Board of Education Budget Workshop - February 7, 2026

001conversations a as as a public school agency they just continue to see need to increase at that high of a rate. Um, so it is something where the focus on in district programming. We'll talk a little bit about new path is is got to be a a a spotlight and something we're trying to do. >> It seems to have stayed like from last year. This year though, it seems consistent like it seems like it. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> And how often do you switch suppliers for no better word? So, I think we again that's that's a tricky one because it's all dependent on the program and what they offer [clears throat] and what that student needs. Um, what I will say is there's not I don't have 10 choices when I'm looking for a

002placement for one kid. Usually, it's under five. And so, it's like if one and and you don't necessarily you can't and you shouldn't make the decision to move a student from a successful program based on a tuition increase, right? Like that's But if you only have five choices, then that's how they have great control over the increases. >> Correct. I mean, we were talking about um a potential student need and there were two options like that's um or you've got weight list like so there is certainly still need in district um or a need in the state to look at other options >> and do this work in district. >> I appreciate the energy you put into that. I mean we want to make sure our students are successful and they find a place that

003they can be successful at. So obviously that's our priority. I mean talking about the numbers is what we do today. >> And new path is one option uh one one example. I will also say the resources you guys have supported in our intensive learning needs program is huge. That is an indistrict self-contained program in many ways that allows students to stay in their neighborhood schools to the greatest degree possible. And the resources we've put in that it is having a ton of success under um Christina Nordell's coordination and leadership. and just um we were at a very different point a few years ago in in ability to really stabilize that programming and we needed the resources. We found ways to do that to get the support and it's helping us maintain our students with success

004in district. >> I would imagine even when you get into some of these places you don't want to move a kid from year to year either because that's not good for them. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. So that leads us again as we talk about out of districts um a kind of an offset budget top uh topic will be new path moving forward. So later on Melissa and Amy will go through kind of how we've set forward the new path budget. Um we've we've worked really hard to kind of put a full budget together for a new program. Um it includes additional um staffing in order to allow our program to grow. As um and and within that budget, it assumes bringing both students back into district and um you know, tuition students. And as

005Matt said, this is probably finalized prior to that um meeting we were going to have on the 27th. I had two referrals. One started January 22nd. One is still in process for for next year. I have gotten two additional referrals and got a letter of um inquiry from a district that I didn't really even know knew we were open. We haven't walked in the door of Two Farms Village yet. Um so again, we have to see what our district needs are first. What are our Simsberry student needs first? But I do also think we are going to have a lot of in in inquiry from local towns that are looking to also do the work we're doing which is stabilize tuition dollars, utilize public school programs to the greatest extent possible and and uh the

006work we're doing offers that. I think the only other thing um on new path is really just that you know it is will kind of be its own budget and and at this point the offset to operating is is limited and and Amy will go through that. >> Excuse me. >> Yes. >> Um I assume you new path looks like it's like moving forward ready to is there but is there literature on this? I mean I I imagine you've already done a presentation on what kind of staffing there will be and who will be kind of programs and things like that. Is there >> I am happy to get um you the the previous propos uh the previous um presentations and information on the program that include both what our vision is, what we see

007we want to do with kids, what the dollars are behind why this is the right thing to do in regards to walk in the door and get uh marketing material. We're so just trying to get this building open. I don't even have that yet. So it is forthcoming. [laughter] It is in draft 4, but I want pictures. >> No, it was like starting like we've been working on this probably since um July of 2024 if I'm following my years correct. So there's multiple we can get you um kind of that final presentation that we've offered to the boards. I think it's really helpful to understand the history that was in that presentation as to why this program um is needed and and should be very successful. We really also have a great example in district

008of Farmington Valley Transition Academy. That is our collaborative program with Farmington Public Schools that exists over in Riverdale Farms in Avant um that services our students 18 to 22. So, new path in itself isn't a brand new concept to Simsberry, but the type of student that we are are looking to use new path um to support is a little bit different. Okay. >> Before you go into transition, the behavior technicians, >> I just haven't I wasn't familiar with that or I haven't don't recall that before. Is that a new thing that we're contracting with outside people? And does that affect the total paras that we're using in special education? It does not impact the total number of FTE para educators that we have in district. What it does do is allow us to look at

009a little bit more specification of that non-certified um adult support needs and it is not something that um our PAR educators currently have training around. So, it's just kind of a a little bit of an offshoot and sometimes it helps support kids with more specificity in the area of behavior. they have a training and and background in >> more of an additional cost versus a cost savings of somewhere else. >> Um so transportation going to that third bucket this is the the one where you'll see a little bit of an increase but what I would say is that proposed increase of 3.8% 8% is really sub contract market um need and and it's based on the um you know conversations around what is the appropriate cost of of services increase. So we continue to see

010a decrease in our salters what we will term extra contract. What that means is anything above and beyond the district contract that we utilize with Salters. So that's additional hours for going out of town things like that. We're continuing to see a decrease in that because we are trying to condense kids. We don't have as many kids leaving town. Um the use of Latimer for preschool has actually helped in balancing some of our preschool transportation for special ed. So that we've done a lot of work with and thank our partners at Salters for um and then we also again the 3.8% 8% is that estimated contract increase for both Salters, who's our primary provider. And um we started a new relationship with M&J Transportation to help stabilize some of that third-party contract needing. We know

011what it's going to cost. We know who can do it. And they've been really helpful to work with versus like if Stalters couldn't take a run out of town. Um we were scrambling >> scrambling and and we had different companies, different rates. This has really allowed us to budget and and understand that cost better. Can >> I ask a question? I feel like, you know, we've had the the transportation conversation has been ongoing for four or five years probably. Um I just want to make sure I understand it correctly. So the 2.1 million that is special ed transportation. That's about almost 10% of of the total special ed budget >> about. Yeah. >> Is it the budget? The total budget is 90 something million. special ed is like a quarter of it. >> Yeah. So,

012it's probably >> that compared to like the other three the nonsp special ed transportation a lower percentage of that versus I'm assuming is substantially lower the salters contract for just the 26 buses >> correct >> it's less than that. >> Yeah. So >> because they're not taking them as far >> and as complex and everything >> market >> they're doing everybody >> they're individual >> and we own the buses >> correct. >> So >> I forgot about that. >> So we have about as many vans running as we do buses. So it's it's pretty and again we don't own them. >> So >> okay. Okay. So that takes me into the final bucket under special education. So, this is what are we looking in regards to 26 27 staffing requests. Um, it's it's limited given

013the support you guys have had over the the last few years. Um, as well as again, some of these are just continuing to adjust for case load. We've talked a lot about case load. Again, as a reminder, those are the number of students that receive special education services that a special ed teacher oversees. So, um, looking to adjust to case load increases at Latimer Lane, our our school that continues to have some growth. Um, we have the highest case load average there across our elementary schools. So, gave an example of of with the three teachers they currently have, what it would look like versus if we um add the requested staff. So, that's really more of just a um per pupil uh need. And then the other is continuing to just adjust to our our

014related service areas. So speech and language pathologist a 6. Last year we requested a 1.4. We were able to use some grant dollars to to add a um we requested a 1.4. We were able to add a point4 in August of 25. Um we continue to see a little bit higher case loads than we'd like. So just continuing to to try to adjust that. Lastly is some additional administrator support for supervisors. This just allows for additional summer work that allows for greater consistency, keeping those programs nice and um supported and um really making sure that we um do the work that's needed to provide success for our students. So in total laid that out in regards to projected cost and FTE and I think That is it. Any questions? >> One question on the budget

015request. Do you find if you go out looking for a point6, >> how does that impact the pool versus just going for a 1.0? >> It's a good question. I I as a speech language pathologist myself, I think it's a little different in the related service area than it is in as a as a as a teacher. Um, related service providers sometimes have the opportunity to do different like they could work in nursing homes. They kind of like to keep their skills because again they're certified to work with people from birth to to to much much much older. So oftentimes they're looking to keep their toe in the schools or the other thing that we find with related service providers is they if they have families, they don't want to come back full-time. Um, and

016this is a good opportunity. So, you know, it's it can be tricky in in that regard. Maybe it makes this pool a little bit smaller, but so far we've been able to fill those positions and um continue to it's it's not a class of kids, so it's easier to certainly put together a workload of a 6 than it would be for a teacher. >> I appreciate that insight. And then just one other thing I'll mention, I'd mentioned it previously and right just kind of like not for this year, but son think just get your thought on it. We talk about transportation, we talk about growing new path and all those things. Something to consider is at some point if transportation keeps going this way and we're starting a new program. Do you bring a van

017or two with a driver or two into the new path umbrella and cut down on that? It seems like you've made the mark about that. So, at FTA, just a really good example, we're not there yet for New Path, but at FTA, there is a small fleet of of vans and a and a mini bus and our some of our job coaches there, people that work in there are trained with the right classification of license to transport students and to cut down on contracted transportation costs while being able to still afford students opportunities within the community, uh, job, internships, things like that. Is it part of the new path plan? Absolutely. For next year, we're not there yet. >> No, it makes total sense. It seems like the same premise of what makes New Path

018so smart. There's a growing cost. How do we get ahead of it? You bring it in house. Transportation, there's a growing cost. I know there's insurance and things, but you bring some of it in house and maybe cut down on those far runs that are just costing so much each run. >> Neil, I'm assuming at some point there was a benefit to buying our own buses. Is there any benefit in buying bands or >> um >> I would think over time it's something that we could look at. It's like paying cash for your car or leasing your car and like over time you're consuming over a long assuming that there was some reason we bought the buses way back when and so >> yeah that that relationship with Salters is so unique when when you

019look at it comparatively and the the van kind of business and industry is so different than the bus business in industry right now, you know, But to your point, I think it does require more thought as we move forward in in different areas. Like we don't have the challenges to staff vans, [clears throat] the industry with finding people to drive buses right now. Like it is not >> a vibrant area. I mean, they really struggle with the age of the workforce, >> [snorts] >> uh, willingness to to get involved and get trained. It's just it it's like an archaic um industry compared to where the vans are going. It is. Yeah. >> Matt, I have just a quick question. >> Yes. >> We haven't always JR threw out the date for me of just last

020week like it was in the 80s or 90s like a decision was made to buy the buses. So, I'll get a little history from JR about >> just >> Yeah. I'm just trying to like >> or compare the the numbers to like the beginning like so the three requests come out to like $190,000. >> Yeah. >> How what is the reference point earlier on and the operating budget detail that we should be comparing that to where I I see a special education line for 277 >> where where are you? So I'm on Katie's last slide that showed the 26 27 staffing requests for y >> 108 65 and 16 which total was like 190,000. I'm probably looking at the wrong slide. I'm back under your presentation on slide 17. >> Right. >> Um >> included

021in presentation. >> Yeah, I'm going to go over all those. Yeah, cool. >> Tie them out. Yep. >> And there's a little difference in some of those numbers because of the progression of the correct the presentations. Yep. All right. You ready? >> Yes. >> We're gonna Sullivan's out. >> All right. >> The uh obviously uh each year usually in like January, I do the personnel drivers. Um, and as longtime board members know, uh, it's a people business and you spend the vast percentage of your dollars on people in the form of salaries and benefits. So, um, this is going to be this is >> staffing after the blue page. So, for each one, the blue page is the middle from the previous preso to the current preo. >> This says December 9th. >> This says,

022correct? So, The date's wrong, but that's the one we're looking at. No, no. Then the >> It's not. >> No, for this one, it went the other way. So, if you [laughter] >> just look at that. >> Let's just want to keep you honest. That's all. >> Open up the tab. >> I thought I had it. >> January 27th. >> You did the other way. >> 27th. See, that's when Neil was >> I was supposed to be doing this on January 27th >> and that would have been fine. It was just that that last page said yes. >> See, I'm with you. >> Right. >> There we go. But regardless, the blue thing is the divider. >> Yes. Thank you. Thanks. >> Thanks, Ryan. >> You're on it. >> You look like a blue page.

