001To 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. Okay, we'll start the roll call. Mike Buller. >> Mike Buller. He >> Mike Sharon >> Joey >> Joe Lety Hein >> Kirstston Erlandson Andor >> Pam Ferington >> Marorrow >> Carrie Folino Drew Goffin >> Drew Goffin Marorrow >> Gabe Marks Hein >> Amy Romanchuk >> Amy Romanuk Marorrow >> Scott Soyette >> Scott Soyatt Andover Briana Adupu >> senior >> Ysef Ahmed >> you junior >> and Avery Serroiaak >> Avery Serroiac Avery >> great and Heather Summer from Hebrin I did that backwards. Okay. So, um public comment Hein Andover and Marble community engagement and attendance at public at board public meetings is welcomed. The public comment segment of
002the meeting agenda is set aside so the board may receive public comments. Procedurally, public remarks will be limited to three minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves. Because the board is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discuss in only matters on the agenda, the board is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented. You want to time key. Is there anybody online that would like to make public comment? We're good. Anybody in the um in the room that would like to make public comment? Okay. Um, item four is adding and deleting any agenda items for tonight. >> Yeah. Actually, if you've had time to look at it, I'd love to hear a report on how the Columbia students are integrating. >> I I I didn't have time to
003put together something. I could certainly >> I don't want a presentation. Just, you know, >> Yeah, I can talk a little bit about it for sure. >> You can add that to >> Yeah, I'll just do it in my superintendent report. Perfect. That'll be good. >> Okay. And we have the student representative reports. I don't know who's I'll go first. Uh at the high school, we've got a few events worth mentioning, including the upcoming power of words event this Wednesday for the sophomores where we teach them about power of their words and they take part in a few small and big activities helping them understand and create unity in their class and the school. Uh we've got state champ volleyball that just happened. We got state champion. That's awesome. Our great volleyball team. This is
004like what? Like one of like 100. Got that. Um we've got a food drive that I believe just ended on the 16th. Uh Soore uh hosting um Soore and the Leo's Club hosting um drives for good causes. And on the 25th Tuesday, we've got a blood drive. So if anybody here wants to give blood, to me. >> Perfect. >> All right. So, some other things happening is the Deca DC trip. So, the students are or students of DECA are going to DC this weekend and there's going to like they're doing activities to prepare for the state DECA conference and they're also going to like learn about other business concepts. Also, DECA has a toy drive coming up where it's part of Operation Elf. So, the toys are going to go to like families of um
005military personnel. They're like in active duty right now. There's also a deck of cleanup that happened where the students went around and like cleaned up like the parking lots, vets, like everything around the school. And finally, the Thanksgiving football game is also coming up. This is like really important game. It's the last game of the season. They're playing against Bacon Academy. Um this week we have money wars which is a competition between um teams to see who can raise the most money for charity so far in coreies in the league. Um uh last week um on Monday we had our veterans day celebration where the veterans shared experiences and told us like about um like how it made them who they were today. Um, we also got to see military working dogs. Um, and then
006eighth graders had an alternative high school event. >> What kind of things do students do to raise money? >> Um, well, you you just bring money to school and it's points and whoever whatever team has those points with you. >> Got it. Okay. >> So, I can So, uh, different what you put into the container counts for different things. So, a dollar counts for a certain number of points. Dimes count for a certain number of points and you try to add up and whoever gets the most points. But quarters >> take away points. So if you come in with quarters, you're actually >> That money's no good. >> Yeah. You're deleting points. So that's why they call money wars. They used to call them penny wars sometimes, I think. But we don't have pennies shortly.
007So >> no more pennies being made. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. >> Okay. Um, for the chair report, um, we recognized last month Gabe, Mike, and Joe who are going to be leaving the board and this is their last meeting. So, we wanted to, um, thank you guys again for all of the time that you put in. We're a little in panic mode about the facilities committee, but um, we'll be okay. >> Yeah, committee is going. >> The full committee is going. You can be assured we'll be calling. Um but thank you again for all your efforts. Want to congratulate Carrie Folino and Pam Fington who were reelected again for um to represent the town of Marboro. And welcome uh we have three newly elected uh board members from Hein, Jessica Hall, Rudy Delafiori, and Lisa
008Tal um representing Hebrin and we welcome them. Thank you very much. Uh we look forward to having you join us here next month. any of them here. >> So, thank you because we all know how fun it is to run for office. >> All right. And then Colin, >> so I I don't want to be uh too redundant. I also want to just congratulate the volleyball team for their victory on Saturday. It was super exciting. We also had some success in some other sports. So, our girls soccer team did really well, advanced uh fairly far. I think they went to the semi-finals or quarterfinals, I think, in the state tournament. and our girls and boys team both did it um and then unfortunately lost in that round. Uh our cross country team for the boys
009won 12th place I think for class M and our girls cross country team got uh fourth in class M. So we had a successful fall season for many of our teams. Um and as uh as one of the students said we have the football game the last uh football game of the season is against Colchester this weekend. Uh, one of the things that is just a a great outcome of uh, one of the things that is just a a great outcome of our volleyball season besides our our state championship is the fact that they actually raised over $12,000 for the uh, during the Dig Pink fundraiser, the the booster program uh, for the Side Out Foundation. And I was told that they have raised over $72,000 for that organization since we partnered with them several
010years ago. So, just a great testament to the to the RAM community and and how generous the the entire community is. Um, as some of the students noted, we had Veterans Day recognized both the middle school and the high school. It was great. I think I think this middle school had 50 or 60 vets that actually came that day. So, it was a it was a great turnout. It's a little bit of a different structure at the high school. We have a panel of vets that speak to two grade levels and another panel of vets speaking to the other two grade levels um and and just talk about their experiences uh uh serving. Uh we appreciate them coming here and sharing those stories with us. Um had some great performances over the past month. We
