RHAM Board of Education Meeting; March 16, 2026

001Order. Uh, Michael Bolier. >> Okay. Ruby Delior. >> Kirsten Erlandson. >> Kirstston Erlandson. And over here, >> Pam Fington, uh, Carrie Folina, >> Drew Gin, >> Drew Golfin, Marboro, >> Jessica Hall, He >> Amy Romanchuk, >> Scottyette, >> Scotty, >> Heather Summer Heisa Todd, >> Lisa Todd, Hebrron, Uh, you >> junior >> and Rudy Deliori is on from Hein remotely. >> Thanks, Rudy. I aliance 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. >> Even Andover Marvel community engagement and attendance at BOE public meetings is welcomed. The public comment segment of the meeting agenda is set aside so the BOE may receive public comments. Procedurally, public remarks will be limited to three minutes and citizens will

002be asked to identify themselves and the town they are from. Because the BOE is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters on the agenda, the BOE is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented. Is there anybody that would like to make public comment? Anyone online that would like to make public comment? Okay, last chance. All right. Is there any um any board members need to add or delete any agenda items? Okay, that will bring us to the um student representative reports. So, in the month of March, we have our spring concert coming up soon, this Wednesday. A couple college visits planned for later this week and further in the month. And recently, these past weeks, we've had our at the high school, we've had the Wednesday musical

003play on the 5th to the 7th. And just last week, Thursday, we had our second blood drive of the school year. And um so not much events during this month, but as for seniors, a lot of us are hearing back from a lot of colleges and deciding our decisions. >> A couple other stuff that took place was the um Becca state conference where there were seven people that placed and five people are going to the international conference. Um, a lot of the seasons are ending now for the winter sports and the spring sports are starting. And finally, there was the Naviance for the juniors where they talked about colleges and like the like help them like prepare for what they need to do in college. >> Um, few weeks ago we had our pep rally.

004Um, we also had a day of unplugging where uh total I don't remember if it was middle school and high school, but um 3,627 hours with uh no electronics. Um there was a unified basketball game um on Wednesday last week and the middle school um won the Adams family production which was very good. I like to go see it. Um, next week we have a spack testing. There's a spring sportsformational meeting and next week um there's also a school dance that's going to be hosted by the second grade. Okay, great. Was the um unplugging day for both the high school and middle school? >> It was interesting. Not sure that my child just um Don Mike Fuller is here. Um, okay. And that brings us to the BOE chair report. I just have one thing

005that I wanted to share. Um, Dr. McMara and I went to CABE day on the CAB is the Connecticut Association of Board Boards of Education and um, we gathered at first at the Bushnell to understand what kind of legislation is being discussed that would impact the schools. It basically came from three committees. the education committee, the labor committee, and the transportation committee. Um, so they went through what these um uh bills are all about, where what position they were taking. It got a little interesting a couple of times, even the boards of that are not always um in agreement with with each other. It's also really kind of interesting when you've got boards that are regional and boards that are not regional that that that can impact. But um for the board members, I did

006bring um a handout if you wanted to take one. Um we can also email it um to the folks online. But it was kind of interesting to see what is um up for discussion and how it would impact us. Um and then you know after our learning session u there was march over to the capital where you could uh have appointments with your legislators and advocate for your um position. So that's what I've got. Colin, you're up. >> Yeah. Great. So, um, just a few things that I want to share, um, this evening. I'll start with saying that, um, March is actually Board of Education Appreciation Month. So, I wanted to thank all of our board members for the contributions that you make to our school district and community. Um, you know, obviously I'm here

007every day and here for these meetings because it's part of my job and you all are here out of your voluntary service. I appreciate the uh student board members who take their time on their busy Monday nights. Um and we just have a small token of appreciation for everybody. I will >> bummer. And for board members that are attending remotely, >> for board members that are attending remotely, we will make sure that we get you these. >> Just a little uh a little RAM swag for you all to enjoy and hopefully use. Um a couple of other things that I want to note in my report is I want to congratulate the students and staff who are involved in um Adam's Family the Musical, which was was it last week? It was last week. It

008was phenomenal. um two of our staff members here that were integral into the uh production were are here with us. So I appreciate the work that you did uh Miss McKarn did as well as all of our students. It was a wonderful show. Absolutely fantastic. It's great seeing the talents of our students that we get don't get to see them display every day. Um so that was that was a really great event. Uh I want to congratulate and thank uh Kathy Green and members of the uh medical careers program at the high school. Uh last week they had a blood drive and collected 81 pints of blood. Um, unfortunately I had made a donation about six weeks ago and apparently it's an eight-week window. So Kathy wasn't happy with me because I donated to another

009place instead of donating to RAM. Kathy, I'll do my best to do better next time. I promise. Uh, it's pretty amazing when you think about the fact that each uh donation of a pint can save up to three lives. Um, it's it's a pretty cool thing that Kathy and her students do that work uh multiple times every year. Um it is uh we have concluded the end of our um winter sports season. We had a lot of successful student athletes this year. Both our boys and girls basketball team made it to the second round of the state tournament. Uh which is which is fantastic. We're certainly happy for them. Um and their success. We had a wrestler um who actually um earned all state honors, Brooke Hefernon. Uh she competed in the um uh she

010competed in the and and actually won the state championship uh in the 107 weight class and went on to compete in the New England wrestling championships. Uh Cheer competed at the both conference and state level and uh Noah Hoffman uh received all state honors. Both our boys and girls hockey team had success. Um the girls team made it to the semi-final game of the CCC tournament. Um, and all of our Ram uh, boys players earned their varsity letter this season. Um, uh, I also want to highlight our co-ed uh, swimming uh, students who participate with Manchester. They had seven swimmers compete this year with the Manchester co-op team. We had a student win all state. Alejandro uh, Shanfent uh, won the state championship in the 50 meter freestyle and we had a number of other

011students be successful. Um, in fact, if you just saw the River East last Friday, there were brothers William and um, uh, Becca uh, Kookuski uh, both competed very well in the States as well. And finally, boys and girls outdoor track had a al also had a successful uh, season. Um, they had many students compete at the state championships and one of our students uh, Brody uh, Kukovski broke the school the Ram school record in the long jump this year as well. A few other things to note. Um, I wanted to highlight uh some real news that I just got today um from one of our teachers is that three of our students who participate in our youth manufacturing pipeline initiative um uh attended a job fair uh at um electric boat in electric boat and

012graten uh recently and both now or I'm sorry all three of the students have been offered and taken and accepted full-time jobs starting uh in July as structural welders. uh the youth manufacturing pipeline initiative is is focused specifically on getting students ready for careers uh in the manufacturing industry. So it's great to see that our students and and the program is having the success that it is. So I I uh appreciate what Mr. Hanoush and uh the members of the CTE are doing for that program. Um another thing I wanted to just share and and thank a staff member for is um we recently hosted the um like a regional invention convention each year. uh our three sending elementary districts have students participate in the invention convention and typically it's done just at their schools.

