Town Council Budget Workshop # 6 - May 05 , 2026

001I >> think we're good. >> I have >> All right. Welcome everyone. >> I don't know if he's in. >> We are two minutes past 5:30. So, let's get started for our budget workshop for tonight, Tuesday, May 5th. Phelis Cinco de Mayo for all those who celebrate and um uh if we could rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you everyone. Next on the agenda is public comment. This portion of the meeting is specifically set aside for comments from the public who are asked to limit their comments to two minutes. Any person interested in providing public comment via email should email public meetings

002at rockyhillct.gov prior to 4 p.m. on the day of the meeting to have their public comment read into the record. Do we have anybody from the public who would like to speak here? step right up. Let's introduce yourself and give your address and >> Dominica Rakamura 52 Grimes Road. >> Um, so I just want to talk and given that student enrollment has remained remained relatively flat over the past several years, how does a proposed budget justify the addition of several new positions and also what specific needs or changes are driving the expansion at this time? >> All right, thank you. Hi, my name is Sean Gavin, 39 Hawthorne Circle. Um, couple things uh Dominica just mentioned. We've got one director position being split into two director level positions. Um, we are adding teachers with a

003enrollment that is not increasing. questions I have are the 2425 special education budget was 728,431 less than this proposed budget. According to the report, they've added one student. The 2023 to 2024 budget, $51,659,153. 24,473 students. The proposed budget for tonight 60,475,193. That is for 2463 students. That's an 8.75 million increase. And we are down 10 students. The mayor ran his campaign on affordability and a level tax. I don't see how that's going to happen. I do want to thank Mr. Zitto though for his time and service. I enjoyed working with him for several years on the board of ed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other comments from the public? Any written comments? >> None. >> Submitted this evening. All right. Well, without further ado, uh first up is Board of Education. Good evening, Mayor

004Smith, town council members, Miss McKim, Mr. Carpentino. I'm Jess Leaf Fredo. I am board chair. I am so happy to hear some of the public out tonight. and I hope that they'll stick around to listen to some of the answers to their questions. Thank you for the invitation to speak this evening as we present the education budget for the 2627 school year. My beginning words may be a bit lengthier than other board chairs. However, I hope to give you an educator's perspective and a different lens with which to see our data and our requests. I'd like to begin by grounding our conversation in a simple but powerful truth. A quote that you may have heard before by Benjamin Franklin. An investment in education always pays the highest returns. Regarding the board of education's operating budget,

005I hope tonight you will see that public education is not simply a line item. It is the foundation of our community's future. Every investment we make in our schools is an investment in people because that investment is actually shaping opportunities, strengthening outcomes, and supporting the long-term successes of our students. Over the past several years, however, the board of education has been asked to make increasingly difficult and at times unreasonable sacrifices, often working within budgets and CIPs that have been reduced to the bare minimum. We have stretched every dollar, delayed critical purchases, and made difficult staffing decisions. We have responded to retirements not by replacing staff, but by shifting personnel to fill gaps. We have phased in textbooks and building repairs over time rather than purchasing things when needed. That type of purchasing pattern only delays

006the muchneeded repairs and investments in our schools. And there has never been a wish list by teachers, only a deliberate focus on essential needs. Can this be the year that we look at our operating budget and our CIP differently? The budget being presented to you this evening is not a reflection of unnecessary spending. In fact, 7.64% of the budget is simply negotiated salaries, benefits, and transportation costs, including field trips. Only 1.3% of the budget actually represents a long overdue effort to restore resources, stipens, and teaching positions that have been lost in recent years. Over 12 hours of thoughtful deliberation, the board of education members unanimously voted for a budget that responsibly and intentionally addresses the needs of students and staff in our district. Here are the highlights of what we've discussed. Following an extensive discussion

007around class size, we are beginning the process of reducing class sizes and restoring teaching positions like the one that was cut last year. The board recently voted on new class size numbers starting in the 2026 2027 school year. These new class sizes are more in line with class sizes in area schools around us. In response to growing concerns around well-being and racism that were mentioned at a voice committee meeting held by the public in January, we are requesting a guidance counselor at GMS and a social worker at our high school to better support students social and emotional needs. To meet the increasing demands within special education, which Dr. Dr. Zto will talk about in a few minutes. We are requesting a special education supervisor who will work at the high school but also work with

008staff at GMS to support students needs with individualized programming. After careful consideration of last year's reduction in world language, we are adapting that position to better meet the needs of our evolving multilingual student population by requesting a Tissole teacher for GMS. There are many acronyms in education and if you are not aware, Tissole is teaching English to speakers of other languages. Going forward, the board has committed to continuing conversations about how we can strengthen world language offerings in the future like many towns around the state that start foreign language at the elementary level. Additional targeted requests include increased support for music with a 08 band teacher and a math interventionist at Moer, a stipen for a STEM club adviser at GMS. And at our high school, a hall monitor, dance team coach, freshman volleyball coach,

009and a HOSA stipend for a popular club. All of these positions are strategic investments to help foster student success. By increasing staffing and lowering class sizes, we create classrooms that are responsive and equipped to meet students needs, allowing for more individualized instruction, stronger teacher student relationships, and timely support of interventions, both academic and behavioral. Equally important, this budget prioritizes programs that enrich and expand student learning. Opportunities in music, athletics, and clubs are not extras. They are essential components of a well-rounded education. Our st students deserve these. When a district intentionally provides learning experiences that cultivate the six C's, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, citizenship, and character, all while also fostering a strong sense of belonging. Research affirms that these experiences are as essential as academic achievement. And while it is true that our district continues

010to demonstrate strong test scores in the Smarter Balance State testing known as ESPback and the SAT, we must look at the numbers differently. Our scores overall are above the state average, a celebration for sure. Our district is quite impressive in our district reference group. However, what isn't usually discussed is the ESPback testing showing that about 30% of students taking the math and ELA portions are not proficient. Again, when you look at the SAT data, 45% of students in math and 23% of students in the evidence-based reading and writing portion are not proficient in meeting the state average. Why? Well, these may be students who aren't good test takers. Maybe they struggle with a learning disability. Maybe behavioral or social emotional issues are getting in the way when it comes time for these tests. Whatever the

011issue, these are areas where our district keeps striving to help students. Dedicated educators are working tirelessly, often under significant pressure. Without proper supports in place, even the strongest systems can become strained. This is just one of the reasons competitive salaries and benefits are critically important. To lose dedicated educators in the district would put us further behind our neighboring districts. Those contracts are negotiated and agreed upon by both parties. And it is essential that we not forget the agreements that are made so that our teachers feel supported. Sustaining excellence requires investment. I'm going to say those words again. Sustaining excellence requires investment. Achievement doesn't happen by chance. It is the result of intentional planning, strong support systems, and access to meaningful opportunities. These are the goals of the Rocky Hill schools and this budget reflects that

012understanding. Public education is not a cost to be minimized. It is the cornerstone of a thriving community. A well-resourced budget allows us to reduce class sizes, strengthen support services for students, expand interventions, and provide programs that ensure every student is seen, supported, and challenged. Alongside the operating budget is the CIP, which outlines necessary capital projects over a 10-year period to maintain townowned buildings. However, over the past seven years, the CIP has been underfunded by approximately $7 million. The board of education and the community as a whole deserve a clear explanation as to why crit critical capital improvement projects continue to be underfunded by millions of dollars. The simple fact that the HVAC system at Stevens School still isn't complete is a perfect example of this underfunding. And it started like that from the get-go. Investing

013in a strong capital improvement plan helps stop the practice of kicking the can down the road by ensuring that necessary repairs and upgrades to town owned buildings are addressed in a timely responsible way that protects both safety and long-term costs. Going forward, finishing the HVAC at Stevens is a top priority along with a school that needs some attention, GMS, with plans for a front entrance canopy, redesigned media center, new tech lab equipped with visual, audio, visual, and green screen technology, and a renovated wood shop. These updated learning spaces would provide students with access to innovative hands-on educational experiences. Improvements here would ensure that students are actively engaged in learning while building the technical, collaborative, and problem solving skills necessary for high school and beyond. In closing, I'd like to return to the idea that the

014education budget is an investment. I hope you understand that the decisions made here today will shape the trajectory of student success. By supporting this budget, you show that you are choosing to invest in students, their potential, and the future of our community. It's time for Rocky Hill to renew its commitment to our public schools. And now I will turn the microphone over to Dr. Zto for his last presentation of the Rocky Hill public schools operating budget and CIP. >> Thank you. >> U Thank you, Miss Lefredo. I think uh those were very appropriate comments and a good lead into our conversation tonight. So appreciate the opportunity to address the council. Um so when we build our budget every year we have several basic assumptions. Um we want to make sure that our budget is aligned

015with our strategic priorities and reflect our commitment to maintaining high quality educational programming effective teaching and learning ensuring that our learning environments are safe our schools are clean and safe and allocating resources responsibly to meet our student needs. Um here's some more detail on those budget assumptions. Again, it's focused on educational programming system uh systematically evaluating existing programs and services, maintaining staffing levels in accordance with board of ed classiz policies. I know I had a question from a council member. I'll address that specifically tonight uh when we get to that part of the presentation. Um instructional materials are obviously a part of our uh budget. Many many things we use are consumable. Uh we also have uh technology issues uh as you see in number six that we we try to stay up to speed

016on technology. And then again with number five there uh the facilities. There's an emphasis to make sure everything is safe for students, clean and attractive. Uh this is a big budget. It's the largest one I've ever brought to you. Um and we'll talk about that and understand the comments that were made earlier and I understand kind of uh why there'd be tension about a 9% budget. There are some factors as Miss Lefredo alluded to that are beyond the control of the board. Uh we do have negotiated salary increases. Uh those are fixed. Uh we're not going to violate those agreements. Uh just like the council has contracts with bargaining groups, the board does the same thing. Uh we have a significant increase in medical group insurance costs. That is happening um across the state. A

017couple of years ago, you're aware that we switched over from Sigma to the Anthem under the state partnership plan. That was a good move for Rocky Hill uh because we had a reimbursement come back after that switch for 1.6 million which is being used to fund the roof without any additional burden on the taxpayers, the roof of West Hill School. So, but insurance, you know, you get that that nice payback and we got a little dip in year one, but across across uh the state, we're seeing an increase in the cost for the state partnership plan. Transportation is up uh that's up 14.5%. Insurance, including new staff, is up 17%. Those are big, big increases. And special education is an area that continues to increase on an annual basis. Costs continue to go up. So

018there's a lot of drivers in this budget that are beyond the control of the board. As U Jess mentioned earlier pretty much just to maintain what we have, we'd be looking at about a 7.64% budget just to keep pretty much services intact. Um here's another way of looking at the uh factors which are driving that almost 9% increase. The salaries and benefits alone make up about 7% of that. That does include some new staff as well. There are about six positions in this budget that are new. Uh transportation, u as I mentioned earlier, $410,000 increase. That's almost uh it's about threequarters of a point on the budget. You see the increases for tuition and then the mis miscellaneous increases and again that brings us to an 8.98. Um some comments were made about enrollment. This

019year we are up uh about 30 kids total. We use the NASDAQ projections and then we do our own counts here. Uh you can see for October 1, 2024, we always use October 1 as the date because that's the apples to apples comparison and that's the date we report the official information to the state. So for October 1 of 2024, you see the enrollment there, 2532. This fall, we saw an increase of 30 students. We also have 34 students that are homeschooled. Um we track those kids as well. As I've talked about in um in prior years, there is a relatively high rate of transiency. I believe some of that is tied to the large amount of apartment homes in Rocky Hill. We're all familiar with the situation this past year at the concierge, but

020there are other large apartment complexes as well. on. Although our enrollment tends to hover around 2530, 2560 in the 2500 range, when we exclude incoming kindergarten and graduating seniors, we still see large numbers of kids, well over 200 each year coming in in those middle grades between first grade and and up to senior year. So, they're not leaving the system as seniors. They're not coming in as freshmen or as kindergarten rather. That's a large number of kids in and out but it's fairly stable. Those roughly 200 something kids come in and another 200 leave those but that transient does create uh some challenges as well but migration overall is sta uh rather enrollment overall is stable. Um here is a factor Mr. Emanuel couldn't be here tonight. He asked me to talk about a little

021bit on kind of like my perspective of the historical changes in Rocky Hill during the 14 years I've been here. This is one of the data points that's really important about that. Um, if you go back to 2012, we had 231 kids identified with an IEP. We're now over 400. It's come down a little from last year, but still significant, over 400 kids. That's a huge change with a district where enrollment basically stayed the same. U if we look at our EL or ML kids, Miss Lefredo um mentioned, you know, a T-OLE teacher to work with kids whose primary language is not English, that's a huge increase from 2013 to the fall of 2025. 108 kids up to close to 300. So that is creating additional pressure and challenges on teachers and on building level

