Amity Board of Education Regular Meeting - February 9, 2026

001be made only when recognized and applause is appropriate only in recognition of an individual or group honor or special presentation. Thank you for your cooperation. Please stand for the pledge. >> I 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. Number three on the agenda, approval of minutes, board of education regular meeting February 2nd, which is on page four. >> Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Patrick. >> Oh, sorry. >> Donna second. Oh, okay. Donna, I beat you to it. Uh, >> any corrections, questions? Not. Can we call the roll, please? >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss Cloud Ingram, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Dr. Kurron, >> yes.

002>> Miss Lombardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Reed, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. McDonald, >> yes. >> Dr. Ola Delay, >> yes. >> Miss Rebuse. >> Yes. >> Miss Link, >> yes. >> Miss Schustster, >> she's not on yet. >> Not on yet. >> Mr. Gump. Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Motion carries. Uh next we move to uh public comment. Uh prior to public comment, I just want to clarify uh an issue that kind of arose today. There was a posting online that the school district was planning to put in turf fields at the two middle schools. Know this came up at our last meeting. Uh this is factually incorrect. Uh the only mention of the fields at the middle schools was uh in uh possibly planning for uh the bond

003that might go in uh to the future and that's one of the areas uh of the school district that might be considered. Uh the money in there was quite large. I believe about close to 10 million and uh that's for the two fields and it was uh put in there uh just as a caution for the board of ed that uh that's probably the highest price that we'd have to pay if we did do the fields whether it was turf and that's not being considered and no one's recommended that. None of our committees have even mentioned it. Uh or even a grass field that would need all sorts of drainage and other things that go into that. So, for now, we're not dealing with the bond issue. And, uh, if anybody's here to speak in

004opposition or in favor of Turf Field, uh, come back next year and, uh, maybe we'll listen to you at that particular time. Uh, with that, uh, at this time, the board would like to invite members of the public up to the lecture for public comment. Please state your full name and address. If you are a student or under 18 years of age, please state only your first name. Each speaker will be allowed uh up to three minutes for public comment with a maximum of 20 minutes uh per meeting allocated for any one item. Speakers are reminded that presentations are to be made in a respectful manner. Personal personal issues related to students or staff are not permitted and derogatory language which aligns the character of staff members, board members and other members of the public

005is unacceptable and not in keeping with board policy and core values. Please note that as a matter of board policy, the board does not respond to public comments or questions immediately, but may discuss the subject and respond if appropriate at some time in the future. So with that uh if there's anybody here for public comment uh the podium is open and uh you are welcome go and you can see the clock uh running up there at at 3 minutes and uh we're ready to go. >> Thank you. Good evening. My name is Liam Roselle. I'm a senior here at AM Region High School and I'm here again to oppose the funding of Magic Schooly out of Class Companion and all related services. Now, I've been told that these are not grading tools and that they're

006learning tools. So, we've invented a new buzzword for it. Uh, and that they will determine feedback like one out of three, but they aren't going to determine final grades. And my response is that that distinction doesn't matter at all to me. AI in schools is morally wrong regardless of how you use it or how you phrase it. Whether you call it grading, learning, feedback, or whatever, the fundamental problem remains that we're outsourcing educational judgment to companies whose values will directly conflict with that of which we claim to teach. All of these platforms are powered by GPT4, an open AI product. OpenAI is a major contractor and donor, which provides technology used in deportations, raids, and other surveillance operations. When we fund open AI products for any purpose, we are financially supporting the separation of families,

007the targeting of immigrant communities, and potentially the harms of students in our districts. In 8th grade, I was part of the committee that piloted No Place for Hate at the middle school, and we've strayed very far from that if we're going to fund these. We can't claim to be No Place for Hate and fund exclusion. These same tools are environmental disasters. AI data centers consume about the same amount of energy as Russia and Japan, entire nations. And our s the systems for open AI that will power these programs will take 20 million gallons of water every single day for cooling. Communities near these uh data centers will face drinking water shortages, contamination of that water that they need to drink. All so that we can have learning tools instead of human connection. And I spoke

008with a lot of English teachers anonymously today, about maybe nine. And I'll tell you what they told me. They're concerned for AI and education as a learning tool. They worry that their relationships with students are going to be replaced with the feedback of an algorithm. And they're worried that their jobs are going to become obsolete as these learning tools expand. They'll worry about being complicit in supporting companies whose technology harms people. These are the experts in the building and they're telling you that this is wrong because of what it is and who it supports. It isn't an issue of individual teachers. Teachers didn't choose to fund Open AAI. Teachers didn't decide to prioritize corporate contracts. The district did that. And I don't care if these tools will never assign a single final grade. And I

009don't care how much professional development teachers get. My school is funding ICE operations. My school is funding an environmental disruption on a scale that the world has never seen. I don't care how the tool is used and I care what it represents and how it how the company profits from it. It's morally indefensible when it comes at the cost of families, the environments and our district's integrity as a top one in the state. I request that you please reconsider funding these measures at the request of AMD students. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh no clapping, please. Next person. >> My name is I'm a senior. I'm going to do something a little bit different tonight. I'm not going to talk about politics. I'm going to talk about science. And on account of we're all

010in a school, I hope we can all agree on that. >> Can you just speak up just a little? >> Okay. Yeah, of course. >> That's good. Thank you. >> Good evening all. As you're all well aware, the 2026 to 27 budget uh includes a few troubling requests and provisions regarding use of AI as an instructional tool. I'm not going to argue that AI has no useful implica applications because that would just be wrong. Um all neural networks are is uh a really very interesting math equation and I think math is useful. However, as it has been shown time and time again without fail, the use of AI in an educational setting is an unparalleledly terrible idea. Researchers at MIT found in a randomized controlled trial study that those who use AI to assist writing

011in any capacity, quote, consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. I don't think as a matter of policy we should be pushing our students to underperform. I think we should be doing the opposite. In another study by Anthropic magazine, it was found that students who study using AI performed on average 17% lower on quizzes than those who studied by hand. And I want to clarify that's about two letter grades. The notion that AI can help students in education is a myth. Furthermore, as far as I can tell, there exist no credible randomized control studies on whether AI use on the part of teachers help students. I cannot conceive of any reason we would support such a thing. There is no scientific evidence to support providing these tools. And in other professions where the trials

012have been conducted, we know that those who use AI get worse at their jobs. They lose skills. Um, now could it be possible that teaching is an outlier? Maybe. I'm not going to deny that possibility. But it is not the job of this board to undertake rash policy changes based on guesswork uh without the support of science in a way that demonstrabably hurts students. It's the job of this board to protect students. As such, I find it utterly nauseating that I add tools submitted into the budget for the next year. And I get it. Uh I'm a student, too. Makes intuitive sense to want to incorporate them. I see that just as well as you all do. Um, but what I also see is the students who come to me in the mathematics entry who

013don't know how to use how to do arithmetic without the help of chat GPT. Those same students who swear by it as a study tool but still underperform on tests. It confuses them and it frightens them. I don't think that's something we should be supporting. It would be a grave disservice and not a to pedagogical malpractice to approve a budget with which financially promagates the use of Italian education. The facts just don't line up. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Hi Erica Higgins 303 Drummond Road in Orange. I'm up here as a mom of a senior and a freshman. My senior has been accepted into a top university and I have to thank AMD for all of their hard work that they have done. I am so proud of this district. I

014am so proud of every single teacher that my son has had the opportunity to guide and mentor him. And as you guys are going into this budget season, I know that there has been some opposition. Some people saying we need a small increase. Our teachers are invaluable and I think sometimes people on this board forget that and they're worried about books and libraries and they're worried about nonsensical things. When I see that my son has overcome a lot of adversity and he has had a lot of support at this absolute district that I cannot say enough about. Take that into consideration when you are all voting for this budget. And I hope you all vote yes this time because it has been very disheartening to see as a mom that there are other parents that

015have had kids go through the district and that have are currently in the district that have voted it down. And I'd like to know why would you vote it down when your kids are going to be the ones benefiting from what's going on in this district. Our teachers need support. They need their salaries. They listen, they all need pay increase increases. I'm a daughter of a retire a daughter-in-law of a retired superintendent. My mother just retired after 53 years in public education, and I am making more than she is as a 53-year veteran teacher. To me, that's pathetic. Our teachers deserve the best of the best so they can give the best of the best for our kids. So, please, please think it through. When you guys are putting this budget together and you realize

016that a 2% margin, which is ridiculously low compared to other districts, it's actually laughable. we should be doing a lot more and we should be funding a lot more for our district and for the success of the future of our district. So, please take that into consideration and thank you all for everything that you have done for my child. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Sean May 965 Orange Center Road. I'm here tonight to ask for the board of ed to reconsider the proposed reduction to the amity 2627 budget of the full-time equivalency for the PE teacher at AMD Regional High School. I am not only a 26-year resident of Orange, I have also been a teacher at AMD since 1998 and I am also the parent of two AMD graduates. Amity Regional High

017School has always prided itself on providing an education that goes above and beyond basic state requirements and this should be no different for physical education. Over the course of my tenure, physical education has been reduced from a requirement for all grades 9 through 12 to only through 11th grade when the ninth graders were brought into the high school in 2005. Then again in 2010 with the adjustment from a straight seven period to an eight drop two schedule PE was impacted to fit into the lab period so as to provide greater opportunity for students to take electives. Each time there have been impacts to our program we have been team players and worked to maintain a continuum of programming so we are able to live our mission with our students of promoting lifelong fitness and wellness.

018We promote that philosophy through a scope and sequence that creates continuity of instruction by providing PE for 10th and 11th graders that spans the entirety of the school year. The proposed shift will not only significantly impact this mission, it will impede student elective choices with other departments such as visual and performing arts and career and technical education by separating PE from how it currently fits opposite of the science labs. Not only will this change significantly limit students ability to take to take full year electives, it will necessitate a comprehensive overhaul of our curriculum, including the need for significant summer work and payment for that work to rewrite our curriculum scope and sequence. Members of my department will have to work throughout the summer to modify the entire program to make the necessary adjustments. In short,

019a change like this is is significant and something I would have thought as a department chairperson, I would have been consulted or at least brought into an early conversation during the process so I could offer feedback and begin to prepare for a shift like this. As it stands, I was blindsided two weeks ago when I was told of this change and has sent my department into a tail spin. I I am respectfully requesting the board of ed reject this proposal of robbing Peter to pay Paul because our high school students should not have their physical activity, education, and wellness stolen from them in order to reduce one of the lowest budgets in the state even further. >> Thank you. >> Am I allowed to hand out a hand out to go along with what Eric's

020about to say? >> No. >> Okay, >> no problem. We'd be happy to talk about this and you can start the time. um anytime that the board or anyone would like to. Uh my name is Eric Rothbart. I am a health and PE teacher here at AMI. Um this is my ninth year as well my 10th um 12th year teaching. Just want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um I'm here on behalf of my colleagues um a group of professionals that have a collective range of experience from 3 5 7 10 11 12 13 and 29 and 29 years of field experience. We are passionate about health and PE. We love our work and we consistently do everything we can for the students here at AMD. I would like to start by

021highlighting something from the norms outlined outlined in the board website. Make decisions based on what's best for the collective student body of AMD region 5. Respect the professional expertise of staff. Be flexible in response to challenges. Collaboratively engage in discussions and actions. and once voted upon provide undivided support. The first line states that what we do should be what's best for students in our district. That leads us to a fundamental question here. What truly is in the best interest of our students? As Sean said, the changes currently being proposed are unclear and without our knowledge up until recently. In our professional judgment, it does not align best with our curriculum or the needs of our students. Two questions continue to resurface right now. Why is physical education being reduced here at the high school? And

