South Windsor Board of Education/Town Council Joint Budget Work Session - March 18, 2026

001[music] >> Woo! >> [music] [music] >> All right. I'm going to call the March 18th joint working session between the Board of Ed and the Town Council together. Mr. Senator, can we have a roll call, please? Board member Armstrong. Councilor Balboni. Present. Board member Caldwell. Here. Councilor Cordero. Here. Chair Corsi. Here. Councilor Dal Nikki. Here. Councilor Fitzgerald. Councilor King. Here. Secretary Meneli. Here. Board member Marks. Here. Board member Nettles. Here. Councilor Ouellette. Deputy Mayor Paterna. Here. Councilor Pendleton. Present. Board member Shah. Here. Board member Janeway. Here. Mayor Zimmerman. Here. Thank you. Okay, item three is public comment. Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak to us at this time? Okay. Seeing none. We're up to item four, which is um items for discussion, the Board of Ed proposed budget for fiscal

002year 2026-2027. Um I did have a couple of comments before we get going. Um and then we'll go right to people's questions. Um you know, I wanted to welcome the Board of Ed education, Dr. Carter, and her administrative staff, uh and the members of the public here tonight to our annual joint budget meeting. While this is going to be a a very difficult budget year, Yep. Point of order, would you mind if we said the Pledge of Allegiance before we got started? Okay, we don't I I we don't normally do that in work sessions, but um it's a challenging request from the Board of Ed and the town and many of our taxpayers facing rising costs for insurance, food, utilities, and other necessary purchases. Um for your information, if the Town Council were to fully

003fund all the current budget requests and use $3 million from the tax stabilization fund, the new tax rate would be 6.97%. For every 1% reduction in tax rate, we would have to have a combination of 1.35 million in spending decreases and revenue increases. While this background information hopefully with this background information, hopefully we can have a respectful and productive discussion tonight with our fellow town leaders on the board. Before we start discussing the Board of Ed's proposed budget for 2026-2027, the Town Council would like to make a presentation to Dr. Carter and the Board of Ed. In January, Deputy Mayor Paterna and I had the opportunity to attend a dinner at the State Capitol uh celebrating the Republic of India Day and Diwali. As you all know, South Windsor is the fastest growing school district

004in the state in large part due to our increasing South Asian population. I'm very proud to have been part of the Board of Ed when we in 2022 added Diwali as an official holiday for our school system, the first school district in Connecticut to do so. This increase in diversity and the new culture has improved and strengthened our entire community. At this time, Deputy Mayor Petrone is going to present a gift we received for our leadership on Diwali to Dr. Carter since the school system and not the mayor deserves this recognition. >> [snorts] [applause] >> And I don't know, I'm just asking at this time if the Board of Ed Chair, Mrs. Corsi, the Superintendent, Dr. Carter, or our Town Manager, Mr. Menasco, has anything that they would like to comment on before we ask

005for questions. Dr. Carter? No. Um, I just had a a non-budget related shout-out that I'd like to give to one of our residents. Um, as you may be aware, I have taught at Central Connecticut State University for over a decade preparing aspiring superintendents for their 093 certification, which is the certification required to be a superintendent in the state of Connecticut. In fact, there are over 20 sitting superintendents in Connecticut who were my CCSU students, which makes me feel both proud and old. I am particularly proud that one of my former students, Dr. Noha Abdelhady, was named the Superintendent of Windsor Public Schools last night. I share this because Noha is a South Windsor resident and did her year-long internship with me in South Windsor. We should all be proud of our neighbor and friend who

006is an exceptional educational leader doing great work for the children and families of Windsor. Noha, if you're watching, congratulations. >> [applause] >> Okay, so at this time we'll open it up um if anybody has any questions about the um the Board of Ed budget, um Dr. Carter's here, Mrs. Chimarker, the rest of the administrative staff who I know will um be able to answer our questions tonight, so I do have a few, but does anybody have anything? All right, well, let me I'll ask a couple and then we'll if you guys can help me if you see any lights. Um, so Dr. Carter, I I have a couple questions that uh people have been coming to council meetings talking about the board um budget. They probably you know, should be coming here, but um so

007let me just ask you a couple. Without knowing the needs of the specific children um or the number of open seats in each grade at a particular school would 100 more or less students next year have any specific change in your budget? Said another way does a 5% increase in students mean your expenditures should only go up 5%? Are they directly tied to each other? Uh no. Um the correlation uh between your percentage increase in students and your percentage increase uh monetarily would not correlate directly. Um and I think it's important to understand uh that when people are looking at each year's enrollment growth and then looking at the budget that's being proposed, it's the cumulative effect of our enrollment, which has been steadily uh increasing over a 10-year period. We're the only uh district

008in the state that has 10 consecutive years of enrollment um increases. And so really what we're feeling now is the cumulative effect of those needs um sort of tipping and hitting the mark of when you need to add teachers. So for example, at our elementary level, you won't see a request for an elementary teacher in this budget because we have plateaued in our elementary population. Um but yet you'll you will see asks for the middle school and certainly the high school um who are expected to be getting more students. Uh so I I would also like to say that I'm sure there's some people that might have like uh I'll call it increasing enrollment fatigue. Um maybe they're tired of hearing about increasing enrollment. Um but the longer we kick the can down the road

009with enrollment, the longer we're going to keep talking about increasing enrollment. We haven't kept pace uh with enrollment and until we catch up and catch and and keep pace with the positions, um you're going to keep hearing about increasing enrollment impacting the budget. Uh for example, um the high school asked for four teachers this year, content area teachers. In the superintendent all of which were appropriate asks. Uh but in my budget order to keep things low, I only proposed one of those. That was an English teacher. Um in with the board's uh increase, the additional funding um that they adopted, we were able to add a social studies teacher. And I can tell you um that that delaying these things impacts both our students and the taxpayer. So it affects our students and I asked

010the high school and they estimate next year without this social studies teacher, about 150 kids will be turned away from elective courses. Um and I say that it affects the taxpayer because every time we defer costs we're just stacking them up. And we've been trying um to really uh smooth out the impact of increasing enrollment, but if we keep delaying responding to it, it just means that in future budgets you're going to see higher increases, which is why our our increase ask this year is so much um higher than than last year. Okay. Thank you. Something kind of a similar question. Um what's wrong if somebody wanted to compare your 8.16 increase against other neighboring towns? Uh okay. I actually addressed that in my um presentation. Um I let me see. It is slide if

011people have their um their packets. And by the way, we have extra if anybody needs one. Um slide seven, which is this is posted on our website if anybody wants to see it, um just addresses that very question because it is common. I mean it it does come up where people hear about an increase in another town and want to know why ours is isn't similar. Um so I'm just going to read into the record my remarks that I've said before so that it may help people understand who haven't heard this before. So addressing the pitfalls of comparing our percentage increase in other towns is is an important question. I'm glad that you asked it, Mayor Ziemian. Um it was suggested at the joint budget meeting last year that South Windsor's percentage increase should align

012with Simsbury's, Avon's, and Glastonbury's. And I've said that this is a fundamentally flawed comparison because it ignores enrollment realities. Between 2015 and 2024, Simsbury decreased by 63 students. Avon decreased by 193 students and Glastonbury decreased by 373 students. While South Windsor increased by 969 students. By any reasonable standard, our percentage increase should exceed theirs simply to keep pace with enrollment. But there's more. Um you must also consider the base upon which these increases are calculated. Um looking at the funding that would be needed to match the same per pupil spending in these towns um we would need to add 12.8 million to match Simsbury. To match Avon, we would need 12.6 million. And to match Glastonbury, 14.8 million. Without acknowledging this funding gap, these comparisons to other towns are invalid. And by the way, Mrs.

