001Tell you what, let's get started at 7:06. You all please rise to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Dr. Willlet, acknowledge. Yes. So, today we are very fortunate to have um the students and staff of the Rockville Voag program with us that we have a partnership with Rockville for their um VOAG program. It's an excellent program and the young adults get awesome experience there. One of the best in the state. Um so we have um some staff here tonight to to yourselves. Yeah. um Bill Ponbury had been on the advisory committee from town to low and so about four years ago uh we sent these students over to Rockville
002and go ahead and participate in the bang program. This is their opportunity uh to just give a brief um summary of what they've been doing in the four years and what their plans for afterwards. So if you want to take turns and Hello, I'm sit down. My name is Sam. I'm Sydney. My name is Sam. So, as I introduced myself already, I'm Andy, member of the Rockville ASD program. And today, as mentioned earlier, I'm here to talk about my experiences in the Rockville FFA program ASD program and as well as my future. So, as well as ultimately, thank you for your time and allowing us all four of us to go to the meeting. program. So when I first joined the egg program, I was definitely not the same person I am today. I was
003always wearing sweatpants, sweatshirts, completely different. I was had my hood up. Couldn't even stand up here and even try to do a speech in front of the board or anything. It's definitely helped me improve with public speaking, confidence, and overall just been hitting. But at first, complete opposite until I met teachers and my peers that stepped through that threshold to become a better public speaker. And I took classes such as the leadership class that is mandatory for the ASD program. And that helped me push me to become a leader. And another great thing about this program is I was able to travel to Indianapolis my junior year and to their at national FFA convention. People from all the way over in Alaska to Hawaii and people from all over different people walks of life was
004amazing. One of my favorite memories. It also has helped open the door for different jobs like the job I'll be returning to in the future this summer working for Baylor Brothers Landscape. But overall, it's been a wonderful journey and even though it's coming to an end, I'll definitely have fond memories of this in the future. And I just wanted to thank you all one more time for allowing the opportunity to be a part of the big family as program. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Uh thank you for your time for having us here. Um again I am Zach uh from Rockville program. Um to start off uh Rockville um first of all the program kind of gives you like another group to like be a part of it. like from when I first started freshman
005year, I was like new school, didn't really have any friends and uh that program kind of helped me to find um a group of people who had the same interests, had um some of the same like ideas and what they want to think and it kind of helped me to uh make friends easier along the Uh also egg has taught me mainly a lot more discipline than just regular school. Uh first of all with leadership classes um take showing what it takes to be a good leader. um and showing uh team building activities and uh just things of that sort. And also through the SAPE program, the supervised agricultural experience, which is um a project that you student all students are required to do. um they can do global and uh it just helps to
006teach you to teach them how to manage their time. uh it helps them explore their pathway that they want to learn about and it along the way it teaches certain skills um based on what uh you're doing like I myself have had a few What my first one really was uh taking care of fish um for two years um and just just discovering what it would look like to um uh care and raise um animals and then sell them afterwards. uh a little bit of entrepreneurial skills and that led to me getting a job in Taland at Action Water Gardens, which gave me a little bit of work experience to get another job at what what I work at now, which is egg white. And uh egg um provides a lot of opportunities for people
007to um like join like there's a B club at school um and just competitions to teach like uh how to be fair, how to uh win and lose graciously and uh just how to um do your best throughout it all. And uh I think discipline is a big important part of agg because without discipline um you can't really do anything well like I've found that um since I had less study halls I uh was taking less time to just do what I wanted and do what I needed to do. Thank you. All right. Okay, so Zach touched a lot about the leadership, but again, I just wanted to reiterate that in our leadership classes, which is required sophomore year, we learn a lot of skills such as financial and time management, public speaking, um, and
008even just professionalism in general. But another thing we get besides leadership portion is also career skill sets. So I know most of us have kind of a variety of like pathways, which is what we call like kind of it's like a mini major in class. So, those are natural resources, animal science, mechanics, and plant science. Um, and for mine, I'm going into animal science. Um, originally when I wanted to go to the Rockville program, I first learned that I wanted to go there in sixth grade when there was a presentation at the middle school um during an assembly about a few different schools. And I had the idea going in there that I wanted to be a marine biologist. I learned later on that I didn't like that as much and I was more into
009like the larger animals. um and mammals. So now I'm actually going to be going to Purdue University to study vet science. Um but a lot of the skills that I've gained here I know will give me a head start. We get to do a lot of hands-on experience. I don't know if any of you have ever been to the school, but if you go in the back kind of by the turf, you can see a lot of our livestock which are outside. We also have a small animal lab indoors and we have a lot of hands-on practice. So I'm one of the feeders at our school. So, I go to the livestock during the days, mornings, afternoons, weekends, holidays, and I'm there to be able to um check on them. I feed them. Uh we
010do some of their medical care. So, I have hands-on experience with injections. I've seen surgeries. Um I can do tomorrow in our vet science class, we're learning how to do sutures. So, you also get a lot of hands-on experience in a career field that you're going into. I know Andy does mechanics. He gets a lot of hands-on experience doing welding. I was in a mechanics class with him where we actually got to build a wall, do some plumbing, uh we did electrical work and created our own like um systems in the wall and then we built a roof as well. Um I've been with Zach and Sam in the aquaculture fields. We have an aquaculture lab where we get to go in um we have a bunch of different varieties of fish um or just
011general aquatic species. We get to learn the care for them. We do some research projects with them. Um, and I know I haven't taken too much plant science classes, but we also have green houses that give us the capability to actually grow our own plants. Recently, we just had our plant sale. So, students will go in there, they'll grow plants throughout um the few months, and then they'll sell them to make profit for a fundraiser for our uh program. So, on top of the leadership skills that you heard from Andy and Zach, we also have a lot of like career skills. But none of that would be possible without you guys. I know at least me, Sam, and Andy have taken the bus a lot. So, the bus that you guys have that transports us
012from Talland to that out of town school is very important for us. My sister takes it right now when I'm not able to bring her to school or back. So, we would not have been able to go to the school without that. And also, just the funding that you guys provide for us to be able to go there in general, it really helps us out. And we wouldn't be able to do any of that without that. So, thank you a lot, Nikki. So once again, my name is Sam. Um, before coming to the agriculture program in Rockville, I was unmotivated. I had bad grades. I was insecure and just wasn't sure what to do with the rest of my life. Um, I was 210 lbs and 3 in shorter. Um and after the first year
013of being within Agg, being around all these people, having amazing teachers, everything above them just believing in me, caring about me, and wanting me to do better, they got me to be way more confident than I was. They got me to actually want to do something. And like Zach mentioned, um I continued working in the Aqua Lab. My junior and senior year, I ended up basically running the place. I taught like the freshman sophomores how to run everything and my teacher would basically pull me out of class to make help if there was a problem. Few times she flooded the lab and I had to fix it. Um, and even past that, just with the FFA and my personal leadership skills, I was able to lose in a year. I went from 210 to 150.
014And I, my junior year, I became the captain of our wrestling team. I won conference twice. I got eighth place at states. And all of that I attribute to the confidence to the just people in agg caring about me. And I wouldn't have done wrestling. I wouldn't have done anything in my life that I've done now without it. I'm now pursuing my education further in marine science at Roger Williams University. I already am starting a program with one of the professors there to help with their lab and go out on the boat and stuff. I got my boating license. I got a scuba diving license. And I'm diving head first into the underwater in the ocean. And all because of this program, all because of these people. So, thank you for your time. Anyone? Okay.