022why is the schedule being proposed changed in a way that causes that reduction? Neither question has been answered to us so far. And neither answers what's best for students. These in in relation to PE, these changes would drastically change our entire 7 through 12 curriculum and instruction. While this change may add PE time uh which was requested by the community, it also takes away PE time where it's arguably needed most. Research shows that activity levels decline in children once they reach adolescence. Students aged 6 to 11 get about 88 minutes of physical activity time while students age 16 to 19 average just 26. While uh these levels fall below the recommendation from the World Health Organization of 60 minutes per day. And recently when asking students about how PE impacts their day, some students specifically

023referenced how PE is the only physical activity they get during the week. At the end of the day, the physical benefits of PE are undeniable. Healthy lifestyles get formed in our classes, which can help combat the rise of obesity now at 19% or one in five children. In addition, the physical activity in our classes, specifically our focus on cardiovascular endurance, helps to combat heart disease, which is still the number one cause of death in America. However, what stands out as the most impactful thing physical education has is the impact on students mental health. Recently, I when I asked my classes about how PE impacts their day, the students you emphasize. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Hello, Tess Shica 320 Costic Drive in Orange. I want to share my perspective on the proposal to

024reduce physical education in the high school. Excuse me. I'm an AMD alumni, class of 2020. I was a division one athlete and I am now a college coach. But my foundation didn't start in college athletics. It started in my high school gym. During my three years of year-long physical education, my PE teachers had a meaningful impact on me because PE wasn't just one semester, but an ally year class. Those teachers were able to truly get to know us. They built relationships, noticed when we were struggling, and supported us in ways that went beyond fitness. One of my PE teachers, Mr. Man, actually wrote my college recommendation letter. Not that only happened because of the relationship we developed over time. The connection I formed with him and other PE teachers weren't surface level. They were built

025through consistency and trust, and they've lasted well beyond graduation. Now, as a college coach, I now know how important it is for young adults to have already developed healthy habits. Managing stress, staying active, and maintaining routines doesn't happen by accident. For many students, physical education is the only consistent opportunity to build those skills. Not every student will become an athlete, but every student benefits from movement. Physical education supports mental health, improves focus and productivity, and teaches students how to care for their bodies in a sustainable way. Reducing PE may seem small on paper, but it has real consequences for students long-term well-being and the relationships that support them. PE isn't just about movement. It's about time, consistency, and relationships. And these are things our students deserve more of, not less. Thank you. >> Thank you.

026>> Hello. Thank you for having me. My name is Elizabeth Smolinsky and I'm an art teacher at AMSB and I am at 25 Prospect Court in Woodbridge. I'm also the parent of a sixth and fourth grader who will both attend AMD schools. I've been a teacher for 22 years and 18 of those have been at AMD. First at the high school and now at the middle school. At AMD, I've taught 12 different courses total and have experienced a multitude of schedules. In the 22 years I've taught, I've never attended a board of education meeting, I'm sorry, until now. And that's because this is the first time I felt strongly about an issue enough to do so. And that issue is the newly proposed schedule. For the first time, I'm not confident that my school district

027will best support students learning. And that includes my own children. For the past two years, I've seen some of the best student work I've ever gotten. I'm in constant contact with their team teachers during meetings, so I'm always up to date on students individual needs. and students have daily affirmation that my course is just as important as their other classes. I provide experiences like 3D art, printmaking, acrylic painting, and other methods that involve permanent setups that have been made possible by the current schedule. I truly believe that the quality of the seventh and eighth grade art classes are quite high, and that's due to the current schedule. I can't tell you how many students and their parents have said something like, "I never liked art in elementary school, but now I love it and I'm

028doing it at home in my free time." I think we're currently providing all students with experiences that are that are comparable to the past electives, which is great because many students are really leveling up as artists and surprising themselves. The new schedule means a student would have art class three times in eight school days. Maintaining momentum, meeting students needs, providing in-depth experiences, and keeping the students organized will be insurmountable. If art is an elective, there will be students who want to take it but don't get it in their schedule. This will generate nth graders who enter AMD High School with inconsistent prior knowledge in life arts. This model of dropping to or flip-flopping days may work well for the high school and I was a huge fan of it when I taught here myself at

029the high school. Plenty of AMD middle school teachers are saying this is not going to work for students and teachers. There are many special things we do at the middle school which will not be possible with the new schedule because the new schedule involves two periods dropping every day. All teachers will be unable to keep their classes aligned. Right now, we do many schoolwide, classwide, and teamwide activities and events such as salsa day, critical issues expo, whole school field trips, whole grade field trips, portrait of a graduate activities, gradu career day, presentations from the high school, in school music and theater performances, the list goes on and on. All of these things I've listed will mean that some classes will meet for less time or not at all, which will throw classes even more out

030of alignment. This will force teachers to drastically reduce the special experiences they currently create for students. The extra time gained from dropping classes will be largely spent on reviewing content. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> If not, then we move on to number five. Uh correspondence. Do we have any correspondence? >> We do. So, we had three. We had um several letters of a Woodbridge parent regarding an IEP evaluation. We had a letter concerning um from a parent in AMD Woodbridge for child safety um bus pickup. And we had a parent concern from AMD Middle School, Bethany, um regarding bathroom use. >> Thank you. And next we go to uh middle school schedule presentation. Uh just uh as a way of keeping things going in an orderly manner for board members

031if a question comes up while uh the presentation's being made please uh take make note of it and we'll wait until the uh entire presentation is done before we get to questions. >> Okay. So, appreciate the cooperation there. >> So, while they're getting that set up, just by way of um kind of sort of establishing where we are or how we got to this place, um I'd say probably three years ago, um we took some feedback from parents that they didn't like certain aspects of our middle school schedule. Um certainly, uh there was feedback from teachers that they were upset that they couldn't offer elective classes. And um definitely the people who were most responsible for building a schedule, our principles and assistant principles, all said this really isn't working. Um schedules are not developed

032at the district level. Um they're not developed by superintendent. Um they're built by schools because schools know how best to sort of structure the day around the hours that we have. Um they know how long it takes to have passing time from one class to another. they know sort of like an optimal amount of um class time or how many times we have disruptions or the other things that they they want to do. Um as an elementary principal, I'll be honest, the schedules weren't even developed by the principal. Um we told the teachers when their specials were and then within the course of the day, the classroom teachers or the grade level teachers would build the schedule. Um building a schedule is at an operational level. Um, so anyway, when they came and said the

033schedule's not working, I said to my principles, great. Go figure out and see how we can make it better. Um, I put a couple parameters in. I did say, um, you know, you may find that the schedule we have is the best one, and if it is, then we're not going to complain about it anymore because it's as good as we've got. You may go out and you may find a better schedule, which is great. If you do, I had three requests that Amity Middle School Bethany and Amity Middle School orange would have the same schedule that they wouldn't come up with two totally different ones because we are trying to build a program that has some equity across the district. The second was that if they built a new schedule, it had a 4-day

034rotation that would align with the high school. So that way we could share staff and resources um in a much more efficient manner. And the third was that they did not get a blank check and they couldn't come asking for dozens of new teachers and tons of new programs that required curriculum and remodeling of the school and all kinds of new equipment that it had to be economically within reason of what we can do as a district. I told them after that is if you can give me those things, I will support you in any way that I can. Um, and so that's sort of their those were their marching orders in 2023. And so I will turn it over to them for what they've done over the course of the last two and a

035half years. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair and the full board. Happy to be here tonight with Dr. Tracy and Mrs. Burke, and we're very pleased to give you an update of where we are um with the new middle school schedule. Um and so just building on what Dr. Buyers just said, uh the beginning vision of the scheduling work really was focused on giving our students more options and autonomy. Um, as we looked at schedules, exposing our students to a greater variety of learning experiences, better meeting the needs of the middle school learner, and preserving the team model, all the while, what Dr. Buyers just said, trying to align it to the high school schedule as well. >> Thank you. Um so again um the birth of the new schedule really came about um really down

036to three really specific concerns and the first of which is that limited flexibility. Um it was very difficult. If you have a child that needed something different like an intervention, like certain services, that child might not get their elective or their that child might not get to go to choir or might not be able to take um art. Um and the reason for that is because the schedule didn't allow it. There was only so many places that we could provide that intervention. And you know that we found is not what's always best for kids in that many of these students excel in those electives. So we're really taking the opportunity for a student who sometimes faces academic challenges and doesn't find as much success. We're taking the areas in the within the curriculum where they

037found the most success and saying we can't fit that in your schedule. um transitions. Um currently as an eight period day, um that's 27 minutes a day where students are in the hallway making transitions. So every 42 minutes students are getting up and they're moving. Um that's a significant amount of time, but that in combination with the shorter periods. Um currently our periods are down to 42. Now, that wasn't always the case, but over the course of several years, state mandates and other requirements have eroded some of that instructional time. So, now we're faced with a 42-minute period. All right? And so, assuming that students arrive on time, by the time the teacher can, you know, get everybody settled and get started, you're down closer to a 39 minute period. And teachers work really hard

038to maximize all that time. They do an awful lot of planning. Um, but if anything goes ary, they might not get to where they want at the end of that period. So things have to carry over to the to the next day. So having some extra time to really round out those lessons is going to be beneficial for students. Um, the other thing that came to my mind with shorter periods is snow days. If you have an altered schedule and we have a 90-minute delay, those periods now become 39 minutes or 38 minutes. So, that's a huge impact. the schedule we're proposing would still retain a valuable amount of instructional time even with the delay. Okay. So now when we talk about the timeline when this you know and I know Dr. Buyers and the

039timeline starts in 2023 but the real discussion started um in 2021 um and that's when um Dr. Tracy and I and members of the advisory committee met because currently at 2021 our schedules at the two middle schools were not aligned. The way we ran advisory was not aligned and our job was to come together and create or align the advisory so that students were having a similar experience in both schools. So that's really where um the focus on alignment got its seed. In 2023, we did assemble a scheduling committee made up of teachers and staff members from AC from all disciplines. Um, and really that first year was a year of learning and researching, reaching out to other DURs, learning about scheduling options, and uh, really taking a look at what best practices are and

040what other schools are doing both in the DUIR and outside of the DUI. Um in 2025 in 2024 25 um we wanted to know more about what the people in our communities felt which is when we surveyed families, students and staff. Um and then we can taking that information in conjunction with our research, we um came up with multiple models over the course of the year looking at uh different models that may be available and may be viable and we shared that work with the assistant superintendent and the superintendent um in the summer of 2025. Um then in uh or rather the summer of um in October of 2025, we brought the scheduling committee back together based on all the feedback to start narrowing down the choices. By November of 2025, uh we had built

041a consensus around um a a schedule and we moved forward with the scheduling committee and introduced it to the entire middle school staff. after which point shortly thereafter we introduced it to the board of education. This is just another view of what our decision- makingaking process was. Um again the idea of building consensus around what we finally move forward with to the superintendent was very important to the to um the committee and again wanted to keep in keeping with um Dr. virus instructions as far as the operational piece laying within the schools. So, as Miss Burke just said, um we did survey parents, students, and staff members. Um in those responses, we obviously collated the data and came up with some common themes that that showed up across the data. Um and things that came

042up out of that were things like restoring and expanding elective options prior to COVID. Um TW prior to 2020 um we had an extensive elective program that eighth graders would take during period 8. So every other day eighth graders would take electives and choose classes in things like theater and things like art and tech um and all sorts of things. Uh and during COVID we cohorted and then for the next year we went into cohorts and and over time that got lost. Um and so there was definitely a large cry to kind of from the teachers especially um and and students that knew, parents that knew um to restore those elective options for students and the new schedule does that um to maintain advisory and team based middle school structures. We've been up here and

043we've talked a lot about the team-based model in middle school, the ability for teachers to kind of restructure their time to do um you know, cooperative activities across a grade level um and to maintain that structure and to maintain our advisory, which is a period where students aren't graded. They they just take time to work with teachers and build relationships to make sure we maintain that um to ensure equitable access is a little bit about what um Mrs. Burke was touching on that there's students especially our students with um disabilities or students that have any kind of um services um they're blocked out right now of taking electives for the most part because their elective time is taken with resource room reading math um and some other kind of services to help to support them.