013Chimarker calculated the FY26 data. And the gap, I am sorry to report, is widening. In this current budget, we would need to add 16 million to match Simsbury, over 15.5 million to match Avon, and 17 million to match Glastonbury. And those three towns were selected because a council member selected those three specifically uh for comparison. I understand that there's been some comparisons to West Hartford at recent meetings and I'm happy to provide the same comparative analysis. Between 2015 and 2024, South Windsor grew by 969 students. During that same time period, West Hartford declined by 664 students. This is a compelling delta to consider and it should indicate that our budget increase should be significantly higher just based on enrollment. But like the other three towns, we must also consider the base upon which these increases

014are calculated. If we were to match the same per pupil spending as West Hartford this year, we would need to add 19.6 million dollars to the current budget. So I I share all that because it's tempting to open up the Hartford Current and see someone proposing a 6.2 or a 3.4 and you really have to know their enrollment. You have to know what their per pupil spending is to begin with. Um there's a lot of information um that you would need in order to make a a thoughtful and comparison that makes sense mathematically. Okay. Would I would I be wrong in also I mean I'm I look at the the town proposed increase this year. And I'm just going to say it since I wasn't on the council, I think probably over the last X

015number of years, we probably underfunded um the town, so I I think it's probably it it's probably not accurate to compare this year's town request to other towns because maybe the other towns got more money over the last number of years. I would say it's same thing for the Board of Ed. If you don't know what those other towns have gotten over the last number of years and you don't know how much federal money they got and how they used it, you're really comparing kind of apples and oranges. Is that Yeah, I think that that's uh whenever you're comparing two percentages, if you don't know what's behind those percentages, it's hard to make those those comparisons. All right, I'm looking. I don't see anybody else, so I'm just going to Oh, I'm sorry. Which one

016is it? Okay, thank you. Um Do I have to Do we say our name here too like we have to do for Town Council? Thank you so much. Um so a couple of questions I had. One is and and unfortunately, I'm going off of the uh superintendent's proposed budget book cuz I had that first, so I just kind of went through that. Um but I'm sure it's obviously some of the numbers are the same. But based on your presentation that you gave to us on March 2nd on page eight. Is it eight? Hold on one second. Let me make sure I have the right page. Oh, so page five, you said a year end surplus is evidence of a fiscal restraint. Which is awesome. My question and I I'll admit I'm biased as my wife

017is a a teacher in East Hartford. With this year end surplus for the teachers in South Windsor are our teachers coming out of their pockets for anything? Because I know for a fact that we have the King household budget and we have the East Hartford school budget. And I'm sure that when I saw the printer show up at my house from Amazon and I said, "What is this?" She said, "Well, we don't have enough at the school that we can only print one day a week and so on and so forth." So with this surplus have we passed that on to our teachers so that they're not coming out of their pockets? So I think it's um two separate questions. Um and in fact, I see our teachers union president in the audience, so certainly

018I can follow up um with him to see if he's got anecdotal information. I do think our teachers would say that they feel um well resourced. Um I I meet with all of our um for when when we have a new hire, I meet them in October, November, so every new teacher that we hire I have a one-on-one meeting with them and I ask them to it do you have the resources you need? So I do think we're we're doing um well in South Windsor in in terms of providing the resources to our teachers. Um that does not mean, however, that I'm suggesting that teachers aren't spending their own money. Um some of them may be choosing to do that as well. Um and the the surplus um really the the teachers there's a a

019formula for the supplies that we buy for our schools and so the teachers fill create the needs, principals then create the needs, they send it to central office and that's how how we make sure we have the supplies we need at the school. Um a surplus would be generated uh generally um not so much by teachers and supplies, although a little that could be uh but it's generally generated by other things. And um for example, you may have some leaves uh that the the substitute or the replacement is at a lower cost than the employee and so those things will will pile up over over time. Um and really what I was trying to address in in my remarks is that it is very common. It is very common to have the use it or

020lose it mentality. I mean, I've worked in districts like that. I'm sure we've all worked in places like that. And the idea is if you've been allotted a a dollar amount, spend down that last dollar. And I've been I was very candid when I said at the meeting, >> [snorts] >> "We can fix If people are concerned about us having a surplus, that's easily fixed. We just tell our administrators spend it all." And that does happen in many districts. I'm proud to say in South Windsor that we've created um what I call a culture of fiscal restraint. And if they don't need that that dollar, they return it to Chris who then looks at the greater landscape to see where are the needs across the district. We're over in special education for example. Um and

021so if it turns out that they were able to secure the textbooks that they thought were going to cost X, but they found a way to get them uh more inexpensively, then that savings might address the overage that we have in special ed. So, you know, I I always see a surplus as evidence that people are not just spending it because they have it. You know, every year we get an appropriation from the town. Um and that is it. That's That's That's the dollar amount and um and I would think that us um having a surplus is far superior uh to us coming to the end of the year and coming back to the council and saying, "We we ran out of money. We we need more money." So we've never had to do that

022um and I don't intend [snorts] on ever having to do that. Uh but there are lots of reasons why you would end up with a surplus, but they're easily wiped out if your mentality is spend it if you got it. Anything to add, Mr. Just add yeah, if I'm allowed to speak shortly. She Well, I don't know. She brought you up, so I'm Well I wouldn't have Yeah, I'm I'm asking the question. You you brought him up. I didn't even know. I just said who's the guy in the red. >> [laughter] >> It's probably not I'm not up for today. Okay, I'm just Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Wow. And thank you to uh the board chair and board members, the superintendent, the administrative staff, and the Board of Education

023for the time, effort, and care that went into developing this proposed budget. And my thanks to our teaching staff, professional staff, and paraprofessionals for making all these plans a reality for our students. I want to begin by emphasizing that we all share the same goal here tonight. Providing the highest quality education possible for the students of South Windsor. Our schools are the cornerstone of this community. And that strength benefits everyone, including property values. So with that in mind, you know, I'm not a Board of Ed person, so I don't really respond to what the DIRG says, but I I make comparisons to surrounding towns. And we have residents who come to Town Council meetings and make comparisons to surrounding towns. So I thought I'd do a little checking and I want to give you just

024some quick numbers uh >> [snorts] >> in terms of budgets Vernon has increased plus 7% over the last two budget cycles. Manchester between 7 and 8%. Windsor between 10 and 12%. South Windsor somewhere in that 8 to 9% range. East Hartford modest increases for next year. At the same time, you look at those same towns, these are bordering towns. Vernon enrollment growth is point four tenths of a percent. Manchester minus 1.4%. East Hartford minus 6.7%. Windsor plus 2.1%. And South Windsor the strongest growth in the state at approximately 22.4%. That paints a different picture for me and when residents come and want to compare it to surrounding towns look at those numbers. So our budgets are being driven, whether it's the town budget or Board of Education budget, by this idea that we all had

025that attracts people to live in South Windsor, that the education system should be the best around. And students are proving that they're come and families are proving they're coming here because of that education system. So the fact that we have that dramatic kind of enrollment increase is going to mean we've got to support that budget. I I'll have All right, I'm going to go back to Councillor King. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Um so I do want to say that I'm thankful before you even gave your presentation, I had some circles around uh special education, school safety, and new staffing for increasing enrollment. And I'm glad that those numbers went up. Um I do think that especially these days more than ever uh after COVID, special education is huge and we need to put

026the uh the resources, the finances where we we need to put those, so I'm thankful for that. Um on page four. Are you in our budget? Uh no, not out of the uh superintendent's proposed budget. Uh it's it's it's the same as your guys' budget. Page four where it talks about contractual salary and staff services increases. If you could um break down are all of these union numbers? The the 3 million? Are you asking if those represents all union employees? >> Exactly, cuz the the question I was going to ask is is if it's not, are can any of these contracts be renegotiated? If it's I don't know the difference between the salary as opposed to the staff services. So um all most of our employees are in some form of a union. All of