023>> All right. So, as I always try to do, put a little bit of context to um those of you who have seen this presentation before know that sometimes I've compared the enrollment and staffing numbers across a broader span of time. I have now decided to just this represents kind of the postcoid window. Um co did many things. It also one of the is it messed up my nice neat staffing numbers with all that we did to shift teachers and >> it really messed your data. >> Yeah, it really did. So this is now a cleaner sidebyside look. So this is enrollment before we get to FTE. You can see that over the uh last few years we have um seen pretty steady enrollment. We have actually yields yielded some FTE cuts at the high

024school even though we're down just 42 students. We've taken advantage of some uh retirements that we didn't fill at the high school. We have not gotten a lot of enrollment driven help elsewhere, but you will see in the presentation that um we may finally be at a year uh at the elementary where we can yield some savings. Um this is an FTE comparison of the last four or five years and you can see that we are up slightly in uh certified staff um and up more uh significantly in non-certified staff. But what I want to note on the heels of Katie's conversation, much of that staff is reimbursed with grant dollars. Um so if in that case it's a way that we sort of protect the operating budget. Okay. So that the impact of new

025staff doesn't hit all in the operating budget and that's um important uh as in terms of how we can um keep the operating dollars down. Um on the bottom you can see that most of the new staffing done during uh my 10 plus years in this position is for special ed services. Almost all of the increase in FTE we've seen over a period of time. Um vast majority of it is for special education. Break it down by elementary, middle, and high school. As we look at the staffing um and you can see elementary enrollment we have we're on four straight years with 110 classroom teachers. That's just K through six classroom teachers. That's not counting art, music, PE, special ed. Um, and with the projected enrollment um, [cough] of [clears throat] 2093, it doesn't look

026like you would save any dollars, but this year it we do have an opportunity because each of Latimer Lane, Squadron Line, and two Nells um, Latimer Lane has four sixth grades that will graduate and only projected for three kindergartens. Squadron Lion has five sixth grades projected for four kindergartens and Tuton Hills has three sixth grades projected for two kindergartens. So um it's just a matter of the size of the sixth grade class that's allowing us to potentially um realize some savings and much discussion of this. Our uh goal as we go into it is to add um a section at Terapville school in the place where there was only one uh grade uh one class in the grade level. So it's a subtraction at Latimer Squadron and Tuton and an addition at Terapville to yield

027a savings of two teachers. Um, in addition to the the savings of the two teachers, um, those of you who pay close attention to our budget workshops will know for the last couple of years, we've been trying to, uh, have a part-time teacher move to full-time in strength. It is more than justified. It's a very minor cost. >> That's Jess. She's on the phone. >> Finally, how many [laughter] years we talking about this? >> Jessica said she's smiling. Um and then again on the heels of Katie's presentation, a special education teacher at Latimer Lane where we are seeing larger case loads and the speech and language um addition in them. So that's the entirety of the staffing requests at the elementary level and then we'll look at it this way. What are those requests uh

028for 1.8 eight FTE, but we are subtracting two classroom FTE. And we have one other position of a writing resource teacher that um that that person um was sort of a district-wide resource uh retired in October of this year and we haven't filled it yet. So, this would be the intention to continue to not fill that position. our literacy practices have shifted greatly anyway. Um and our language arts consultants and others are supporting that literacy work. So um significant savings of that position. So that what you're actually you're actually seeing a decrease in FTE overall at the elementary level at the secondary very stable. um the middle school no request for FTE. You can see that the 2526 is 62.69 FTE and that's what we are um saying would be the same. There is a

029desire by um the administration attorney James to maybe add some math uh sections to help with their interventions. uh if we're able to do that, it will be uh a teacher who gets shifted a little bit from the high school like it and we [clears throat] do that once all the enrollment numbers come in. We determine how many sections each department needs. [clears throat] So there might be an opportunity to borrow a few math sections for Henry James. We'll determine that next month, but right now projecting flat. What does that look like in terms of class size? I like to show that we're being responsible about class size. You take the enrollment in each grade. You have three full teams on each grade. So you divide enrollment to get what will how many kids will

030be on each team. And you can see in grade seven 113.3 in grade 8 105. And then you divide that number by five because an English teacher teaches five classes. A social studies teacher teaches five classes. So those would be your average class sizes at Henry James. 22.7 and 21. Quite appropriate for your class size guidelines. >> We've been at three teams at both seventh and eighth grade for a year or two now because when my kids were there it was like 2.6. >> Yeah. It's been I want to say this is the third year that we've had three teams. >> Have there's there been like shuffling like between teachers going up and down the seventh and eighth grade if like a little bit each year if needed or no? >> A a little bit.

031There's always somebody looking to make a change. Um >> I didn't know if like there was a 2.6 at seventh grade or eighth grade or if it was >> that happened for a little while. >> Yes, that happened for a little while >> but very stable. at the high school. Um, you can see we've I I spoke of it earlier. We've actually saved three and a half FTE over the last four years. Even though enrollment hasn't dropped that much this year. Um, we are um just going to make do with what we have. We have 112.31 FTE. We're not making any further requests to increase the FTE. the um we do have a retirement in both mathematics um and retirements are one of the places we look sometimes to say do we need to replace

032that. We'll make that analysis when the course um enrollments come in. And you saw recently, you just approved at your last meeting, we do have a world languages teacher, a French teacher retiring. I do not anticipate you'll be able to save because you got to run a French program like if you did not replace that, you would really do damage to the French program. So I don't think there will be any savings in world language. a few themes. So, the reduction of three certified staff, that's at the elementary level, uh leads to the net decrease of 1.2 FTEE. Um we I'm going to show you in a moment. Um, as board members know, our director of infrastructure and technology, Jason Casey, is still with us, but is transitioning out of the organization. Um, at the

033end of the year, we've taken a hard look at some um other resources that we have in terms of technology. Um, looking at some network support that we can put in place. um and shifting some responsibilities around how we handle capital. So the proposal you'll see is to think differently about that position and to not replace it. It's another opportunity. So um based on a person leaving the organization which is when we take that hard look. Um Katie Cruula's presentation comes before night because special ed has been uh the top priority in terms of where personnel is and it remains that um very efficient use of personnel in the I I did that class sizing to show you we are we are in the right place in terms of class sizes. We're following our policies.

034We're there are not classes way above guidelines. We're we're that part we're very efficient. Um principles have made a few other minor requests. They know that um if you're going to make a request, you got to tell me what you're going to do without like that's um and that has um stored some discipline. I like to uh uh [laughter] um and um just I I bring this up uh every couple of years monitoring adjusting to the lower wage. Connecticut's now passed a law that um minimum wage goes up every year with the cost of living. So our our salaries for our lower which would be some pair of professionals cafeteria workers [clears throat] we are needing to increase that on an annual basis just had to do it for January 1. um those people received

035it. And it's not only at the but if you're giving a wage increase to some workers that are minimum wage, they tend to the ones that are just above that tend to get a pay raise to. So it's just something we have to pay attention to. >> I have a quick question. The the um we said we're reducing some of the parased paras and we're bringing in behavioral technicians. What what where how do they get paid? Does it come out of this? >> I'm gonna defer to Katie. >> Yeah. So, that's part of the contracted service bucket. So, it's out of operating, but it is uh contracted service, which we appropriately budget for um those. So, again, >> so that's separate than this. Okay. >> Thank you. >> I have a few questions. >> Sure.

036>> Okay. I'm sorry. I've been writing them down and now I >> That's okay. Um the math enrollment part you said at SH at Henry James might be able to get help if there's somebody retiring is there really a lot of variance in math considering it's one of the core that every kid has to it's not like you know AP gov you know that not every >> there's some of things around um coding statistics there is some variation >> okay >> um and sometimes it's just how until the enrollment breaks and then you can get efficient with okay instead of 12 sections of geometry we only need 11 and >> because do our class sizes guidelines go up for the high school? No, they're the 21 to 25 is pretty much what we use for

0377 through 12. >> And the 7 through 12 is that that size normal for I don't know. Is it done at all? The D dur is all like that. >> I would say that's very I would think that's kind of small to be honest. >> Is that in contract? >> No, it's not. It's a it's a board guidelines. those guidelines. >> It's a suggest like they could afford more kids there or not really because our district is all >> that way. >> Yeah. >> As someone who's part of the negotiating committee, I would advise against that because they that's one of the things every year they come to the table with. They don't like having that 24 25 and if it gets to 26, you're in trouble. at the elementary for sure, but I didn't

038know if at Henry James high school it was the same way. >> I mean, we'll have a few classes at each school that >> go to 26 or 27 students, but as I always say with that that maybe one class in your day has 26 kids in it. At the elementary level, that's all day long. >> Correct. Right. I agree. That's what I was saying. They're going to go to college where they're >> he's feeling a painter. >> Yeah. >> And then my last question is is the special education at Latimer. Do we have a chart that shows the per pupil or like the work case load per elementary school per elementary school what the other ones are having? >> We could bring that Tuesday. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah, we have that [snorts] >> non-certified.

039Um, we are we took a part-time position that cleaned here uh and we've turned it in with the opening of new path. We have now created a full-time position that does three things. It cleans the central office, this floor basically um of the town hall. It does the mail run, the internal mail run for the seven schools. and then that person's going to clean at the New Path building. So that's uh salary and benefits for a full-time custodian. Um small increase in health services. We have it's the middle school that needs additional help, right? >> And Latimer >> and L two schools that need um a little bit of extra nursing hours. Um no FTE change. We are making some secretarial changes in like classification for some people who are do um have taken on

040some significant work at the high school related to all the testing for like APs, SATs, PSATs and we're changing a job classification related to that. Um reductions would be the one I spoke about earlier as um Jason Casey um ex exits the organization. Um so you're also seeing a a net um here that is savings. So we we really bring a personnel budget that we think is um you know really responsible um and uh o overall you can see the impact here additions certified non-certified reductions and where it ends up landing and then lastly uh Matt's going to come back to the big role But these are the drivers, the main drivers of the budget. So if this if this was just it, it would be a 3.71% increase and we're below that. So um

041you know this is the the driver, but Matt's going to give you some additional context and Matt and Amy. >> Go ahead, Josh. two things that I'd like to just mention. The ter section, could that be recognized for the upcoming school year potentially then? >> That's what I'm I'm planning a second grade for next year. >> Awesome. And then the other thing I would just kind of throw out there and you had it up there for consideration. I think you've heard me right middle school math. Anything we can do to help that like I'd be supportive of. Right. I think I know Sue and group are looking into it. Um, but if there's a way there to get if it's determined it would be helpful to have that support, I know you'll look at that.