044So the new schedule provides us with places that it's spread out throughout the day to take students out of periods that won't impact their electives. Um obviously there was a big cry for an increase in physical activity in the middle school. Um point well taken by by Mr. Man and and the people who spoke on behalf of physical education. Um the need for physical activity for students is definitely something um that we all the idea that we all shared. Um and so this schedule again provides for that in the middle school. Um to optimize instructional time with a focus on class l class length um and passing time. Miss Burke just touched on that to break down the amount of time that students are transitioning. Um throughout the course of a day, probably it's at

045least 12 to to 14 times a day, kids the bell rings, the kids get up, they go to another class. Um I've done it over time here in the middle school or the high school when I was here, followed a kid for a day. Um and I've done it in the middle school and followed a kid for a day. It's exhausting. Um they go through eight periods and lunch and advisory and you know an extra period at the end of the day where they can move around and get extra help. Um it's exhausting um to go through that much in a day and and to have to switch gears every 40 minutes. Um it it's it's not easy to do. This new schedule lengthens the amount of time kids are in class, reduces the amount

046of periods they'll have in a day to hopefully um bring that into a little bit better focus and provide for more balance. Um and again to align the middle school schedule with the high school. Um in a second I'll show you the next slide. Um, so if you want to do an activity with me here, if you close one eye and put a hand up in front of you, block off the last four days E through H. Um, because if you look at A through D, it'll look very familiar to a lot of people sitting in this room. It's the high school schedule. Um, it is the six drop two schedule. It follows the exact um pattern that the high school follows. Um, there's some things in here that are different time-wise. Our times aren't

047exactly lined up. Things like lunch, things like advisory, that doesn't really happen um at the same time in the high school. So, the period times are a little bit different. Um, but if you look, it gets a little complicated, and I'll show you in a second why we have two that mirror each other. Um, it's to provide for more time for kids to take electives and for more choice. Um, but those first four days, A through D. Um, and then E through H is just a mirror of A through D. And so, here's an example. This is a student that has an ensemble course. So, band or choir. And if you see the the purple band in the bottom left hand corner um and then first that first row that first column um band. So

048this student has chosen to take band. You'll see that um on a day they're in band and that same period because it's the purple period six moves up to block four on C and D days. That's just how the schedule works. And on C and D day, you'll see that they have digital media, tech, or art. They get to choose that. they get to choose which one of those courses they want to take for a semester. Um, and then Dday they have banned. And then if you go through the rotation again now start on Eday, you'll see the go back to digital media and then ban digital media. So it it allows kids to have um kind of a staggered experience, but it also allows them to have a balanced experience. If you look up

049at the yellow for for a second where it shows PE, so physical education classes. Um now in this eight-day rotation they'll have it four times um and two periods of health. So um this will provide for kids to have more time in physical education. Again remembering that the the periods are longer. So over the course of those um eight days they'll have almost four hours of physical education um coupled with some health. Now we can get creative also with health. We're working with our health educators. They're all dual certified in both physical education and in health. So, some of that time in health could also be healthy activities, things like yoga, things like um walking, things, you know, kind of using the curriculum they have in the classroom and having students use that curriculum to

050help them um have even more activities. So, um that's a student that, like I said, has band. Here's a student. We just called it an eighth grade student. It would this was a seventh grade student. We kind of look very similar. This is a student that chose to not take music. Um again, one of the things we heard from parents is that in our current schedule, if you don't take Mandarin, you must take music in our current schedule. So that was very um limited for students. It kind of really narrowed them in that you you have no choice but to take either Mandarin or music. This allows students to have other choices. So you'll see that first period. um this student in eighth grade, they have more opportunities to select even broader electives um or

051sorry, more kind of narrowed electives, more focused electives like in things like robotics, um architecture, art, and again, we're working with our technology teacher this year to start to develop electives for next year. And in the years to come, we'll work with our art teacher to develop even more um and our digital media teacher to develop more focused electives um for kids as we kind of build into the years ahead. Um but these are the courses that that kids can choose. So you'll see this this student um doesn't have any music or they might choose in the second half of the year um to pick general music. So they'll have half of a year of general music. So, if they wanted to take some um exposure to some sort of a music course, they'll still

052have the opportunity to do that and not select an ensemble class like choir and band um which is more of a performance. They have to have the winter concert or the spring concert. So, the general music class is just the general exposure of music. And again, you'll see um the physical education kind of and the health class um scattered throughout the year throughout the rotation. So, here's kind of just a a graph that shows a little bit of the difference u between what we currently have and what's going to happen in the year ahead. Um, currently we're just have kids that have to take Chinese or Spanish. And actually, um, I would put an and in between that because if you take Chinese, you're also taking Spanish right now. Um, which again, I've tried to

053do that with kids. I followed them through that. I don't know how they do that. I don't have any clue how a kid that takes Mandarin has to sit for 42 minutes every single day and listen to Spanish and then possibly the next period go to Mandarin class and learn Mandarin um right after it and then go to English class after that and learn you know learn a third language. So um it it's very challenging. So by taking the language off the team it'll allow students to have again more choice. Next year students can choose between Chinese, Spanish and French um if the budget moves forward. tech. Like I said, um right now they currently have a tech exploratory. Next year, um the seventh grader will still have that same sort of exploratory experience in

054technology, but the eighth grade gets a more expanded kind of um selection of courses to take robotics and architecture. So, they've already taken that exposure. This year, Mr. Barryian's worked the program that really exposed them to all the different areas in technology. These are the two areas that he found kids are the most um jazzed about. This is the thing they want to do. Um and so he's going to offer those two electives um in in next year for for eighth graders. Um you'll see the rest there. It's kind it's the same year to year, but those offers are going to ex expand in the years ahead. Um so um 2728 will be art and that's when the art teachers can get together and work collaboratively and start to decide yeah we want to offer

055um a course in painting or we want to offer a course in um ceramics. So, and that'll be up to their their work and their survey of students to find out what are the things that students are the most interested in. There was a a couple questions. We'll start to get into some of the questions. Um, one of the questions was, um, how many students are currently take Mandarin per grade and how would that impact Spanish class sizes? Um, and what about the impact of an additional language offering? So, um you can see here in in 2425 um and 2526 uh the numbers they they speak for themselves. Um there's 39 kids last year that took um Mandarin in the seventh grade in orange, 26 that took it in the eighth grade. While at the

056same time um this year there's 29 in Chinese in Chinese and Mandarin in the seventh grade and 42 um in in the eighth grade. One of the things to kind of keep in mind here is that those numbers are low um because it's limited. This is a teacher that's traveling between schools. So there's some contractual kind of constraints of how many kids that teacher can have and there's an overall constraint how many teacher how many kids the teacher can have split between the two middle schools. So um I guess the kind of the the larger statement is that there's not a large impact. Um it's definitely not enough um to say that we need a few one fewer teacher. It's something that um those numbers and even if we add French next year um the

057way that French will be added right now was that there'll be two sections of students that'll be added in at the seventh grade level um to about 11 or so kids per section so that those students could then move on to the next year in eighth grade and take what's the second half of French um so that when they go to high school they'll be prepared to go to French too. It's the same kind of sequence that we use for Mandarin. The two and and Spanish. The kids take the two years of Spanish in our school. They're prepared for the most part to go to high school and start in Spanish, too, if they choose. They take the two years of Mandarin in middle school, they'd be prepared to go to the high school and

058take man sp or Chinese, too, in high school. >> And I think just to add on to one other thing Dr. Tracy said, this was a question a board member asked, was it was about French. How many kids would that impact? And like Dr. Tracy said the most it would be is 22 trades less in Spanish um or or Chinese. Um and then another question was and hopefully any questions that we got we embedded throughout the presentation and then we just wanted to be explicit with a few of these but um one of the questions was can we make the schedule shift without as many headcount additions? In other words, additional FTEES. Um and the answer is yes. Um, and we don't want to um because we heard loud and clear that our kiddos really

059wanted another world language option um in their schedule. We certainly can cannot move forward with French next year and not fill that FE. Uh we would still need um and I know Dr. Buyers explained this at the beginning, but we would still absolutely need um the additional PE health teachers um in each building. And then um we just threw in on that last um bullet bullet here, but just in doing a little research around other districts in our DUR, um majority offered French and Spanish and five districts offered three or more languages um to their to their middle school kid. >> That was one of the things we really talked about both in the committee work and and saw in the survey work is that, you know, one of the main roles of a middle

060school is to help to prepare our students for the things that they're going to encounter at the high school. um having been here myself at the high school. I was here in the high school for 10 years. Um and and I see now that I'm in the middle school see the benefit of the students having exposure to these sort of things like we have students right now that have come to the high school and haven't been exposed to French at all um because we don't offer it in the middle school. Um and so to kind of broaden those and that's that goes the same for the electives to broaden those those elective courses that kids could take um will only help to prepare them for what they're going to um what they're going to encounter.

061And that's kind of when I kind of hinted to the technology course being restructured. It was restructured in a way that Mr. Barryian, our our technology teacher, um, and, um, Damian, Mr. Stratton over in Orange, worked with the high school teachers in the CT department to say, what are the things we should be exposing kids to in the middle school so they're prepared to take the broader and kind of deeper dive when they get to the high school. So, um, the same kind of goes for this language. Um so a timeline um for implementation um by February 10th the level recommendations for students um entering eighth grade are due um by the 27th. Language preferences um life arts preferences for eighth grade. So, the eighth grade preferences will be um taken into consideration and whether

062or not students are choosing to take an ensemble course. Um by March 27th, the seventh grade will start to put in their their information. On March 4th, I have a meeting with um the incoming seventh graders. I meet with their parents. I show them um you know what they're doing. And right around that same time, I think Kathy's doing the same day. And right around that same time too, whether it's the week before or the week after, we go and we meet the principles and the school counselors go and meet with all the elementary school kids. Um we go and visit um the schools, which is pretty fun. They all raise their hands, which is neat because they don't normally do that when they get older. Um it's fun. Um by April 10th, um we

063have to start to schedule our special education students, students that need special services, and our teachers to make sure that we have their schedules correct. Um and then by August 18th, the families will have access to the schedules in Power School. Um again, like I said, sixth and seventh grade meetings are going to be happening starting um on March 4th. That's our parent orientation night at both schools. Um mid-March or so. Counselors meet with the elementary school students. Um and then in August, we have another contact with those incoming students coming in from seventh into seventh grade. We have an open house at each of the schools um where we we have a a tour, we review the schedule, students can go and open their lockers. That's a big stress in middle school. Um and

064then we have a big student gathering outside um where the students can can get to know each other, especially in in um Bethany. It's a big deal because they're coming from two different places. Um in Orange, they're coming from different elementary schools, too. But um you know, it's it's good for them to get together and start to gather as a as a class. So hopefully we were able to convey to you um the benefits of the new schedule. Um increase in instructional time across all disciplines. Um increase in choice and voice um and life arts for our seventh graders. Um our elective opportunities for our eighth grade students. Allowing for preference of world language. Maintaining the daily advisory period. Increasing time for physical activity. Um, enhancing the ability to share res resources across the district.

