001e e e order um for roll call Michael Buller Michael buer Hein Michael Sheron Michael Sharon Hein Joe klei Joe K Hein Kirsten erinson Kirsten erinson and over pam farington pam farington Marboro Carrie folino carrye frino Marboro Drew gin Drew Goin Mar Gabe Marx uh Gabe marks heam Amy romanchuk Amy romanchuk marbor Scott soy Scott soy Andover Heather summer Brianna oku Samantha Max Grand Middle School and all s from high school right and everybody rise Toge of Allegiance FL United States of America to the for it stands Nation indivisible andice perfect so that takes us to public comments he Andover and Marble Community engagement and attendance at Board of Ed public meetings is welcomed the public comment section of the meeting agenda is set aside so the board may receive public comments procedurally public remarks
002will be limited to 3 minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves because the board is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters on the agenda the board is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented is there anyone present that like to public the comment okay anyone online hearing none okay perfect um next we have the addd delete agenda items um I I'll move that we add agenda item 10.7 discussion and possible actions on a food service inter School agreement with marro public schools to the current agenda under new and unfinished business second gr than any discussion hearing none all in favor I against obain passes unanimous and the student rep report um I guess I'll start us off um welcome everybody to March we finally
003have our shades open we can see outside um today wasn't a very nice day however it has been nice in past days I'm very excited about it I love warm weather I love being warm just I want to get out of winter guys so we're getting there um I'm very happy about that um so some things on the agenda for March um so we have our trivia night Ram trivia night Thursday I'm going to be participating this year I'm very excited um you're looking at the future winner so you know we also had last week our blood drive um that was very successful as it always is I'm very happy you know Ram is a part of that last two things um we have our Deca field trip and we had our kids fors uh
004cops basketball game that's all I have um we also have the SATs coming up tomorrow and then the seniors have their portfolio redo make makeups yeah for anybody that missed them and a little louder please sorry um yeah really not much going on for March so um for Ram Middle School we had our student leg conferences um earlier and all students had to prepare SL show to show their parents their progress in school so far students either showed their parents at home or at an in in-person conference at school um Matilda the Musical was also this weekend for the middle school and the high school the ram Players Club did an amazing job and their hard work definitely paid off um also happy St Patrick's Day to everybody to celebrate Ram Middle School's having a
005spirit week this week and today was Green Day in upcoming news all students have Smarter Balance testing coming up soon which I know everybody is very thrilled about to say the least um also any Middle School band course and Jazz students who auditioned and are accepted into the eastern regional Festival um are having their concert this Saturday March 22nd we have put in a lot of work um to prepare for this concert and are very excited to show off our skills thank you thank you all um the Board of Ed chair report I don't have anything additional to report so I'll turn it over to Colin so thank you I uh yes happy St Patrick's day indeed best holiday of the year in my opinion as an Irishman um and also happy almost spring um
006I agree with you Oliver I'm super excited when I leave work and it's not Pitch Blackout um that's always an exciting thing for for to to be happy about so it's great um the the what I also want to start with with regards to the report of the superintendent is uh March is also board appre board of education appreciation month and I wanted to take this as an opportunity on behalf of the faculty and staff and the students to thank our uh Board of Education members or student Board of Education members for representing their respective towns or for their respective schools um the the contributions that you all make are um often go unseen um and but I certainly know as I work with all of you very closely that um a lot of the
007great things that happen here in uh Region 8 are a result of uh support that you provide to the district um and to students and staff so um what we put together just so everybody can it is at their place everybody should have just a not pad Regional School District dat Board of Education notepad and then there is also a notebook that we had personalized stickers made up with a ram logo so um those are for all the board members and for those board members that are either not here or attending remotely we will make sure thank you that uh we get those um uh tokens of our appreciation sent out to you um in the coming days uh just to piggyback on something that was already mentioned we did have a blood drive last
008Thursday um we had our medical career students here a couple of weeks a couple of months ago uh Kathy green and her medical career students do a fantastic job just to put some um information or specific data uh they collected 85 pints of blood over the course of the day um and 21 of those uh individuals were firsttime donors which is a pretty cool thing I I think I've said this before the first time I ever donated blood which I've been doing for years and years and years and years was actually when I was a high school senior um so hopefully those 20 uh 21 students or adults who donated for the first time it will hopefully not be their last uh I also want to congratulate the ram math High School the ram high
009school math team for the successful 24-25 season uh the team finished third overall in the greater middle sex County Math League and the junior varsity team finished second of second overall out of 10 uh different teams in their league so certainly a wonderful accomplishment and finally I also want to congratulate the cast crew and faculty advisers of the ram play uh RAM Players Club um I was able to um attend opening night of the show which was on Thursday night and there were also shows on Friday night and Saturday night um I I I think that we had some tired cast members on Sunday WHo probably slept quite a bit because uh um it was a long show and it was really really well done uh it's just another great example of the hard work
010dedication and talents that our students have and uh I appreciate their work to provide such an outstanding and entertaining show to the school community and that concludes my uh superintendance report thank you um next we have the student program Spotlight so I I'll just start this off as well um board knows I've said it often in these meetings that um Unified sports unified theater it's uh one of my favorite events to go to uh that I get the opportunity to go to and so I was thinking the other week that it would be wonderful to highlight the unified program and um I talked to Mr Trudeau our athletic director to talk specifically about uh Unified sports and he has brought some students with him to talk a little bit about uh their participation and our
011coaches as well and and advisor so I appreciate everybody being here for for this and I'll turn it over to have Mr Trudeau start us off thank you why don't we have um all of the students and and coaches too that are here um you can kind of just come up and surround me at the Podium um on behalf of all these student athletes and coaches you know thank you for taking uh tonight and taking this opportunity to recognize this um this great Athletic program and uh athletic team that we offer for uh the high school and the middle school um you know piggybacking off of what Dr mcamera said uh this is uh personally one of my favorite um athletic programs and and uh Sports and two teams that we we offer here here