011shortly after our last board meeting. I think that Thursday we had our concert for the band and uh coral programs for um both the middle school and the high school. It was great. Um they pack a lot into a very short period of time. Um but I love hearing our uh fine uh I'm sorry performing artists uh uh perform for us. And then we had Unified Theater. um Greater Unified Theater students come and and and perform for us at our last board meeting, but the um the entire performance uh knocked it out of the ballpark. It was it was great to see those kids up there doing what they love. It was really really good. Um uh we did have a program subcommittee. Um I'm going to just talk about it briefly here because of
012the fact that we've actually taken that part uh the subcommittee reports off of the as a standing agenda item because most of the committee reports are actually shared out as full agenda items. Uh but that isn't the case for program. We we had a meeting about two weeks ago um and we talked about five new courses that we're going to introduce to the uh educational opportunities handbook at the high school. We have a a firefighter course which sounds awesome. Uh AP business principles, AP cyber security, intro to marine science and music sampler. Um those are five new classes again that we anticipate putting into the program of studies for next year. Um more information will be shared in the budget book as I always do about no new new courses being added to the program
013of studies. Uh another exciting thing uh regarding um classes at the high school is we recently had a teacher get crossendorsed so that she is now certified to be able to teach food culinary classes. Um we haven't offered those classes for some time because finding people with that certification is very very challenging. Uh so we're super excited that uh Christopher Penrose was able to go out and get the necessary uh endorsements. Um and we're hoping to be able to offer that because we do think that there's going to be some some good student interest in that uh good life skills being learned here uh at school. Um and um yeah, I would also just echo the the thank you and goodbyes to to Mike, Drew, uh Gabe, and Joe. uh we gave them some gifts
014last week because we you know sometimes we're not quite sure if they're going to show up to the last meeting uh after the election, but we appreciate all three of you being here tonight. Um the last thing is certainly an update on our on our transition of our Colombia students who have uh who had identified uh Ram as their school of choice. The the uh first thing I'll say is uh we're really fortunate we actually had after we had set the budget with the anticipated number of students, we actually had another student who decided to come in. So, our enrollment numbers uh are higher than we initially expected them to be. And again, I'm hoping that those numbers continue to grow. Um it's been a really great transition. I I've spoken at length with the
015high school administration about it, just, you know, checking in how those kids doing. They had individual meetings. the assistant principles had meetings with each of the Columbia students just to uh at the onset of the school year just to check in with them, make sure that they were feeling comfortable, they were feeling like welcomed and um we wanted to make sure that they were having a good transition in and and the feedback that we received from them is was very positive. I'm working with the high school administration right now to put together uh a survey that we want to actually send to the Colombia families that identified RAM. We want to get the parents perspective as well. Find out what did we do well? What was something that attracted RAM? Uh made Ram an attractive
016choice uh for you all. What could we do better to help ease uh any anxiety that your student might be feeling about coming into to to Ram High School. Um so we anticipate uh having that uh hopefully put together in the next couple of weeks and getting it out to those families. Um, we are also already in um what I would consider uh marketing mode as well because we do uh want to have um uh you know a larger number of students choose RAM and I'm I'm optimistic that that'll be the case. Uh one of our wonderful art teachers, Shelley Awiki, at the high school uh who is who's going to be presenting tonight about the Rambler along with Miss Clifton. Um she is going to she's working on putting together a promotional video where
017we we we put she did a great slide deck um for last year's um uh parent presentation and student presentation. Um and we put together a booklet uh based off of the slide deck that she put together. The content um a lot of the narratives and information was shared by department coordinators and administration. Shelley did her magic and made it just look phenomenal uh in the presentation which actually we should note that it won uh it's been being recognized by CABE as uh we um we put that forward for a CAB communication award and we were actually selected to receive the CAB communication awards. So we will be recognized for that this weekend when we go to the cave caps um uh uh convention on Friday and Saturday uh which is wonderful. Um, so I'm
018sure that we will be uh we will be sending in uh the vi the finished product video that uh that Shel's been working on uh and and is going to continue to be working on for us. So we appreciate Shel doing that. Um so that's yeah, it's been it's been a really good transition. We you know we're just constantly looking to make sure that we can improve it and and and again try to try to make RAM as attractive of an option as we can for our for our students from Columbia. >> Thank you. >> That concludes my report. Okay, that brings us to the student program spotlight for the Rambler. >> So, as I noted, um we have a couple of teachers with us who who have been uh wonderful enough to bring some
019students with them as well. Shelley Azwiki and me Clifton teach our journalism class. Uh just a little anecdote. Um one of my first introductions to RAM after I had been identified as the superintendent of schools was getting an email from uh a journalism student who said, "Hey, Mr. McNamero. um you know I'm a journalism student and we're putting together a story about you coming into RAM and so it was literally one of my first introductions was being was uh was being in the Ramler and I remember when I first came and brought it home my wife's like your school does a magazine that's amazing and and it is it's an amazing thing that they do and the students and staff are here to talk about how they put that together for us and we appreciate
020you being here so thanks so much. I have some older ones because we're currently in our first issue. So, if you want to take around so you can get an idea of >> what it looks like. >> Shel and I just wanted to do a quick uh introductions of us and then we'll hand it over to the students. Um I'm M Clifton. This is my 21st year teaching at RAM and this is my 19th year working with Shelley on the um various iterations of the student journalism publications. Um I handle like the writing and the scripting and the interviewing side of things um as the English teacher. Um the kids who take the class for a full year get half an English credit. Um, and so I handle kind of the, like I said, the
021writing and the communication side of things. >> I'm Shelley Oswiki. I, oh my, this is my 21st year as well, which is hard to um, admit. Um, I've been involved with journalism in its various ways uh, for 20 years. Um, and I'm largely in charge of the graphic design side of that and, uh, the video editing side, which that came on later. Um it was both part of its initial journalism class and then separated for a while and then we brought it back uh together. So um largely I'm in charge of to make sure it looks all good. >> All right. >> And so at this point we're going to introduce our two students who um are going to give you a little presentation about the uh news packages we do and the Rambler magazine.