042But I I think that's a a key thing for us as middle school math. So supportive of that if that's needed. >> What's that? >> Me. >> Do we need like five minute get something to drink, stretch your legs or do you want to keep crying? Okay, good. Then I'll pull it all together. [snorts] It's good stretch. That's >> [clears throat] >> Where are we going now? >> New idea. >> We go back to my >> back to superintendent >> main budget drivers. >> Yeah. >> And we have a slide that says operating >> increase. It is holding. >> I know. >> All right. >> So, what I'm going to do now, and I know we have numbers people in the room, so I'm just going to caveat this. >> We had Neil's and Katie's

043presentation. People are going to look to tie out like Katie's staffing number with mine. It's not going to work. It's not going to work because mine take all this up to kind of like the most macro level and in and out it and then kind of place it there. So, you're not going to be able to follow like Neil's staffing request versus mine because mine has like retirements baked into it and everything else. So, mine's at a high high level. You will get as we go through Tuesday night, you will get line item detail. You'll get more fine grain on it that you'll be able to kind of pinpoint those, but if you see something that's like $35,000 off, it's cuz it's not apples to apples. It's not because it's a a mistake. Fair to

044say, [snorts] Amy? >> All right. I'm not sure she's feeling. >> See, I knew SHE'S LIKE >> I KNEW YOU WOULD BELIEVE her more than me, which is >> You basically just said, >> Mark, you like that. [laughter] >> I JUST think I think it ties out more than what he's giving it credit for. It's just done at the bottom with the >> No, we heard him say six times that he he he macroed it. He made it he's above and beyond. [laughter] We heard that. >> The asteris. >> That's such a Matthew thing to do. >> I don't think he's giving it enough credit, but it's okay. >> Very [laughter] good. Very good. >> All right. So, this slide, what this is representative of pretty much um are fixed costs. And I will say

045pretty much because we've put special education in there. We've had a lot of conversation over the past couple years that there's certain expenses there outside of staffing um that you really can't control because they're contractual as well. Things like transportation and outplacement. So, if you really look at the overall [snorts] rollup of where we're starting before we talk about major additions and major reductions to the budget, [sighs and snorts] bottom line, we're starting this conversation at a 3.4% increase. Okay. Um, we often talk about 80% [snorts] of our dollars overall in the entire budget are wrapped in staffing and wrapped in the associated benefits. When you actually look at this sheet and you look at the top two drivers, all right, of your 3.4, 3.31 is staffing and benefits. That's because we've done a lot

046of movement underneath. You're going to hear from Dave Princ. you're going to hear from other people today on areas rolling forward that we can kind of pull back on or we can shove some dollars towards reserves or towards grants. All right, so we've made some decisions. So actually 90% of what we're talking about in these next few slides is staffing and benefits. Um so there's not a lot of room for wickle I guess is is the point I wanted to make. So again 3.31 are the is the contracts rolled forward. Um the insurance number right there, an increase of $89,000. Um that is inclusive of $800,000 contribution from the internal service fund to lower the overall impact of it. Um the board of finance uh in their meeting after the tri board because of the

047healthy reserve levels um are are making that commitment now. It's a little earlier in the process than that's usually happened, but we're going to bake that into our presentation because we've been involved in those uh decisions as well along the way. Um the special education increase. Um now board members at the table will know that number looked much more like 1.5 million 1.3 million over each of the last three to four years. Um we show an increase here of 277,000. Um really what that represents uh is a contribution to new path. Um and without getting too much in the nitty-gritty because Amy has some slides she's going to show at the end of the workshop. Uh we're having the ability to bring a couple students back in uh from out of district tuitions um into

048the district and we're going to utilize those dollars to contribute to the cost of getting new path up and running and their overall um operation. So, we'll give you more detail on that. Um, but safe to say the theme that we talked about publicly at the tri board and Katie referenced, um, we've stabilized to the extent you can the volatile spending in in special education. We know that a student can move in or things can happen, but we're in a much better place due to the contributions of this board and the support of other boards um, to move forward with special education without seeing a significant significant uptick uh, in costs. >> Yeah. I just kind of I just want to emphasize what you just said. I I I again members will remember this is

049a 1,750 thou I mean we've really been working on this for the last three four years talking about added district cost transportation everything and I think we're starting to see the fruits of that labor. So, really just wanted to take a second and appreciate everybody's efforts on this because I think what we thought was going to happen, I think we're seeing it actually happen, which is fantastic. Sorry. No, that's fine. >> Um, transportation is representative of the increase in the salters contract. Um, I won't get into some of the smaller ones. We'll get more details on when other other people present, but I do want to reference the equipment. you can see uh a significant decrease uh in the equipment line item of $246,000. All right. So, these are decisions we're making as we try

050to march towards uh that guidance in that guideline, and it's challenging, but we do have the ability to uh use some reserves to offset uh one-time purchases of Chromebooks. Um we have basically an insurance policy for Chromebooks. Um, we've planned to utilize some of that balance over the course of last year. Uh, we did not have to tap into that. Um, as a result, we have some dollar more dollars there we can utilize this year and we're just going to buy our Chromebooks um from that fund for one year. Um, we'll have to move the dollars back up into the budget next year. So, it's not like it's it's not a cliff at all. Uh, but it's good use of the dollars. I think it makes sense and allows us to lower our numbers. So,

051we're looking at all those areas. Uh, you'll see as we go through when Sue talks about we've done that in textbooks, we've done that in a bunch of areas where we have kind of one-time purchases, you know, can we find a different way to provide relief to the operating budget. So, again, starting point um 3.4 and then we talk about how we going to bring that number down um more towards that uh that guidance and we have reductions at this point of uh 757,000 So this is the FTE that Neil kind of worked through. Um, three certified FTE, one administrative position. So a total of on the personnel side of over $500,000 of personnel reductions. Pretty significant uh movement in that area. And again, I think we've done our due diligence. Uh, not that there

052won't be certain challenges when you go down in headcount. Uh but a lot of credit to Neil [snorts] uh Amy and Melissa and others in kind of researching uh job functions and and uh overlaid responsibilities and looking at the abilities of our own people uh and saying no the now is the opportunity to try to capture uh some of these savings. Um you can see the next line item is the non-lapsing account. So for new board members, let me try to give you a snapshot of what that is. uh boards of education um by law uh can keep up to 2% of their operating costs or expendit or dollars that were not spent in a current year in a fund called the non-lapsing fund. Uh and with board approval, you can utilize those dollars um

053to offset challenges you may have. Historically, we've utilized those dollars to help us with special education on anticipated costs. It's kind of the spirit of it. Uh we currently at the start of this year, I'll get you clo what? 8 what? >> It says 860 >> 8 860,000 in that non-lapsing fund. It's in better shape than it's been in years. Uh which is which is a positive. Uh so we're going to utilize some of those dollars uh to offset other costs. So that 183,000 what that represents um 86,000 in a one-time purchase of instructional supplies at the elementary level um I believe it's some of the reading materials for the new uh science of reading initiative from the state of Connecticut. Um so $86,000 there and then $97,000 is [snorts] the difference uh in the

054OPED arc that we need to address this year um due to decisions that will save us money long term that the board of finance has made um that they talked about at the tri board. You you know a really good decision we pay into this now we'll see savings later on. Uh so again I think costs where it makes sense to say hey we have you know a safety net over here we're marching towards this guidance number uh in good faith and we can uh we can apply those dollars uh there. So that's where we get the reduction which brings that 34 down uh to a 2.5 um which is pretty significant movement. And then we take a look and say, "All right, those additions that we've talked about uh in the prior presentations today

055[snorts] uh and you roll some of those uh staffing requests in, um it pops the number back up uh to about a 2.79 uh% increase. Okay. So that >> 80s and 194, the first three lines. >> Yeah. So that would be in a perfect world. So it ties out. Yes, >> in [laughter] a perfect world, uh, where we were about two weeks ago, feeling really good about, um, moving this number forward with very limited movement or probably questions um, by the other boards because you're right, you're right at the guidance. So, um, I feel like we did our due diligence, we did our work. Uh, again, we'll talk more about this in a few minutes when when Amy shares the the data. Um there is $400,000 increase due to new projections in the insurance line

056item which are fixed costs that we are going to have to make decisions as an administration and as a board how to move forward with. All right. >> Question. You started this entire conversation with we're taking 800,000 from the insurance fund. Am I missing it? Is it in here at all? >> It's in the insurance number in the first slide. Okay. >> So, it's all baked in. Like that's what your increase is >> with that $800,000 offset in it. >> Perfect. Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> Y >> Matt, [snorts] I question on the non-lapsing. I always struggle with this one. >> Yeah. >> I always view it like a savings account and I think you say it's not. >> Um it can be up to 2%. We currently have around 1%. I take

057a little less and this is healthy for us, >> right? >> How do we fund it? And is it leftover budget dollars or is it a line item in the budget or I forget how the money gets in there? >> Yeah. So it's it's surplus dollars from accounts can be pushed towards those. So when Amy closes the books at the end of the year and we make our budget adjustments, those are the dollars that >> So my question is the optics of it like is it viewed >> negatively to have 2% in there like whoa you're you're being reckless with your budget. How could you have that much left over? or is it >> I'll give you a politically correct answer. I think it's in the eyes of who's looking at that >> and what

058the what the situation might be at the time. Right. I think as a board of ed we may look at that and say, "Hey, we have the perfect level of flexibility um to respond to unanticipated needs." >> No. >> Right. Because we don't budget contingencies into into our budgets. and in a tight budget year. Others might say, "Hey, you have a surplus that you should utilize some of that either maybe for capital expenditures or for for offsets." So, I think there's no perfect answer, but I think doing this long enough and even particularly I want to speak for Amy in the last three or four years prior to this with the volatility of the special ed and not knowing if you're going to come in with a deficit or not. Uh you're able to manage

059your operation and make much better decisions when you have a contingency availability that you're able to respond So, if the board of finance comes back and and you talk about a $400,000 insurance, would it make sense to take another 400 out of there if we have if we have five or is that getting us too low? >> I think it's >> it's part of the conversation we need to have. The danger with that is you you have cliffs when you when you don't pay up on your insurance. That is a hard cliff that you need to find somewhere else. So, that internal service fund uh allows us to smooth over time. But if you keep going back to that till and you take 400 off, you're going back 400 more in next year. Right? So,

060um that's why I wanted to show Brian that hey, basically we're at a spot in this budget presentation. 97% of what we're doing is a bullseye on on um staff basically. So, I think movement that we're going to make, if we have to make movement or the board wants to see things, it's going to be people. That's the way you're going to get savings. And in that is that fun like somewhere is that invested is it like >> it's in that strong [laughter] or >> is it like sort of a concept somewhere? I mean it's >> it's real dollars. It has it sitting in its own fund. >> It does not allocate interest um because that's not how the fund was set up. Can we change that? >> That's a good question. Now that the

061legislation has changed, um, >> it's like investing your HSA. >> Yeah. Like to allocate some of our money market to that fund. It's a good question. >> I think it was money market the past two years like negotiate with bank. Do you have that? >> It's not negotiating with the bank. It's when the fund was initially set up. It was set up by the board of finance with board of finance parameters and in those parameters when they set up the fund there was not an interest allocation that was allowed to go into the fund. >> And when Amy referenced that legislation has changed >> to allocate or spend any of those dollars down when the legislation first came out. You needed a vote of the board of education and a vote of the board of