012at Ram um that uh that I get to oversee and and frankly I just get to enjoy um Aaron I'll let you change the slides um I'm not really going to read off the slides but I think our our slide presentation has a lot of great pict pictures with a lot of Smiles in it that uh I think capture what unified's all about um but you might be asking what is Unified sports um Unified sports is a program that uh is Affiliated directly with Special Olympics and the Special Olympics organization um it started way back in the 90s um and RAM has been a founding member uh as as far as I know um you know for as long as it's been offered in the state of Connecticut for for uh uh inner Scholastic Athletics
013um it's it's a sport or a a group of sports that combines uh our student athletes our unified student athletes with our peer helpers of similar age groups um Ain you can go ahead and change it um they do compete in sort of light competitive environments um which is absolutely fantastic because it focuses on development skill development um important athletic development and and physical development of of our student athletes um and probably most importantly social interaction and fun for these guys um but again they compete in a light competitive atmosphere um it is an Exemplar model of what sportsmanship is and what sportsmanship should be um across the board in in High School athletics and and Middle School athletics and and personally I wish uh you know every sport from football to boys lacrosse to
014girls basketball all had kind of the same um mentality of sportsmanship and appreciation of each other and and appreciation of each other as as competitors um all right Aon you can go to the the last one for me um again I talked about it over the years um Ram has been a a founding member of this program uh it's like competition we we engage in traditional competition with other uh neighborhood high schools high schools um we participate in Statewide tournaments for both the middle and high school uh and our high school team has even participated at Mohan Sun um during the uh finals of state championship basketball games um which actually took P took place this weekend Ram wasn't a competitor this year but I believe the year before we were um during uh the
015the Northwest Catholic and Colby Cathedral um state championship basketball game so that's just a again a great atmosphere and a great uh exhibition uh to show off these these great student athletes um we have three students uh who have volunteered their Brave time to talk um I'm going to list them off and let them fight over who wants to go first second and third here but we have Olivia taga from our high school team Evelyn L from our high school team and R ala as a representative from our Middle School team hi my name's Evelyn um I've been a part of the UniFi basketball team for the past three years um I really enjoy being a part of this team um it's just a very non-toxic Sport and I love doing it um I think
016it's important because it provides equal opportunities for those who aren't able to participate in the other sports um and it's just in a very open and inviting environment for both the peers and the players um like last year we had like I think like 10 pure helpers and this year we had more than 20 which I think that was great that people want to participate in this and yeah it's just a very important aspect to RAM and making it more inclusive thank you [Music] hi hi I am I Amia I am a junior at R high school I have been paying B since 7 way you B is fun my favorite part is playing with my friends and I have met a lot of friends play basketball I I see them in my class launch
017and in the hallways we are to go away I have been to outh outh high school fville high school and to high school does anyone have any presence I do what's your favorite favorite play he's ref oh it is he always told me it's being on the bus with us yeah [Applause] um hi my name is Reese ala oh this is my first year doing unified basketball and I thought it was a really cool experience and it gave me an opportunity to spend time with my friends and also build newer friendships I was able to help help the athletes learn sportsmanship with the opposing team as well as being able to learn how to be a positive teammate to one another one new friendship that I made this year was with Aron and uh I
018did not know who he was before we started playing and now I enjoy giving him a high five in the hallways every time we see each other overall this has been a very positive experience for me and I hope to continue and do it again next year in eighth [Applause] grade all right that was a great job by all three of you student athletes um do we want to do a a picture sure do we still do that yeah all right so what we're going to do is we're going to have the student athletes and coaches um kind of line up in between the tables right now and well does anybody have any questions before we go for I I just would be car so the people that spoke did a phenomenal job Olivia I
019love the question that you answered on what was the best part so some of our students that came and joined us this evening that maybe didn't have a prepared presentation what's your favorite part about unified besides the bus rides you can't anybody else um I really like all the new friendships I think any of other students come on you drove all the way out here with Mom and Dad get the Highlight I think one of my highlights was when Arion first began shooting the ball he would shoot underhand and by the end of our only little little two month he be shooting over and making [Applause] basket does anybody else have any other questions I don't want to have I'm curious about how the peer pairing works you pair with the specific student or is
020it just part of a just just on the team together no we're just on the team together okay part of the unified what they give us as directions is three pier helpers and tubes at athletes on the court at any time the peer athletes don't the peers don't usually shoot they usually help the kids to get to where they need to be and help them to shoot if they're a level one team that really has a lot of skills then all of them are allowed to shoot but um they're there mainly to have friendships and to help the students that are athletes um improve I don't know if anybody saw but UniFi division one just first C chion I have a question do any of you uh play other sports besides basketball or do you
021have any favorites excellent okay what else all Sumer many many of the helpers do have other sport tournaments um track lros softball and Unified sports is a like a part of Special Olympics it's just what's access accessible during the school day or within the school building um so a lot of kids participate in uh Special Olympics outside of it and those Sports vary from bowling cor to swimming oh that's great I ski and I play Ice Hockey yeah awesome great also has unified drama which is similar group but it's just a different Avenue and the middle school high school do performance every yeah I've been to one of those it was terrific now it is very heartwarming as a par here um for nine years now to be involved in this program um it just
022I tell all my fellow parents if you have the time and you want to dedicate it to this program for basketball in January February um it's truly a blessing I really feel it just you see our kids in such a different light and they shine they can play better than a lot of people I know myself so it's very heartwarming when we come home on the bus it's just very uplifting so well I I agree with that you board members have heard me say I it is by far anytime there's anything related to Unified sports unified theater it is the best part of my day no matter what other good things happen in my day so it is great um and I appreciate all of you coming out here to highlight the program and I