027our teachers are in a union. All of our paraprofessionals are in a union and that includes >> And and that includes um secretaries, the custodians have have a union. Um the administrators have their own union. Um you're looking at pretty much the only people who are in a union. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Okay. And um and that's very you know, that's common in any any school district. So those are negotiated contracts. Okay. Thank you. Wasn't sure if they could be renegotiated. Uh someone else if somebody else has a question, that's fine. All right. Deputy Mayor Turner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I know if I were to ask you about what's driving the budget, special education would be in that category. So I guess the question is are we looking at what the state whatever grant

028funding opportunities are out there to support that large number in the budget? Uh yes, there's lots of discussion um in the state about both special education funding and of course ECS, which is the the large grant that the town receives for education. Um so it's it's always um interesting about the conversations that happen. Uh I don't rely on anything until May 6th when the session ends. Um there is um in general there is encouragement to districts to use seed money to create in-district programs. So there's a push to create those. And the reason for that is that in-district programs generally serve our kids better and our families better and generally they are less expensive, which is one of those rare times where it's a win-win where the best thing is also less expensive. Um and

029uh so there is a strong encouragement. Now, we've been doing that for a long time. So um there's very little for us to to do on that front. Um we have a in-district program at Eli Terry that serves a quite a number of students. Um we have um a our 18 to 22-year-old program um that you've heard a lot about cuz that's the program that we're trying to find new space for. Um one one I guess positive if you could that that could be a positive uh financially is if we are able to secure um an appropriate location. They're currently housed actually in this building and the rooms that they're in are not appropriate. Um they are not handicapped accessible. It There's a whole host of reasons why it it's not appropriate where they are,

030but they that's where they are for now. Um we're looking for new space and if we were to come up with um I know our programming is is solid and would already market itself, but you also need to have the right space. We could potentially take in tuition students from other districts. Um which could offset the cost of finding a another location. So while we're looking at other locations that will have a cost associated with it, in time our hope is that we would be able to serve the students in surrounding communities that may be so small that they just can't they don't have the economy of scale to to run their own program. Um these are expensive programs. They require a lot of staff. Um and uh and the the continuum needs of those

031students is pretty wide continuum. Um and we are mandated to educate um these young adults from 18 to 22. Thank you. All right. While we wait for more lights, um Dr. Carter, can you provide some details um on how the Board of Ed has saved the town money by various initiatives in the past few years? Uh comes to mind closing an elementary school, changing the start times for some elementary schools to save on buses, privatizing our food service. Um and then the second half of that question, which is probably a little more difficult, given our need and desire to reduce spending, uh is there anything like this kind of yet to be done? Um well, you did a great job summarizing. Uh those were the items I would say and and you are right um

032to to guess that there's only so many big rocks that can really move things. Uh for example, it would be very popular if we were to announce that we're going to go to one start time for elementary schools. Parents want it, staff wants it. It would be very popular. But in order to achieve that, we would need to add $2.1 million to this current budget. So it's just cost prohibitive. Um you mentioned food services. Um I think it was about 10 years ago the cost um of operating our food services program was $600,000 to our operating budget, um which was a significant cost. Um but then we outsourced that and we partnered with Chartwells um and that's been a great partnership. And so um we no longer have to carry that 600. So over a

03310-year period we've saved the town $6 million by that partnership. Um and interestingly enough and it's very counterintuitive, um but during COVID um we actually increased revenue related to food services um and we wisely saved that money and collected it over a period of time. And it was um very fortuitous that we did that uh because as you know, we needed to expand the cafeteria at Timothy Edwards. Our growing population could no longer fit in the cafeteria. And we had the funds to um expand the cafeteria without um asking the South Windsor taxpayers to pay for it. We had the funds through the revenue that we were able to generate during COVID. Now, some of you may be hearing revenue and and and wondering can that offset the budget? Any revenue um that we find

034through food services has very narrow and specific uses. It cannot be used for other purposes um in the budget. It has to relate to food services. And even within that, there are parameters. Okay. And the woman Okay. Make a comment please. Yep. And then Liz Uh Mr. Mackey. I just want to say because I think it's important and I said this during our our meeting. Another thing that we save money on is again looking at the team that we have here. I think it's not something that we've seen here. I think there's a lot of times um people talk about the salaries that people make and and and I know uh Counselor King brought up the salaries and the contracts, but I think one of the things our staff does here really well is hiring

035people that are motivated and want to work and do a really good job. Because if you hire people that aren't motivated and want to do a good job for our district, then people aren't working so good and then the job's not getting done. So I think starting with Dr. Carter and her whole team and all our teachers, it really trickles down from our our directors and everybody down uh who hire people that want to be in South Windsor, want to stay in South Windsor. And although that may not show up in this book that everybody's looking at, in the end it makes a difference. I just think that was important and I know she's not going to say it about herself, but that's all. Can I follow up though? I I will say um you

036know, just in terms of the topic of recruitment and retention, um there is a dollars and cents to it. And if you have constant turnover, the training that you put in I mean, we spend a lot of money um in part because it's mandated uh training our staff. And when you invest that training in staff and if you have a revolving door, that financially is is not a um solid uh situation to be in. So it's not just that we are um uh proud of having a culture that people want to come to and want to work. You know, I mentioned those meetings I have with every teacher and to a one I mean, I've been doing this every year for 16 years. I've met with every new teacher. And they are very clear. They

037they often say it wasn't that I was unhappy in my last district. I didn't know I could be this happy. And that is a trip that is a tribute to our principals and our teachers who are great teacher colleagues to one another. Um so having a supportive work environment is not just a nice thing to do. It is a financially smart thing to do. Uh Counselor King. I see Liz cuz I have a just a quick follow-up. That's that's fine. Liz, I'll yield to you for yours. Oh, thank you. Um Dr. Carter, thank you for being here and your staff here tonight to to work with us on this. Um I have a question concerning last year's budget and the reduction in last year's budget and how you said that we would be kicking the

038can down the road last year and the reductions, how much of a negative impact did that have on this year's budget? Because every single year for budget time we see the ups, we see the downs and it's a continuum that happens as the cycle of every two years with whoever is elected and the majority party and they want to stay in the in they want to get reelected and so on and so forth. I mean, that insanity really has to stop. But with the reduction of last year, how much did it affect this year's budget negatively? Um so I I'm glad that you said it and not me, but I will concur that unfortunately if if any town, not just South Windsor, budgets on election cycles, you're really in trouble. Um because you're just suppressing

039it in one year, letting it bounce back the next year. And and that is what happened. Um I think I had shared previ- previously that we had asked for a 597 last year. And had the 597 been been fully funded, the ask that you see before you uh I'll use my I'll use the superintendent's at 791 uh would have been a 6.45. So the same ask we're making, you'd be looking at a 6.45% increase because you'd be building off of a of a base that was more stable um from last year where we were really artificially um suppressed. Um so you are correct that uh you know, uh artificially suppressing a budget in one year will only um have it boomerang back the next, which is why you're seeing the number that you're seeing. Um

040and and again, deferring costs that we know are um not going away um just stacks them up. And that's why you'll end up with spikes because you did not We try to We We try to present it so that we smooth smooth it out. Um but and you know, in our six point if it was 6.45, we would have been right in the ballpark with the town's ask this year and you'd be looking at a different scenario. Um but we You create fiscal cliffs um when you artificially suppress a budget. Thank you. Um thank you for answering that for me because I'm tired of seeing it. 16 years of seeing the ups and the downs and the you know, the suppression and then everybody We're only hurting our our residents in our community by doing

041it that way. And all the taxpayers in our community, and the businesses and everybody else to try to meet the budget. We have to be wiser and smarter and stop being so selfish, I believe. And I'm speaking everyone in the room because next year is election year. And if we do with things right this year, then next year's budget we won't have to play games with it so we can get elected and we don't have to hurt the residents or every taxpayer within our community. And I'm just speaking for myself. Thank you. All right, I'm going to go back to uh Counselor King. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh just to be clear, the the question that I had and this again, I'll re-emphasize, my wife is a teacher. So, I wasn't suggesting that we don't