062sele uh board of finance. That's changed. The board of finance does not have a say in how we allocate these dollars. It's a decision of the board of education. Not that they can't ask and can't inquire and know that the dollars are there, but we don't need their permission and they can't allocate those dollars without >> But can you even interest can be still on the board of ed uh restricted but you still have the principle but it's earning something instead of being somewhere just losing really stuck on a bed. >> Right. >> Yes. >> So all of our money is pulled together. So, we have several different funds within the town. We have special revenue funds. We have our general fund. Um, we have our health insurance fund. And some of the funds earned

063interest allocations and some do not. So, all of our money is pulled together and the interest is earned. So, that 860 or wherever it went, the $860,000 is with our $30 million that's in the bank. It's just when the money at the end of the year, every quarter, whatever it is that we allocate interest to certain funds, the interest is allocated to say um trust funds because, you know, they're incorporating our money or um but our interest is not allocated to say capital project funds because those are funds that we come in with and we choose to expend. So, we're not going to build up on that. We're going to use that as part of our general fund and put that in the pot to use for operating offset or we're going to use it

064for future capital projects or things of that nature. Health insurance fund, the same thing. We fund it through the operating budget. So, we don't retain any of those interest earnings. Um, so it's however the fund is set up by the board of finance whenever fund is set up. So, chances are at the time the board of finance, this was years and years and years ago, um, they probably said, "Yes, you can have your non-lapsing fund, but you can keep this amount of money. can't keep building it up through interest income. >> We can't invest it in crypto. [laughter] >> That's so if I heard you correctly, it's part of what's earning interest. It's just not itself in a bigger pot >> is um am I [clears throat] making it too simple to say and you

065may be getting to it. So if there's 400,000 potentially coming in on the insurance side that would amend that number. 325. >> That's the number again. >> It would take it from a 27 to a 325 increase if you put 400 all in. >> That's where I was going. >> Yep. >> Yeah. So, I [snorts] look at it and the way I the one of the reasons why Amy and I wanted to frame it this way is I feel like it it kind of simplifies our kind of challenge or our work from 91 million to a $400,000 conversation. and and what do we really feel we should be taking a look at or how do we view those costs and what are our options moving forward. So, um but you're you're right on those dollars

066have to be addressed one way or another and I think our recommendation would not be to offset them with further use of reserves at this point because it digs a a deeper cliff. But I think it needs to be looked at and addressed at some point. um Jeff and I talked about because if we don't do this, they're going to ask us to do this in a few weeks. This is totally reasonable. Now, whether we agree or not or make a decision or not is is secondary. I think we should be able to provide this board with what that could potentially look like to find savings of $400,000. We don't have that today, but our thought would be maybe for Tuesday night that's what we could be uh we could be talking about >> because

067their guidance was 2 >> 26 2.6 If we gone from 279 to 299 or something, it might not be as big a deal, but the going from a two number to a three number in their eyes is going to be >> I think they would want to see it. Yeah. >> Can you guys help me understand what the $400,000 for? We we received new insurance projections, Jessica, just a couple days ago that are increasing um the projection and insurance up $400,000 from what we had originally presented. >> So, the way our insurance works is we have to have that in a fund >> because we we're self-insured. Is that how that works? >> Yes. You have to have an appropriate percentage of that in the fund to cover the claims. And what's the percentage that

068we would need in the fund? We wouldn't need the full full 400 or or do we? >> We do. >> Okay. So, we need the full amount. That's okay. >> So, basically what what I'm suggesting is I think if we're going to try to find the savings, they should come from somewhere else than to continue to go at a reserve in that fund, >> you know. >> Yeah. What you're saying. And do we does this or is this amount expected to be a recurring amount that we're going to need each year or is this a onetime thing because we have some people with higher health needs? >> Amy's smiling at me already because she doesn't want me to talk. >> I got the answer. >> But it's out of >> It's a projection. So that

069projection can either hold or it can change based on the claims experience at the time. >> I'll go through the data. um later on in the presentation. >> I've matured in my analysis of the uh insurance industry over the years. [laughter] >> He just hasn't 14% matured. [laughter] >> Matt, >> new path out of new path out of district tuition. I know we can't use it as a >> business or a profit, but we can the the revenue dollars are potentially >> Yeah, we would have to talk about it, but we're not at a point where we're we're there yet. You know what I mean? In the in the build >> because we're still there. >> Yep. We're still in the build. And I would say just to kind of we'll get to all this,

070but you were saying like 32 verse two like I I get guidance like I mean looking at the other superintendent budgets in the dirt looking at our approved budgets of the year. I mean 32 doesn't sound like a huge number either. I'll just throw that out there, right? Like I mean 28 is great, >> but 32 is not in any way when you look at the number. I mean nails slide along, right? Like you look at just like what it was at what 34 just on that, right? And then you come in at like 32, like 32. I just I say, "Yeah, let's investigate. Let's look into the twos or whatever Jeff thinks there." But I mean, it's not like three I get what you're saying. I don't feel like 32 is a bad number

071either. >> Yeah. >> I think it's just a matter of new change in information and at least do your due diligence, right? >> Abs. Absolutely. Can I just point something out though just real quick because whatever you decide like you know you come in at 32. It does affect the overall budget because like we have an overall percentage number. So that's that's board of ed and townside baked into one number and every time you're up it actually takes away from the town side that we have the ability to do. So do we cut roads? Do we cut salt? So just just in the bigger picture frame of things, not trying to say you you need to do your job that you need to do, but big picture is then we you know then where do

072things get cut on the town side? >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> And and not push back, but the counter to that is it's a guide. It's a guidance. >> It's a guidance. Absolutely. >> And the other part >> conversation on the town side. >> Yeah. The the other part of that is when the guidance guidance is given at a point in time. Mark and I talk about this all the time, >> right? There's conditions on the town side that have changed too. there's new grand list growth. That's more than we saw before. >> So, I I just think it's a matter of due diligence and you put all those cards on the table when we get to uh Amy's little >> mil. I'm not saying not to do your job and and Yeah. And we are

073faced with the same insurance, right? If we feel we're pretty close to bone and you're pretty close to bone, then you go back to the guidance. Correct. >> It's a it's a circular. >> Sure. >> All right. So that movement off the non-lapsing would leave us with 586, which is a number I think both Amy and I are pretty comfortable with and being able to respond to some unanticipated needs uh should they occur next year. >> All right, >> I think it's over to me now. >> I think it is. So, we're going to get a little more specific now on um administrators that kind of manage some of those smaller accounts. Not smaller, but accounts underneath kind of the global presentation. Do you want the guidance for Tuesday now or do you want to

074wait till August? >> You could go. I I mean >> I I think you know what I'm going to go with this. You know, I think we Yeah, we need to figure out if there's a place where we can find that 400,000 unless I don't necessarily think we need to come up with that answer today, >> but I mean I just wanted to open that up. >> This is kind of what we've done in previous years also. So just >> Yeah, I agree with you completely, right? What's where's if we found all the 400 or maybe Jeff >> maybe is there a middle number where it gets us under three. Is there something you can do to get us to 29? >> Yeah. And the way we've done this in the past, right, is like,

075hey, this is an idea. This is a suggestion. This is an impact statement. You know what I mean? And then you have the ability to evaluate it and ask questions. >> Just want to give them a little like because this literally came out like two days ago. So kind of want to give want to give them some time to figure to work on it. >> Good enough. Okay. So which tab are we in now? >> Okay. You're going to now we're transitioning from slides. >> You're going to go behind tab number four which says workshop materials. >> Oh, fun. >> Okay. So, [laughter] the first thing you're going to do is you're going to see an agenda under information and reports and budget. We're about bullet six down where it says teaching and learning, curriculum,

076textbooks, professional development. So, that's where we are in the agenda. behind that agenda tab, you're going to come and now everything if you turn your books is going to be landscape version now. So you it all orients one way and the first done. >> You're welcome. You're welcome. And then the first piece of material is behind that agenda is the office of teaching and learning major drivers. Okay. So I'm going to speak to that then I'm going to hand it over to Neil. He's going to Hold on. Jess is calling us back. Hi, Jess. >> I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Okay. You're welcome. Um, then Neil is going to talk a bit about facilities and maintenance. We're going to bring Dave up to talk some tech and we'll continue on with the agenda that way.

077But all of your materials now are going to be just turning pages. Okay. So the office of teaching and learning uh there are many things that go certainly into this budget but I want to share with you the three buckets of teaching and learning and that comes under supplies there's a lot within that textbooks certainly and then professional development programming curriculum development and services. All right so under supplies there is a 5.62% 62% increase and that is due it's just under $50,000. Um that's supplies costing more. Okay. And when I talk about supplies I mean everything from pens, pencils, paper, petri dishes, right? We have some custodial supplies that is built into that. any office supplies. There's actually every I believe it's five years we have to do a significant chemical waste disposal from our

078labs. That's at a cost of about $10,000, right? So that's not an every year cost. We also pay for some um systemwide testing that you'll see there. That is all caked in that one bucket. Okay. The next bucket is around textbooks. Matt mentioned there was some offset regarding some specific textbooks for the science of reading in our new curriculum which we had to transition to based upon legislative mandate. There are many consumables within that K3 reading curriculum. Okay, it's great materials but they're consumables and we have to denote those in our budget. Uh there's also a refresh on paperbacks in some of our cornerstone texts that we're seeing. Um those have to be refreshed that there's only so much tape and patching them back together that we can do. Um and we also have some

079consumables in our current math program workbooks at the middle school. And we also are purchasing new texts for AP economics and AP environmental studies. I have a a system where I look at those texts over time and believe me I am um extremely conservative when it comes to when I say we need new texts we it's time. It's time. So that's in our textbook account. So you'll see that that's quite a percentage up. Um overall that percentage equates to just over $60,000. But again we have consumables that you have to utilize every single year. That third column is around professional curriculum development. Here as um members of our curriculum committee know we have rewrited a cycle of curriculum development. So there are hours uh that we put into curriculum development that could be after the

080school day, that could be in the summer. [clears throat] Um I use those and prioritize those hours. Uh under this bucket under my office also comes all of our elementary clubs, our leadership teams, anything associated with that falls in here. Any mileage, that's a big bucket. conferences, um, professional dues, uh, we do have a donation to Simsbury Community Television, but also our periodicals, um, are ways in which we keep up with, uh, state and national organizations that are really important to our craft. Um, advanced study dollars are contractual support that falls within this bucket as well as copers. So, there is it. It's three very broad buckets uh that equate to overall a requested um increase of 3.59%. Um and we can actually I failed to mention in that last bucket we have actually a

081bit of a reduction for some places within that organ that that um area. So that is the overall increase for the office of teaching and learning. Um but I know our systems are working. Uh our systems of assessing the needs through teaching and learning I think are really on point and that's what I have to present to you this morning. >> I sorry I just to set the stage for everybody but I should probably should have asked this right out of the gate just to remind me. So when you're suggesting a total increase of 359 is that already baked into the Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. This just gives you additional detail about the numbers that's already presented. >> What would you say is the number one driver in textbooks that's [clears throat] increasing it

082so much? >> It's really a compilation here. Um there is some with the with the new benchmark curriculum. Again, it's consumables. I'll have to show you. You might get a a kick out of seeing some of the new materials that we're using. Um, again, you have classroom cornerstone texts that are tattered. Like we those are really important parts of our curriculum and an AP textbook is pricey. So, if you're purchasing new sets, I mean, it chips away a little a little to really account for that increase. >> It's like you really haven't touched them in years to like to this. So, so a lot of ways it doesn't surprise me, I guess, is what I'm saying. Yeah. Well, and you know, we spent a long time not replacing textbooks in classrooms. >> That's what I

083mean. [laughter] I >> mean, a long time. [snorts] >> Neil, over to you. >> All right. I drew the short strike at the glamorous stuff with facilities and maintenance. Um, as everybody knows what a handyman I am. [clears throat] Um, we uh have three buckets here, too. in terms of um the first one is actually one of the only places in our budget where it starts from zero every year. This is basically principles requests for um essentially classroom furniture um ranging from almost no asks at all from a building like Latimer Lane because a construction project just allowed that building to be newly furnished with state reimbursement and all of that to um older buildings that need new tables, new classroom furniture. you want to make a teacher happy, get them a new desk chair.

