meeting next month and then I can bring compile those and kind of bring them here so that at this point meeting next time we can kind of go through them a little bit I don't know if that's what you guys want to do not just like ideas but like a little legwork behind it but yeah I don't know that's select send ideas suggestions yes eventually I think the idea would be to come up with our our communication strategy for this board so and how that can sort of dovetail into the bzees yeah yeah yeah I think that's important yeah I think that's great thank you yeah okay any other discussion these are all great points thank you everyone okay moving on to new business then we have a recommended action for a district enrollment report so dr.
Ruth okay so you have a memo that was sent in the Friday packet and then we say thank you pass on a hard copy of the second page which is a chart there was a couple of errors that I posed that we wanted to correct so what this is is the annual october 1 element report on october 1 we report our student enrollment information to this Department of Education and so therefore on following meeting we report that to the Board of Education well and our enrollment is on this chart and memo is for four years so 15 16 16 17 17 18 and this current year exactly how we're doing on the the enrollment update if you could turn to the actual chart I think it's really important for everybody to take a take a look down the chart and it goes left to right starting with center school at the top and then finishing with the number of students who are currently out placed after the high school and as you can see just year-to-year looking at 17 to 18 there are some classes where we're down 7 or 20 students and others where we're up similar 39 students were off in seventh grade for example compared to the year before again those are Bubble classes that are traveling through the big takeaway here is that there's been a lot of talk over the years that that enrollment was on a steep decline and really we're not seeing that as the case we're actually up 12 total students across the district if you look at our students who are out placed that is that number is up by 8 which matches where we work for the middle and end of last year and all the conversation we had about our special education budget you'll also notice the very bottom of the page there are three particular subgroups that we pay attention to special education English language learners and free and reduced lunch and I will in a minute be inviting both Ken and Christine to talk a little bit more in detail about two of the categories but in special education the students who we in total were up as of October 1 compared to last act over 120 students identified as needing special services in English our English language learner enrollment is up by 15 that is 15 more students who have moved in who are identified with English language learning and then free and reduced lunch you'll see a significant increase and there's an explanation very straightforward explanation to that that can could speak to around free and reduced lunch which is the qualification that's been changed by the state we were at 278 students last year and that number for free and reduced is 496 students this year which is up 218 students wishes whoa that's a doubling of where we work ken can you explain how students qualify and families all of our that sure we there's three different ways one is direct certification from the state where they have they tell us that a family qualifies another way is that if family an application that we get from the US Department of Agriculture that has set income limits for families and another number of folks in the household and what their income is and they can qualify that way and then in the spring of last year the State Department of Education declared every every child who had somebody in the household Medicaid eligible was now eligible for free or reduced lunch regardless of income requirements and that caused this a huge increase in those children eligible well can't has the floor was any questions on that just are you aware we're seeing a bigger increase than other districts on this or is everybody seen a big district similar to ours are seeing similar rise and it has led to increased participation in the lunch program also tails right that's a good thing but then speech just just as an example I can't explain what happens so we have this increase which is based on state change and requirements and so we have more therefore more participation in our food program so then can share what happened when we talk about red tape and bureaucracy and what we have to deal with we potentially get into a position where we have a separate lunch fund bank account for this and all the revenues come in there and expenses to pay out of it and we have a healthy balance in that account right now and due in large part to this increased participation we may end up with the state and declare too much money in the bank account we're supposed to have up to three months costs in a bank account so we actually have to report to the state what our strategy will be to turn on that and I think that was that was done we had healthy balance before but in large part from from this move increased our participation so increased our revenue so it's really the situation it's just important for the board and the public to know that the state makes us follow a new requirement we follow it which has a unintended consequence that then they asked us for corrective action on later that was caused by the state's original decision so this is this is the constant process that we're going through all the time frankly gets tiring but having said that I'd like to invite dr.
swallow up if there's no other questions regarding the free and reduced lunch increase to the special education enrollment increase dr. Cipolla could explain a little bit about that well dr. Paul's coming off it sure having a general question about these are they pretty much in line with what we built our budget on or were there any grades that's significant great question about and I should have said that we're a little above malong in the brooms forecastle were pretty much right with our forecast because we're rolling grades up and we really landed um pretty pretty square on kindergarten as well and as a follow up dr. Ruby with the principals are doing their class size analysis and they'll be reporting on that November 17 I think this is about where we projected it during our budget presentation question could we get a copy of the corrected enrollment report sent to us or is it because you gave that no one in our board pie or lecture course yes because our board packet has the one that is directed since then right so that could be sent that'd be great dr.