023would highly recommend if anybody on the board has not had the opportunity to go to a game your season's over this year I believe yes so but we'll get you out next year it's uh it's fantastic so let's get a picture could we do a quick picture guys we'll just maybe uh it's Theos aesome thank you everybody thanks for being here guys together all right we good uh y so we'll move on to now the consent agenda so um there's just a couple of things on the consent agenda uh one is obviously the minutes from the last regularly scheduled board meeting and then uh n .2 has a number of different policies that are coming to the board for a second reading these came to the board of course in our February meeting as a
024first reading I receive no comments or feedback for any necessary changes and my recommendation is to approve the consent agenda as presented second second marks on any discussion all in favor next on to new and unfinished business so the the first item for new and unfinished business is a review of the indoor air quality report um I'll just set up a quick context for this and then I'm going to turn it over to um Michael schlehofer who is attending the meeting um uh virtually with us this evening um a report the indoor air quality requirement uh came to fruition probably two years ago I think two two two or three years ago where we needed to go through a um have an assessment done of our of our air quality um we had that done
025and uh a report was uh prepared and provided to the district the information from that report was actually already given to our facility subcommittee back in the fall I think we did it I can't quite remember the month but it was present the information was presented to the facility subcommittee um we wanted to make sure that we are compliant with the Law related to this and so the law specifically states that the information the report needs to be shared with with the board so we're making sure that we are in compliance with uh legislative requirements so Michael is going to uh there is a memo in your packet um it is in closure 10.1 it's just highlighting the fact that the indoor air quality assessment was done and that we are actually uh already have
026things in motion to make sure that we are following up with their recommendations um and then Michael could provide again a high level overview about what those recommendations are Mr schay Hopper please thank you um so as as Colin stated This was um a state mandate that we had to conduct this review um we partnered with uh sustainable energy or engineer Solutions out of Berlin um they finalized the report and out of the report there's two different ones there's one for the high school one for the middle school the high school report um um outlines the recommendations that they're looking at for [Music] is they want install outdoor airflow control sensors in the 25 uh rooftop units the next recommendation is to re-calibrate or replace the demand control devices which also handle the CO2 in
027seven units for the high school and then in the middle school again it was outside airflow Control Systems installing those in 17 of the units and then re-calibrating and replacing the demand control ventilation devices that also handled the CO2 for two units in the Middle School um we're working with with the engineer and actually ever sources is involved um because we're looking at possible incentives that would go along with this to help reduce the cost and save energy in the near future and um based on that we're still developing a budget um reaching out getting quotes and the funding for this would be from the HVAC Grant the reimbursement we got from the media center and the weight room and the um locker room project we have about $385,000 to put towards these uh recommended
028repairs so of course once once we have more finalized budget numbers or or proposals for this we will definitely share that with the facility subcommittee which can then um share it with the entire board with that um if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them so the timeline on these repairs is puts them and the cost into next year's budget or it's this year's budget no so it's it's Grant funded so depending on when the projects actually start it can roll forward because it's Grant because it's all Grant 100% so we it's the um uh air quality grant that we reive two years ago I believe yeah um that we're using those funds to pay for the work that they're recommended a couple of Middle School units needed more work than the
029others they needed some some kind of sensor or something is there any concerns about the air quality in those spaces immediately is no there's no immediate um immediate threat these are all recommendations based on budget and repairs any immediate issues were addressed uh before the report was even even got to us there was a unit down that was noted in one of the reports and it was due to a power failure so we addressed everything as as the findings were being done can this work be done while school's in session no this this is something that would take place over the summer or after hours it's not something that can be done um well not all of it can be done during school hours a lot of controls and programming can be done during school
030hours but the work that has to be done physically in units or classrooms would have to be done after hours or over the summer any other questions all right no action needed for this it's just simply making sure that we provided uh the information to the board Michael thank you very much if you're going to hang on for a little bit because we might have some questions for you and a couple of agenda items please yep just all right so the next item is 10.2 it's just an update on the proposed uh 2025 2026 um uh proposed administrative budget so this what I'm passing out to board members now here in person is a copy of the updated spreadsheet which shows um a number of different things it shows uh anticipated Revenue um um and
031overall what our entire budget is going to look like based off of adjustments that were made since the last time um we came together um the budget currently is at a 2.6% increase um obviously that's a decrease of what it had initially been when I presented to the board in January um thank you so much uh board members I at at home I if I didn't email this to you I can make sure I get it to you tomorrow [Music] um so so uh we we were primarily waiting for a uh to have our insurance healthc care premium uh what the change was going to be from our current year to next year uh we ended up making the decision as an insurance Consortium to make that uh increase be a 7% increase initially uh
032when we were going through the budget process and when I proposed the initial budget back in January um the number was actually an 8% increase so the reduction from 8% to 7% did uh result in some reductions from our budget um we at this point do not anticipate any changes to where we currently are right now with the 2.6% um I will tell you that in looking at the landscape of budget increases across uh our region and our state uh a 2.6 is a is a place that I think that there are many districts that would be envious of of being at this uh uh place um I think that in our current economic Times um we're we're really putting forth uh you know know a a budget that will give the district what it
033needs to to to continue to move forward in a positive direction we're also conscientious of the difficult Financial Times that that many towns and municipalities are facing um and and I'm really happy with where we landed I did um have a a meeting last week scheduled with the Andover Board of Finance to present the Region 8 budget uh unfortunately there were some technical difficulties that um hindered the ability for that meeting to take place so it was canceled at the last minute I think Scott and I were waiting online for about 10 or 15 minutes and um I I got an email saying hey the meeting's been cancelled um I did make myself available to the Andover Board of Finance I said let me know when you want me to present I'm happy to come
