BOE Budget Workshop # 1 - January 27, 2026

001This is the share too, by the way. >> Good evening. I'm going to call to order the Rocky Hill Board of Education's first budget workshop meeting tonight, Tuesday, January 27th, 2026. It is 6:32 and we are in the town hall council chambers. Um the only thing on our agenda tonight is the 2026 2027 budget presentation by school administration. And I'm going to turn the mic over to Dr. Zitto. Thank you very much, Miss Lefredo. Good to be here tonight. Uh, great to see our [clears throat] administrative team here. Good cross representation of students, uh, some teachers. I see some parents here. Miss Forser, how are you doing back there? Nice to see you. Um, so I'm happy to be here tonight. want to thank uh our central office team for helping put this together and

002also our principles who put a lot of thought into their uh budget requests this year, listening to their staff, thinking about the needs of the school. Uh we've got some different slides this year than you're accustomed to. Uh may take a little bit longer to go through the the process and uh this is the largest budget that I've ever come forward with and I'll get into the rationale behind that. I think it's uh been driven by a lot of factors that are frankly beyond our control and we will talk about that and then um the process tonight. I would like to present these slides um work through them, go back um entertain any questions you have specific to these slides. Uh Mr. Clemens gets the the gold medal for getting his questions in early. Sent

003me uh several questions uh a couple of weeks ago. And uh we have um a packet that you have with you. We prepared answers. We'll work through those next. You [clears throat] also have some other information and as we get into the uh presentation later on tonight as we look at our book, we will orient you to the book and explain uh the additional handouts as well. So with that, I'm going to uh kick it off. And uh here we are. We are looking at a recommended budget increase of 8.9%. It's almost a $5 million increase over uh the current actual budget uh which is at about $55.5 million. We have some unique challenges for this budget. We have uh five uh.2 new staffing positions. A couple of those uh restore positions that were lost

004during the budget process last year. We've seen a significant spike in medical insurance. That's statewide. It's not unique to Rocky Hill. We'll talk about that a little bit later on. Um, we just put our transportation contract out. As you know, uh, the board approved for us to go out the bid. We had two bids come in. The low bid was 14 and a.5%. The other bid was, uh, about 38%. So, obviously, we're going with a low bid, which is new, New Britain Transportation. That's also pretty consistent with statewide numbers, which are trending anywhere from 12 to 20 on um, transportation contracts. And then um with special ed, we have an increase in tuition. That that's a number that typically always goes north, not south, and rises. And uh we we have a few a handful

005of more students um in some specialized settings. And there's a fairly significant spike there. In terms of of the way the dollars drive the budget, kind of break this out for you. As you would expect, uh the majority of the expenses are related to salaries and benefits. um 82.4% combined for those two factors. If you look at the next two drivers, transportation and tuition, throw them in with the top two there, there's 90% of your budget right there, [snorts] people, buses, and uh our tuition costs. And then the rest of the budget, you see it kind of broken out uh on a percentage basis for the major accounts. [clears throat] It's another way of looking at the information here with a pie chart. Again, the salaries roughly 2/3. That's that's pretty consistent in every every

006school district that I've worked in. Very consistent for Rocky Hill benefits about another 16% of the overall pie. And again, that's that's over 80% of the spending is on um people costs. [snorts] So, another thing we like to do just to really get a detailed look at this is to break down the 8.9% increase. So when we think about that large increase which is large larger than I've ever brought to you before what is driving that and how does that break out specifically? So the salaries alone are pushing that 4.7. So if we did nothing else if there were no changes in any other areas just in the salaries for example the the increase would be just about 5%. The benefits drive it another two and a quarter. the transportation that's a large increase almost

0071% 71% again that's a function of the low bid uh tuition you [clears throat] see that number there 6 and then every all the other expenses cobbled together brings us to an 8.9 recommended increase I prepared um quite a bit of detail this is a handout you have >> [snorts] >> uh but I'll also review it very quickly so on this chart you'll See, these are all the recommendations and requests from the building administrators. I've added a couple in here as well. Um, you see a column on the far right, uh, the individual making the request, whether it came from from myself or principles, our athletic director in a couple of cases. Um, so the the top grid basically includes all the positions that are in this proposal. The middle grid details some salary offsets

008and then the bottom portion of this the chart the bottom grid are positions that were requested that are not dollar-wise in the budget. Some of them we will be able to accomplish in other ways and I will talk about that. So just to kind of take you through this uh there's a there's an elementary a new elementary position in the budget uh that's $113,000. The total costs uh for all these positions reflect salary and benefits. With benefits, we always assume it's the family package because we can't legally post a job and say, you know, can only hire you if you're not married and don't have kids. We we can't do that. So, we assume a full package. And then typically with teaching positions, we estimate step six or step seven, kind of middle of the

009step. Uh we again, it's hard to predict. It's some sometimes easier to hire a an elementary teacher at a lower step. Sometimes other positions in past years, high school chemistry, world language. Typically, people with a lot of experience are coming for those jobs. It it depends on the job market. So, we kind of go um through the middle there with the middle of the mast's range and make make a guess. Again, this is a forecast. Um we do have the HR position. Um we have a draft job description. and you have that tonight to that was requested. All of the new positions I've provided you with a a job description or a draft job description. Uh we're calling that position the director of personnel and performance management. Uh you can see the cost there for

010that position. We also are recommending a secondary level special education supervisor. That individual would be assigned uh split between the high school and the middle school. You see the cost for that position. That's two new administrators. If you look down at the offset area, it's offset by the elimination of uh what is currently u the position is the assistant superintendent for personnel and human resources. There were a number of conversations with the board over the last six months or so about that particular job be having a lot of responsibility carrying a lot of weight and the request was to look at creating two positions and eliminating that position. So you see the offset there. I know a couple of you asked me in your questions about the offset and the numbers are reflected there for

011you. We have a [clears throat] a sliver of a increase for band and math intervention at Moer based on [clears throat] enrollment and requested by uh by the principal the world language teacher. Um a lot of chatter about that position. I've restored it in this proposal. Uh that would be a position that would go to Moser school to bring back the uh French and the Spanish which at one point I'll just remind you was a board of ed priority to [snorts] offer world languages at Moer school. It was one of the selling points for that elementary school. It was actually one of the board goals was to put that position in. So um it was removed last year not by the board until the council made the the final appropriation. That's where it was removed.

012So it's been restored. Um, you see that the middle school has requested a little bit of a stipen for homework club. Uh, we've also put a guidance counselor in for the middle school. We had a voice committee meeting several weeks ago. Um, and there was quite a bit of concern about uh some of the kids dealing with emotional distress at the middle school. I spoke to the principal. We currently have two middle schools. Uh, Jay and I had a conversation about the advantage of having a guidance counselor assigned to each of the three grade levels. So this would provide GMS with a guidance counselor for grade six, grade seven and grade eight. Right now we have two counselors at the school sharing the load. We also have a proposal for a social worker. Um again

013I would split that position between the middle school and the high school. Uh Mr. Fod made this request. We have been dealing with some some behavioral challenges at the high school. I think uh along with our move towards uh implementing restorative practices, getting these kids some additional help with some of the social and emotional issues they're struggling with would be certainly beneficial for the school district. We also uh for supervision and safety are recommending [clears throat] a hall monitor position. It would be offset by the elimination of a building sub at the high school supplemented uh by a hall monitor. So be a swap there, but it is uh a cost driving the budget up a little bit. Uh a couple of small stipens in here that are that are student focused. A dance team

014coach, a lot of interest in that uh particular activity. Uh freshman volleyball coach based on the numbers which are fairly large in volleyball. And then um the HOSA stipend uh we have a new club uh focus focused on health occupations. [clears throat] I think we have 99 kids in that uh program. Are we represented by that program tonight by anybody here? You guys. All right, there you go. So, uh we're looking [clears throat] at uh putting that that in as well. So, the club sponsor gets uh same stipen as the literary magazine adviser gets. So, [clears throat] uh it's about a million dollars, just shy of a million dollars in staffing recommendations that are in this budget. You could see u that we've offset them. uh the elimination of the assistant superintendent for u personnel

015and uh pupil services. We have a reduction in kids uh requiring PT. So uh we are looking to reduce uh one of the PT positions from full-time physical therapy to 0.8. Uh there was no issue with servicing kids with that reduction. had a couple of uh elementary retirements. Uh one that that actually two people have reached out and um indicated their intent to retire. So we we do expect to see savings there uh elementary teachers at the top step. We typically do not hire right at the top of the schedule. We have a large volume of teachers who come in for elementary. So I'm pretty confident we'll we'll make some salary adjustments there. And I already talked about the building offset. Um the hall monitor offset by the elimination of a building sub position at

016the high school. In terms of the other requests, uh the compass program at uh West Hill, the request was to to increase the time for the social social worker. If we were able to hire a high school, middle school social worker, we can transfer a part-time person. uh currently split between West Hill and the middle school can be transferred over to West Hill to provide additional support to Compass. There'll be no cost there if we hire the social worker that I referenced earlier. Uh we studied enrollment. I'm sure we'll talk about this tonight. Right now for um Moer School, if we we have uh 17 teachers in the school, we will have to flip-flop. We will have to have nine teachers in fifth grade. We'll go down to eight in fourth grade. We'll be within

017the guidelines. I know there has been some conversation about changing guidelines for this budget proposal. I've I've staffed as closely to the guidelines as possible. Understand that the board has the opportunity to talk about that and potentially add more elementary classroom teachers. It's really a happy to have that conversation, but I've tried to staff as closely as possible to the guidelines. Uh last year when we restructured MTSS, and that was one of the questions, we had two reading teachers at GMS. Uh we have one reading teacher there now. Request initially came in to restore that position. We we made a transfer to the high school. We didn't have any uh real MTSS support at the high school. So we have a reading support teacher at each building. We also have tutors and other people in

018other capacities doing some MTSS stuff. But in terms of reading teachers, one at the high school now, one at the middle school. In speaking with with Jason, um he did put that in. I certainly supported that request. However, uh when we talked about it, the priority was either to restore a special ed teacher or guidance. Um I think we're going to be able to accomplish both if we go with this budget with a um a transfer from the high school of a special ed teacher. I'll talk about that a little bit later on. And um the guidance counselor is already in the in the proposed budget. Math specialist and um SAT enrichment were not included. Uh Wendy Duran is working closely with John. We do have a math tutor helping with MTSS at the high

019school. And those were additional requests that I wanted to show you that did not make it into the proposal. [snorts] Um, so let's talk a little bit about just the new staffing. Again, kind of broke it out. That's an easier chart that that other chart was very busy. Uh, but I wanted you to see everything together. Uh, here is just uh focused on the on the new staffing positions. You see the cost laid out clearly for each position, salary, benefits, uh the FICA, Medicare expenses, and so forth. And you see that it's about a million dollars. Um you see that the two offsets and your net there is 733,000. So if we did no new staffing and left everything the same, uh that's what that would look like. uh budget without any new staffing. Again,

020just to look at this in a different way. So, we're asking for an 8.9% increase. The overall cost of all the new staffing is $733,000. If we did no new staffing, we'd still be at a 7.58% budget. So, it's still a big number. So, the reason we wanted to [clears throat] share this information was to dispel any kind of takeaways tonight that the the new staff is driving the budget high. We'd already be at a about a 7.6 even leaving the staffing exactly as it is right now. And I'll talk about why it's still at a 7.6 even without any new staff. [clears throat] a little bit more on the staffing that the overall cost for the certified staff is $2.1 million. [clears throat] A lot of that is driven by um factors uh you