022administration that we didn't see 12 or 13 years ago. Um the special ed numbers are up 74%. The e increase those are the English language learners primary language is not English 164% increase. And I I was interested in this data and 49 of those kids are dy identified meaning they fall into both categories. So now you're talking about students that are identified with special needs and English is not their first language. So, these are the kinds of things we're dealing with that we weren't dealing with 10, 12, 14 years ago in Rocky Hill, at least not to this extent. Um, our enrollment projections call for a decrease. Uh, these projections are done by NASDAQ. They primary primarily look at uh birth rates in town and they also look at building permits. They're calling for a

023slight decrease of about 140 kids over a three-year period. Even if you break that out, even if we stuck to that, that's about 50 kids per year across 13 grade levels across five schools. It's not significant. When I then look at some of the rates of kids coming in, I think we're going to continue to to be pretty stable, which which has been the pattern here for the last several years. Very stable enrollment, which is a good thing from a budgeting standpoint. When we look at um where we are in spending, we pull up the most recent uh data. You can find this uh on on the state website. Um they look at per pupil costs uh per district for every district uh in the state. We are in district reference group D. Uh these

024towns all have a similar economic profile. Uh we've slipped back now um in the most recent rankings to 19th in spending. So um we're sliding. I'll talk a little bit later in the presentation, but we're in the bottom quartile statewide in spending. And I think um you know a good argument could be made that it would be good for Rocky Hill to move up a little bit in in these rankings to stay competitive for a lot of reasons. Test scores are important, but as Miss Lefredo alluded to, um we have a lot of kids that aren't making goal. Uh other districts may have more kids not making goal, but it's I don't want to forget about the kids. And I've said for years to our administrators, we're doing well test-wise, but on any metric we

025look at, somewhere between 25 to 33% of the kids aren't making goal. Again, when we have 75% of the kids in a given metric making goal, that's really good. Compares well to other towns, but I think Rocky Hill doesn't want to forget about the kids that aren't making goal as well. I know you guys uh feel the same way about that. So, we look at how we're doing um testing wise. You could see right there um in mathematics these are the most recent results. These are the uh all the grade levels that are tested. Uh we have the highest performance index uh in the DUI number one and again you juxtapose that with 19th in spending it's really good results. The school system continues to produce at a very high level at a very reasonable

026cost. again uh to compare to the other towns in our district reference group for English language arts, you also see that we're we're number one. Again, very very powerful results. That's a testament to the teachers and the people in the building level and the administrators leading them at the building level on how hard they work every day to support the kids in this community. In science, um I'm going to tease my friend from East Grandby who uh retired last year. Uh we lost these Graanby by one in science. So we're number two in science. But these are uh again uh very very good results. So uh um again right at the top in science. Now uh in the past years we've been asked to take a look at district reference group B. These towns have

027uh a significantly higher median family income. These are towns like Glastonbury, Simsbury, West Artford, South Windsor. Uh again in this ranking there are 21 districts in this ranking endured B. We don't really look at A because that's really not geographically most of the A districts are New Kanan Darian you know just kind of way off the charts economically compared to central Connecticut but DRB does include a lot of uh towns close to us. Farmington Glastonbury Simsbury uh West Archford Grandby South Windsor and you can see uh we're we're competitive with those towns. uh we would be 19th in spending and uh we're you know kind of in the thick of it in the middle there in math. Uh ELA again kind of right right in the middle uh with these districts that are frankly where

028the the kids are frankly coming from far wealthier homes compared to Rocky Hill. We're very competitive u science we you know we're ahead of Glastonbury which is remarkable. So again, uh we're holding our own even with the towns that that have significantly more wealth and that's important because wealth is correlated uh positively with student achievement. So to be competitive with these DR B towns uh is something that's important for us to consider. Again, it speaks to the the hard work that's going on in the classrooms in Rocky Hill every day. In terms of special ed expenses, uh for our most recent, uh report we had from the state, we are fourth in terms of efficiency within our district reference group spending a little over uh 22 and a.5% of our overall budget uh going to

029special ed. And that's good. And some of that is due to the creative indist programming that we run here in Rocky Hill because when you start to outplace large numbers of students, those expenses are significant and they really uh are a driver on the budget. So, the board adopted a budget this year at 8.98%. That's almost a $5 million increase last year's $55 uh.4 million budget. So, you can see see the numbers there. They're large. I admit that. I'm not going to deny it. There's no running away from that. Although, we are dealing with a lot of the pressures that you're seeing statewide. And there are other districts in our reference group. Shelton, their board approved a budget uh like 11.4 4%. Um, South Windsor's board came in at over 8%. So, we're seeing some

030significant um numbers in in other areas as well. Colchester 9.76. So, we're not alone in this because those fixed costs I talked about earlier are hitting everybody. So, uh, we had question from a council member about staffing. So, I want to go through what the new staffing is and there was a question about offsets as well. So, we have a teacher uh for Steven School. Uh we need to do that to keep class sizes at the board guidelines or below. Uh we're adding a par uh educator to support that that position as well. At uh Stevens, we talked a little bit earlier and I know we've had several questions about the position we're eliminating. We're eliminating the assistant superintendent for personnel and people services. Uh we'd like to see at the central office a director

031of personnel performance management, someone to do kind of the traditional human resources work, also mentor principles and spend time working with some of these issues that have come up through the voice committee like working with um you know diversity initiatives, recruitment and so forth, things like that to make sure that every kid in this town feels comfortable coming to school here. Uh those are important issues. That's a central office position replacing the one we have. We're not adding another position at the central office. As Miss Lefredo alluded to, there is a position for a special ed supervisor that will be based at the high school and middle school and that is an additional administrator. So, we're asking for one additional administrator in our budget, but we're not adding another body at the central office. Uh

032the band teacher, um Miss Lefredo talked about that in her comments, too. It will go from a point 6 up to a point 8. So there's a slight increase for the band teacher at Moer School. Um we have a little help for um math intervention there. Again, a day a week essentially is what a point. 2 equates to. Um Jess also mentioned the ML teacher that's in the budget. Uh we've basically, as you saw, we've seen a huge increase in ML numbers. We have one person right now trying to handle a giant case load between the high school and the middle school, and it's not sufficient. We need to break that up so that the middle school and the high school each have a dedicated teacher to work with those students whose primary language is

033not English. We also have a guidance counselor scheduled uh for the middle school that would be for grade six. We currently only have two counselors at the school. This will provide one in each grade level. Uh a social worker for the high school and middle school and a hall monitor at the high school uh for student safety issues. The offsets, as I said earlier, are the assistant superintendent. That's about $236,000 offset building sub for about 28,000 and a part-time uh just a reduction in physical therapy because we're able to consolidate a little bit on some case loads there at West Hill. And that'll save about 11,000. So, the net addition um is 6.1 positions. There's a question about class size. I'd said I I would get to it in the presentation here. Um, right now

034as we go into next year, the only change for next year, the kindergarten class size cap will go from 20 down to 18. We think that's important for for young learners. I will commend the board for phasing these changes in to minimize the impact on the budget. With this change, the impact is one additional teacher. Uh I did some projections for the board earlier in the year and you'll see that my recommendation was to decrease class size in first grade and wait until the following year 27 28. So right now we have 55 elementary teachers. The plan is to go to 56 in the fall of 27. Uh that would bump up to 57 or 58 and the following year probably one additional teacher. So over time we'd be looking to add teachers. uh but

035for next year one extra teacher and I think it was smart and fiscally prudent to um adjust those class sizes at those those higher grade levels in other words one through five as we move into the following year to minimize the impact on the budget. Um just talked about it earlier here we are u without any new staff we'd be looking at a 7.64% 64% increase. The new staff uh the full cost including benefits is about $740,000. It's another way of looking at uh those numbers through a pie chart and it just jumps out at you and this is consistent with any school district um in the in the state probably nationally. It's a people intensive business. So your salaries and benefits are running about 82 to 83%. And that's pretty standard and that's been

036the same for about 14 years. Here is how it breaks out. Again, um that pie chart, we just break it out for you numerically. You can see salaries and benefits 82.39%. Transportation a little over 5%, tuition just under three, and then the rest of it falls out with supplies and and all the other things that we we have to do to uh keep the school system running effectively for the kids. But again, the lion share is salaries, benefits, and then transportation takes up a big chunk, too. But it's important to bust those kids safely to and from school every day. So, this is a kind of a thought exercise we do every year. What would we look like uh based on those rankings if we simply came up to the median for the district reference

037group for, you know, where they are in terms of um mean per people spending, we' we'd increase that budget by 5.4 4 million. This is going back to 2425. And just to come up to the state average, it would be a $9 million increase for Rocky Hill. And this is important to think about because this town is in the top 46% in the uh the Anglic rankings which is the measure of relative wealth that the school districts use to just determine how wealthy is the town. What is the ability of Rocky Hill to pay for services for not only schools but also municipal services and Rocky Hill is kind of an average middle of the road Connecticut town in the top 46% statewide. There's 169 towns in the state. Um there's 166 districts in the

038state and we rank 126th in spending. So we spend in the bottom cortile which is not necessarily a terrible thing. But I could make a very strong argument. I will make an argument that a 9% budget um given where we are right now is certainly not out of line. And there's some good news coming along the way that I'm going to touch about upon later on today as well. Um, so I will credit uh Mayor Smith for asking me um where what a 9% budget would do if we made some assumptions about other districts. So where would we fall in the ranking of 24 if everybody else got a 4%. And we would uh we'd still be 16th and that doesn't really change with three because 3% is about 200 bucks on this this chart.

039Um, and those that's a very conservative projection because a lot of these towns, as I said earlier, are coming in at six, seven, eight, nine, 11 in one place. So, we're not going to see 3% across the board. But even with three or 4% across the board, Rocky Hill is still going to rank 16th in spending. So, the point I'm trying to illustrate here is this is not some outrageous system here that's eating up all the resources in town. It's a well-run system. the costs are maintained at a reasonable level every year and education is expensive but other things in life are expensive too and you have to pay for quality so that's important when we talk about our capital improvement program history uh Miss Lefredo alluded to this earlier for a while and I

040do have that the historical perspective here the town was doing a pretty good job if you look back 2015 161 17 pretty close to what the board was requesting and and 21-22 it just really started to tail off. And like I said earlier, the only reason that the funding's in place for the West Hill roof is because we had that unanticipated windfall from the close out with Sigma when we moved over to Anthem. So that's something to think about. You know, why is this shortfall occurring each year? And it's important because schools are town assets. They're not simply I don't look I've never looked at this personally as an us versus them. I think the town is very deliberate about electing you to office and electing the board officers. Um you elected officials in my

041view here historically have done a great job kind of working together. There's always a little tension at budget time but these are important assets. West Hill roof, for example, a few years ago was experiencing leaks and we had to address those on a fairly regular basis. And sometimes these things get a little expensive and you wouldn't tolerate that in your own house and residents tell us we shouldn't tolerate it for our students either. Now, these are things that need to be addressed. The tennis courts, for example, they cannot be resurfaced again. Those are a town asset. Some of our residents enjoy using them. Our high school kids need them for physical education and for competitive tennis. They're in disrepair. That's going to be a million dollars. At some point, that has to be addressed uh

042fiscally. And you know, as as Jess said, we can't continue to kick the can down the road. So, here's what we have for pending infrastructure projects. Uh we're still kind of about halfway through the work at Steven School. So, there's roughly another $3 million worth of work that needs to be done. That school, which was built in 1957, is also desperately in need of new doors and windows. the West Hill roof. The funding's in place. We're still waiting for final approval from the state, but we've turned in the paperwork. We're just waiting for the kind of the machinery of state government to get to where it gets to and then give us the green light. Uh I am not optimistic it's going to happen in the summer. And I just want to be clear about

043that because of the delays with the state. It's not a delay on our end. We've turned our paperwork in on time. They're moving at a fairly slow pace uh over there. Um, but the funding's in place, so that that job will get done. The GMS, uh, front canopy is is a is an eyesore, not the most attractive thing we see in town. Uh, that eventually needs to be replaced. It's about $800,000. Uh, there's a planned renovation of the media and, uh, center, which is basically the library and the teched classrooms at GMS, $3 million. The tennis courts I just mentioned. Uh, the bleachers are about $140,000. We've had complaints over the years uh that we don't have bleachers. Uh the history there is we had to remove the bleachers because the um the building department

044deemed them a safety hazard. Those of you that have been around, I know Dave's been going to football games for years. Those bleachers are in rough shape, so we had to take them down. Not the ones on the home side. This is the visitor side bleachers. And then um the high school requires some masonry. We call it pointing uh around the building envelope. And there's some work uh that should be done in the West Hill Library as well. So my understanding preliminarily is there might be some funding in state legislature specifically as a carveout for the West Hill Library about $80,000 which would be good. So uh that's a lot of capital work that's facing the town over the next several years. So why is it important to fund the CIP? Well, as I said

045earlier, it protects assets. These are town assets. These are town properties. They should be maintained to the highest standards and we want to avoid emergencies. Sometimes an emergency can be very uh expensive versus having a detailed systematic planned repair process. Uh again, if you have buildings that are functional that don't have breakdowns, you can stabilize your budgeting. Um you also can extend the useful life of facilities. And again, safety and compliance are important issues as well. And finally, um it strengthens public trust. You know, there's a there there's a there's a benefit to the visibility of tax dollars when you think about gleaming new beautiful schools. Moer constantly get compliments about how beautiful Moer is. What a great job the entire town did pulling together for that referendum. Council and board working hand inand to