013Um but we decided to host it this year. Uh and Mary Rose me did a significant amount of work partnering with our uh sending districts and actually hosted that a couple of weeks ago and it was a great success. Um and I appreciate the work that she did and you know anytime that we have an opportunity to have RAM as the center of the community and get members of the community in I just think it's beneficial for everybody. Um, we're also working right now to see if we can get Colombia involved for next year because we think it'd be a great way to just continue to develop that partnership with Colombia uh students and families. Um, just the la a couple other things is uh after our board meeting last February uh last month in

014February 23rd, I did present our budget to the Marboro Board of Finance. Um went over very well. Uh the board of finance Drew was there. I appreciate you being there to support the district. Um the uh board of finance from Marbor was very supportive of of the budget that we presented. They appreciated us coming in um being very fiscally responsible. Um and I will be presenting in Hebrin tomorrow night if anybody would like to be there. It's I think that meeting starts at 7. Uh, and the last thing I'll say as a part of my report is, uh, and this is probably what I'm extremely excited about is I think that I've reached the end of of days where I have to wake up and Eva gets up at 4:45 in the morning to figure

015out what we're doing for snow delays or closures. Sorry kids, but I think we are past that at this point. Um, we had a twoe stretch where I think I I woke up every day for uh at 4:45 to try to figure out what we're going to do on a given day. Uh, but I think it seems like we've gotten through the the bad weather and um, knock on wood, we'll not go back there until next winter. And that concludes my report. >> Well, that will bring us to the student program um, spotlight. So, >> so we're we're very fortunate tonight that we actually have two programs to spotlight this evening. Um, the first is actually I appreciate Carrie uh, Wilson, our middle school band teacher, being here with some of our wonderfully talented middle

016school musicians. Um, these students have been preparing for the coffee house which is going to be coming up when >> April 1st. It's a wonderful event. If you've never had a chance to come, I would highly encourage you to do it. I'll send out a reminder board members. Um, where really it's an opportunity for our students to showcase their talents in the fine and performing arts. Um, and uh, Miss Wilson was uh, great to gather some of our students who will be performing and they're going to perform some songs for us. So, Miss Wilson, >> thank you. Um what makes uh this particularly a neat group or um the preparation of it is the students have chosen who they want to um play with. They've chosen the music that they want to perform and um

017you'll see a large group that was selfrun. I had nothing to do with it. They completely put it together themselves. So we'll have the first This is Cameron, Aiden, Kyla, Vera, and Natalie. Think you'll have a um clue on what they're going to perform for you. >> One, two, three, four. Hello. I'm Dean Perez. This is Aiden Thompson and Aiden Perez. And tonight we'll be performing for you um Rising Dawn by Oceans. Jesus name. Heat. Heat. Forever you love. Heat. Hallelujah. Bless you. Great job. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you for being here. We really appreciate you coming. >> You guys are great. Can't wait for the coffee house. >> And what's the next one? >> Yeah, we'll give them a minute or two to just And thank you parents for getting them here.

018We appreciate it very much. Thank you. >> Thanks again. So, our next student program spotlight um is actually one that we had initially scheduled for our February meeting, but due to inclement weather, um we the students had said, you know, if we can't do it in person, we'd prefer to, you know, we didn't want to do it, they didn't do it online, which I appreciate, and I appreciate everybody being here and taking the time. So, I'm going to turn it over to uh Mr. Burgess and Miss Vega Boule, who are the club adviserss for our model UN at the high school. Uh, thanks for having us. We appreciate the opportunity to come and speak. Um, Lori and I have actually next to nothing to say. It's all come from here. So, um, we'll let them

019introduce ourselves and talk to you a little bit about modeling. All right. So, I'm Zach and ever since the middle of the 20th century, the United Nations has worked to maintain peace and promote human rights among global countries. And basically, Model UN is a mock version of this. It's a club offered at Brain High School where everybody uh everybody will act as diplomats from different world countries to solve those international challenges that people that countries face. Um my committee that I worked on was the weaponization of AI. So our goal was to discuss the moral, ethical, and literal implications of AI when applied to warfare, specifically with automated weapon systems, which are systems that can work completely without any human interaction. And our problem that we had to solve was that Russia was developing these

020systems and we had to work together to make these My committee was access to life saving medical care and our goal was to help manage diseases and provide resources to countries to ensure they deal with medical crisis. Um, for example, they formed a portion to support after a natural disaster. >> My name is Jack and me and my partner Zach. We're on representing the Security Council, which is a little different from the rest of the United Nations as only 20 15 or 20 member countries. Um, and we were representing France and we were pursuing solutions to conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, and Syria. Um, one of the big things we do is we take a trip to New York City and um, when we go about finding how our country would solve a certain issue, we

021do our preliminary research, but there's obviously holes in that research that the internet and our we can't find on our own. So here we meet with real UN diplomats and they will help us fill in those holes in our research to get like an inside perspective to see how they would solve it to better our own solutions. And we also have had tours of the UN headquarters to see where they actually work. >> Okay. So I'm supposed to talk more about New York City. I think we're super fortunate to work with the um Connecticut World Affairs Council because they actually get our transport all in order for that event. It's a little harrowing because we have to be here at like 5:00 a.m. But I think the end result is worth it. We have a

022lot of fun. Um I decided for a sweater today that I got from them. If you are looking for cheap apparel, go to the basement of the United Nations. This was like $25, which I think is ludicrous for any sweater. Well, not ludicrous. It should be a lot of fun there. And then we also take a trip to the University of Hartford where we meet with other delegations from around uh Connecticut from approximately like 50 or so schools and we work with them and our committees obviously and they propose solutions that we came up with the challenges faced by the world. And for example, the AI committee which was discussed earlier passed a resolution to invite technology technologically advanced nations to provide support to underdeveloped nations in AI capacity building in order to level the

023playing field as well as the security council who passed a resolution which facilitated international support for safety and security in Sudan, implemented sanctions for any group who supported illegal arms trade in Africa, and committed resources to support human rights for students. Um although we are at UHart, we still practice RAM skills and dispositions by practicing professional conduct and cultural sensitivity, using critical thinking skills to become more aware of global issues, practice practicing our debate skills, and working on public speaking. Um it is also a largely run student club. Um most of the work is done by our stu our students and we collaborate with students from diverse backgrounds to do what we need to do. Aren't we awesome? Historically in the past we've won best delegation awards and we also offer president and officer positions

024and we are super winners. That's our wrap up. >> Do any of you think that you want to pursue something? >> Go ahead and describe. >> Oh, >> yeah. There was a follow on to that question. >> Um, yeah. I mean, I initially really thought that I wanted to do architecture coming into high school. I actually presented to the board of education. I did a um house building competition and I was one of three students I think a few months like that. So that was fun. But I realized through doing that that it is really cumbersome and I don't think that's a career path that I'm interested in taking. But like this club has like opened my eyes to so many more interests that I have which I think is really nice. I I do

025think I want to study political science and I've been accepted to a lot. >> Are you a senior? Yeah. >> You committed? >> Not yet. Still thinking. Okay. Anybody else gonna pursue? >> I'm interested in this field. I mean, I like public speaking. I also like debating ideas and trying to, you know, serve people and just try to get things past the better our world as a whole. So, yeah, >> this is very interesting. >> Thank you very much for for coming in. >> Thank you guys very much. Okay, that brings us to the consent agenda which is the approval of minutes for the February 23rd meeting, regular meeting and the approval of policies after revision or deletion. Did you want to talk about that? >> Yeah. So, just again, the the two policies that

026are up for approval, um either revising one or deleting the other, um I didn't get any feedback or commentary or questions on either one of those policies. So, my recommendation to the board is to approve the consent agenda, the consent agenda as presented. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Okay. So, um Don, that was Scott Soy at first, Drew Goff at second. Any other discussion on that? Okay. All in favor? Okay, motion passes and that will bring us to new and unfinished business. 10.1 is the discussion of the audit. >> So, at our last meeting, there was um some board members that had requested an opportunity to review the audit that had been completed by our auditing company, Okconor and Davis. uh Katherine had been here at the last meeting, attended the last meeting in

027February um to uh kind of review the audit at a very high level and there were some questions that uh had come from uh some board members. So, we thought it would be best to have Katherine be here again tonight. So, she is available online hopefully um and uh just to make herself available to answer any questions that board members may have uh in the hopes that we can have the um audit accepted by the board. So, questions for Cath. Katherine, are you there? >> Yes, I'm here. >> Wonderful. Thank you again for being here tonight. We really appreciate it. Are there any questions that people have for Katherine? >> Oh, uh, you know what, Katherine, do you want to go through those questions maybe that you we you went through and re uh responded