015Um, loved every second of that. These are we talk about it a lot up here and I don't know how often you guys get to I hope you're not tuning in to these meetings every week because they're they're long and you know strenuous but um this is our favorite I'll speak for myself but I know a lot of the people everybody sitting here loves these parts of the meeting where you guys get to come in and show off some of the cool stuff that you've been doing Zach right Zack you mentioned discipline and discipline we were just talking about this a few weeks ago in my program and and and it it made me think there for a And discipline, I love that you mentioned it because without discipline, where does the consistency, right? Where's
016the consistency come from? And so, you know, I think it's a testament to every single one of you and every single adult sitting behind you and next to you. Um, you know, I was fortunate to have that support and it looks like you do too. And, uh, I think with, uh, the discipline of the people around you, but also in you, in each and every one of you, you're going to find that consistency. And I want to come visit wherever you all are going. I was at my uh a student in my program. He was playing football at the Vernon uh high school and uh you know you walk back to the field and you see the goats and you see the you know all the animals and I always wondered like who feeds like
017who takes care of you just answered that for me tonight like a lifelong question. My brother played football over this was amazing. So genuinely well done to all of you. Congrats. This is exciting. Come back let us know how things are going. You know I'm intrigued. So well done. Congrats. Thank you very much. You know, one minute. Sorry. Go ahead. All right. I just want to just a couple comments. One, coming here and standing up and speaking as you have is not easy. And we we do this every other week and and it's still intimidating. I'm absolutely impressed at your poise and your ability to stand up and really present and communicate. Kudos. Uh I I want to touch on something you said about knowing that you wanted to do this program in you say
018sixth grade and and you know focusing on that goal and then you know adjusting a little bit as you went from what you said of marine biology up to the larger animals to to have a path like that and to be able to find that tool is simply wonderful and I'm thrilled to hear you say it and I hope the people watching uh articulate that to to everybody that's watching. I know adults that don't have that goal that that seem to stumble a bit as they go through. So to find it and to to really be able to focus and drive to that shows a strength that that I hope you realize you have because it's wonderful. Yeah, I'm just really going to echo most of what Jaden and Tony said, but thank you so
019much for coming tonight and for sharing your experiences and and the benefits that this program has given you. I recognize a couple of your faces from when you were young and I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud that you you guys found, you know, what you were looking for and you have such bright futures ahead. So again, and thank you for telling us about, you know, how much your um the staff there has meant to you and the mentors were certainly something we talk about all all the time here. So we're so grateful that you have that in your program as well. And thank you to your parents who came tonight to support you. So thank you. Thank you very much. Go ahead. Oh, please. Congratulations to all of you. And you know, it's
020really nice to hear your stories. I live on a farm and in Thailand and, you know, they always say, you know, no farms, no food. And that's true in in all respects. And we need people to nurture our environment and to take up this cause. And I'm proud of you all. and I hope that you have the brightest futures. Oh, thanks for coming. This really is the good stuff, right? It's it's we're hearing we're hearing and seeing and meeting um the future, you know, of what we had to provide. So um and what you can do with different programs and different things and um all of your stories are are very inspirational. Um I think it's really important to communicate you know you communicated how it made you like it turned your your whole trajectory
021around pretty much. Um so finding what makes those wheels turn and finding what inspires people. It sounds like it's inspired you in so many ways and then you all have worked together and help each other through it. Um we've heard it through a lot of our DECA and athletics and this program here. Um it's just so important that not everybody's trajectory is the same. Not everybody's trajectory is I'm going to go to, you know, Yukon or wherever. You know, some people are going to go into trades. Some people going to even some people are going into farm many different things. Um and it's exciting. I don't as Tony said that some adults still don't know what they want to do. Okay. But I think it's fantastic. Um listening to your stories because even when you
022started you thought you wanted one thing and by taking the courses you veered left a little. Uh and I think that's amazing that this program and different programs allow you to figure out who you are and what you want to do. And um thank you very much for coming today. I I appreciate you standing up. I mean my you know it's brave to stand up in front of any group of people whether it's one person or 50 people. So you all spoke so eloquently and passionately about it. So I appreciate him. [Music] Thank you all and once again uh you are welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting or you can escape. Thank you. When's graduation? Is it two? Oh, almost two weeks. Exactly. Tomorrow next Wednesday. Yeah, this couple picture. Say hi
023to those animals. Thank you all. Have a great evening. That's a tough spot to ask. Question. Am I the only one that was studied in I've seen her patient so correct. So she she explained it in a way that we can almost have you because I had no idea description. Gotcha. That's why she explained it and I'm glad she didn't. Right. Whatever was included in a farming as well as there might need this later. Just say you know where you're in the do we have any additions to the agenda? Okay. hearing none. Undertain a motion for the approval of the May 14th minutes. So move it. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. Jaden. I Rainey. Hi. Brian. Hi. Bill. Hi. Hi. Jim. Hi. Dana. Hi. Katie. Hi. and Dr.
024Willlet. Motion passes. All right. Public participation. The members of the Talon Board of Education welcome members of the public to share their thoughts and ideas at this time. When appropriate to do so, members of the board and the administration may respond to comments during points of information. However, in consideration of those in attendance and in an effort to proceed in a timely manner, follow-up discussion may need to take place outside of the meeting session. Uh, if you'd like to be recognized, if you're in the room, raise your hand. If you are online, simply raise your Zoom hand. As always, please start with your name and address. Again, if anybody in the room would like to speak, please raise your hand. online, please raise your Zoom hand. You got me to look too we will close
025public participation like correspondence. We had in the last two weeks seven emails come in. Six of them were budgetary and reduction of nature and one was a residency question. Is it? Thank you, sir. Points of information. Would anybody from the board like to speak? Yeah. I just like to say I went to the uh parade, marched in the parade of the little league. Uh saw our great band and musical uh students doing what they do for the town. It's good to see them. It was a good It was a nice day. So really it was pretty Yeah. A wonderful parade design. Yeah. Right. Would anybody else like to speak? All right. Student representatives report. All right. So senior class day and class night are next Monday, Friday. Super excited. Fast day is at holiday help.
026Um and then class night is somewhere in South Windsor. Don't really remember. So if you guys fill that in, fill that blanket, feel free. What takes what takes uh what what happens on this? So uh do you want to explain it? So class day is like we go to Holiday Hill, which is this I think is it a summer camp? They have they have like rock climbing. There's pools. There's food being um displayed at all hours. Um and it's basically like just like a day where you um just have fun with your class and it's kind of like one of the last times that you'll just be able to be with your whole class and just have a bunch of fun things to do. And then class night is more of like a formal event.
027Um it's at, you know, that place in South Windsor. It's more you dress in formally. It's like a sit down dinner type of thing. You get your yearbooks and then they have like a slideshow playing. There's all like pictures that people submit. Um, and class day buses are already assigned. They're on the class of 2020 Google Classroom. You can still sign up for class night if you want to. You have to reser. You have to RSVP. Please do that right now andor soon. Moving on. Senior thank you scrolls for different teachers or staff are in the office. They can be filled out and turned back into the office at any time before the last day of school. It's a great way to thank teachers or staff that have made meaningful impacts in your life. Um
028and it is a very very fun tradition for both the students and the staff. And you can thank any teacher from kindergarten to whoever you have right now. Mhm. Um, okay. Also, last week we had our spirit week, which unfortunately our pep rally did get cancelled due to lack of participation, but we at least had the spirit week, so that was fun. Yeah. And then the moment we've all been waiting for. We senior graduation is June 16th on a Monday. Dr. Willlet, but that's okay. And then senior finals for the seniors who do need to take finals um will be on the 12th. First and second block will be on the 12th and then on the 13th. Third and fourth block will be on the 13th. And for high school, our last day is the
02919th because we had a situation at the high school that other schools did not have. So we are going to be graduating. They're going to be graduating a day later than the rest of the district. Um, and that is it. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Go ahead, J. No, no, no. I just You got You guys only have like one more meeting or two more meetings with your time's coming up. I have one more meeting and then I'm gone after three years. Yeah. And my first time ever voting will be on June 3rd. for the budget. It's an awesome thing to get to vote for. I'm so excited. I got to vote for the first time, but in the last If it makes you feel any better, if it comfort, my first vote was a
030referendum as well. So, part of the part of the uh what's the the fraternity part wouldn't work here, but you get the part of the No, good. You're participating. Good. Participate. Be a part of it. Yeah. Very good. Register to vote. Register to vote. Anyways, I have to go. I have to go buy cupcakes or the last DECA meeting of the school year tomorrow. We're going to have cupcakes. We're going to announce new officers. We're going to give out awards. You can come. Sounds good. You guys should all come. Maybe I should come. Maybe you should come. Honor Daka member. But um they'll be cooking. There will be gonna come pick them up with me. I practa. So like we didn't get you. All right. Y I know you tried so hard. All right. Got
031to change my message. You know we are I want to see the placement. Yeah. I haven't seen you guys training anyone yet. That's an interesting point. So currently we do not have anyone who ran. What? So for the very beginning of the year you will not have student representatives. Most likely they will they will be holding an election next year uh during the very beginning of the year. So we do not know you're elected to do this. Yes. Yes. You don't just volunteer? No, this is for student council. Sorry we I thought you were talking about force a sophomore into sitting here and doing it. It's the role is going to be filled. We don't know by who. That's out of our hands. But um signs up. No, they they get elected. So, they're student
032council decides. I got you. In terms of in terms of DECA officers, did you get quite a few sign up? I I keep looking at you. I keep filming you're in DECA, Sarah. You know, did you get a good number of signups? Yeah. So, for the past two weeks of DECA, we've had officer election weeks, which meant uh for the first two weeks in like three years, I haven't had to dress up in a blazer and go to school, which has been wonderful. Um, so we've had 10 candidates to run for five officer positions. We have them all chosen. I ran the election committee as the vice president and the highest ranking senior in the club. And it's a really good group. So you'll probably see them scattered about next year. Very exciting. One of
033our own Wily's own honor. She's a state officer for next year. So she'll be in the state. She'll be doing her thing up there. But it is a it's going to be a really good year for Deca. If there is DECA that time, but no, things are looking up good. One would hope, but that's actually it. Okay. Thank you all. Thank you. Go get your cup. Thanks. I will. And if you have extra, I was gonna say in two weeks, I'll be right back here with the two week. Perfect. Good night. Have a good night. Right. Excuse me. Committee and liaison reports communication. Uh, nothing at this time. I'm not even looking at you. Thank you. But nothing at this time. Okay. Curriculum. We met right before this meeting. Yes, that's me. We met right
034before this meeting and had a good discussion on electives, how why, you know, they're they're chosen. Um so yeah, that was it. It's good good discussion and uh very informative as to um how they're chosen, why they're chosen, um uh and what goes into having one elective in the catalog. So when you say how why they're chosen, do you mean by the student or by the district? Yes. Is that precise? And that information is in the curriculum folder like every other committee folder. So if you're in the dashboard, go to the bottom and just open the folder and go to the page. Okay. Thank you. Uh I know Diana's not here, but anybody from FFC? Okay. I'll see. No, we pushed it till the next month because of some policies going forward. on the queue.