084They, you know, that goes a long way. And that 155,000 um is what was approved from the various lists the principal submitted and is actually representative of a slight decrease. >> Buck bucket two is all managed through the business office and by our supervis supervisor of maintenance, Kyle Loveland. um with um basically things like sewer and septic. You see snow removal contract. We plow um ourselves our maintenance crews um four of our buildings and we have to contract out for the lots of the high school which is simply too big for our us to handle Henry James. And then we actually also because of the layout um contract for cleaning out Terapville school. Um so those are um those must have taken a big hit last weekend. That's obviously a very variable uh fund. Uh

085equipment repair. We have um an in-house HVAC guy. We have an in-house plumber. This doesn't represent their salaries, but it represents when they have to buy materials and supplies um accounts that uh come there. And then grounds maintenance, it's it's um our custodians for the most part are uh in charge of maintenance at their own buildings. Things like tree trimming would be in here. Um, and then replacement equipment for mowers and snowblowers and everything else. And then lastly, I know um that we work in conjunction with Tom Roy getting prices um on our utilities. Um not surprisingly, there's a increase here. Right. It's not a huge increase, but um we also lock in pricing on these um for multi-year sometimes, right? I So >> some [clears throat] and that's I'm going to be back later

086talking about capital stuff, but that's >> Dave. Do you want to introduce yourself? I don't know if everyone knows you. >> Good morning everybody. Good to see everyone. I'm I'm Dave Princy and I'm the director of instructional technology. Um I will present our um technology needs for you this morning. Um in your binder, I don't know if you need to turn one more page to get to the a very similar looking three column um technology needs page. Um just like with the other areas um of the budget, we have three very specific drivers in the technology department. Um also like some of the other departments um within these drivers some of these costs are very fixed. Some of these costs are slightly fixed mean that meaning that we can negotiate um with the company. We

087can sometimes sign longerterm contracts that allow drive the price down a little bit. Um and some of the some of the drivers especially the middle column which I'll go over um exist to sort of balance those two things. um we budget for those things based on number one what we need what's coming to the the end of its life but number two um what we could reasonably expect to do in a year in terms of replacing some of these things. So I'll take you through some of this and and what I will say in terms of generating this budget um it aligns very closely with our new district strategic plan in that um we want our network and all of the people using it to be safe and secure. Um, we want our workforce to

088be of a absolute premier quality, meaning access to the the best possible resources, the the the newest things, everything working, and we want our students and teachers to be able to innovate to the greatest extent possible. Um, that's sort of the the philosophy that we think about when generating a budget like this. Um so in terms of license l licensing that leftmost column um as a driver this is really um broad subscriptions for the district and infrastructural um security in terms of keep making sure that our network is safe. Um it also includes um a subscription to maintain our virtualized environment. This is a very um hot button topic right now across the state because one uh the the most common company that's been doing this in education actually was just acquired recently by another

089company. So a lot of districts are in the same place as us and it's given us an opportunity to talk to a lot of people and make sure that the solution that we have in mind that we're going to enact over the summer and next year um is like we're barking up the right tree basically. Is this something that other districts are doing? And what we found that the sort of the the solution that we're landing on which is um a Microsoft product called HyperV um is the most prevalent solution in other districts in the same ballgame. What happened was the the company that we are using right now basically is pricing themselves out of the market. >> So you're talking about the Broadcom acquisition. >> That's exactly right. Um and they're losing um K12

090school clients like like crazy. So that seems to be the most popular solution. Um obviously we have to pay for our Microsoft license which is um our operating system. We pay for powers school which is our student information management system. Um another way that we keep secure is through our multiffactor authentication system. Um and then obviously our budgeting software which is munis same as on the town side. Um the middle column which is equipment and replacement. These are the things within the district that you can see and you can touch. These are tangible items. Um, Matt alluded to it in his rollup, but those Chromebook replacements, we are on a a projected year-by-year replacement. We replace them when they can no longer be updated. Um, which means that they'll exist in the current status that

091they are in perpetuity. Um, the updates are needed for things like state testing and that kind that kind of thing. Um, security updates. So, we're um requesting to replace two grades next year. So rising fifth graders and writing rising ninth graders will get new devices. But um not on this sheet, but in Matt's overall presentation, you can recall that this number is being offset by the Chromebook insurance fund um that our families are paying for, which to me seems like the the best way to use that money. You know, it it makes logical and ethical sense. Um the same way that we're replacing Chromebooks, we have iPads in circulation um that teachers and kindergarteners and first graders are using on a day-to-day basis that are coming to the end of their updatable lives. Those are

092150. And then the last bullet, which is replacement and and new equipment. This is a combination of making sure that everything is working as it should, but also taking the opportunity to upgrade some of the places um where we can. I'm sure some of you are aware that we're going through as many classrooms and office spaces as possible starting about five years ago um and removing smartboards and and kind of um getting to be obsolete display technology with interactive new line panels. So, a lot of the the new equipment that we're talking about here um are going to be classroom facing displays. Um, and then in office spaces, it's thinking about um flat panel TVs. Just making sure that when when we have um classroom spaces and when we have office spaces that they are

093seamless, they work um and that everybody's able to um use the the newest version possible. Lastly is the software driver um which is frankly the most difficult to wrangle um of all of the so and we we were able to do this year because licensing stayed pretty much flat, equipment stayed pretty much flat. Um but I can't say nearly the same about software. I think like a lot of other markets, we are noticing um year-over-year subscription increases of anywhere between 5% and 50%. Which is absolutely crazy. Um the way that we make this a manageable number is we think about redundancies where possible. Sometimes when software applications change or get acquired, they add new features. Sometimes that u makes another thing that we're using obsolete or redundant. Um we look at us usage stats across

094the district. How many teachers are using this? How many students are using it? Um could we possibly do without it? Could we use another tool in a similar way without any loss of functionality? Um so the software is broken down into three different subbuckets. We have K to6 software. We have 7 to 12 software and then we have software applications that we're using across the district. This includes things like um content software like BrainPOP and New Zella. And it also includes um security software like go guardian and securely um and that obviously you see from the increases there. This is the software driver is the one that drives us to react in other areas basically especially in the middle. Um so I'll take any questions if you guys have them. Brian >> just a quick

095question on kind of like our way that we procure this stuff. Yeah. >> Do we like So now that Jason's phasing out and you're taking over a lot of this stuff, I'm looking mostly the left column like the licensing, the hardware stuff, the infrastructure. >> Do you know or who we use? Who do we procure everything from like our veh or HyperV? >> Do we is there a reseller, a partner that we go to or do we buy we don't buy directly from Microsoft or we don't buy directly from BEH? >> No, we have a we have a clearing house. I don't and I think we actually have a couple. I don't want to tell you the wrong thing. Can I get that information to you? >> I'd be curious to know that stuff because

096>> working in that industry, I know >> the margins that a lot of partners work off of and if I can be helpful in any way there, I'd love to. >> That's great. >> You talk about options other I know HyperV is a lot of customers are looking at to replace VMware. >> Yeah, >> I know customers are looking at Nanix and other options as well. So, >> I'd be love to help there if I can. Um, and I'm curious like I don't see any hardware like big things like once Jason would come to us with like server refresh or compute refresh. I don't see any of that on here yet. Maybe we're in an off year. >> There's also an every other year. >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Uh network infrastructure >> on the

097capital >> on the it's all capital stuff >> and this isn't one of those years. >> Good. Okay, >> David, does this have anything to do with uh any new vendors that'll be coming on for like comms or any of that stuff that you look at as far as like the website and all that stuff? Is that not for this budget? >> I believe it is. >> Yeah. Um and there's there's savings there. And so, like we talked about at the communication subcommittee, um we're in the first year we're actualizing something like $15,000 in savings. So that's another thing that drives the licensing side down a little bit. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um with that, how much do you calculate for integration of any of these new softwares? I mean teaching people and PD

098and all of that. >> Um especially with what Josh was referring to. um when we go to a new a a big new program like a website like a mass communications platform um the first year has those startup trainings built into it so we are paying for those things but that's only on a a year one basis >> and how often do you have to go to year two for that for training or help >> I hope not I hope by then it's um it's something that we can sustain in-house which I imagine it it would be like we would provide the the training and the troubleshooting and support You know, it's like we talk about textbooks and can you do the can you do the textbooks? You can't really even do that either because

099even though they're online textbooks, they c they charge you for the usage every year and then they charge you for every time >> a subscription. Yeah. >> Yeah. They get more expensive. It's fascinating because we we look at that and it's not a cost savings and even in my textbook account specifically like around world language some science um we're paying for textbook licensing that are electronic and there is no savings >> I know it's it's I it's a little painful it is painful >> thanks sir thanks >> Merryweather Oh, fun >> here to listen. >> More and more fun by the minute. >> Immature. >> All right. [laughter] So, for our new members, um just wanted to give you the difference. So, a fully insured plan is what um people are most typically familiar with

100where um the employer pays a portion of the health insurance, the employee pays a portion of the health insurance, and then that just goes to an Anthem, a Sigma, and then they pay the claims, they take care of everything on their side. We're a little bit different where we're self-insured. So, we it's the same concept. The employee pays a portion, the employer pays a portion and then we give this give that money those premiums to ourselves and they go into a separate fund and in that separate fund we pay out our own claims. So when fully insured the um signer Anthem whoever the health insurance agent is they will pay out the claims and if they give us a premium increase um that is too high they get to reap the benefits and keep that

101profit. If they give us a premium increase that's too low, they need to dip into their business to pay our claims and they have to they will readjust next year in their premiums. So at self insurance, we set the premium increase based on our claims and then we take that money in house and if our claims don't come to fruition, we have a nice healthy fund balance that we can use in future years to help offset our operating. or if we um we don't follow the trend and we are we don't collect enough in premiums then we'll have to dip into our fund balance and replenish the fund that way. So that first slide on um page four is our health insurance claims analysis. So, this is the major driver of our health insurance fund

102and what our premiums are typically based on as to um how much they should increase or decrease in the in the coming budget year. So, just starting all the way to the right, I mean to the left, you'll have your fiscal year 25 projections. And these projections are done by our health insurance broker, Locked In. They have um actuaries on hand. They get all of our claims data from Sigma and they put together what our projections and claims will be for the upcoming budget year. So fiscal year 25 has [clears throat] closed but initially they had projected that we would have claims of 16.7 million and that was an increase to our budget of about 10.10%. And our actual for fiscal year 25 was actually only about 15.8 million so about a 4.5% increase. And