028to us for today? >> Sure, >> that'd be great. Thank you. So, a lot of the questions were about um the fund balance and the 2% that the board or that the district is allowed to retain. Um so, like we talked about at the last meeting, previously that 2% of your budget um could only be spent on capital projects. Now, with the change in the state statute, um it's basically you can spend it on anything educational related. Um, so since it's restricted to educational purposes, it's shown as restricted fund balance, but you know, most of your expenditures are educational. Um, so functionally the the funds aren't really restricted. Um, so I did provide uh a listing of what the funds are there for. um the ones in the reserve for general education fund there's about

0291.1 million um at 63025 um 693,000 is there for track replacement um 264,000 for the middle school baseball field 88 project uh 48,000 for repair of athletic fields and then 125,000 is currently unallocated um there was a question on the capital non-recurring ing fund. Um that there was 300,000 left at 63025. Um I know I talked to Eva about it and the cash was transferred from the bank to the stiff account uh while the track project was being worked on. So it's being used to pay invoices in fiscal 26. Um the balance of the questions I think was about the general funds assigned fund balance um of 2.7 million. So about 235,000 is uh your 2% that you can transfer into the reserve for general education fund. The remainder of the balance is assigned as

030the district can't keep it. um it just looks like a large balance because you don't immediately give it back to the towns um because you have to wait for the audit to make sure that your numbers are accurate. Um so it's about two years behind. So, I know looking at the fiscal 26 budget, you have um a total surplus of let's see 758,000 um which is the credit offset in the fiscal 26 budget that relates to the fiscal 24 surplus. Um, so you'll see this number change uh just depending on what your surpluses are each year. Um, and then what gets offset back to the towns. >> So we wrote a policy to have the 2% be used for capital. >> Yes, we did. >> Okay. >> Unless two3 agrees to do something >> to

031do something different with it. Okay. So I I have a follow on question if that's okay on the assigned funds. So there's 2 pardon me there's 2.7 million there. So about a little over 2,000 is from this year's surplus which we are going to keep. I think we'll vote on that later. 758,000 was the offset from last year. So that gets us to about a million. What's >> 1.7 million? >> The 758 is from fiscal 24, right? >> Um so then the rest of your difference is going to be um fiscal 25 surplus that'll then get applied in most likely fiscal 27's budget. So there's a $1.7 million roughly that's going to end up being a credit offset in a future year. >> Is that what you're saying? >> Right. It'll be in future years.

032>> Well, how do we determine what years they are? Because I mean LA, the way I understood it was last year we had a surplus of about I make up the number 1.3 million. We kept 625,599. I remember that for our 2%. The 758 presumably went into this fund. So this the other 1.7 is comes from earlier years. And so how do we decide how this money actually gets sort of used as an offset? because last year's offset the 758 happened right you know that part of that year right because I know my town is looking at the budget and seeing its portion of the 758 was it required in their town assessment so these other this other 1.7 when is that happening >> um I mean I would say that's a management question when

033the offset will be used um and it's something we can certainly take a look at with them if there's portions from years prior to 2024 in there. I'm not sure off the top of my head. >> So, Katherine, if we wanted to take this offline and call you tomorrow with with more detail on it. Can we do that? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Does anybody have any other questions for Katherine regarding the audit? I have one more related the 758 offset. Is there some place we can see that in a financial statement in the audit? >> Um it's not in the audit. No, it's just part of that fund balance amount. >> Part of that fund balance. So there's hard for us to see that but it's hard for us to then see how that impacts

034the revenue. >> I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time hearing that. >> Oh, I'm sorry. So, we have revenue exhibits in the audit that show the town levies, >> but we don't see explicitly anywhere the offset. So, that just makes it a little challenging to find it. >> That's something we can definitely look into um for next year's audit, just breaking that out in the budget. That would be great. Thank you. >> Are there are there any other questions? Anybody online? Um. Yes. So there do we have a motion that the region 8 board of education accept the 2024 2025 budget audit? >> So moved. >> That was um Mike Bolier and a second. >> I'll second >> Jessica Hall was the second. Any other discussion on that? All in favor? I >> Anyone opposed?

035Anyone abstain? Okay, that motion passes. >> Thank you, Catherine. >> Um discussion and possible action regarding the allocation of the 2024 2025 surplus funds to the reserve of education expenditure fund. It is enclosure 10.2 in your packet. >> Yeah. And so this is Heather, you just touched upon this. You know, we do have a board event policy uh 3432. That basically spells out that if surplus from the previous year's from the previous fiscal year exists after the completion of the audit, an amount up to 2% of the previous year's total budget can be placed in a non-lapsing account and used to pay for capital projects and maintenance of school buildings, facilities, and grounds. To the point that was also made earlier, it could be used for other educational expenditures, but it would be require a

036twothirds vote of the board in order for that to happen. Um the entire surplus amount of the 2425 budget does not exceed 2% of last year's budget. As we've said, it's uh 235,000. Um so we are recommending that the entire surplus be placed into the non-lapsing educational expenditures account for future facilities projects. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to allocate the um fiscal year 2024 2025 audited surplus amount totaling $235,121 the reserve for education expenditure fund. >> So Scotty >> Scotty a second >> second is Drew Gin. Is there any other discussion on that? >> I have a quick question. >> Yep. Um sorry, but um is this uh allocation already um assumed or anywhere in the um our limit position, >> you know, that's on your the closure 10A? >> No. No. Oh,

037no. It's totally set to right. Yeah. Good. That's what I thought. I just wonder. >> Any other questions? Okay. Do we have a motion? Oh, I'm sorry. The motion. >> All in favor? Lost my track. >> I >> Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? And the motion passes. That was fine. Um the so now we're up to 10.3 the RAM um generator project updates. >> So there's just a a few things that I wanted to provide an update to the board about uh with regards to this project. Um, as I I know most member most board members are aware, the state um awarded really the collectively the town of Hebrinand over Marbor kind of came together a few years ago, applied for a state grant um and were awarded a state grant um to to receive uh

038$2 million for the purpose of putting a generator to power the entire Ram High School uh facility. The hopes actually was that initially it would power the entire the entire school facility. So both the high school and middle school in in totality. Um and the reason for the state awarding us this grant was because of the fact it would then enable the school district to serve as a regional shelter um for all three towns. Currently we really are a shelter for the town of Hein only. Um but our current generator really has limited capacity with what it can power. Um so we're we are we can serve as a shelter but we have limited capacity for what we can power and that power. Um so in order to fully um uh power the the high

039school um again we were awarded this $2 million grant. Um unfortunately uh where we are at this point is there's currently and Michael can correct Michael Schlayhoffer is on here um and and Mal Lecter from the PBC might be on here as well. Um there's currently a $1.2 million shortfall to complete that project. Um and we don't have any indication that we would receive any additional state funding at this time to complete the project as was as it was initially planned and intended. Um so where we currently are and this really just uh has come about in the past few weeks is the project is being scaled back to do the following. Uh we would replace our existing generator that is original to the reconstruction. So we have a 20-year-old generator which we could get

040a new one. So it's beneficial to the district obviously. Um and it would basically um power um the existing lights and systems that are powered with our current generator. And it's not because it doesn't have the capacity to power more. Actually, the generator that we are getting pl uh put in here has the capacity to power both schools in its entire in their entirety. Uh the issue is the internal um wiring and and and stuff that I just don't understand. um that has the additional cost in order for it to full fully power it if that makes sense. >> Big extension cord. >> Yeah, big extension cord. So, we have a small one. Unfortunately, we need a bigger one and unfortunately the bigger one to power the entire high school is an additional $1.2 million