021know that that that are beyond our control. So when we talk about the staff more than the five new positions the significant driver is the negotiated contracts general wages in are increasing this year of uh about 3%. The step cost is 1%. Uh and then degree changes. Uh this year we have a lot of folks who've achieved advanced degrees. They work very hard on those degrees. And those degree changes in and of themselves for existing staff are driving the budget by $363,000. So that's a nice way of looking at you can kind of see what it is. The the existing staff are driving the budget up 1.7 million. the new positions, another 665,000. See some offsets in there, some retirements, uh kind of that net cost coming in at 2.1 million. [clears throat] Um non-certified

022staff, again, kind of break it out for you. Uh contracted in salary increases, uh $315,000. The hall monitor position is an offset there. PAR educators, uh also have a contract driving up, uh salary increases about 210,000. That's another negotiated wage. And then we have offsets of 54,000. Um, another uh substitute teacher position that's been eliminated. And uh again that that that trade out with the the u a non-certified sub position there. So overall uh again driving to the total increase of uh about $2.6 million. So there it is for you one more time. Certified staff 2.1 million, non-certified 327,000 Paris and some offsets 2.6 million um on the salary line item. Enrollment is stable. That's a good thing. Um it's we're not really dealing with significant spikes or decreases, either of which causes a problem

023for school districts. We've been very stable in Rocky Hill. Um you kind of chart that on your own. These are the NASDAQ uh reports and and we're we're pretty stable. Uh what we are seeing though um I've talked about this in the past. I I'm optimistic that this is starting to level out in terms of special education and um English language learner uh multilingual enrollment. So you see the historical numbers going back to 2012 and 2013 respectively kind of skyrocketing over the years. But if you look at the f October one of 2024, we had 417 special education students. It's dropped by 16. Uh same thing, the EL numbers dropped off a little. So I'm I'm optimistic that this this trend, which was really significantly moving um up each year, it perhaps is leveling off.

024One year data is not enough of a of a data point. Certainly not not a giant decline, but perhaps we're starting to see a little bit bit of leveling here, which which would possibly be good for the uh for the overall uh school budget to kind of see these numbers level off. Um our enrollment continues to remain stable. We have a slight uptick this year about 30 kids. It's a little more than 1%. And [clears throat] um I recall years here before we built uh Moer where we were seeing, you know, large increases in enrollment each year. uh that's all kind of leveled off. We still um remain a school district with a high rate of transiency. So when we look at these numbers, we take out the graduating seniors, we take out the new

025kindergarten kids because they're all incoming and we take a look at what's going on with that that middle number. So you could see um that for 2018 we have uh 218 kids who came in above the kindergarten level. Uh the year before it was 247. In 2023 it was 234. So but our overall number doesn't change. So there's still over 200 kids each year not including the kindergarten kids who come in and roughly 200 who exit. still fairly high transcency but the overall number remains stable suggesting that the inmigration and the out migration rates are are roughly balanced and this uh this 2500 and change number has been very significant uh stable rather for the last several years we haven't seen a lot of variation so that again bodess well because when you're having huge

026spikes in a budget you need to hire more staff conversely if you see a rapidly declining budget you're talking about layoffs and consolidations. Either they're both challenging. Stability is is typically the preferred model. Um you also when you're stable, you don't have to worry about building new facilities. Conversely, you don't have to worry about shutting schools down if your enrollment starts to drop. So I think the stability bodess well um for the district and it's driven largely by that enrollment being level. We do um look at the NASDAQ projections pretty carefully. They are projecting over a three-year period a decrease of 141 kids pre-K through 12. We saw a um an increase this year of 30. So now I don't know how confident I am in that projection. They have they they look at housing

027permits, they look at births in town, they look at all all kinds of factors, but they are projecting a bit of a of a decrease. Uh the biggest driver is the birth rate, but we also have a lot of folks who move into town. So, we'll have to keep an eye on that. That's not a huge increase if you think or decrease rather over a three-year period. And when you spread that across 13 grade levels, it's fairly minimal, but it's something we'll just have to continue to monitor. Um elementary enrollment, this is always a forecast. We we think we do a pretty good job estimating where we're going to be. Uh we've added one elementary school teacher. These are our projections that we've looked at pretty carefully. Um I'll draw your attention to a couple

028of things. Uh so we've we've added at this point again with kindergarten. It's it's it's just a guess. We don't know what's going to come in the door. I I do want to clarify um the fact that I checked with our attorney, double checked with her. The proposed legislation to not allow four-year-olds into kindergarten did not pass the state legislature. So, we still have to provide the waiver option. We have about 30 kids who wavered in this year. The the hard date next year didn't pass as well. Both bills failed the state legislature. So, we will be uh wavering kids in. Um it's not a huge number, but if you're teaching kindergarten, it's significant to have a four-year-old in your class. And there's a rationale behind why people pro proposed the law, but the state

029ultimately did not uh the legislature did not approve it. So, we have 30 kids who wavered in this year, meaning they're four years old. We do not allow anybody who does not turn five by January 1 come in. That's been consistent here with the old law. uh but I anticipate probably about 30 kids wavering and again already been approached by a few people. So you have some projections there uh basically looking at current enrollment and rolling forward and you'll see that we are right around class size guidelines throughout a little more favorable in some places third grade uh projecting 89 kids at Stevens school. If we had another teacher, is that something we'd look at? Sure. If kindergarten isn't uh doesn't come in at 105 and comes in at 93 93, another teacher would give

030uh Stevens the flexibility to move a teacher up uh depending on what third grade numbers are. You know, 88 kids, they'd be right on the line uh for four sections. So, you can kind of see that. We can certainly come back to it. Um, we have 55 elementary classroom teachers this year and we are proposing to go to 56. And I understand um that the board may want to have conversations about changing these guidelines certainly within the purview of the board to do that. Uh, but from my standpoint when I'm putting together a $60 million budget and staffing it for you, uh, I attempt to adhere to the guidelines as closely as possible. So that's kind of where that sits and we can certainly come back and again this is a this is a framework

031for the board to work off of but I think we give you a pretty good document to start with in terms of the overall budget uh benefits. So we have you'll see this in the object summary the health insurance uh account is going up over 16%. Uh that's consistent with uh statewide trends we are with Anthem. We work with uh digital one as our vendor. Uh we are at over um right around 14% and then with the the new staff it pushes us above 16 for an increase in health insurance which is significant. Uh but that's really a function of the marketplace not anything unique to Rocky Hill. Health insurance costs are just uh going up very quickly across the board. Tuition uh is another big driver. I talked about it earlier. $340,000. You can

032kind of see it split between the the public outplacements. Uh typically those are your your correct schools like River Street and so forth and your private Sulttera, some of the other facilities we use. You can see the breakdown between public and private. Uh we kind of give you a little more detail there. I don't get a ton into the detail on the schools because it's a small number of students and I must protect I must protect their confidentiality. Uh very minimal amounts for the uh VOAG tuition and uh the adult ed rate went up $1,000. We don't have our own adult ed program. We piggyback with Middletown. They bill us uh each year so residents in town can pursue adult education in Middletown and they have been very reasonable um over the years trying to

033keep costs very stable for us. So, where are we in spending? So, we slipped another two spots. Last year we were 17th um in the district reference group. Um now we're down to 19th and you can kind of see where we are. Uh this is our per pupil expenditure uh for the most recent data published by the state which is for the 2425 school year. So we slipped back. I think next year, you know, regardless of what you do with this budget, we're going to probably drop even further because of the 3.6 six budget last year. So, we're kind of falling down uh a little bit there. Um and again, I you know, I'm a little bit alarmed. I I'd prefer to see this a little bit closer to the average for the DUI. Uh

034it does tell you that we're efficient. Uh but then when we um we did some whatifs. So, if the board approved, and it got through the council an 8.9% budget as a thought exercise, if we increase the rest of the district reference group by 4%, where would that take us? And it would bump us up two spots. Just want to hammer that home again. That's with a 9% increase in Rocky Hill. Estimating four for everybody else. We'd slide up two spots, estimating three for everybody else, which is pretty conservative. um we we move all the way up to 16. So I think the argument can be made that a that a 9% budget may seem like a large number, but historically all the funds that have been saved year after year, year over year certainly

035could justify u a jump in the budget to keep us as competitive as possible. With that being said, despite those obstacles, we have the best uh test scores in the dirt yet again in mathematics. That's the uh the overall district performance index. Uh that that's all the the grades that are tested in mathematics. Most recent data available. You see that we are number one u in our district reference group. So our kids and our staff continue to produce excellent results. Same for um ELA which is English language arts. Uh again, our are our our you know, literacy scores are number one in the district reference group uh despite the pretty conservative budgeting process here. So that's something to be proud of, but also u we do need to think about how far down we we

036keep sliding on the overall expense ranking, special ed expenses. Um this has not changed from last year. And in the interest of transparency, here's the email. We asked the state when they would be updating that slide and they informed us that uh the person who updates the report is on extended leave. So, we're trying to figure out what we're doing right now. Just want you to see that because I believe in transparency and uh it's important. So, uh unfortunately, we don't get the same courtesy from the state when we owe them something, but that's okay. [laughter] Um we uh nothing we can say other than share the information with you. If that slide comes in, uh we will provide it to you. Uh but two years ago uh 23 24 our special ed efficiency was

037uh fourth in the district reference group. >> Scott, thanks for sending that email. Appreciate it. Um so where are we? Uh I talked about this. I talk about it every year. Uh in terms of our spending, uh we are ranked 77th. Uh so the Anglic is the uh relative wealth. They look at things like median household income, um, grand list, a whole bunch of factors and and basically Rocky Hill is 77th in the state in terms of overall wealth of out of 169 municipalities. So top 46 kind of middle of the pack wealth dur. But our per pupil expenditures uh are down at 126. So, we're we're not you could make an argument that we could we could be spending more on education and still be pretty consistent with our our peers. Um certainly uh

038we're efficient. I don't have any concerns about that. I mean, council's talking about an efficiency study. Maybe there's more efficiencies to be found, but given the high test scores and the and the uh relatively uh conservative spending approach, I'm not sure we're going to find a lot of efficiencies, but certainly certainly happy to look at it. Um the state of Connecticut uh just to come up to the DUIR uh the difference for the district reference group would be a $5 million increase. Uh coming up to the state median spending, we would have added 9 million to the budget in 2425 just to be at the state level. So I think again it underscores that the taxpayers in Rocky Hill are getting a very good good return on the educational investments here. our schools achieve well

039above average results at a significantly below average cost. So happy to uh take any particular questions you may have on the slides. >> Miss Manella, [clears throat] >> uh Dr. Zto, thank you for the slides. They were very comprehensive. Um if you can just go over the slide with the number of students in the overall district. It was about what? 2500. >> Yeah. >> Uh 2560 something. Yeah. >> And I know there's questions as to classroom sizes. Why are they so big? Can you just go over that? If if that number is flat, has been flat, can you just [clears throat] explain the reason why our classroom sizes are larger, have been larger the past couple years. >> Yeah. So, I think class sizes have crept up a little bit. I haven't done a ton

040of analysis on this. These are the projections we did go over. I don't have the October one enrollment report with me. We can certainly look at that um on Thursday if you want to. Uh class sizes are over in a couple of spots um at Steven School by a by a fraction, not significantly over. I think in kindergarten we one or two kids over. There's a couple of spots in in in the elementary schools where we are a smidgen over. um not anything that's wildly off the number, but in some cases, you know, one or two students. We talked about this in detail. >> The other thing is though, when you look at those charts, you need to remember that within each each of the schools at each grade level, there are special education students