046push that through and we have a beautiful intermediate school and we're very lucky to have that. So, and that gets feedback and that generates positivity and people feel like, hey, my tax dollars are going uh into a positive place. And I will commend both the council and the board because when I came to this district in 2012, the facilities were in abysmal shape. Steven School had a hole in the floor of the gym. Not exaggerating. You could drop a a softball through it. Probably a basketball would fit through the hole. The PE teacher, Mr. Gilbert used to put orange cones around the hole on the gym floor. That doesn't happen anymore and that's a credit to the council and the board uh for working hard over the years to upgrade the facilities. But that doesn't

047mean that momentum can stop. So in our capital improvement budget, you see the uh classroom space at West Hill. I talked about that earlier. I believe there's a some carve out in the legislation I saw for that. the high school um teched and media center, the tennis courts, very important, a very very much a shared resource, the visitors bleachers at McBicker, classroom furniture, which does need to be replaced. U GMS is in pretty rough shape. We need to get some some new classroom furniture in there, and then some smaller repair projects throughout the district for a total of 1.7 million. So, um always good to remind everybody about why we're here. It's all about students and student achievement at the end of the day. And I just want to highlight a couple of things. Um,

048we've had a very good season athletically in Rocky Hill. We've had all state athletes in boys cross country, ice hockey, and girls basketball. Uh, our girls soccer team made the state semi-finals. Uh, in cross country, we had an individual student runner up. He was champion the year before, finished runner up this past season. Uh our girls basketball team had an unprecedented season for Rocky Hill going all the way to the state finals, losing in overtime. Great run by those girls. Very exciting for the community. Uh our hockey squad was was very good uh as well. They were they along with the girls basketball team were south division champs in the CCC. Marching band continues to be successful. They've moved up um in class. They are now a class three marching band. uh and they took

049first place in three local shows and third place in New England. So really proud of those kids and those are those are again a nice thing we offer in the school system I would say essential to keep kids engaged in the learning process. The research is clear that when when kids are engaged in extracurricular activities involved in a sport involved in band their student achievement u is better particularly with teenage kids idle time is usually not a good thing. So we want them to stay busy. um academic excellence. Uh we talked about test scores. West Hill again I think for the sixth time uh achieved the Connecticut School of Distinction uh top top 10% in the state for academic growth and performance with 95 or greater percent of the kids participating in the tests and

050u no gaps between high needs students and students without high needs. And then finally, and thank you to the mayor for featuring on the local show, uh Jordan Chagel, our teched teacher who runs the career center at the high school. That's a relatively new board initiative, and that has gotten off to an amazing start. Really helping kids focus on their next step when they leave Rocky Hill. Uh we continue to have a very high graduation rate. That's a four a four-year cohort rate of 95%. Compared to the state's high school graduation rate for four years, which is about 89%. And you can see I just picked a bunch of schools that the guidance department sent me that uh we have a basically kids competing at a national level for schools all over the country. We

051also see international students. This year two kids uh have been accepted to uh Harvard U and another kid's been accepted to Yale actually the same girl Harvard and Yale. So really proud of the work that they do at the high school to prepare these kids but it starts in pre kindergarten and kindergarten and goes all the way up. So, um, overall budget summary again, um, we're requesting a $60,475,000 budget. It's almost a $5 million increase, and it's a be about 9%. Here are some of the questions I received from various council members. Um, and I I I took some liberties. I just kind of paraphrased the questions uh to speed it up here. But the question is, the schools produce good results while spending less on a per pupil basis than most comparable districts. What

052specific data points show that a large spending increase is needed? Are there indicators such as teacher retention, class size, or compensation competitiveness suggesting that our performance is at risk? And the answer really is no. The large budget, as I said earlier, is primarily due to factors beyond the immediate control of the board. So the salary increases and the spikes in health insurance, transportation and special ed uh are really the main drivers. Uh we would be at 7.64 just to maintain basically current services. Another question from a council member was how many positions are not funded or eliminated uh when compared to your current budget? And I talked about that earlier uh but you have the numbers there. We reduced the assistant superintendent for personnel and pupil services. That's $236,000 that includes the benefits, the sub

053at the high school, the part-time uh position with uh physical therapy. And we also have an offset of about $50,000 for a retired elementary teacher. We make an assumption that we're going to hire a teacher at a lower salary level. So we made reductions for staffing uh of about 327,000. Another question about transferring. I gave you two very specific examples. We we will need another fifth grade teacher at Moer next year and we will need another special ed teacher at GMS because we will have more students with IEPs. The case load there goes from about 63 to 77. So, uh in both those cases, we're doing internal district transfers. There's no new staffing that's being uh requested for those positions. Um Mr. Manuel couldn't be here. He asked about uh busing and so I've got

054some detail here. We maintain a fleet of 19 buses. One of them is assigned to the vinyl tech run which we have to do by state law. We combine the high school and the middle school on the first run, Moer on the second run. And then the fleet splits off with uh 10 buses going to West Hill and eight to Stevens. The Moer buses since we're servicing all all the kids with 18 buses tend to have a little bit lower numbers. Uh but if we started to pull buses out of the fleet to try to drop to 17 or 16, we we would run into some issues. Um you know, particularly with those Stevens and West Hill runs. Um a lot of times I do get complaints, hey those buses are never full. And that

055is true. Uh we also get complaints about traffic on Bailey Road all the time and traffic at uh in front of Steven School on Orchard Street. We're seeing more and more parents drop off and pick up, but that doesn't mean that we can rely on them to do that every day. So, we have to have seats for those kids. We also know that high school students uh drive their own vehicles and sometimes they park around the school as we've dealt with recently as well, Carol Drive and other areas. Uh and I know the town is addressing that. And then uh particularly like during spring sports where a lot of kids are running track, you'll see even fewer kids on buses. So, uh, I acknowledge that the busing the ridership numbers can can, uh, fluctuate based

056on weather conditions, sport schedules, and things like that, but we do have to assign a bus to every kid who's eligible for a bus, which is very few kids are designated as walkers. So, the vast majority of kids need to be assigned to a bus in case mom or dad decides to put them on a bus on any given day. And I also worry that if we reduce the fleet size, it would likely increase the time on the bus and then there'd be complaints on the flip side of now my kid is getting home 10 minutes later than he was before because you went from 16 18 buses down to 16 and now I have now it's another 10 minutes on the bus for my kid. So we're pretty happy with New Britain Transportation. Um

057their contract came in at 14 and a half% but the competitor who offered a bid was over 30%. So, we went with a responsible low bidder. Um, I would not recommend uh tinkering with the the bus fleet. Um, Mr. Emanuel also kind of asked me to talk a little bit about kind of my view uh historically uh what's been going on in the town over the last 14 years. And I just a couple of achievements. And again, this is a team effort. This is not about me at all. It's just kind of data driven. And these are things that with everybody working together, some achievements for the district. Um, in 2011 2012, the the CAPT in the CMT, we had different testing metrics back then. Um, we now use the ESPback and the SAT. Um,

058but the Connecticut academic performance test was a 10th grade test and the Connecticut Mastery Tests were at the elementary level. District achievement was average in the DUI. It's right around average in most metrics we looked at. uh not at the top, not at the bottom, pretty much hovering around the average in most instance in instances on a district-wide level. And you could see where it started to creep up. By 201617 on the ESPback, for example, we were seventh in the district reference group in math and fourth in English language arts. As you saw earlier, we're now pretty much at the top. So, I give the staff all the credit for that. There's been a good increase in achievement over time. Um the implementation of full day was a big big issue for this town and

059it was important to get that in place. We have an SRO program that didn't exist largely I think as a result of what happened with uh Sandy Hook and then the Boston Marathon and thankfully we have those officers and that is something that uh I will always be grateful for the council for funding those police officers in our schools. They keep our kids safe and they deter um anybody with a bad idea about coming into the building. I I hope that continues to remain the same. We've seen a dramatic expansion of special ed programming to meet the changing needs of our community. And again, I talked about the facilities initiatives. The the schools are now in beautiful condition. Uh they still need work. I don't want to lose sight of that, but Ron and his

060staff do a great job keeping them attractive. Moer school is an award-winning school, and the high school renovation was was a successful project as well. Um so, let's see. All right, couple more slides. Some good news. I want to thank the mayor and the board chair for asking me to go to the fire station three last week. Ray, thank you for the invitation. We got some very good news uh from the governor. He announced that day. What I heard from the governor and what I heard the mayor also reiterating is that the state uh legislature and the governor understand the pressure that towns are under. So last year the ECS amount, that's educational cost sharing grant to the town of Rocky Hill, was 8.5 million. This year it's projected to go to 9.2 with additional

061supplemental funding of 1.2 million. That's huge. And if you look at some of the other surrounding communities, their grant in the in the report that just came out is a lot lower. I think uh Cromwell's maybe 480,000, something like that. So the 1.2 million is great news for Rocky Hill. In addition to that, um my understanding is you're getting almost $500,000 in supplemental municipal aid. That's for the town side. So that should help to alleviate some of the concerns that were expressed earlier from residents about uh mill rate taxes and so forth. That's a big big step for the state and uh you know in my view it comes at the right time with the needs that we're facing in this community. So, um, with that being said, I just want to finish with, uh,

062thanking you, uh, for allowing me to present tonight. This is, uh, again, we think a a high quality school system at a at a below average cost with great results. Our board's budget is student centered and needs focused, and I think, um, you know, long-term term stability is a hallmark of this community, and I'd like to see it continue. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any additional questions that I didn't cover in the presentation. >> All right, great. Thank you. Thank you for all of that, Dr. Zto. Um, I'll open it up to anybody else who'd anybody who'd like to ask some questions. I see everybody deep in thought. So, uh, also just thanks to all the other administrators in the room, too. Dr. Nosik who you know probably prepares a lot of these

063figures. I see some principles and other administrators and most of the board of ed past and present. So thank all all you guys for coming as well. >> I have a couple questions. Um thank you so much for your tenure here by the way Dr. Zto. >> Um that presentation was so good that I almost forgot some of the questions I had as you were talking. Um, but I I have written down my notes, so it's chicken scratch at best. Um, what what was the reason you you mentioned uh reduced class- size mandates? You know, you said this the state reduced their mandates too or >> No, the state did not reduce class size. The board of education reduced um our class size guidelines >> by two students next year for kindergarten, >> right? And

064then so it goes from 20 to 18. And then in the following year in the fall of 2027, two more students at each grade level per classroom in the in the in grades one through five. >> And and then and I saw that stop after 27 28 on the the chart. What happens like down the road? Does that mean two to seven and eight? Two to >> No. No. I Well, that's up to the board, but I I think it would stay there. That strikes me as reasonable. So right now >> and is that because I see a little bit less enrollment at the higher grades than I see in the elementary to 8. >> Well the enrollment uh slide is the enrollment guideline is 25 for uh the upper grades. So that hasn't changed.