103this has been the typical trend over the last several years, which is why Matthew believes it's just a projection because that's [laughter] how it's typically gone. >> We are unreasonable. >> It's not unreasonable. Simary is typically below the um the industry standard. Um but if you start looking in fiscal year 26 in the middle of the page, um Lockton's projection initially was a 3.4% increase at claims of about 17.2. Locked in then comes back during fiscal year 26 around this time of year. They revise those projections based on what they're seeing and the actual claims trends and they are actually going in the opposite direction this time where we're expected to be above the projections at a 4.3% increase and claims are expected to be about $200,000 more than what was anticipated. So unfortunately um

104they feel that this trend is going to continue into fiscal year 27. And on the next few slides I'll I'll take you through why. But for fiscal year 27 we had our initial projections back in October where they thought we'd have claims of about 19.4 million and we initially um put into our budget 11% increase on our health insurance. And that is the initial budget that Matthew presented today. um at the 279 number. And then like you said a few years ago um a few years ago a few days ago we had a revised projection from locked in where our claims trends are increasing and we're going to be just shy of 20 million in our projected claims for fiscal year 27. So that gives us our 14.3% increase um on our health insurance. So

105down below I just broke that out for dollars for everybody. So the 11% premium increase is just over a million dollar. But remember the board of finance said that we can use health insurance reserves of $800,000. So the impact to the overall budget is about $250,000. Now with the new information, we have the 14% increase and um as has been mentioned, our increase is about $400,000 more with the 14% than the 11%. Any questions on that? >> There's no question. I mean, it's just healthare the whole thing, right? But >> 15 rounding 15 actual and 25 to 20 projected in two years is just that's wild. But I mean like after like it was the opposite of two years ago like 21 22 23 I felt like we became favorable. >> It did. So in

106other words, like increase in claims, whatever reasons, people costs have gone up or more people been sick or whatever it >> I don't doubt the numbers. I just I mean it's just >> and we have to have it right to Jessica's point earlier that we have to fund what their projections are. >> Is that the last? >> Yes, [laughter] that's the that's the question. Yes, >> I don't know. It's a rest. Yeah, it's a it's a gamble. I get it. Y >> So, I mean, >> if we fund it and then we come back, then we could have a potentially hopefully a savings at the end, right? I mean, >> well, so that's the thing. So, if we do the 14% and we come in under, well, good for us for next year because that's

107going to look great. >> But if we fund it at the 14% and then we're going to be at another 14% next year, which is actually what the actuaries are saying, then, you know, we're in a tough spot. >> Yeah, it's risk. It's risking those actuaries. >> [laughter] >> Can you repeat that one more time? So the actuaries are projecting 14% again for next year. The projections aren't just current, but they're going to go forward for a year. >> So they are for current year, but when we talked to our broker, they think that the trend is going to continue for next year. >> Do you have a sense that this trend is driven by just a workforce that needs more care or is it just that the rise in cost of health insurance is

108driving this? >> Um, so it's actually an increase in our actual claims. So if you go to that's a good segue to slide five. Um so if you go to page five, you'll see our claims trends um for the last um so the first the first section is our reporting period from July 24 to June 2025. So this is a full year of claims. Um we're at about 15 million and our per employee per month cost is um about $1,800. Now, if you go down to that second line there, you'll see July 2025 through December 2025. This is only a half a year claims. So, we're already at just shy of 9.3 million. And our per per employee per month expense is about been about $2,300. So, if we're in a half a year and

109you just say double it, we're already at about 18 million compared to the 15 million in a full year last year. >> So, that's why dramatic increase. How about a staff like PTO? Oh, not a PT. What do you call the um >> Professional development. Healthy habits healthare. >> We actually do that. That's um our partners at Sigma. >> Yeah, I was just going to say Sigma. My account professional developments and on our full day PDS ones coming up in March, we actually use our professional development um evaluation committee to look at all of the offerings. Um, and I can share those with you, but there's one that is being offered in March, Healthy Habits, and that's exactly what it's called. >> But it's more it's it's the cost of drugs are are driving all

110of this. There's a lot there's a lot that's driving that number. >> Yeah. >> It's a lot >> the cost of care. So they we'll use this one for the budget because the next projection that they would want to do is in another three months to get another set of claims history. So we could adjust it last minute and say um March or April. But for the budget process, this is the final projection that we'll have. >> Forgive my ignorance on this, but is it less expensive for us to self-insure or is we just went out to market and had a regular insurance policy for employees? Would that provide a little more um consistency or cost savings? >> So um no because when we have a fully insured plan, they sent the premium and they

111get to retain any profits. If we have a fully insured plan, I mean a self-insured plan, any of those profits go back to us in the next year as a reduction to our budget. So, if we had say that 14% this year and we gave that to a fully insured company, but it really came in at 10%, they get to keep that 4%. In our self-insured, if we do 14% this year and it comes in at 10%, we get to keep that 4% savings to offset in future years. >> But what are our rates with the providers? But sometimes there's benefit until Sigma because they have better negotiated rates. >> So we still utilize Sigma. >> Yes. So they still negotiate the rates on our behalf. It's just they don't pay out our claims. We

112pay out our own claims. >> We're taking the risk and not not the company. >> Can I ask in the agreement with the staff is any increase? Is it ratio split? Because you know staff pays part of the premium. There's increaseically goes >> that's part of the collective bargaining that Neil does. >> What's the question? >> She's asking how much the staff pay towards their >> Do we keep the ratio consistent? >> It's been going on the price. >> Um teachers just finished their negotiation. They um I want to say our site pays 78% they pay 22% of the of the premium >> in the Cuba ratio. >> Well, it's always in play every negotiation cycle. It looks like we asked for a half a point here or a point there. >> Yeah, we increased

113that this year. >> We increased it. And then just to finish answering your question, Jess, um Lockton also does an analysis um especially compared to the state plan because that seems to be really really popular. So they did an analysis that if we were to transition over to the state plan instead of keeping our self-insured plan, it would actually cost us an additional million dollars this year. >> Well, you just think in in basic terms, we're utilizing the 800, just lump that right back in. We wouldn't be able to do that, right? >> Right. >> Yeah. >> And what was after account? I'm sorry. I was just trying to get a price per staff >> or FTE. >> Our FTE. >> Yes. >> Mean 20 million for how many? >> How many staff? >> I

114can I I don't have that. How many? >> I mean, I have a total FTE number, but I can't tell you how many are insured or don't take the insurance. >> You choose to take the insurance or not? >> Yeah, because not everyone takes it. Some could be on >> 700. >> No, I've got I could go get it. It's sitting in my I have an insurance book in my office. The health insurance fund is town and board. So the number of members is between 6 to 700. >> Yeah. I mean I think at the end of the day I mean my mind I mean it's all good questions but we're talking about the more things we control >> new path transportation insurance. More things you control you kind of in a way almost not

115fully insulate but you control them a little bit more. Right. It's your block. It's your stuff. >> So kind of keeping it there makes sense. And as far as the cost rising, I this feels like one I do all the due diligence we can. I mean, projections are projections, right? And it seems really risky to get a projection and say we're going to like time the market or take a chance or play the house, right? Like >> it just doesn't seem smart. >> Private and public. I think every company is dealing with, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. This this feels very much like one that you just got to wait and see, but you got to plan based on the experts. >> So that um leads us to our large claims actually. So just looking

116at that data right below employee per month. Um the large claims for that full year in that top line, we had 11 large claims at about 2.7 million. And again for just a half a year, we've already had eight and we're already at about 2.4 million. Um, so this is where we might be able to see some relief depending on the um what those large claims do in the future. We've had just knowing off the top of my head in in the population, we've had um a few surgeries that have been large claims. We've had cancer treatments, things of that nature. So some will stay on, some might come on. So to [clears throat] Matthew's point, these are projections. Um, and if people continue to have those larger surgeries, obviously we won't see a reduction

117there, but that's where we could see some relief in that number could come down at some point. And then moving on to slide six, this is actually our reserve levels in our health insurance fund. So, right now, um, we anticipating at the end of fiscal year 26 that we'll have just shy of $7 million in reserves in the health insurance fund. Um, we keep talking about the 800,000 that the board of finance has let us use to um, offset our operating budgets and create some relief there. So, that million dollar, $800,000 for the board of ed, and $200,000 for the town. So, this would give us our available reserves of about 5.9 million, just [clears throat] shy of six. And then the reserve as a percent of expected claims is just shy of 30%. The

118target um that we need to shoot for in reserves is 20 to 25% of expected claims. So as you can see this um this is a very healthy fund. We would be able to utilize that extra 5% if you will as a featherin because that $800,000 does create a cliff or if it doesn't come to fruition we can reduce that cliff going into next year. Um, so there is some some room here and one of the benefits of being self-insured is that we can utilize these reserves. So >> this is significantly, let's just say it is is significantly overfunded, >> but it provides that then for good reason because it provides flexibility. >> I understand. But if the target's 20 to 25 and we're sitting at shy of 30, that's >> Yeah. >> But immediate

119Yeah. But im immediately some of that will be utilized on a on a feather plan. You know what I So yeah, just >> and I did the math like the 20 might give me 100 more,000 give or take. That's roughly healthare. I'm assume premium for family is >> but that's not how we're showing because we're talking about lower budget. So I'm assuming that's 80%. It's your show. >> No, that's the full cost >> of the claims. >> Yes. So that's not the all cost. It is. >> I was just doing the math of like the $20 million. If you have 700 members, it's like 28,000 bucksish of claims average per person. That's I'm pretty sure a premium. I'm not all the healthcare people. >> This was all stuff on >> it seemed like a >>

120Yeah. Is I think what she's asking is are these documents about healthcare for board of ed and board of selectment or just board of ed? They're both. >> They're both. So these are these are town fully full town full loaded. >> Yes. >> Not they haven't pulled us out of it, >> right? >> Does that [snorts] answer your question? >> Yes. No, I was just working the math. I was just >> to Jeff's point on the reserves, right? Am I oversimplified that the the way you get to a reserve in this fund is we budget for the projection based on the experts. Then the actuals happen and the difference is the reserve, right? And then the reserve goes here and then you go into the next year and you do it. >> The one variable

121you have is how much of it you use for other stuff in your budget cycle like the reserve right here. Can we we can use some of this reserves for other things >> to find other things outside of health insurance. >> Yeah. I mean I'm just going to Jeff's point >> for for health insurance reserves. They can only be used for health insurance. >> So you I agree third guidance 2025. were up at 30, but how do you bring that number down? >> Right. So the the only option would be >> right like unless you just don't budget lower there >> and then you'd have a bigger cliff. So that's the that's the challenge. Yes. The the >> the fun this is Amy and I all the time, right? The the fund is healthy. >>

122Hey, can we pull a little more out? You can theoretically, >> but you got to feather more back in. So there's always a a risk. >> Doesn't feel there's a lot of levers here, right? the experts give us a number, we budget for it. >> Life happens and >> yeah, the difference >> a stupid question. Admittedly stupid and I know I've got a lot of those. >> Um, so I'm just curious about the if if we're over projections. >> I'm just I'm curious why I guess why would you even have to feather anything back in, right? If you're still, you know, you want to try to like >> Yeah. So you got a base you got a base number in your budget, >> Right. hits the projection, >> right? >> We're basically putting $800,000 less