042pay our teachers. I think they are the our children spend 8, 9, 10 hours. I think they're not paid enough, personally. So, I just want to be clear about that. My question was more about if we had staff that were not union, that if those contracts or whatever could be renegotiated. I would never want to touch a teacher's contract. If anything, I would love to be able to give them more. So, just for clarity's sake for that. Um but moving on, page 15. Uh my question um is in regards to There's a couple of spots and you can see how I have it marked up here. Uh in regards to Every Child Experience Education Workforce Development, I see we have a bunch of not applicable or Did we just get rid of those programs from

043a a revenue standpoint? Is that Uh typically when you see an NA in the in a revenue page, it usually means that it's a grant that no longer is available. The funds are no longer available. So, that's how we lost It looks like over at $100,000 cuz that's just pure grant money. Mm. I Can you tell me more about where >> Right Right at the bottom where it says uh total federal grant revenue under anticipated and then the projected is less than that? Right. So, I think you were the NAs in that section you were looking at were the ARPA ESSER funds that expired. Is that Is that the top of the Yeah, so I'm looking and and again, I could just be reading it but that's I guess that's what this is for. So,

044if all of these are grants, the paraeducator grant that was at one point for 10,000 and then anticipated was not applicable, not applicable, the Perkins, is this all part of what we were getting from our state? Those different grants that the total at the bottom says 1809264 but projected is now 1673289? Those are um federal [snorts] grants in that section. Um yes, and our federal grants do fluctuate from year to year. Some Some grants are are no longer funded. Um sometimes there there's a formula. Um and so the formula changes from year to year. It might be based on um the number of title one uh students that you have. There There's a variety of formulas that go into um revenue. Um and there's some that retire. Is there one, Chris, that you want to

045talk about? So, in the um when you're looking at the federal grants at the very top, the Coronavirus ARPA ESSER, that 484,000, that's being added into that first column. So, if you're looking at the totals, so that, you know, those are those who have expired because they were part of the pandemic. And so that's what's driving the um value up in that column as opposed to the current column. Um thank you. Okay. I just wanted to know, I guess so for me it was more Should we be going after more money from the state? Are we missing out? Not suggesting that you guys cuz we have a senator and we also have a town representative. So, are we missing out on going after money from the state? >> Most of these are entitlement grants based

046on a formula, so it's not a merit base. It's not how good your application was. It's There's a clear formula and these are the funds that we receive. So, does it matter if I could follow up? Does it matter say for example, on page where we have programs that are going down in amounts. And so on several pages, page 22, page 30, so on and so forth. Um so it's not as if if we don't have a certain program to us I'm just trying to understand, do they say, "Okay, you don't need the money." So, it's not that. So, we're not cutting and then they're saying you don't need. Okay. So, the fact that say for example, on page 22 where we have uh looks like $8,000 less is What is Can you talk to

047me about that? Cuz there's a it's on several different pages that we're losing money. I just want to make sure we're cutting programs in your mind that we should not be. So, these pages um aren't revenue. These are the cost of the program and the personnel associated with. So, this page that we happen to be on is general education. So, each page will have a title. Um it might be athletics. It it might be um you know, health and phys ed. And so that's the program. The program is um the non-personnel expensive, materials, things that you need, um resources. And the personnel is the staffing associated with that um area of the budget. So, why >> And And if you look on page 21 right next door to it, um there are budget notes for

048every page that we have and they will go through why something is either up or down in any kind of notable way. So, the budget notes are always a good thing for for um counselors to note um when you're when you look at the page with the numbers, then look to your left to the budget notes and it should go through um we try to anticipate which lines might ask cause someone to ask a question but just because it's up or down. And there's always a reason why something is up or down. Okay. Obviously, I need to reread it cuz I'm trying to understand why the program went down but the personnel went up. So, maybe I So, we don't need something but we got more personnel? Oh, okay. Okay, salary increases. Got it. Okay.

049Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, Mr. King, as an example, um if we looked at athletics, maybe in a particular year we didn't need uniforms. So, the number of teams stayed the same, the number of athletes stayed somewhat the same but the we didn't we didn't buy uniforms or we didn't buy something that we Maybe the next year they'll need it. Thank you. Cool. Okay. Uh Counselor Fitzgerald. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Actually, I have three questions but I'm happy to spread them out if other people >> Um so, there's been a lot of perseveration online about a lot of discussion about the the increase between what you had proposed and what the board had proposed. Um so, I was just wondering if you could kind of explain for people what the increase in the the board's

050recommendation, like how you chose to spend, you know, spend that What What that money is going to go to and why because you have a lot of things that are on the kind of the wish list that didn't get funded. So, I'm just wondering why what you chose What was chosen. Sure. So, you're correct to note that there is a slide here that lists a whole host of positions that never even made the superintendent's budget, let alone the the Board of Ed's budget. Um so, what we With that additional 250,000, um as I mentioned earlier, the next uh greatest need at the high school social studies, so there's money for a social studies teacher >> [clears throat] >> um in that increase that wasn't in my proposed. And not because it wasn't needed, it's because

051out of the four teachers they asked for, I chose the neediest department to put in first. Um but getting social studies in next year would be great. As you heard, they estimate 150 kids are going to get turned away from courses. And then the other two positions are called behavior specialists. And um one of And we put those under safety at this point because And this is not unique to South Windsor. This is happening across the state. I talk to my colleagues about this all the time. But unfortunately, schools are seeing a real surge in disregulated behavior. Um physically aggressive behavior, behavior that harms themselves or behavior that harms others. Um I don't want to sugarcoat it. It's pretty serious. Um and and uh we we've taken it very seriously. And so we are um

052looking for folks that could help a dysregulated child not get to the point where they're throwing chairs in a classroom that could hurt other children or disrupting the learning for other children. And And unfortunately, that is happening far more often than what people might think if they don't work in education. I see our teachers nodding. And And this is happening I think the the biggest change is that this is happening at our very young grades. And so a behavior specialist is a non-certified position. And And that's not the only reason to do it this way, but it is a less expensive solution. So for example, the middle school principal wanted a school counselor in her budget. Perfectly reasonable request based on their numbers. However, what I think was really the need is another person to

053help address these these dysregulated behaviors that are disrupting the middle school and it is happening. And so because we couldn't afford to put a counselor in there and I also don't think that's the most efficient solution, we did put in a behavior specialist for TE to help with those behaviors to have someone who can respond to those behaviors. And these are people that are trained in in de-escalation and PMT trained and and often, you know, certified is a is a requirement to be a teacher in the Connecticut schools, but there are a lot of non-certified folks who are really great with kids. And And sadly for them, they are not paid as much as teachers. And so that can be less expensive solution, but you can end up with some really great people who really

054connect with kids and do a good job. We actually um also our safety officers kind of fall in that same category. We've been very fortunate that many of our safety officers are really good at de-escalation and make connections with the kids. So when you hear safety officer, yes, they are buzzing people in. Yes, they are doing walks and checks on locks and doors and they're doing all the things you would imagine when you hear a safety officer. But they're also keeping our school safe by building relationships with kids. And the more adults we have in that category means the greater ratio of those types of adults to kids which can reduce the explosive behavior. And it's it's quite concerning. You know, I certainly talk with teachers all the time. If If they were here, they

055would tell you how concerned they are about this behavior. And we are trying to be responsive and so that's what's in the 250 that was added by the Board of Ed. Thank you. So my next question is despite having 4 years of math in this very building when I was in high school, I I don't math. And I don't finance. So just going back to um Councilwoman Pendleton's question about like the the the the decrease to what you had the cut from last [snorts] year. And how that impacts this year, can you just explain a little bit more about why like why that is? Like I don't know if there's a way to put numbers to it or Sure. I'll I'll take a general stab. Chris might do a better even better job than I