022>> I'm Annalise Jordan and I'm a sophomore. I've been doing journalism for two years now and it has like helped me have more opportunities that I wouldn't get with other electives. Um I'm Emmy Melquist. Um this is my first year in journalism. I'm a senior and I decided to take the class because I've um been in yearbook club um all four years of high school. Um, so I thought it would uh help me more with the journalism side of your book. Um, and it has great. Um, so what we do, um, in journalism, it's bullet pointed on the side there. Um, but to just go a little bit more in depth, um, for filming techniques, we work a lot with, um, different camera shots, um, different, uh, shots that help us, uh, tell the story
023that we're, uh, reporting on more. Uh, we work on framing, um, like telling putting the subject, uh, in a certain place. Um, we work on, uh, setting up the cameras, um, which actually me and Analise are doing this photo up here, which I think is funny. Um, and for more the writing stuff, um, we get to write scripts, um, for air our interviews, uh, turn those scripts into articles. Um, and it's just really useful, um, because it it's really different from English class where we're not we're uh, writing a piece to be submitted for a grade for only the teacher to see, while uh, for the Rambler uh, we get to put it out to a larger audience. Um, and that's really cool. Um, for design skills, we learn how to use a lot of
024uh professional uh software. Thank you. Um, we learn how to use a lot of professional software like in design, um, Adobe in design and we get to learn the basics of graphic design. Um, for the making the video news package, it's based on what you actually want to do and not just like what you do in like English class where like you're reading a book and you have to report on it. It's like topics that you want to learn more about and like what your peers want to learn about. So you get to pick your topic and then it goes into four different categories which is Ram life, student life, sports and arts and entertainment. And then once we get our topic that we want to do, we put it into like a Google doc
025where it's like you figure out who you want to interview and then what you are planning on asking them. You ask them questions and then they kind of like talk about what you said. And then for setting up the interviews, you set up a camera, a camera, a memory card, a tripod, lighting, and a microphone. And then you start asking them the questions. Um so uh another really like crucial part of um our news packages is uh B-roll um which um has a lot of uses but the two main uh reasons for why it's used uh in the news packages that we do is for um an establishing shot which shows like where the story takes place. Um it's usually taking place at RAM. So, a lot of um a lot of my projects have
026started with just kind of a video um of the school. Uh and then the other um thing that it's used most commonly for is um just a background video um to play um behind a voice over. Uh so, that one's pretty self-explanatory. If we're going more in depth into um some of the topics covered in the interviews, uh then you want a nice video behind it um to kind of help be more descriptive. Um uh and then we film the interviews um that so the video I forget that it's on two screens. the videos up here. Um the top one is um in just a regular um B-roll clip with like no sound that uh is used for is like taken for the purpose of putting a voice over over it. Um and then the
027second one is an interview that um I conducted for the drum united program at RAM um which is what I wrote my first article on. Uh, and um we're usually not um we're usually encouraged not to interview other people in our journalism class for the sake of like getting out there more and becoming more comfortable talking to other people and interviewing them. Um, but Vivian is the director of the backstage uh aspect of Drum United and I didn't have anyone else to interview for it. Um, so she's wonderful and uh agreed to let me do that. Um, and then we upload all the videos into the um, actual program we use for putting the news packages together. Um, for writing a script, you pull important quotes that like really like have a good purpose on
028like your topic and you yeah, you pull those from interviews and then for the over the B-roll you put the voice over which is usually an introduction to what the quote is saying. All right. Um, and going off what Annaise said, um, we put the video package together using iMovie, um, which is when we pull the, uh, clips of our interviews that we chose to use. Um, and we, um, organize them, uh, however we see fit to kind of get our point across um, whichever, um, feels right to us. Um, we edit the video clips, uh, insert the audio, make sure everyone lines up. No one wants to watch a video where like someone's mouth is moving, the sound is silly a little bit. Um, so we do that and then when it's done, we
029um export it and our advisers upload them to a private YouTube channel. Uh and this is a news package on the uh new safety officers we did for um our like first thing. >> Ram students are seeing some new faces this year with the addition of four new safety officers. The safety officers are taking over a variety of jobs which were previously done by other office staff. Their primary responsibility at the middle school and at the high school is to vet any visitors that come in the building and have accountability for individuals that are coming and leaving the building. And that's inclusive of visitors but also of students. Um so it's a huge priority >> in addition to keeping an eye on who comes and goes. The safety officers will also be monitoring the halls,
030making sure students are always where they're supposed to be. >> The you know premise is for students to feel safe um so that they could focus on the learning. So if that's happening um then that's only a positive thing as well as you know building relationships with the officers too having four more people in the building who are there for you to support you. >> The addition of these new safety officers has earned mixed reactions from the students. >> I feel good. It I feel safe. >> I feel like they feel like violated maybe because I heard that they go in the bathrooms and stuff and I don't know. I feel like some people are uncomfortable by the idea that there's a lot of people walking around the school, but I heard some people like
031the positive impact cuz they feel more safe. >> No particular way at the moment. Not negative nor particularly positive. Just they happen to be here. >> It makes me feel safer, especially with all the things going on in the world right now. >> The officers say they want students to remember that they're here for them and not against them. >> We're not here to get anybody in trouble. We're not here to jam people up. Uh, the key thing that we want to do, I want to do is develop relationships and help out if I can. >> Reporting from Ram High School, this is Rosley Kelly with Rambler News. >> Um, what goes into the process of making the Rambler? it. You have to convert the script into um print article format, which is usually like
032kind of like copy and paste the things that you said in the script, but you add more details and like descriptions to them since you don't have the video aspect to like go along and kind of describe what you're saying as well. Um, and then we take photographs of the topic and then we put that into our layout which we make on Adobe Inesign and that's where we make our whole magazine. >> Great. Um, as for the process when we're putting together stuff on Inesign, um, we have to write a headline and photo captions. um headline just kind of sums up what the whole article is about. And the photo captions uh serve to like identify the people in the photo, um identify what they're doing, maybe the date and time, um pretty much any
033relevant information. Um then we uh format the text so that it looks the way we want it to. Um the uh QR code that when scanned will take you to the news package that goes along with the article. um is at the bottom corner of the page um so that anyone who is reading it and wants to see like the actual interviews uh can do so. Um we uh trade we kind of trade um pages with other people so that uh we can have our templates reviewed and then review others as well just to have another set of eyes on it. Uh, and then we send it to print at Spectrum Printing in this cover. Um, the cover and the backside of the Rambler is original artwork that comes from the students in RAM. So,
034it comes from their photography classes, painting or AP art classes. And it usually goes along with the theme that the Rambler has. Most of the time it's like seasons, but it can also be like academic things. Great. Um, and then the, uh, audience, basically how we get it out to people. Um, we distribute it to students during all three lunches because, yeah, it's sent in an email, but I don't know about other students, but the the first thing I do when I get home on Friday is not check my email for a long time. Uh um so we just pass those out at lunch to make sure um to give people the opportunity to read them. Um we put them in staff mailboxes and like other various locations around the school so that like faculty
035and even like visitors who come in have the opportunity to um read the articles that we make. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? >> Um, for the artwork on the front and the back of the of the magazine, do you guys have to go to the students and ask them specifically to draw something that goes along with the news or do you just select what you want? Sometimes, but usually artwork is like We run journalism club as well and so we'll like send out a call for like hey you know we're looking for artwork or photography that might be related to the autumn and then so sometimes students can submit that way. >> Do you plan to pursue a career in journalism? >> I have wanted to for a long time. >> What
036what do you think you want to do? >> Um well when I was younger I really wanted to be a journalist. I thought that it was like really cool and like it would expose me to a lot of things. I think that's kind of what it is doing now, but now I want to be an FBI agent. >> Yeah, >> it's the same. Yeah. Yeah. Watch them. Um I don't necessarily want to, but it's definitely um helped me with like getting out there and communicating with people. whether it's like interviewing people or like setting up the interviews, reaching out to people. Um, but that's definitely um helped me develop that skill which will inevitably help me in the future. >> Great. >> Your public speaking is very impressive. >> Thank you. I >> How much
037time do you spend uh collecting B- rolls? >> Um, more than what? Couple days. More than >> Yeah. Um, a couple days. We usually um we try to get I forget what the actual ratios are, but we um try to get more than we actually end up using, more than we need um just as kind of a rule of thumb. Uh so we can be really selective with what we want to have in our video. >> We get the Rambler through email and it's great. Look at it every week. Well, so that that rambler is the weekly newsletter that gets sent out. They do that as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. So they do the more like the journalism club kind of does that, right? Um with um Shel and I kind of put that together.