123than that in the number cuz you're pulling it from there. You roll your base next year. >> You got to account for that $800,000 somewhere. Now, it's not 100% true, Cliff, because it's a projection. It might move a It might move a little bit. >> So, we're going to take a loss in the health insurance fund of a million dollars, >> right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> To save your budget $800,000. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm with you now. >> Okay. True. >> And that's what I meant by the other stuff. Like it it helps the budget. Bottom line is what I was getting at. >> Yeah. you do it right in that line have to pay it back in or something like that with you now >> expecting that >> or you're thinking right

124that we're there's more to that projection because if really those big claims are frontloaded and we're basing it only on January through December and similar to what we saw all last year this can really skew the numbers significantly and we are not jeopardizing but you say if we need to cut 400 we're talking about Right. >> Right. >> It's just I think it makes sense to really dive in a little bit more into that and make sure that the money that we can decide maybe it's worthwhile doing. >> Yeah. >> Funding a little bit less. >> If you really feel that this is want to make big changes that can >> that's always the struggle, right? It's like it's it's similar to other areas where we project, right? Like the enrollment, you know, you make

125decisions on staffing enrollment. want to plan three years out and once the enrollment starts to go up, they're going to carry that upward trend until something happens, right? So the >> it's frontloaded. You're absolutely right. >> Yeah, it just >> can have more discussion on it. Yeah. >> Feels like a little bit of a dangerous game to say like, >> hey, we've been doing good. Let's go against the projection and then you just >> So to your point, I agree like I keep going back to like 30%. It's high, but it's better than the alternative. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Not good. which is our actuals keep coming in. >> If you're talking about a controlled number in this this instance, it might be safer to pull it from non-lapsing than back to that fund. I mean,

126those are the kind of conversations we got to talk about. >> But also to get from like the 25% of expected claims for that 30%, it's only a million dollars, which could be one claim sometimes. >> Sure. Yeah. >> Special ed expenditure. >> So, I guess the end of Amy and Matt, like is there anything we can really say or do here? Right. we're talking about in that sense. So I mean by like big number is it whether or not we want to go with the projection in our budget or not. Is that really like I mean that's really the only play for us strategically speaking projection came in at this >> I'm going to put this in the budget Matt >> and we say I don't know maybe we can do something else or

127>> so I think based on the conversation before I'm right with you I'm in alignment with you. [laughter] We come back out on Tuesday. It's a $400,000, you know, delta between where the guidance is and where we are. >> Yep. >> What would our ideas be to get there absent maybe of that fund? >> And then we have that conversation of all these other areas and impact and what and what we think is best or don't think is best moving forward. And we get your insights on that. >> Okay. [snorts] pension >> pension op. >> So that first line item, we have our defined pension plan. We have our annually required contribution. Um everything here is pretty status quo. Sometimes you'll see that we'll have a change in interest rate assumptions or um mortality tables

128that'll impact this, but for this current year, everything is status quo. Um the $60,000 sometimes it's to the good, sometimes it's to the bad this year. Um [snorts] >> Oh, it's actually to the good. That needs to change. >> Did I do this >> right? >> Yeah. >> Oh, yes, it did. Um so for the divine benefit plan, really nothing to talk about, but we do have stuff to talk about under the other postemployment benefits. So this is called our OPED trust fund. It is a trust fund that we have been funding over the last several years and within the last year or two is actually 100% funded. So this is a fund that we have had that we have not used because it has not been 100% funded. um it acts the same way

129a defined benefit plan does, but just think of it as a um a trust for your retirey claims. So, just on the side of health insurance, we have a retiree. We give them their premium. They pay a portion of the premium. The board of ed pays a portion of the premium. It goes into the um health insurance fund and then we pay all the claims. So, what we're going to do here um we're going to start utilizing our trust fund. So, we're actually going to take the benefit of this trust fund. We're going to start pulling dollars out of this trust fund because right now everything is paid for our health insurance fund. So, anything that is related to the cost of the board of ed, we are going to transition that to taking that

130money out of the trust. So, this is the board of ed share of any um retiree premiums. So, the retiree will still pay their share and now the board of ed portion will be paid by the OPEC trust. So that first line item is typically um I'm sorry, go to the second line item where it says BOE retirey premium. So for fiscal year 26, this is the board of ed share of the retirey premiums. So the board of ed pays 293,000 towards retirey health insurance. Now in fiscal year 27, that line item right above it, we're going to replace that with an annually required contribution into our fund. So, it's going to be treated just the same that we do our defined benefit plan, except we're going to utilize our trust. So, since it's at

131100% funded and we're going to start taking money out of it, we now need to make a contribution into it so it stays at that 100% level theoretically. So, our oped arc for fiscal year 27 is about $391,000. So, this is actually costing us money this year in our operating budget to the tune of $97,000. So why would we want to do that? Um utilizing this trust, Milleman came out, they are our actuaries. They came out and they did a presentation on the use of their trust over the la next 20 years. So over the next 20 years, um we expected to save about $20 million over 20 years. So, we're not going to see the benefit right up front because all we're doing is transitioning from paying a portion of the premium to paying

132a contribution into our trust fund. The reason that we want to start utilizing our trust fund is because the trust fund earns investment returns that are higher than the general fund. So, our general fund, we are very restricted at what we can invest in. We can invest in um money markets, um CDs, things that are very low risk. In the trust fund, they can actually go out into the market and make um better investments with better returns. So, the investment earnings to cover the cost of the benefits over time is one of the benefits of using the trust. whereas in the long run we're reducing our overall cost but in the short term you know there's not there's actually a cost to us but utilizing those investment earnings at much higher rate is going to

133streamline like I said the 20 million over the 20 years the other thing is when you utilize the trust and you're paying an ARC instead of a portion of the premium it smooths out the volatility from year to year so things like going from a What did we have last year? Going from a 3% health insurance increase to a 14% health insurance increase no longer happened because the actuaries are going to smooth that out so that our contribution into the pension fund is going to stay relatively flat even though our expected return every year could be volatile. We no longer have to have that volatility inside of our budget. Um and then the 97,000 um Matthew talked about is going to be contributed to our um use of non-lapsing to get through that one year

134of um an increase into our operating budget. >> Any questions on that? That's a lot. It's >> a [clears throat] lot if using the trust as per millment. If using the trust will save us 20 million over 20 years because you can invest more potential for better returns with the trust than the general fund. >> Is it risk? Is it rags? Is it a combination of both that we wouldn't put more into the trust from the general fund than just for the retirees? >> So we could only use the trust for the retirees >> based on requirements like can we do something like a trust for our other non-retirees? No. >> So, I mean that's a good question on health insurance, >> right? It's written there's probably >> health insurance, you know, you're going year

135to year. You're active employees, whereas like a defined benefit plan or an oped trust, that's long range planning. You're I mean, you're looking at mortality rates, you're looking at in uh interest rates, people, you know, hopefully coming off and using their spouse's insurance like long term as opposed to coming on. So I think um I think it's different because you rely on the earnings every year for the health insurance fund which could be >> so ask another way maybe then the money that's in the reserves that we just talked about on the last slide. Do we invest that more like a general fund with those more restrictions on what we can invest in or do we treat it more like a trust where there's more flexibility and again back to is it a risk or

136a rag thing on using that general fund more like the trust how we invest not to get an answer now but is there something there like if Milman's coming back saying because of how you invest your trust you're going to be better off >> like good for the goose good for the gander why wouldn't we also look at our bigger pot of money and say should we be investing that similarly maybe not all the way >> stat you can't >> okay so it is right thank you have a question a suggestion um who I was on the subcommittee the retirement plan subcommittee for the last few years I think I'm off now >> you now Sylvia >> it's you [laughter] in the past in for before Todd left us he and I wanted it together.

137I nominate another person maybe if you want to sit on that one. It's a good one. It's a subcommittee that talks about all of this. >> Have you been on one yet? >> Put you up to that. >> Couldn't have played out better for you. >> I'm just saying like if you care I mean it's a it's a lot to take in. I always was like people it was like over my head a lot of this stuff, you know? I mean so >> I don't know. I think you should all go. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> I like the technical [laughter] service in service. Yeah. >> Those guys go through this whole thing like they go through a massive ear on it, right? I mean, they go through a lot of this stuff and it's like,

138yo, like Todd would ask questions. I would just be on mute going, >> "Oh, [laughter] Todd." So, Todd Todd our actuary. >> He loved it. [laughter] >> We miss him. I don't know if we have anyone that's in that wheelhouse, but >> so we are committed though to this amount based on this company's proposal. We said, okay, we're going to be putting aside that much money, right? >> They told us to put that next 20 years. >> And the worst part is this is a good slide. >> Yes, it is. >> Because every year we look at it and we're like, "Oh my god, how bad is it going to be? What's it going to be? It's going to be so expensive." But this means that it's not as expensive as it usually is, >>

139right? And there's more good news coming. Right. >> Right. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm taking this as a win. >> It's not an actual win. It's putting the money to >> up front a little bit more. >> Yes. Exactly. >> But that we're using reserves. I mean, it's this is a good use of reserves. I feel like >> I mean, I guess at the end of the day, the biggest thing is right now the way that we're funding it, we get no um long-term relief because we don't have as high of investment earnings to return to to provide us that relief. By switching over to the OPED, we have higher investment earnings which will um over time reduce our overall expense. I guess that's the big takeaway. >> Nice. >> Thank you. >> School is

140out. [laughter] >> Revenues and grants. >> Nice. >> Come on up, Melissa. >> We need another 400. Melissa, [laughter] >> I already asked that. >> Here we are. How about the grants? Anything in there? [laughter] >> Okay, so we are now on page eight of that packet. Um, this outlines our state and federal grants that we receive typically on an annual basis. Um, and sort of a breakdown just to give you a general picture of how we spend that money or what categories we spend that money in. Um, I can elaborate on any of these, but I thought I would just um, touch on a couple that are um, major drivers for the coming year. Um the first and they're all under state. Um so the first um one I'll talk about is open choice.