056will, but you know, one of the things that that we did So basically and I I've said in my earlier presentation that really our town leaders are at a point where you need to have just a true philosophical discussion about where we're headed in in our schools. I don't want to use the word crisis, but I will say I think it's being underestimated the trajectory that we're on. And that's because the pain can sometimes not be visible parents and kids and and folks. And so last year I I talked about there were two choices to address the the 1.3 million dollar cut. And there were the painless and invisible ones that I was very transparent and described as being fiscally irresponsible and that was how I described them. And then I said there were those

057that would be educationally irresponsible like like eliminating our STEM program or music or sports. Um And so last year the choice was made to try to protect programs. And And I said last year it's really what order you want to do it in. We could do the painless ones last year, but I was my point was then the next year if we're not funded appropriately, we are then doing the painless ones. And so we could have we could have reversed the order. We could have started cutting programs last year, but we chose to rely on reserves which I was very clear is from a financial standpoint is not recommended. I I was very clear about that. But it beat the alternative to eliminating things like STEM and music and sports. So the problem with that

058is that when you rely on reserves, reserves are great in an emergency when something came up that you weren't expecting. But if you rely on reserves just to be your basic operating budget, you're creating cliffs. And when you don't have those reserves, you have to make up for them the next year. So for example, healthcare is is a good example. It's actually down slightly from Chris's last report. Our healthcare reserve percentage was 20.68 and now it's 20.04. So it's down a little bit lower which is not good. You want it to be higher. And so the goal is really to have 25% of expected claims. But because we relied on reserves last year, we now are having to make up for that this year. And I want to be careful cuz I do think there's

059a misunderstanding that when we say make up for the reserve, we're not restoring the reserve. We're keeping up with the claims. Last year we relied on reserves to pay the claims. This year we can't rely on reserves to pay the claims. So that's what creates the the spike in the increase. But it's it is important that people understand that the budget that that that the board is is proposing does not restore the reserves we relied on last year. In time, I hope that we can grow those reserves because then they're available when what I would call not a not a a true rainy day, not a self-inflicted crisis, but a a true rainy day that if you if you have something happen in the community or there's a an acute need that couldn't be anticipated,

060when you have those reserves, you're able to use them to address that acute need. If you're using them just to do your general operating budget, you will quickly run out of of money. I don't know. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And then my last question is you know, you've been talking for several years and the whole town's been talking about, you know, kind of the the increasing enrollment and you know, that things have kind of crested in the the elementary schools and now we're into the middle schools and you know, it will crest in the in the high school in 2034. Yeah, 30 something like 33. Um But when you say when you say it crests, like you know, if you're thinking about a wave a wave you know, a wave crests and then it

061goes down. Are you like what is going to Now that Now that things have have crested in the elementary school, are the Do you anticipate that the numbers will start to go down anytime soon or like you know, I I wish I could say yes because it would give us a little more breathing room from a facility standpoint. If you look at our projections for K5, they've stabilized, but they're just plateaued. So you don't start to see a real dip. And and I I would feel better if we could see that crest which would give not only a little bit more financial breathing room in terms of staffing because then as teachers retire at K5, we wouldn't need to replace them because we can operate with fewer K5 teachers. But that's not what the projections

062show. And I will I'll just share this because it's kind of I don't know. Maybe it's us just nerding out on education stats, but we track our kindergarten enrollment very closely. It's the one enrollment that our projections are usually pretty much on, you know, the grade level give or take. But K is always, you know, you just don't know. You don't know what kids are out there that we haven't met their families yet or we don't know they're there. >> [snorts] >> And what's got me concerned right now because I am hoping to get a little bit of room pre-K 5. And And this may this may we may be right on target. But last year at this time for K registration, we typically have about 50 to 60% of what will eventually be the

063whole cohort registered. About 50 to 60%. As of this moment, we're already at 97% at Eli Terry, 88% at OH, 71% at PRS, and 69% at PV. So we're wait Now, maybe our parents have just finally realized we really need them to register early and maybe, you know, it'll all settle out to be what we thought it would be. But it is an indicator that has me a little worried that we're already at very high percentages of what we thought we would have for K classes. Again, it may you know, it may work out just fine. We may just have a lot of eager families who are ready to get their kids into kindergarten. Thank you. Dr. Carter, maybe a a little bit of a follow-up. Um can you talk about the fact that this

064isn't a business and if those projections turn out that they're going to be higher regardless of how many students show up we have to provide space and education regardless of what that means. Yes. Um you know, public education budgets are really complex and that's why you you often hear me use the word nimble that they need to be nimble because there is no sorry, we didn't budget for you. Um they have if kids come in, we have to find a space for them and we have to educate them. And that includes children um that if you recall during um uh the special education slide, can have huge impacts on on districts. Um you know, our highest single um out placement right now is $425,000. So, if that child moves in or out of of a

065town, think of the swing that happens just by that one move. Um so, yes, we we are not a business, we are not making widgets and we can't just um stop the production line. Uh we we need to um continue to educate children. It is a mandate. Um and uh and so you are correct that comparing us to a business would would be flawed in the sense that um we we have less control about our expenditures than maybe a business does. Um it doesn't mean that we don't approach the finances of the district with a business sense in terms of really um taking our responsibility seriously uh with with the funds and Mr. Murtha does an excellent job um of watching every dollar. Uh but as seriously as we take our oversight of these funds,

066it doesn't change the fact that we don't control when these expenses arrive at our door. Okay. Um so without sharing anything inappropriate uh can you please explain the important role played by the school resource officers uh provided by our police department in the town side of the budget. Um if I were still on the board, that would be the one thing that I would be talking about. But Uh sure. So, just we'll start off by saying we have an excellent relationship with our police department and certainly our SROs are extremely valuable members of our school communities. Um and and I've been very open over the last several years that one of my aspirational goals would be to have a third SRO. Um and you know, I was really pleased to hear at the recent council

067meeting that the police department is at full strength. Um that's good news for our community, that's good news for our schools. Um unfortunately, our schools are not at full strength. Um we aren't at the staffing levels we need to address the increasing enrollment and and we're not keeping pace with enrollment. Um so, even though um having a third SRO would be a very high priority for me if the funds were available to the equivalent of a of an additional SRO, [snorts] it would not be my priority currently with this budget. There's too many teachers and other staff members that we have to have for mandates that would have to come first um even if the town um found the the the funds to do so. Um but you know, that would be ideal uh but

068unfortunately, we are not at full strength. We certainly at the high school, we have a long way to go to get to full strength and at the middle school, we're getting there. Um and at our elementary um classroom teachers, I would say yes, that's an example where we are full strength. Um keep in mind that there's more to elementary schools than just meeting the um regular classroom needs. Um it's the intensity of needs that can shift costs at the K5 schools. So, um there are you may you may not have your population um numbers change, but you may have an increased need in an area that requires uh additional staffing. And whether that's interventionists, whether that's multilingual tutors, whatever the the um case may be. So, the intensity of needs is a separate and distinct

069um sort of driver of the budget than just the sheer numbers alone. Okay. My last question and I'll see if anybody else um I think the last three or four years when I was on the board um the increases were almost directly related to the increase in student population. Um tell me if I'm wrong, this budget seems still we still have that challenge, don't get me wrong. But we also have that challenge out in the community and out in the world that the cost of everything has gone up. Um so, even if we weren't facing if we weren't still the fastest growing school district in the state just the fact that health care and utilities and everything else has gone up everywhere um you know, I can't go I'm sorry Deputy Mayor Return, I can't

070go through a drive-in window without spending $20 for lunch. Well, obviously you know, that also affects everything that you do in the school system. So, I mean I wrote down that you know, medical and dental went up uh 2.3 million about 21%. I think part of that has to do with the the the reduction or the cut from last year and and reserves, but I think the majority of that is that there's an estimate that the cost for medical is going up. Um is there any chance that that'll change between now and like when we finish the budget? Um and if you could just use that as an example because I think a lot of the increases in this budget are increases in costs. Right. Yeah, I mean for all our talk about increasing enrollment