065That's a big one. Um, maintaining our team model, which we we really value and it's great for kids. Decreasing the need for special schedules and the number of transitions throughout the day and providing a more equitable access um to learning opportunities for all students. >> We wanted to just show you quickly here. This was um in that in the first presentation too, but kind of a timeline of what we've been doing and then kind of what we will be doing moving forward. Um so obviously those those first few I think I think the first um five or so we talked about um throughout here. These were kind of the things that helped to drive what we were doing. Um the reimagined academic success, we've gone over that last time. It's this wind block is pretty

066much the same thing as academic success with a little bit more focus on what students it's it's what I need now. It's a it's a period where students figure out what they need now and they either go get help, they get extra support, students might get extra services there and it'll again provide that time for students to get the service and not take away from their electives. Um courses in CTE this year we're starting to build those electives and then you can see as you look down these check marks where we'll be and when we'll be developing the other electives um in the other um content areas that we have in the life arts department um at school. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Dr. Bars, any other comments before we No. >>

067Okay. I'd like to open it to questions from our board members. We'll start. We'll go from side to side. So, Donna. >> Okay. So, um survey when you sent a survey out to the parents um about this and I guess that was in 25 or 24 or something like that. >> Yes. Um, can you talk about the amount of response you got and how many people it reached in the three towns and um and what was you know I wanted to know more about the results of that. >> Yes. So we sent it out via my newsletter to the to the families. So it should reach everyone that reads the newsletter. Um >> so it was in this in the newsletter >> in my newsletter. Yep. The links were in the newsletter sent out to

068the families. Um there was a separate email I think that was sent >> and then there was also a separate independent email included it in the weeks after so that parents would still see it probably for another you know three weeks or so after we sent that email. >> So it went out like three different times really from what you're saying and what were the results from that then do you have any idea of how many people responded back from that? >> Yep. So we had 69 responses which if you take in the number of students is kind of right around the 20% level which is what we would which is what would be considered a good response rate for a survey. >> Okay. So the next question I had is um so you're saying

069every um the kids are transition 27 minutes a day roughly. Okay. So how is that different now? What's what's the minutes now? If for the new schedule like how many minutes did we fix that? >> It'll be six transitions. Seven transitions at three minutes of transition. >> 21 minutes. >> 21. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, it's about six. Okay. So, just >> 27 might be. So, there's eight periods. There's seven times they're in the hallway plus advisory plus lunch. It's probably more like 10 times that they're in the hallway a day at 3 minutes. So, it's more like 30 minutes and change. classes in the new schedule about how long? >> 57 minutes. >> Okay. >> Um my other thing is that I noticed on one of the charts you were comparing um you were

070comparing um this year to next year and and the changes that's going to happen, but and you had a lot of subjects. I didn't see PE in there. >> Um can you talk about that? Like I'm confused about if we're losing PE, but everybody's now you're saying we're gaining PE. I >> We're talking about the middle school. I think that the concerns have been raised about >> is that the high school we're talking about? Oh, okay. Got it. So, all right. Good. That's good news. Okay. >> Actually, if you netted out, the number of hours that are being lost from the high school are exactly equivalent within a couple minutes to the number of hours being gained at the middle school. >> Okay. So, >> so the net is zero. >> Okay. And that's true

071for art like um art classes. How is that different with the schedule? >> It just offers more choice. Um >> so okay >> in that if a student um is musical and wants to you know focus on music and they don't really have an interest in art they can take u band and they can choose from other electives. Let's say they want um a technology elective or so they can take a technology elective um and yeah just they don't have we're not pigeonholding them saying you have to you only have one choice >> where now they set a certain time for like everyone's taking art music and so now it's >> so some kids might not have any drawing in middle school for example >> but they choose to have music instead so that's significant

072difference okay um I guess The other piece was um your staff. You said does it look like the staff in your middle school was very involved in this process? And um so how is that in terms of feedback? Are they accepting of this new schedule? Are they liking the new schedule? Like what's the feedback on the staff now that it's established and everything? >> I think it's mixed. I mean, no one likes change. Change is is tough and leading people through change is my job um and Miss Burk's job. Um and so we listen um when it comes up and I think that after we have time where we sit and we talk we have meetings um fears misconceptions and kind of um you know the fears of change usually get a lot they get

073put aside and people start to realize that there there's some benefits to this. What are the benefits to this? Um you know again with any change there's always loss. Um somebody's going to feel some sort of a loss whether it's a loss of something they love to do or a loss of the way that it used to be. Um but again I think we have to take a step back from that. Look at what's most beneficial for kids. Um and then my job is to help to lead the teachers to understand that what's most beneficial for kids might feel a little uncomfortable but we'll get used to it. Um because we've done that before >> and we fully acknowledge that no schedule is perfect. >> There is no perfect schedule. um when you have almost

074400 kids um getting perfection is impossible. But the fact that, you know, when we talk about the changes in education and the kinds of demands kids were asking or putting on on students, um it did require a serious look at how they're spending their day and are is there an investment or a change that needs to be made to really meet the needs of um the way students are learning and the options students have today? this schedule that we're talking about has been around a very long time. >> A very long time. >> To say it's >> so I was one of the people who's been pushing for years saying, "Well, when are we when is this change coming?" Um, but I come into this meeting and I have representatives of two of our three

075pillars saying that we're making a mistake. And we always I I every time I come into these meetings I say trust the experts and I'm concerned that we did a really great survey in the beginning and we maybe didn't circle back to the people who have to implement it and say how is this going to impact our our students? What did we miss? Because we are all imperfect and no schedule is perfect. No person is perfect and I'm very concerned that we are going to have some unintended consequences right now. AMSB is an I mean can we is amazing school. Were we top five in the state last year and we're making a change that may hurt it. And so I'm concerned that do we have a plan to go back to teachers and say

076maybe we need to tweak this. you know, art, for example, saying, you know, not being able to do a deep dive into the topics that we're that we're seeing. Uh, and this is just two of our we got the feedback from from tech, from all the other teachers and said, what do we think about this? What do we need to do? What did we miss? Um, and that's a concern. So, is there is there what's the feedback that we're getting? >> Again, it is mixed. Um I think that you know ch again to Jason's point change is difficult. Um and there there may be unintended consequences but with any major change that's to be expected. Um >> I mean to be on ultimately once we broke down all of the feedback from the families the

077things that we wanted to do and then my big you cannot make this too expensive. there were really only two viable schedules that we could come up with um that wouldn't require an addition of at least six teachers. So, we sort of went with those two schedules. This one requiring the addition of three teachers, um which is already a big ask. And we brought those back to the scheduling committee. They met for a long time looking at pros and cons of both of those and unanimously said this is the one that's going to fit the needs that we all identified and the thing and accomplishes more of the things that we wanted to accomplish than option number two. Um and they yeah they and and they they we made we asked them to poke the

078holes in it. You know what did we not see? What are we forgetting? which they did and then we sort of made some of those tweaks and adjustments because they're the ones who were living it. But we spent a good half day with them doing exactly that. But again, I I don't want to make it sound like we had a whole lot of choices um when we started to get down to cost. There were really only a couple of options that were not going to be, you know, sort of off the charts. We well we all want whenever we think about you know getting our three wishes we always think that it's the benefit but we don't think about the cost and and you said maybe our schedule as is is better than what we're

079putting in. And I and I I I almost wonder should we look at asking the staff would you rather is this better? Is it better? >> That kind of was option two. >> Yeah. Okay. Option two was was a very small change right on what we currently have. >> But I think the the kind of again to be very candid, the mask off moment is we're underserving a a group of students that aren't getting electives. They're not getting a choice to be exposed to anything. Um and I think we really need to take a good look at our our heart about that. That and that's kind of where I am. I think I mean you people that know me know me well enough to know I lead with my heart. That's what I what I

080do. Um, and I've done that since I've stepped foot in this district 18 years ago. Um, and the option to stay the way we are right now to me is to me personally is not an option because there's a group of students that get nothing out of it. They don't get a language. They don't get an elective. They don't get to go to band. Um, they don't get to have fun. Um, so I I agree with you Pat that that Amy Bethany I love it. It's I waited 10 years to get back to that school. um only that school. Um and there's a lot of reasons why. Um and I think we really need to take a look at that and that's why, you know, I'm I'm willing to step out on a limb and

081and make this change. Um and yeah, there there could be things that we are unforeseen pitfalls. I was here when we went from the straight seven to to the drop six, the drop two schedule. I built the first schedule at the high school um in that schedule and there were things that we did not see and I went back to John Brady with my hat in my hand and said we you know need to kind of come up with we added biolabs also that year and said well we made a mistake we need another bio teacher and we had to find the money to do it um but it was the right thing to do because we were adding biology labs and we were expanding offerings for kids and we were going to the new

082schedule so um I was there I built that first schedule so yeah are there some is there something we don't know right now I yes I guarantee it but this is the best you know that we we can do and I think it's it's the right direction. >> Thank you Megan. Next >> um I have a couple questions and just wanted to start with a comment one in the timeline process I guess just kind of sharing some of the sentiments that we heard earlier tonight is I think the board asked for this presentation tonight because we didn't feel we had been presented to about the middle school schedule. I know it was included on the timeline, but just so everyone is aware, that was part of a budget overview presentation where like 12 different departments

083presented over the course of five or 10 minutes and the board didn't get to ask any or at all questions. Um, so this is a much more substantive presentation and it came out of the fact that this shift was going to add significant headcount and is a big driver of the budget this year. So we wanted to better understand it and kind of help potentially you guys think through different options and alternatives. Um my first question is I know it was news to me at the last board of ed meeting about the fact that academic success is the same period for everyone right now really stretches special ed resources thin because everybody needs services at the same time. um as a suggestion, could a potential interim solution or we talked at the AFC meeting about

084is there a way to kind of like step implement this like is a potential solution to make that part of the rotation so every team isn't having it at the same time and then you effectively I think maybe have this win solution at different times and everybody isn't looking for resources at the same time. Yeah, that that's in the new schedule. That it is when is staggered throughout the day. >> I I understand that, but I'm saying like you don't have to change the schedule to do that. You could just make it part of the rotation that it isn't right now, right? There isn't a period right now. >> No, there there's academic success at the end of every day right now. >> Period. Because it's switched with an elective. >> Not today. Not My

085kids have academic success every single day. >> It's at the end of the day every day. mixed with >> it was which was an elective prior to co. >> Okay, >> that's maybe what thinking about >> but just a suggestion as a potentially it achieved some of the goals without ne necessarily necessitating costing things at the high school and requiring a significant number of FTE additions. Um, and I'm curious if the delelling that was implemented this year, did that increase the limitation of the group of students not being able to access services and having to lose out on their electives? >> I wouldn't think it well. I think it would actually give us more places to put kids. >> Okay. >> And and and be able to spread them out more. It it added more

086flexibility to the schedule. Okay. >> Um, and we still run into it with with math because math is does limit us. Um, but yeah, opening it up and and deleveling across the board helped to kind of add more flexibility where we could put kids. >> And then can you go to the slide with the Spanish headcount or the language headcount? So if we just look at for example AMSO grade 7 right now, so right now all kids who take Mandarin also have to take Spanish. So if we transition effectively if say we put the new schedule in place this year you're you would immediately lose 39 kids from Spanish. Correct. So you'd go from not necessarily because we don't know if they're taking it because they dislike music that much that they take it by

087default or if they're taking it because they really want to take Mandarin. >> Gotcha. Okay. It also could be higher. That was going to be my comment. That was my thought is that it lose half the kids >> to the other two. Right. >> Sorry, I just figured rather than have a second. >> I I had the same I had the exact same thought which is that right now if kids aren't given a language choice essentially they're given a opt out of music potentially. Um so the Chinese number might go up and then if you add French I'm just looking at there's 170 kids in Spanish right now in seventh grade. Let's assume all 40 or 39 leave. Now you're down to 131. Then you add French and you're saying roughly maybe 20 kids might

088take French. So you're down to 110. There's two Spanish teachers in seventh grade. How many sections do they teach? >> They would teach five >> each. >> Yes. >> So you're talking 11 10 to 11 kids in a class. Like is that normal for world language? No. And and and so I think at that but you know and certainly I think there would be opportunity for reductions via attrition as we see but right now not knowing kind of the reason behind why kids take the Mandarin and not knowing where the interest level for French will be. I mean, we could be having a totally different conversation three years from now where we need to add Mandarin and French teachers and reduce Spanish because there's a balance in choice, but we don't have >> those options.