034at anytime um I've have not heard back from them but if I do get uh if it does get rescheduled I will certainly share that information with uh with you all just so you know what in the town we had a charter change recently yes which has sped up the budget process maybe too much for our Board of Finance yeah yeah so they're having a hard time getting getting stuff done yeah he had indicated that there was a tight timeline this year so um I am scheduled to present the Region 8 uh budget to the Hein Board of Finance Board of selectman tomorrow night at 7 o'clock at the Douglas Memorial Library um and again I'm I'm really happy to be able to present to them where we currently are right now um even I
035can certainly do our best to answer any questions you might have um but that that's what I wanted to provide an update about you're saying 2.6 but on here it says 2.81 where you where on the top of this street out change that's gross expenditures it's it's right here Scott it's oh okay yeah that any other questions I do have one yes please um the community use of buildings looks like it's going down a significant amount is it being used less by the community or are we charging so this is a so this it's a great question um it this is again of course anticipated Revenue it's it's it is a bit of a guessing game for lack of a better term okay I will tell you that um we ended up having to make
036some adjustments in fact the timing of your question is really good we did have to make some adjustments with how we fa how our community use of building process plays out um we actually had an individual who was a staff member who was the kind of the go-to person who always was the person who was here um for really the significant events for the community us of buildings things like dance companies um and outside for-profit companies coming in to use our building um and that person decided that they didn't want to continue to do that which I understood because it chewed up a lot of free time for them they were often here from you know Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock until Sunday night at s or 8 o'clock and pretty much not stop and
037so we we ended up um having to make some adjustments and so we wanted to just really cautiously go forward with this I will tell you that we're booking already um but there was a period of time where we were in flux for lack of a better term and we weren't quite sure of how that was going to impact our uh the reservations that were being made but we do have a we've reestablished the process um we actually have a policy related to the building use facilities use and we Revis the policy um it'll come to you guys tonight as a first read and we also modified our fee structure for our for our facilities use because what I don't think we'd updated our facilities use fee structure for approximately 10 years maybe a little
038bit more um you know and and um you know you're talking about labor costs being a part of that uh you're talking about um costs for uh things like air conditioning lighting you know all the factors that come into play um we we really Eva and Michael did an analysis of other school districts that you utilize or I'm sorry that allow facilities use um and and we really tried to make sure that we were in a kind of The Sweet Spot that that makes us still appealing but also making sure that we're not being taken advantage of for for the facilities that we have and and um again we could discuss that but that's I we should end up in a good place so the tuition figure is based on 189 Z 36 so you
039have um um eight freshman one rollover and two rollover students from one from Columbia one from um a different CH yeah so it's 10 and all it's it is uh nine of them are set at the rate that we established with our Columbia partnership right the 10th one is not from Colombia and so we're with that particular tuition rate we're adhering to our policy related to out of District students coming which is they pay um they pay an increased rate it's based off of really what is the state identified per pup expenditure okay that's why if you divide by 10 you don't get you got it you got it so you know we I I and just to speak to the the tuition I'm really glad that you brought it up um I had informed
040the board of this uh in an email communication um eight students are eight freshman students from Columbia are have identified Ram as their High School of Choice um while I certainly would have been happy if it was a greater number than that I'm not at all disappointed with with eight students I I this is speculation but I think it is well-founded speculation I believe that as we go through this partnership and it grows um I think that we're going to see more students from from Colombia coming to us I think the reason it's lower than than you know what IID obviously hoped it would be is because there's a lot of students you know EOS Smith has been the primary Choice high school for for Columbia students and I think that there's some momentum that
041are that's there's two things there's momentum if if they don't have older siblings and then I think if if incoming freshmen have older siblings their families are not going to want to have their kids split up or even if those kids don't go to EOS Smith anymore the older siblings I think that there's just an an affiliation for lack of a better term to to to to EO but I really do believe that as we get more I'll use the term first generation high school students matriculating out of uh Colombia I'm I'm very optimistic that that our our our numbers are going to grow with regards to to Colombia students I think they're going to come here and just be incredibly impressed with what we offer we'll start seeing more uh more kids choosing round
042any other questions fantastic uh 10.3 discussion of possible action regarding the recommended use okay so so we had a um facilities and finance joint subcommittee meeting last week was it last week it was last Tuesday goes by quick um and this was uh a topic uh this was an agenda topic so we have found ourselves we we currently uh are sitting in a g in a positive net favorable position um and there were some things that were brought to the attention of the administration after the initial budget had been presented presented to the board back in January uh Eva certainly made note of what those things were um but they were things that we said well these are things that we can look at getting for the 26 27 budget um we we didn't want
043to come to the board present our needs and then a week later or a month later come back and say hey we need another bunch of stuff and and to be honest with you these are things that in some cases can wait until the 26 27 school year however we find ourselves in a good Financial standing right now um and and there are um it really just makes sense to us as an administrative group to say if we find ourselves in this situation by making some purchases with our current funds we we are not reducing our budget for next year but we are essentially reducing our budget in future years and that I think is a very smart and strategic way to go about using our current net favorable position that encapsulates the majority of
044the things on this chart which is on uh page 10 I'm sorry enclosure 10.3 there's there is one um project I would I'll use the term project it's not a piece of equipment but it is a project that needed to be completed there was a a leak um as a result of a dra a toilet drain yeah like the connection behind the toilet yeah the connection behind the toilet um in one of the restrooms at the high school um uh stopped doing what it needed to do and unfortunately we had it pretty sizable leak that um incurred about 32,000 um I think $ 32,100 in unanticipated repair costs so incl that is included in this chart um that is not something that we could have waited until next year to do that is something that
045Michael has actually the work's already being done um and and so uh that is something that wasn't an additional thing for years later it was just something that we needed to um respond to obviously ly in in real time um but the remaining things on the list on enclosure 10.3 again are things that we're we're recommending we utilize current funding uh for as well um if there are any questions we could do our best to to answer them Michael's here and and between Michael and even and I and obviously we you know Mike and Drew can speak to this as well because they were a part of the meeting right I mean the bathroom was big because it was a back-to-back facility right one bathro two bathroom yeah so two bathrooms connected by two toilets