065So that's what you're referring to. So >> that's that's ours not the states. >> Correct. This is not there are there is no kind of state formula for this. It's this is I think uh Miss Lefredo alluded to this earlier. We kind of look at surrounding districts see where they are. The feeling was um this year for example we had some kindergarten classes that were 21 students the the cap was 20 um and they were concerned that you know >> exceeded the cap our >> we did in a couple of spaces we did this year. Yeah. So we'd like to move it to 18 for next year. That's an intense day. Um when when you're you know you're dealing with 18 5-y olds. I joke with people think about if you have three kids taking

066them somewhere >> you know. >> Yeah. It's impossible. >> And managing three. So now you're managing 18. >> Yeah. um throughout the day it's tough to take three kids to Burger King. So, you know, 18 kids is a lot. Um so this the you know I don't think this was dramatic to reduce by two. So at each one of those levels where you see K through five um you could see that it was um we went down by two. So in 18 for kindergarten next year we were at 20. And then you see the following year first grade will drop from 20 to 18. Second and third grade will drop from 22 to 20 and the fourth and fifth grade will drop from 25 to 23. No change at the secondary level. >> And and

067what was the average in those classes? Again, this is me just gathering information. So, for example, we had one class of 21, but what were some of the other kindergarten? >> So, at West Hill, we were looking at um like 17s and 18s. At Stevens, we were a little higher this year in kindergarten. >> Um I actually have some information here. So next year um we are projecting West Hill School will have kindergartens of 17.4 uh first grade about just about 20 second grade 18 and third grade 18. Uh Stevens I again we don't have uh we have averages here. So 17.5 in kindergarten, >> 20 in first grade, >> um 20 in second grade, 18 in third grade. So we we work really hard to um stick to the guidelines. We've never been dramatically

068over. We were over the guidelines in a couple of spots this year and that has happened in the past as well. Uh but the board had, you know, they they had a policy meeting and it's within their discretion to set those guidelines and they've dropped them by two, which is which is a modest change. It's not dramatic. They didn't drop the the class size to 10 or 11 kids. They >> Well, it sounds like you're kind of getting to the average anyways because you were slightly below. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Right. But that's So, for example, adding the teacher at Stevens, we're going from 55 to 56 teachers at the elementary level districtwide. Adding that teacher at Stevens allows that number to come down. We're projecting um 105 kids in kindergarten. So if we only

069had five sections next year at Steven School, >> you'd be over. >> We'd be over 20. Exactly. So the sixth teacher there brings it down to 17.5. >> Thank you. Um do we have just my kids have been out for a few years now, but do we have we instituted a pay to play at all? >> No. No. And that um again I I have the advantage of the historical perspective. Um the board has always felt strongly that that's not going back to when Mr. McDonald was the board chair and then Mr. Morris, Mr. Dylan. >> Yeah. >> Uh this board unlike others has never uh looked at pay for play because and I would agree with that. I think it's an essential part of the educational experience for kids. >> Uh the only paytoplay

070is the outofd district kids who play ice hockey. We do have a fee that those boards have to pay us to support the ice hockey program because we have a co-op for ice hockey. >> Yeah. >> So, if I'm a Middletown kid playing for Rocky Hill, my board has to to pay. >> So, do do area towns do that? >> Some do. I know. I mean, going back years ago when I was a parent, my in Glastonbury, my stepkids, it was paytoplay back then. >> Yeah. >> On a on a per sport basis. But the the the strong feeling here from the board has been it's really part of the educational program and pay parents are paying taxes. So to to tell a family, all right, now you've got to pay another 200 bucks to

071play, you know, play football in the fall or girls basketball. I think there'd be some push back. Berlin tried to institute uh parking uh fees for students and it came pretty crazy. So I'm not I'm not sure that would be wellreceived. um the addition of a social uh I'm sorry, guidance counselor GMS. Do do we not have a guidance counselor there now or is that an additional ad? >> It's it's one. So we we have two counselors now. Uh there's they're covering the entire school. The idea is that we would be able to have a counselor in grade six, seven, and eight. So one for each grade level. We have about 200 kids per grade level at Stevens uh or West at GMS rather. But what we are seeing, Dave, is more of a um

072some of these social issues that are more pronounced than they were say 10 or 12 years ago. >> Online stuff going on, kids coming in, low self-esteem, social emotional health issues basically. So the feeling is that adding the extra counselor would be very helpful for the kids at the school. >> So do we have three at the high school too, one per grade? >> We have we have four at the high school. >> Okay. So it's be consistent from GMS all the way. >> Yeah, it would be consistent. Yeah. Although at the high school they do an alphabetized grade level, so they typically stay with the kids for four years, but they basically divide the kids up into four groups. >> Okay. Yeah. Um special ed supervisor. >> Yeah. >> Uh who who we bring

073somebody in to be a supervisor, which is one of your ads. Who does that responsibility now? >> So right now, um we have the position we're eliminating has some oversight of special ed and oversees the director of special ed. That's the assistant supervisor eliminated. >> The assistant superintendent position is being eliminated. The U director of special ed would be the top line line person in special ed and would have a supervisor working under that position directly at the middle school and high school handling all the IEP meetings um dealing with helping supervise the staff in special ed hiring the pair of professionals dealing with you know a whole range of issues that have to do with special ed. >> Do you have that model right now at the elementary schools? >> We do. Yeah, we

074have the assistant principles at the elementary school have some oversight for special education. The issue is at the middle school and the high school, the assistant principles are flat out with everything they're doing. They're larger schools, so they don't have the time of their day to supervise special ed. >> Okay. Um, and the social work would be going back and forth between Rockill High School. >> Split position uh plan for the high school and middle school. Is that part of the thing you were just mentioning about the guidance counselor ad is because we have more social issues facing >> Yeah, it's it's it's related. Yeah, we're seeing more behavior issues u we're frankly seeing more kids um coming from u issues, you know, where there's poverty in the home and things like that. It's we've

075seen quite a bit of a change over the last few years and uh we're just seeing more issues. Uh I think it's pretty consistent statewide, too. I don't think it's isolated to Rocky Hill. Mhm. >> Um, between you and the board of ed, have you have we considered a referendum question for some of these capital improvements? I mean, it seemed like a fairly detailed list that could be consolidated in a referendum >> that that's always at the discretion of the town to open that conversation with the board. Um, you know, as you know, that's a process that you have to prepare with the state. It has to go onto the ballot. There's steps. Uh and that's certainly something I don't think in my view and this is just my opinion after the successful referendum for

076the high school and for Moer which was um in I don't know if there was an appetite in town at least historically to do another referendum for facilities projects. So we on the board speaking for the board they've been attempting to address them on a kind of more of a peacemeal basis certainly within the purview of the town to do a town referendum. You see them in every town usually during elections and there's a whole process and you you'd involve your town attorney to do the questions properly and put them on the ballot. But that's certainly something that uh you could certainly consider. Uh but that would also really require council uh involvement in that. It's not just something the board has the authority to put a referendum question up. >> Yeah. Get I guess

077my intention is involving the citizens, you know, input on that too, you know, direct input versus, you know, just our input, you know. >> Absolutely. >> Um, >> you know, so, okay. And then, um, >> you know, I'm sure I I'll have a few more other questions as maybe questions arise from the other council members, but >> again, I can't say enough. You've been great for the town. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Appreciate that. >> You know that. >> I have some questions. Dr. Dr. Zto, thank you again for your uh time in town. Um I have an eight and nineyear-old who live in town and I have gone through the 504 meetings and all of that and understand the amount of time and stress that goes to that and the Rocky Hill um

078team that is involved with that. Um so I can acknowledge and I know at least I'm not even going to name a number but many other kids in town that need the same services if not more. So, I can acknowledge that there's a very much increased, you know, uh, special ed and, um, social and, um, other types of services that are needed. Um, I'm sure not just in town, but around the state and probably around the United States. Um, I also wanted to talk go back to class size. Um, I know you spent a lot of time on on kindergarten, which you know, young kids, but again, a lot of the kids um around my my children's age also um have are a lot to handle when they're having social and and mental issues and

079other things. Um, and my understanding like the Moser School and some of the other schools are pretty much maxed out on their class sizes. I don't think you've spoke to that. I I just kind of wanted to >> now Mo M Moer, I mean they're close. So right now um for next year we're projecting um 23.6 kids in fourth grade, 24 in fifth grade. The the cap for next year is 25 at Moer. So they're close, but we're not over. And understand that um I would, you know, love to have lower class sizes each year, and I would have done that every year, but I also have a financial obligation to be fiscally responsible. And I I think I've done a pretty good job over the years of sticking with the board's guideline as my

080indicator on how the schools get staffed. So we we've been pretty good about fidelity with those guidelines. >> Okay. >> I think to your point though, Miss Kaplan, that's one reason why the board is looking to decrease class sizes in two years for that age group at Moer. Yeah. Going from 25 down to 23. >> Yeah. I I wanted to just acknowledge that. So and and and say I I agree with reducing class sizes where possible and to help not just kids but the teachers mental health as well. Um also um my other question has to do with grants pursuing grants the tennis courts. There are definitely grants that can be achieved for the tennis courts through steep, USA and other small grants um that can you could get you know almost up to 750,000

081900,000 or more um ve very successfully. I think Shelton recently got a steep grant for their tennis um courts. So um I don't know if that's taken into account if someone is able to work on grants um to do that. I would like >> that's actually a great point and uh Mr. Montine is here. We did start to look at USA grants and uh the steep grant is a is a great idea though. That's something that we could look at through the state. >> Yeah, there's some other ones too um that I suggest that could help you know reduce some of those costs. >> No, that's a great comment and u work on that Mr. So we'll see what we can find on that. Thank you. Um and then um I do want to speak

082on that and I again I acknowledge that the majority of this budget is due to things that are out of control and the things that are not necessarily out of control are some essential services that were cut previously. um ed you know um um language and summer schools and things like that that I don't think was really spoken to in this. So I wanted to also uh just mention that. I don't know if you want to speak to that. >> Give you the exact numbers on that. So >> last year we had an adopted budget of 4.87 and it came in at 3.6. So it was about a $650,000 reduction. Uh, you know, we pride ourselves, at least our administrative team at the central office. We've never had to lay anybody off, but I did

083have to do some transfers. Miss Leferredo alluded to losing the elementary position that we're trying to restore to get that class size back to to a little bit lower level at Stevens. The world language program uh did go away. And the summer programming that that is enrichment programming, it's not optional. For years, the town ran a celebrations program, and I want to be clear about that. The legal obligation for extended school year for students with IEPs remains, and we will continue to fund that program, but the summer programming was one of the things also as a result of that reduction. Now, again, in fairness, it was still a 3.6% increase, but it was a reduction of $650,000 that the board had requested that that frankly I felt the 487 was a reasonable budget number last

084year. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I it is unfortunate that the the people that spoke earlier about this bill and or about this budget left um and can't hear that. So I'm hoping they're watching. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> I'm just kind of picking up on the um languages for the uh intermediate school. So you have fifth graders who had language in fourth grade, >> right? >> And they are not getting it this year, >> right? >> Will that negatively impact them going into sixth grade? I don't know the kind or is it just >> I mean that that you know that's kind of a subjective question. I would say yes because they're going to >> now is sixth grade is still an introductory level for languages. They basically get we have four academic marking periods.

085They essentially get a quarter of Spanish and a quarter of French. It's kind of an intro. So the the design initially went because there was a board objective years ago was a board goal to bring world languages into the lower grades. So when MOSER was built, it was part of the academic program. But the intent in grades four, five, and six basically is to expose kids to other cultures, expose them to different languages, specifically French and Spanish, to generate a little bit of excitement even in grade six. And then in seventh grade is the first year where they choose a full year of a world language. Uh and that's where they make a choice between Spanish or French. You know, in the high school, we had a third language which is Italian. I in Latin

086rather. We tried Italian. We had four at one point. Italian didn't work out numbers wise, but Latin's been stable. So, you could argue it's a negative, but again, given all the needs the board had, the board thought that that dealing with those kids in the um English language learner target population was a little more of our priority right now than re reinstating world language demo. And again, that was an effort to try to keep the number reasonable. you know, you add another staff member, we're up another $113,000. >> And is that um how many how many kids take languages? Is that a requirement or is that >> Yeah, the state requires some level of world language. I think it's they require a couple years. Uh most colleges require three years at least. >> I'm talking

087about for the for the >> No, it's not it's not a required course. And and that's a great question. It's not it's not a world language is not required until you get to high school. It's not even required at the middle school by by state. However, um it's been here as long as I've been here. It's been here way before I came and I think it's very important to give kids an advantage as they head into high school. So, I would really be against any more eliminations of oral language. >> Oh, I think it I think it's a great thing because I I know from h with my son, he's been out a while, but from having it in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, >> um he was able to take Yukon French and he

088went in with, you know, he didn't didn't have a language requirement. He's a science major, so he didn't have a language requirement because he satisfied it. So it it is very beneficial. >> Yeah. >> Doc Dr. Zto, thank you for a great presentation. Um, I'm going to apologize to everybody in the room at first by saying I'm on a bit of a bender with the legislative session ending, so I'm a little exhausted, but I I have a lot to say and and a lot and I want to be thankful for you and everybody in here for what you're doing. Um, first of all, thank you for your tenure of service here. I I think somebody said 2012 is when you started as the superintendent. >> That is that is a piece of our history here

089and uh it's so many adaptations from where the system was then to now. Um, you've been an excellent steward of our education system for our students and it shows in the outcomes. it shows in that per pupil spending versus outcomes which I will get to again in a moment because it's it shows it but we shouldn't be exposing it so much. Um school public education is a primary good in our society in the century plus that it's been a part of our culture and society here. It is has frankly become a critical part of the social contract and For many many many kids, it is the only place where they get access to experiences in life that are sometimes out of the reach of their parents, out of the reach of their neighborhoods and their

090social nets that they have. So when we start to get into nickel and dimming education, I I might be a little bit forward in this. sometimes offensive to me because it is the social contract that every generation makes to the next one. You have, it seems, over recent years, done an excellent job of balancing the intentions and needs of the town itself in terms of budget and what you hope to achieve. And this ask is the largest you've ever made. Um, but I haven't seen anything in it, frankly, that I see as egregious or not part of what would be stabilizing the future of the school system. I'm definitely not speaking for everyone on this day when I say that, but I personally would love to see us produce a budget that is right there

091with what you're asking. Um, there's a lot of things that were talked about tonight. Class sizes. We should be having this goal of reducing our class sizes down to what the science and the data say work. I'm the product of excellent special education. I've said that several times in public. It I hope it will become something you just know me by. You know, I was very lucky in high school. I went to a boarding school. Uh my parents spent all they had to get me into that. Um class sizes were sometimes as low as six. that is an irreplaceable type of uh educational situation to have. So 18 seems to me like a bare minimum place to be. World languages um I had access to French when I was young. First to fifth grade I