089And I think until we have those options, we don't know how it plays out. So I guess again kind of as a potential like rather than do this all at once, especially given there seems to be a lot of objection from groups that you want buyin from um not least of which are staff that maybe the answer is you just pull language out and give the choice. you see where the first phase of impact is before we add more FTEES and another option and then you don't have to take away from the high school this year. You can start to see kind of how this sh where the impacts from this shift are. So rather like ripping off a band-aid and doing it all at once like are there options to leg into it to

090gain more data to make more informed decisions I guess is kind of where I'm going with it. And and I would say yes, there's always options, but right, I mean, you just sat through AFC, it's not even clear how many FTEEs are palatable, >> right? >> And so without that, we can't make clear decisions until we know how many FTEEs in the budget are actually going to be palatable by the towns and by the board. Once we have that, then we know what options we have to work with. >> Okay. uh Dana and then Donna. >> I just want to understand too because I had a gym kid. So I don't want to see Jim be affected. I also had an IEP kid who I from what I remember when you say you're you're not

091serving a group. Is it the IEP kids? Because I remember him being able to take his electives in middle school. He didn't take a language because that was not an option. And some kids with IEPs really shouldn't can't take electives, but this is a side note. He has to take a language in college. And so what's offered to him is sign language, which is so much better for a kid with an IEP. So I just want to understand because I do remember I can't tell you verbatimly but I remember him being able to take I know he took gym because he would have protested and I really feel like he took art and music. So is it just the language that these kids can't take when because of the current schedule? Again, I don't I

092don't really I don't know particulars of of your you know his situation, but some students are um out taken out of language via their IEP or the PBT meeting the process. Um, but there's also students that aren't. Um, and when they aren't, because it's right now it's not elective. Right now it's part of the core. It's part of the five core classes that kids take. Um, and so when it's a core, that's the last thing if and it's not taken out during a PPT meeting, then it's mandatory. And then the things that get taken from those students, that group, that's the group I was talking about, they lose their electives. >> And it also depends on the level of service that they're getting. How many, you know, how many different teachers they have to see

093to get to meet the requirements in the IE and how many times a week >> that's the only thing too I mean maybe I'm not a good >> it's very individual >> right very individual >> you know and our situation might have been unique but he had no problem getting help in academic success we would talk about it the night before this is what I'm going to do in academic success success tomorrow and he would get it done so I don't know what's changed but he had no problem with it and then transition over to the high school He had his study halls and he got his help in the study halls. He never had to miss, you know, other than the language, but that was we took that out because it wasn't a good

094option for him. So, I just want to understand was there a big change that these kids are not able to get. Are they still taking like Jim Middle School? >> Okay, Donna. >> And I have Carol online, too. So, we're going to get uh people going to try and finish up within like 10 or 15 minutes. So for those of for those of us who have children in middle school, three gone through the middle school, one currently in the middle school, um there's eight periods now you're asking to drop two. It greatly impacts from what I see that kids aren't getting math every day. They're not getting world language every day. They're not getting instruction every day, which I not sure if it's really age appropriate in attention span to increase the class time from

09542 to 57 minutes. But so like Patrick, I have been waiting for this schedule. I've heard all about it. We're going to revamp the middle school schedule because our middle school currently has a junior high model. We're going to go to more of a middle school model. But I'm actually seeing a high school model, not a middle school model. So it's different than what I was expecting. And I I asked for the survey data. So the results and I interpreted a little differently than you guys interpreted it, but that is something a little a little different. I do see value in feedback from stakeholder uh to stakeholders. I also agree change is hard, but I'm not hearing positive things. And that's why I think we should close the feedback loop and get it. And I

096like uh the idea, Megan's idea also of slow, no impact, just let's let's see what happens when we actually allow language choice, which we don't at all, which is which is very true. I I'm not sure how we're not serving uh kids who have special needs. That's um a whole other thing. From what I'm hearing, they they can get what they need and we can probably make little impact. Um I do see value in what we heard tonight in public comment. So, I have a high level of concern about the proposed changes at this point. Just in interest of time. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh after after you Carol okay >> so just wanted to follow up on what Donna was asking as well like so we were going to 57 minutes and I

097I see the point of like you know having too many disruptions people need continuity to learn but at the same time I I was wondering how the average middle school student's attention span is like do we have norms around what happens in other districts what's the average time for the for a period in this of this course >> in the research I mean it ranged depending on whether they had a block schedule or similar to what we have or a more traditional eight period day some some have nine period days um so >> period days they have >> so that's what I was trying to understand >> 81 minute classes orund you know >> 90 90 something minutes >> so there are >> it's there's variation amongst districts >> and comparable schools like ours like

098have >> there's not a lot of comparable right we'd have to we have to compare to 78 78 yes >> which really limits us um to a lot of schools and um we saw schools like for example we looked at Cheshure um they have a lot of choice a ton of choice um there's a a lot of different kids could pick different paths and so it's kind of um we took a lot from all these different schools that we looked at but um and again tried to make it so that our schedule in the middle school would be best mirror to the high schedule so that we can share resources should we need to. >> My only thought was that if the attention span is there, the gain in extra academic time is actually not

099insignificant, right? Like you're talking about 9 minutes a day, 45 minutes, which is quite significant in my mind. Uh the only counterweing force was like yeah, do kids have the capacity to sit and if they do then it's additional value. >> Well, they're not sitting. No, it's you know we have we have a we're doing a lot of things building thinking classrooms. There's a lot of new things going on in structurally in the classrooms where the teacher teaches then the kids get up and do some work together then they go back and sit down and it's so there's the days when we were taught when I was taught when a teacher stood and spoke to the class that's not really how a middle school class I mean I actually judge the success of my my

100classes when I walk by with how loud they are. If they're loud and they're talking that that's good. I want to hear loudness in middle school. And while some have said that like you know not having it every day is not I'm not entirely convinced that that is you know sometimes a little break and then you come back is actually probably healthy for learning as well like you know so I I I don't want to completely buy into that but I just was curious as to >> Thank you Carol. >> Yeah thank you Paul. Um, so am I right that I heard that this adds an extra 9 minutes to each of the periods of >> correct? >> Yes. >> No. 15. >> So I guess and then questions. >> You know, I'm wondering if

101it's developmentally appropriate for us to align the middle school schedule with the high school schedule. um you know there's a big shift from elementary school to middle school and I don't know if aligning it with the high school schedule is is necessarily the way to go. Um I also wondered how this maps the schedule shift maps to um the new curriculum that's being developed and if it aligns with current instructional strategies. Um so yeah, those are my questions. any comments? >> So, I think as far as curriculum goes, Carol, and that's a really good question. Um, we're doing a lot of work within our departments looking at scope and sequence um and looking at current curriculum and and what are the instructional shifts for um both teaching and also planning practices for teachers. So, we're

102giving a lot of collaboration and vertical alignment time um within departments. And then anything new for example um like Dr. Tracy said with um um the tech teachers, they're developing new curriculum. Um so they're keeping in mind that 57 minute block. >> Um >> yeah, physical. >> If I can just make a comment about the length of the the periods. Um and again, I know as an elementary principal, every one of my teachers K to2 had a two-hour English language arts block. Two hours. And we're talking 57 minutes. and they were all required to have a 60-minute math block. So, they can I am not concerned about the length of time for a period. It's what the teachers do within that period of time to keep kids engaged. That's the important part. But just but

103just measuring things by a length of time, it it it doesn't necessarily I I I just don't want people to think that there's something um buried in that that longer class period that somehow it's not going to be developmentally appropriate for the students when I I can say with absolute confidence coming out of the elementary schools, they are probably experiencing longer blocks of time in some of those core content areas than what we offer at the middle and high school level. but they are having it every day. To me, that's the part that I'm questioning if it's developmentally appropriate, not necessarily the block of time, but are they getting core instruction and things like math and reading every day? >> Okay. >> Uh, other questions? >> Don, >> um, it was just, um, we had

104curriculum today and our meeting ended. We were I was just getting ready to ask a question. So it's relevant to this and my qu we started talking about how French would be implemented and the curriculum being written and the understanding I heard is that we won't have a French curriculum but we'll write it as we go. Did I misunderstand that? >> Well, we actually have a French curriculum because French one already well French one is already written >> and so that teacher would work with the French teacher and we would look at that curriculum and then we would um revise >> as appropriate for the middle school >> for the middle school. So we don't have a middle school. That that was my question. So we don't have a middle school French curriculum, right? >>

105Not yet. >> And and we've done that before. We when we added digital media, remember we we added the class, but we had to break the curriculum as we were adding the class. That's not out of the ordinary once we sort of set onto the path. >> And and the nice part with French is we do have French one. We just have to figure out how to stretch it out over a two-year sequence as opposed to a single year sequence. So that was my question because the the meeting was abruptly ended. So >> and keep in mind too it would just be the seventh grade to start with. So we would just have to worry about one year to start with. Anyway, >> what would happen to eighth grade? >> We were offering French to

106eighth graders until the following year. >> They get two languages to choose from. E just clarif just just clarifying. >> Yeah. Just because of the shared staff. >> Okay. Uh anybody? All right. Uh I want to thank you. I know I learned an awful lot today. Uh on the other side of the coin, I think there more questions uh that have been raised and uh I know you guys uh are working at uh what our most important goal is to provide the best education for our students. And I'd like to uh as we go into the next um area on our agenda, uh I I'd like board members to consider uh the unique dual role that we serve in on a regional school district board of education. Uh clearly I know we all agree that

107our goal is to provide the best education possible. On the other side of the coin, uh, in doing that, we have to consider the taxpayer. Uh, I I know we get push back locally, but if you remember, we have uh our own district voting on our budget. This means that if we believe something is important, even with the push back from our local area boards of finance, uh local uh uh boards of selectmen, we believe it's most important to have those to provide outstanding education for our students. We need to hold our ground and make sure that those are places that are taken and used as they should be and give that to our voters to determine. Uh so when the vote goes to the district, even though the boards of finance may not be

108all too happy with it, it's going to be the district voters, school district voters that are ones that are determining and we have a job to convince them this is what is most important about how we educate our students. uh in talking about this budget uh I think we uh I I did did have a concern and I mentioned it at our last meeting and um I' I'd like to raise that question and a little bit of an addition to it. Uh one of our speakers today spoke about uh in addition to losing some PE time, changes that would have to be made in other areas, electives, time. Uh has all of that stuff been addressed? I assume it it it is if you brought it to us. How's that going to work? And you

109know that that's part of my question as we look at this PE problem. And uh if it works and it gives our students uh everything that they need, uh I'd feel more comfortable than just saying, "Okay, we're uh taking away these hours of PE." because I know we're a small group sitting here talking about it. But if it was uh any other subject, English, science, social studies, psychology, there would be a lot more people here saying you can't take away 18 hours. And when you're talking about 18 hours, you're not only talking about 18 hours for a whole year, you're talking about uh classes that don't meet every day. So, it's even a greater percentage of time than uh you you would think. So, that that's my question. Is there uh something being done with

110the budget to cover all of these areas? I I know I heard uh possible physical educational electives, but wouldn't that require more time and space and other things that are being done? Uh >> so, do you want me to answer? >> Yes, please. Yes. So um so we know that um some of the the biggest changes with any of this would require the curriculum writing time which Dr. Perry Carlson is already accounting for that we would need curriculum time to um to work on some of those changes. Um a couple of the other and again I think I'm just going to focus on the 10th and 11th grade PE because that's where the 18 and a half hours in question are coming from. So, um those um PE classes are stacked opposite science labs right