035Thank you. Negotiation. Yeah, currently negotiations with Dr. St. Thank you all. All right. Uh chairperson's report. Brian stole my my thunder a little bit. As I say, my my daughter and I attended the the parade, Memorial Day parade. When was it? Sunday, I think it was. And you know, the the striking thing is we we sat there, parked at the BOE building, sat there in front, looked across and the you know, as they were doing the announcements and kind of uh just talking through, you know, from the from the building across the way and everybody coming down. It it really just touched me, you know, with everything that we've been going on. It's it's just nice to see the community pull together and and just celebrate a holiday together, do a parade. You know, it
036it didn't matter. It didn't matter what group, what what party, what anything. We were all there to to celebrate the reason, you know, for the holiday. The the kids were running to the candy. It was very picturesque and I really just enjoyed and appreciated that moment. I wanted to just take a second and congratulate everybody that participated in it and everybody that took the time to make sure it happened. You know, as we discovered throughout all of this, none of that is is guaranteed and so I'd certainly appreciate it that happened. All right, moving on. Dr. Willlet, no superintendence report, new business, food service, meals. So um occasionally the food service program which is an independent program as you know it's under the umbrella of the board of ed but um it does not draw
037from operating funds um it self- sustains and so occasionally we will have to raise the prices for um for lunches, breakfast and so on. And so at this point, um, we're bringing a proposal to the board. We're proposing that meal prices are increased slightly. Um, if you take a look, you'll notice that most of the breakfast prices here, all the breakfast prices are going up by 5 cents. Um, the other meal, lunch, would be going up by 25 cents. Even with these increases, our average um Holland's on average, we're typically below the state's average for the price of meals. So um so we can provide a very cost effective program for the district also a very costfriendly option for families. Um and when you look at the prices um for instance a you know a
038lunch ths lunch the new proposed price for that would be 375 uh for standard and you're getting you're getting sandwich you're getting the meat you're getting the vegetables you're getting a drink. You know there's nowhere in town you can get a meal like that for $3.75. So um you know it's a very very costfriendly program. And so uh in order to maintain our uh independence of this program, we will have to occasionally raise the prices and that's why it's being raised. Now we also did do a deep dive in FFC the other day on the food service and the FRC program as well kind of illustrating ins and outs and that's in the FFC folder. if you you know get a chance or want to scroll down to it that that information is there in
039that meeting um in those meeting docs. So it's just a very simple request to the board to adjust the price and there's a proposed motion questions. Well, this is the TTA is that teachers talent transition academy. Okay. And it's one of our satellite programs. Yeah. Okay. The doctor without these increases where does that put us as far as cost? Probably within a year or two we would have to come to the board for for funding but when you consider these are purchased by hundreds of kids daily would go for a while and then we would not we would have to be partially funded by the board. Whereas if we increase it like this um we maintains the independence of the program. And when was the last time that we did that we did an increase?
040Two or three years ago. Something like that. Yeah. And the prices of food have gone up exorbitantly in the last few years. Everybody knows that when you go to the grocery store, you're spending way more. All of their all of their um you know their food materials have gone up etc. And are we seeing don't need specific numbers but we're seeing a fairly steady use? Absolutely. I think um one of the things that happened in the last two or three years also was that um and this is a a good thing um and I think I mentioned it to the board at one point or another at least FFC um there's a new new law and the new law is um appropriately anti-shaming law you know lunch shaming and so what happens is kids that
041go um you know to acquire lunch uh in the past you you might person might have been able to say I'm sorry, you don't have enough money in your account. You know, we'll give you granola bar. We'll send you to the office to get a granola bar. You can no longer do that. Uh so if a person approaches for lunch, they are the state requires that you give them a lunch regardless of the status of um what's owed by the parent. So um that new law has created um quite a bit of additional work for us in terms of there's quite a bit of collections activity uh you know trying to reach out collect that money. Parent guardians don't always realize that that's what's going on. So we we reach out try to collect it.
042Um and sometimes kids will uh dump the lunch they have and go grab a lunch um because they like the lunch that's served in the calf. Um but to mom and dad's chagrin or dad grin or mom and mom's grin you know um they find out wow there's a balance here that I sent my child with lunch um we are not allowed to refuse a lunch and we're not allowed to mention it either. So we can't mention that there's um any kind of u amount owed um and we can't really say anything just if someone presents for lunch or could breakfast you know. So that has also increased some of it a little bit too those next question those collection activities are funded by the program or out of the main again well and it's
043all independent through our program it's all different what's the threshold that you're reaching out to families so like for the example of the kid who might go or the student who might be going to spend and buy lunch and they might not parents might not realize it how far do you let that sort of you don't have to let it go it's there is no stopping but I'm saying from when you start communicating with that family. Well, almost immediately. Gotcha. Yeah. And we'll reach out. There's a program that everybody signs up for and it reminds you and we'll send reminders, emails, phone calls. Um, but some don't respond. That's the part I'm just not familiar with. There's an automated email you get. So, like for instance, my account, I set it for when there's $10
044or less. So, you know, so I know. Okay. You You don't have to set it at anything. So, if it's in the negative, it'll send you an email. I'm assuming it's autogenerated. Yep. It's part of an upload of data, but um then someone actually physically follows up on that. We will uh in most extreme cases where people are only will call, but um there's really no motivation to pay. Yeah. But in order to so in order to get hot lunch, say this is my first day at school. I haven't set up any account or anything. I go up to the to the to the to the uh and it's been six years, so I just don't remember. And I go up to the counter and I say, "I want deli or whatever sandwich today." And
045I didn't set up an account. I don't My mom didn't set up an account or anything like that. Still the fingerprint finger is already put in there with with you touch your finger. That's how they'd know who you are. They would be connected to you. But um beyond that, you know that we would give you the score. I'm just trying to understand how if they don't have one of those accounts that the parent set up, you know, did themselves, they're getting a phone call from you. Are they still getting that email even though they phone call? Even that it's the email they put in, right? So, they have to set it up themselves. Yeah. I mean, if somebody wants to totally ignore the whole system, they can. That's I mean, they can't ignore us because
046we have their phone numbers, but there's really nothing that prevents someone from taking the advantage of that program. It's still got a lot of advantages for the people that would have otherwise been hurt by it, which is why it's there, but there's really nothing to prevent. I mean, we try to do collections activity, but unless we were to hire a collections agency, which would cost more money almost as much as what you're collecting. Um although some of them will take 50%. You know, there's a whole bunch of options here, but it still costs money. Gotcha. So, um now, you know, we do a lot of that kind of thing. calling following all well providing school lunch all over it it's it's it can be the difference in somebody a student succeeding in not I mean
047literally and so why it's why it's which is why at the end of the day whatever the cost and this and that it there's data out there I mean the Minnesota governor talks about it all the time where feeding kids lunch you know no matter how old is a benefit you know so long term so um so regardless of what it is I'm supporting let's get let's make sure the kids eat the students eat and they're fed. Um I was just curious because that that seems I don't know how how do you manage that if we're in the I don't know that's yeah I'm going around that in my mind right now. This seems like an unspous program. Well, that's because then you have people that are paying for lunch whether they can afford it
048or not if they're making an effort to pay subsidizing people who are just, you know, like you said, potentially hopefully not anyone is doing that, but you can also potentially be paying for people that are just snubbed in the system, right? Like so but but you know but the um but this is why for us you know in terms of increased cost of materials and food materials and you know new things that need to get handled the prices are to increase mostly it's food costs and things like that. Any other comments? I'd uh entertain a motion to move this to board. So move second. Any discussion? Again, this is to move it to board action. All right. Jaden, I Brian, hi. Bill, I Jen, Dana, hi. Katie, I Dr. Willlet, make that item N1. All