041and on top of that it would be additional funds that would be needed for us to power the middle school in its entirety. Um we've, you know, this has never been a project where the district had any anticipation or plans to um put any money into. Um, you know, we uh we're excited certainly to get a a new generator that has the capac has an increased capacity. Um, but you know, we basically are at a point where um we're basically going to be able to power everything that's currently powered. Um, Michael, am I missing anything there? Or Mal Lecter from the PBC, I think you were planning on being here as well. Am I missing anything? >> Nope. Colin, you uh you said it very well. >> Thanks. So, uh, you know, they're going to

042start doing the work relatively soon. Um, the first part is doing some excavation. The the the pad and the generator are actually going to go in between kind of where um adjacent to our loading dock area is, there's an area where there's an incline and a tree. They're going to do some um excavation, put a concrete pad, run some conduits and wires from that area. Um and then eventually when the generator is ready, Michael, how far out is the generator from actually being um like it's we're a ways out, correct? >> Uh end of May, beginning of June, it's uh scheduled to be at the rigors. >> Okay. So So we've got some work to do until the generator would get uh put in place. Um, you know, one of the things that we've talked

043about is communicating with our uh state representatives to see if there could potentially be some additional funding provided by the state. Um, uh, there has been already some communication with state representatives. I think there could be a benefit um, for me to work on drafting a communication that can be sent to the legislature on behalf of the board. I'd certainly run it by Heather and make sure it's okay with, you know, meets um, the standards that you guys are comfortable with. With regards to communication, I also think it would be beneficial to communicate with our three partner with our three sending towns. Um, if they really want Ram High School to serve as an emergency shelter for all three uh uh for all three towns, I think I need to first inform them. I don't

044know how well informed they might be that we are not going to really be able to do that with uh with the change um unfort with the unforeseen change that we find ourselves facing right now. Um you know, who knows? maybe there can be a more of a long-term plan to to say is there a way for for towns to help out with funding um you know bringing this project to to completion the way it was initially intended. Um that that kind of I wanted to just let everybody know that's kind of where we currently are. Obviously it's disappointing because of the fact it's not quite what quite what we were hoping for. Um, but again, I'm I'm excited to at least have the capacity to get us online um in the future. And I'm

045certainly glad that that we're getting a brand new generator as opposed to a 20 some odd year old one. >> Questions Michael or I could do our best to try to answer them. >> I was still confused on was the plan was was there. What what changed just the prices of things? >> Cost of generator, cost of the work in order to all of the internal work that needs to be done with switches and wiring that would need to be done um is the primary is >> the prices of those things have just gone up a lot. >> Correct. And that's that's the unfortunate thing is right now I'm saying that we're to to that point. Exactly. So right now I'm saying we're $1.2 $2 million short for us to to to get the generator

046that's going to get installed to bring it online for just the high school. Right now, we're saying it's $1.2 million in a year or two or three when it could be greater than that. And then for us to find ourselves in a situation where we want to power the middle school completely, um it could be even more than that. Um I >> So again, I I don't really have a solution. I just wanted to, you know, present the situation where we currently find ourselves to you all and let you know what uh what I think we should do with regards to communication with the stakeholders about this. >> Well, in terms of emergency management, three towns that might take advantage of that, would would some of the approach you use them include perhaps the cost

047bonding projects at the towns? I I know several of of the three towns, I don't know if it's all three, plan on doing some bonding. if they split that up among the three towns and part of the bond. It could be >> Yeah, I I mean my my intention is to communicate, you know, have written communication with with town managers and boards of selectmen. I would certainly avail myself to go and and be a part of a meeting, answer questions that they might have, brainstorm ideas as to how we can potentially solve this issue. Um again I I I just I know Hebrin because Hebrin the Hebrin public building commission has been really having has had all oversight over this project. This is not a RAM project and any Michael Schlayhoffer and I attend meetings

048uh Mike Sharon and now Rudy attend as representing uh the board of education but this is really a you know a PBC project. Um so I don't even know how much the town of Andover knows. I don't know how much the town of of of Marorrow knows about kind of where we currently are. in order for us to even qualify for this funding in the first place or I should say for for the funding to be given um to we had to there had to be resolutions and agreements between the three towns um saying yes this is something that we want to do moving forward so I I really think the first step for me is to communicate with all three towns and say this is where we are um and then again communicate with

049state legislators to see if there's any assistance that can be provided >> that we'll bring Our next if anybody has any last questions for >> that will bring us to um artificial intelligence use in uh reaching. >> Yeah. So um certainly not for she described as warfare that was little intimidating. Um so in your board packet is enclosure 10.4 four. And this is just a memo that I I wanted to share with the board about kind of where we are and where we see ourselves going with regards to the use of of uh artificial intelligence in the district. Um, you know, we've been really working on this, I'd say, for about a year and a half, two yearsish. Um, it it's kind of crazy when you think about how quickly AI has just emerged and

050really just consumed a lot of areas of our lives. I know I use it for a lot of things. Everything from helping draft memos to coming up with dinner ideas. Um it's it's a pretty powerful tool. But one of the things that we um I wanted to do is is share kind of where we currently are and where we see ourselves going with regards to the use of AI. So I I won't regurgitate everything that's in this memo, but um Mary Rose me is joining us this evening as well as Nicole Dagel, our library media specialist for the district. um they've have been working as a part of the group that has been looking at different tools um and really that was the first step was the exploring of AI tools and platforms to utilize

051and bring in districts. There's a lot of them out there. They're emerging and changing on a regular basis. Um and and ultimately where we landed it was in the beginning of this school year where we engaged in a contract with a company called school AI. Um, school AI is a platform that we ultimately identified and again there were a lot of a lot of different ones out there and primarily school AI was identified because I'll use the term guardrails Mary Rosen Nicole I think that's a good way to put it. School AI has guard rails that other uh AI platforms don't have. um it to to to create opportunities for students uh well to I should say decrease opportunities for students to use AI in a way that it's not intended to be used right

052um and whereas if you just go into chat GPT or even Google Gemini you know you could say write me a paper that says X Y and Z and it'll just it'll spit it out whereas if I'm not mistaken you put a prompt like that into school AI and it'll say >> a thought partner instead it says I can't do that for you but where would you like to start? And so it engages um and it it that was one school I imagine sort of both ones that emerged from the state pilot program um that was done two years ago. Um the research around that emerged and it just this particular platform was the only one actually built teaching students ethical and effective use from before. So it's uh it was um company that was

053um by educators um and so that was something that um we knew was important again they need to know how to use it on the week but it has to be inclusive space I also will unlike any of the other things Rose oh sorry and miss Dagel too because I'm sure they'll have questions Yeah. So, school ad has those guard rails up and we chose it because it was designed with students in mind. The other feature that it has that none of the other three um items that Oregon Gemini has is if a student makes a comment um that is dangerous or selfharming or concerning, the teacher is flagged with that. So, there's also that extra piece there. Um, also it speak it works in um in concert with Google classroom so teachers can see

054what's happening. They can pop into the students chat and see how they're utilizing the resource and uh right chance um use our map chair. We've been looking at map specific AI tools um some of which were expensive. we got a very good deal to try school a this year and there are those fees are not super super high um unlike some of these other ones and so um we provided some training we have some training actually on Friday coming up um where over 55 faculty have signed in um surveys um throughout the year to see how teachers are doing with it you know and our faculty reflect the world as well. Some never use it and and others have so much to the ways that they can utilize it effectively and ethically. And I would

055say we talked a lot about um the state of Connecticut adopted the common sense med digital digital literacy curriculum um and that we know how important it is that that students are ethically engaging with it. this is a this is a platform that that actually has those guard rails that doesn't allow them to do things that are um but it's a it's a big fastm moving technology um and I think in addition to wanting to make sure our students know how to use it because the the constant hope that keeps coming back is AI is not going to replace people in jobs but people who know how to use AI I remember those people that don't. And so just ensuring that our students know what it is. Um they know how to use it, but