Saul I want to share a little more info and then answer any questions you have regarding our special education population so our current population is just over 14% at a 14 point - precisely that's a little bit of an increase from last year we have 20 additional students in our total count over last year it is really in line with a statewide trends a average percentage of students in special education statewide has also increased we are still below the state average of 14.5 percent but that is a trend statewide that more students are being identified with disabilities and in need of specialized services we also have a larger preschool program than last year so last year on October 1st we had six fewer preschoolers than we had this year on October 1st so we do we have an ever growing preschool program we also have a number of students are about 20 students in Brookfield who currently receive birth to three services we've received seven referrals so far that brings us to about June so we do anticipate our preschool to continue to grow throughout the year as children turn 3 we're already starting this year with a much larger preschool program than we did last year so that is part of the reason I also want to share that our staff has been working really hard to identify student learning needs and social emotional needs and that has been demonstrated in a couple ways one we're actually working on our SR VI which is our scientifically researched based intervention programs that's not special ed but it is very much connected to this we are trying to identify academic concerns and social emotional behavioral concerns and address those to give you some insight into what that looks like for special education last year between October 2nd of 2017 and June 30th of 2018 so basically after this account that we shared with you for the October 1st numbers we actually had a 105 referrals for special education and about in evaluations for initial vows first time students have been identified been referred 50 of those students qualified so we are doing a lot of evaluations to determine and to make sure we understand student needs and then we're really working hard to address those needs so that's part of the story for why there are more special education students I think it does reflect and I really want to stress I think it reflects what's happening in other communities as well are there any questions about whether district numbers well I think it is listed there I don't have those numbers changed sometimes daily so someone comes in and someone comes back at the same time but but we are in the range where you know we sort of anticipated an important thing about that number is these are students who attend school outside of Brookfield so some of them and that 31 it doesn't mean they're all attending private special education programs some of them are attending magnet programs or other regional programs but they have eight he's worse we're responsible for them and that's why they're captured in that number so it is right now in line with what we expected and did you see the growth in any particular building or was it more in special ed or is it more spread across the district so you don't have a breakdown of buildings where we see the this bubble is really our preschool age students our preschools is really at maximum capacity now we're gonna make we are we're we have a lot of plans for how we're going to make sure that all of those services are provided but to have six additional preschoolers from last year is a big deal we have one preschool classroom so we have a special education teacher we also have a regular education teacher who co teaches and and provides a lot of literacy instruction preschool students do not all attend you know they attend the year in the morning or the afternoon they don't all attend five days it's really individualized based on the students needs so our overall capacity and pre-k if you look here we have forty four current students in preschool that doesn't mean there are 44 students in that room at once we have one room and students do have schedules we do not have more than 20 students there at a time and that 44 represents the typical as well as the special ed students are just as special that students typical suits thank you well and in terms of different peers yes so typical peers actually we really need to balance that so generally if I said that if I say that there are 20 students in a classroom we we need that to be 10 typical peers and 10 students with disabilities typically so that number is a little bit more we know who we're typical peers are those students have entered there's a waiting list maybe students might leave in the middle of the year and we may have openings it's the students with disabilities that will be adding throughout the year because we are required to provide them with a free and appropriate education one-day turn 3 so student majoring 3 next week they may turn 3 the first week in June and they're both entitled to start preschool and receive those services when they turn right so that is we expect the increase in students with high ep's throughout the year thank you so for looking at almost to capacity now we probably dr.
Roe might be seeing a new pre-k teacher in the prelude it is coming okay just pray that anymore to provide all the services that our preschoolers you we're going to be seneschal need this year one of the things that we did with the help of mrs. diamond is knowing that our numbers have been increasing from year to year and annexed and knowing that we expected to have a large preschool program we actually moved one of the kindergarten classrooms from right next in preschool to another to just adjacent to other kindergarten classrooms but in a different space so we freed that space that's right next to the preschool and we were utilizing that space now to provide some individual and small-group instruction to preschool students our staff is our staff is working in that space right now so we were already sort of thinking that through because we do want to make sure that our two preschools are if we have to be school food we ever need that are going to be in the same area and we're utilizing that space now for preschool instruction thank you thanks - fall so it depends so we do generally have our three-year-olds attending in the morning in our furrows attending in the afternoon but it's more a general guideline and not a rule we do individualize and we have to make sure if we put all of our three-year-olds in the morning sometimes you wouldn't have enough service providers in the morning so we actually do have some three-year-olds coming in the afternoon and vice versa but the general rule of thumb is is three-year-olds in the morning furrows in the afternoon and then we individualize based on student need and also be Cerner our capacity or service provider schedules it's interesting I was looking not only from class to class comparison from one year to the next but also as the class matriculate so last year's first graders to this year second graders and it seems like that's it it seems like last year's first second and fifth grade is where we're getting the largest jumps in that and obviously if it's you know that it may be those moving into the community for looking at ones from this year prior are there any um grades that because of the increase student I know a lot of this increase we captured in spring time when we did an enrollment report in spring time but uh there are there any grades that are borderline as far as in grade capacity classroom capacity we're gonna really cover that in depth next meeting can has some preliminary numbers just in terms of enrollment was there anything particularly you wanted to share no fourth in second next month next month but we we don't anticipate right now based on these numbers looking at increases in the regular education classroom teachers okay thank you thank you any other questions for dr.