092became pretty fluent. Was able to converse with French speakers quite a bit. Didn't have access in middle school when I moved. Didn't have access in the first couple of years of high school even. I don't speak any foreign languages now. It matters that you get to kids young with the access to it and that it's consistent through all schooling. So trying to get there by with the starting point of world languages is a good start, but I see a future with a longterm need a long-term need to focus on it. Um other things that matter the kicking cans down the road infrastructure spending. Um, you know, I'm open to whatever process we want to look at towards investing in the infrastructure of our schools, whether it's referendum or through budget over time. Uh, I can

093appreciate why we would take the latter approach where we can, but we do need to invest in the infrastructure just like we need to invest in our town. Um, there's a lot of pressures that are building in the world around us. And when it really comes down to it, it's going to be, you know, if things start to fall apart outside of here, it's us in this town, this community. What do we choose to do with our money? What do we choose to do with our resources? I can't think of anything better to do with it than invest in a stable future for it. Um, what else did I have here? >> You said special ed students have increased 74% over the course of that time. >> That's that's an incredible rise. Um I I

094in conversations with the mayor recently, we were talking about how the quality of our special education is such and continues to grow to the point where we might start to see outplacement students from other communities into our communities special ed programs. I want to say to the public that if that happens, we're increasing the amount of money that we receive here in town from outside for education. Um I would love for that to be the case. I would love for people to look at this community as a safe, perfect place to raise a child who has needs that are beyond the norm. Um there's not a lot of those places and Rocky Hill could be one of them. Um lastly, I do want to say thank you to Chair Jess Lefredo, members of the board

095of ed who are here tonight and who are not. Uh teachers and staff at the schools especially. Um every single one of them. that school I talked about that I went to with like the low class sizes, every single staffer was involved in kids' lives. I can imagine that's the case here at our schools. So the things you're doing are great. I wanted to finish by talking about that whole notion of we have seen the quality of the outcome in the low peril spending versus outcomes. Um but we are relying right now and you're leaving us by the way. Um, we're relying on the endurance, the intentionality, the frank extreme dedication to the craft that the individual people who are in roles right now carry with them. And we have no guarantees on who the

096next people will be and whether they'll carry the same level of dedication. That's why you resource these things such that that's not what you're relying on forever. Thank you for your service. Thank you for everything you've done for this town. You've built the foundation of my child's education and she's not even in it yet. Thank you for everything you've done. >> Appreciate it. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, Dr. Zudo, for coming in tonight and congratulations your retirement. Thank you for all the years of service and I've been proud to work with you the last couple. >> Thank you. Couple things about the budget. We have class size up on your screen. When was that changed these numbers? >> Uh, very recently. I'd say about two months ago. Conversations were going on throughout the year,

097but the policy was adopted a couple of months ago. >> With these reductions, are we worried about our buildings to physically house these children? Are we going to be needing new classrooms? Are we going to be needing schools? >> No, I'm not concerned about that. Um, we have uh right now there are 55 elementary teachers. We'll go to 56 next year. One extra teacher at Stevens. There's space for that. >> But is there space for that? the following year it it adds another two teachers. So there there's capacity. Um Moer for example um has 17 classrooms u that are staffed right now. There's 24 rooms in the building. So there's ample space there. Okay. >> So I'm not overly concerned. The tightest footprint at the elementary level is u at Stevens. Uh but we'll we'll

098get to where we need to with with the the numbers and the enrollment has been stable. So I don't anticipate a problem there. If something crazy happened down the road, the board could look at um space at Moer. We have done that historically when enrollment was really spiking before Moer was built. We we u implemented what I called the fifth grade option at GMS. So when enrollment was really tight >> uh one year uh at the elementary schools uh for a couple years we had fifth graders uh going to um GMS. In fact, one of the teachers is smiling because I knew she'd think about that. But uh Michelle Wersziaak was at Stevens and she was the pioneer of the fifth grade option and took a bunch of fifth graders to GMS and she's still

099there. But now she's graduated to grade six. So the point is the board has the statutory authority to look at all available space and accommodate kids and move grade levels if needed, change neighborhoods if needed. It's not a pleasant thing to have to do, but the fifth grade option was voluntary and it worked out pretty well. >> That is a concern. And I just want to see us run out of >> Yeah, I think you have enough space at Moer. I don't think you're going to run out of space because even if you had to move some third graders to Moer, even a couple of classrooms, it would work. We have great staff here. Um, so that's not a concern as far as I'm concerned. >> Great. Um, you're losing one superintendent, but you're creating

100two positions to to take over that one position, >> right? We're dividing the special ed responsibilities and putting a person at the building level to support directly with students and teachers in the building. We're not adding any new staff at central office. We're changing some responsibilities. >> Well, you're actually adding an extra position for one person. >> Yep. As I said earlier, it's an extra administrator, but it's a school-based, not central office. I just want to be clear about that. The resources are going into the school. I I know but I understand you're just moving the position but it's >> it is an additional administrator. It's it's an additional >> two people. Yeah. To create for doing one job. >> So that position was was a a product of um what was going on during

101COVID. It's an unusual portfolio for a person to have primary oversight for personnel and special education. That's a those are two very dynamic areas. The thought was to be more consistent with other districts and streamline it to more of a traditional kind of personnel management, HR, hiring, staffing, FMLA concerns, staff discipline. Remember, we have about 470 staff members. They're not all teachers. There's a lot that goes on with each bargaining unit contract negotiation. and to take the special ed off the plate there. Also reducing the salary slightly just to focus on primarily human resources and and add some special ed support at the building level. So that's that's the design. It does put an extra person into the schools. I addressed those numbers earlier. You know, when I came here, we had 230 kids with

102an IEP. It's an individual education plan for special ed. We have over 400 now. the needs are intense and we continue to see uh more intensity in special ed as well in terms of kids that require one-to-one assistance, kids with significant emotional um and behavioral challenges. I mean, the needs are they're increasing. They're not diminishing. >> Why was it this year you decide to do that? Not last year, year before, even. So what happened was last year we had a person in that position leave okay >> and go to another state and we have an interim person in the role and uh the board had the conversation last spring and my comment to the board was you don't have it the funding right now we should put a person in as a placeholder and work

103properly work through the budget process to get to the place the board wanted to. So they followed my advice and they worked through and put it into this year's budget. I've always um been very, you know, and sometimes the principles aren't thrilled with me when I say we don't try to add stuff that we don't need to after the budget. You know, the budget the doors closed. It's been appropriated. This is what we have. So, we work through the budget process this year. >> Great. Could you go to the capital improvement screen? >> Yeah, >> we had up there. >> We talked about some state funding coming. Do you know what that's going to be earmarked for? >> Is it for capital improvements or >> Okay. So, the state funding is um that I talked

104about was what Governor Lamont talked about the other day. >> Correct. >> It's a supplemental educational cost sharing grant. Um and Rocky Hill is slated to receive an additional $1.2 million. The town is also slated to receive another 471 in municipal aid. I don't know the particulars. Um, if that money can be earmarked for facilities, I don't I don't know the answer. Someone else may. >> I don't know right now. Maybe uh Mr. Van Luling does. >> Digging in at the moment. >> Yeah. I mean, this is all this came out Thursday. >> We I mean, I'm just digging into I dug into it this morning with a couple of uh central office people. >> We have the number. Uh I was very pleased with the number, but I don't know >> what the strings

105are. Usually when you get supplemental aid, there's there's some strings attached, but if it's just straightforward ECS, that's going to benefit the the town and it's going to help uh mitigate any any impact on the taxpayers in the mil rate. And that's exactly what the governor stated. >> Either way, it's going to help us all. Yeah, >> but it might be a one-time thing. >> I I I don't know what I think it is probably a one time thing. >> Again, this is cover some of it. >> Yeah, >> I can cover some of it in a minute. Can we um can you go back to that capital improvement one again? You had a bunch of different >> and can I get a copy of this whole presentation? I was so >> we will provide

106u the town manager with copies that can be distributed to everybody on the council >> because as you know I gave you a lot of questions earlier and you answered them. Uh, you went through them fast. I like to absorb them a little later. >> Yeah. >> But, um, getting to the Stevens, is that 3 million left on the project or >> That's an estimated number for the work that still needs to be done. >> Okay. >> It's been a multi-year, multi-phase. We worked very closely with Mona to help get state reimbursement on some of it. Um, I mean, to to Mr. Cevin's point, it probably should have been a referendum, but I'm not sure that there was an appetite at the time to do one. So the board's tried to address it in more

107of a peace meal fashion. >> Do you know how much has already been funded for other parts of that project because some there's been funding set aside >> on that? >> Maybe 1.1 and a.5 million maybe. >> That's how much we spent. >> A little over a million. >> We'll get we can get you the details on that. You know, we'll provide any additional information you need. >> So that was a $4 million project. >> Not when it started. >> It's still 4 million left. It is important to discuss that at the time too about the HVAC at Stevens was one of those things that got pushed and now is like two times or five times more expensive because it wasn't funded previously as well as the bus contract. Correct. >> And I think we

108lost. >> So just to get to your question, Mr. Lefred, the um some information we had on the HVAC projects for phase one and two, >> the cost for phase one was about 343,000. And that was uh installing the duckless heat pumps in the classroom spaces back in the 1957 wing. >> And that's really it makes me feel good because I wasn't born till 1968. So that's pretty good. I was I would have been a student there if I lived in Rocky Hill. been great. And then um in August 2025 uh we fe we completed phase two just shy of $700,000. >> Okay. >> And that was the installation of air conditioning and two air handlers in the gym. So there's still um you know a lot of work to do. Um and it's we're

109estimating three million but >> could be closer to four million with with the way costs rise and things like that. >> That's why we should book it today. So these other items on this CIP here, are you looking to get them all funded for this budget year or >> No, for this year we're asking for 1.7 million. >> Okay. >> And you you would have you should have that in your budget book and I think we have a slide that outlines that too. >> But that won't even cover Stevens, >> right? >> No, Stevens is is scheduled for the following year. Um >> Okay. It's not scheduled for this year. So if did did you all get a budget book? You have that information in your budget book. So I'll summarize it for you. >>

110What are you looking at? 1.7 for this year. >> So 1.7 million and it covers um it specifically covers the teched and media centers at the middle school, 681,000. the tennis court upgrade uh which is a million dollars over two years. We have 500,000 in it this year. We've had some conversations with Mona that if that's funded, it might just be a placeholder until the project's ready to do another 500,000 the following year. So you have the million the bleachers, the visitors bleachers 140k. classroom furniture 100,000 and then uh small projects 200,000 and then I talked earlier about that library space u art room at West Hill. We basically have like a portable wall separating the the media center from the teched from the technology room there where the kids work on computer skills. We're

111looking to get a full wall there. And I I believe there's a carve out legislatively specifically to Rocky Hill for 80,000 to cover that work there. So, we'll have to get more details on that. >> Great. Do you mind me interrupting one quick? Mona, on this uh the council adopted budget, didn't we have a before we adopted last year's budget afall of 1.2 million that we allocated in place of the 1.7 budget request? >> It was the 1.6 for the roof. >> 1.6. I'm sorry. Thank you. So, >> that one that's how we got to the 1.7 last year. >> Right. Yeah. That was that was money that we received when we closed out the books was >> right. I remember because there was a windfall from insurance, right? And that's why part of that

112was covered, you know, and that was probably responsible for at least 1% >> if not 2% of the budget shortfall. >> Thank you. Now, I do want to thank you and your staff for, you know, there are cuts that have happened over the years, but you always been superior with your staff, with your teachers, with our grades, with our test scores, and that's a credit to yourself and all your people that work for you. So, I mean, there are hard times there. There have been cuts, but you've always succeeded and come strived ahead for the best of our students, and that's that's a credit to all your people, your administrators, your teachers, everybody. So, I thank you for that. >> On behalf of the staff, I thank you. It's a very hardworking staff. They do

113a great job every day. They're very committed to what they do. >> I I did say I I know, mayor, you want to speak, but are you done? >> Yeah. I just I two questions came up from comments. Uh number one, it was brought up about being so good at special ed, which I know we have been and we've been the darling of the area. >> Uh if we did bring in from out of district students, you know, obviously there's a revenue we'd receive for housing those students. >> Um but there's also an expense, you know, so does that become a net revenue or net expense? >> Um profit, net loss >> if it's done. So we uh we started the dream academy. Yeah. We used to outplace all those kids. They used to some

114of those kids are a couple hundred,000 a piece >> charged to our district >> that we pay for that. The taxpayers pay for >> there. I don't want to get deep into the weeds, but there is a formula that's used in special education. >> The district is responsible for the first four and a half times it's outlined in the letter of the per pupil expenses. So >> you know it's in your letter. It's a wide range. I remember the the >> it's about about $80,000 something dollars that that we cover. >> Anything over that, we typically get 70% reimbursement. So, if it's a $200,000 kit, once you cross that >> threshold, >> you get you get 70% of the delta back. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. So, we're still losing 30%. >> Yeah. We

115still lose 30% over the 80. Yeah. >> Correct. We're still Right. So bottom line is taking uh tuition students could be a net revenue >> could be could not >> we'd have space concerns and more districts are starting we're kind of ahead of the curve but more districts are we've had several districts come over and ask us what are you doing here >> because they're trying to control costs as well. >> So I I think as you can see and the state I think has an interest at this point in trying to get >> Rocky Hill just qualified for a mental health grant. Only five towns did. We we're one of the towns that's getting some additional funding. We might try to do some extra work with that grant that we just got notified about,

116but I think the state has an interest in trying to keep kids in their local schools instead of >> having tuition send them out because it's so expensive. >> Yeah. >> So, I don't want people to think um that this might be a boom for the >> Well, that's what I don't either. I want >> space issues as well. Yeah, like right now we would not really be able to accommodate a lot of outside students to come into the district just as space. So, >> it's something that would have to be looked at. Um I'm not optimistic it would be a huge uh >> huge win for the town. You'd really have to look at space issues. >> Yeah, I it it was more of a curiosity issue because it was brought up. Yeah. >>

117No, it's it's been discussed before though to to Mr. Vanlan's point. It has been discussed. >> Never in my mind was it a thought about a revenue windfall. It was it was more that if our quality >> Well, I just don't want it to be an expense either, right? To be so good that now we're bearing the expense of other towns. >> It was more you would legally charge you would charge because every town is responsible for the tuition for its special education. So, in a theoretical scenario where another town called and said, "Can you can we place a kid at the Dream Academy, for example, we would build that town and they would >> Sure. When I was superintendent in East Hartford, we had a program that brought several million dollars in a year.