038Um so sometimes the class will pull stuff that the students are doing in class and be like, "Oh, we're going to put this in the newsletter as well." So yeah, the safety officers actually was in the newsletter. >> Yeah. The article. >> Yeah. I usually get copies of when they put them out because you guys said it's shortly after that. >> Oh yeah. So the probably the first week of December is when you'll get the first Rambler magazine for this semester. >> I'll bring them down and give them out at the December. >> Yeah. >> I How do you guys come up with story ideas? Is it like you sit down collectively as a group and kind of toss different ideas around or is it usually a single person says I want to write about
039this? I remember a couple years ago it was a really interesting artic well there was like an article about tattoos which I found to be interesting and then there was an interesting article that you guys did I think last year about fixing cars and having like so and I mean this in a good way your the story ideas are all over the place which is very very interesting but is it something that like individual people come up with or just >> Yeah. Okay. So you have to like pick from the four not pick but like has to like fit in the four categories which very wide range but um whatever people like really think of also we do throw out like ideas in class of like for people that don't really have ideas but for
040this um rambler there I'm personally doing the college and career fair and I did that last year too And I really like reporting on that because I like learning a lot more about that. But um what are you doing? Um I um I uh chose to roll write Oh my goodness. Um I wrote my article on the Drama United show. Um so I think definitely a lot of and I know students in the past who like participated in drama club or like certain activities. um the extracurriculars and classes that you're a part of is definitely um a a really good uh jumping off point. Um especially Yeah. So I'm the head director for uh Drama United. So I was like what better thing to write about um than something I already have done for a
041very long time. Uh so >> who got to interview you? Yeah. Yeah. And my friend from last year, she did something about jelly catch as a stuffed animal and she she really liked jelly cat. So it was it's very like personal but also like can like reach out to a wide range of people. >> She just telling me what jelly is >> which is a really poor explanation. >> Very to share with the rest of us later. >> What's his name? That turtle that looks really >> I love that you knew the name. >> Anybody else have any questions? >> Thank you guys. It was a great job. >> And I did give them the heads up that they did not have to feel compelled to stay for the rest of >> You'll be fascinated.
042>> You could write a story about it. You write a story about it. >> Thank you all so much for being here. Very appreciate it. >> All right. So, oh, I'm sorry. >> No, I was just gonna say um can someone at the end like at the end can you just grab the magazines and then you guess what? I'll bring them down. No problem. >> We keep an archive in the classroom so students can like look at the previous years. >> I'd love it if we could get copies of these. >> Absolutely. Yeah. come out. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, that brings us to item nine, the consent agenda. >> So, there's a there's um a couple of things in the consent agenda. There are minutes of our last meeting on October 20th.
043Um there were some changes. Um I can make a motion. >> Oh, yeah. Sorry. There were changes for the the policies. I'm sorry. >> Yeah, that's fine. I I I just make a motion that I move that the board approve the consent agenda with two following amendments. >> One, you've got this electronically, I think. Um, the phrase of the board of the board shall be stricken from the first sentence of section 4 of policy 9313 and the last sentence of section 1 point of 1B, the definition of caucus shall be stricken from policy 9345. That that's the motion. The rationale is that uh I just think we should keep a clear dividing line between policy and regulations. So the pol the regulations aren't regulations on the board. That's it just felt wrong. Um and I
044think I mentioned that at our policy meeting, but I didn't notice it. I wasn't at last meeting. And um and the second one is the caucus language because it doesn't actually properly describe us. If you read that language, it it talks about um who's members are of members of a single political subdivision of the state or we're not from three separate towns. Um and there's just no reason to have the definitional caucus in there. So just take it out when it doesn't apply. And so so that's that's my suggestion anyway. We approve these. We'll make those two very minor changes. >> Where's the cocking surface again? That's in uh 9345 section 1B. Uh the last last sentence. >> Maybe get a second first and then second for the motion. >> Yeah. Um Oops. Sorry. So
045you made the motion. Do we have a second >> to approve it with those changes? >> I'll second mark. >> So that's Gabe Marks. So then discussion. >> Yeah. Which >> on that? >> Anybody did you have something else, Drew, or no? >> Well, I'm concerned about the caucus. I mean, are we taking away that option? >> No, it >> No, no, no. Just the definition part. Just just the definition of caucus in the the last sentence of 1B. >> Oh, okay. So, yes. All right. So, get that. >> Yeah. Just it doesn't actually it's not accurate to us. And that if that is state statute law that actually should probably be updated to capture you know actually I don't know if we could caucus all the Democrats on a regional board could caucus maybe
046you can >> you can on a regional board I I know you can for a local board. Okay. >> So why is it incorrect though or we know >> we're not all members in a single political subdivision >> or a political subdivision not not necessarily disjuncted. So we don't have to be, >> but we're not any of the others either. I don't have it open in front of me, but >> we're not a public agency. Sort of. >> We are a public agency. This this board >> within the state. >> Yes. >> So we are a public agent in the state or something. We're not >> doesn't matter because the or doesn't mean both. Right. True statement. One can be true, the other can be false. Yes, I certainly understand that. Um I pause there.
047Um, one B. Um, >> I just nervous. >> It's just a It's just a definition that's in there. >> Yeah. >> Clarify what caucus means, but I I think it still works. I mean, I don't think it's incorrect. >> A public agency within the state or a political subdivision. Um, I'm pretty sure that means a state agency or an agency of the state or an agency of of a of a subdivision. So, Andover's Democrats could could caucus on something. But, um, I just I just don't think it it adds anything to here and I think it's slightly problematic language. If you >> But you're going to leave the co word caucus in B without a definition then. >> Sure. But it's a standard. you know, the things in the statute still apply. It's just whether
048we're repeating them, whether we're we're defining them. I I just feel like we are not the members of a a public agency within the state. Um, >> the board is a public I'm just, you know, I don't want to split too many hairs and waste too much time, but the >> if we are a public agency as a board, we are within the state. So, >> okay. I I I I I parse it differently. I I say the state or a political subdivision. >> So, one or the other. Doesn't have to be both. >> We're But we're not either. We're not public agency of the state and we're not a public agency of a subdivision of the state. >> So, how what are we a public agency of? >> We're a regional agency. I don't