Breeland regards to the report okay moving along we have the preliminary budget discussion and goals okay so you have a Lisa did you pass out this yes there was a change to under operations in facilities Bob so those of you on the Finance Committee sure get rid of the old one what we talked about yes so there was a change from Friday there's six schools now under operations and facilities rather than five so I added a piece there for us to have a conversation about this evening so in preparing annually what we've done is at this at this particular meeting in October our second meeting October to prepare and really provide some guidance for for myself and the the team going into the budget development so we have a proposal for the first meeting in December is to transparently talk about assumptions going forward in the budget things that we believe in there's not much change on this first page from last year but I'd like to just walk through some of the budget assumptions under underneath the first old bullet there is to support the strategic coherence plan the board recognizes its responsibility to develop the 2019 2020 operating budget and that budget would provide sufficient appropriate resources promote continuous improvement afford us sufficient flexibility to respond to changing needs and contingencies for excuse me provide for necessary maintenance and improvement of our school facilities and it represents value in the eyes of the community and it's important that the board's operating budget do the following maintain our commitment to ensuring appropriate district and school organizational structures that support intentional implementation of our strategic plan maintains and continues to enhance established program improvements while remaining responsive to changing needs that goes right hand-in-hand with enrollment and other needs that we see that come up continues to attract and retain highly competent faculty and staff within a culture that fosters professional learning seeks to maintain board approved practices concerning class size while adjusting staffing patterns to reflect any changes in enrollment we just talked about that with pre-k provides the necessary resources to address social and emotional needs that is a big push this year is an actual professional goal of mine but also the goal of the district and especially K through 8 but along with the work at the high school that's going through provides for rigorous relevant curriculum using best practices in instruction assessment and digital learning all the curriculum design work you hear about that quite often all the work with cape and our teachers it's just amazing what's going on providing technology infrastructure and professional learning that effectively supports student success in our digital learning environment we have Eric here often and our big budget investment and all the things we're doing with technology I just complained a little bit about bureaucracy meeting all federal and state mandates including individual disability Education Act meets all funding requirements for contractual obligations including transportation contracts leases with technology and of course our union agreements our collective bargaining agreements provides funding to meet all requirements of board of education policies and practices and reflects continued and cost containment efforts including participation in the regional efficiencies group there's a lot there lots of digests but it also is reflective of what we've done over the last years in terms of assumptions similarly we've had some adjustments in what I'm putting forward as a proposal to the board in terms of our priorities as we start to think and hone our budget development for 19 and 20 you'll see in here the reoccurrence of things that we try to get through in the budget last year and we bring those back and then other areas where we need to move forward we start with curriculum assessment and instruction that's our core work as we talked about with walkthroughs and so forth and what goes on in the classroom is most important we talked about we talked about leadership and then we have another section on our operations and facilities so in terms of curriculum instruction and assessment we want to make sure we've talked about this over the years this has been an area of trying to get some real strong resources behind is establishing classroom libraries k3 that are aligned to the standards and the integration of the curriculum we are designing number two we from last year wanted to implement a world language lab at the middle school that would be a mobile lab and we weren't able to do that so we push that forward number three continue to support our faculty capacity development aligning to student assessments and teacher evaluation dia and there's a lot of professional development that goes into that we want to invest in that number four offer this is something dr.
Ruby and I have been waiting to start the planning for over the last couple of years and we want to make sure we offer a regular education summer school program to improve outcomes for our struggling learners K through 3 and we would propose and will develop a plan share with you down the road that we want to really focus on reading in the first summer that we do that we currently have extended school year for our students with special that qualify with special needs but we don't have a regular ed opportunity for our struggling learner we do have a pay-as-you-go summer school for high school students with credit recovery and so forth and that's something we do through the rescue and advance but we don't have an actual regular ed summer school for our struggling learners also number five continue to develop assessment literary of literacy of our professional staff as you know we put the assessment system in place our staff is really becoming more and more versed in that and utilizing that data more and more to plan their instruction we still need work in that area there's a lot to learn there ok never stop learning in that area continues to support a curriculum development to the the standards aligned work many of you were present to actually meet dr.