049right, moving on. Old business item M1, budget. Okay. So, um you have access through the dashboard to the tool that we've been using. What I tried to do for the board to help is um I tried to provide tabs which I posted to the dashboard earlier um a link that steers you to the same thing that's been posted a couple times. But what I did is that tool I added two tabs to the tool. And so there's a proposed narrative that kind of gives you a sense of um you know to try to get to the 146. Here are some things you could consider you know to get there. there. This narrative, the reason I call it a narrative is it it also talks about a mitigating factor. So, you know, if you have to
050lose this aka the reduction item, what is the mitigating factor for why that versus something else? And so, um, you know, that's hopefully to give you a sense of why those things were thrown up there. Obviously, no reductions are what we want to do here, but if you had to, for instance, the SRO piece, um, the mitigating factors are unlike some other places, you know, you do have both a troop C within a half mile of many places or a mile and you also have a resident troop office, you have two things that are very close to schools. They did hire an administrative trooper, which we work very closely with. Um TPS does have a security officer and perhaps we would expand that program over time which would be um more cost effective to your
051overall boards operations. So the point is there's a reduction and then there's the mitigating factors. So I use that an example. Of course nobody wants to do any of these kinds of reductions. So just prefacing that again because while I'm the one speaking these words I'm not saying let's not have any of this that or the other thing. It's the board who has to make the determination. But I did my best to try to explain why these would be the ones that possibly would be thrown to you tonight for consideration. Same thing with um say ths teacher. There is a resignation in the phys department. That means that a person would not lose their livelihood. We could still maintain the um state compliance. It's not going to have additional sections or electives, but we would
052be able to run state compliance um you know enough to comply with the state rules for fizzed. So we would just not rehire that person. Um nobody wants to lose nurses but there would be a nurse reduction I would leave about 1.5 as an average across the schools. And then um you know these languages that have come up in the past Spanish would remain at the middle school but um you would not have at the middle school and you would still have world you know the French and Spanish at the high schools there there are reasons why that would be um challenging but um in lie of some of these other things that could happen and these are things that have been considered and put out there. Um if you look at the 1.46 46
053tab next to it. They should have a green tint on them. The table one, table two, table three. Table one is, as you know, the kind of walk down from where you were to where you are. It also calculates by, you know, on the fly. Um, table two has both additions and reductions. There's an age back inspection requirement that you have to do, which is already by law now, and that'll cost about 33,000. So, that's why that's in an addition to give you that example. And then there's the reductions. Um, and roughly, you know, if you go down the line, um, blue to the red, although some of that got a little bladed over time, that was generally, you know, your kind of a stamp of time span. The blues were the earliest, the reds
054were into this board of ed um, adopted budgets. And then the pink is everything additional beyond staff. Now, across the entire table, if it is highlighted, it is a staff member. So the entire table are the cuts. Table two has all the cuts. Now you'll notice where it says click on the tab that you know refers you to a tab. The tab would be at the bottom. So if it says refer to the tab at the bottom for conference, travel and contract, click on that tab. That's that's all the rest of that field. So that kept it from being, you know, even longer than it is. So the point is that that that table there includes everything that brings you down to a 1.46. Um the proposal is the staff that I just discussed to
055get you to the 146. So it's the staff discussed to get you to 146 plus all the rest of this. In the pink is the new rest of this. It's what came to get you from where you were to 146. So that's the proposal. Um, and then if you look back at the 7.34 to 146 tab on the far left, that is the document. That's the tool without any of those changes made. That's the tool that you know you were looking at a week ago where none of the moves were made yet. So there's the tool that you were looking at a week ago with none of the moves and then there's the proposed to narrative or you know proposed to 146 in the two tabs next to it narrative kind of explaining it and
056then the actual iteration of all of it. So this way um and again you know reiterating that there's no such thing as a good cut and we're doing our best to manage things but that this maintains athletics freshman athletics TMS athletics which means a lot to kids in affinity programs explains that clubs and activities while not funded by the board um if enough parents wanted to sign up for such things it would be about a minimum of 25 kids to run it. So smaller things like the games club might not run, but something that could be fully funded by parents, meaning 25 or more participating. You could probably still go. It just wouldn't have any board funding that would still allow you to reduce that same amount. Um because you're not paying essentially for the
057adviser at that point. Parent guardians are fully taking the cost of the advisor. Um no clubs would run until it's completely collected, which in the past it has begun while we were collecting. At this point, we would not be allowed to run until all funds are collected, which would mean that there would be a full accounting every single time. Nobody could lag. So, for instance, if we only got 23 and we didn't get it from these two, we would not be able to run it. It would have to until two more came that would, you know, be able to pay, it would not run. So, it could go months before it could run, that type of thing. But, it could still run if enough people were supporting it independently. It also allows for some summer
058custodial work because it will be devastated from the point of view of trying to get the schools ready if there's absolutely no assistance in the summer. The people we have, there's not enough people to do the amount of work that's necessary. They have to move all of the furniture out. They have to do all the cleaning, move everything back in. All kinds of things are moved around. Um, so they rely on some summer assistance to do that. So it means that it preserves the vital state reporting and compliance and oversight requirements. Right now we are barely able to get that done. Um I take on a lot of uh the reporting personally and I disseminated over the rest of the people that we have. Um you know we have so many compliance activities that we
059have to do from state reports to PISS from PSIS reports 8165 reports and all these things you know between all of the different PPTs IEPs state reporting requirements you know all these things there's no way to do that with uh you know reducing other workforce that would that would make it it's almost impossible now it's literally almost impossible possible to maintain compliance strict. Um, so not having that would put us in a big area of jeopardy. We could actually end up screwing up, losing funding or owing something to somebody because of it. Which line item are you speaking about? I am just saying that certain staff that are not listed in what I've put out there for you to consider um would not having them would compromise our ability to be able to do the
060state reports that have to be done to to maintain you know you have them in the budget now to take care of this. Yes. I'm saying that that's why I'm ask I'm saying you might want to consider going this way because if we went other ways it could jeopardize that. Thank you for the time. Sorry to interrupt. No, no, it's okay. So, that's basically it. I tried to lay out a a course for you, a play, you know, given everything you've discussed and things we've talked about a way through the woods, knowing that none of us, no one there wants to be doing any of that. Okay. But thank you, Dr. W. Just a minute. But just to make sure I'm orienting as far as the information you provided uh on the tab that shows
061the proposal to 1.4 force things table three are not included in the not recommendation the proposal the far left tab the first tab no the third tab the third tab anything that is in table three is not is not included not included in the reductions okay so table items to be considered like you can move them in move them out but it's not so table two goes down to Table two is everything that gets you to 146. All right. So, please raise your hand. It'll possibly take a short 10 or 15 minute recess since we just got some of this information late this afternoon or now just to kind of review and possibly write a few things down. Well, I'd rather go through and start talking. Uh if you want take it and I can
062let the other people talk and we'll come back to you. But I don't want to just pause. Um, two simple quick questions. At the very bottom, it says BOE legal services. What does that in? This is on the super superintendent proposal to 1.46, the third tab. Um, what does that mean? That's that is cutting all of our legal services in about half because I don't want you to lose more people, which is actually something I'm really a little nervous about. But I'm hoping that over my decades of experience, I'll be able to pull a database together of all the things we have ever asked and all the answers we've ever been given and try to reduce the number of times we access attorneys. Having said that, we will be going into teacher negotiations. So there