049know what to call it, but Okay. Yeah, I see what you're saying. All right. I'm getting it now. I'm trying to understand what you're doing. All right. Um, >> if if there's objection, I I we can certainly change the motion. I just >> Yeah, I don't have any I mean, the word caucus is still in there. It just remains undefined. I guess, you know, the parties could caucus as they want. I just don't >> It's definitely >> Yeah. So, we don't have to worry about >> No. >> Okay. So, we'll take a vote. All in favor? I >> I. Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? >> I thank >> So, do I have to do a >> Yep. >> Okay. Voice. >> Yep. Uh, Mike Buller. >> Hi, >> Mike Sharon. >> Joe Kleti. >> Hi, >>
050uh, Kirstston Erlandson. Hi >> Pam Fington. >> Hi >> Carrie Folino. >> Drew Goffin. >> Hi >> uh Gabe Marks. >> Hi >> Amy Romanchuk. >> Hi. >> Scott Soette. >> Hi. >> Um and Heather Summer. I >> Okay. >> Motion passes. >> The motion passes for um that was item nine, the consent agenda. brings us to new and unfinished business. >> So the first agenda item for that is just discussion of possible action um regarding our FSA benefit plan or flex flexible spending flexible spending account uh benefit plan. Do you want to just kind of talk a little bit about this? >> Sure. So this gives our employees some benefits that the IRS um allows them to have. So important here is we have a high high deductible health plan with an HSA. So,
051the medical reimbursement is not usually the draw. Um, since we already have the HSA, the two can't go together. It's more so the dependent care for families, but since they've raised limits, it's nice to keep the limits because we do have folks who don't have the high deductible health plan that can make use of the medical reimbursements that come along. >> Okay. >> Are there any questions? So, do we have a motion to um to approve the increases to the contribution limits of employee flexible spending accounts to align with the IRS limits as recommended and for the superintendent to sign their certificate of resolution authorizing these changes on behalf of the regional school district 8 board of education? >> So, move. >> Um Mike Bolier, do we have a second? Gabe Marks, any other discussion
052on that? All in favor. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> So, the next one is just um we wanted to provide an update to the to the entire board about the generator project. Uh as board members know, um this is a project that started about a year and a half ago. I think we've been kind of meeting on this. It's been an ongoing thing. um where the uh three towns procured a grant uh combined efforts to procure a grant to uh put a generator to replace the generator that we have um that will essentially power all of Ram High School. Uh this new generator uh which is better than what we have right now, which is our current generator powers just our emergency systems and emergency lighting. Um and it will continue to power
053the emergency systems and emergency lighting of Ram Middle School. Um we've made good progress. Um the the PC has really been spearheading this effort and and uh Mike Sharon and Mike Schlayhoffer and myself have been involved in this process as well. And Mike, if you want to maybe take it over and just talk a little bit about where we are, if you're okay with that. >> Sure. Uh yeah, as recent as last week, we had a vote with the public building committee, which is actually executing uh the plan on behalf of the region uh to incorporate the uh the generator. Uh we're awarding the electrical contract or at least the pre-work electrical contract. There'll be additional phases coming up. This is to put in conduit uh before uh concrete placement. Uh involves some excavation. Uh
054some of the good news here, we don't require um uh well, we may require a test of the main sub panel. I can't remember the exact terminology. >> Mic's on if mic's on. But um that was a scheduled test anyway, but we may find that we have to do that a little earlier than planned. Um but those costs are are would have been incurred anyway by the region. Uh so it's not an increase. Uh the other thing coming up is some of the foundation work will be done. I think we've got footings and pads. Uh and those are going in place for a advance order on the generator itself, which I think is scheduled to arrive in Mayish. April, May time fresh. So, Michael, what did I miss? >> Uh, you got the switch. It's
055the switch gear testing um >> is what it's called. And um we're expected to we're supposed to be here uh end of end of May, beginning of June at the the rigging yard, the generator. >> So, we're aiming for placement um sometime over July and taking ownership of it. I believe like the first week or no the last week of August right before school starts. >> So that that's the switch gear testing that he he was talking about. We were slated and planning on doing it after July one after this upcoming July one. We actually put funding into the budget for next year. Um so we're just essentially moving that work prior to the July one rollover of the budget. So, it's just it might be money that we have to use out of this
056year's budget instead of next year's budget. And if we get to that point, then obviously and if the budget has been settled, we could just take that. It's it's it's not a significant amount. Michael, is it >> the the total for the switch gear testing and maintenance is uh 18 184 18,400 bucks. >> So, it's we're not particularly concerned if we have to uh find $18,000 in this year's budget. We've gotten some additional tuition funding as I've said. So, we're going to be >> How much? >> Oh, she always stops me. I get excited when I get tuition because I'm thinking let's spend it. She stops me. Uh, but anyways, I I feel confident that if we get to the place where we need to find $18,000, she'll be able to do it. So, it's
057not an issue. >> Any questions for anybody or any more? >> No, I think that's it. Yeah. I mean, uh, the board will have to identify a candidate to participate in the PBC meetings. >> Yeah. Um, so look at the smile on your face. Look at the smile. >> Yeah. >> Or we could appoint Michael as a sec as a special ambassador. Oh boy. Ambassador. Here we go. >> Okay. Um, item 10.3, discussion and possible action regarding the budget development for capital projects requiring bonding. >> Yeah. So, so this was a topic of of our last uh facilities and finance joint subcommittee meeting which we actually just had last week. Um, and I believe it was our September meeting, we presented some information to the board after a facilities finance meeting, talking about projects that
058we anticipate going out to bonding for. Um, we're looking at next year being that process of going through the the bonding process and ultimately going to hopefully what will be a successful referendum um to to fund the projects that we need to get funded. We we had an idea. We knew what projects needed to be done. We had prioritized those projects, but what we didn't have for any of those projects, what I would simply say is a true cost for what we would need to actually put down for dollar amounts for for what we're going to need to to bond for. So we went out and um met with uh an organization called uh Frier uh architectural firm um and uh they did a presentation for EVO, Michael Schlayhoffer and I and then they came
059and presented ush to the facilities and finance subcommittee last week um about the work that they would do which is essentially develop um the the the actual budget uh for for what those projects would be. Um, and then if it's going to be um timed out where we're not doing all of them immediately, they actually can apply a certain inflation inflationary value to each of the projects and and give us an idea of what it might be if we do it two years later or three years later. Um, so uh we feel very comfortable with this group. I think the I don't want to speak on behalf of the committee members, but there there seem to be an endorsement to move forward with them. >> Yeah. Yeah. They seem like they were a good organization.