118It was a highly specialized program for behaviorally challenged kids. >> New Britain sent a lot of kids over and it was a big check that came every year. So, >> I mean, it it can be done, but you need the space to do it. >> And you mentioned specialization. That's one of the keys to to that sort of thing. Um I I was in bringing up really referencing more that I how proud I am of the quality of service we provide now and that in growing even more we could become a beacon for the region that I just I'm really proud of the service you provide on it and then my I looked at the enrollment projection enrollment right um and you may have this covered but we have a need for 56 teachers right

119now right >> y >> so looking at the numbers down the road they do go down. Like we've had consistent enrollment, but like if I look five, even 10 years out, >> the numbers are almost significant, you know, in terms of Yeah. So, I assume we're going to have retirement fall off and whatever, but down the road, and you won't be here, but I hope we've got a plan where we're adding teachers when we need them, but we don't replace them when we don't need them, right? So, it's easier to swallow a a new hire. >> We have been doing that historically. Um, >> well, I I saw that we we've replaced when we had a 50,000 less salary or whatever it was. >> But to just to respond to your question, first of all,

120those projections are done by the New England School Development Council. Like I said earlier, they look simply at uh birth cohort and building permits. They don't necessarily account for all the move into the apartments that we see. >> Yeah. So even though the projection is a slight decline, we've seen pretty flat, even slight increases, even when you see a significant decline, you have to remember that's spread across 13 grade levels and five schools. So you know, someone going, "Oh, you're down 50 kids. You can reduce a teacher." Well, if they're spread across 13 grades, you you don't necessarily if they were all fourth graders >> on the west end of town, you could take a couple classes out of West Hill, but it doesn't usually work that way. Does that make sense? >> It does.

121I just like I >> But but to your point, uh, Mr. Ceini, >> historically, and I can tell you there have been years, and Scott's sitting here >> where when we looked at enrollment over the summer, we've had a couple years ago, we had a teacher resigned from West Hill, moved out of state, husband got a job somewhere else. We looked at the numbers, we didn't replace the person. >> Good. >> So, there are years where we have that that's happened here, uh, where we were strategic like, hey, we can make it work within the guidelines. We don't need to replace the person. that h we had an English position a few years ago at the high school. We didn't need to replace it and we didn't. >> So we we I have always tried

122to manage in a fiscally responsible manner. >> Exactly. >> Doing that and any any you know superintendent that's doing the job properly enrollment should be driving the staffing and you should do a close and careful analysis of your enrollment each year when you do your staffing. They're they're directly related, right? you need staff for the kids and if your enrollment does drop, you should be able to see a decline in staffing depending on where the drops are and depending how significant it is, >> right? I just, you know, sometimes we don't have the mechanism to make that. I mean, obviously, we never want to lay somebody off, >> right? >> You know, so I think attrition sometimes will help the the cause when it comes to it >> if it's done right and you're not

123violating class size. And there I I can give you I just gave you a couple of specific examples where we did not replace because we didn't need to based on the numbers. So then then you've been here 12 years, right? So >> 14. >> I'm sorry. 14. >> 14. Sorry. >> Those two extra years count towards my retirement. >> You added a yourself. Yeah. >> If I had my listen. No, I So you're bucking the trend that I'm actually looking at here, like the projection trend. >> Well, so that's that's the agency that's used. Everybody in the ring uses them. We That hasn't been our lived experience. If you look at the last >> Exactly. So you're saying we are that. >> Yeah. Correct. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Interesting. Okay. So that makes it hard

124to plan too, right? >> Yeah. I mean we we we I at least the way I approach the work is I'm you know a stickler when analyzing enrollment. We do it. >> Yeah. Birth rates are way down in this country. >> They are. Yes. They are. But we're also seeing some um you know students from other parts of the world that are that are coming in. And we've seen a pretty good influx here. The demographics in Rocky Hill have changed significantly in the last 14 years. Yeah. Thank you very much. I'm done. >> Good. All right. Uh, thank you again. Um, I'll jump around a little bit because I get a few questions, few points. Um, one, uh, just because it was the last thing that was mentioned around demographics and birth rates and stuff

125like that. I I believe somewhere in here somewhere talks about birth rates in Rocky Hill compared to the state and and enrollment figures and stuff like that. And uh I think Rocky Hill has basically been flat when as especially compared to um population trends in the state and nationally. I forget what the numbers are but I think Rocky Hills was like 0.2 to down by like 0.2% and the state was down by like 4% and the country is down by like 7% or something like that in your book. >> I got it somewhere in there. I know but that's the data behind it. >> Um and uh and the enrollment I and I appreciate this every year when you go through everything because it all makes sense and it's almost it's almost like you have

126a teaching background or something like that and you can like teach people about stuff. But um one of the things I remember from a few years ago it was well the the data shows that we're going to be down by like 200 students >> you know in the future >> but that hasn't been what has actually happened over the last few years. We had correct unexpected bump at Stevens this year. uh you don't know that sometimes until the first day of class and kids show up that you weren't expecting. And sometimes when you're teetering on the edge of um the guidelines, that's when you run into having a being over a little bit in areas. And it's not as easy in the elementary schools as it is in fourth and fifth grade and on because

127you can't just move one more teacher around between two different schools and stuff like that. Um but also to the point of of the population stuff uh I I've seen the figures from previous years. We haven't laid off teachers over time, but we've had some that haven't been backfilled. Correct. And that's how we get to having the same number of students and yet classes slightly larger. >> Correct. >> That is correct. Y >> yeah. Um >> for just for context, uh several years ago, I think the number of elementary staff was 61 and now it's 55. So there has been some some attrition. Um you know, again, I give you one specific example. A teacher >> left midsummer one year. We consolidated. We hadn't started school yet and we still maintained class sizes but obviously

128they went up when a grade level was reduced by one teacher. >> So it's yeah that that's how this has come about over time. Not because people are >> cutting teachers or laying people off or anything like that. It's just >> and it's not because the population in the school has gone down. >> Um it's the a lot of the population in the school has stayed the same and yet just through attrition. Um the the class the the changes to class size guidelines came about a couple months ago >> and that was adopted by the board of education. Right. >> Yes sir. >> Was that a a unanimous adoption? >> I believe it was. >> Um as well as the budget that was adopted previous by this this year by the board of ed. Is

129that a unanimous adoption? >> Yes. >> All right. Um, so the the CIP projects that Sorry, I'm going to jump all over the place because I wrote questions down in different places, but the the budget for CIP that is in this year is 1.7. And these are the ident these are the projects that are identified. >> Yeah. >> That slide that's in your book, but we also have a slide that speaks to that. >> Yeah. Um, so I I do believe that the some of that has been identified in in legislation that's that's uh tagged for us. I think there may be some other some other items in there. Um the but we are looking at the HVAC for Stevens being something that is in the following year after this. Right. >> That's right. Yep.

130Um, and was everything that was earmarked in the previous for CIP last year, has that all was that all completed or that's all like >> the bulk of the current fiscal year was the um West Hill roof replacement. We also had HVAC for Stevens um which was um pushed out. So, >> so there wasn't anything in last year's that was a project other than the West Hill roof. >> The the West Hill roof was appropriated for the the current. >> Okay. >> So, it's not like there's any monies left sitting around that would go towards this one, right? >> Um the and and thank you for kind of estimating where we would be at ranking wise, costwise for the D for the DURG. Uh I noticed that that those figures for the DUI um that's

131the 24 25 figures. >> Those are the most recent available >> the state because you can't have um everybody running around doing their own calculations. So we wait for the state to do the calculations. So we're looking at >> apples to apples comparisons. >> N 19th or 20th, right? >> Yeah. Based on >> you're currently 19th, correct? And if and and what I had done there on that slide is assuming every district went up 4%. Where would we be with our 9% increase? We'd still be 16th. I think 4% is a very conservative estimate. We know that some of these other districts are coming in at 9 and a half 11. You know, >> I've spoken to executives in a number of towns where they're coming in at 11 and a half% and laying off

132teachers. >> Yep. Um, do we have any idea what So, do we have any idea what 25 26 would would look like? I mean, were we still trending 19? >> No, we'll be I think we'll be lower than 19 because we were at 3.6 last year. So, they're always a year behind. So, I think >> we'll drop below 19 >> because >> when you see this chart next year, >> if the new superintendent puts it in, um, you're going to see below I I predict below 19 because the because the 3.6 six was a was a fairly low budget last year given all the factors we're dealing with. So, I could be wrong, but I think it's going to be lower than 19. >> Um, you said 25 to 30% of the student body isn't

133making >> isn't making the grade. I forget the exact verbiage, but it's not not hitting goal >> meeting proficiency, >> right? Um, do the items that we're talking about adding here or the actions that we're taking now is that will we will that help? So, >> so I think the adding the uh ML teacher to give more targeted u assistance to the kids that don't speak English as their primary language will be very helpful. I also believe strongly that social and emotional >> issues impact kids. So having a guidance counselor, having additional special education and social work support, it's going to help kids dealing with some of the um the problems they're bringing into school in terms of emotional and social development. And you know, that's kind of basic Maso's hierarchy. If you can kind

134of address those lower level needs, >> then kids are going to hopefully be able to focus a little more on their academic achievement. So I'm optimistic that'll help. Um, but you know, it's an important point that the chair made because we do talk frequently about how well we do as a district and that's that's relative to other districts. But within Rocky Hill, and I've been saying this for years to our administrators on any of these state metrics, it's typically 25 to 33% of the kids that don't meet the proficient level. Most of these metrics are broken into four levels. Four is kind of, you know, goal, exceeding goal. three is kind of the proficient level. One and two, levels one and two on these tests, you're falling below proficient. And we're typically around 30% of

135the kids roughly fall into that band. And you know, we can talk about the high achievers all we want, but we're really only doing as as well as our most struggling students because we can >> that that's really the measure is it doesn't matter if we're sending a bunch of kids to Ivy Leagues if we have a ton that are not getting the resources. >> Yeah. I mean, I look at it holistically. I want to see the high achievers do well. It's good for the town. It's good for them. um they're going to be the town prepares them, the school system prepares them to compete for those colleges and be successful and be very productive members of our society. But you're right, uh we still have an obligation to make sure that the the the

136kids that are struggling also receive excellent services and hopefully we can help them improve their their outcomes. >> And I and also I I really like obviously, you know, you mentioned it. I've spoken with Jordan, Mr. s from uh the career center and uh I think we are pro you know providing a well-rounded opportunity for every student whether they have additional special ed education needs whether they're you know they're in one of our the transitional program or if they're high uh you know high achievers and want to be I I mean one of one of the things that I I've heard speaking with parents is some of these extracurricular ers take the model UN. It was hard to get somebody to be an adviser to model UN. You talk about HOSA, we talk about DECA,

137we talk about these and part of this budget includes, you know, small stipens to for faculty to help with that. These those are the extracurriculars that also really help there. Um but so so I appreciate that we're trying to give those opportunities across the entire bandwidth whether it's through the career center uh whether it's it's um through uh the the dream cafe whether it's in the dream academy or it's these high achievers that have 100 extracurricular activities um one of the questions that I had actually was you know do we have a good balance around uh extracurriculars like athletics, but also art, band, you know, these these programs like like DECA, like HOSA, like um you know, these other projects. It's uh you know, I've heard from a lot of band parents that say, you