071increasing enrollment is barely touched in this budget. It's it's really to address special education and um and health care. And health care, this is another example of something that's not unique to South Windsor. Um my superintendent colleagues um around the state, we are all commiserating and health care costs are driving lots of school budgets um up. Um and so their numbers would have been lower if it wasn't for their health care costs um and maybe they're able to absorb that a little bit better cuz they don't have the increasing enrollment problem that we have. So, we're in less of a position to absorb it. Um if if your question is um might we get better news? Um and there's been some years where um after we proposed a budget and before the council adopts, we've

072been able to raise our hand and say good news, we could lower our health care line by a little bit. Um it's sadly if I think if there's new news, I think it's going to be worse news. Um I don't think it's going the direction that we would want. Um the last four months of claims have exceeded the budget each of the four months. So, we imagine that when the experts who do these projections, which by the way, that is not something the the board staff does. They're are hired experts in health care that look at our trends and and tell us where they think we should what percentage we should increase our budget for. Um our our guess is that it's certainly not going to um go down and after you know, these X

073number of months that haven't had a positive trend it's possible they could come back and say your your your health you know, your health line should be higher. Okay. Is anybody anybody have any questions? Oh. Um Councilor Rodnicky. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a question regarding to your budget that you proposed and then the board's added 250. I just hope this question comes out uh the way I want it is if these three positions were that important why weren't they in your proposed original budget? Um great question and I if we looked at the slide of all of the positions that were in my budget all of them are defensible. We're at the point now where we're just making choices between worse and worse. So, they're very important, but so aren't the

074positions that were in the budget. Um but there are far more positions that didn't even make my budget, let alone the board's budget. Um they're very important. So, to say that they're there's lots of important things that didn't make my budget, but um I think you know, I'm a realist um and uh and I felt 791 um was just as as high a number as I could go. I know that's disappointing to some of our staff who are really advocating for some of these other positions. I think they understand the predicament that we're in. Um but I'm glad you asked because please don't um mistake that those three positions are um you know, just extra or would be good, you know, would be good if we had it. Um those are just part of a

075long list of positions that we need and will have to fund, but just didn't make um the budget. The only difference um is the behavior specialist for the middle school and that was um a solution to have a less costly um position than the school counselor. I felt I couldn't include the school counselor um but I felt that there's such a need um that we need to do something. And and honestly, you know, budgets are plans, right? They're they're a plan for where we think we're going to go. Um if we had an influx of students that were presenting, you know, significant behaviors um we might have to shift priorities. We might have to find the funds for that behavior specialist and give up something that we that we need, but it just that becomes

076more acute. Um so yes, I'm glad you asked because it's not an indication that it was not important. If you wanted the budget, that would be me I'm sharing everything that I think is valid and needed, it would not be a number that could be supported by the council. Are you just anybody anybody else I keep looking for lights. Um uh Councillor Cadera. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Dr. Carter, just got a couple questions in regards to by way. Thank you once again. I understand the difficulty and um a lot of residents are frustrated, right? At the increase. And we've spoken before in the past and I understand, but sometimes, you know, tough decisions have to be made and I understand the board's position where we want to keep

077education where it is in town. I went to the school system here. I have three kids in the system. I completely understand. The only problem is it's like at some point families can't afford to live here. A lot of them can't. A lot of them go to schools here. You want to say yes to the education increase by 8% and there's families here like how much longer can we afford this? We want to live here, but we can't, right? So it's a double-edged sword. So I just looked through the budget and I understand you folks and your staff made tremendous sacrifices in trying to find cuts where it wouldn't, you know, affect um the students' experience in the school system. Completely understand I said I got three kids in it. I just got a couple

078questions and when I went through the the book and uh one was the on page 30, which is the education for mathematics. So I guess in here for the high school it was up like 26.47%. So I just try to find big numbers. I see a lot of decreases in elementary and like through the whole book it's very well detailed. Um Like that was just one part I just I was trying to find out even the high school in in the description. Um Yep. Um so that just for the public um cuz they might not be seeing this. The 26.47% >> Right. um represents $14,000 in increased instructional materials for the high school. So program is not personnel, it's materials. It could be textbooks. It could be consumables. It could be um you know, things

079that they need in the in the classroom. So at the high school level, there was a need for more materials and that is what's driving the the 26.47. And then conversely, you see in that same um there was less of a need at the elementary, so they were able to decrease by 10,000 and they were down by 34.98% All right. Thank you. I had one more um bear with me here. On page 44, which is the special education. Just so the public can and for me as well to get kind of educated on this part here. Um for the board placement, there was an increase of 35.55%, which was like 1 million and 61,000. What is the board placement? So um there are expenses that are called outplacements where students are um educated in a

080facility other than ours because their needs can't be met in um in district. And so board placement are outplacements that come out of PPTs um that are binding um and then you see things like agency placement and that might be an example of DCF um requiring DCF may get involved and they may um dictate that a student have a certain program that we would pay for. Um so as you can see, we're not anticipating anticipating agency placements. Um >> [snorts] >> and um and then the the million dollars is in outplacements. If you look to on page 43, um just just so that you'll know where the information is, that bar graph shows that in this um current year, there are 699 special education students and 666 of them represent in district, meaning we're educating

081those children with in district programs. And then the uh darker number, uh which in this case is 33, represents that we have 33 students that are in outplacements. And those placements can range anywhere from $55,000 to $425,000. Right. So what's the the back again the increase and I get it cuz we they went up by three from 2024 to 25 was 30 and then 33 placed. Yes. So the increase >> [snorts] >> from 2024 to 2025 for the following year, which is 25 to 26, increase increased by three students. Right. Outplacement. So um Chris just handed me a good note. Um uh which the million dollars, 500,000 of that is the fiscal cliff that I talked about when we use reserves. So in order to um meet our needs this year, we relied in our

082budget in the current budget on $500,000 worth of reserves. There's not an infinite amount of reserves and so this year we need to plan and fund um the full amount ourselves. So that's an example of where you're seeing a big increase because we um had to use reserves last year in response to um the reduction that we had um the 1.3 million. So that's an example of that sort of when you suppress it in one year, it comes up the next. Okay. And to follow up with that, if you move down the list there, the transition program, Mhm. which had an increase of 45%. Is that also because it was not funded in the year before or are you saying that that's just a general increase? >> It's a combination of things including that we

083are looking um for for new space, physical space and leasing space for that program. Um one of the reasons we need to move the program is just in and of itself, they need better space, but but also equally important is that that program takes up two classrooms in this building. And if that program moves out, that creates two more open classrooms. Right now, we are scrambling to create as many classrooms as we can in in this building in the main campus to absorb the 350 more kids that are coming. Um so by moving that program out, we gain back two classrooms, which is extremely helpful. And if we were to try to, you know, make back those two classrooms by adding two portables, very expensive. Much more expensive than leasing space for for this program.