046and unfortunately was leaking in the walls so that's why no one really saw so a little bit of a batement that had to occur and then of course all the walls need replacement tile fixtures so I have questions about the some of the numbers Sy mixing vals 40 45 of them for $77,000 so I I I'll start and then if I misrepresent anything I'll ask Michael schay Hopper it's a big price tag um and I think you would indicate in your email you know why can't we just get new sinks each SN is about $7,500 each sink so this isn't a traditional sync that you might have at a home vanity this is a you know it is um controlled by a motion monitor so that the sinks have a significant cost to them and
047so this is really proactive maintenance because of the fact that they're no longer making the parts that we would need to repair the mixing valves that we have so we have to replace everything so and that's $7,500 per sync plus the cost to actually the labor cost to install the sinks um by getting the new um equipment that we're recommending at the $77,000 price tag that's actually something that we could do the work internally we we actually have the capability our maintainers can actually switch those parts out so this is coming at a significant Savings of of of what it would be in a scenario where we were looking to replace Michael did I Michael actually negotiated down the price it was 86,000 Michael did I get that pretty pretty correct spot on thank you
048sir doesn't happen often so I'll take a win the tool sheds why why do we have to replace all the tool sheds so and again Micha I'll I'll start and if you could jump in if I if I misrepresent so the the tool sheds are are I'm not quite sure how old they are but they are in disrepair um we have rotten floors uh ceilings are roof roofs that are leaking they' they're um they need to be replaced in order to for us to to adequately store materials and Equipment you in in the question you would sent me online you would said you know why not one or two big uh larger storage places as opposed to to to having smaller ones the the primary reason for that is because of the fact that the
049tool sheds are spread out like we're looking to replace ones that currently exist at athletic fields um adjacent to the high school Fields um we're looking to actually add one to um the athletic field that's adjacent to the Middle School baseball correct Middle School baseball or softball um and and so because of the fact if we had one or two larger ones that were more centralized then you would incur challenges like well how are you going to get things mve from point A to point B when you need that um the district is already committed to invest in uh mats for our our our track and field program well if we don't get these storage sheds we're not going to have places to store those mats and then they're going to deteriorate at a faster
050rate um so it is a it is a big investment I to your to your question that you would ask me uh via email but they are um they are necessary for us to make sure that if we're investing in this equipment or if we have invested in equipment that we are adequately protecting it from the elements when they're not being used so our current net favorable position is about 84,000 right doeses this it was not removed from there so we would have to deduct that yeah so be more like 4 okay just want to make sure I where he was any sorry no go ahead no I was just gonna say if there's any other questions I could try to answer them not okay do I have a motion to transfer $341,000 three to
051fund the cost of identified one-time purchases so move second second all right second Mike Sharon um any discussion all in favor against oppose or obstain pass unanimous right 10.4 10.4 I will turn it over to miss e all right so this is our annual healthy food certification this is the one um motion that needs to be read at verbatim so what you see you have to read um so basically this is where the state of Connecticut gives us additional funds um to ensure that the we're following um healthy food and con Connecticut nutritional standards um as for snacks or any other items that are not so sold as part of the reimbursable breakfast or lunch that's students are eating um and then that would be the first one that the board would like us to
052part continue participating the second one would be to exempt us from after hour sale so half an hour after the close of school at the location of the event um we are able to sell non healthy food um oh does anyone have any questions here have to do these separately yes you have to do one at a time so I'll move the pursuant to can I get Jal statute section 25f the Regional School District 8 Board of Ed certifies that all food items offered for sale to its students in the school under its jur schools under its jurisdictions not exempt from the Connecticut nutritional standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with a Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 this certification shall include
053all the food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable 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 organization and groups do I hear a second second second Drew Goin um any [Music] discussion take a vote uh vote to approve oppose obain to unanimous else's turn I'll do the second one uh entertain a motion that the Regional School District 8 Board of Education 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
054the 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 more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not those regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of this official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales uh and a second second second my Buller um all in favor hi any opposed any extensions that's unanimous and
055we will start with the first read of policy but before before we do that I I did want to make a comment that I noticed in the student School climate survey that a number of students at the high school complained about the lack of junk food if you will in so you might want to communicate to the school body that we are limited in that regard because of this I'm blaming you BL you just voted for this F yeah right blame blame the school board am throw us right under the bus that we did this in order order that they can eat right uh so I I'll jump right into the first read of different policies the first policy uh is a consideration for revision it's policy number 1424 which is fundraising board members may
056remember actually that we just had updated this policy back in April of 2024 however I had brought forward a um a policy a separate policy to the board subcommittee to consider for um to consider for deletion and it is simply um it's a policy that uh called solicitation of funds and and the last um really wording of that policy said there shall be no solicitation of funds from students in the school except for school specific activ ities when I brought it forward for deletion to the policy subcommittee uh the thought was well they felt it was an important I don't want to misiz this but that it was an important thing to keep in our policy book so instead of having a standalone separate policy on that particular item it fit really well into fundraising
057so we're just simply updating our fundraising policy to incorporate that language um any questions about that you're going to keep rolling all right so 1410 is community use of facilities this is the that I had actually just discussed based off of the question that Drew asked about the um or I'm sorry question that Joe had asked about facilities rentals um we did update this to align with the uh legislative changes that did uh come into play and made those changes and then also we did update as I said the schedule of fees um uh and the application process the the application process that was actually in our policy book was outdated Antiquated it had people who identified in there that haven't worked in the district probably in 10 or 15 years so um we obviously