138know, why do we get to fund raise for the uh marching band so much? Um that type of thing. I just want to make sure that you know those are are um also being uh you know fairly fairly treated as well. Um, you know, to respond to that, there's a lot to unpack there, but uh, >> yeah, sorry, that was was question. Um, well, yeah, I would just say that I I think we do offer a very well-rounded program. Um, you know, as I alluded to earlier, our our marching band is highly successful. Uh, we really strong chorus. Kids qualify for All State every year. There's a lot of enthusiasm in those programs. Uh we didn't touch upon it tonight, but uh every year the school does musical performances, very well attended, you know, really

139excellent. Um kids are very involved, not just the kids performing on stage, but the kids backstage building the sets and so forth. >> Um you know, you talked about other pathways in your statement, >> the career fair that Mr. Chelle helped organize. Um, and I want to give a big shout out to uh Wendy Duran and our assistant superintendent for curriculum and John Fod, our high school principal. They were really kind of the the driving force came to me a couple years ago. We would like to do a career center. They visited some schools and then uh Ron also Ron Lamentine did a great job putting that together. But that does reach out to the student who might not be interested in the traditional four-year college path, but might want to go into auto mechanics

140or masonry or plumbing or some of the skilled trades that that frankly pay quite well once you get that two-year training officer under your belt. So overall, I think I think that the district does a good job appealing to the broad range of students that we have. Um, so I I just want to talk uh we've seen a lot of the the DURG charts for um like DRB for instance that has a lot of our other neighboring communities um that get a lot of accolades for for their um their academics whether it's Glastonbury or West Hartford or South Windsor or any number of of these other ones. Um what do we need to do to make sure that we we might not be in those buckets uh based on you know wealth of our community

141or size of population or something like that but um what do what additionally do we really need to compete with those higher balanced scores you You know, I I noticed there's some of them the differential between us and top tier Durk B is, you know, five to seven points, something like that for for um for math or English, >> you know, again, >> and I don't mean like in a dollar amount. I I mean I mean the actual student. >> So, you have to keep in mind that there if you do the educational research, there is a pretty strong correlation between family income and student achievement. The Durgby towns are wealthier towns. So your average kid is coming from >> well >> a wealthier family. >> We try to punch our above our weight class.

142>> We are and you know as I noted we we are right in the mix um in those derby you know rankings. We're not at the bottom by any stretch. We are punching a little bit above our weight class. Let me see if I can go back to those. Um and I think just continuing to do uh what we're doing. we see a a pretty strong um increase in achievement over time in this in this district. You know, you look at uh science, for example, in DRB, you know, we just uh edged out Glastonbury. So, we're clearly competing uh with those towns and I think it's just a matter of continuing to prioritize education. um keep a stable staff, keep people happy, keep them focused, and um you know, we've seen um in my time

143here, we've seen consistently increasing student achievement. So, I think the future's bright. >> So, keep I mean, Durb B also has like Greenwich. >> So, and and that's the poor district for that part of the state >> because the rest are in Dur A, >> but but number three is Farmington. Yep. >> You know, not not a ton different than us. Um, so in keeping in boxing terms, you know, yeah, we we can punch above our weight class, but what do we do to knock them out? And is something like class sizes or there are there additional, you know, programs that would make that difference or that that's something that they're doing that we're not doing? Do they have 16 stu per kindergarten? Do they, you know, I guess what are the differences other than

144just dumping a bunch more money, right? um um you know what what are those potential things that might make a difference? >> I I can't answer that question. I the first question in my mind it would be to look at the percentage of special needs and um ML kids in a place like Farmington. I suspect it might be lower. >> Yeah. >> But that would be a good analysis to look at. >> All right. All right. >> Yeah. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. Um, and thank you for for, you know, indulging me on that. Um, and then I think that might be just about Oh. Um, and talking about talking about potentially like expanding the the Dream Academy type program. Um, I believe our lease is up in like a couple years, right?

145Um so that the space limitations um that might be something if we want to pursue that down the road that we would have to look at changing the location for that or something like that. >> You could look at um another building >> or a referendum to build a new one. >> And I would just >> I've said this for several years too. If you do a referendum for a for a special education type um post18 transitional academy, you may want to consider enough space for your board of education offices as well. >> Pretty tight tightly packed. I mean, we get basically >> you're spread out over a couple floors of one. Yeah, we get like, you know, a corner in the >> I know. I run into you guys in the hall sometimes. >>

146Yeah, you do. So, you know, we Hey, we like our neighbors here. I've I've had a great experience for 14 years. But um long term, if you're looking at a kind of an outplacement type school where you might take kids from out of other districts into a transitional program and you do a referendum, you you may want to consider adding a board office to the >> We uh we do bring in one or two students per year, right? If we have space like we've in the past we've had >> student this year, I delivered the check to Mona a few weeks ago. I think it's the only the second time in 14 years I've >> Okay. So, it's that's not a regular thing, but when we've got space, >> typically it's somebody moves out of

147town early in the year, they want to finish the year, they're not causing and and they write the >> Okay. So, it's somebody who has been here and then they moved away and then they want to stay in the program. >> It's very rare because it's expensive because we charge them the per people expense. So, >> yeah, >> they write the check and we don't have that too often. >> Yeah. Um it was the the age for student for children going into kindergarten. Uh is that still affecting some of the kindergarten numbers as well because of the some of the changes around that or? >> So we started kindergarten enrollment on um February 15th and at the time the state law still required that we offer the waiver option for four-year-olds that won't be five

148by September 1st. uh the legislation changed and the governor signed the law on March 3rd. At that point, we had about 28 kids who had already been wavered in. So, the board had the option of continuing and to allow those four-year-olds in for this year only and then starting next year prohibiting any child who has not achieved age five by September 1 will not be allowed in. You understand where I'm with that so far? This was an optional year for four-year-olds. Okay. >> However, >> 28 families had already registered under the old rules. So to tell those families, >> too bad. >> Sorry, you got to figure something out now. >> Figure it out. And at and keep in mind, daycare spots, preschool spots are disappearing. So the board, I think, made the right decision.

149>> Um the other advantage of that is you probably see a one-time dip next, not this fall, but the following year, and that may help relieve a little pressure on the budget in kindergarten that year. you know, looking at class size, you're gonna get that one time. >> Well, maybe get a double dip if we're adding faculty member as well as not >> you. Yeah, you might be able to keep your class sizes where where the board wants them and it that may have a one-time positive impact because remember um it's basically a fourmonth gap there because right now the state law, the existing law was kids had to be five by January 1. So mathematically that's a third of a kindergarten cohort. We have about 200 kids in a in a kindergarten cohort. Um

150not everybody enrolls their four-year-olds. I think you'll probably see a drop of maybe 30 some 40 kids that first year and then after that it'll bounce back up. So maybe a couple of classes might be able to be consolidated one time, but then the kids that are backed up will come in the following year. >> They'll just come into the next class anyway. And so >> with this, and I explained that to the board, you're going to basically get a one time bump, but to to make that change this year would have been really tough on those families. And uh the board certainly would have heard about it and some of you might have heard complaints as well on the council. Um the the difference between um the difference between the assistant superintendent and the

151two positions, the the um special ed supervisor and HR or the personnel director, I guess. What is the roughly what's like the dollar amount difference between that? >> Cuz it's a net one person, but obviously it's one person at a higher level and two at maybe different levels, you know. >> Yeah. >> What is that differential roughly? >> I want to say u the differential. So, let me just pull it up. I think I have that information. I don't want to give you exact numbers. So, the the new position at the central office is u including benefits about 228. The eliminated position including benefits was uh 236. So, that's an $8,000 savings on that position. But the new supervisor including benefits is 182. So about 174 or so um total increase 174,000 >> and the

152responsibilities that they're taking on and the number of people that roll up to them the the two positions now that's the most prudent level director and supervisor >> I we had a very talented person in that role. Um, but there was a lot on that individual's plate. Um, and even a couple of years ago, I remember a couple board members saying, "Boy, that assistant superintendent for human resources and special ed is a massive load." >> Uh, the HR work alone takes up an enormous amount of time. So remember we have about 470 positions in our budget. 249 teachers, administrators on top of that, about 260 roughly certified staff, 264 certified staff. We have part-time folks. So it's it's it's well over 500 when you consider part-time people. U closing in on 600. That's a lot

153of personnel to manage. >> Yeah. I think we as a town have other than that All the other town positions are 250. >> Yeah, >> something like that. >> So, it's it's close to >> fulltime. >> What's that? >> Probably 150 fulltime. >> 150 full time versus versus 470 full-time equivalent, which is really in reality >> close to 600 people when you consider part-time individuals. So, that's a lot of issues to manage with any stuff that comes up with federal leave, FMLA, any discipline. Unfortunately, any organization, you have you have to take corrective action sometimes against employees. There's a lot to manage there. Special ed is also a monster um in terms of management. So the board I think >> a lot of education required. >> Yeah. But again it's not another central office person.

154I and I I keep emphasizing that because it's support in the schools >> uh for the teachers and staff with the extra special ed administrator >> boots on the ground as they say. >> Correct. Um and the uh just and just to clarify that ECS breakdown and the supplemental breakdown, I think there's still I think there's still some clarification needs to happen as far as how that can all be um distributed, but the the ECS is supposed the the supplemental ECS is supposed to be ongoing is my understanding. Um, and the other amount to the to the town, the 471 that at this point seems like a one-time thing, but the part to the school seems like it is um going to be ongoing by because of a change ultimately to the the ECS formula.

155Um, and I think that there's There's a lot of towns with some questions around some of the language in in that bill. Um, lastly, and sorry for jumping all over the place, but I take to I take horrible notes and I can barely read my own handwriting. Um, the projections around um school population, student population, that doesn't that doesn't take into effect stuff that we know that we have in the pipeline. It didn't take into effect Kelson Row when that was being built. It didn't take into effect additional apartments at Stephanie Place, etc. Um, it you said it references building permits, but in 2425 we had uh, I believe four new building permits, something like that. >> Um, and yet we have 153 additional units that have already been approved over off of Corporate Ridge

156um, for for apartments. So, um I think your assessment that the projections that were projected to go down yet at the same time we are a growing community seems like it's going to kind of level off a lot of that even though and and with the influx we have of people that you know quite frankly have maybe more kids demograph demographically than other towns. >> Sure. Um the we don't we don't have a ton of other information about that additional $1 million for special education that's getting divided among the five towns. Right. >> I so I looked into that. Um the language if you if you look it up it's it's it's very technical language. it, you know, it ba it basically the school district has the opportunity. It's a it's it's basically an effort

157to keep kids from getting outplaced. >> Yeah. >> So contracting potentially with a qualified provider, the way the state defines a qualified provider >> to provide clinical mental health services. Um I checked with our attorney recently. She's dug into the language. We talked about it today. Actually, we had some emails exchanged. Um, I don't think it's as simple as just hiring a social worker. >> I do think there's an opportunity. I'm specifically looking at West Hill >> with a with a the needs in that compass program over there of potentially contracting with a psychiatric type of an actually qualified provider is it meets the definition defined by DCF and the state and getting potentially some contracted services to come in maybe for medication management uh maybe for therapeutic counseling and things like that. But it

158is there, but it's it's very poorly I mean, it's not poorly defined, but it's just it's it's wonky language, if that makes sense. >> It sounds like um it doesn't really factor in budget stuff at all. No, that would be that would be something that wouldn't hit the operating budget. And I'm looking at at doing something there before I I'm working really hard here before I walk out the door. And I'm trying to uh >> work with our director of special education, Jesse Irma, to see what we can do to get that money and benefit the kids with this. There was not an impact on the operating budget to be clear. >> Right. I I think it's something like um we'll have this bucket of money to go and you know pay for this other

159company, this other service, this other whatever that's outside just an added benefit from what we already have >> qualified provider but but but actually in a small >> specialized program like the compass program could be very meaningful. >> Yeah. >> So it could be very helpful. So I'm appreciative of the work that was done at the legislative level to carve it out because we're one of five towns. >> Yep. And I think we've got some other as far as uh CIP projects and stuff like that. You identified the the $80,000 project uh that that was in there, but I think there might be some other stuff coming too. It's just we only got a couple days left in the budget. So, or I mean in the session, so we might get some other information. >>

160One more day. Sorry. I round it up. I round it up to two. >> All right. I think that's all the questions that I had. Anybody have any followup? >> Slight followup just because councelor Whan asked about it and you brought up that there's still questions about where everything will go. I I intend before we get through the budget process to have a pretty good report on where this is going. At least as far as we can know. >> Yeah, we've got a couple weeks or so, a little bit less, you know, 10 days or whatever that we'll be able to digest everything and see what that means to the budget and and uh services and all that. You're also right that the ECS formula has been changed as a result of this legislation. >>

161Yeah. And and to be clear, our school population is part of why we have seen such a difference. If you look at our surrounding communities, >> um a couple before the additional funding, the vast majority of communities got zero dollars in additional ECS because they weren't growing their population. If anything, they're losing population in their schools. They're looking at um you know uh adjusting everything because they're losing population. We were staying the same or growing some especially and growing our special education so much that um it's affected >> that might also factor into your knockout question would there be too. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Anybody have anything else? Just in closing, I just want to reiterate since we're talking about this additional funds that, you know, it's it's been hard work