056do they know how to use it ethically and effectively um with integrity? That's something I think we have a responsibility to teach them. So that has been part of our process. Nicole um has been great. She's one person. and she's trying to do LMS and other things and curation and programming and but we're also working on trying to support um AI education and the other piece that's very important to me and you heard about the pledge of cause which Nicole posted that a couple weeks ago um digital wellness is something that's really important who's a wonderful person at CRE who runs workshops on this Something we also have to have as part of our conversation with our students is the importance of pulling away from technology. So um we're we're moving and exploring and working

057to understand it and teach our students the ethics of it. We certainly don't want to undo their critical thinking. We don't want them to utilize it as a replacement for their thought. um and if they want them to understand the implications as well and really takes away from the voice of the person who's trying to right so >> so what I would say I I as Mary Rose said and I even said earlier like it this is a fast moving like this is just moving very quickly and I will I've always been one and to to really when you have these things that are happening very rapidly is to approach them very slowly and deliberately because I think that if you just jump on things you you know you're not taking very specific deliberate steps

058in order to make sure that you're doing it the right way. Um you know it's it's evolving so quickly that if you do things like set a policy on something that is very specific for for AI within two months that policy could be outdated because the technology has changed. Um, one of the things that I mentioned in my memo was, you know, one of the things that the administrative team did very very early on with the onset of AI was we revised our plagiarism language in our not in our policy handbook but in our student handbook to really incorporate language around the use of AI. And if you're using AI and you're you're doing it wholly in part and you're not citing it, then you're plagiarizing. So now what I think that we need to

059do particularly because we've also worked on this position statement um which was generated by staff here in the district and and again I appreciate the ro the work that Mary Rose did in spearheading bringing this uh committee together and and developing this AI position statement is I really felt like we needed that position statement to help guide us, right? Because if we just said, "Hey, we're gonna put language here. We're going to do this. We're going to do that." Well, then we're going to be scattered in a variety of different directions. Whereas, if we have this position statement that was created by staff, it wasn't Mary Rose and I sitting down in a in a vacuum. I mean, it was it was actually primarily >> mostly faculty, >> teachers. I think it was three admin

060three or four administrators and it was and and and not only was it just people who were hey let's we're we're embracing AI we actually intentionally put the committee together with a combination of people who were very skeptical and indicated that skepticism. We had done a um a survey of staff and their feelings about it. We had actually looked you could track to see how many people are engaging with school AI so we could see who was using it and who wasn't. and Mary Rose and I sat down in my office. We were like, "Oh, this person's not really using it that much. Let's make sure they're a part of this conversation. Oh, this person's using it a bunch. Let's make sure." And we really had a very balanced group of skeptics and people were

061that were using it heavily to develop that position statement. And again, now that we have that, we're focused on providing professional development so that teachers can develop their competency and their capacity to use it much in the same way just with the advent of instructional technology in general. Um and and and now I I feel like we can move forward with starting to look at policies that exist like appropriate use of technology, right? We have a we have a policy about appropriate use of technology. Well, we need to incorporate some language into that policy about the use of AI and and and that really is what I see us moving towards as we continue to again build the capacity and build the capa the competency of teachers and staff so that they can start to

062use it when they feel comfortable doing so. This isn't a mandated thing. It's not a force thing. We have teachers that are feeling comfortable with it. We have teachers that are not. And we're like, "That's okay. We just want you to feel like you are moving forward in a direction that you're comfortable, too." >> It's so hard to not be reactive to something that keeps coming at us so fast. But um to Colin's point, when you're reacting to something, you end up creating things without a lot of thought and without a lot of voice. and Nicole was part of our she's also running professional learning workshop this Friday around prompting an AI which is something that we took out of a couple of different professional development workshops that we did. Um it's hard to not

063keep reacting and there's a lot of emotions around this. Some people are all in and some people are really afraid of it and and every single voice is really valid and every feeling is really valid. So I just feel like um I know some people wanted wanted us to go and send out a statement. But I think that our work together as a committee, creating that statement that had all voices was really important and and being deliberate and thoughtful about the decisions we're making is really important as well. Um just a little bit just that um one of the things that came out of our conversations and it is here in the position statement is the teachers felt overwhelmingly that we wanted to make sure we emphasize that AI is not going to replace the

064human connection. It's not going to replace human creativity um the the teacher student connection all of those things and that's in the policy is that we still recognize that that is the core of education and AI is a tool. So that really came out of those conversations with home for teachers and I feel like everyone even no matter how they felt about AI, >> we all agree. Everyone agreed on that piece. So that comes through. I think >> we've been talking a lot. Are there any questions that board members might have? >> Thank you for including so many teachers. Always. >> I I want to apologize. I got here and opened up my computer to find the email I thought I'd sent you with my comments earlier. I never sent it on this. I I

065think we do need to talk policy and I'm I'm afraid of spreading it through our policy manual for the exact reason that um you know everything's changing so fast, but I also think I love the statement you guys wrote. I think it's it's wonderful, but I think we should incorporate something like that in board policy for the district. Something flexible, but also to the point, hey, we want to use this but not abuse it. Um, so I I think we need to address that. Three of the policy committee members are here and I think and I guess we're going to have more soon and joining us. Um, but >> didn't you just say that you were going to be incorporating AI into >> Yeah. So I I don't I don't think that there based off

066of Mary Rose and I have been to a ton of professional development in this area. There's actually another one. We went to an AI summit for education. It was sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education. I think it was almost a year ago. Yes. Pretty close to a year ago. And >> um >> basically there's no >> there's not a there's not like a you need to do this approach like the I don't consider myself to be an expert in this area in any way, shape or form. But I talked to a lot of people with a great deal of knowledge and expertise in comparison to what and the people that I spoke with said there's two ways that you could approach it. You can have a single AI policy or you could take

067it you could take it and you can kind of interwe you could kind of put it out into the policies um from a high level general standpoint so that it can hold up even as things change and evolve. Um and that would be my recommended approach is is is to to say well where where does it fit in where you know to the as I said um appropriate use of technology it fits in potentially into the student discipline policy. it fits in to to because it is we've dealt with that at the student level with students using it inappropriately. Um and and we've levied consequences as a result. Um there also is an approach and I know some some districts have done it of of nope, we're going to write an AI policy as a

068district. Ultimately that's up to the board and what the board wants to do. Um I I obviously I take guidance and direction from you all. Um, but my feeling is if we take it and we put it out into the applicable policies where where we feel it's appropriate, necessary, that to me because what I do is when I when I deal with issues, I look at policy like if I get a if if a board if one of the school administrators contacts me and says, "Hey, this is what something that's just happened. Can we talk about what's the best way to deal with it?" I'll say, "Well, what does the policy have to say on that specific topic?" And you know, >> a lot of districts that's the that's the direction many districts are going.