084That's obviously not a full solution for our high school, um but it's every every classroom that we can create here, um we are trying to do so. Okay. Which is a now follow up to my next question would be since you're kind of mentioned about lack of space and classrooms that eventually we're going to have to look at that in a new facility. Yeah. You know, you're the projection from the middle school moving forward to the high school down the road. So as their taxes increase, you know, for this year and next year as we start looking forward, you know, we always got to look down the road. Right. Five-year projection. I mean, you must be concerned that this building, these two buildings are insufficient. Yes. Um I am concerned and um and I in

085terms of, you know, I think I alluded to this maybe at the planning zoning meeting. You know, in terms of a of a new high school, I know there's rumors. Are they building a new high school? Are they not building? So right now, um what we're investigating is whether or not the state could provide a much, much, much more robust school construction grant because of our enrollment. And I have gone to the state and I have made the case that there's no other town that can show them our data because often times when they create special legislation for a town, they're worried about the slippery slope that if you ask, then everyone else is going to ask. My argument is that no other town will be able to hand them the documents that I handed

086them to show our growth over time. So we're we're researching the ability to have significant state funding to address the high school facility, but it's very premature in knowing whether we would achieve that. Um it does happen. There are towns that that get special legislation. It's not unheard of. Um and I would argue that there are towns that have achieved it with less rationale than we have. Um so I wouldn't want to say I'm optimistic. Um that might overstate it. Um but I do believe, I will say this, when I show people our data at the state, they take it very seriously. They see our situation and I explain to them that the impact of our enrollment is not just on facilities, it's our operating budget, which is why we're having this hard conversation here

087around the 8.16 and it's also impacting our facilities. So we're being hit in two different ways. Um K-8, I feel we will be able to maintain. I I don't think we'll need portables at TE. I'm saying that with based on current information that we have. Um, I believe we're going to plateau at the elementary and um, so I think we'll be okay there. It'll be tight, don't get me wrong. And and what will happen at TE that won't be popular is um, by by parents, kids, or teachers, um, is our class sizes are going to be going up. They already have and they will continue to go up. Um, which you know, is not ideal. Um, but we think we can house it. The high school is just a different a whole different animal um,

088in terms of So, we're trying to parallel, think about ways of creating classrooms, um, like this program, and we're we're looking at places where we can knock down walls and do different like we're trying to reimagine, which is what we did at TE. You may not may not know, but um, we added four classrooms at TE in hallways. The hallways were wide enough um, and it would still meet code that we could build classrooms inside these hallways, which unfortunately we liked our big white hallways, um, but you know, desperate times call for desperate measures. Um, and and the other thing that helped TE is that the preschool that was consuming a good number of space, um, which had been moved because Orchard Hill um, got the first surge, right? Elementary got the first surge, moved

089to Pleasant Valley, um, and that also opened up uh, space at TE. So, we're hopeful and then of course there was the calf expansion um, that we were able to pay for through federal dollars. Um, I I can tell you right now, um, I don't I don't know if we'll be lucky enough to have enough state funding to build a new high school, that would be fabulous. Um, but at a minimum we already know our cafeteria is inadequate um, at at the high school. Kids are eating in hallways now and we have 350 more kids coming. So, um, yes, it is keeping me up at night, um, but that's not new. Facilities has been >> [clears throat] >> a very challenging um, situation for the last um, 10 years. Mhm. Yeah. So, you're it and

090a side note in regards to the state funding, um, how much much just so the public is aware, how much money does the state of Connecticut give to South Windsor for education? Do you mean um, for for school construction or >> No, just Oh, oh, just like just ECS. Um, I don't have the exact It's like 11 million, I think 11.4 million is our ECS funding. >> And that's based on uh, income? The median income? Is it based on I it's obviously not based on population of the schools. Um, the ECS formula is is I will not pretend to be able to explain in this meeting without notes how to how the ECS formula works. But it does um, largely reflect uh, wealth ranking, meaning the ability to pay. And the state believes that we

091have been overfunded. And I'm sure that does not how our residents hear it, um, but the state believes that we are overfunded um, and uh, and so our wealth ranking, because our wealth ranking keeps, you know, becoming a stronger part of that formula, it cancels out the benefit of increased number of students does help your ECS a little bit, but it gets wiped out by our wealth ranking. Right. So, we compare education budgets to other towns like Manchester, East Hartford, or even Vernon they get more money from the state than we do. >> they get significantly more funding from >> to compare budgets when they say they got an increased budget of 4% or 5%, that's with the funding they get in from the state. You're basing your budget on a lack of funding from

092the state. Right. And the the 11 million um, goes to the town just so just so people are aware. So, the 11 million isn't received by the schools, it goes to the town to help offset the cost of of educating. I mean, that's obviously a fraction of the cost of what it what it cost um, for our programming. Um, but the the um, the formula is being looked at right now in legis very actively being dis I was on a webinar today at noon about ECS funding and they are recognizing that the base level of funding is inadequate for all towns and that there's a base and then things get either taken away or added to depending on other variables, which are very complicated. You know, you mentioned other towns getting more ECS. Most of

093the towns that are surrounding South Windsor contiguous to South Windsor are alliance districts and alliance districts are um, historically districts that have performed in the bottom 30 um, in the state and that comes with significant funding um, if you qualify um, to be an alliance district because of your student performance. And so, that's a whole another host of of funding that comes. You know, I think about I can think of a neighboring town we'll go going back to yesterdays, this is going way back, but you know, I think we got 1.7 maybe. Let's just call it that. 1.7 million and a neighboring town might have gotten 20 million. Right. So, um, it really the the the help that can come to a community can vary greatly. Um, and people [snorts] have their opinions about whether

094the formulas are are working. Um, but I'm There are many people advocating to to lift the tide for all boats um, and to get a better base formula for for every district, not just um, districts in need. Right. So, I wasn't sure because we have the highest enrollment rates of any town in the state that ECS would evaluate our situation and would increase those funds, but that's not how it works. It doesn't happen overnight, it doesn't happen over a year. It's a formula they work on for years and there's no way we can even ever increase that at our end. Right. Yes, and that's why, you know, when when I went to the state for help, I knew ECS was not going to that that's a that's a whole other thing, um, but I knew

095that school construction was one that they can be responsive to um, unique situations. And again, I don't want to get people's hopes up about that. Um, you know, I've made the case, I I gave all the talking points and all of the data, um, but I can't I I don't want people to think that that's definitely going to happen. Right. I understood. I just have one more quick question and it's just on page 72. >> [clears throat] >> Now, the negotiations provisions that's like a holding, which I understood the you gave the description on the left here. Um, the negotiation provisions they hold in account until negotiations are complete. Now, the amount for as you see here is up 145%. But is that not just a holding amount or is that does that stay there?

096Does that get spent? I'm just trying to get clarification >> on that. Um, Chris will tell you it's my least favorite line in this budget and I wish we did it differently. Um, I've complained about it every year, but I get it. I I understand how it works, but I understand why it's confusing to someone looking at it. So, the way that this works and I'll let Chris correct me if I don't have this um, accurately. But there is an anticipation of there might be we might know a union contract is coming up. Um, we may and we don't know the outcome. >> [clears throat] >> And so, a certain amount of money will be set aside um, as part of negotiations. And it could be multiple contracts, it could be a lot of things.

097Um, and then once the contract is finalized and we know the exact number that say I'll just use the paraprofessionals union. We know the exact number that the increase is going to be based on the settlement, then Chris transfers those funds to the budget where those positions actually sit. Which is why you always see it zeroed out because they she zeros out the account once she knows where to assign the funds. Um, but I mean, all kidding aside, they know that I complain [laughter] about it every just cuz I understand why it would be um, you know, hard to hard to understand if you're just looking at it, but yes, it's a it's a holding place that then gets redistributed in other parts of the budget. So, it's accounted for in other places, but it's

098just not accounted for because we don't know the outcome of the settlements. Right. But usually teachers have the biggest uh, chunk of the pie, right? The biggest contract, the uh, um, membership. So, that's why I thought it was high because that contract has been solved resolved and set in stone. So, the future contracts you're looking at are smaller groups, aren't they not? Yes, SWAS is a pretty big big union. I mean, I don't I don't have a dollar for you to put on it, but um, that's a that's a big union. >> Okay. Yeah. All right. Um, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Not that I'm being critical of it, I understand it's the money, but it's just it's difficult for a lot of families just moving forward. And you have families that