162by the others to get that extra funding and other towns did not get this funding. Rocky Hill got this funding through hard work. And I think it's it's key to mention that there's been some discussions on social media about it. And I just want to reiterate that, >> you know, our legislators uh Carrie Wood and U. Matt um have worked hard to get that money and work for us as a town and not to mention others >> and I think they're they're still >> working hard for these this last day or so too. >> I agree. >> Burning the midnight oil. I think they were there until 11:00 last night. >> In fact, today we got confirmation in the Senate that we are in fact getting our conveyance bill with the piece of property that

163DOT currently controls over where the 291 ramp would have been. So, lot a lot of things happening all at once. We should be very thankful for the service we're we're seeing on the state level and um I you know whenever I get cake I like to complain about it too. >> Thank you. >> Right. >> Thank you Dr. Zto. >> Appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> And thank you everybody. Thanks to all the board of ed folks who who have come out tonight, past and present as well. >> But our meeting's not over because we still have more to talk about. >> Yeah, I blame you. Zach is upset that he couldn't get back to the capital quicker to continue to argue for a couple things. >> Employee benefits and insurance. >> Mona, now

164you're up. >> Right. >> Yes. Well, these are things that we really don't have a lot. >> Okay. >> A lot of say over. >> Let's let him switch screens for us and then we'll be able to keep rolling. Anybody need a break or anything? I think we can I think we can get through this one pretty quick. Everybody can hold tight. Everybody's >> he ran away. >> He said that's enough. >> There we go. >> I'll take it from here. Right. >> All right. >> Okay. >> What does it mean that the screen is paused? Does that >> take a minute? >> No, it says the screen is paused. I don't know if we need to resume. I don't know what's going on. Oh, you're you're taking over. >> Oh, there we go. Okay,

165>> good. Okay. >> All right. >> So, let's jump into employee benefits. I think we've talked about this before, but I'll just highlight for you. Uh, we actually had Board of Ed talking about their health insurance increases. As you know, we went into the state health insurance plan with the board of ed to get a better rate. And although uh we're coming in at about 14% for group insurance, um that actually is a good rate. Uh we uh avoided about a 30% increase and our understanding is that if we remained we would still been looking at that for this year. Um it's 14%. and we have slight uh decrease on ours. I've got it at 13.5. We've been working with uh unions as we negotiate uh trying to get them to um make an additional

166uh contribution toward their share. So, we've got basically unions going around from 10 to 12% of the uh the premium cost. Uh social security obviously that's just tied to um the u the salaries. Uh our largest uh increase here is pension. Uh pointing out that for the current 2526 year we did not fund and these are grouped together. Uh again this is part of the new scenario. Um but it is not funded at its entire amount for neither the general uh pension plan or the police pension plan. Uh the required contribution actually recommended not required uh from the actuaries is for the general plan to be 543 and for the police 1.7 and this year uh that was the same dollar amount being recommended. We get this on a bianial uh actuarial review. So the

167dollar amount we paid in was 1.8. that dollar amount that was recommended was this $2.2 million figure. Um, obviously I think we've had me talk a lot about the uh the importance of that. Uh, presently with both of those plans, we are funded in the low to mid80s dependent on which plan you're looking at. And those are my highlights for employee benefits. Any questions? >> Is there doesn't sound like there's anything we can really do about this? Correct. >> No. Okay. No. Yeah. >> That fund is uh determined on how the market does. Correct. >> Pardon me. >> Part of the overall fund though is determined on part of the growth of the fund is also return. Correct. like last year we we we knew we were sitting good because we had decent returns from

168the year before. >> Uh I don't know if I'd recommend if I'd say >> I'm not recommending it. I'm just asking. >> I would say because we were in those like higher 80s >> um mid to 80s then I think there was that comfort of saying then we can do that for this year right obviously it's not something we would bring it lower if we can. Just want to clarify what we were told last year. >> Mhm. >> Yep. >> Right. >> Yes. Okay. >> So, and so you're saying now we're in the mid to low 80s, >> correct? >> Low to mid 80s. >> Yes. >> Of where we're like recommended to be at. >> Correct. Of funding the liability. Mhm. >> And um yeah, and just to reiterate, I've talked to other towns

169that are not on the same insurance, you know, the state's insurance program that we're on, and yeah, they they have like 20% 30% increases in their private insurance, but we still take a look at some of that that stuff pretty regularly, right, to see what's out there in the >> Oh, definitely. the other, you know, for having a different insurance provider, >> correct? >> Or benefits providers. >> Okay. Go to insurance, which is the liability workers comp uh plans that we have here. Uh the workers comp is uh we are with Kerma CCMCT uh Kerma uh plan. uh this has been working well for us for a number of years rather than going into uh uh private plans which we had tried in the past uh for the workers comp that is up to 7

170and a half% and basically driven by some high claims obviously I didn't go to the specifics but we had some pretty large claims u this is an average of the prior five-year history so we should ideally see that uh lowering in the following year we had a couple of high ones on the uh the outer edge. We were fortunate to get for the uh this is your your liability catastrophic uh and public officials a quote it's a three-year plan and it's 3% for this year and going to 5% for the uh the following. So again for uh any kind of insurance policy 3% is uh remarkable. >> I'm going to go to the age-old question. We've spent 396 this year. Are we going to hit the 565 next year? I mean that we allocated. >>

171Oh, definitely. Yes. Uh workers comp, uh that particular one is paid quarterly. So we actually probably just did our last release. Um actually all of these are paid on a quarterly so we will definitely cover that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Is that hard hypertension for me? >> If you were working here it could be. >> All right. Any other questions? Benefits or insurance? All right. contingency. >> Okay, let me see. Tried to bring a note with me on that one. Oops, sorry. So, contingency, one line, but a very powerful line that helps us get through the fiscal year. Uh, this year is budgeted for 550,000. um what the expenditures that come out of here just to kind of clarify how this this fund uh functions. The only direct expenses are from retirements. So you'll

172see actually that's at 237. We're a little bit higher. I had a recent one paid out uh in this current payroll. Um the remaining portion that is not expended uh will be the amount that gets used as a resolution that we transfer to the funds that have gone over. For example, you'll get it year end. I don't know if you many of you have seen them, but it's the transfer that says your highway overtime had a bad winter, you know, transfer it out of here and cover this particular line. So that's what the uh the remaining piece is. Um for the current year, I think I had myself a note. Um we're also going to take the uh 75,000 of CGR uh for the efficiency study from that dollar amount. I'm already looking at some

173of the uh line item overages. I mentioned storm. So we've got storms and also the um the MEUI contract. you know, as we're going through some of those salary lines and, you know, you're not seeing a 3%, you're seeing like a a six because a contract was settled after the adoption of the budget. Those dollar amounts will come from here to cover that. Uh for this year, we had about 60,000 for that MEUI professional group. As we're moving into next year's, we're going to have the custodial bargaining unit. uh we are they start their new contract should start on July one. We're only at the very beginning of uh sitting with them uh for negotiations. So we'll need a reserve for that. Uh the proposed for next year is at that same level. Uh I

174of course we don't know who's going to retire, but we've got some pretty expensive retirees when they do go. Um, I'm looking I had jotted down probably close to about 300 to 375 on what these are. Um, could be a couple of officers, could be, you know, you know, any bargaining unit, but just keep in mind that that 550, let's hope we're going to have a good winter because I think we could have some retirees that will absorb that. Uh also at this point uh keeping in mind I think our intention was to do something else with the efficiency study. If we did another one this will be the source of revenue. >> Mona can you explain to me and you probably done it before. What what do we pay on a retirement? I mean

175that goes to pension init eventually but >> no this is when this part is coming out. Uh and it's um a benefit that's basically for most bargaining units been cut off. So, if you were hired prior to 2015, which is kind of the rule of thumb for most uh contracts, some may vary by the year, but if you were hired prior to that, if you have accumulated sick time on the books, uh you can get depending how long you've been working here. If you're someone that's been here uh hired before 2015 and you've got 20 years of service in, you'll get 60% of your um sick time that's on the books >> that you've accumulated. Correct. And we do have uh a few that are still, you know, many years of service uh that were

176definitely hired before then. Uh and that probably myself included who never take a day off for sick. It just tends to accumulate. Um so that's what that that is eventually, you know, when we get to that, you know, all those people that were hired, you know, after 2015, it'll phase out. But >> so that anticipated number, does that mean you're retiring? >> No, it does not. I didn't put me in. >> It was a joke, >> right? >> But yeah, so >> let's keep her. >> You got to take more sick days. What are you talking about? That's what people aren't taking the their time. So, so basically, yeah, like the person who's built up, you know, weeks and weeks of sick time and then they retire and they just get a fat check for

177for the sick time that they didn't take. That comes out of the contingency. >> That's what this is, right? >> So, we're in this document, it says we're projected at using 350,000 out of that of last year's budget allocation. Is that still accurate? >> Uh, yes. And again, keeping in mind when I'm put giving you the 350, that is also paying the CGR for the efficiency study. So yes, that is accurate. >> But we still think that we're going to need 200,000 more next year >> because of retirees plus storms. So even though the expended piece of that for this year is the 350, there will be at the end of this year, thinking just this year, a resolution that will say now of that 200 that's on the table, give part of it to

178the overtime for the the highway department. Give part of it to the overtime. So all the varying lines that could be over. >> So So then ultimately >> fully expended. >> Yeah. So then ultimately this year we will spend 550. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> This year and next. >> Did we do it that great in 2025? >> As it says, >> uh just fewer retirees and it was probably a very good thing because in that year we had uh a large overbudget situation for uh police overtime. Yeah. >> Which took about 200,000. >> We were down by six or eight people or something, >> right? Yeah. about six people out probably over 200,000 closer to three that covered overtime for police. >> Why did we start this contract negotiation so late with this new

179bargaining unit? >> You're saying July 1st they're due. We're just starting now. Why haven't we started months ago? >> We started at least well about a month ago and we did you know start the uh you know let's get yours your your guide rules and we still have to sit down and iron it out. They said we're at the infancy stage of it. So we know who the team is, who's going to work together. >> Hopefully something contract. >> I don't know if the town manager or and you guys should both think a year out. We shouldn't be trying to wait until months out. We know now we're going to be using contingency money. We can't even budget for it >> and we're started with the police already. I just don't understand why we're not

180starting with all uh bargaining units. >> Yes. Yeah. This I think is >> something to keep in mind. Maybe try to >> Yeah. This is a custodial group with a smaller group of members. But you're right. I >> But it's still coming out of contingency at some point. >> Mhm. >> You just make sure I guess when this one's up, >> time it, >> right? >> So that supposed to be signed by June 1st instead of July 1st or something like that. >> Correct. Yeah, >> that's just that would be >> Let's do try to do something like that in the future maybe. >> Thanks. >> Anything else on contingency? >> That's it. >> All right. Debt service. >> Okay. We're going to talk about an account we can't do anything about. But as you

181can see, these are just line by line the uh the principal expenditures. We have it going this year from the the just the principal from 5 million25 to the 5,370. You do have a new uh principle, a new debt line item, which is up here, which is the debt for road improvements. That is the dollar amount that we used for this last round of $10 million road referendum. So, basically, when you uh going out, you expend it, then we can go back and and do the bond sale and and sell to cover the expenditures. So, this will be the completion of the road referendum. As you know, we've basically expended the entire thing um as of this year. So, that will be the uh the increase there. But, of course, on the interest side, hop

182over here, we'll have a decrease. So, overall uh debt compared principal and interest will be a decrease this year. And what basically happens with your uh your interest portion, it'll decrease depending on whatever the uh bond amount is. Your principal payment stays uh we like to have them structured so that the principal stays consistent and then the uh interest will gradually decrease. I think we did our presentation before. So by 2044 we'll be debtree. It will be that that $6 million for roads. But I think in 2034 you make a big >> buying cars by then. We won't need to do any more roads by then. >> So I think yeah I you know again we think about what should we do in some of these expenditures. Clearly I think um you can see what

183happens when you do uh go out and do the referendum and pay them. Ordinarily, a bond will go out uh for 20 years and it'll be uh bonded after the expenditure. So, I think if we had something, you could probably push that date out to like 2048 or something like that. >> But that just goes to show every time we have a referendum, we're continuously adding debt to our town. >> That's correct. >> Millions of dollars. >> Any questions? Anybody else? We should do it. >> Is it over? >> We done. >> That's okay. >> That's it for today, right? >> That's it. >> All right. And then uh we That means we don't have to come back Thursday. >> Correct. >> We finish this today, which is councelor Thorough's birthday. >> Thursday. >> So

184that she's got Thursday. >> I'm not texting her. All right. And uh we only have a couple departments left. Right. >> Right. You'll have uh fire >> fire and fire and human services on Tuesday. >> And I think that's it. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. >> There's been a motion to adjurnn in a second. >> And a second. All in favor? >> Discussion. I