041who spend the vast majority of their day with their case manager. >> So, you have to I look at everything, right? We look at all of it. So, if we see a kindergarten class with 21 or a a second grade class with uh 23 kids, it's very likely that within that grade level, there may be there may be a kid in that class or two kids in that class that don't spend too much time in that classroom. Still important to look at. We just look at all the data. We talked about that with in the fall. Uh but I think you know what's been happening to be candid with you over the years like last year we we eliminated several positions um at the elementary level as enrollment has been declining just just a tad

042in order to keep uh through attrition. So we've never had to lay anybody off in the 14 years I've been here due to the budget. Uh but we have had to do some maneuvers to keep everybody employed. And what happens when you do layoffs through attrition is you will typically see an increase in class size. So, there's been some of that. Um, and again, these are our best estimates right now on projections. And again, I, you know, that's debatable. Um, my job right now is to come in at your guidelines that you as a board, or perhaps not you as an individual board member, but the board set several years ago with the guidelines you see reflected in the bottom quadrant of this slide. And we do our best to stick to those. So, you

043know, you look at Moer, we project under 25. the board's cap is 25. So that's a that's an you know you could certainly make an argument that smaller class sizes would be good. We also have the best test scores in the DR. So I think the kids are achieving it's really a question you need to wrestle with as a board. Could I support lowering those? Certainly. Uh, but the board worked on this, I don't know, 10 10 12 years ago and made those changes and our scores have been pretty strong regardless. So, I'm not sure it's having a significant impact on learning. It might be harder on teachers. I I grant you that. If you're dealing with a u a second grade class of 21 kids versus 16, that that's that's a big deal >>

044completely. So, it's a conversation that the board can have. It's also you've got to balance that with financial and fi fiscal realities. So those are those are the issues. You know, everybody wants to live in a in a beautiful home. Sometimes got to make some sacrifices elsewhere. It's it's an economic decision more than anything else. I don't think that the quality of the education we're offering is suffering dramatically based on the high test scores, but I could certainly make an argument that reducing class size a little would be be okay and something for the board to talk about. and there's a cost and to have a full conversation about what that cost entails as well. >> Perfect. Thank you. I just wanted to highlight why we um want to add in a couple of more

045features. >> Yeah. And I' I've added one because I'm following the guidelines, but again, I I you know, policy committee would be a place uh >> where you might want to do that or convene policy and curriculum and and have a conversation about class size guidelines and where they might need to go and we could look at where they were before they were changed. I want to say the change was at least 10 years ago. I I believe the last time was 2017. >> Okay. >> Eight years ago. It's been a while. It >> obviously it's a hot topic. We are discussing it. I think our next policy meeting which will be in February. So it is going to be coming up um soon for us to discuss um and look back at um any

046information that you can give us prior to 2017 because I think the only person here at that time was Miss Manella. Yeah. >> The rest of us were new. >> I think yeah, Maria might have been the only individual on the board at the time we had that conversation. And I do recall the classroom sizes were a lot smaller when my kids were younger. >> Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, we could we could pull historical data, so we're not guessing. >> I could see the numbers creeping up. So, >> we could pull reports from 10, 12 years ago and take a look at what the class sizes were, too. I have no problem doing that and uh sharing that information. It's all on file and we can pull it. >> Okay. Thank you.

047>> Can I just build off of >> Yes, Miss Dudanowitz that [clears throat] really quickly. Um, thank you Dr. Zto. This was this was wonderful. Um, I'm just looking at again the the the class sizes and I'm just trying to maybe a request that we can make prior to the policy committee meeting is to provide the breakdown of each class at each grade at each school to understand how many are in each class and that might be helpful for our conversation regarding class sizes. Um, and then I just also am curious, you mentioned the kindergarten age change. Y >> um and how approximately 30 waved in. Do we know how many did not make that wave in and how that will affect our enrollment for next year >> and if there's been any consideration? >>

048We typically only know um when someone registers a kid. You know, we don't go around and like try to estimate who lives in a house that's four years old or five. So unless they've actively reached out to us to try the enrollment process, we ha we do have a handful of families I can try to get you some information from Mr. Kenisonson. I don't have it with me that that inquired about registering a four-year-old and then realized, you know, maybe it's best to wait a year. Um I know the principles had a handful of conversations with parents. Uh, one of the things we we have said to people is, you know, if if we feel like it's a kid who might, you know, be a late December four-year-old and the parents not sure, we've said,

049you know, if if you wave the kid in, um, we're not going to really be uh, positive about a retention conversation the following year. You need to make sure the kid is ready for kindergarten. >> Yeah. No, I I think that's fair, but I think there's also maybe some estimates that we could potentially make using potentially some estimates that we could make using census data and the birth cohort for our for our town and how we're thinking about those numbers, both comparing this current school year and then comparing to the next school year. Um, just understanding that that class size is wavering close to I think the high end, right, for kindergarten, knowing that each kindergarten teacher has the benefit of having a parah, but then using that information to help us think about what

050that budget is going to be for next year and just being as realistic as possible for what that kindergarten age change could mean knowing that we had potentially a lower enrollment this year with a potentially higher enrollment for the next school year. >> I Yeah, we can look at it. I don't think I I think the status quo unless the legislature changes is going to keep the numbers stable because we've seen you know Stevens for example roughly 100 kids I think the last couple years. Uh we'll get you some more information on it. that >> I I don't think things are if if the the big change will be if they put if the law actually passes and they block the bur babies from coming in then we will definitely see it drop the first

051year but once that law is in you'll see a corresponding bounce the next year and and I think the number will just stabilize over time because have a new cut off date. So right now >> I don't see a big change. Uh we'll monitor that closely um and we'll get you some information if we can. It' be a good conversation at the policy level. No, I think that would be a great conversation to have in policy. Thank you, >> Miss Tucker. >> Are we gonna talk about more the additional staffing sheet that you gave? Because I have questions on that, but I don't know if I should wait another time. >> Move your microphone closer to >> Yeah, I I I'm happy to take questions. I mean, the first part of the presentation was just

052to go through this and take questions on the slide. So, if you have a question on the slide, that's great. You can ask me. Well, I guess it is on the slide, but but [laughter] are we but are we going to talk? We're gonna talk. >> We could talk about this is your but you guys drive this. I'm here to assist and provide as much information as possible >> in all this. I mean, Right. >> So, yeah, it's fine. I don't care. I don't It doesn't matter. >> We could talk about this now. I mean, you've got I think we're going to go till about 8:30, maybe 9 tonight. Hopefully 8:30. Come back Thursday. We've got And keep in mind, too, you're you're not locked in to the three nights by charter. You have till

053mid-March to adopt. So, it is not un unheard of for the the board chair to schedule additional budget workshops after the first three sessions. It it this is your budget. It's it should be a process that you take seriously. So, I'm in no rush at all. It's not me. I don't have to worry about the snow tonight either. So, you know, I can sleep till maybe 5 tomorrow. >> Uh I just [clears throat] want to go in order. That's that's all. So, if it makes sense, >> whatever. >> It's fine. Um so, so are we sticking on just the slides currently then? or >> what is go back asked about this particular slide on the staffing but it's a handout let's talk about it sure we'll start with staffing recommendations >> so he has fine

054>> I'm just going to ask the big question so >> we have the superintendent position that's going to roll off potentially >> the assistant superintendent correct >> y >> and so we're >> adding HR director and then special educ education supervisor. Those two positions replace that one. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> So, I just want to make sure I understand. So, the assistant superintendent was doing both HR and special education for 187, but then the HR director, which is a step down. >> Yeah. >> Taking essentially half I don't know if it's half half the job, but [clears throat] it's only an $8,000 decrease in salary. >> That's right. Yeah. I think that was a huge job. You don't find that in many districts. It was a function of COVID >> and um I remember

055vividly it was an issue of uh we had a director of uh special education and student services during COVID things got really crazy. One of the issues was we did not have a functioning human resources department. The board was limited at the time. They promoted that person in that role to assistant superintendent in the middle of the COVID crisis and the pos and and frankly I think Amy Stevenson was very strong in her job. Did a good job >> and uh had a lot of skills but it was a ton of work and I think over the years many board members had said to me I'm worried about that position. I think it's too much. >> We had that conversation last year. >> Uh the board was very clear in the sentiment to look at

056creating two positions. Uh it's a little more consistent with what you see in other districts. You typically don't see HR and special ed combined >> um on one person's portfolio. Remember for years this district didn't have a functioning HR department. Didn't have it. And uh during COVID I said to the board there's only so much I can do and these you know remember the CO dashboard we had to certify that every single person had a vaccine. It's enormous amount of work. contact tracing every weekend. >> Principles know a lot of them were here >> measuring desks on Saturdays, >> right? >> Putting people on quarantine, ensuring that every single employee had a a shot or uh by executive order from the governor, they were going to be terminated. It's a ton of work that was

057going on at that at that uh very intense time in our country. And that position was a function of um necessity without a ton of money. So that's what happened. >> Okay. and may continue. >> Um, an [clears throat] HR director, are there different levels that we could consider? Like is there an HR manager? >> So, you have you have a draft job description in front of you that I think I had shared with the board in the fall um calling position uh director of uh personnel and performance management. You you see a draft job description in there. You've got like five or six. I think I was asked for all of them for the new positions and um that's you know pretty detailed on what that job entails. Uh I would recommend that you

058go with that. Uh I think that that person can do can work collaboratively with Mr. Rand on professional development can do all of the stuff we do with team mentoring FMLA the day-to-day um work with human resources. The other thing that the board is looking at is some of the u diversity work through the voice committee and I think uh that particular type of work uh can also be wrapped into um this job. So that's how I framed it. I know I shared these job descriptions in the fall with you. We didn't get into detail uh but you have it tonight and um you know ultimately u I I can only make recommendations. Ultimately the board has to decide what it wants to do. Just clarify. >> Go ahead, [clears throat] Mr. Clemens. >> Job

059descriptions, is it the director of personal performance management of the HR? >> Yeah, that would be the HR position. Yes. Yep. >> Mr. Costker. >> Yeah, if we could just stick on this one. Thank you, Amber, for bringing it up. Um, so I think this slide [clears throat] could take us some time. Um, just so understand both positions. So the HR director would report to you just like the assistant superintendent. So that part, right? >> Right. and they would have no direct reports to them necessarily or would they? I guess it's a question. >> So, if you look at the job description, uh the person might be working with some administrators. Uh definitely would oversee the HR coordinator. Uh but, you know, I'm I'm framing it as a position that would require an 092, >>

060right? >> Certifica administrator certification. So, that the person I think we'd get a higher quality candidate for that position if we do that as well. Um, in terms of uh TRB eligibility, I could see the individual overseeing um some in some capacity some of the administrators, perhaps even some teachers. We have right now um assistant superintendents who do oversee a handful of teachers in the district as well for the evaluation process. So that's how I view it. Again, it's it's really up to the board to to >> Yeah. No, that's great. And then also sort of to Amber's point is um like what what other staff in central office just to give us an understanding work on HR stuff? I know there's other staff that work >> the HR coordinator. >> HR coordinator. Could you