060I think the other thing that I thought was really valuable was their ability to identify portions of the activities that could potentially be grant funded. Yeah. >> Right. So that could offset some of our our financial commitment. Yeah. >> So um and help us prioritize those. >> Yep. And they help identify the state reimbursement, the projects that are eligible for state reimbursement, what the percentage of the reimbursement would be. This is an organization that does a lot with uh schools and municipalities. So this is their wheelhouse really. Um and uh uh basically this uh the the total cost uh the anticipated cost is in the memo that Michael Schlay offer wrote. It's uh enclosure 10.3. Um there and the invoice is in there as well or I should say their proposal is in there as
061well is about $19,850. Um we're fortunate that we were um under budget with our track project. So, we do have some money available to us that we can move um from the track project uh replacement project into capital improvement bonding projects which would uh be able to pay for this. Um we're we're excited to hopefully have the board make a motion and approve us to do that because I think we're going to engage with them pretty pretty quickly uh once we get that uh that transfer to happen. They I think like we're going to call them tomorrow and say it's a go >> and that's that's the full cost the 19 whatever. >> Yeah. So >> for Friday obviously half of the >> Yeah. Correct. So you could see it's the full cost of what
062they describe doing in the project and then what they also do is they do include if there's additional things that we want them to do. They kind of give like a little bit of a laundry list of additional things. But what we've asked them to do and what we've discussed is is outlined in that in that total cost. >> I'll make the motion. Okay. Um, Dr. Reed, >> uh, yeah, >> to the motion is to approve the reallocation of 19,850 from the athletic track replacement project to the capital improvements bonding projects. And the first motion is Scott Soyette. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mike Sharon. Any other discussion on that? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Anyone abstain? Okay, that motion passes. Brings us to the seed grant, the special education expansion
063development. >> Yeah. So, this is this is something that, you know, I'm not necessarily looking for the any board action. I just felt it was really important to just appraise the board of kind of where um where we are right now um with regards to the efforts that I've taken to secure uh some of the seed grant funding. As I've communicated with the board uh separately the um it's a new grant. It's called the seed grant. It stands for special education enhancement and development grant. It's supposed to be a um grant that uh supplements your budget as opposed to supplants it. new things as opposed to just paying for things that we're already doing. Um the the the the issue that we're having um with uh getting any of the seed grant funding, which was
064intended for really school districts, all school districts across the state um is the fact that the distribution of the seed grant funding um was no no money came to any regional school districts directly. Uh funding for the seed grant was given to each of the the towns um and local school districts and the the directive that uh was given by the state um was said something to the effect of regional school districts should work with local school districts to to get an allocation of seed grant funding. With that being said, um the uh local school districts had plans for their seed grant funding and and I certainly don't begrudge them for that. We have a tremendously positive strong relationship with our three sending towns. I have a great relationship with the superintendents as well as
065the town managers. Um and and um you know, I had some conversations with with the local superintendents who who essentially said, "Hey, you know, we were counting on this funding. We we you know made some plans around having this funding and what I said to them is you know my job is to advocate for regional school district 8 and and the money that was allocated to each of the three towns uh was uh derived that that total amount came from a formula that was inclusive of prek to grade 12 students. So to me that means some of that funding is meant for secondary grade students 7th through 12th for us. Um and I did meet with a person from uh the Connecticut State Department of Education who provided me with a pretty basic formula. You
066take the total allocation for the town uh for each of the three towns. You divide uh that that total allocation by the number of high need special education students. That gives you a per pupil allocation. Uh and then I took the uh number of high need special education students uh enrolled at RAM and I said okay well if I multiply that per pupil allocation by the um by that um the number of high need special education students at RAM um here's the amount that I believe that RAM has coming to to us um and uh made sense to me. Um but understandably so. Uh again there was uh some concern about the fact that they had counted on having this money. Um in the end uh it is completely up to the local school districts
067and towns whether or not uh we would receive any allocation as a regional school district. Um and I don't anticipate getting any of that funding this year. I've communicated uh with the towns and the uh I've had conversations with members of the state department of education. I've had conversations uh and meetings with other regional school district superintendent um the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendent, the school finance um project, uh state and school finance project um executive team. Um and in the long run I I am under the impression and I believe it is a pretty widely held belief um that the way that they distributed the funds was not done so in a way that should have been done. Basically they just used a process that they shouldn't have used. Um and unfortunately we
068are um not going to get an allocation this year. Um I in a meeting that I had with uh again this state school and finance um team as well as CAPS last week um they are advocating on behalf of regional school districts to change how the distribution process works of of funding moving forward. Uh this is meant to be a recurring grant. Um the funding is actually I think planning there's a plans for the funding amounts to be increased. It's a total amount of $30 million this year um to all of the school districts uh all of the local school districts. I think it's supposed to be a greater amount next year. So, I think it is important that they fix this so that we can uh get the funding that is intended to go
069again not just to the local districts but also to to regional school districts as well. So, that was a lot. My mouth is dry. I'm going to take a drink, but I can certainly entertain any questions if people if people have any. >> Um just a couple of things. >> Sure. So the initial when the initial grant money was given all they said was to share it with the they didn't give any kind of a formula or anything. >> No they they they didn't give a formula to to towns. It was, and I'm I'm somewhat paraphrasing, but it really was like something as simple as regional school districts should work with their local local towns to uh receive an allocation of funding. It was something as simple as that. It was a memo that we
070received from the state. It was within a memo from the state. >> They they funded this like ECS money. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. So rather than an actual granite, >> right? Yeah. And that just this is just a really has nothing to do with it. Uh I was just looking here about the high need. >> Y is that just a formula 50% I mean how do you determine who needs it? >> It's a great question and and I don't know if I'll have the answer necessarily that um makes sense. But basically when I when I I had a a meeting with this woman from the state department of education who who was helping with regards to the facilitation of the allocation distribution and I said can you explain the formula and she said you
071take the total number of special ed students in the district and this is from last school year. So they're using last school year's numbers and that total number of prek to grade 12 students in that district just divide it by fif divide it by two so it's 50% of your total number. They're not saying that that's an accurate number of what the high need students are versus non- high need students special ed, but that's just how they used it. I I I think you may have asked me in a separate communication, well, why didn't they just use the total number of special ed students? Well, they could have they could have it would have been just as easy to take the total number of prek students divided by that number. your per pupil allocation would
072have been smaller but it still would have the >> and they didn't give any they don't give any criteria of what is a high need special ed student as opposed to no >> a special ed student >> correct >> so it doesn't have to do with par support doesn't have to do with you don't know nothing >> they they didn't give any information to me >> interesting >> yeah and and they don't even approve them they just basically accept your this is how you >> right right yeah >> I think um conversations that I've had um with folks at the state They recognize that this probably wasn't done well. >> So, I would anticipate that they'll make some improvements on it next year. Um, but they kind of recognize that this was a mess. >>