111now. Um and it works out for about twothirds of our kids that the science and the PE line up. Um what would happen is if we don't have if we have the PE on a semester basis, then when science labs aren't happening, there would be open spots. Um some kids would go into study hall, which they do already. Onethird of our kids already go into study hall. But what we can also do is use those open spots for students who require special education services who are taking study skills as an elective um course. Um if their IEP hours are appropriate to meeting off of the science labs, those could actually be built in in science. It works for about a third of our special education students and it would actually open up a block of

112electives for them that they haven't been able to take. So, not unlike kind of the same challenge that we faced in in the middle school schedule. Um the other option is um for some students who have interest in music um they currently um are missing opportunities for some of the ensembles and in conversations with our department chair we would be able to have students participate in ensembles during some of those offlab days that they aren't already able to access. Um, currently right now we have personal finance um, in 10th grade. Um, it's sort of where it fits in terms of scheduling. It's a semester long class. We would probably be able to loosen that up. So if you have a semester of either 10th grade PE or 11th grade PE, there could be a person,

113we could put personal finance opposite it in either of those years, which would open students up to some more elective opportunities there. Um, I haven't flushed this one through yet, but if we offered the PE for upper grade students 11 and 12 as as a choice between grade 11 and 12, I I do not I'm not a huge proponent of putting a graduation requirement in 12th grade year in case kids mess up, but for kids who really want to have an extra block to sort of bolster their resume with additional AP classes, They could delay PE to their 12th grade year potentially and then open up an entire year-long course where they would be able to add another academic course if they are really looking to and and face it, our 11th grade kids like

114to create very nice transcript resume builders as they look at their college applications. So, there is a benefit there. Um, Mr. Hower, any other benefits that I'm not missing off the top of my head? Um, one uh odd one when we're talking about the possibility of reducing PE staffing at the high school is by going to semester classes, there's actually the possibility for those students who really do love physical education, we may be able to afford to create uh a limited number of sections, perhaps three, four, five, something like that of senior electives in fizzed. So that instead of the current uh student will get fizzed every year through junior year, we may be able to open up the option of fizzed right through senior year um with some choice electives that um we could

115develop and offer. Um overall our count on what we expect to have happen in terms of flexibility for in uh for electives for the the typical student. Now, of course, every student's schedule is a little bit different. Their needs are a little bit different, but we anticipate somewhere between a a break even on the number of elective options that they'll have to an an increase of about a half a credit of available time to take electives for for many of our students. >> And and I think it's just illustrative of the exact same challenge we just talked about with the middle school. There is no schedule that is per perfect. All the benefits that we could get from semester long PE are currently limitations in the structure we have. The time we lose by making

116PE semester long is sort of one of the things that is limiting some of those other other options. It's it's just again it's just a trade-off. There's going to be pros and cons to every single one of the decisions that we make. So, >> okay. Hold on. Jen, >> could you tell us what the price difference would be if we did PE at both? If if the middle school schedule goes forward the way that it's planned with the additional PE, but we keep what's at the high school, how much more would that cost, >> okay, in the budget? >> So, let's assume that nothing else that I have to tell you about tonight's budget happens. Um, because we have some bad news. Um, but if we were solely to um not have made that FTE

117reduction that got us to the 1.54, the budget would have been 1.71% increase over current year. >> So 2ish%. >> Yes. >> About a $200,000 increase. >> Um, no. Or 150 150 150 I think. Yeah. So $150,000. So, Jen, I had a someone uh proposed a question to me. They right now, just for clarification, um the gym at the high school, the PE class is all year and a science lab, right? and and and for about twothirds of our kids on so they have it two days a week and then the other day because remember one day drops the other day is the science lab >> and then and those who aren't in science lab are taking um study hall >> yes what I heard okay I just want to make sure I heard the

118right thing so the question was if we move to a semester course for PE I'm sorry uh then will it further limit access to fullyear honor honors AP arts and music courses because those are at a full year unless you offer everything in a semester. So we already have a a a good number of semester long classes and it would actually by putting it at the semester level open up another place where students could take those semester long courses. >> Okay. All right. I can u if they're watching they'll hear your >> Okay. Uh other questions? Jen, did you have any did you want to give us the bad news? >> Yeah. So, let So, um so this is the meeting where I'm supposed to run through the budget. Um and so I've already abbreviated

119the presentation. Any slide that you already saw last Monday, I've sort of pulled out um except a little bit to tell the story. Um, and if you remember correctly, um, all right, there we go. Um, part of the responsibility at this time of the year is to go through and review the um, achievements of the district. So, this is the part that usually takes like a good half hour. So I am going to go quickly through this so that we can get to the actual budget piece in the interest of saving time. Um but just a reminder that we have fantastic academics, lots of opportunities for AP and um courses and our honors courses. Um we know we've been increasing our dual enrollment courses and have essentially um increased that by really um went from

120about 50 kids two years ago to over 400 kids now um participating in dual enrollment. We have lots of recognition at the national level um through national merit. You guys always congratulate those students. our um AP performance, we actually continue to increase on the percentage of students who are achieving a three or higher or in the four and five band. Um we do very well at both the state and national level in academic competitions in um national exams. Um portrait of the graduate continues to become embedded in the work that we do with our POG day. Um we have lots of um different opportunities right now for steam and innovation. Um particularly through our science research program. Um many of you know about the steam day that we do in in conjunction with our elementary

121districts. Um and we certainly have excellence in our staff and our leadership team um with our teachers of the year um and the recognition that's given to our staff either from parents or from their own peers. Um 96% of our students um graduate within the four-year period. The vast majority of them head on to um college. Um most of them attending four-year schools. Um as of right now, we've had um close to um well over 3,000 applications submitted for the current class of 2026 with um uh slightly shy of 500 who are reporting admission already. Um in terms of athletics um again um higher amount of participation um in both the middle and the high school. Um we offer a wide variety of sports um and particularly at the high school level but also a

122fairly robust middle school program as well as a unified program. Um we get recognition at both the um conference level for our team performance as well as in state uh tournaments and our coaches and athletes also receive accolades across the um conferences and the state. In terms of um arts, our third pillar um we have um success at state level um competitions in the musical arts. We also do a tremendous number of district-wide performances between the middle schools and the high school. Um, our visual arts also participate in state and jured recognition and earn um honors um at both the state and national level as well as putting on community exhibitions typically at the um libraries across our three towns. And then our performing arts. Um we do offer our musicals at both middle school

123levels as well as the high school um play and musical and it continues to receive um state recognition through the son awards. Um so budget overview. Um so again your charge um by statute is to create um an estimated per pupil expenditure for the next um fiscal year. stressing that word estimate because so much of um what starts in September can change by the September that the school year um actually begins. Um when we develop the budget, we keep in mind the mission of the board as well as those three goals. Um the second one is the one that u Mr. Davis alluded to that we want to make efficient and effective use of our resources knowing that we do have taxpayers that we answer to, but at the same time we do have the

124goals to improve our instructional um programming and to foster a supportive climate for our students. Um we're also guided by our portrait of the graduate which again is kind of our beacon of what we want to develop and make sure our students leave the district with so that they can be successful whether they choose college or career as their post-secary option. Um, we're getting to the bottom. Um, so you've seen this slide before, but we are almost at the point where the board will have an adopted budget and it stops being my budget and becomes your budget. Um, which again is um something that you have to then convince our voters is what's right for the children of our district. Um, so uh this is where we stood um uh as of last Monday um

125at the 1.54% increase. Um so you can see um the difference between the current year budget and the proposed budget, what the impact is to the town and the percent increase for each of the individual towns as well as the change in revenue which um just as a reminder um is primarily coming through what we are um expecting for excess costs for special education. Um our budget um is uh very um personnel um or peopleheavy. So the salaries and benefits really um occupy about twothirds of the budget and that is all of the staff um that we employ to keep our schools um open and running for our students. Um our budget drivers again, it's contracts, its medical benefits, it's the goals of the strategic plan, the significant decline in debt service, um transportation technology,

126special education, personnel, the stable enrollment, which really doesn't allow for reductions, and then some unfunded um the potential for unfunded state mandates and uncertainty in federal revenue, although we actually um do have a better picture of that with the um approval of um the the spending package. Um, and so at our February 23rd meeting, I will have a slide ready for you about what changed in terms of federal funding. So, where we would expect to see shifts and how that might impact our budget. Um, because we really won't know until they actually give us money. Um, so in terms of contractual increases versus budget increases, so um, our contracts um, for salaries um, are going up at about 3.87% 87% um for the 2627 budget whereas the budget request is at 1.54. Um so when

127you see that um deviation it means those reductions are coming from other areas. Um health insurance this is one of the big changes. Um so we um in the budget proposal we estimated um health insurance would be 14% higher next year than it is this current year. Um when you look at the finance part of the packet, you'll see that we are running at 107% of our health insurance costs at the moment. So Brown and Brown um who came here in November is advising us and I like how they say things. It's several points higher than the current 14% estimate. What several points higher means, um Terry and I have no idea. Um so um they will have a more definitive number for us within the next say week to week and a half. So

128we'll know before February 23rd what that several points is. Um we have sort of calculated out and estimated that if it's a like a $100,000 higher that's going to um bring the budget up to about 1.75% increase. If it's $200,000 higher we're looking at 1.8 1.9. Um, so that's going to factor in to this um because it's certainly any change it's not going to be 1.54 unless we make some other changes in the budget itself um because we know that that health insurance is is likely to go to go up. So that's that was the really bad news part. Um, we do have our strategic priorities and the three that are highlighted in yellow, having a better middle school schedule, having increased opportunities for dual enrollment and then the curriculum implementation support are also driving

129personnel requests. Um, debt service is decreasing by almost 42%. So, you can see the difference between the current fiscal year and the upcoming fiscal year at the top. and 2728 is um where we would expect if we go out to bond, we would start to see the bond um debt come back on board to to this chart. So um it's this is not exactly accurate. If we um have a a bond referendum that's successful and we start some of those larger capital projects. Um transportation uh just um by way of just giving some information, it's going up at 8.36% for the next school year. Um you can see that um where our transportation costs increase the most are going to be in the special education runs and in the activity runs. Um so our contracts

130with our bus companies for just like the morning pickup and the morning or the evening afternoon drop off. Those are pretty consistent. We negotiate them with um Bethany and Woodbridge school districts. They're predictable. Um they're fixed and those are the lower percent increases. the bus companies get to set the rates um for special education runs and for the activity runs. And so we tend to see higher increases in those two areas, but overall it's um it's just shy of eight and a half%. Um technology, again, I won't belabor this, you've heard it a lot, but we do have student devices for every one of our students. Those come with the need for um the software for running um those devices. We also have our um special labs, our Prometheian or display boards like these, and

131then all of our security cameras within our technology area. Um pupil services, again, you've seen this chart from Mr. Brandt's presentation. Pupil services covers a lot. It is not just special education, but it's um it's a long list of everything that we are responsible for doing. Um our enrollment in pupil services or in special ed has been going up. Um, I know I showed this chart as part of the presentation on um, last Tuesday. Um, what's different about this chart and and the one from last week? Um, two things is one, it didn't include 504 students. Um, 504 students require um, accommodations in school, but they don't get the same type of funding from the federal um, Department of Education um, to help offset the cost of that. Um the other thing is that this

132only runs through 25 26. So if you remember from last week, we actually have a big spike of students coming in the 26 27 year in special education. So this chart looks a little more flat, I would say, than the one that I showed last week that really just looks at special ed students and adds the increase for the upcoming fiscal year. Um there are a couple things within pupil services that um we have to have and we don't really have any control over them. Um like I mentioned transportation is a huge cost within um pupil services and you can see that the average percent increase is going up from 7 and 12 to 15 and a half% for the next year. Tuition for out of district placements also has a significant um uh increase