061just briefly describe that? >> We can bring you a job description next time for that position >> or just that's one person. It's a half a person. It's just >> fulltime person. Gina Munch is in that role and uh very busy lady. All the onboarding for new staff, >> right? Okay. uh the day-to-day management of staff attendance, uh the time system, uh issues with payroll, salary increases, coaching, hiring, a lot of uh kind of the minutia. >> It's more than just administrators and teachers. We have uh over 600 employees in the district, a lot of part-time folks. You're dealing with a lot of issues, sick leave requests, FMLA paperwork. We've seen a huge spike in uh employees uh eligible for family medical leave since co. A lot goes on with that. So, it's very busy

062job and it's been and we've had that every district I've worked in has had an HR coordinator in Simsbury. I had that that model. I was the HR director. >> I had an HR coordinator. It's flatout work all day long. Doesn't stop. >> Cool. Thank you. [clears throat] Um and then I was also going to ask a question on the special education. Hold on. Let me get it straight. Supervisor if that's okay. Um, so just so again just understanding that that person would also report to you and then do they have direct reports? I just want to get I know we have other special education supervisors in district and it's a lot going on. >> So uh the director of special education reports to me >> right >> this person would report to the director

063of special education and in in some sense would also have kind of a quasi dual report to the principles at the at the secondary schools. It's a similar setup to what we put in place in the elementary schools, >> except in the elementary schools, they're split assistant principal, special ed supervisor, >> right? >> This would be a person solely focused on special ed split between the high school and the middle school. Right. >> Large volume of PPTs, >> other issues that come up, a lot of emails from special needs parents. >> Yeah. >> Very, very busy. So, so similar to those half positions like you say at the other schools, but kind of a dual reporting >> provides that that that onsite special education support for GMS in the high school which we currently don't

064have. >> Um, and you know, Jesse Herman spread very thing. So, >> okay, >> I think it's a good it's a good model to go with. >> U, these are they're not assistant superintendencies. They're they're reflected that way salary wise. I would have to sit down with the uh administrator union and look at the special ed uh position. Uh the HR position would be non-union. Typically, it's an exempt position in most districts. It's not part of the bargaining group. The special ed supervisor, that is a position that's currently in the contract. Uh we just have to sit down and negotiate that with uh with the union. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Jess. Any further discussion on that, Miss Morphe? >> Um, >> I just have one quick question just to clarify. Um, all the teachers

065that we have retiring and I know there was a couple teachers that left in the middle of the year, some special ed teachers, are all those teachers getting just for clarity purposes, are they all getting replaced or I think you mentioned one of isn't getting replaced? >> Right. In this in this budget proposal, there's an offset. Uh but that's basically a function of somebody at top step leaving and an anticipation that we bring in a a less experienced person. So there's a drop in salary, but there's no proposal in this current iteration of this budget to uh not replace retirees. We want to fully replace the retirees. >> Okay. Just want to make sure. >> Yes, it's a good question, >> Mr. Clemens. >> Uh yeah, same slide in salary offsets. You talk about eliminating

066a building substitute at the high school. I remember I'm pretty sure [clears throat] last meeting Dr. Nosik was we were running a deficit building substitutes currently for this year. >> Yep. >> Want to eliminate one. >> It's an offset uh to to get the hall monitor. So you still have a body there. The hall monitor can cover classes as long as the hall monitors out in the hall. So it can kind of serve the same function. If there's a real shortage, the hall monitor can go and cover a class. Um, right now, you know, when those building subs aren't super busy, they're covering halls as well. So, it's an offset uh for supervision, but you know, again, we're at 8.9%. So, we can we can uh you know, put a building sub back in. I'm

067not going to argue with you, but I think we're running a deficit now. I mean, limiting when [clears throat] this doesn't seem we run into a deficit again next year. >> Request for more supervision. the the hall monitor can do a lot of the same things that the building sub does. You know, once the kids are in class, if if we're short, we can our high school does a pretty good job covering for the most part. Um that building sub is we would take that from the high school. Uh I wouldn't be looking to remove that from other schools and that's that's a trade-off and that's a conversation I had with Mr. Fod. Just on that same point and just to is it Jess to stick to the same thing since you brought it up

068Brian um because I was curious about that. So if we eliminate the building sub I get it save 28 grand um hall monitor I get that what would the cost be and we can do the math but the if you had to replace that person by calling daily subs every day right potentially hypothetically for 180 days and you call and spend I don't remember what the dollar is. It's been a while since I worked as a substitute, but 100 120 bucks a day. I don't know. Something in that ballpark. >> I think it's uh is it one? What is it today, Scott? >> Ballpark. >> We'll find out for you. I don't want to have the number in front of me. >> Okay. So, whatever that number is, we can do the math, but at

069150. Is that right? >> 154. So, that's roughly $27,000. Yeah. >> So, that's about the same price basically. So, it's about the same price >> if we had to. Again, [clears throat] just to your point, Brian, about the deficit because I was thinking the same thing like, wait, we're running a deficit. What's up with that? But you can still get the subs. You're still going to need the subs in the building in that day if there's three or four teachers absent or whatever. So, hypothetically, if we needed them for 180 days, it's just going to go on another line item, right? Because I believe there's a line item in the budget for daily building subs. Is that correct? >> Yeah. >> Right. Substitute. So, that's separate from our building sub, full-time teacher, full-time building sub,

070excuse me. Right. So, it's like I didn't look at that line item because I don't remember all the numbers, but like that might be increasing by a little bit this year. It could potentially to cover that. >> It keeps the same number of bodies in the building at the high school is what it does. >> It's not an increase in bodies. U trade-off is a hall monitor for a building. So, so that that was a request from the high school and that's that's what I put in. >> Valid point. >> Yeah. No, I think I just it's just helpful to understand like hey if we do >> again this is a framework >> right we do dump that and you end up having to hire somebody every day okay it cost you 27 or 28

071grand roughly to hire somebody >> if we're having a good year and people aren't getting sick you know sometimes we see >> you save people come to work and right >> less of a need >> it's 100 days instead of 180 then you save a little money right >> so >> and we can look at that line item on the budget of >> to see why if that was in deficit this year like what do we have to do to that to not make it in deficit for this coming year. Keep in mind, we have we have accounts. I mean, health insurance this year is another account that's running in deficit. Like, >> we have to work through that each year. It's a fluid, you know, document. We have these conversations every year. 55 going

072to $60 million. There are line items that sometimes run under and we just have to adjust at the end of the year. We do that. We we we will not run a deficit. So, um, these are trade-offs and conversations and that really the way I framed it is one position in the building, one out. Look, it's at the high school. I'm not focused on the other schools with that. >> Miss Tucker, >> um, on the same topic of the hall monitor, I was just curious of the of the need and why the request is is there. And maybe that's I think it's an appropriate question, but is at the same time does the SRO does she walk the halls at all during during the day? >> The SRO is is not for enforcement of school

073rules. Okay. To be clear, the SRO is there primarily for the safety of our students and our staff. >> They they serve a very important presence to respond to crisis situations. Sarah Raymond's our high school SRO U. Um, she does an excellent job. All of them do. Uh, we're very pleased with Keith Baker at the middle school and we're very pleased with Officer Carol, >> but their primary enforcement is not hallway monitor, get to class, where's your pass. That's not the role of the school resource officer. They're there um to be a deterrent to anybody that might have a bad idea. They're there to enforce the law. If a law is broken, >> they're there to keep our kids safe. They're not really there to >> follow kids down the hallway and tell kids to

074go to class. It's a very different function. And they and we I wouldn't want to ask them to be the hall monitor or run in school suspension or do those types of functions. That's not what they're there for. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Just sticking on the hall monitor. We're on a roll. Um >> I got nowhere to be tonight, by the way, everyone. So, um the uh >> is there that that's a job that would be posted? I mean, I see the the just job description, which I greatly appreciate. So, thank you, Justin. Thank you, Dr. Z. That would be just posted. It's It's not like we have someone in mind. I know we often do this transfer situation. >> Post every one of these positions if they're approved. They'll all be

075posted and people have to apply for them. >> Okay. I wasn't sure because I know sometimes we talk about transfers when there's, you know, cutbacks and stuff like that. It's not like the building stuff is going to transfer. >> Employees that would apply from any of these positions, >> right? You know, if you look at like the for example, the the cont the teachers contract requires me to post all the teaching positions per contract, but we have uh you know, we have a part-time band teacher. If that point 2 gets posted, I'm assuming that teacher who's part-time is going to apply for the increase in FTE. >> Yeah, >> I don't know. I can't make that person apply, but my assumption would be that that person might. Same thing uh with the math position, um

076world language. I mean, all of these positions would be posted. Obviously, the administrator position. So everything gets posted. >> I just wanted to be clear. >> Even at the level the stipens get posted. >> Sure. No, I just want to be clear because the eliminate building sub at hall monitor. It's just a logical thought that it might move over to that spot. So >> be posted and there could be a lot of applicants >> in the when you the breakdown that you have for staffing by school, which is super helpful by the way. There's a there's like a 0.5 under pupils personnel services. I think that's the No, that's not that. My bad. Where's >> high school, middle school? On your sheet, you might see. >> Yeah. Where's the hall monitor land, I guess, is

077that question on that sheet. >> It's on the high school sheet. >> I don't have it in front. Okay. All right. So, somewhere in there there's an ad. We'll see later. You'll get >> We'll see it later. Okay. I just was looking for that one ad because I couldn't see it. Didn't make sense. I saw half there and I was confused originally. I was like 41 grand for half that that's a job I might apply for if it's 82 for a hall monitor. So, I was ready from the board. >> That's That's okay. I couldn't do that. No. Anyway, I just it was I was wondering and I was like, "Wait, is that half a time or full time?" Now I see it's a full-time FTEF 41, which is a good deal. Uh, security district.

078Okay, I do see it down there. Thank you, uh, Kristen. Um, all right. I I think that's it for now on the hall monitor. >> Thank you. >> All right, Miss Manella. No, it's not that's not it for that's for me. >> I just have a really quick comment. I fully support the Hall Monitor 110% behind Mr. Fod. I was um I was on a uh sub a subcommittee at the end of last year where I actually saw a video and and saw a you know something that a fight that broke out in the high school at the end of the year at the end of the school year and we had our own staff coming and breaking up the fight. So I if you guys I mean were ever privy to that video you

079would fully support this hall monitor and I'm so thankful to our staff because they really put you know themselves they jumped in and they stopped the fight quickly. So I fully support it. So if anybody has any qualms about it just you know just ask Mr. Hod about it and I'm sure he'll let you know. Any other questions or concerns about staffing recommendations currently on the slide that we're on? >> I have one more. >> Go ahead, Miss Tucker. >> Um, well, first the positives. I I'm excited for the dance team coach. I'm excited for the freshman volleyball coach. I actually requested to have the freshman volleyball team this year. So, I'm excited that that could be potential for future students. [laughter] Um, [clears throat] I do want to talk about the world language teacher

080maybe um briefly. Um, I fully support the boards or the prior boards um wanting world language at the Moher level. Is this person going to be or is this teacher going to is it going to be the same way as it was before? So, the way I understood it is the students received 30 minutes of world language a week or it's I think it's like a 4 day rotation. It's on a rotation, >> right? So, they get 30 minutes every four days, which it is giving them exposure to the language, which is good. Um, I'm just not [clears throat] I'm not sold yet that that's the best use of our dollar if there's a way to give them a little bit more exposure. I know I could not try to understand a language with 30

081minutes every >> Yeah. >> on it. It's >> so you know I understand the point. Um there are places where they have what are called immersion schools where you go in as a kindergarten kid and your teacher is speaking Spanish >> all day. And these are you know non native speakers who go in and Spanish teacher >> uh starting in kindergarten first grade. We don't have that here. Uh the intent of the Moer program is exposure. That that's the word you used and you're using it correctly. It's to generate some excitement. It's to develop it uh a level of appreciation for the fact that English is not the only language spoken on the on the planet. Uh we offer French and Spanish. The the goal, you know, is is exposure. I don't expect students to