073Yeah. I I again, I feel like I've done my what I can and and I don't anticipate onounding anybody or or or like I just I've communicated this is what I'm hoping. Um and and um you know, I I I don't expect it to go anywhere beyond that. What I do plan on continuing to do is advocate that they change the way the funding is distributed next year. Like I gonna reach out to state representatives and and and and communicate um and say, "Hey, you know, we didn't get any of this funding." And what I could tell you is the people from the State Department that I have spoken with said, "Yeah, it really wasn't intended to just only like it was intended to be made available for everybody." So if they don't come up
074with a better way of doing it because it's the state department. Um I I mean whatever. Um, now that you know that this money is coming, we assume, is there a way to sit with the towns beforehand and and come up with a reasonable >> way to get I don't I'm just wondering, you know, because I don't I don't think we should be counting on the towns, I mean, on the uh the states to actually do it in a timely manner. It could happen. I would be surprised but >> um just so the confusion of any of this right of of the you know the um the lo you know the elementary school you know well we thought this was how many you know just to avoid this in the future. >> Yeah I would
075I would hope that if they don't change the way the funding is distri distributed that that we can have those positive conversations and say let's figure out a way to to to >> come up with a way to do this. I I again the the formula that I use that very simple formula is of which is it's here's the per pupil allocation um to me that's a very simple basic way to do it. You take the total number and you divide it by and then you say okay elementary high high needs or total special ed is is this number and total RAM is this number and just divide the number of by a per pupil allocation >> right no I don't even mean that I just mean having the conversation before the money is comes
076at right because that way >> it's everybody kind of knows what they should be expecting and budgeting for >> you've actually started that right >> yeah spoken to the three towns >> I I definitely have I definitely have I the the hard part is we don't even know. So yes, I hope that process happens. The hard part for us to even say, well, this is how RAM is going to spend the money if we do get it is we don't know what the allocation's going to be because ultimately we could say, well, we think we should get this much, but either the total allocation could be different to the towns. Um, and then ultimately the towns have complete and total say over how much we get, if any. But like that was the one thing
077from the state was there's no obligation. >> So and and and I completely agree uh Pam with your assessment of the state department. So spoton accurate. >> Yeah. >> Notwithstanding the the legislation and its flaws, I'm disappointed to hear that our member towns don't feel like they need to share. >> I I mean there's something here. The only comment here is it's for Andover, it's the finance committee is going to decide what's going on in Marboro and Hebrew and don't these towns think they need to support RAM equitably with their elementary schools? >> I I I I I don't think that there is any anything um worth I feel very fortunate because we have very supportive towns. I I I I really think that we do. Um, I think that this comes down to the
078local school districts were counting on the funding not having to be shared. >> They didn't understand that it was based on an allocation all the way through. >> I I I can't say that I ever heard this message, but it could certainly may have been communicated was that um what I heard from uh at least one superintendent was um we were specifically told we wouldn't have to share it with the regional school districts. So what and and Pam can attest to this as well. Miscommunication from the state is expected. Um so so it's not it wouldn't surprise me if that was communicated. So then um you know somebody says, "Well, okay, great. We're going to get funding. Let's let's plan on hiring a teacher. Let's plan on putting this program into place. It's going to
079cost us x amount, but hey, we expect a good portion of it to be covered under this grant." you know, whether it's hiring an additional special ed teacher, hiring some para educators who who who could bet, you know, so they're they're not supplanting, they're supplementing. They're they're going on top of what they what they've previously had. And then all of a sudden, I say, hey, listen, I think almost half of that should be ours. They're going to go, "Well, that's that's going to have a pretty big impact on that's going to leave them in a bad >> So, they already budgeted these numbers in their current school year budget." Well, I don't think that they could have put it in this year's budget because nobody had these figures. >> Yeah. >> But they were counting
080on funding coming from the state in the way of this grant for the schools. No, no, for this year, the schools made their proposals. I talked to Andover superintendent quite a bit about this and they made their proposals. Um, honestly, I think without even considering the regional school system, they just told here's here's the money. Here's >> your money. Here's here's what the share for Andover is and Andover Hurt Andover, not Andover as a, you know, regional and local school system. And but it's not our three towns. It's pretty much everybody in the state. Everywhere was a regional high school um system that had the same same issue. >> And that's exactly what I Yeah. >> It was it just it was this is what you're getting. >> There was no real talk of it.
081It was like this is what Andover gets. Marbor gets Hebrew and gets no real talk of um the regional part of it. That's what that's what I've heard. >> Right. Right. So they made their plans and hired people or bought materials or whatever or based on this and then >> based on a revenue stream. So it's in their budget of their revenue stream. >> Well, grants are grants happen a little differently. >> Grants. Yes. But it's it's anticipated money that would be offsetting their spending. >> Right. Right. >> But I think I mean at this point Collins >> add to Yes. They added something right but they >> so they can parallel something they can't offer >> but it's still in their budget then >> it's not in their budget so grants are separate so
082it's >> even the spending part of it >> correct >> so this is a separate thing >> right a separate revenue stream and a separate expenditure stream >> but already planned for the year that's the key so all during the legislative process everyone heard about seed everyone had an inclination of that seed was coming down the pike >> it was this lovely email that came out with this chart of every town and money, but no regional school districts were on that chart. So when people saw Andover, Hein or Marble, they saw dollar amounts and probably finalize their plans. >> So at this point from a town perspective, Colin has talked to the superintendents. He's talked to the town managers. I mean, they're on notice that >> this didn't go smoothly. >> So I would assume
083that next year it would be a much more open conversation. >> Yeah. Yes. And in the conversations that I've had with at least the superintendent, it was, hey, like we've we're counting on the money that for this year. And this goes to your question, babe. You know, we're counting on this money for this year. Um, >> but we have to understand that it's supposed to be out. If if if the state is not going to do it properly, then the towns need to come together and figure out how to do it. It's just the it's just the right way to do it. It's just unfortunate the way it was done this year is my understanding. >> I agree. >> All right. So, I'd like to make sure that we just do drop it. We don't
084pursue these things. >> I have no intention of doing anything more about it. >> Okay. >> I I don't know if you realize, but it's caused some >> headaches in town where there's already huge tensions between the now former town manager and the superintendent. And this this came up at a board of selectman meeting and where they didn't know what they were talking about as you know. Yeah. >> Slip and don't about education generally. >> Yeah. And and and and you know, I I I that was conveyed to me as well. And what I in my conversations that I had with Heather about this is, you know, we're looking at in total um somewhere in the neighborhood of $39,000. We could do some good stuff with $39,000 in region 8. And you know, and I
085said this to the other superintendent, like I understand your position, but you have to understand my position, which is to advocate for the needs and wants of of teachers and staff and students in in our district. And that's so that's what I was doing. But I agree like I'm there's no adversarial, you know, relationship between myself and the three towns and the superintendent. They did what they had to do and I understand that as and I did what I had to do. Um, but I have no intention of hounding anybody or anything like that, you know, saying, you know, give me more money or give me anything. So, >> so I'm going to move us on to item 10.5, the personnel report. >> So, just one resignation to share. Katie Duncan, a special ed teacher
086for Ram Middle School, resigned effective November 3rd. Uh, she had been employed by the district since August 26, 2019. Personnel report. >> Okay. 10.6 is first read of policies. So, uh, there I had a meeting with the policy subcommittee. I think it was a couple weeks ago. Um, >> and the first one which is a new, um, policy which is duties of the superintendent. The board may recall that, um, there was some, uh, a recommendation for removing some language or removing an old policy. But then there there was a conversation at the policy subcommittee about well you know maybe there would be a benefit to to have a a very high level um outline of the work that the superintendent does. And so um this uh is a first read. I brought this to the