069Um, as we were doing our committee work, we were sort of looking at what are other school districts doing in terms of that. Um, very few had a board policy. Um, and so we we just looked at all of that, but a lot of schools had like what we had created the the position statement. Um, I think to Colin's point, having things embedded within policies affected by aid versus making it it's un this is my little how 2001 situation, but I don't want to give it more I don't want to give it more power or value um than we would give to Microsoft Word like because it is an instructional technology. It's a tool. it. There's parts of it that will impact behavior, plagiarism, etc. I hesitate to give it its own little world. Um,

070because I don't want it to take on more of a role than it really needs to. >> That's what Colin said in the in the note. You had that same suggestion. And I'm suggesting that because it's moving so fast, scattering it through our our manual is going to be a problem because then we're going to have this one out of date with that one and this one here and but we we updated that policy, but these other three still need to be done. I'm worried about that because the AI world is changing so fast. That's the reason I would think of centralizing it. But I also think this is probably a discussion for the policy committee >> rather than the whole board at first. So I I would like to get that on the policy

071committee agenda though is to talk about this. >> Yeah. >> And it's definitely a good idea to have some have it somewhere because it is an emerging and growing technology. Um certainly going to be part of school. >> So I had a question. This ended, by the way, this excellence position statement, but I know we we purchase school AI, but how do we regulate or approach students not to use another AI product and bring it into the classroom somehow? Is there a way? >> Well, we don't have Gemini turned on for our kids in the building. Um, I think this goes back to what we were talking about with the digital literacy curriculum, the idea of ethics, the idea of integrity. Um, there are some teachers who are moving away from using the Chromebooks for

072certain kinds of assessments. Um, somebody said to me, imagine if we didn't use Chromebooks, how many blue books we could buy. I mean that's a little extreme but that is one way of thinking um to ensure that our students are creating authentic original self-created material. Um it's a challenge is >> so there's nothing that would prevent a student though maybe getting on their parents computer >> saying to take your example write me an essay on the Declaration of Independence since it's 250th anniversary taking that essay written completely by Chad or whatever importing it somehow into the Google Chromebook and then maybe going to saying here's my first draft >> what's happening okay >> it started a concern and it's something that we're very aware of um in the classroom. One of the things that we

073actually studied during the AI courses we get through are um AI proof assessments durable >> and durable assessments the term and so that is something that we could bring out to the teachers where they're writing things that are maybe it's something that they're creating in the classroom or it's something where they have to um present orally so that you know and they're asked questions in a you know surprise sort of way. So there are definitely people out there who are thinking about this. we've been learning about it. Um, and the next step I think is to bring that to the teachers. Um, as AI is growing, so are the people who are coming up with these. >> So, it's definitely on the on our minds. >> Does anybody have any other questions? >> Um, from

074a a school AI perspective, um, how long is the contract and was this vetted by the state? I'm sorry, I missed that first part. It was a little muffled when you guys started talking. >> Yeah, it is. It's that's one of there's five that were vetted fully by the state and actually school AI, imagine school were the two that were most utilized in the state pilot. Um and so those are those became and the most popular. Not only do they pass Connecticut's privacy policy, they just got two more privacy certifications. They're very very committed to student privacy. Um, we signed a one-year contract and we got 50% off. So, um, we did get a great deal this year. Um, and then, uh, we have funding to have it again next year, but we are only

075signing one year contracts because again things are changing and we know that they are changing quickly, >> right? And I'm assuming school AI keeps up with the state legislation. Yes. >> Oh, the the the important piece is I think that school AI and the reason we chose it is that that particular platform was developed number one with students in mind and how we could teach students to use it. Um and then sort of pulled out for teacher support and things like that. Um but it it also um you know it it was created mostly by teachers, educators. Not one person that I've spoke to or worked with at school is not at some point a classroom teacher and that makes a big difference in how the platform works and functions for schools. >> Okay. Excellent.

076>> I appreciate the clarity and I definitely appreciate the the position I I read. I think it's a it's a wonderful position. So, great job. >> Thank you very much. Thanks. >> Thanks, guys. >> Okay, that will bring us to an update on the proposed 2627 budget. >> God, is that right? >> What? >> All right. So, I am going to pass out I I sent this to board members earlier today. >> Um, it is a memo with an update from myself to the board. So, um, again, I sent this out to the board members earlier today. I apologize for the late, um, notification on it, but, um, we actually just had changes that took place, um, last Thursday at our at our insurance consortium meetings. So, that's the reason I wasn't able to get

077the memo out until uh, this morning. Um, but we did have a meeting last Thursday of the insurance consortium. We met to establish the rate increase for next year. Um, we were we had been at a 15% increase. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a 21% increase, which we had some forewarning about. I think we found out about it about three or four days beforehand that it potentially could go up to 21%. The reason it went from 15 to 21. We were expecting a little bit of an increase due to just claims as as as we get more updated claims, we we usually will see either upswings or down swings. Usually down swings in in premium costs, but unfortunately it was trending upwards. Um, the primary driver for the significant percentage increase was the fact

078that we ended up having uh an increase to our stop-loss contract with Anthem, which caps our consortium's financial liability for individual members high claims. Um, so because of that, we are now have the 21% increase, which equates to $193,424 over our current budget. Thank you. Um, we did schedule a special meeting of the consortium next Thursday to the look at the possibility of reducing from that 21%. Um, we're not quite sure if we're going to be able to or not, but uh there's there's the possibility that we will and we're really trying to extend setting it permanently um for next year as as as long as possible because the longer we wait the the better opportunity is for that decrease to potentially exist. Um, we are adding a new consortium member right now. uh the

079consortium exists of the three towns and the three boards of educations from each town, Ram as well as AHM. So those have always those have been the consortium members, but we actually because of the fact that our consortium has been run so well um and and which a lot of school districts are having issues with with insurance at this point. Um we actually have been approached by a few different entities um and East Hampton approached us a few months ago. We used our insurance consultant to analyze claims that uh East Hampton has and make a determination and recommendation to the consortium on whether it would be a good idea to east add East Hampton or not. And ultimately the the recommendation was it it was a a solid financial decision for us to make to

080add them because it spreads that risk out. Um and they are a district that um has does not have significant um claims. Um so we did vote to approve them at our March 12th meeting as well. Um, so we do have $193 uh,000 increase. The good news is is that um, you know, Eva and um, the business office uh, they've been working hard as they always do during this period of time to identify potential savings, things that we could either uh, you know, reduce through um, you know, entering contracts early, just you know, just minor adjustments and changes that can be made. Um and and they were able to identify an additional $138,782 in reductions from the initial initially proposed budget, which would bring that overall increase down to $54,642. And the impact of these

081changes would bring our proposed budget increase to a 3.30, which again, I feel that's pretty reasonable when you look at where we where the landscape of things currently are. It's still amongst the lowest in our area. And so attached to the memo are a couple of documents. Number one are some of the adjustments that we're looking at since we last discussed things with the board. Um the top of the spreadsheet shows a table with the adjustments that we would reduce and it gives the dollar amount and um uh a rationale for each one of those. One of the things that I'll point out is um adding the um the leadership the remember the the last board meeting the uh you all wanted me to keep in the leadership training and the leadership equipment for that

082for that course the health and fizz class at the high school. >> So you asked me to put you asked us to keep that in the budget. Um and so uh we actually looked at our net favorable position and we are in a good financial place to to pay for those things out of our current year's budget so we can take those things back out which is obviously good for good. So it's about $22,000. And then there's other things as well in there um that that we can reduce as well. And then again when compared to that health insurance increase it shows the difference between the two being $54,642. Um the third document uh of from what I just handed out is just the updated levy sheet. It shows our member town levy for each

083town for both the capital and the operating budget. And again it shows our overall increase at a 3.30%. Um I can certainly take questions that board members might have. But again, um you know, where we currently are, we've only got a couple weeks left until we actually have to as you as a as a board on April 6 have to adopt the budget and um or approve the budget and send it to referendum. But I I feel like we're in a really good place right now when you consider where we initially started questions. >> Anybody have any questions online? Hey, just a reminder that Colin's going to be presenting the budget to the Hebrin um folks tomorrow at 7. >> I believe the meeting starts at 7. >> Starts at 7:00 and it's at the

084library. Um >> and I did get some questions from members of the Hein board of finance or board of selectmen. And in my responses that I sent back, I made sure I included the board on those responses so you're aware of those communications. I have one more that I need to respond to. I just they got away from me. So, I'm going to work on finishing that tomorrow morning. I'll make sure I include the board members on that response as well. So, um the one thing I will mention since you are going to go talk to tomorrow and you already >> it's Marboro >> are looking at not just the comparison to budget but offset. So even though that's not a valid budget comparison, it affects the levy. And so that's what some of the