063will be utilization of them. Um on trend would be much higher than this but I would be doing my very best to try to prevent us from utilizing as much as I possibly could. I don't you know we might overrun that line a little but my goal would be to run it somewhere in the zone of that or within a deviation or two of that cost. I'm taking uh risks a little bit but it's also so that you don't lose more people. Gota that's fair. I just it I just it the term my first term started and we were under litig litigation. So the idea that that makes me a little nervous. I'm not going to lie to you guys. Um although I am very confident in this board's ability to you know you know
064we're in a we're in a good spot um heading into the next board. So, it just it caught me off guard a little bit that we're eliminating some of our legal services and it makes me think, you know, did we require them beforehand and if so, what was what did we need from it? Any my second question, um, getting volunteers in the building. So, for like a games club, for example, and you some of you might be able to tell me this better because I just don't know the process. You know, if you're going to volunteer in certain places, you have to go through the process of getting fingerprinted and doing a background check and all those things. Is that does that apply in uh whether it's Connecticut or or pound specifically? And if it
065does apply, are there added costs to fingerprinting our our volunteers and running background checks or anything like that? Well, we already do the We have a three-year site for background checks. When anybody signs up for what we call our volunteer core, volunteer group, you have to become a registered volunteer with us, which means you have to allow us to do a background check on you. And so we do that and then we up re-up it every couple of years. You know, everyone who's a volunteer is on a cycle. Yeah. And every couple of years we recheck the people, you know, based on when they came in. Um, so we already do that. I would recommend that we not ever cut that. Oh, no. That's not what I'm not. Well, I'm not suggesting you say that
066we should, but I'm right. So, yes, we do. And no, we wouldn't be putting that up for No, my my question is actually the opposite of that in the sense of if we're going to be requiring the the services of more volunteers, does that add to again the cost of whatever system that you have that runs it every year or we might have new signups this year. I'm assuming we have to pay somebody to do the fingerprinting. We have to pay somebody to do background checks. If we have an influx of people, what does that look like in terms of how much we have to pay for that for their service? Well, yeah, but we also use CGIS. Um, so as long as some of us go through training, for instance, I'm trained in the
067CGIS database and I'm allowed to do checks and things like that. So are some other people who are on it. So we're able to do that. It's not at a massive cost for the session. That's that's that helps. Thank you. That's all I have for now. I'll keep comments brief. I don't like it. I don't like any of it, but neither does anybody else. So, um, that's those are my only two quick questions right now. Um, uh, one question. Well, I guess I got a couple. Uh, one would be, you mentioned if you had, uh, you need 25 in a club, you only had 23 and now we can't cover the cost of the stipen. Would you reach out to the 23 and say, do you want to chip in an extra 10 bucks so
068we can run this or just just that's going to be it? like if we don't get 25 yeah we could I mean I think typically we are we would be very clear that we have to reach a certain number um we certainly could it's just u you know reaching back out to 23 different people who know some so I'm not I'm not against it especially if it was a beloved thing you know if we get something like five it's probably over you know but if it was close and people were really deeply desiring it. We would we would try to bend over backwards to make it happen. And but um but to that point like what sometimes has happened is because there are financial hardships and things um we would have to restrict uh assistance
069of any kind to people that were on free and reduced lunch whereas it might have been a little broader than that. So you wouldn't maybe just kind of for lack of a better term assume okay maybe x% might be free and reduced lunch so the that particular group is maybe less or not paying and then therefore that here's the real cost for those who can you know what I mean yes well that is how that works it's kind of like um if you are going to have a few FRLs then you they might make up the 25 and you're covering it you know slightly somewhere else but there wouldn't be any other leeway and in the past basically you know you're obviously running there's been a lot more leeway. Yeah. And now that would no
070longer be happening. Okay. Well, I just want to clarify that that we have a fair amount of interest in it and you know the group that is interested is willing to step up to the plate to the degree that they can then we would do our best to run it. That was what I was wanting to do. Um the the world language at the bottom is not in yellow. So I I that's missed. Okay. So that is should be in yellow. That should be no. Okay. Good. Yeah, we don't know. Um, the BGP reduction is listed at 4571320, but it was at 5731215 in a prior uh iteration of this. So, I'm wondering what is the difference there? Are you talking about the nurse? The nurse there's the EGP teacher before was 5731215. Maybe I'm
071misreading this. That's in table three, Rainy. Okay, this one's the nurse that Oh, that's the nurse. Okay, that's it. Okay. Yep, that that's me being wrong. Um Okay, I think that was it. Okay, in in the table that talks about the participation rates for the clubs, um this might not be possible, but I want to ask anyway. Is it possible to to know what the unduplicated participation rate is? I would imagine there are children or students rather who participate in more than one club. So I'm just wondering is it 672 children com you know totally or is it Yeah, that would be um you know and all I'm not sure who's if there's any duplications there. Um it's just that would just be total participation in each of these clubs. But you're right, like there
072may be some duplicates. There's probably not a massive number, but there might be a few. Okay, that's helpful. Um and then the f the So the loss of French in middle school would leave students to begin the language in their freshman year. So they would they could get four years of it. Is do are we currently at the possibility for five years or no? I know it's I'm trying to recall where that stands and I'm just wondering for my own sake honestly out of curiosity what happens to kids if if if kids are really going to choose a language if they can't sort of take it as far as the Spanish language and this is curiosity it's not push back at all I'm sorry was that not a clear question I can try No, it's
073all good. It's all good. I um I don't want to I never know with these things if I'm cutting you off or not, but um yes, it would affect u people taking French. It may make French a less appealing one because they can't start it as early and they may not be able to make it as far. Um but it would still be offered at the high school. there would um it would be based on the number of sections available with the number of staff that were remaining to do so. Um they could get through French and there's may maybe they could do something about something more than that um depending on the number of kids who wanted it and how many sections are available and which classes are running and which ones were not
074running that particular semester. But yes, it would put French at a disadvantage with respect to um you know being able to start early that type of thing. Start early or like middle school. Okay. Thank you. Next. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Pass me on. Thank you. Um what is the role of the IT technology specialist basically and I'm going to ask the same thing about the IT pareducator par educator doing mostly um on the ground sort of repairs fixes base level assistance you know things that would run around if you were having problems and reconfigure something or fix or you know set something up from your software. The IT specialist has a much more involved job. They do almost um all of our state, you know, a lot well a large chunk of the data
075of our state reporting. So when there's a report that has to be completed, you know, we may put the data together like an ED165, they make sure that it can be processed with the state. Um that you know when you're creating an export or an import into databases, they have to match up. The fields have to match up exactly. Um, powers school does a lot of our work with powers school and integrating powers school with the reporting um all the stuff that connects to parents and connects between II you know our communication system that sends messages and you know um gets information from powers school there system with that powers school by itself is a major project it requires many updates and lots of training that individuals involved in all of that we'd be at
076a very big disadvantage if that position was reduced and we'd probably have to bring them back for consulting because um you don't we don't have anyone who has that knowledge. The person that that would be impacting has all of that knowledge. So we would have to bring the person back in a consulting or bring in somebody to get through a period of time where we had to figure out and then it would be very very difficult which is why it's not part of the other list at the moment. It would it would be a logistical problem and we would have a really hard time adjusting. What about with the para educator? What does it look like the work that that person does? I'm assuming it's like my printer is no longer connecting with my computer.