082become fluent in they're not going to become fluent when in in two years. But what we do hope is it sparks some excitement. Gives them some very basic conversational skills in those languages. >> Uh and hopefully lights spark so that when they get to middle school u particularly once they move into seventh grade they can >> you know I really like Spanish. I had a great experience. they want to do and now now I can start to to really uh approach it at the culmination of the K12 experience. We do have the dual language diplomas and we do have some kids each year who are able to graduate and and demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Uh so that's the goal and that's I think why the board put it in. The board

083also understood that some of the surrounding towns namely Glastonbury start their world language program in first grade. So that was a big goal for this for the board and and uh at the time when Moer was built, one of the areas that the board aggressively pursued was putting world language knowing that with only one teacher, it's impossible to do much more than put that person on the rotation and have those kids see that teacher, you know, 30 minutes a week, something like that. And it's it's it's uh remember they're getting exposure to to French and to Spanish at Moer. A little kind of toe in the water. That's all it is. To become proficient in a language, >> particularly once you're even in fourth or fifth grade, is difficult and it takes a lot of

084effort, time, a lot of study, a lot of practice in the target language, exposure in the target language. Um, and that's that that's not the goal. The goal is not to be fluent. The goal is to expose. So, it's a [clears throat] philosophical conversation. I think it's important. And I thought uh the board at the time made the right decision and um I personally was not pleased to see it go, but I also understood the realities of uh our budget situation last year. And if you recall, you were on the board of Time. It was a very good conversation, >> but it was an unpleasant conversation over $650,000 and >> ultimately that was one of the positions that went away. >> Thank you, >> Miss Dudanowitz. Yeah, just before we move from the staffing requests,

085[clears throat] um just a question around the no cost requests down at the bottom that did not make it into the budget. >> Yep. >> Um is there a reason like I understand maybe the compass is is um >> you know dependent on the hiring of that social worker at the secondary level. So if that happens, is it assumed then that that social worker for Compass then would make it into the budget >> at no cost? >> We we would we would be able to increase the social worker time. So if the top part of the of the chart gets approved >> and the board approves the hiring of a social worker to be shared between the high school and the middle school. Yep. >> Essentially the middle school stays whole. They don't gain. we

086would transfer, but they don't lose either. They keep a social worker and they get a guidance counselor under this proposal. So, there's a gain there for the guidance counselor. They don't lose any social work time. The existing social worker split between the middle school and West Hill goes into Compass full-time. So, with that approval, the middle school stays whole. West Hill increases social work time. But keep in mind, I'm also asking for a guidance counselor for the middle school. So they'll still have additional support for kids. >> Correct. That's kind of where I'm going next. Y >> um just thinking about the conversation that we had at the curriculum committee meeting regarding MTSS supports, what got cut last year, supports moving forward. Um can that guidance counselor provide instructional support to the students at GMS?

087>> It's more the [clears throat] social emotional, they help with the scheduling, but it's more of the social emotional learning with the kids. It's not as much on the academic side per se. >> So, do we think that that is something that we should be thinking about and considering as we move forward with this budget? Not saying that, [snorts and clears throat] you know, we're going to consider the reading teacher in like this top chart, but just knowing that very real, very like to life conversation that we had during the curriculum meeting. I feel like this is a big gap. >> Yeah. So, you can all you can add a reading teacher. You know, I I called the principal. You see the notes on there. We're being as transparent as we could be. Uh Jay's

088here, he could speak for himself, but but his comment to me was the priority would be the uh special ed teacher or um a guidance counselor. Uh we have a proposal for both. The other thing that we we talked about was looking at changing the the model in the middle school, but they don't want to change the team structure based on the enrollment. The middle school could probably serve all the sixth graders on smaller teams. There might be some challenges there, particularly with the science classrooms, but that could potentially free up a teacher. But the sense we got was that the team structure at the middle school is the preferred model for that staff. So I didn't mess with it. >> So with all those tradeoffs, u and I called, you know, Jason, we had

089good conversation. He said the preference really is to restore a special ed teacher and uh bring a guidance counselor. We wrote it right on there. higher priority. So again, it's all about about trade-offs. If you want to add a reading teacher, I'm not going to argue with you. It's another $113,000. >> Yeah. No, I understand that. I'm just trying to >> Yeah. >> understand it for myself as a newbie here. >> Um, so when [clears throat] you refer to the special education teacher for GMS, are you talking about the supervisor that's in that upper chart? >> No. What position are you referring to? >> No, we we have uh we would make a transfer from the high school. We we we've tried for the last two years to run an alternative school program. It's currently

090being run by a special ed teacher at the high school. Right now, the enrollment is very very small. It was larger last year. It's it's declined significantly. Uh so what I would look at doing is just keeping the high school with seven special ed teachers, closing that program because it's so small, making sure those kids still get their help at the high school, and reassigning a high school special ed teacher back to GMS. So that would be >> CMS's enrollment in special ed is going from about uh 63 kids up to 77 kids with IEP. So I think that I do need to make the move. >> Yeah. No, I think that's fair. I I I'm just wondering if for both like ease of understanding that whole like shift if it makes sense for us

091to add that special ed shift from the high school to GMS in this bottom chart where we have the other no cost [clears throat] line items. Um, just to make it clear as to what the plan is. >> Yeah, I think I think that's reflected later on, but we, you know, Scott, I believe that is reflected later on in the charts, >> right? Yeah, this is just the the budget presentation. We're going to get into the book as well. I think you'll see that transfer reflected in the budget book. >> Okay. >> I haven't yet, but looking forward to it. >> Miss Morphea, >> uh, Dr. Can you just remind me precoid? Um, >> now pre-COVID we >> Amy was the HR director. >> No. >> Um, I'm sorry. Amy was um special ed director.

092>> Correct. [clears throat] >> Um and then >> there was no assistant superintendent >> and >> correct. >> There was no HR coordinator. >> That is correct. So can you remind me how so HR director I mean the special ed director was the highest position for special ed at the time. >> Okay. And then can you remind me how HR worked back then? [laughter] >> HR was uh split between [clears throat] the person that was basically my assistant did some of the work uh the assistant superintendent for finance did some of the work. It was not ideal in terms of uh managing FMLA accurately and things like that. There were some technical to technical issues that we ran into some trouble with. We're functioning better now with a full-fledged and we went through this at

093the time. We were the only district without a human resources department in the in the area of all districts our size. So, it was kind of an an antiquated model. We did the best we could. Um, but I think we we improved it dramatically uh by creating a human resources department. [clears throat] >> Dr. Zto, I just want to apologize because it is on the chart. I just missed it. >> The special ed teacher that zeroed out. So, I just want to flag that. >> It's that's that's fine. I you know, we may we'll blend together after a while, you know. Mr. Costker, >> I have lots more questions on this. I know we're going to dig into some of this, but >> yeah, >> the staffing sheet is a big one. Obviously, it um

094so quickly on the world language since that was discussed a bit. So, I >> I'm for that generally. I I get it. I mean, my kids came after Moer. Both of my students, my children came after that as students, so they didn't get the benefit of that. They started in six or later. So, uh I think it's great. um the hall monitor when I was asking those questions. It's not that I'm I I am for it. Actually, I worked in a high school in a number of years ago that had two hall monitors and it was a smaller high school than Rockill High School. So, I I certainly see the benefit of of having that person in that position that's roaming the halls and doing the job that's laid out here. So, I think that's

095great. Um I think I guess I have no other questions right now on it. I guess I understand the HR director. Well, no, I'm just we're going to be digging into this in detail as we go through this book. So, I guess I guess I'll pause on that for now then. I'm good. Thanks. >> Can I just ask the the world language teacher at Moer? We do not that person will be only at Moer. They don't need to go over to GMS or the high school or anything like that to fill >> the time at Moer. That's how it was set up. That's how we were staffing it. And then when we had to readjust after the council appropriation last year, uh we had a retirement and I moved that person who was at Moer

096into a secondary position actually split between the middle school and the high school uh to fill a vacancy created by retirement and we consolidated that position. Again, I given you guys a a list of options to get to the $650,000 reduction from the board's approved budget. That was one of the offerings to get there. And at the time it saved about $110,000. >> Okay. >> I actually did remember my question. I'm sorry. When you're when you're done. Well, no, there was the the two because somebody brought the band teacher, math interventionist. So at 0 2 and I see the >> band is 6 now. It'll go to point8. >> Y >> and by adding 13 grand. So that's like equivalent of a $68,000 full-time job. >> Again, benefits are taking care of someone else. So

097they get benefits at 6. >> So they'll just continue to get benefits at point8. That doesn't change. Correct. >> In terms of that and then >> pay a little less the the part-time staff pays a slightly different rate a little reimbur. Okay. And then on the on the math intervention is so the point 2 is so it's going from a point8 >> y >> to a full >> in that case. >> Y >> okay so that's 21 grand is so that's equivalent of like 107. So like full that that's a certified position. The math intervention >> math intervention and band are both certified. >> Oh both certified. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Oh, such a difference in in salary there. >> Um, experience. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, it's based on current staffing. >>

098Okay, fair enough. Thanks. >> The music teachers less experienced. >> Yeah. Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Ferno. >> Any other questions or concerns? [snorts] >> Sure. >> In the future. In the Yes. Oh, no. This is an ongoing conversation. It's okay. Mr. Addie, would you like to jump in? Let me just uh Scott the the uh just for detail the math is currently 6 or 08. >> It's a point 6. Okay. So they're both So I was right. They're both they're both 6. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. 6 each one. >> Mr. Addie. >> All right. Thank you. Um No, this is a lot of a lot of information to digest and I appreciate the detail. Um, is it possible, and I hate I hate saying this, but in case hard decisions are we

099have to make, is it possible to rank these positions based on need versus want? Um, just in case it comes down to having [clears throat] to make a difficult decision. Um, just would like to know that from you. That's all. Not right now. Um but >> yeah, we could do that. I mean, you could also decide which requesttor you like the best and rank order it that way. You could see the names on the right hand side. >> I think the world language teachers up there and you know in my opinion but um again I think it's got to come from you. >> Yeah, I I mean we we could take a look at that. I'll talk to the to the staff. I mean that you you know um we've already given you some of

100a ranking here because we put positions in that we think are more important [snorts] and tried to solve other issues other ways. Um, we could certainly do that. I mean, emote top of my head, emotional health is important. That's that's an issue we're dealing with. Uh, class size is important. Board asked us to split the administrators. The ban requests are up. I mean, a lot of thought goes into this. This is not just kind of u shooting from the hip. I think they're all important. U, we can certainly look at it. Really, that's ultimately something the board needs to wrestle with. and um you know you see who made each request and u you know they're free to speak as well if they if you want to question them more in more detail about these

101>> I would just want to be prepared in case yeah it comes down to that when when we get further into this process if you know council just wants to approve this as is that's fine it makes our job very easy but >> I don't know if I see that but [snorts] >> we can certainly continue talking about staff recommendations even Thursday night or in the future. Um would we like to move on from this particular slide? Are there any other questions on the slides that Dr. Zto presented tonight? >> Okay. >> Oh, go ahead. >> I just wanted to say one comment in regards to the class sizes. Um, I know we're we're all talking about the educational value, but I also think um there's a lot to be said with less kids in