087policy subcommittee. They were agreeable to uh the language in this one uh in this draft policy that I shared with them. Um I could certainly take any questions if people have any about this one. Again, uh this was uh uh unanimously agreed upon to to be good to move forward. Um I think I made a couple of adjustments based off feedback that I got in the policy, but but they were pretty minor. >> Um the next one, limits of authority. Again, this is another one where we were looking to make a change to another policy. Um and we said, well, we can delete that, but we really should add some aspect of it there. And that was really around requests for information. So, we found this existing limits of authority policy. I made a minor
088change in the front um page. And on the second page, I just added a section for requests for information. Um uh so certainly I can take any questions about that, but again, this was one that went to the policy subcommittee and and everybody was fine with it. Uh the next one is policy 66 6126. Uh we currently have a policy called intercultural relations um which is pretty outdated. It was last revised in 2016. Um and and really uh what what we the the the terminology that we use and and education educators all across the the state and country use is really what we're talking about is culturally responsive instruction. Um and so we made some modifications um based off of really that being the the the the point of having this type of a of
089a policy. And um I identified uh a document called the Connecticut State Board of Education position statement on culturally responsive education from 2021. And that's really one of the references that we we drew a lot of this from. Um and so uh again the policy subcommittee was was was fine with this language as well. Um and the last one was simply a recommendation for deletion. This one talks about anonymous complaints that are received by the board. Um and what I said uh is you know we certainly um this is a process that we would utilize or you know if information is brought to the attention of the board through an anonymous complaint I would receive that and then do with it what is necessary and appropriate. But again it's just not a necessary policy. So
090um the the recommendation of our legal council and myself is to to eliminate that. So uh and again the policy subcommittee was in agreement. >> Um financials >> I'm happily done. >> All right. So in your handouts and closure 10.7A is the expenditure and revenue report as of October 31st, 2025. So, I'm going to tell you that there is a proposed net favorable position of $242,980 and some of that is made up of the magnet school and boag transportation uh tuition, sorry, that uh we budgeted 100% more, but now we were only paying out 58%. But having stated that we have this proposed net favorable position, um we have some special education expenditures that are cresting. So, we're keeping a watchful eye on those. So, don't get too excited. Um, so, so basically, yes. So,
091we received the um the invoices. We know what the enrollment was. So, that's how I came up with what was available. Um, the capital improvement fund was doing the track replacement and I believe that is finalized. I think we're just waiting for the final invoice to come. um the reserve for educational expenditures. We're still working on the middle school ADA um baseball field um project and that is almost at substantial well it is at sub substantial completion but there's I think two punch list items left that are still pending but I think they were working on it last week so I think we're almost there. Um and then as I stated people services is watching their budgets closely right now due to IEPs and any changes that are happening. Are there any questions? And I
092believe there was one via email. Yes, there's a mayor Koopa. We had a human event happen. Um we do accounts receivable to book the revenue coming in that were that we budgeted for and um we just sent out the invoice with special ed services. And so neither myself nor my accounting director reversed the original accounts receivable. So that just inflated the revenue for tuition. >> Okay. I mean, we didn't quite follow that, but >> yeah, we caught it. >> It was a mistake. So, so this number is wrong that's on here. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. You'll get the next one in next month. So, it'll be >> Which number is incorrect? >> The tuition one. It's inflated under receive 400 >> 400,000 >> somewhere in that range. Tuition tuition. >> We're only expecting
093190 for the year. Yeah, we're getting a little bit more because we actually had another school system that um >> I think it's a DCF place that we had to invoice for. So, we we are getting a little bit more but not that much. >> Yeah, that's a lot. >> Well, I thought maybe that you know budgeting season happened before uh Colombia. >> No, no, no. You know, and that that could have, you know, counted a fair bit of that. But >> so in the tuition adjustment 15%. Is that what counts for the 150,000? >> That's only a portion of this total tuition, >> right? >> Yeah, there's Yes. >> Are there any more questions? >> Okay, moving on to 10.7B, which is the food service monthly sales and expenditure reports. Um so as you
094can see we realized another loss of $57,43649 um in totality since um we've started. Um but as you can see the August is what I guess tripped us up this year for lack of a better word because um that was a a large um influx of expenditures without having any revenue to offset that. But we're still doing good. We still have a positive fund balance. So, um, and we're doing our best to ensure that student participation is increasing. Um, and we are having an admin review this year for with the state of Connecticut's going to come out and oversee our high school and the inner school agreement with Barbara Elementary School to make sure that we're doing everything we're supposed to be doing in accordance with state and federal laws. Are there any questions that
095the board may have? So this exhibit now includes Marboro, >> correct? >> Um, >> expenses and income, but it does but it does not include their former food service account that they had on their side. >> So was that a positive number or a negative number? >> They I think they had 21,000 if I remember correct. >> Positive. >> And they just kept >> Yes. But so but there's Yeah. But if there's expenditures that need to come up, they have to use that money first. >> So they So there's a prorated share that we would that we agreed to when we signed the inter school agreement. So anything that is in our coffers currently, they have to use up their coffers before they reach into these coffers. >> Oh, okay. Interesting. >> Any other questions?
096>> Okay. Hearing none. 10.7 C is the RAM middle school and high school student activity account. Um the balances are in balance with Webster Bank. This is more soformational for the board. Any questions that the board may have on that hearing? None. Enclosure 10.7D, which is the short-term investment fund. As everyone will note, um I had to take out $340,000 from this account so that we can pay both the ADA and the uh track invoices. Um so we do have a very nice $22,000 available. I am going to do a deeper dive to make sure that um we know exactly because when I arrived at RAM eight years ago, there was about 32,000 that it wasn't identified for anything. So we rolled it over to capital because the general fund's not supposed to have a
097recurring balance. So um so I just want to make sure that moving forward the board might need to allocate funds to to projects or even unallocated just to make sure that we know where those funds are supposed to be. >> Are there any questions that the board may have on that? >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Informational items for >> Yeah. So we've got a lot of things coming up. We uh it's hard to believe it's almost Thanksgiving and then soon it will be uh uh our winter recess. Um we got Thanksgiving coming up obviously pretty shortly. Um we've got things coming up uh we have our uh national honors site induction seal of biiteracy. There was a question about what the seal of biiteracy is. Seal of biiteracy is an opportunity for students
098to demonstrate a a high level of proficiency in in a second language. Um if if students are able to and and so they get tested on the second language and if they're able to demonstrate that they have that strong aptitude in the second language um they it's it's something that they can put on uh college applications, job applications, they are recognized at graduation. I think they get a tassel, they get a little uh asterk next to their name that they said they've earned the seal of biiteracy. It's just a it's a really really it's a it's a feather in their cap. It's a it's it's a really beneficial thing um for for students to go through that process to get um you know again uh fundraisers going on. We've got uh we're going to end
099up having a winter concert coming up. It's hard to believe because we just had our fall concert. We got winter concert coming up. Um and uh they're working already on um I think they're doing auditions too for the for the play that will take place in the spring. So there's a already gearing up for for things. We've got a little two-eek reprieve right now in between fall sports and winter sports where uh our our last season with football week is going to be ending, but then fall sports will kick into gear as well. Um and then the uh disciplinary reports for both high school and middle school are at the end of your packet. Um that's it. >> Any any questions on any of that? Okay. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion
100to adjurnn. >> Okay. I got to split you up into a one and two. >> I'll take two. >> All right. Um, all in favor? >> Anyone opposed? Anybody want to abstain? Thank you. We should abstain just to make a new >> I'm going to be in a meeting where somebody objects to a