077I need help getting it reconnected. What does it look like? That kind of IT level stuff, you know, some who does that fall on? He has some knowledge, but it's um but it is doing that kind of thing assisting with that. if that person if we didn't have that person that goes back to the three that have remain you know and that they'd have to figure it out if there's a problem one of those three people would go out try to help which also gets in the way of the other things they're doing which is why we did that but um and and to speed up response time because sometimes when you know you get the blue screen of death you're going to have to wait a lot longer before somebody can come because that's
078what happens with somebody in that level Um yeah it's uh all of it is very you know difficult to adjust to from an operational point of view when things go down you need them to to be able to go back up very quickly. Also some things of making sure Google classroom and all of that with the Google suite is running you know making sure all of that stuff works and is running okay will be part of it too. I mean there's so many things that that the individuals cover. Um but then Terra would also help with semester. Um do we freshman athletics? Do we have a and I can only speak to baseball. There's not actually called Frostmore the baseball team. When the Frostmore baseball team and the varsity baseball team have games on the
079same day, there's six kids at JV practice with the kids that have to go that go to the varsity game and the kids that drop down for the Frostmore game. There's nine seniors graduating this year and only six eighth graders on the middle school team that were coming in that are coming in. So, with those same numbers, that means our JV practice will only have three kids at JV practice. Um, there's there's not enough kids, at least for baseball, to have three teams. And, um, you know, as a as a parent of a kid on a JV team, I actually had to step in and stop the overuse of my son because of potential injury, because of how they were being used. I'm concerned that we keep going down this track of forcing and again
080I can only speak to baseball forcing a team where we don't have numbers for that team we're going to start injuring kids or parents that don't necessarily know when they need to step in and stop things from happening of overuse. Um, I think a similar thing uh numbers wise was in basketball because I would go to the varsity game and I would see six kids from the JV team sitting on the varsity bench. Um, so I and those I I got to imagine that our our numbers are just not there for freshman athletics at this time. And um, you know, I'm wondering your thoughts. I don't know if you've spoken with with uh Mr. McCcluskey about this uh but I'm wondering uh your thoughts about that. Well, I you you had the um presentation fairly
081recently on that and u what the benefits are of having um you know sports that include sort of a freshman component and there can be title n benefits, there can be all of these additional things. It gives a certain group of kids an opportunity to play that they may never have if they never move on to varsity. It's their only shot at being in in a high school sport and it covers title N basis. So there's there's reasons to have it. The amount you save by not having it, you know, it's something the board you can look at. That's why there's on here is a list. But um but what you gain people unless some kids might lose an opportunity. So that's kind of how that that amount of money isn't worth them not having
082that opportunity if they never get to have it again. And you know and it doesn't have flexibility that it would otherwise have. They can take now there are kids that can get on the team that might not ever get on the team, not have a shot at getting on the team. There weren't that that structure. So, it's, you know, it's got a bunch of benefits, but um you have to just weigh that against the amount of money we're spending. But, you know, you'd save that, but is it worth maybe some of these other ramifications of not putting it? Yeah. What is the um if we have a year where we don't have enough to to to run a freshman team safely, is is there any precedent for saying I'm sorry CCC, we don't have a
083freshman team this year? I mean, you could. Is there ramifications for that with our standing in the CCC by not having a freshman team? I think you can forfeit, but I mean I I think um I mean I don't I don't think it's smiled upon not to have your ducks in a row enough to be able to build teams. If you can't field them, they might consider asking or there might be pressure to do some other thing or some other conference. But we're not in that space. Like when you did the presentation, we're we're we're pretty well set where we're at and we're we're fielding it enough that we're not peeing off anybody. Um, so you know, again, it kind of goes back to the benefits of it for that amount of money might be
084worth it to hold on because if you cut that um what else is coming in its place, you know, um it's just at this point for that amount, it probably does give you a benefit worth holding on to. And um and I agree, $10,000 to have freshman sports is good value. Um, and again, I can only speak to baseball. I'm concerned with the injury aspect of the overuse because we don't have enough teams and they're playing. I think that would need to be a judgment call the coaches athletic supervisor and I would support not overusing players to the point of injury or right um, can I ask what you're sure of? Yeah. So, are you talking about the JV like JV plus kids who are are on JV and can play varsity and they swing
085them into games? Is that what you're talking about? But there's also because it's a Fromore team and not a freshman team, there's JV kids that drop down as well. So, freshman go up to JV. Some freshman go up to varsity. Varsity guys drop down to JV. Some JV guys will drop down to freshman. So the the bottom line is there's not enough in that program to support three teams individually currently. They've got to share and our numbers are actually we're three less next year unless new kids that haven't tried out in middle school now all of a sudden decide to try out in high school where we're we're a three loss for for next year. And I appreciate your question because like there's some years my daughter is here. There's she's the there's three of
086them that play soccer at her age. And how many are graduating? Well, I mean she's still middle school. Yeah. Okay. So So when she goes to So that's what but I think then but then the group below her there's like 30 kids. Yeah. You have 20ome kids. Like it's ridiculous. So that's I guess my question would be is if like one year we didn't have enough numbers but then next year you have that bubble like what is the ramifications of not fielding one and then and then coming back in the next year right it messes with schedules and you know there's I get that because the CCC does the schedules for us so it really messes with that aspect of it. So, I'm I'm more concerned with an injury better aspect of it. Um, two
087more questions. Um, this one's referring to the teacher contract. If we have, you know, we a number of us have talked about volunteers, bringing volunteers to help out with clubs or even sports. Um, if there's a teacher willing to do that and a volunteer willing to do that, is it in the teacher contract that we automatically go with the teacher and have to pay them as opposed to a volunteer that's willing to do it for nothing? the teachers have in their contract. I think it's article 38 where it specifies that they get these roles and typically we do and the past practice contracts going back in perpetuity is that teachers are offered that first because it is in their contract as a compensation item. So the short answer is yes that would potentially cause issues.
088They could grieve loss of income loss of whatever. So then to add on to that, if we're hiring for a coaching position and a teacher is interested in doing it and an outside person, not as a volunteer but hired is interested to doing in doing that as well and applies for it because I think we host coaching positions. Um is there an interview process or does the teacher automatically get it in that case as well? No, there's an interview process, but the teacher will get the first shot typically in that situation. If there's a couple teachers, it's internal. That's the first interview. So, there's still going to be an interview because they still have to be appropriate position, right? I mean, there could be reasons why they maybe Mr. Mlen. Um, but teachers do get
089the first shot at coaching decision and it is in their contract. there is specific iterations in that contract of you know pay for clubs and coaching advisors and things like that. And my last question you earlier you had mentioned um about being in compliance with the state on certain things and why we why you chose the staff reductions that you chose as opposed to others. I'm assuming that was in reference to why we're not um looking at admin positions and we're looking at you know potential teacher positions. Um I mean I just can't do it. I can't just can't. When can you elaborate on that? You can't right now we we have only enough people to do all these requirements that we have and as it is they aren't a lot of things and I
090can't imagine trying to do that otherwise I can't imagine what direction we would turn in for that that wouldn't cost us more in the end somewhere um in my opinion it would cost us a lot more to trying to do something like that than what it Yeah, questions. Um, I if I could I just want to tack on to Bill because we've talked about freshman sports before, so I totally understand where he's coming from. Um, I guess just the other side of it is that um, you know, I my son is currently on the freshman team and I thought I remembered at the parents and I they said that this year was the highest, you know, amount of um, kids trying out for baseball that they've had and they said that in 8th grade that
091that was the highest amount of kids trying out for baseball that they had. Um, I think they said this year was the same as last year for the high school, but it was the highest. It was like 40 something kids. And I just think, and I know that you know this, but just making sure, you know, sometimes little blips from our meeting get taken and and not the other blips. So that's the only reason why it um because I completely understand where you're coming from and agree with you on a lot of it. Um, but it did it does, you know, it does in a situation where there would just be possibly, you know, three or four cuts, it allows those kids to play and have the opportunity. And for some of those kids, hey,
092maybe they should have looked at another sport, you know, may maybe they should have, you know, maybe they should have tried, you know, golf or something else. And maybe that would have been their path, but for some of them, it really could mean that they gained a lot of skills. They grew a lot their freshman year. Um, and you know, it could have could be a make it or break it time for them. So, you know, obviously I don't think it's a surprise to anyone. I'm all about the opportunity. Um, the other thing is I think like right now on the freshman team there's like nine kids who who are solid freshman players. There's I don't know maybe four that play up to JV of that. And I think you know when they do they
093don't get a lot of playing time. I think most of the time they're called up. don't actually play. So, I think that the majority of those nine kids are still getting the most playtime on the freshman team rather than, you know, just getting the benefits of practice and sitting for most of the JV games. So, um clearly in a situation like your son, I totally know why you would be concerned. And obviously there's kids that are out, right? There's kids that are sick. There's kids that are on vacation. We have an injury. So, that's where then yeah, you definitely don't have enough to field all the teams. But um but I just wanted to put that out there as the other side of it to to look at. Um but I would also say part
094of that is because the varsity keeps dropping down to JB maybe. Yes. So that's also part of that as well. So um I just again, you know, if it's something that we could preserve for a small amount of money and I would even be you know um pro, you know, looking to see if parents, you know, to increase the cost. Um, I just some for some kids I know that these are the reasons they come to school. So I don't want to take it away from them and we don't h absolutely have to. Um, but obviously we have a lot of tough decisions to make but that's just something that pulls at my heartstrings. Um, so um, can you one of the concerns you know thank you Dr. Willlet very much. I know that I
095have been very um pushy about please look over every single under every single stone that you possibly can because um like all of us the cuts you know the possible reductions that we've been looking at over the first few weeks have been um very you know upsetting and um and like I said last meeting I I really do believe that they jeopardized you know the the safety and the mental and the physical health and the experience and the opportunities for for our students. So, thank you so much for what you've provided us and given us a little bit more here to be able to work with. Um, it definitely doesn't although some of these concerts still do feel awful, it doesn't quite feel as destitute as it has. Um, but one of one of the