085finance committ put in your agenda to think about how you might talk to them about what we did last year. >> Just remind them that we gave well that there is an offset, but it wasn't that the budget was lower. Right? So what I'm hearing now in my town is because if you actually look at the allocation >> what what comes to Marboro and I assume the other towns are going to feel this in one direction or another is actually less than what the budget was the year before >> and that's because of the change in the student enrollment. So just budget to budget we're actually less in Marboro now but they're thinking we're more because they looked at the offset. >> Yeah. So I I mean when I >> just a guy it's a

086conversation that's >> so so the one I did it for Marbor I'm pretty confident because I had the data for Marorrow and I and I certainly will do it with Hebrin where I have that table that shows here's where you were last year here's where you are this year and it shows a decrease. >> Yes. Um, last year when there was also an offset included in it, I had a separate column in that same table that said, you know, here's your operating, here's your capital, here's what your offset is, so here's what the total ask is, >> right? >> Yeah. I I Yeah, I certainly try to highlight the fact that it's it's I mean, in the grand scheme of things that Hein's the toughest cell for lack of a better term because the fact

087that he the shift in enrollment has really impacted Hebrin in a you know, in a unfortunate way. I mean that's just that's kind of where we are right. >> Um you know so whereas Marboro is seeing a decrease in their member town levy Andover is certainly seeing a decrease in their member town levy um will not be seeing a decrease and I I think that is something that is not sitting well with with people on the board of finance and board selection. Yeah, I think when so I've got the Marboro pack and I don't think the offset was >> because Yeah. >> Right. So that's what's so they see a decrease but if they look at numbers with the offset they see an increase. That's the only thing. Okay. >> So when you do the

088dialogue it's going to be an increase in here no matter what. >> Yeah. Right. >> So >> okay. Um that will bring us to 10.6 a discussion and possible action regarding the recommended use of fiscal year 2025 current net favorable favorable positionable. >> It's enclosure 10.6. >> I'm happy to not talk at this moment. >> Okay. So as part of your enclosure 10.6 is a one-page memo that highlights the items that we're asking for pre purchase. So, this is a transfer. So, the full um debits and credits are on this um the toss and the froms um that will highlight what we're trying to purchase. If the board approves this listing of $169,880, I will work with um the department chairs, coordinators to um ensure that these items um get um purchased so that they

089can get delivered and invoiced before June 30th of 2026. Are there any questions that the board may have at this time? >> Make the motion to transfer $169,880 as presented in the enclosure 10.6 to fund the cost of identified onetime purchases. >> I'll second. >> Okay. So that was Scott Soyette is the first and hall is the second. Any other discussion on this? >> So I have two questions. Um will this this the impact of this given our net position is 377 favorable will this make it essentially 200,000 >> correct? >> Okay. And the other question I had was um when we had a list of these reductions before we had a $10,000 um drop in expenses for groundskeeping equipment that must left off that list. >> It's not left off the list. The department

090had actually has money in his own budget so transfer is not required. >> Oh, okay. Good. Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions on this? >> Are you good? >> Yep. >> You were lighting up on the board. I just want to make sure. >> Just because I changed my mic to on. >> Okay. Um, all in favor? Right. >> Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? Okay. And that motion passes. All right, that brings us to 10.7, a discussion of possible action related to the healthy food certification. >> Okay, so this is an annual healthy food certification that requires board action. Um, and I'm doing a caveat here. So, whoever need whoever decides to read the motion, the motion has to be read verbatim because um we've had in the past that um the motion has not been

091read verbatim. So it goes back to the board and the board has to redo it. Um so basically um if we pass or if we accept or if the board accepts um the healthy food certification, we receive money additional funds for the healthy food that we're supposed to serve. Um the first healthy food option choice is where the board is making the decision to do so. Then there's exemptions for food and beverages for 30 minutes after the close of business that can be sold um at events during the school. Um so whether it's the musical uh sporting event um whatever the case may be that they can sell food that is not considered healthy. >> Any questions? >> Do we have a motion? Pursuant to CGS section 10-215F, the regional school district 8 BOE certifies

092that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups. >> Wow. Well done. >> So moved. Okay, Drew Goffin is one uh our first. Do we have a second? >> Second is um Rudy Del Fury. Any other discussion on that? Please don't ask me to read it again.

093>> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? Okay. >> Just you want me to just jump into the next one or >> Sure. >> Okay. The recommended motion is the regional school district 8 BOE will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves soccer games, school plays. >> I do that

094right. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice, meeting, or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events. But soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. Do we have a motion? >> So movey is the first. We have a second. >> A second. >> Second is Jessica Hall. Any other discussion on that? All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? The motion passes. Thank you. >> Those over with another three in the memo >> there. But the they combine the two

095together. >> Oh, good. >> I I think they rethought their position on making people read it three times. >> Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. >> That brings us to 10.8. review of indoor air quality reports. >> Uh at this time I will turn it over to Mr. Schllayoff who is with us virtually. >> Hi there. So um this memo serves as a notice of compliance that we conducted our annual required state indoor air quality inspection of the both both of the buildings. Um the reports which we do um inhouse are posted on the website online for everyone to review. Um, this is not to be confused with the five-year review that was publicly um not publicly but um that we have to do every five years that we hire like an outside company to come in

096and do. Um that report will be due in 29. Um through the annual inspection that we did, it took a couple couple months. Um there were no huge deficiencies that we found. Um anything that we did found we addressed during the review with um our HVAC contractor. And um if anybody has any questions or you know want to know more details, I'm happy to answer. >> I'd say that's a lot of checklists. Um, so and that's why it's online because it's literally like uh the HVAC review. Each HVAC unit is five pages long of of checks in like yes, no, yes, no, non-applicable. Um, and it's like, you know, 200 and something pages of paper that has to be done every year. So, but is there any way where it says the air is good?

097>> The air is improvably bad. I think is what it says. >> We're checking, we're confirming that the coils are clean, that the your drain pans are are not all rusty and moldy and, you know, checking the making sure the filters were dated and changed quarterly like they're supposed to be. Um, this is like some not only not only is it it's like checks and balances for the HVAC contractor who's doing the PM as well, making sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. >> But it also involves like walking the entire building and checking closets and storage rooms and making sure that, you know, ceiling tiles are not, you know, falling down and moldy and that there's active leaks somewhere. Um, so it it's a good review. It's just very very time

098consuming and takes a lot of people to to to conduct it. >> Anyone have any other questions for Mike? >> Thank you, Mike. >> No problem. >> 10.9 is the first readings of the policies. >> Yeah. So, there's two policies for consideration for updating. The first one is um uh 9141 which is uh the uh board bylaw on committees. Um this is something that I discussed last at our last board meeting. So this basically takes our five existing policies uh shrinks them down to really just three. So we're combining policy program together and then facilities and finance together and then we're maintaining negotiations as a separate one that is really just comes together as as needed for negot for the uh negotiations process and then the only other change in it is just having um

099uh the part about the co-chairs um and you know what I might did we not get the page that was revised? We we added something in there, Scott, right about a quorum being half the board. More than half. I apologize. >> Um this one >> Yes. basically that a core I think didn't we add language about a quorum being half more than half? >> Well, I don't think we did because we found it elsewhere. >> Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. I know we had conversations about it. My >> tal hard to keep it all straight. So, >> do we have an effective date for this? Uh once once this policy gets approved uh presumably at the next meeting then um you know Heather can reshuffle the committees and it would go. >> So

100the plan is to do it for this year not right now as opposed to waiting until >> uh I mean we never really talked about that prior. I mean there's we could certainly wait. We could certainly hold off. It doesn't really make a difference. >> I mean typically we do a first read one month, a second read the next month. So it would really go into effect. Perfect. Yeah. >> Uh the next policy, it just was easier to just X out everything. It's uh currently it's called school lunch. Um but really in effect, it's it's more than just school lunch. It actually talks about meal charging. So we changed the name of it to meal charging. And we really just redlined everything out of the old policy because there was so many um changes to

