001okay we're good okay uh again my apologies uh I was dealing with the doctor's appointment and so on and uh I got delayed uh so should we just call the meeting to order um uh it is 12:08 uh I'm calling the meeting to order and uh I uh and the first item on the agenda is I guess the update from the superintend so if you just give me a second I just want to share a very brief presentation that I gave at the board meeting on um Monday is everybody good can they see that yes excellent all right um so just an update um on the budget and where we are from uh basically the February meeting when I presented before the board although um honestly I don't think too much has changed even since
002uh we met with the board in January uh there was a request from the Board of Education to look at um additional resources for tutoring for our students and so um we were able to um to put together a plan to provide um a a broader um array of tutoring opportunities for our kids both using um artificial intelligence and some of the programs that we already have within District um the one thing that we did add to um our tutoring um Arsenal so to speak is a program called tutor.com it will cost approximately $144,000 and I'll explain um where we identified the funding um to support that uh but it essentially provides a um an actual human interaction through um technology not unlike this um where students can engage with a real person either through
003text or through um through a virtual meeting and receive direct um on demand tutoring support 247 um so after presenting this to the board on Monday night and Sean um you can uh you were there so you can corroborate this seemed to sort of meet the um the the intention of the board and address the concerns that we've sort of been hearing from our student reps and and from board members who you know come to us as parents as well um in giving some additional tutoring support at a fairly low cost for what we believe it can actually do um we also received information from Brown and Brown on our health insurance um estimate um essentially in the last three months our claims have increased and so they um had to increase their projection for
004health insurance costs for us for the 2526 school year um by about $110,000 which is not good because that is moving the health insurance costs in the wrong direction um however we did have some good news um we went back after um our February board meeting and by that point the governor's proposed budget um had been out there and had been reviewed um and we did see in his budget that he is continuing to support the Monies to cap the um magnet and Agricultural Science tuition at 58% for districts um so that was good um Terry confirmed this with her contacts at casbo I confirmed it with my contacts at cast um so we feel very confident in being able to reduce our tuition from 100% funding down to that 58% um knowing that it
005is in the governor's proposed budget so essentially the increase in the health insurance um was offset by the tuition reduction the tuition reduction was actually a little bit more probably closer to 125,000 and that's where that remaining 14,000 for the tutor.com uh came from um so what it does is it really kind of keeps the town allocations essentially the same um I think there was a small shift of about a little less than $2,000 um so uh the budget is still proposed at 3.16% um over the current year with um the allocations and the variance um as you can see on the chart the largest uh impact of course being to Woodbridge um the revenue uh sources are down um I know that we are currently waiting on the outcome of special education funding for
006the current fiscal year 2425 um we also anticipate that um based on everything that's in the budget um as it's currently proposed um from the governor we are going to be in that same position with excess costs next year where the excess cost is likely going to be lower um than what it ever has been probably under that 60% threshold so we have um built that into our Revenue projections for next year um just to give some you know reference points to this um the um the Aver average for um for Connecticut superintendence is around 5.5% the dir B average is 5.1 I looked at Regional School Districts um it's around five um if you look at our um Elementary districts um you can see that uh both bethan and orange are in the threes
007Woodbridge um with its sort of increased enrollment is um up at six and I know there's been a lot of discussion oh well your budget you still had a huge um amount of Debt Service falling off and so the 3.16 isn't really your budget even if you factor The Debt Service in um we would still be falling within that average um for Connecticut Derby and the Regional School Districts um so uh today's meeting is very important um because according to AFC bylaws um the AFC needs to make a recommendation to the board of education for the proposed um 2526 budget um again it's a recommendation um the board has certainly in the past um followed that recommendation and and put forth the same uh last year was unusual because the AFC made a recommendation and
008the Board of Education opted for a budget that was lower than what your AFC recommendation was so they certainly have the um prerogative to do that um if the board um and the a if the board actually recommends a budget higher than the afc's recommendation then we end up having some more meetings until we can come to some sort of agreement where the AFC and the Board of Ed budget are aligned and matched so um to begin um our process we do have a motion that I think could open up discussion and at that point um any amendments or changes to the motion can be introduced um and so that is the end of my presentation and there is a handout in your um AFC packet that um that has both this motion it has