096things that still sticks out for me is the nurse reduction. And I just think that it's important for um the public to at least understand what the impacts of that is. If you could elaborate. Yeah. Um the nurses play really I mean again you know asking superintendent to talk about this all of these roles are crucial you know in education. They're all you know highly valued and needed. You know, nurses provide obviously frontline medical care in a school district. It may be the only medical care some kids get. Um, you know, they're always dealing with family situations that are complicated. Um, they're often the ones interacting when the children are sick, where there's family um, needs or trouble. when kids are exposed to certain things at home that are not great, sometimes the the nurses
097will be the first to see that in some way and then engage with social services. Um, you know, it's it's not that u anyone would ever want to reduce the nurse if you didn't have to do it. I think it's just looking at it from a logistical point of view. There's there's all kinds of impacts in a budget season like this and you know looking at it like 1.5 nurses in each building is what possibly could be done managed but it's not great. It's just not but I would be saying that about everything here. You're asking about custodians that's got its drawbacks. You know I think um nurses are one of the most important people in schools. Um it's not really a question about whether they are or are not. It's about how you reach
0981.46 and with $4 million of reductions from your board budget and that's there's nothing good that will happen when that kind of thing is necessary. So, you know, they they are integral. They are frontline. They um you do everything helpful. They work with me on making a bento homeless issues um ACI referrals, all kinds of things, tenants related matters. Um, but you know, you're you're in a situation where again the custodians, I could say many things about them, even though I'm not trying to draw comparisons between groups. Um, but um, they do a lot of the heavy lifting, no pun intended, across the whole district of everything, too. There's, you know, everything that we see happening in the schools that maintain safety and cleanliness and all of that is. So it's every group, you know,
099there's something that would be unsavory, undesirable about co- reduction in that group. Uh, and I don't feel good about any of it. So they're all important. It's just you have from where you were to where you are, it required massive cuts, big cuts. No, I appreciate you making the comparison to the custodians because I do believe that like you said, I believe all of these positions are important and I do worry about um the health and safety in our schools when it comes to that as well. Can you so just to be clear and I know that this is kind of a snapshot in time and we've seen this with every budget cycle and you know um we have you know late retirements and people moving for other jobs and I've heard of a couple
100recently myself um at this time with this list how many people I know we're losing physicians how many people will be losing this with your proposal well of the of the most recent iteration here. Not going all the way. Um, well be a parent, right? World language. This was want the whole pen. World language would be a would be a person. Nurse would be a person. PE would not would be it's a position but there's a person that has um there's a position opening now because of uh you know a transfer um SRO there's nobody in it um the other uh 10 LPN is a person um the math is a retiree SRO second we hadn't built yet social worker hadn't uh Um that is to add custodian is a person. Um secretaries would be
101a person para educators. Those are position openings but as I talked about you know some we might get some WFBAs next year on ABIS or something if we have to cover the IEP. um that 7 is um was open but there was somebody that had been waiting but now will not they had been in but they knew next year it might not happen. So um job coach was um invest consulting you know consulting or contracting because so there's nobody there facilitator that was a requested position. So we are losing a a physical secretary right now. Yes, I thought it was a reduction in there is a reduction in 12 month 10 months but this what we have in front of you there would be an impact on secretarial unit you're looking at 0.5 and.5 it
102may be that that can be covered if some people make some adjustments but there is an impact okay so I guess it goes without saying that if there's any way that we can find places we will continue to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay. For the um for the unfunded sports, would the plans just to not have them altogether or would we would we at least try to still enable parents to fully compensate? Well, the parents would still have the sport. They they shoulder the vast majority of the cost of it as it is. Yeah. But the board would contribute enough. Yeah. Whereas, you know, what we've been trying to do is over time provide a little support for those that are nonfunded. Um, but now it's there would be no contribution from the board
103at all. Yeah. Which is disappointing. um the link leader stipen that's on here, would that be then a program that went away or would that also be something that parents could I would seek to find some part of the grant that cover um that's an amount of money I could probably get some portion of donation or grant. Okay. um for you know back to clubs could we you know given like you said that we wouldn't be able to do them until they were fully funded could we if we make that decision could we start the communication on that you know end of this school year end in the summer because obviously not everybody that's in DECA is you know eighth grade coming in we have freshman sophomore junior so could so that they, you know,
104so that we could maybe ramp up some of that funding so that they would be able to start at the beginning of the year rather than waiting to put that notice out at the beginning of the year and then start. Well, the way typically to have September, we see what they're interested. So, some of these some kids some of this stuff that isn't kids are interested in one year, they're not interested in the next. They're not at least all the same thing. So we can reach out and say I can provide communication saying no clubs will not run unless fully funded. Yeah. Or I'm just thinking the you know the person who runs DECA can send can say what is the interest in you know those currents that are currently in DECA this year doing
105it next year and would you like to pay in advance and then possibly that club would then be able to start full on in September and I I'm using DECA as an example but I mean for every club couldn't the person in charge of the club go out to the group that they already have and say we we're going to be doing this a different way next year let's get to jump on it. Who is going to be doing it next year? And I mean, we'll try to expedite that as much as we can. There's a process for getting your club approved or getting your club greenlighted to move forward. And that process will probably be a little bit more arduous because we will not be able to start the first activity of any club
106until we collect it because the advisors will not contractually be able to. So we'll try to do forward communications on it. Um certain things will be much easier than others. For instance, you know, if you if a club has 75 kids in it, the chances that, you know, we'll be able to come together with maybe even 50 names, which you know, uh, is strong. But, um, you'd have to have, for instance, 50 maybe because if you had that many kids, supervision might require a second person, that bit of a thing. Uh, the ones that are going to have the hardest time are going to be the ones that don't pass. 75. You know, anything that has I'm just going to spitball a little bit here, but you can see them. Actually, I don't need to
107spitball. If you look at that's why I included that tab to try to, you know, as much as I could. Um, where is it? So, anything that's got five kids, nine kids, four kids, eight kids, 10 kids. Basically, anything south of 25 would be in jail. So I mean in and even these 25 you need to have a solid 25 you know they can't just be a number that are in it. So the ones that are higher than 25 by at least 10 would have a decent chance of running again. Anything that's 20 even 25 might not because that 25 so a portion of them may not have contributed. So based on that, I I also I understand where you know, especially for our sports, it makes the most sense anyway to have a paid
108coach because obviously if something comes up, if you know that person can't do it anymore, we can hire someone else where if we're running this by volunteers who says there's another volunteer behind them that's going to step and take take over. That's something that concerns me. But like Bill, you know, has offered many times in the meetings, I would be someone who would say, you know, I I can vote like no one wants me coaching a sports team, but I could do like a you can be assistant. Yeah, I could do like, you know, I would happily do a TIS games club and whatnot. I understand what you're saying about contractually with the teachers. Um, completely. My question and again, I worry about the sound bites that can come out of meetings. So, I'm not
109making any promises nor have I asked anyone this question. I'm only asking if that's possible. Could an organization such as a tepe or a boosters, could they have a something like a board game club that they could then have a volunteer do so that there would still be the opportunities for this. It would just be run by our volunteer organizations. Again, I I'm not in a current volunteer organization. I can't make that commitment. I'm just asking, is that something that's a possibility? I'm trying to look for any ways that I can for us to still have opportunities for example what is now called the scouts you know it's boys and girls the scouts can rent um or as a community organization sign up for one of our rooms and the scouts can have something community
110you know posted in a community can sign up for the scouts and kids can go to room 105 for the scout. So yes, that is something that can happen. However, if it is in any way a school sponsored activity with school resources of any kind or any transport, you know, then it's really looked at as a school activity and we'd have to then article 38, things like that come into play. We can't look like we're deliberately trying to avoid, you know, complying with that. Um but any organization you know can offer things and rent rooms. Pepto could seek to rent or you know have a room and then run a meeting every Wednesday from that room and kids would go instead of going to the bus they go to that room because it's a program
111they're running and they went through the FMX building use reserve process. So technically, yes, but but it can't be that the district is trying to circumvent that contract by offering things to people. I understand. And that definitely would not be my intention. It's just a No, I know. Yeah. You definitely move through that. That would not be my intention. I just want to do everything we can to make things available for the kids. Um, so if we're going to if if we were to, you know, make some of these changes that would um eliminate French at TMS, will we have an issue um overpop populating Spanish at TMS? Like, will all the kids still have an opportunity to take Spanish? Will there be enough sections offered so that students can take a language? We're in
112the process of working that out, but it looks like the vast majority of kids want to take be able to take daycare. It's just the thing that takes a hit is the furniture. There's not many in the shoot. I know. I just want to make sure we can accommodate Okay, I think that's all I have right now. I was not signaling, by the way. Try to turn the lights on. I'm all set. So I know. Thank you. Did I call anybody at your clubs? A lot about clubs. I mean I have more of a statement than I do have a question on clubs. We saw first can do two kids and move those here. And then we saw again with the gentleman Dave from Boette. I know it's an astronomical I mean a number that
113he was saying about his grades and then the club helped him and then then it steered him towards an athletic sport in wrestling. Um and now he's starting as a student. So, I think I appreciate your resourcefulness. I'm trying to figure that out. I definitely think that um yeah, there's some clubs in here that have two two to six kids. I kept that. But even when we were at the middle school rounds, the gentleman who put together the video, right? And I think he's in like the jazz club or he's a drummer. having both of it. But then he's also in the video club and then he did stuff at the high school for video for something with the sports. So I want us to just be really cognizant of again we just had four
114students here tonight saying what what specific trajectory did fit in for their education. So I know that's on a lot of our radar and I want to keep it under our radar and really try to hone in on that. Um the co-eing line doctor you know how we went into the rounds at ths does that impact the co-eing that we saw there is that co-eing as a whole is that co-eing in part it makes it harder for us but it's not impossible so this reduction is co-eing in whole so like what we just thought the high school would no longer Well, no, we'll no longer have the partnership with Eastcon that helps us execute it. So, right now it's a shared effort because we we do it but we do it in partnership with Dr.