133um from about four to 14%. And then um we do have to maintain the staff that we have um whether it's our special education teachers, our school psychologists, our parah educators. We need those because they are in students IEPs and provide the services that we are legally obligated to provide. Their contractual increases are much more reasonable. Those are the contracts we negotiate, but they still drive an increase in the pupil service budget. Overall, the pupil service budget is going up about 2.95%. Um, so it's not quite as bad as transportation, but it still is an increase and it's above the 1.54 that summarizes the total budget. Um, there's a lot of fiscal uncertainty in pupil services. Um, we never know our final excess cost reimbursement rate. Uh, we have no idea what the state will

134ultimately give us and we sometimes have to adjust as a result. Um, we always seem to face new legislation on July 1. Um, reductions to IDA grant funding. Um, so actually maybe this is better. Um, it's not clear. Um, from a federal level it looks like they're increasing idea funding. However, when they allocate it out to the state, it just goes to the state and then the state decides how to allocate it to the districts. Um, case in point, this year we had more special education students, but the state gave us less money. Um so it just because we get more from the federal government doesn't necessarily translate to more from the dis for the district. Um we do have um variability with the 27 students who are outplaced. Their costs can shift wildly. Um

135they may not go to the outplacement and now we have a savings of $200,000 or the outplacement may need to add additional staff to support them and now we have a cost an additional cost of $150,000. So, lots of variability there. Um, students moving, um, outplacements coming from the elementary school that we aren't expecting. And then homelessness also are all, um, unknowns, um, when we build this budget. Um, the personnel fiscal impact, at least as of right now in the 1.54% budget, um, is one additional health and PE teacher. That is, assuming we reassign somebody from the high school and make the scheduling changes. uh one world language teacher that we would share between the middle schools. Um the contracted seed certified nursing assistant program which again isn't necessarily adding an FTE but we do

136need to work with an outside company who can provide that instruction and make sure our students take and pass the exam and then the STEM instructional coach. Um those are all directly related to the strategic plan. Um we also have the additional special education teacher because of the increased enrollment in our sales program. And then the two um assistant uh coaches in our athletic program. Um we have to develop five-year plans so that way we don't have wild fluctuations in our budget. So we have those for technology. Um we also have those for textbooks. I will just point out that um we actually have a lower textbook number in the 2627 budget. In 2728 we run out of a lot of our digital um subscriptions and so I expect to see a bigger increase in

137that textbook line. We haven't quite because they're all expiring at the same time and these are our resources for social studies and science. we don't really see a way of avoiding a spike in that year um when those when those subscriptions end. So that's just kind of a a harbinger of the future um so to speak. Um we have a capital improvement plan. So that's going to look out at um five years worth of possible projects. Some of those projects are in the operating budget. Some of those we've already designated our um reserve educational fund to address. Um and then we also are anticipating going out to bond in 2027. Um most critical on this list are going to be the HVAC replacement and the roof replacements at the middle schools. Um, I also think

138that the um PA and lockdown system at the high school um is probably another um safety and security um feature that um is is fairly critical um for the work that we have to do um in terms of the bond referendum because um Mr. Davis addressed it earlier and um I know that um some board members have received questions about it. um we are at step one and so um as part of building the budget we have to make a three-year forecast of what the budgets will look like and the only way to do that with the bond is to create an anticipated bond. Um so that is what the um principles and Miss Lumis and Mr. Marton and our directors have done. We haven't done anything else to move any of the other any

139of the other process forward. So the facilities committee still has to meet and talk about those projects. We have to identify what we might want to include in operational funds or in the um use the reserve fund for. Um whatever the facilities committee recommends, they still have to have approval by the board. The finance committee has to approve it because it's financial connected to the bond. Then we have the building committee who has to still create and oversee everything. Then the board has to approve everything. the building committee um decides on and then ultimately it goes to referendum. So any sort of talk that we have somehow already have projects rolling or in place um just again we're at step one. We just needed to have a list that we could start to operate off

140of as we created three-year forecasts. Um a reminder we can set aside up to 2% for the educational expenses. Um and so that is our notice for next year. Initial budget requests again we came in at 2.97%. Um it was probably one of the lowest in the state right out the gate because of the decrease in debt service. But we have continue to try to whittle away at that through our conversations with our administrators and our staff. Um also looking for other savings by um things we do with our towns like when we do our fuel bids. Um and ultimately have cut about $830,000 from those initial budget requests. um average daily membership drives the budgets. So you can see the shifts um in enrollment that are um sort of um impacting the change to

141the towns themselves. And again, that brings us to the February 2nd um proposed budget at the 1.54%. Um I I feel fairly confident that even if we were at the 1.75, whether it's because of health insurance or not cutting a teacher, we're still probably one of the lowest districts in the state. I I think we still are the lowest district in the state. Um so if we have to make those adjustments um we can um just a reminder we will credit the towns in March and so you can see um the amount of money that would be credited um as I mentioned at the AFC meeting the last time. I can't tell the towns what to do with this money um because it just goes back to them. But I do know that some of

142our towns elect to apply it to the next fiscal budget and then offset whatever the increase is. So if they do that, you can see what the difference would be for the three towns. Um we did have um an AFC meeting tonight and there they didn't vote. Um they were hoping to get some more information from the um health insurance before they make any decisions. Um the feedback from Orange was that they would prefer us not to cut any teachers. Um but they would approve a budget at 1% increase. Um so um that um is an interesting challenge and dilemma that is set before us. Um Bethany um reported that they were very happy with the 1.54%. But um I did ask um our representative from Bethany to go back and see if they were

143willing to move a little bit um in any direction particularly up. Um they also mentioned that their school district is coming in at about 9% right now for their increase. So that's kind of making them a little cautious about any changes for for from Hannity. And um the feedback from Woodbridge wasn't really um specific in terms of a budget amount, but they did just question if there are ways to perhaps not have quite so many FTEEs. Um so um so that's kind of where we sit and we'll see what happens on the 23rd um when the um AFC votes. Um and then you get to vote on March 9th on an approved budget. Um, I'll continue to work on the Q&A document. You guys got a draft of it over um on with the Friday

144update, but um we've obviously added some more questions and then there were some I just hadn't dropped in there yet. But then once we have the draft um going um we'll put it up live and then we can continue to add questions over the course of the next couple of weeks. And at this point, Miss Lumis and I are happy to answer questions. Just a just a comment first for to make sure everybody on the board understands. Uh while we'd like to cooperate with the boards of finance, they have no legal authority to make any determination about our budget. So when somebody says they'll approve 1%, it means nothing. Uh >> I don't even think >> except to the extent that at the AFC uh they have representation. Well, that that's that's why that's why

145it's done. >> Uh but to my knowledge, I don't think the Bethany Board of Finance or the Woodbridge even votes on what they're doing. >> So, I think they give feedback and again >> they give feedback, right? >> And and and and it's really I think the feedback that comes from AFC that I think we have tended to listen to, although I do recall years where our board has not operated in alignment with AFC. Um, there have been years when our board has voted a budget that was lower than what AFC recommended, and there have been years when our board has voted a budget that was higher than what AFC recommended. So, again, it's a recommendation. It's not locked in stone. Um, but um, but they do bring that information when we have our discussion

146and when they make the recommendation to the the board of ed. And for th those new members in recent years generally what the AFC has done is they've recommended a budget a budget to us no higher than a certain level and then we uh took action on reducing that number even more. So uh that that's a pretty common occurrence. Um all right do we have any specific questions? Uh Donna first. >> Yeah. Thank you, Jen. So, um I didn't attend the Woodbridge meeting that for the joint meeting with you, but one concern I had heard was that, you know, we we talked about the bond projects that are you have to put together a plan. The question they had was um the transparency as to what grass field upgrades mean and it's artificial turf. Now,

147I know that it's just something that's put together, >> but it Uh, >> it's kind of out of order to discuss that now because that's that's something we're not going to hear for years. >> No, I'm just asking to have the title change. That's all >> in the actual document. So, >> okay. Well, >> yeah, that's all just for transparency. >> That was that was the one thing I heard. >> So, uh I just wanted to add a little texture to what uh the Woodbridge folks said at the AFC. Yeah. So the the uh sense was that the they worried about FTE as you said and uh it's not entirely want to say something. >> I do. >> Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. >> No, it's the same. It's probably the same conversation. It's I don't

148think we should manage the FTEEs. I think we have to manage to the best we best of our knowledge, right? balancing our towns and balancing what's right for the children. And it's up to Jen to decide where that money is spent and how it's been spent for the children. I don't think we should be defining FTEES. >> Uh, no, I wasn't planning to do that, >> but that was one of the comments she got, which is, could you cut FTEEs? >> Yeah. No, I was I was just uh reporting on that and it just seemed to me like it wasn't a very concrete ask and uh essentially there is some pressure just as in every other uh meeting and I don't know if it is even the consensus bridge folks but they were asked to

149actually represent themselves I so I just wanted to say it wasn't a very hard ask but I think it was like somebody >> just can you do it with fewer FTS >> and it's useful to think that like you know meaning if folks in New Brbridge are watching right like we're talking about a 1 9% or something like that to a 2.11%. Uh which is relatively low compared to the 4% that the Woodbridge board of education is asking as well. So I I I think there is uh people are likely to accept uh a reasonable range. So I yeah I just wanted to make that point >> any Yes, Donna. So, I just want to be clear with the new um level of your presentation, you're talking possibly 1.9%. >> If if if we get

150the very worst case scenario on the health insurance, yes, it would be up to 1.9 and that that is with the change of the PE that's in the current 1.54. So adding the PE, >> that is with the PE still pulled out. Okay. And then the budget's still going to go up because of the health insurance. >> Okay. So that's with the health insurance. Now, we also mentioned tonight about putting the PE back. >> So what would that be then? >> So then we would be kind of back where we started right around probably 2.2. >> Yeah. the I mean the general rule of thumb just average is an FAFT is about $120,000 between salary and benefits yes is the way to think about it. So, Don, are you ask are you suggesting that >>

151I'm just saying, you know, that's not too bad either, too. I mean, it's a far stretch from where we were at 1.54. Um, but we're still doing good. That's what I'm saying. >> Yes. >> I dare say >> I don't think we would be the lowest in the state anymore, but we would be in the bottom. I I dare say of of 169 towns who have to deal with school budgets, uh probably 98% of them would be very happy to hear a 2.1. >> And I bet you their health insurance went up too. >> So could I make a couple of comments? like I I don't think we should be like I don't think we would come at the high end of the insurance uh thing like you know I think you are being cautious

152uh because I think we're hitting the stop-loss limits and last year also I think we had something similar and we did not end up anywhere as high as the upper bounds were so maybe we being a little extra cautious about that 2.2 too. I don't think we will get there. Uh and the the and so I just wanted to make that point like you know that seems like an upper limit and maybe we should be thinking like somewhere more in the average range of the increase maybe closer to 1.8 1.9 I think. >> Okay. >> Could you share what our increases have been for the past 5 years? And if you can't you have it for next time. You know Terry you can probably open the budget. page 141 for um I I have an

153average of nine adopted budgets, an average of 2.19%. Um the last five years I don't have averaged in here, but they're all in there. It's uh 1.8, 3.19, 2.25, 3.49 49 and 2.37 last year. >> Last year was how much? >> I think it was 2.37 or 2.97. >> It didn't show up on the graph, but I think it's 2.97. >> We'll follow up with with an exact chart for you. >> Any more questions? Chris, >> question on the FTE. I don't want to belabor it, but um I think there's something about uh that issue that's got a couple of us and even towns um scratching their heads. Um the 120 for FTE is that when you hire um you know kind of ground level entry level, right? And then if you hire an FTE