099want to stay here can't and uh, and that's why I brought up the potential of the school down the road because this is just one thing after another because things people say, "Oh, all right, we'll take a hit this year for a tax increase." But you're not because you still got to start paying for the schools that we built. And now we have to look at possibly another high school. So, you know, we all live in this town, so we understand people are frustrated. So, [snorts] I just want to make sure that people are aware and that's why I asked those questions that I did. But the other thing is like, you know, I understand your staff is trying to find cuts and stuff like that, but in regards to like programs like they do

100like field trips or I know sports they pay for their own um, each season does if they pay portion of that to play for high school sports? There's a certain fee that each student pays. They pay a very small portion. So, >> Right. So, you know, in order to for people to not feel effective. Let's say their kids don't play sports, right? Is there a way you guys look at maybe increasing the sports fees? Um like the music department, all those kinds of different departments when they take field trips, stuff like that. You know, why not make the families pay for it? You know, those kind of cuts that Yeah. You know, I'm just trying to think outside the box. If you want to keep where things are, where can we save some money or

101just, you know, if it affects [clears throat] the student, let them be part of the problem paying for it. Would be a trip, sports. >> Right. No, um you're absolutely dead on and we've actually already had these conversations. Um there there is funding in this budget to support field trips and um should we be cut uh beyond um the 791 at least, um we would uh would be um looking to shift those costs to families. And it that's still kind of a tax, right? On on those families, but it's shifting it to the end user. So, there's lots of ways to shift costs to the end user. So, a senior citizen isn't is less impacted cuz they're not an end user, they're not a beneficiary of it and we shift the cost to families. So,

102we are looking at um shifting the cost of field trips. We are looking at increasing pay for play. Um again, it's a form of a tax to those families, but it's it does impact the people that are directly benefiting. Just like, you know, parks and rec would have their their their user fees um are are not impacting seniors because um they're the end users, like Fourth R, you know, for example. >> Right. Um so, there's a that that is definitely a conversation um that we've already been having and we anticipate um having to make that shift. All right. Thank you. Um Mr. Meniscalco, can I ask you a question? Um I think Dr. Carter alluded to it, but I mean, I've been paying attention. I think it was in the paper yesterday um that there's

103a discussion about for this year um coming up with an additional $150 million um for education that supposedly everybody's going to get a piece. Now, our piece won't be that big um and that I've already talked to one of our legislators that next year there's supposed to be the much bigger lift about changing education, the formula. Uh but hypothetically um because the legislative session ends on the 6th of May and we potentially could vote on the budget on the 4th. If the state legislature in their infinite wisdom found $100,000 or some number for South Windsor um is there any way we could take advantage of that? Or do I assume that that would go into the the general fund and we'd have to transfer it for emergencies or something? Right. So, um I think if

104the legislature found additional money for the town some for some purpose, it doesn't really matter whether it's education or some other purpose. They send out some type of grant that we were to use for some operational need. Uh as a result, we wouldn't have to spend taxpayer funds that were collected through taxes. You would really have well, really you would have one choice, which is to collect those taxes and then at the end of that year, whatever you have as surplus funds would then get swept into the general fund. So, due to the timing, it it really does kind of mess with a lot of stuff. Um I would say if you look at just ECS overall um you know, the governor on a regular basis proposes 11.4 million dollars. Um we budget in the

105budget actually uh 1. This year it's 1.18. Um we're typically getting about 1.2 or 11.2, I'm sorry. Um and then it's important to note that about a half a million dollars of that gets shipped off to our magnet school since we have a magnet school in our community as well. Um But if we did get that extra funding, we wouldn't be upset over it, but it wouldn't it would be challenging to help residents in this upcoming fiscal year. All right. And I know we have the option to wait and [clears throat] do our budget on May 22nd, but just for the board's knowledge um I think in our budget guidelines um we added a guideline that both budgets should be done together. Um and I'm guessing Dr. Carter, want you take the opportunity to tell

106us why May 4th is better than May 22nd since you have to hire staff. Right. The hiring season uh in most school districts starts to kick off um around this time, um February, March and April. Um you could never hire all the staff that you need if you waited um until May 22nd to start advertising because you would be competing against other districts who are already um picking up the best candidates and as we we sort of started the the conversation tonight this way, um there is a actual financial value in getting the best candidates. Um paying someone a good salary who is not um effective at their work is is not a good financial um outcome for for the town. Um so, for hiring, it cannot wait till um that time. Um especially for

107a district that's growing. Um if you're a district that has declining enrollment, you might not be doing that much hiring. Um you may have retirements that you're not refilling. Um so, that is that it is problematic for us to to wait that long to um to to do the work that we need to do in order to have the staff that that we need in place. I think last summer hired 40 teachers, 40 teachers. You can imagine the amount of time, the the interviews, the mock lessons, the reference check I mean, Rich is a very busy person um over the summer and um and so, and by the way, though I I know you're going to say it. I know uh Mayor Ezoldman, 40 is not 40 additional teachers, 40 is reflects replacing retirees um

108or people who have resigned. Um it's not 40 additional. Um but that shows you the kind of volume um a district like ours has in terms of of staffing. All right. Uh Counselor Donahue. Uh thank you. Um It's not technically May 20th That's our debt drop dead date, May 22nd. Um we could all we also have a meeting on May 18th. But since the session ends on May 6th, we can also propose a special meeting on May 11th. So, that way we can wait until the state finalizes at midnight. So, Okay. I mean, we can always add that special meeting. So. All right. Does anybody else have any any questions tonight? Oh. Um >> Mrs. Corsi. Thank you. Um I just wanted to mention just because there has been a lot of discussion on ECS

109and state funding. Um Dr. Carter mentioned that she was on a webinar earlier today. I had decided to join that webinar just because I wanted to at least start to get a better understanding of how all of that works. Um it is extremely confusing. Um there it's it's a lot, but there is um a repeat of that webinar I think next week if anyone is interested in hearing exactly how confusing it all is. Um but it it was interesting to get um the updates on what is or may or could be happening in the legislature and how that affects towns. Um so, if anyone wants to start diving into that, let me know. I'd be happy to forward that on. All right. Seeing no other lights, I'll just end with this and then we'll go

110back to the agenda. Oh, I'm sorry. Liz. Oh, Counselor Pendleton, my fault. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Um I just like to publicly state and say and for the record that I think, and I know this council and this Board of Ed, thank the experts that figure out the budgets for our community. And Dr. Carter and your staff and Chris, thank you so much for all that you guys do. You guys are the experts, not us. We are volunteers, we don't have this background, we don't get paid to do any of this work. And Mr. Meniscalco, you and your staff and Ms. Perry, thank you so much for all the hard work that you guys do in doing the budget for the town government. And I don't think that you guys are acknowledged enough

111for your expertise in the fields that you do, in the way that you explain things to us as you did tonight, Dr. Carter. It was amazing to listen to you at once again. And I challenge anyone to sit down and dissect the budget and come up with some better way of figuring out things because I think you two do a great job at what you at your jobs. Thank you. All right. So, that's a perfect lead-in. Um you know, I'll just say that and I've said this pretty much um since the last election. Um it's going to be a difficult few months. Um you know, the council has some really difficult decisions. Um any cuts anywhere and quite honestly, everything needs to be on the table cuz I don't think 697 is going to work

112with the public. Uh my opinion. Um but it's not going to be based It's going to be based on tax rates. Uh to Counselor Cordero's point, it's not going to be a comment on whether something's not needed. Um I really was happy with the questions today uh cuz we didn't talk about $5,000 here and $5,000 there cuz that's not really the issue. Um to Counselor Pendleton the Board of Ed is the experts. The the administration are the experts. Um I will commit that um you know, the council is committed to work together. Um and you know, at the appropriate time, you know, we'll certainly have some discussions, but uh it's not going to be an easy couple months, uh but I guess that's why people run for office. Um so All right. Without seeing any

113other lights, um item five is executive session. We don't have one. Item six, adjournment. Can I get a motion? Is there a second? Second. All right. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Anybody opposed? All right. We are adjourned. >> [music] [music]