009the up-to-date um town allocations and Miss Lumis has put in several charts uh showing you where reductions have occurred over the course of the budgeting process okay thank you uh so let's open it up for discussion any comments from the board members make a motion first I think you would I thought I thought you already made the motion but okay so uh yeah sorry uh yes so can we have a I'll make the motion so that we can have discussion second anyone second okay great sorry I'm looking through this okay so we have a motion on the table uh let's open it for discussion well if I can chime in and start us off we all know where I stand um uh orange Board of Finance has made their recommendation of you know 2.32 um
010as expected um it is a bipartisan group um also the former principal um of the district is is on it and and she was fighting as well um so I'm I'm going to stick with with their recommendation um and that's where I stand I just wanted to get it out before we uh we all had some discussion um so just to clarify we're looking at 3.16 and you're recommending 2.23 uh 2.32 was the recommendation from the orange Board of Finance which you know they're they're the largest um you know stakeholder with with the most enrollment and they they set forth a a recommendation every year um just a recommendation much like Dr buyers just said you know just like ours will be nothing but a recommendation from AFC to the whole board okay Donna you're
011you're on mute still so you want there you go go goad not to throw it off the uh 2.3 too um but the tutoring program that you were talking about is there a time frame that we sign up for is it ongoing is there a sort of trial time if in case it doesn't work out I'm concerned about the quality of tutoring and how do we know about that yeah so um it's recommended by um the Princeton Review so they're the people who administer AP um sat um and um the the time period that it would be in place is essentially July 1 through June 30th so it's not established yet um because it would be part of the next fiscal year budget um there were two ways of pricing it out we could either
012do it on a per use basis um or we could do it on a per student basis um both prices came within about uh $250 of each other so we opted for a p um for a per student basis so essentially we purchased it so that any one of our kids could use it um we currently have um our department chairs um testing it out um Dr Perry Carlson I went on and did a session the other night um just to um a few of our um uh our teachers are having their kids their own kids use it and are sort of sitting in and watching how it goes um and um as of you know as of right now I mean my experience with it was was pretty good it's clear it's not AI
013there's definitely another human on the end um so for a student who doesn't respond to the AI um it's it is a different way of interacting um the tutors are all vetted by the company so that they have to have the content knowledge to be able to provide the tutoring um I deliberately made mistakes in what I was doing they were accurate in correcting me um so you know our we have a two we trial period where we're testing it out and so far it seems to um meet our needs I think the other important thing to it is we've heard a lot about the need for tutoring at those sort of AP and higher level classes where peer tutoring isn't effective because the peer is also your classmate and so this certainly does provide
014um tutoring at um for some of those upper level classes that we don't necessarily have the resources for it and it does give a lot of data so after a year if we find that people aren't using it or if we find that that that the other pricing option is a better choice for us we'll be able to make that decision so I do have another comment um Jane this is for you I'm wondering with that difference in uh percentage that you gave what do you foresee cutting back on this budget like did you I mean it's one thing to put a number out there but do you have any idea of what part of the budget you'd like to see cut to meet meet those goals I'm sorry Donna was that for me my
015audio is terrible was that question for me yeah well so no no but I'm uh unfortunately bound and I have to um I have to to say that 2.32 is their number um uh Dr buyers was going to give us a list um of possible reductions that we could be made uh to to lower the budget um so no the short answer no I I have I have nothing to to back that fact up I just I have to say the number I think Dr buyers understands uh Shannon you probably understand if you remember um and that's that's kind of where I'm at I just have to say the number and um and that's that's where we got to stand with it okay that also B right okay say it again sudor I'm sorry my
016audio is terrible asking that also binds Joe right it may it may Joe Joe's his own person it it may B Joe honestly Joe is the representative for the orange you're the representative for The Amity Board of Education correct correct I know all these things Dr buers I know yeah yeah so D could I ask a question please yes um okay so Sean when the orange uh Board of Finance made that that recommendation they must have had something in mind about how they thought reduction Joe I'm gonna pass that one over to you if you don't mind you were I unfortunately uh Sharon I did miss that meeting so I will pass that one to Joe hello hello everyone so as someone mentioned we I do have a recommendation for 2.32% which was a poll