154at ground level entry level based upon the contract negotiation, that's an investment or an expenditure that's going to go up until that person leaves the position of the district for every year 3% more. So when we hire an FTE at 120 to start that is a 120 that's going to become more and more and more every year and that does not I don't think factor the health care does it like if that would include benefits plus salary >> an average of uh they they average it out per capita >> and just because I'm the one who did that number out that was based on when I did that math it was this is how many people the district employs and this is our total salary and benefits number so that already takes into account like

155an average tenure it's not we we factor in for a new position based on past hiring where we've actually been able to hire. We used to used to budget at a master step five and now we're at a master step nine because it's just who the applicants are. So we we are not we're hiring very few pe sometimes we are we're are able to hire somebody who's brand new out of school and it's you know a bachelor's one or or a master's one but um we are finding more often than not in the past two to three years it is it is at a higher step. So you're you're lo someone's might retire at a step 13 but you're you're not gaining as much of a difference there. >> Thank you. And that comprises or

156consists about what twothirds of our budget is the really the personnel that is uh non-discretionary that will only increase every single year. And our overall non-discretionary is what 85 87%. I >> I mean when you take out sort of special education which we are mandated to do, you take out all the other things that we already have contracts for. So if it's busing or snowplows or um our groundskeeping um our Xerox copy contracts, it's probably like around 5%. >> It's close. It's like 90% of the budget is based on some kind of contract or mandated service. >> And then we have our debt service and then what's left is the discretionary sliver of the pie. >> So when we come in under that uh 2.83 83 which is the average uh I think obligation for

157our uh contractual obligations we're actually having to take away from that 10% sliver right >> yes and this in this year that we fortunately aren't feeling the pain of it because the big piece where we're taking it away is from the debt service >> the drop in debt services like% >> but there's something going forward I mean just circle all the way back to the FTEES that really is one of the biggest parts of our budget and on one hand the people and the teachers and the educators and the administrators are clearly absolutely one of the most important, you know, assets we can have in our educational system. On the other hand, it's also one of the most expensive. >> I think that's where our towns are worried about adding an FTE or two because

158that's not an expense that we zero out and come back to a zero budget next year. Every time we add an FTE, that's one that'll be there next year plus 3%. Plus more >> as long as the FTE in in this particular case is a teacher because we use that term for all of our full-time employees. >> Sure. and union not union but right but but typically when we add them I won't ask to put on the spot but how many have we added that we've actually removed over the years versus hasn't our FTE numbers just gone up and up and up every year mo >> most of those are actually uh >> yeah the our our FTE numbers have gone up um the vast majority has been um in special education because of the

159special programs we've added and again when we say FTE we're also talking not just teachers but para educators who are supporting the students the other place where we had a huge increases in security guards because when we added the um sallyports and had to have somebody sort of man the sallyport but then we still needed a security guard walking around the school. Um we probably we more than doubled the number of security guards that that we had. Um and we added guards at nighttime because we realized that opening up the buildings at night wasn't practical, wasn't really accomplishing what we needed for security. But I would say by far and away if we look at the actual positions um it it's primarily special education programs that bring kids back from out of district placements and

160security. >> But special ed is important to say that the special ed actually saves. >> Yes. >> Uh so in contrast to what we might think that it is increasing because it takes away from the money that we have to spend the effective the effect of that is actually to lower the budget over longer term. special ed in some savings >> less expensive to keep in house versus >> keep in house and therefore it's actually a savings thing that those FTEEs actually cause us to cumulatively save over time >> trust your analysis in that one I am curious as to what the increase >> they've done the analysis they can show us >> benefits versus the not paying an cost would be but I think that's already been done many times before so trust your

161thoughts on that thank you doctor >> and they're educated in our community they stay in the community as well >> and you don't have the transportation cost >> there's a there's a lot of benefits Jen, can I just ask how many open positions we have right now? >> We have um one PAR educator, I believe, that we are maybe about to fill and then we have one special education teacher. >> And an time security. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm just trying to get an idea. >> All right. >> We do. We have we have two retirements for the anticipated or announced for the end of this year. >> I I just want to echo on Kathy too. So we vote on the budget and we rely on you to make the best choices for the

162kids and to cut where you think is the right place to cut and to add where you think is the right place to add. It's very difficult sometimes to look at our budgets each year knowing that each year we carry over a huge surplus. So, you know, it's just very hard to digest that knowing that each year we have a huge surplus. And one would say that we might be able to keep all those FTE positions if we were able to use some of the money from the surplus from year to year. We uh interestingly enough we we um we are statutoily required to do use that surplus to lower the following year uh net budget. So one of the things we did this year to do that is to reduce the amount of money

163that the towns are paying us uh uh from the original requirement that we had. So I think what you saw up there we have going in March uh we're reducing what each of the towns has to pay this district. The town gets the benefit of that and they can then take that funds. They can do whatever they want with it but as Dr. Buyers mentioned uh we can't tell them what to do but putting it back into next year's budget under education uh actually is saving the taxpayers quite a bit of money. So what when when we when we run a surplus, it's never money that's not used for something uh that's important as far as education goes for the district. Uh it has to go to educational projects for the district. Can take 2%

164put it in a fund, but this board has always uh established projects that need to be funded and dedicate that money to those particular funds. There's nothing unspoken for. Could I just add a couple of things? Uh for we saw the numbers there, right? Orange is getting back half a million. So they effectively their number is going down this year. Woodbridge is going No, I I just wanted to say like Woodbridge is increasing by about 16,000 or something with the 1.54%. That's uh and and so that's a you know that's a relatively small amount and the variability that we talk about because of the surplus arises from people leaving. We have to budget for the people who are going to be working when they leave and we and we don't necessarily pay it like you

165know that adds to the surplus. So you know there is obviously the risk that we cannot go under budget because like you know the reason board cannot do what uh the towns can do which is to supply whatever money that is left over but a lot of the reasons once you analyze the budget is actually coming from things that we really cannot change that doesn't mean there is no space to change at all but I think a lot of our because we give back the money every year there is effectively the cost at most if we saved from the money that we would be a $30,000 one-time return to the taxpayer one time because the next year the the the budget is continuously being returned. The money is returned. So the effective thing is we

166have about a $30,000 interest cost that we are that we will be saving the taxpayer once and for that we will have to take a tremendous amount of risk for the school district to actually say well we might run out of money. So I think maybe we worry about the surplus a little bit more than we should because it's effectively not costing the taxpayer as much as we think when we think about it as in the millions. So I I just wanted to say that again. >> Uh I'll say the other part of it is uh I I disagree a lot about talking about surpluses because very honestly our surplus is generated in a number of ways. Uh number one, the outstanding work that our finance department, the superintendent does. Uh very often, uh we

167talked about um let's say hiring a teacher. Uh we may have a teacher that resigns at the highest uh salary level. Teacher comes in at several thousand dollars uh in the that area. We have people that resign and we have a position that's not filled, which I think is actually costing us more money than it's saving in this particular case. uh but uh there are things that uh allow us to generate that surplus that we can't predict if we're getting more funding. Uh so it's it's the budget is set up to spend what we budget and if we don't spend it we have to require we are required to spend it the next year for educational purposes. That's it. We don't have a choice. So, uh, I I don't see it as costing the taxpayers

168more money. I think in the long run, it actually is saving the taxpayers money because they may not have to pay the high level of taxes the next year if the town decides to take that money we give back to them or let them not spend and put it into the budget for the school district in next year. >> And what $550,000 uh for Orange? >> Yes. So the next year if they choose they could lower for the taxpayers $550,000. >> Yes. >> Good. >> Okay. At least I thought about get that right. Uh are we all set for now? We will be talking about budget more and there may be some changes before we vote and we have the AFC doing that. And we have a few other items on our agenda that I

169I'd like to kind of work in express fashion. Uh committee reports ACES. Anything on ACES? >> Nothing to report from ASUS from um our last meeting. >> Thank you very much. Ad hoc school start time >> tomorrow 4 o'clock. >> Okay. the meeting tomorrow at 4:00. Is it a Zoom meeting? >> It is >> Zoom meeting. >> Public comment. Please feel free to send a letter >> and you can watch it. >> I took note and I had talked to Don about this that the survey for the middle schools did indicate that there were quite a few parents who were concerned about uh having a later start time. >> There were four. >> Four. Okay. How many more were >> I'm just saying like if you say quite a few there were four. I didn't

170look at the specific number, but it was mentioned. >> Well, it was mentioned >> or more than usually respond >> mentioned at least once in the survey of the very small number of parents who responded. >> Okay. Uh communications, Carol, >> we meet tomorrow at 5:30. Okay. >> And we'll be working on PTSO engagement. >> Very good. Uh curriculum. Yes, we met um a couple hours ago and uh there was a discussion on action of additional course um additions and it was unified arts in public speaking. Um we did approve that to bring it to uh to board at the U March meeting for presentation. More about that. >> Thank you. >> Look forward to that. District technology the monthly report is on page eight. Uh >> any questions? No, >> right here. >> I

171just noticed that and it was on last week, but we didn't end up talk or LA Yeah, last week, but we didn't end up talking about it. The solar canopy, I guess there's a potential for a delay, which would be an entire year. Is that correct? >> So, that's facil That's actually facilities. Uh >> still up in the air. That that'll still uh matter if you want to just >> timelines with lawyers and agreements. >> Do we know when we'll find out? And >> theoretically that would affect next year's budget by 70 80 grand if it >> I did not take a reduction for the solar credit because we I was planning on I thought we'd be further in the process that I could take that around this time but since we don't know what's

172going to happen there is no >> okay >> uh thanks for the question that question uh >> and the facilities >> so facilities I'll keep it short but uh You can read the report, but uh to echo Mr. Martone, I want to thank the custodial staff. I don't know if everybody else's back hurts as much as my mine does from all the snow that we got, but uh the custodial staff here did a fantastic job of getting the school ready and open for our kids to be here and be safe. So, I appreciate the efforts that they put forth. >> Thank them for that. Uh finance, uh monthly financial statements. >> Um I'll keep it brief. We've heard about health insurance where we're at. Um we did capture some savings from unpaid leave of absences

173and the vacancies um in this report about 158,000 but we also are expecting that electricity and natural gas will each over budget about 50,000. We have a circulator pump that connects to the fuel cell on our side that is um that broke and we waiting for a part. So during this colder stretch we have not been able to capture capture the heat from the fuel cell. So, we've had to use natural gas. >> Then, are you projecting what were you projecting on the uh health uh insurance bill? >> Well, it's at 107% now. Um, as we we talked about in AFC's that several people have hit the stop loss, so we could start to see it taper off. Um, but we just don't know. >> There's no change to the forecast right now. >> Okay.

174Thank you. >> Appreciate that. Uh, all right. D, uh, transfers under 30,000. They're on page 43. If you had an opportunity to look at those generally, uh, normal monthly uh, changes personnel. Uh, we have one person turning retirement. I think the teacher and, uh, other than that, new business and announcements. Uh I do not have any uh any questions any announcements items for the next regular meeting agenda. Uh due by the end of February and that's the March meeting. We will be we will be voting on a budget at the March meeting. >> I have one final question. >> Yes. If the middle school schedule is not implemented, what will so how many FTEEs will be affected by that? How many FTs would be taken out if the middle school schedule is not implemented this

175coming year? >> Three. >> And the health teacher goes back to I mean the gym teacher goes back to >> Yeah, we wouldn't make any >> There's no change for the high school. >> Okay. If you uh have a uh concern about anything uh regarding the budget uh things that we discussed today, I would recommend that you uh contact Dr. Buyers uh and let her know your feelings about uh that particular area or the concern and uh that would help give her some guidance as to what board members are supporting and opposing. Right. >> Yes. Phone call. Come on in. give a phone call, whatever. >> All right. >> Uh so, uh if there's no uh objection, we will be in adjournment at 8:50 p.m. >> We are ajourned. H1 um