101it. Um the the the policy language that we're recommending, we really hate to say we don't want to change it for two reasons. Number one, uh it is recommended language based off of the updates from Shipment and Goodwin. And then the other piece is that we also added language beyond what Shipment and Goodwin recommends, but we needed to rec we needed to add because we just went through the process of having an audit done of our um uh school um meal program. Thank you. Um, and so, uh, basically the updated language is all in black font and again it has a combination of shipment language plus language that was approved by the state auditor who came in and looked at our uh, did a comprehensive audit of our school lunch program and uh, we wanted

102to make sure we included language that was necessary. So, we can certainly take any questions on either of those, but if there are not any, it would go to the second reading and go into effect at the uh, after the meeting. Anybody have any questions online? >> Okay, that brings us to financials. >> All right, so 10.10A in your um handouts is the enclosure. Um so as Mr. Goffin noted, um the current net favor position was 376,526, but after doing the pre- purchase transfers, that will reduce that dollar amount slightly. Um, we did receive our first payment for excess cost in the amount of $299,925. Um, capital improvement in the reserve for general education fund. There are currently no outstanding projects um that are being worked on and the pupil services department after every IEP

103meeting is um adjusting um POS's um either up or down based on whatever the students needs on how they have changed or are changing. Are there any questions that the board may have? >> Just one. Um the uh the amount received for excess cost um you said that had shifted. Is that higher or lower than we were expecting? Um, so that's where we're supposed to be. So this year we're actually getting what we're supposed to be getting where we haven't gotten that um in the past. So >> but that is a moving target because as our children because it has it gets tied to the high cost special ed kit. So if they change for any reason, our number either goes down or up. And again, March 1st was the last day to um claim

104any of those students. Um because there's reporting that's done three times a year. It has to be done December 31st, March 1st, and then June by the end of June 30th. And that's how our payments get scheduled to us, I guess, or calculated out for us, >> right? I just saw that the things had changed. I can't I can't read it right now. >> Okay. Sorry. Um but no, no, no, no. just um we were expecting the 299 925 or whatever. >> Um so no um we were expecting a little bit more because we had we had uh a few students that had more costs to them that unfortunately the cost sort of went down a little bit >> which is good for the student that >> it's a double-edged sword that that's that's the

105>> Okay. So it it was down. I just can't tell and it was adjusted from something I couldn't tell which direction. >> Yeah. >> So are you saying then student costs were down which was good for the student but it's still above four and a half threshold. So >> So >> what we're spending hasn't changed which is the first >> correct >> um do we see the that extra cost somewhere else in other words dropping? >> No, not necessarily. It it could. So again, so if if someone is considered a high cost special ed student, either they move out of district, then yes, you will see that money come back. If that we have change of placement for it, placement is a little bit less, transportation services might be less, whatever the case may be,

106yes, you will see that in in the the associated expenditure account. >> Okay. But we don't have a way. So what I'm getting at >> I can't identify students, so no, you can't. >> No, no, no, no. I don't I'm not talking no just I'm talking totally numbers here. So for example, suppose the student cost 150,000 and that was in our budget and we expected to get back I'll make up the number 55,000 or something like that, right? >> But now the student actually only cost 125. Good news, right? >> So we had budgeted to spend 150 and get 55 back. Now we're only spending 125 and getting 30 back, >> right? So >> I see the reduction of what we're getting back there, but I don't see the reduction of the spend. Well, you

107you >> It's in here somewhere. >> It's in here. >> It's in the soup. Okay. >> I just wasn't sure if it was being netted somehow. >> It is. >> Any additional questions? >> All right. Hearing none, we're going to go to 10.10b, which is the food service monthly sale and expenditure report for February 2026. Um, so at the end of February, we realized a net loss of $91,976. Um, however, the loss for February was only $5,59. Um, there were two snowstorms that contributed to this loss since there were no sales those days. Um, and in addition, we had the through February 25th through February 27th. Um the schools that were chosen for our administrative and procurement reviews were Ram High School and Marorrow Elementary School. This is a very comprehensive review that is done

108um based on what we serve for meals, the menus, how we purchase those meals, and lots of other fun things that they ask questions of and that we stack paper. We like to kill trees, so we have lots of paper for them to go through. Um so they basically um so we after everything was said and done we had a very good review but there were some areas that corrective action needed to take place. One of those being the meal charging policy to make sure that we eliminated any shaming language and um some other changes that they would like would like to have seen and to ensure that we have established a school food authority where the school food authority uh advisory panel um involving parents and students. And so that meeting is actually set

109to take place I believe March 18th. Um, and most or all of the corrective actions outside of the policy update needs to be uploaded to the state by April 1st. Are there any questions that the board may have? Okay. So, hearing none, 10.10 C is the student activity report for the high school and the middle school, the accounts balance with um the bank. Are there any questions that the board may have on that hearing? None. I wasn't sure. Um 10.10D is the short-term investment fund account. So for the end of February, we reinvested dividends of $558. Um does the board have any questions on that? Okay, so hearing none. 10.10E. This is our regularly scheduled budget appropriation transfer. Um so the transfers here um come from January and February. The total transfers the 20 journal

110entries that are up for review are total $285,223.78. Um and this does require board action. But are there any question that the board may have at this time? Do we have a recommended motion to approve the budget appropriation transfers in the amount of $285,223.78 as presented at the board of ed meeting at board of education meeting? You have a motion. >> I'll make the motion. >> Scottyette a second. Lisa Toutdy, any other questions for Ava on this or discussion? >> So the entries 110 and 112 were those part of 106 or what happened with those? >> So our AED that was so the original 800,000 that was removed from the budget, Mr. Schlayer had noted in the budget that the AEDs needed to be replaced. So, there were six campuswide um AEDs that needed to

111be replaced and um because of the need for those because they only last so many years. >> Oh, the shoe shop. Yeah. >> So, it's more of a safety issue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's why we let them go through >> and so they actually got replaced now. >> Yeah. Exactly. And the old the old ones got recycled out. The 18,000 we discussed with the facilities. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Because that has to be done and that was going to be part of last next year's budget, but since we had to move it, >> right? >> Yep. >> Any other questions on that? All in favor? I >> Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? Okay, thank you. >> That brings us to the calendar of events on the student discipline report. >> So, uh, for the high school,

112we've got a spring concert coming up on Wednesday night at 7 o'clock. Highly encourage, uh, people to come if you are able to. It's always a great show. And then what we do is the following morning, um, we will have our students who are elementary school districts come and visit and they actually get to watch that performance from the previous night. It's a great way to encourage students in the elementary levels to get involved with um with the music programs at the elementary school. Hoping that we can continue to build our program here. Um on the 27th of March is going to be the AHM kids versus cops basketball game. It's something they do annually. It's great. They have state and local police come out and play against students here in the district. It's a

113great way to get um students uh you know just interacting in a very positive way with local law enforcement. Uh we do have our board uh public budget meeting on um April the 6th and that'll be followed by the special meeting for the board hopefully to adopt our budget for next year. And upcoming soon is spring break as well which I think we are all collectively excited about. Um at the middle school um we do have as as we talked about earlier with Miss Wilson, we do have the coffee house um at six o'clock on April 1st. Again, I would highly encourage board members to come to that if they are able. Uh we will be welcoming our incoming seventh grade students from the elementary districts uh who will come in and um spend some

114time with us and our middle school administration uh for their orientation. And then that same uh I'm sorry, the next day is when uh the parents are able to come and have their orientation. Um and then there that concludes my upcoming events and then just the discipline data is in the last couple of pages of board of our board packet concludes my report. >> Okay, there's any questions. We have a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Mike Bolier. A second is Scott Soyette. All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? >> We're good. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you.