017taking taken by Jim Ley with all of the board of Finance members uh and that 232 is an average of the requests the recommendations from all of the individual members of the board Finance okay we didn't put any specific areas to cut on there it's really not our responsibility not not our job uh to to tell them where they where they should cut I think know from where the surpluses come uh you know with the salaries and the retirements you know some special ed Al those special EDS up this year uh and the medical also is up this year as we've just heard so it just sounds that the only place to possibly cut would be salaries the benefit line but that's not up to us we don't make that determination we're just coming up
018with number of our recommendation from the individual members of the board of Finance uh so it's up to us to either approve it at the 316 um or decline the recommendation to the aboe and then have them go back to the drawing board if that's our recommendation as an as a committee Joe if I understand right because you were under sort of a time crunch because normally you would talk about this at your finance committee meeting but it was scheduled for the same night as our meeting on Monday so it was just an email sort of poll and people submitted what they thought the budget should be and and then then it became the average correct it was a telephone poll yes got it okay the timing yes we didn't have time to discuss it
019meeting on Monday of course um and so it came during okay if I could just state that that that percentage amounts to nearly half a million dollars about $495,000 to have to cut from this proposal thank you okay um I'd like to just a comment I don't know where you would be looking to make other than in probably in salaries because you never seem to be at at the the full census of what you'd like to have um but what I'm worried about is in two years when you go for your bond issue and then the year after that won't you start paying it down what that's now going to be additive onto the budget Beyond um instead of being part you know included in what the up to the this this point has been
020the operating budget the operating budget is going to now have to increase by by that amount of debt and I realize that that's a a couple of years down the road but that's going to be a big nut because that's going to end up being a larger number than the number that was released this year that you've put into operations because it's going to be at the beginning of the payoff period and so I mean it can you know I mean I remember at one of our finance visits it might have been at Orange you know that they they actually made the counter point for us which is I mean and I'll take one very simple example if you think of our um tsaw teacher who's our teacher for multilanguage Learners um if we were
021not to include that this year at some point we need that and it would be far worse to add that position the same year that we have to add the the bond funding it's Pro it's it is a better point to add it now when it has a lower when the operating budget is lower than you know delaying something that we know we are going to need based on Elementary population of multilanguage Learners and our existing population which has doubled in the past two years um so that you know those would be the types of decisions that we would be making you guys know that traditionally if we are asked to make a reduction we reduce positions that we don't currently have filled because then nobody loses a job but in three years from now
022I'm still going to need more multilanguage learner teachers and if I have to add them because of population in the same year we have a bond that becomes even more detrimental to the overall budget so I I think you know I understand Miss Huxley the the point you're making but I also know that some of the things that are in this budget if we delay them then they may just get added in those those you know a couple years down the road and I don't know that that's necessarily the best thing to do okay now with that um that 2% fund that uh has now instead of being restrictive for Capital now is available for operating expenses is if you were to cut your overall budget and be short would that money therefore be available
023to fill in I mean if that's what its purpose is why can't it fill in the blanks why can't you use it so right now it's been designated for capital projects mainly the library media center so if it is repurposed the board could redesignate it it will then increase the amount of money we borrow to to that point Terry can I ask a question sorry go it creates an issue because so let's say we use the million dollars this year if at the close of the current fiscal year that we're in right now we don't have any unexpended funds then you would have to increase the budget by that million plus whatever the additional percent increases so again you're delaying or you're you're create setting up a potential for even more significant budget increases if
024you offset the current budget by taking money from the and redesignating it from the reserve fund for educational expenses I do not think that the intention of the statute was to allow that fund to supplement budgets it really was for let's say a smaller District who all of a sudden gets a very high cost out of districts special ed placement that they hadn't budgeted for um or it you know and it can still be used for capital projects but you know it's again it's not a sure set of money we don't always have necessarily a sense of what that unspent fund might be and if at the close of this year which is not a good year especially if we do not get this additional special education Revenue coming in um then the the following