058utilize technology to do that and again the updated fee schedule is is there as well um any questions about that particular all right the next one is byaw 9135 which is role of board and members um there actually was a standalone policy that was uh I believe it was called well it's going to be coming up here later for dele it was called public complaints or it is called public complaints um and it was just a a a standalone policy of that talked about how the board should respond if complaints are brought to the attention of the board um which of course doesn't happen um but what we decided to do was that was a joke yes um what what uh what we decided to do was instead of deleting that policy which wasn't which
059technically isn't NE Neary we added that the language um at the end of this policy of response to public concern and it highlights kind of how uh when concerns are brought to the attention of either the board or the administration that we try to deal with them at the lowest level and how we address those those issues or concerns so we're essentially memorializing the process that actually already exists and this will enable us to delete that other policy which we'll we'll get to later on um the next one is policy 6145 inter Scholastic Athletics this is a policy that is not mandated by uh any type of of legislation uh so I had brought it to the policy subcommittee to consider for deletion the feedback that I received at the policy subcommittee was that the
060members of the subcommittee felt that it was um important to have this it it kind of states the board's position and philosophy and beliefs about the importance of inter Scholastics uh inter Scholastic Athletics um and and uh said no they felt felt that this was a policy that was worth keeping so it was a much longer policy but what we did was we really I worked uh collaboratively with the udor athletic director and we took it from a I think a two or three page policy that had two or three pages of regulations associated with it and we just made it into a single onepage policy um that that really captures um the essence of of our thoughts and beliefs about inter Scholastic activities um and I brought it back to the policy subcommittee for
061a sec for a second review and everybody was satisfied with it so bring it forward to you today any questions about that one so the next one is 1423 this is for to consider for deletion um this is the one that I mentioned before this one sentence policy is now a part of our fundraising policy so it can be deleted the next one is 5123 student progress um it is it is not required legislatively that we have this policy in no way shape or form am I suggesting that we stop informing parents about how students are progressing and we will still do report cards um but but really this um with the with the um Advent of power school and all of the the ability that families have obviously to have access really in a
062in a real time um period to to access their students grades and and see how their their their kids are doing um you know obvious to be honest with the power school and having that ability to do is just as if not more important than report cards so we will still obviously provide report cards we're still going to provide transcripts but just as a way of practicality this is an unnecessary policy because we we have a process in place Power School updates every night at midnight I know that because I hear it when my son was in high school he power school because I got it on it every day probably 121 to see what he had not done that day that was a lot uh so uh the next one is is uh uh
063policy 6,000 School District goals um this I'm certainly not suggesting eliminating uh the desire to to have identified goals as a school district but we already actually have a policy under Community which is in the 1000 section that uh addresses this particular topic that we have um that the board identifies goals um and so this is just redundant and unnecessary and I'm recommending deletion because it's found elsewhere already in our policy book the next one is bylaw 9405 board member electronic meeting participation at Board of Ed meetings this is a um an outdated policy because we actually updated bylaw 9314 uh probably last year or the year before uh which is called the title of that one is called meeting conduct and actually that policy covers uh how board members can participate in board meetings
064electronically so again it's just a redundant policy because it's covered elsewhere and for that same exact reason um I am recommending the deletion of policy 9410 which is board member electronic meeting participation at subcommittee meetings because again it's covered under that one meeting conduct policy um the next one is bylaw nine 435 which is Board of Education hearings this is a one or two sentence policy that is simply restating uh what is legislatively required for board hearings and so it's unnecessary so I'm recommending deletion um of of that particular one the next one is policy 1412 schedule of fees uh as I mentioned earlier with revising the um School use of facilities policy instead of having one that was about school usec school use facilities and then a separate one Al together about schedule of
065fees uh for use of board facilities it made sense to combine the two I'm trying to be as efficient as we possibly can so this policy obviously can be eliminated as well and then I think the last one thank goodness is uh public complaints and as I indicated earlier this one simply falls under the revised policy of I think it's role of board members um we added the language about how for deals with public complaints or public concerns in a different policy so we can delete this one that's why I wouldn't got a thing of water because I knew I was G to be talking about that concludes that concludes my my policy recommendations but certainly um myself or Drew and Scott and Gabe and Carri online will can answer any questions people might have
066nothing good I'm starting to get time for a countdown now how many policies left a lot less a lot a lot less than than a year ago I'll tell you we're getting close we're chipping away we're chipping away uh good for financials all right we'll go to even with the financials all right so 10.6 a in your handout in your packet um I'm projecting a net favorable position of 83,7 65 at the end of February 28 2025 um on MAR onor about March 5th the governor Andor the legislative bodies rear reached an agreement that increased this current fiscal Year's excess cost funding um and we shall be receiving more information on that um so hopefully by next month I will have an update on that the capital Improvement fund we still have the U Middle
067School baseball field adaa project um the bids um um the bid was posted in the newspaper and on everywhere that we needed to post it we're hoping to get um submitt by April on April 2nd for opening and review um and again as a reminder the capital non recurring fund is no longer part of this we are now called the reserve for general education fund um and um the one thing that is left open in that is the m uh material containment center and we are hoping that um there should be a between ourselves and um the town Representatives um to move that to the next step hopefully um and then again the people Services Department keeps reviewing their um purchases the purchase orders based on the individual education plan for their students and either