141The attendance and the early learning are both based on the number of open choice students that come to our district in Hartford. Um we receive a certain dollar amount per student um prek to 12 for the attendance grant. Um our um enrollment under open choice went up this year. So that's really the number that we'll use to project for next year because that's the best information we have um when we're doing the budget. And then the early learning, we actually receive an additional amount for every prek and kindergarten student. Um, and that count went up as well. Um, so that is a big driver [clears throat] there. Um, the third I wanted to mention was um, this special education expansion and development or seed grant. This is uh, brand new for fiscal year 26. This

142was a program that was funded uh, last legislative session. Um, it's formula based. It's similar to the way ECS or our education cost sharing uh grant is calculated. Um the program was not fully funded, but we did get uh about $99,000 in fiscal year 26. Um and as you can see, we are projected to receive about $85,000 next year based on the state estimates that just came out this week. Um so this year we were able to use that that money um primarily to support the new path program. Um next year we have not yet identified what what we'll use the grant money for. Um obviously it's special education focused. It has to be for direct services. It can be used for salaries but it has to be um new positions. It can't be um

143your existing um staffing. You can't use it for you know admin costs and third party contractors. So there is some guidance around how we can use it. Um so potentially an opportunity there. >> So that was code. So what she did there in the last four [laughter] or five seconds >> was Matt you can't take this for >> A B or C. >> I don't think it was code at all. I think [laughter] >> there will be more conversation about that flexibility of the seed grant and I my new Vladimir lane teacher. >> That's what I was messed up that's exactly >> you could but how are you going to pay for it in fiscal year 28? >> Well well >> that's up for discussion. an excellent plan, but that's when we get there. >>

144It's up for discussion. >> You'd have a lower insurance increase next year. >> That's right. >> Yeah. >> Um, so if there's any specific questions on any of these, I'm happy to take them. Um, nothing major. I know Katie touched on the IDA. Um, it wasn't a major change, but as she said, it did decrease slightly this year, which is, um, unusual, but as as of now, um, the federal grants have been pretty stable. >> Melissa, the Oh, go ahead. Um thank you. >> So we see the grants and how are we you mark them to to use them. I'm just wondering if all of these you know let's say open choice program the special ed ideally what is it would be nice to see in one place what is the overall cost for that

145particular program or um that we're doing how much is covered by the grant >> help me understand that more what do you >> well for example I mean know special maybe it's easier because we know have separate budgets we know how much it costs the town and how much it's covered by grants Open choice we don't have much information let's say do we have a cost overall cost how much is there anything in addition to the town's cost and how much is covered by the grants >> usually budget overall budget for the whole year >> it's covered by the grant by one item and then the remaining cost >> I guess I'm just trying to associate that with open choice represents individual students >> okay >> they pay a portion of their per pupil. It's

146how you want to look at it, right? Their per pupil expenditure would then say this is the balance of a per pupil expenditure that's uncovered by open choice dollars would net a certain number. You know what I mean? It's it's not a uh >> it's not a >> it's a unique example. I totally understand what you're saying. Yeah. Um >> we could think through that a little bit. >> Do we still have to have the 4% population? >> Yes. Well, you get more >> you get more money if you have a 4% population of students in the open choice program assigned to your schools. >> Then you get a little bit better uh insight. You get more money >> per student. >> And on these grants, um I'm hoping there will be I knew they

147said there will be an announcement of security grant going to be applying. >> Security grant. >> Yes. Have we used those in the past? >> Funding coming in from >> state. >> No, I've not heard of the security. >> We Yeah, we have not had security grant dollars that I'm we've we've used it through the um to every other fund from the capitals how we've spent our security dollars >> because this can be also retractive. Let's say you bought or you know installed the front doors for safety reasons or ballistic or security cameras. You can actually even retroactively apply. >> I'll look into that. Thank you. >> As long as they reopen it. They said they're going to reopen >> in this cycle. Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Good there. >> Melissa,

148one question just curiosity since this projections for 26 27 obviously especially when you're looking at federal stuff you'd never know. Right. >> Right. Is there anything here that you would just again not set in stone that you would just say from like your expert view like where you feel like you're a little concerned like let's keep our eye on this one or that one. Just curious if there's anything that's >> Yeah, normally I would say no except for the open choice because it really just does depend on um what comes in for our October 1 count for next school year. Um like I said the federal grants have been pretty stable. Um I I'm always I mean in this climate I'm just keeping an eye on it especially because IDA went down again. It was

149it was negligible. It was like 25,000 but that >> that was unusual. So um you know tit tit the title programs are usually pretty stable. I think they were basically flat up like 5,000 this year. Um so no I don't other than that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So page nine. So at [snorts] the top here, um we're basically showing budget to budget our our gross expenditures um less our projection for the federal and state grants. So that middle column sort of there projected for 27. That six million in grants ties back to the prior page um for sort of a gross um budget. And then off to the right, the percentage increase 2.79 ties back to the figure we've been discussing today. And then down below the revenues there, they don't directly offset the

150board of ed budget. Those are revenues that come in directly to the town general fund. Um, but they are education related. Um, so we talk about them here. The tuition fees that we charge for students coming from other communities to our district. Uh, the rental of our buildings, the fees we collect for that. Um we sort of have a m miscellaneous category for things like vendor rebates and refunds. Um and then the largest one of course is our ECS, the education cost sharing um which as I noted was um formula based and that's um essentially flat projected for um the current budget to next year um based on the the estimates we got from the stages this week. explain to new people how that goes to the town. It doesn't take place. >> Oh, sure.

151So, um, as I said, all these revenues do not go directly, they go directly to the town general fund. So, doesn't offset the bottom line for the board of ed budget. It does go in obviously to the overall picture for the total tax increase and how that's all calculated, but it the board of ed itself does not sort of see that revenue as as a benefit to the budget on this side. But do you see an overall increase? If you if you see though that you will be bringing more revenue, you can make the case of that we're bringing more um can we afford to have a little bit more of a higher increase or something? >> I try to do that. Yes. [laughter] >> If you do. >> No. A couple years ago to

152your point, we received quite a bump. It was about $800,000. Um and it did help us in terms of the overall equation and the flexibility with where we were with the guidance at the time. Yep. On that last one there, adult ed, that's um just a partial reimbursement for the statemandated adult ed courses. Um we only get about 16% back on >> how much% >> 16% back on and those courses are English as a second language and um >> the GED G. >> So we pay we actually contract out with Farmington. We pay them about $51,000 a year for that and then we get back, you know, between8 and $9,000 a year. >> In general, is that program going up down? Just curious. >> Uh, it took a real hit during CO. >> Sure. Yeah.

153>> And then um it's come back. In fact, we our program shrunk so much that's when we um partnered with Farmington um public schools continuing ed um and it's grown enough that we we still operate through Farmington. They hire the teachers, but we are running classes again at Henry James. >> That's encouraging. I like that. So, people are using it. That's great. That's awesome. >> Is it man? It's mandated that we offer it. Correct. >> There are certain certain components >> ESL, >> right? We only contract out the what's mandated. So, you know, you get the brochure in the mail from DC that's not um from >> there a lot of them. But, but there are classes that are mandated and we only get 16% back from the state for the ones that they're making

154us teach. >> Yes. >> Just need to say that out loud sometimes, >> right? I mean, I just You are correct to say it out loud. Thank you for listening. >> Excellent. Thank you, Melissa. >> All right, we have kind of an abbreviated line item, just a couple pages with the understanding that we're going to come back Tuesday night with um more detail. So, I was just before Amy gets into that, I was just talking to Jeff that would leave us with two items to go over, which are CNR and kind of year one capital and looking at that. I would propose we do those Tuesday evening as well. um so that we have um an agenda of substance. In addition to the 400,000, we have a couple topics that we can uh really talk

155through in that regularly scheduled meeting. So that was my thought. So Amy's line item um would be the last item we're talking about. >> Go for it. >> I'd love to see it on Tuesday. that we have something to look forward to with CNR on Tuesday. >> That's exciting. [laughter] >> Not a whole lot. >> It's going to be very short. [laughter] >> And even less as we just got so discussed. >> If you really want to get excited, do again. [laughter] >> We have a few minutes to revisit. >> My favorite. >> Might take a second right now. >> You could do a different explanation. [laughter] >> I'm Yeah. I'm more of a 101 guy. NEIL WANTS TO DO [laughter] ANYTHING. >> YEAH, THAT IS YOUR DAY. You guys have that going on >>

156for sure. >> Okay. >> All right. So, I'll just take you through the document briefly starting on page 10. Um, so all of our salaries and wages, this is how we um developed Matthew's superintendent budget presentation. So, when it comes to his salary and wages line item here, the all of the items that are included um within that that total that he had presented. So, we have all of our collective bargaining groups. We have our contingency that we use for um contracts that have not been completed yet, unaffiliated. We have our vacancy rate. And then um we have a line item for our overtime, our subs, our student activities, shared services, things of that nature. So, your overall budget increase for salaries is at 2.1 at 2.4% of the budget as part of the increase.

157And then when we got down to the employee benefits, um that 809,000 that Matthew had presented, that is a combination of a few things. It includes our social security, our health insurance, which is the biggest one, um our pension and P O P, which we just walked through, and then some smaller items for our um life, disability, wellness, employee reimbursement, things of that nature. So, the two biggest drivers there. And then just moving down, we have our professional services and supplies. Moving on to the next page. Um our regular transportation costs. Um and then here is our special education which uses um the items that Katie was watching through which is our out of district our transportation. um the excess cost reimbursement again been kept flat which Katie had cautioned through um during her presentation

158because we're not expecting any additional funding there. Um and then our contracting services moving down to the equipment. Um this is what Dave took you through on his slide. We have our equipment um Dave and Neil I should say. We have our equipment costs, our repair, our replacement, and [snorts] then the use of the Chromebook fund to offset those costs for this year, which gives us our $362,000 um budget line item, which is our decrease of 246,000, which Matthew had presented. Um facilities, I'm going to skip that just because it's such a a small decrease. And then down to get to our total budget, we have our operating offsets, which is the grants that Melissa took you through. We have a reimbursement for a staff person on our end. And then we have some reimbursements

159from Medicaid that we apply for. So this is the reduction to our budget of about 1.7 million. Um, which gets us to the total budget of 91 million 842 and that 3.4% And then these slides on page 12 match exactly to presentation, the use of the non-lapsing, the reduction in certified FTE that Neil took you through. Um, and then your budget additions that Katie and Neil walked you through. Um, those individual ones to get to our overall increase of the 2.4 or our percent increase of 2.79. >> Thank you, Emmy. I would just I would just add on Tuesday you'll you'll receive and we'll get it out ahead of time so you have a chance to absorb it a document that has each of these line items last year's actual projected where we'll end at

160the end of this year and then some of this detail too. So you can see and ask specific questions on, hey, why is this only projected to maybe be 50 under or whatever and we can kind of work through some of that level of of detail. But that's a pretty good snapshot of where we are. So at the end of the day with the 400 in, we're at 325% increase. With the 400 out, we're at 27. will come back Tuesday with line item detail and suggestions on the 400 to kind of wrestle with and have conversations with with impact statements. Um, no decisions on our number at at the board of ed level need to be made on Tuesday night. We have uh the board votes the following meeting later in February. Um, so we'll

161have time uh to come up with scenarios, respond to questions. Uh if people go home and before the Super Bowl want to analyze all this stuff again uh and provide us with any questions just email. >> So call you around 6. >> You can call me. [laughter] >> You know where I'll be at my chair. I >> just can't call me. [laughter] >> You own it. >> We'll go from there. But we'll also go through um CNR. We have a detailed developed list on CNR and want to have that conversation and we'll vote on year one of capital at the next board meeting as well. >> Regular meeting. >> Chair Tindle, any words of wisdom for the group? >> Yeah. No. Um, >> no. I I think just we are uh appreciate everybody hanging tough

162these conversations. It's a we're certainly uh as kind of ridiculous as it sounds, having to deal with 400,000 is certainly much better place than where we have been in past years. So, just appreciate everybody's work um on this to get us to where we are. So, >> I'd also like to clear up for Sylvia and um my friend Steve that um the thing that Jen and um Neil love on December on October 1st is the um reinrollment meeting. So, we talk about all the numbers, all the kids who actually are coming in, and it's exciting. >> There's a tab in there on Neil's presentation. >> There's a lot of data, >> the best, >> lots of numbers, >> but it's something to look forward to. October 1st will be a big meeting. >> Don't miss

163that one. >> Or the closest meeting to the closest meeting to October 1st. >> Clear the calendar. >> I am Jeff, one Je one tab we didn't get to. I just want does the six-year plan play at all into any of this or is it just completely separate? We are um going to look at that on Tuesday night just so you can see what's in the outy years. Um that's more about trying to present a plan that fits under a cap. But um >> it doesn't impact your operating >> but reality is it does any >> it does but it doesn't but it does. >> Okay. With that I would >> I'll make that motion. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? All those in favor. >> Oh, did you do a question? >>

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