025year you would be looking at an even bigger increase so another thought that if I might uh another thought that I have is that I think this ideal of course 3% but it is also a good year in the sense that like given all the other costs like you know we have this degree of freedom I would rather keep it now and uh you know and in case this two million or the the funds that we have allocated uh when we go for the bonding at that point maybe have the flexibility to think about whether we increase the bond and use these cash flows to temporarily help reduce you know the uh the budget increase requests rather than do it at a time where I think you know relatively speaking the numbers are more favorable
026to us uh asking for a 7% increase at a time where you know the debt servicing costs are going to increase as well as everything is increasing it might be better for us to actually be thinking about it flexibly but I also wanted to ask like you know Library funds are something that the state requires us to keep in place because that is necessary for us to be able to even apply for those funding right or am I wrong we have to have authorization to to have the money or borrow the money which so we do have authorization to borrow the money okay okay so uh so keeping this is not necessary we could have authorization to borrow money as well okay I think the other thing Miss Huxley and again I I don't um
027we We There is a certain uncertainty still in existence around Federal funding and I am not 100% sure if Federal funding were to be removed where the sort of where the M money would come from um and when we looked at it right it's around $900,000 that we receive me that unexpended like if we got to that position that would be a very appropriate use of those unexpended funds and asking the board to reallocate those if we were to lose those federal dollars um which occasionally is is threatened um from time to time lately okay all right now we are sitting with um with unexpended funds because the last couple of years the way you've dealt with um with the surpluses is in as we're about to do in the month of March you've reduced
028how much we have to have to pay in um we are in order to avoid taxing our people twice for the same money um what we are doing is we're putting that in an assigned Sharon I think you coming back to for the funds Sharon you froze for a minute so at least for me so you might want to just go back a little bit oops okay um the F where you were putting the money and that's when I lost you oh we're putting it in an assigned part of our general fund so that we can't spend it for anything else and so that the next year we don't have to tax people for the money we didn't give you when you ask for it again the same money so I'm wondering if you see
029ourselves coming back to us and saying hey that money that was approved that we didn't ask you for we're going to ask you for now has it occurred to you that you have the right to do that I think we went through that process a couple years ago and there was not an appetite for us to hold on to that money that it was to give back to the towns to hold on to but you didn't give it back we didn't give it to you but it had been appropriated and so we're holding it as assigned to give to you and we should be and whether you give it to us in this year or next year so if you put it aside for next year's budget that's how you reduce you're not taxing the
030taxpayers on it but so you're never going to ask us for that money no we didn't need to spend it and it it is I mean I I still see it as it's the town's money well it's okay all right we have it that's what we have it sitting there for and what we are doing is reducing our appropriation each year for what you didn't collect from us so and I and I do think that's the same process that is used in the town of Woodbridge as yeah we using the same process yeah yeah agree with Sadir and keeping keeping it the way it is but I think if there's a way to save some cash would be in the the discretionary spending area maybe because I see we went up 391 5,000 on equipment
031and supplies replacement whoops um I imagine those aren't concrete numbers right maybe we could push off some of those improvements for next year maybe potentially just is that where the teacher laptops are that's where um the I think it's mostly building projects okay uh build so two of our largest B ticket building projects are the PA systems at the middle schools is that where they are yes okay so um so in both of our middle schools our PA systems for making announcements are currently run off of a Windows 97 computer and the software is no longer operable um it is actually a safety concern for us because we do not have um speakers that work in some classrooms and so if we are to go into a secure school or a um a lockdown drill
032we don't necessarily get those messages so well yes we could put it off we've we've obviously limped through this year with a broken system it would not be my recommendation because I really do think we need to address that and it's it's kind of a critical issue um and and so that and that's why there is such a large swing um Mr lofters is because we had to put in something that was it's an expensive item but it's very specific to a job that it the function that it performs y okay thank you you're welcome any more comments and or discussion should we are be ready to go for a vote so I think we have to do a roll call vote because we are virtual so I will turn it to miss aleski for
033a roll call um with the current motion be being to approve the 3.16% increase Mr haror no Miss hugy sorry um I am going to abstain Dr Karan yes Mr lofters yes Mr no mlink uh you have to take your volume or take your mute off Donna yes three yes two no one abstain so the motion would carry motion carries okay right that's the end of our order of business okay okay so we can ajour thank you everyone for a robust discussion thank you everybody for coming on a Friday at lunchtime too I appreciate it no problem all right thank you thank you thank you bye everybody have a good weekend thank you good weekend y thank you everyone bye