068opening adjusting or closing um purchase orders accordingly are there any questions that the board may have at this time yeah I just thought of one excess clost for this year has been but there's significant Cuts isn't there from next year um so the goal is to try to keep it the momentum going forward but on Wednesday is the educational committee and they're talking about um ECS the educational cost share they're not so they're not so they're not really highlighting excess cost and we don't get ECS the towns get our ECS funding so so so I think if I'm hearing your question correctly they gave us the additional $40 million for this year great news we have no idea how much we're going to get so we're it's a bit of a we're just it's a
069waiting game we also don't know how much money is going to be allocated for next year and so um so I was very conservative and I budgeted at 60% because in the past I've done 70% we don't get nearly close that so I this year I bit the bullet and in 60% was what I was bud so we that's in our budget as anticipated Revenue um obviously we're hoping we get at least the 60% even a little bit more but you know we didn't change the anticipated Revenue um it just it's what I've been told in meetings that I've been to is that we should anticipate getting some additional like as As Eva just said I think really adequately and appr is the momentum to continue forward but there's still a great unknown and so
070um our feeling is be conservative and and hope hope for more fun any additional questions all right so moving on to 10.6 B is the Food Service monthly sales and expenditure report um so at this time at the end of February 28th of the program is currently running at a loss of $4,888 69 however the positive news of this was that it's $22,000 less than last year so we made a corre we're going in the right direction um are there any questions that the board may have on that okay thank you for including that no that's a good reference too I thought when I looked at the number from last year I'm like oh that's a positive got to share positive news all right 10.6 C the um Student Activity reports for the high school
071and middle school are in balance with Webster Bank our bank um are there any questions that the board may have on that so hearing none 10.6 D is the short-term investment fund account at the end of February we reinvested the dividend of $1,791 198 are there any questions that the board may have on that all right so the last item for this portion is the budget appropriation transfers that um exem from January and February um so there were 23 journal entries these 23 journal entries totaled $188,600 um they went from be for various items we had an unanticipated unanticipated insurance claim so that we have a deductible of $5,000 um the athletic director noticed that he needed additional soccer uniforms um oh there was um so we unfortunately this one caught us off guard a
072little bit the $255 um there's actually an we had to do an upgrade for software that the facilities Department uses and unfortunately now there's an annual fee included so the annual fee was $255 so we can budget for it next year this year we didn't know about it so we had to do a transfer for it um the rest is basically um um you know just price increases things that um the Middle School themselves found a new tool to enable parent conferences scheduling for it that makes it a smoother transition so it was $160 so we did it we said yes okay um so now that we said yes okay I'm hoping that the board says yes okay so are there any additional questions that the board may have I have one okay I noticed
073multiple Fe Personnel transfers for February why are they broken out individually so I usually do them after every payroll so you usually get two to three a month based on that um the last one was um I was freeing up so we had a lot of personnel shifts and um so people will also jump on or off our insurance from time to time so I did a I had the director of accounting review um what might be free you know just sitting around um spoken for when it's really not spoken for so I freed up that money to go into the unallocated Personnel thank you yep so this is just transfers between accounts it's not additional spending at all anywhere right I mean I could see that in the personal I ask I move that
074we approve these transfer in them out of $180,000 67 8, 67870 second Drew Goen um any discussion all in favor the oppos asains thank you thank you 107 it was what you guys voted on which is your um addition to the agenda and so basically what this is is currently um we have a food service management company that handles our Our Food Service program marro also has a food service management company that handles Their Food Service program we are we go out to bid every five years so you or shorter depending on how things are going for you um so it's you you go into you enter into a one-year contract that renews annually for up to five years so at this time it made sense for both um maror Elementary for maror public schools
075and ourselves to um see if an inter School agreement made sense um in totality for us so based on the discussions that we were having um we came up with some benefits that um I outlined um in this memo so that the board can um see the value of of us joining forces so basically what would happen is the contract of the Food Service program would fall under Ram's uh offices so we would take care of their food service program through the bir service management company so it would just take from our perspective there would be one determining official which we have um a determining official is the person who has access to um the state site who can see if they're um Medicaid free or reduced students and then that information gets put into
076our student information um database system Power School um so then this person from Rend would then communicate with a point person at maror elementary to let them know who their people are um I personally would have to go out three times a year to make sure that the um Food Service management company at that site is doing what they're supposed to be um we are seen as two sites here because we have a middle school and a high school as m in one big building um and then the elementary would be a third site so it would just be we'd be treated as a normal regular um K12 District basically as well we done this before with we have not done this okay would it make sense to try get so it's a great it's
077a great question so I'll give context for kind of how this evolved I meet monthly with the superintendents from the three Elementary districts and and I will tell you that every single time that we meet we talk about a Litany of things but but within the context of almost every conversation we have we talk about needs that we might have that might be able to we might be able to partner with one of our other districts one or more of our other districts whether it's a staffing issue like hey I need a you know an elementary uh superintendent might say I need a point4 music teacher you know is there any you know college you have somebody who is working lesson 1.0 ft you know so you know those are types of conversations that happen
078on a fairly regular basis we um you know we we we are trying to uh partner with them and collaborate with them on on things like instructional um curriculum and instruction initiatives right and so Mar Rose me our new um curriculum director is is you know working closely with them around here are some initiatives that we have going on talk the more that we can partner with our feeder districts I think it it's more advantageous it just builds a more UNIF region and so this this uh inter School agreement came out of one of those meetings and the superintendent from marbor said you know Hey listen I've got to go out to bid you know where are you guys at and and um and I said well you know ironically we're we're going out to
079bid too so we just started talking about the possibility of this partnership we did talk with the other um superintendant from the other districts um I will uh basically what I was told uh from from the Andover superintendent is Andover is currently partnered actually in a in a in the exact same type of agreement but they're they're with centry they've been with centry for years and um and I don't fault the the the superintendent there basically her the impression I got was we're really happy with what we have and I'm not looking to make any substantive changes at this point totally understand that um Hein is is in a similar situation they are actually there's two different ways to do Food Service you could either be do it yourself and and and have your own