102the classroom that would help with the with the social issues, with the mental health issues because the teachers would have more time, less on their plate. Um, they'll have more one-on-one interaction with with the kids. Even one, two kids less in the class is a huge difference, I think. Um, I mean, every teacher I've spoken to has mentioned certain comments like that. Um, just something I want everybody to just keep in mind. So, >> agree. >> Good point. >> Yep. Miss Manila, did you want to add? >> Yes. Mark, I want to move back to the HR position. >> Sure. >> Um, quick question regarding um you mentioned it was split between two people precoid and just really quick was I don't recall but was the HR coordinator in that no role? No. Okay. >>

103We did not have the HR coordinator. >> So, we created the HR department. Um we hired an HR coordinator for June one >> that first full year after after co you know it was created in the middle of COVID and then uh the position was the director of special education became assistant superintendent for uh personnel and >> that I remember >> and uh people services and that was a very like roughly a six like a $7,000 increase. It's kind of reflected here. It's same kind of >> it wasn't a huge increase for that position. and the title changed, the responsibilities grew, but the the pay did not go up dramatically. >> Y I remember CO very well. >> Yep. That was a long conversation with the board about making that change, but it was really

104uh >> it was a function of the intensity of that time. >> Yep. >> And it was very helpful, you know, trying to track uh >> dash >> over 600 employees making sure that they met the legal mandate to get the shot or they'd be fired. That's a lot of work. >> Yep. >> Getting that done. We were actually, you know, and I don't I could tell stories all day about CO, but the >> the process of trying to land a contract to get the vaccines. >> Yep. >> I felt like I was working in the pharmaceutical industry >> trying to find a vendor that could accommodate our staff. >> I remember all too well. >> Yeah. Very intense time. >> Yep. >> Thank you, >> Miss Dudanowitz. >> No, I was just going to

105follow up. You offered to share that job spec for the HR coordinator with the board. I think uh >> I have it >> the new one. No, the No, the current position. >> Oh, you want the current position? Yeah, we we can get that for you. >> No, I >> the um the current HR is it the HRO coordinator? Correct. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you we can get we can get to the HR coordinator. Yep, we'll get that for you. You're welcome. >> Yep. >> Mr. >> Sorry, Jesse. Yeah, you said other slides. There's a lot of slides on this thing, man. >> Yep. >> So, >> I just want to move from this if we can. Are we ready to move from staffing recommendations currently right now? I know we may come back to

106it in the future, but >> staffing recommendations. I'm good to move on from that. >> I just want to make sure everybody's good to move on. Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Costco. >> So, other slides was the salary increases explained because obviously that's a important hot topic and lots of detail there. So, um yeah, there's ones with like yellow highlighting on them or something. Yeah, we're in the ballpark. There we go. That's the one. Um, [clears throat] yeah. So, this is super helpful. I appreciate that. Um, you know, it's funny when I first looked at it and I looked at the 1.7 one million number, I was like, that doesn't add up to three or 4%. So, I was a little confused, but you've explained that. So, it's a 3% contractual, roughly 3% annual contractual, 1%

107step, and then the the bonus or extra of that is the degree changes, which did seem large to me when I did the math. Yeah, it was like six six and a quarter% is what that, you know, added up to the 1.7 million. I was like, whoa, how do we get to 6 point six and a quarter from three or four? I was like, wow, that's that's quite a jump. >> So, yeah, >> degree changes last year were about 73,000. >> This year they're 363. >> 363. Holy smokes. And that's all again part of the contract on what >> it's contractual >> contractual what they get. >> What's happened is uh >> some of the we see a lot of requests for the same kind of universities. There's a couple schools one out in California

108Dominican uh university and they target a six-year program specific to Connecticut educators. They figured out it's a >> niche, >> you know, it's a niche. So they're a California school targeting Connecticut educators. >> Teachers are following a contract and pursuing advanced degrees and getting a lane change. >> Sure. which means going like from masters to sixth year. >> So, not only are they getting their race, I'm not begrudging them their money. They earn it and they go through the contract and they fill out the paperwork. >> Yeah. >> So, they're getting like a second masters or a six-year diploma. >> Yeah. >> And they're jumping over >> in some cases 101,000 when they change lanes. Not steps and lanes are different. You know that, >> right? No. Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah. >> This is a

109big jump and we've seen a growing trend. Um, but they're, you know, they're getting these advanced degrees and they're moving through the the country. >> Oh, let me let me just say I applaud the teachers for doing that and and they they deserve it and they deserve the raise and all that. So, I'm not begrudging of the fact that it shouldn't be that big. I was just like, holy smokes, like because generally we talk and I remember the couple years I've been on the board only, we like, well, there's kind of an automatic 3 or 4% no matter what you do, right? Like you can there's nothing to say about this 3 or 4% increase because of contractual step increases, right? We have no say over that. Well, now that's six and a quarter for

110this year because of contractual and degree changes. So that's just notable. That's a big chunk of this. >> Last year the degree change number was about 73,000. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions about the salary increases? >> Go ahead. >> I just want to try to tie this in. So the new positions a 665. >> Yeah. is what is the difference between the 665 and then back to the slide that we were talking about this that total 671 >> right >> so Scott you want to dive into the detail on that give me give me a break here on that let me jump back to the other one >> where are we >> so sometimes it's salary only and sometimes it's benny's like that gets weird sometimes

111there's weird stuff with Benny sometimes are included on a slide and sometimes are not. >> Yeah. So, okay. So, 671 includes all of the offsets here. >> Yep. >> So, then we broke it out and just went with new staffing and it's 665. The the the uh we would take some of those offsets regardless. So, if you did no new staff, we would still do the elementary teacher. we would still do um the 0.2 cut in the physical therapist. There'd still be some savings achieved there. So there's a differential um when we we go back here and we just see this is just new positions. >> I'm there's also non-certified and certified. >> Yeah. >> Got it. [clears throat] Okay. So, thank you. We tried to give you multiple ways of looking at the at

112those data. Y >> just to give you a very comprehensive picture of what's going on with the staffing. >> Yeah. If you flip to the the non-certified, we have another slide just like this one for non-cert. There it is. >> Y it's >> and we haven't done this before. So, we've given you some different ways of looking. >> Super helpful. >> Yeah. So, it's like Amber, we have like the certified staff increases plus the non-certified staff increases. Um, and then sometimes for salary only and sometimes for salary and benefits, total cost. So, it's like all those numbers. It's hard to line them up. I was doing the same thing. >> Um, actually, can you go back to the non-certified one? >> Yeah. >> Um, I'm sorry. >> No, it was okay, Mr. Go ahead. >>

113Sorry. Um, so, oh, shoot. What was my question here? Oh, yeah. So, the contracted budget and increase. So, that number was like [clears throat] 4.69 when I did my math. the 315 119. So that's contractual again sort of a 3% that's negotiated and then there's no step increase thing with non-certified right it's just or is it years of services or steps there too I have >> no it's typically um kind so you know custodians have a very they have like two steps like this includes custodians >> okay >> nurses um most of those people we could pull the contracts for if you want them but there it's not it's not like teachers uh where you like a 12step progression. >> You see like a first year custodian and in year two they jump up a

114little bit. >> Okay. I was just trying to understand like in my mind >> the wage increase it's not a big step is not a big driver in these areas. >> I just remember like having that like when it was the time for the contracts I was never part of those conversations like oh we negotiated a 3% a year you know whatever 12 year 12% over four years and I'm like okay 3% I I kind of look for that number and then I see 4.69 69. I'm like, okay, there's no degree changes. There's no, you know, so I was trying to just understand that >> increase of of 4.69. >> Well, I new positions too, right, Scott? So, the hall monitor is reflected there, >> but that's that wouldn't be in the in the 315.

115My point is the 35,00 I'm talking about, >> right? No, I understand that. But in the 315, that number was 4.69 increase over the [snorts] >> Well, the number's not here, but 6.7 million. Anyway, that okay, I was just trying to understand how we get from a negotiated contract increase of 3% for non-certified staff, which is what I remember and maybe I'm wrong to a 4.69 for simply contracted budget salary increases. That part and then there's another. So certainly the other is where it falls into. That's what I'm curious, I guess, what the heck's the other that makes up that other. And it sounds like small numbers, but you know, >> we we can uh break that down for you more on Thursday if you want. We can do >> that. And it might be

116broken down in this giant binder. I just didn't find it. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, getting in the weeds on that one, but lot to that slide. >> No. And can I just make a note too that the all of the um salary, you know, increases as far as contracts for whether it be certified or non-certified are gone over with the executive board of the board of education and also I believe they have membership from the town council also present. Isn't that correct? >> So negotiate those. >> The council is entitled to have a representative at negotiations for certified staff only. So for teachers and administrators, not when we're doing non-certified groups like custodians, nurses, par educators, the council does not come to those. Uh but they do have the opportunity to sit at the

117at the certified initiations. >> Okay. And I do believe they did the last time that the contracts were negotiated >> and okay, >> they they have been consistently the last couple certified both the administrators and the teachers. The other thing to keep in mind is that each negotiated contract is reviewed with the board in executive session prior to approval after the union ratifies the settlement. So it's it's you know we do this this is something where the board does get all the details. Contracts aren't done without board approval. >> Okay. >> Do you have a further >> I do sorry question. Go ahead. >> Pair educators. Um so again sort of same question. and the pair of educators um the 210 in in the numbers in the book and I guess maybe I could wait

118for this but it it's a 7.28% increase. I'm guessing that that's also a change in staff numbers the number of so I don't know if that question is for now or for later but just like what I I see our current FTEES is 89 when I looked in the book on that whatever line item was 113 or something so just curious that's not all salary increase just from they get a pay increase it's also the numbers change and there's more and I have all the love in the world for PAR educators so this is like >> we will we will break that down for you for Thursday >> yeah just the numbers break down for you. Give you a little more detail there. >> Happy to do that. >> Thank you. Sorry for the questions

119not being in advance like our uh gold medal winner. I just didn't have my act together this weekend. So, >> okay. >> Um Okay. Any other slides that you'd like to chat about before we move away from slides? >> No more slide questions currently. >> Yeah. [laughter] be careful what you say. Okay. So, why don't we why don't we would you like to dig into the questions that Mr. Clemens did send? I know um he did a nice job with his um questions and I know you gave us a print out. >> Maybe we could start there and then we can look at the book. Um, >> not at all. >> Yeah, if you want to move it closer, that would probably be best. >> Yeah, move her nice and close. >> So, we'll go

120back and forth. Uh, Mr. Nos and I, Dr. Nosig and I will, uh, just go through this. Give me a little bit of a break here. So, question I'll take that first because you already got the breakdown. Uh you have that with you. So any question? I mean we just spent an hour on that. [laughter] You have that. So um and then you know just we'll just go back and question two step. >> All right. Okay. So the question was uh what is the budget reduction by eliminating the assistant superintendent for personnel and people services the building substitute the high school and why and the reduction in the physical therapist and why uh the total for all three positions is $621,826. Mr. Fod preferred a hall monitor over the building sub. Talked about that a

121little bit. Uh the case load for the physical therapist position does not warrant a 1.0 FTE. It was uh8 FTE previously and that included time for travel between buildings. Uh that individual is no longer traveling between uh buildings and the case load certainly uh is also a consideration does not warrant a 1.0. >> Okay. Third question. Again I know Brian some of this was because you read the cover letter and had these questions. >> Yep. And uh you see we've outlined for you, but it's reflected in the chart as well uh where these new positions um are assigned elementary classroom teacher currently assigned to Stevens. Uh the HR director of personnel performance management central office secondary special ed supervisor split between the high school and middle school guidance counselor for GMS for language for Moer.

122The social worker again is a secondary split, high school, middle school. The hall monitor is high school and you have um job descriptions at your desk at your table area for each of those positions as well as requested. We also uh fixed the typo in the global section. So, thank you for that correction. I'll let Scott jump in on five and you can talk a little bit about the transportation budget. >> I thought four would have been appropriate. my typo. >> So, >> yep. Um, why is there a 4 14.5% increase in object 510 district transportation, object 511 transportation regular out of district, and 515 transportation special ed in the district. And those are the increases based on a low bid uh of 14.5%. And then the other vendor did offer a bid uh which

123was 38% increase. [snorts] >> May I ask a follow? >> Um >> Dr. Nos, can I stop you for just a second? Absolutely. Miss Tucker, go ahead. >> For the transportation, you mentioned that we went out to bid for two. Are there other companies that we can reach out to at this point or there's really just two in the state that >> two two companies bid. >> So we put it out to open bidding process. >> Only two vendors responded. Wow. >> Interestingly, uh some others attended the meeting um to get the uh the uh rate sheets from the other competitors. >> Interesting. >> It's an open process for >> Thank you for clarifying. >> Madam Chair, >> yes, Mr. Addie. >> Piggy back on that. Uh what what is the risk if we rebid

124it? Is that an issue? Do we risk higher than 14.5% or risk, you know, gaining [snorts] betting, getting better bids? I know I deal with it in construction all the time. You don't like the numbers, you rebid it. Do we have time? Is it an option? >> Uh time is uh would be an issue. Um because a new company, assuming it wasn't the current company, would have to come in and establish um a place to house all the buses. they have to hire drivers, create the routes for the district. It's not something that, you know, happens overnight. Uh so we'd be up against a very tight time frame. Um typically, you wouldn't go out to bid now to do that. Um it'd be it'd be be super tight. Um the risk certainly would be that

125um you know, if you recall, one of the uh one of the the conversations we had was we received actually a lower bid or a lower um proposal from the current company if we didn't go out to bid. Um that number was I believe around 12%. And the discussion was uh 12% is a lot and we should try to go out to bid and we went out to bid and it actually came out higher. Um, in my conversations through CASBO, which is the uh, [snorts] you know, people in my position across the state, um, this is a very reasonable, sadly a very reasonable uh, contract in terms of increases. >> And this is the same company that we currently have, correct? >> It is. >> Because I I mean, I remember the company before we

126had so many, they were late, early, you know, things like that. this company seem to be um when they say they're going to be there, they're usually right on time, which is great. >> They we we haven't had any complaints. No. And they're working with us. I know. I know. Sorry. Um but they also have the the um online app that works really well. Um most of the time today it wasn't working, but um you know, I I appreciate I think the time and effort that they've put in even putting I think some monitors on the bus. There's some video cameras on the bus. So, I think we could go back and make sure students are safe. >> We have a good rapport with them, uh, a good partnership. Um, the issue was, you know,

127we we thought the the increase was significant, um, and wanted to see if we could maybe get them to sharpen their pencils a little bit by going out to bid. Um, didn't happen that way. Um, [laughter] and so, you know, this is this is kind of where we are. But if if it wasn't for, you know, if it wasn't for the expense, certainly the the service that we've received um over the last five years has been has been good enough to warrant, you know, an extension. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other questions? >> Okay. >> Uh next question was why is there a 25.83% increase in object 516 transportation special ed out of district? So that's the um the combination of the 14.5 kind of like the flat rate that we have going

128up and a couple more students that were transporting. [snorts] So then uh we were asked for a breakdown on rentals and you see that the uh two you know large numbers 98,000 102 and the $65,000 that's the that's the uh large transitional programs academy the co-curricular rental for the high school is for the school play a fee for mermaid just to give you an example and then um ice time for hockey $16,000 we do charge uh the towns who have kids on our co-op team per student per student athlete basis. Uh but we have 16,000 budget for the rental fees. It's the most expensive sport. Any of you that are hockey parents or hockey former hockey players? Brian, I know you were very well with hockey for a lot. So, that's the detail on those.

129Speaking of hockey, since I know how expensive it is [clears throat] used to coach it, um, do we get do the other towns? I think we're up to three other towns right now >> that we're co-oping with you. I think it's a four town co-op. Is that correct? >> No, it's more than that. >> Bristol, Central, Bristol, Eastern, >> Southernington, Planeville, Middletown. Uh, technically Vinyl Tech is in it, too, but they don't have any kids this year. So, do we just charge there per player or is there is there a we get money from we don't get a flat fee from the schools per player. per [clears throat] week deal they work out with their board is check >> high school security I'll take that one also um so we previously u we're not budgeting

130and uh this this is a a hit to the budget u that's been coming in every year and uh we just put it in the budget We are constantly using athletic contests. Senior class [snorts] was a something we did that was special for kids during COVID crisis. Again, we're still talking about, but those kids had a virtual high school graduation. >> In March, March 13th of 2020, the state basically closed the public schools. So, those seniors lost everything. They lost their athletics that year. [clears throat] They lost all inerson learning. [snorts] The sport was the first in the state to open in the fall, which was great. But for those seniors in particular, they had a virtual high school graduation. Um, tough time. I want to revisit it. They were allowing parades, but they weren't

131letting high school kids go into an open stadium, which made no sense to me, but probably keep my opinions to myself. [snorts] The um the senior parade however was very well received but once you start something becomes an expectation and each senior class is expected a senior car there is an expense for that so we are budgeting for that this year we have great relationship with police but they don't work those private details without compensation and it doesn't come out of the town so we're putting money in the budget this year so that explains the the next one. Okay. Um reading. Okay. Yes. So, so when we restructured and we talked about this a little bit earlier tonight with the slides, but uh when we were restructuring uh for MTSS, I worked closely with Wendy.

132We looked at staffing and we wanted to make sure that there was a reading um specialist to both the high school and middle school. currently staffed with one teacher at each school. But the the the in the book you see um you know looks like an elimination that was actually done last spring. You also see a corresponding increase uh high school salary uh reading you look at those two line items you'll see where the high school was up. So it's not really an elimination or a transfer was reduction of one position transfer bright beginnings. You also see offsets for questions 10 and 11. You you'll see that the detail in the book and that's because we moved all the bright beginnings programs over to West Hill uh for the sake of efficiency. summer school uh

133number 12. Last year, after the town council voted on their appropriation, the board eliminated summer enrichment programming. The cost is roughly $36,000. I did not put it in the budget because it was eliminated last year. Certainly something the board can put into the budget. That's at the discretion of the board, but it wasn't in the budget uh that you adopted in June last year, your final budget adoption at the June meeting. So, I did not add that as an increased cost. Fly it to 1 29 1111 that is not an increase it's actually a decrease. If you look at that again it's in parenthesis and that we looked at that that's where in previous years we had done some reductions for anticipated retirements and it was tucked into that line as a 92,000 reduction. So

134it's not an increase it's actually reduction. The line item currently holds $7,000 and that's for the uh 10 teachers that receive a team entering stipend of $700 a piece. Um 14 question about special education. It's not transportation, it's transition and that reflects two salaries. theary director and the uh assistant both work solar panels. There was a huge discussion. Ron did some homework on this for us at the town council meeting on September 15th. Uh those minutes are online. They're in depth. There was a whole conversation. We uh we basically summarized Ron summarized the conversation essentially. [snorts] Um And you can talk to your colleagues on the council and we'll go back and look at those minutes. Solar panels considered to be not a good idea because the town already has to purchase all their electricity

135made by the existing solar farm under the contract it has with Tesla. And there's this whole concept of energy credits and excess energy credits and saving more energy. Strange as it sounds, uh really beneficial because they they return those savings in credits and we've already u they cap them and then they expire. So there's a if you go back to the minutes I've given you the council meeting there is a massive conversation scripted about this issue. So, it's really something um unless something changes with the town's arrangement with the solar farm from a financial standpoint, putting those uh solar panels on the schools is not beneficial. Not my argument. We talked about this years ago and [clears throat] it's never really gone anywhere. I don't know if you want to add to it here. >>

136Yeah, he's here. You want to add you want to add it to anything on the solar panels? >> It's really not advantageous at this point. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll take the the equipment. Um, next question is about uh Rocky Hill High School. There's a 80.54% [snorts] increase and then why is our are there decreases at GMS uh 50%, Stevens 38.2% and Moer 60% explain the increase and decreases. Uh so the high schools requested $19,65 in equipment to be shared among the PE and athletic departments. And it includes the three double half racks, uh six standup adjustable benches, four Titan connector bars, uh three landmine single knuckles, and $875 for freight and 950 for assembly. The reductions recommended for the other schools are being made after analyzing current expenditures. actual expenses to date reflect

137that each school is holding a large unspent portion of the equipment line. Therefore, the request for next year to have uh have been reduced to promote uh fiscal efficiency. [snorts] Any questions? Follow-up questions. Okay. Would Dr. Dr. Zto, do you think it would be good for us to go through the book into parts just because we do have some new board members here and um and then we can decide whether we want to go forward with other parts of the evening. >> So, if I if I may, I think it's um appropriate spend a few minutes just orient ourselves to the vote, maybe have a conversation about what we want to do Thursday night. I know a number of questions have come in that we did not have time to get to tonight. >> So,

138We propose that we come and Thursday night and answer those additional questions that that board members have sent in. U typically Chris does his technology presentation at the second budget session. [snorts] So we would also be prepared to have him present. Uh we will also come back with some of the details that folks were looking for like Tom. I know questions the coordinator's job description. So we'll give you that information. So that's kind of how I I would recommend going forward with Thursday. In terms of this book, I'm happy to kind of just give you an orientation to the book and we can dig into it. Time period. It really is up to the board. You know what time you mentioned 8:30 potentially as a target. There were no restroom breaks request. [laughter] That's okay.