080employees or you could do food service is what we do Hein is currently um doing uh their their own thing they have their own employees they they manage their own kitchen and I was told at this point we're not really looking to make any changes so the offer to do the inter School agreement with other districts was offered um I don't think that the door is permanently closed on that I think it's one of those things where you know this partnership that we make with Maro that you know how how good it goes uh could could could maybe have some influence over over future Partnerships with with some of our elementary districts but again I I see this as a really good thing it just it builds a more cohesive and aligned uh Regional District
081which is what we're looking to do at every opportunity and so there is a recommended motion I certainly take questions but there was a recommended motion so the the process is moving forward is uh the board would need to authorize me to do two things to to negotiate the terms of the inter School agreement um which is something that I would do with uh the the lead event I would do with the leadership of of of the marbor school district and then ultimately once the terms of the agreement are negotiated um it would be entering into the agreement and so um Marboro has has not had this conversation yet um with their board I think their board meeting is the end of it 27 28 somewhere around there thank you so that this is a
082conversation that is going to be had at the Marboro Board of Education to to move in this direction as well um you know the the leadership over there anticipates you know their board being supportive of it the timing worked out that we had this meeting last Thursday after our agenda had been posted and when I said well I got to get this of our board the timing is perfect so which is why we had to add it to the agenda for for today but you know if there's any questions we can certainly do our best to answer them but if not there's the recommended motion that I provided to youall I would just note that there's 1100 did I do that quickly 1162 students which means it's 22 I I did the memo really quick
083this this was at the witching hour on Thursday afternoon we were like we got to get this out so thank you better economy yeah even better even better so I I'll make a motion that to authorize the superintendent to negotiate in terms of and enter into a food service inter School agreement with maror public school second perfect thank you um any discussion how does the finance that work do we pay it they pay us or so all the so the sales of the food become ours because it is our program but we have to help maintain the pro their site so if so that's part of the negotiation in terms of if there's Capital Improvements who might be paying for that is it coming out directly from the Food Service account if there's not enough
084in the Food Service Camp what portion what share all of that needs to get negotiated any other discussion all in favor I any any OB scenes thank you you all so that brings us to committee reports we'll get us started we had a joint facilities and finance subcommittee meeting on March 11th where we discussed a number of topics that we've gone through on tonight's agenda um our next meeting is scheduled or will be scheduled for April 8th we'll see if that turns into a joint meeting or not depends on our needs forward to that thank you um Finance Drew anything what he said it was a joint meeting same thing and our next meeting is the same day um policy car sorry I couldn't get off mute there uh policy we're just continually going through
085the different policies for um revision and deletion does anybody else have anything to add on that NOP um program and communication we have not met um we have a meeting scheduled for April 2 and Carrie anything from cab no nothing new from cab either and then next we have informational items yeah so uh in your packet is enclosure 12.1 a and 12.1 I'll just highlight a few of the things that that we have going on um um we have uh actually tomorrow we've got some senior portfolio presentations that are happening at the high school I'm excited about that I've got the schedule and I'm planning to attend attend some of those um we have a professional development day at the end of this week on Friday that's obviously districtwide uh going into April we have
086our spring concert coming up for the high school um and one of the things that I always joy to is there's a career day for um on April 11th and um our school counseling staff one of our counselors in particular puts together a career day for um our our sophomore students um you know they do a really good job of um you know try to ascertain um particular careers that students are interested in learning more about and then they go out and seek people from uh within the community and even outside of the community to come in and speak to our students um I went last year and it was is a great event and uh I'm excited about this year this year as well um as a couple of our student uh student reps
087mentioned uh we're in a different type of March Madness here at Ram in the sense of lots of testing going on uh students uh students certainly love all that happening um we have nwaa testing actually at the at is taking place that's our um sixth grade students that are going to come into to us they will take some tests that gives us some baseline data that we utilize at the middle school Dr shusi and is his staff at seventh grade used to to identify um you know where students need to be and and and how to make sure that we can um work with them well um uh one of our students mentioned the SEMA eastern regional Music Festival being held at centry um uh later this month as well as I said it's it's
088hard to believe we're it's spring already like I think Thursday is the first day of spring I think the week after that or two weeks from now it's the beginning of the fourth marking period I don't know how the year went by this quick but it did um I I will mention something about the Middle School um calendar events that I would really encourage board members if you haven't had the chance to do it um is the music and arts coffee house at the middle school I think that is the it's the 10th it's from six to 6 to 8 it's actually held at the high school because we use the um we use the the cafeteria and the Atri it's very similar to the evening in the Arts but it's specifically for the Middle
089School um it's a great event if you've never had if you've never gone I would highly encourage you to go um just highlighting the the phenomenal talents of our of our find and Performing Arts students um and I and then uh it's later on in April but we do have an alltown jazz concert again it's a really neat event to go to it's certainly not just specific to the middle school it's um uh bands from um our three feeder districts come um sometimes we've had bands from like bacon Academy come over and and perform with us we actually have um uh perform who are not in school who who will come we have you know Jazz musicians who live live in the community to come and perform with our students and it's just a really
090really great event um that that I would encourage people to to try to come to if if they've never had the opportunity to do it that that concludes my events I I'll roll right into student discipline I you know uh enclosure 12.2 a and 12.2b identify the in and out of school suspensions for uh the high school and the middle school over the past month data is in front of you that's that concludes everything for me perfect thank you um next do I have a motion to adjourn mov marks second right thanks M um any discussion all in favor opposed abstain all right thank you everyone that that be one of our shortest meetings