139I think we lightly we can keep going. So uh you have the cover letter in the first uh tab and that's you know that's pretty detailed and it kind of explains a lot. You get into the u excess cost formula which I know for board members is sometimes a question um breakout you know the CIP is a separate standalone appropriation so that's important to keep in mind similar format as to what you've seen in the past. The first series of data are in the global tab. You already saw the uh the pie chart which kind of lays out the expenses and then we kind of get into um the budget drivers and we we break them we break the budget apart in this section by large sections by [snorts] object code. So, you know, it's

140all laid out. I mean, you take it home with you. You can look at it. We can talk about it tonight. We're here for you guys, so whatever works best for you. But just kind of orienting people to the book and then we can, you know, go back and start through the tabs if you wish. The educational data is important. I touched upon it tonight. Um, most of this information was reviewed in detail by M. Rand um at the November board meeting when she gave the academic report. We only included a couple of slides tonight just to show you that the district continues to perform very well and it's a credit to the staff in our schools and obviously our students who take their their studies seriously and have good support at home. So, uh

141we don't spend a lot of time at the budget hearing um going through the educational data, but it's there for your convenience. Uh we we obviously talked about this information at other venues like when he does a report. You have a whole section on enrollment data. These are the NASDAQ projections. Uh we've been using the New England School Development Council for years. They're the premier organization in the New England states that tracks enrollment. They're generally pretty good. Um you've got a whole section about their [snorts] methodology and reliability on page 12. That's important. Comparative data. That's um really you mentioned I will draw your attention to that. So if you go to comparative data not sure was it might have been the miss asking where we where we stand um relative to other towns in

142the state historically. Somebody brought that up. So, I'm looking at page two in comparative data and you'll see where, you know, going back to 2001 where Rocky Hill ranked in terms of state uh rankings. Keeping in mind, there's 166 school districts. So, back 25 years ago, Rocky Hill was 74th, kind of middle of the pack. And you could kind of see a regression over time um you know towards the low end you know 95 you know spiking at one point down you know four years ago down at 146. We've come back a little bit but the trend over time certainly going back to 2001 is an increasingly conservative approach to budgeting and a lower number in terms of ranking in the state. So, I think you were kind of driving at that earlier and those

143are some data to back you up there. The next page are the town's ang rankings which ironically going back 15 years uh we haven't added more towns. We haven't, you know, [snorts] stolen any land from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. So, we're still at 169 towns and 166 school districts. And uh you could see that even 15 years ago, our Anglic ranking, which is our relative ability to pay was 75 and we're still in the mid70s at 77. So Rocky Hill has historically been kind of a middle of the pack town, Connecticut. Connecticut in terms of Connecticut's wealth and um historically kind of pays like a lower end town just those are the data and um they're important I think to kind of frame the budget conversation. The next uh slide is is interesting too. you

144kind of see the gap between the the Anglic ranking and the per pupil. And I almost wish this was flipped over because if you look at the the way the graph is, it looks like we're outspending, but but actually keep in mind that moving towards the 160 is is not a good thing. Um so just spend some time on that chart, but you can see fuel expenses, you know, down to 126 and our relative growth is 77 on the ranking. It would be good to see [clears throat] that blue line below the red line if we were, you know, spending at our ability to pay. The blue line would come down on the chart. >> Uh the next two tabs are heavy heavy information. Um I appreciate Mr. Clemens for digging into the weeds with

145some of his questions. But the object budget sorts all the items um by object and then the program does uh program sorting. The the two sheets I say this each year that the two sheets I look at uh more than anything else are the first two sheets actually it's now three. The object summary to me is the most userfriendly portion of the budget because you three pages of the overall object summary before we get into the object detail report. You can see, you know, where the um line items are and where the percentages are. So, some of the things that Mr. Coster was talking about, you they pop out to you um on the object summary and we break it out, you know, by category. You could see that group insurance line, for example, going

146up 16.6%. We explained why that's happening. Um there is a reduction in substitutes because we're looking to you know have some consolidation somewhere but to the point that several board members made that typically it's a count that runs a little bit in the red. So certainly valid um this is just very helpful. You can see the salary increases for certified staff non-certified. You can see all the factors increasing the budget. Uh the transportation numbers are up tuition numbers are up. I just find this to be very useful >> [snorts] >> uh when I'm really trying [clears throat] to dig into the budget. It's very helpful. I think it's >> and very similar to the monthly report that you get from me as well. >> Program budget is just the same numbers. >> Dr. Zto, hold

147on. Mr. Addie, >> since you were on that, you mentioned transportation and this actually one of the questions I sent in. Um, would it be prudent for us to increase our student transportation field trip line item by 14.5%. Right now, we're holding the line. is are we going to see a 14.5% increase on student transportation field trips? >> I think it is prudent, you know, when those we start building this this budget at the principal's level uh back in September. [snorts] Um and you know, they would have no idea about, you know, percent increases. And so that's a real number. Um when they want to take those those field trips or those athletic trips, it's going to be a 14 and a half% increase over what the current rate is. Um, I would say I

148would say yes. >> Okay. Thanks for letting me interrupt. >> In a regular field trip situation, do students usually pay for buses in like um in a fee that they're asked to maybe h hand over? I I know I heard you say athletics. Is that's maybe different, but I'm just curious would that is that ever paid for by a family? >> Uh, yes. So, um, my experience as an elementary principal, we didn't have field trips that were covered by, uh, district funds. So, that was always something that either a student paid for, that the student's family paid for. Sometimes it's offset by PTO donation or something like that. There are a few um, programs primarily at, I want to say, the middle of high school where they have some field trips that are kind of

149built into their programming um, and then those costs And I would ask, you know, Mr. Mazi or Mr. Fod if uh without putting him on the spot, but I think some of those some of those field trips students do contribute a portion of that as well. Um it's not paid for entirely out of the operating budget. Um but it's a range. So we go from I think most of us at the elementary level, you know, that's that's paid for completely, you know, by outside uh outside um funds. And then, you know, there's a few field trips that are paid for by the board. >> Yeah. I was I was just thinking ahead of time with the increase, right? We want to think about equity and making sure that that doesn't fall on students to have

150to pay or families have having to pay and then their child not being able to attend. Um, so >> good question. Moving along [clears throat] just to orient you to the book program budget dollars are the same. They're just sorted by program here instead of object. A lot of detail in those two tabs. Grants and entitlements are the federal and state programs that are independent of the board's operating budget. That is a council appropriation. Um we get into detail later on in the sessions. you see them laid out your federal and state programs, the staffing sheets you received um two handouts tonight to update the high school and middle school. We looked into that a little bit more today and I think that that transfer is reflected on those handouts special. But you see everything

151laid out and it matches what we talked about earlier about increase in 5.2 staff the technology budget of course we'll get into a lot of detail Thursday evening the CIP again that's a separate appropriation the big expenses u scheduled for next year are the middle school renovations for the tech classrooms media center the high school uh tennis court which is beyond uh repair at this point it's been resurfaced a couple times to not tolerate another resurfacing that needs to be completely redone. >> Excuse me. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. >> Clemens. Tennis courts, wasn't it? I [clears throat] thought we had some discussion last year where uh parks and wreck might cover some of that. That's it's used >> more just by schools. >> Was there go anywhere? Mhm. financ. 500,000 this year. >> It's

152the same impact on the >> tax. So it's [snorts] Ron's point it's a town owned facility. They own the schools technically. These are I understand >> how they fund it if they're more comfort. If they fund it, I'm happy. I don't care if they put the CIP personally or they pay through parking right because it's no impact on a mill for a taxpayer. Uh but I do understand their rationale in putting it into the CIP. Now, I hope they fund it because it does need to be replaced and it's a town asset. If it doesn't get replaced, we will look at contracting for indoor tennis for our athletes just like we do with ice. We'll find a space for the tennis players, but we may have residents who are upset about a tennis court. So

153that's, you know, something [clears throat] has to be decided ultimately by [snorts] the council in terms of if the board thinks it's a priority, I would recommend you keep it in your CIP. The other major expenses there are McVicker the visitors bleachers were removed 10 years ago and have been replaced ground for a while they were in disre issue and then um classroom furniture which has kind of been pushed to the side and in talking with Ron uh we we really would be remissed if we didn't start annually funing some replacement Dr. Zto, can I ask a follow-up question? Last year, when the town council asked us to rank certain items, were the tennis courts on that ranking? I can't remember. >> I don't remember. We >> I I the only thing I did is

154I ranked school projects. I They wanted me to rank everything. Ron, you were part of that bank with Chuck. [snorts] I said, I'm ranking, you know, something facility for the police. an opinion on that. We talked about the issues that were important to us. I believe the tennis courts were on there, but we can >> I thought they were too. So, it's so it's not something that they're not aware of. Okay. >> Well, we I we've had conversations manager offic [snorts] about the tennis courts and they are uh we did a patch job on them maybe five, six years ago and we were told at the time this is the last time you can patch it. you're gonna have to just completely tear tear apart. These are concrete pension courts. Mr. >> So I think

155you know it's a decision that has to be made ultimately by the elected officials. We recommend that tennis courts get get replaced. >> Okay. >> And I think the life on those, Ron, is at least uh is it 10 years once they get done? [laughter] So that that's your CIP tab, your magnet uh schools and transportation. We'd like to give you kind of a [snorts] breakdown of u where we are uh transporting kids and [snorts] where where they attend Magnum schools. We go over this every year. It's a lot of detail there broken down between the correct schools and Hartford schools. You have an of what transportation covers and then we actually give you the numbers uh from the Magna School invoices so you can see the number of children attending uh programs at all

156of the various schools combined between CRE and Hartford. There is no charge to us uh for tuition for the Hartford kids. Uh we do pay special ed services for kids at both schools [snorts] if they go beyond the normal charges. facilities and maintenance. Ron is here. Uh if we get into this tab in more detail, I'm sure he'd be happy to talk about it. And that narrative is a hold over from 20 years ago. And it's been empty for 20 years. [laughter] That's kind of an overview. I 8:38. I don't know if there's any gambling going on tonight. I don't finish, but 8:38. Um well, I guess I I have a question for the board. As we were going through the book just now and just listening to what um Dr. Zitto had suggested about

157um Chris giving his um technology presentation on Thursday night, um I'm wondering if we could also kind of zero in on the grants and entitlements also on Thursday night along with special education and then the follow-up questions that I know that were sent today. So that would be kind of Thursday night's agenda. And then on February 5th, uh the agenda would be going through kind of CIP facilities and then line by line the program budget. How does everyone feel about that? >> It's all good. >> Yeah. Yeah. Object budget, program budget, same whatever that >> correct. Either either object budget or both. I I really have no problem with doing both. That's cool. >> Um, >> are there any other items that you would like to talk about tonight? Um, I know we we discussed

158a lot tonight and there's a lot to digest and I'm sure there will be more questions going forward, but is there anything else that you'd like to talk about tonight in um our budget book in front of you? Go ahead, Mr. Addie. >> Just a quick pretty simple question regarding transportation. So, it's three-year contract. this 14 and a.5% that we're seeing this year 26 27 are we going to see small incremental increases year after that but not 14% correct >> uh 4% in year two 4% in year three >> okay obviously the the options to extend there would be >> yeah we wanted three you want to explain what's going on with the propane legislation >> yeah uh there's there's legislation out there about having electric buses um Uh so if that were to [snorts]

159there's also a lot of talk um that that might get kicked that Ken might get kicked on the road a little bit. The cost for um an electric bus is I don't I don't want to give you a wrong number but it's significantly more than a gasoline powered bus. Um and so much like they did you know year a few years ago with the HVAC and requiring you know districts to to have them you know serviced or inspected every and then they realized that they didn't have the infrastructure to do that. This is this is the same only on a much larger cost scale. Um they'll be they'll be bus companies in my opinion that will go out of business and we would be looking at significant increases. So we worded our contract so that

160for the three years before this takes place, we're fine with what we have. If that legislation, if that that deadline moves down a couple years, we have the right to extend our current contract from three years to five years. Um, it just depends on what happens if we have to get electric buses. You know, the bus company would have to put in infrastructure to charge those things. There's a there's a lot to it. Um, and so as it gets closer to the deadline, I think you'll hear more and more about it. You know, it be newsworthy. But right now, structure the contract like a lot of districts take us through the deadline and then we have options depending on what happens after year [snorts] three. Whose options is it the 4% for year four% year

161five or is that negot they only gave us numbers for the first [clears throat] three years >> that was recommended we work with shipment on helping the RFB and um they were acutely aware of this proposal to switch over to these sense three years, see what happens. [clears throat] >> Any other questions this evening? >> Okay, I think we've gone through a lot tonight and there's a lot to absorb. So, I am wondering if um we can take a motion to adjourn for the evening. Would everybody be okay about adjourning tonight and picking up Thursday? >> Motion to adjourn. >> Thank you, Mr. Dr. Clemens, do I have a second? >> Second, >> Miss Manella, thank you so much. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Zto, and your team. I appreciate it. Um, we

162will see you again on Thursday.