115Dubis and so on. We would have to se I mean sever the relationship but we would have to discontinue that that uh work with with them because that cost us some money and we would be working independently which continues our educator's development. So they gave yeah we wouldn't have assistance in training people for co- teaching and so on. um you know where I could scrge up money, I would scrge up something if we needed something from them. But this would limit us and what we could do. It wouldn't mean an end to all of the teaching. It just would mean that every, you know, everything here adds somebody adds a layer to someone's job. So, right. Well, I think that just puts much more on us and more of it on us again. Um well
116my concern was so like when we when we were at ths realms we were in a mathematics class freshman year I believe it was freshman where you had a mix of students in there general ed and special education students. There was two educators in there. I don't want to call her the the main teacher and then the special ed teacher. The room was so fluid. It wasn't like this person is assigned to this person. It was a very fluid lesson. It was a very fluid uh interaction with the kids, with students together in groups and with the educators. So, it wasn't like anybody was getting singled out as special education versus general education. So, having that same level set in educational capacity was huge. And uh I I was lucky that I had the opportunity
117to come during the workday and see it actually happen. So continuing to provide our educators with these tools so that we can help. You wouldn't have known who was who in that classroom. It was phenomenal. It was flawless and seamless. Um, and I would love to see it in more classes and in order to get them that training that's part like is Yeah. Um, community workshops. I know it's $5,000. Does that eliminate some of our emails that talked about budgetary concerns was about our parents paying attention? Do parents know what's going on? Parents are saying they're going to do what's the real impact. So we I think some of our community workshops help communicate our budgetary scenarios. They also help communicate different things that we're doing in the schools. What does it look like in
118reducing community workshop? You want that was something that came out earlier in process. Um there are things that we're doing with human services now. um you know uh um Jillian and um Teresa and Bev um they've been awesome to work with and you might notice that um we did have a community workshop that we shared with them and executed together and that was through grant funding. So it won't mean the end of community workshops. to Josephine instead. Um things that we might have done for you know um we have like one internet safety with Driscoll. That won't happen because he costs money to bring in. He's one of the better people but he costs too much uh in this paradigm. We would not bring him in. Um we might bring in a state trooper who
119works in a computer crime unit which we did this year too which he did a great job. I I brought him and brought him to the public library in Talon and I think he did a great job. Um but he's not um it's not the same right now, but he did a great job. So um we would look for those kind of alternatives and the scheduling out of it is a little more constrained because they only have a certain amount of availability. So we might not have as many community programs, but you know, I'd still be working to offer them. So would others when we do things in partnership with human services, but the Porco Foundation, you know, the work we did for suicide prevention that costs money. So we wouldn't be able to do
120something like that. That was a huge that was widely attempted. Yeah. And there's a parent component, there were kid component. You know that it's a comprehensive program and most of those cost money, but we would not be doing that kind of comprehensive program next year. We would do programs we could, you know, do with volunteer or lowcost alternatives. Um, increasing paytoplay $40,000. Um, Katie always speaks so eloquently about it. Uh maybe I'll tear up to talk about it, but we talk about equality and equity. So again, I'll go back to several of our emails and correspondents that we've received or even a lot of the veteran we see on social media regarding our struggling families and our retirees on fixed incomes and our families on fixed incomes and and what have you. But conversely, if
121we have a family on a fixed income or a struggling family that's having a hard time, can they pay that extra $100, let alone that initial amount of money for pay to play? So my concern is is if we're talking about supporting our families in the community on all capacities, increasing paytoplay might also eliminate an opportunity for someone in equitable balance. So again, as we're talking about saving dollars, fixed income, struggling families, retirees, different things like that, we got to talk about them all, right? And so if we start to increase what we're charging our families and our parents or if we say if someone wants to chip in another $101, what if someone doesn't have that $10 or $11? Cuz conversely, someone can say, "Hey, Dana, just don't go to Starbucks for the next
1226 months and that's going to be your increase in taxes and you'll get all these other services." Well, what if I can't afford Starbucks? So, but let's talk about the rhetoric the other way with our students and our families. So, again, how many students are we going to take out of our athletics programs, barring we still continue to have them by increasing the paytoplay? So we can't have that better place. Um what was my other questions code teaching and then we talked a lot about the MTSS six stipens. What does that put us um Dr. at reducing those stipens with the MTSS forces me to look for alternatives for dividing that MTSS support to how to pull grant money or donations which are a little less predictable and [Music] um you know obviously if it's
123not an operating budget item it has a little more vulnerability or variability but I I would be doing my best to pull that out of grants or donated funds. What happens if you don't get that? We have to figure out how to um you know to um execute the MTSS plan and uh later tonight one of the links that I have talked about the MTSS plan. So I would have to go to plan B for the MTSS plan which is not favorable. But having said that, you know, I do think I can acquire some funds for this and um that's why it's on there. But if you're not able to, so it's on a what if scenario, right? So we talk a lot about we can't do a lot of what if. So this is
124if you could find the funding or the grants or those things. That's that's what if scenario. again the multi-tiered services right so I think I can get us through next year which is also what the ask could be looking for and then I you know we would try to bring it back into the board budget next time but you know these these types of things MTSS these are desirable the high school needs it I would be looking to and I believe I can get some grant funding for that more the coming here. But again, that's all. Okay. But those were part of your previous iterations. Yeah, I know. I But I still wanted to talk about it. You can do anything you want, but I'm just saying you you uh speaking about what time or
125you want to get to. Okay. And then I had one more except for I clicked a tab and the non tab. Um I'm on the wrong tab. Oh, here we go. Sorry. I apologize. the PPT [Music] facilitator. No, those folks are neutral parties in our IEP 504 support meetings. Correct. So, they help us guide the meetings. Yeah. They would take some of these massive number of PBTs that are just growing and growing. And it's not just it's across the state. If you look at any of the data, it's just it's just where we're at. And they would also help us with quality and compliance. because there's so many of them and they happen so fast and so often. You know, it's not a bad idea to have someone going through all the CT sets records
126and going, "Oh, this one's missing this. This one might be missing that. This one doesn't have, you know, signature this one." Because if you don't have that, sometimes there are issues. Um, and you know, hopefully you don't end up with a huge issue that could cost the district money from an OCR or legal point of view. And that's what that was trying to do is make sure that there's, you know, as little potential issue as possible. However, in a in a year where you're reducing 4 million from where you came from, there's not much of a chance of that. You know, that was something to help with compliance. Right now, going back to what we were saying before, it's like that old thing where you got the the dishes on the sticks. you know, we've
127got what we can handle at the moment. That would make it safer, but it's, you know, we can't go backwards from where we are. So, that would be better if that is not funded than us going backwards from who we have now. And that's the situation you're in. You're not in a situation where you're adding this year. You're in a situation where you're controlling your, you know, your spin. Well, I I guess my concern would be is that we have legal obligations with 504s and IEPs and what we need to do and this these people or this rule is an integral part of that and then we're reducing legal services somewhere. I I just, you know, if something were to happen and then we reduce our legal services somewhere and then we have I don't
128know something could we could have a $100,000 charge on illegal for an investigation maybe or something. I I don't know. So then we're putting ourselves in harm's way of different things with this. It's just concerning that any human or any role or any integral part of specifically anything that's contractually obligated and legally obligated, right? Let alone just putting us in harm's way is my concern. Yeah. You anything that you don't do, you know, to control certain things, you take risks on. I would say that the district has the great benefit right now of having core people in positions where we have been here for a long time. You know, you have HR people, you know, Suzanne Waters has been here for a long time, knows a lot, has a lot of experience. I've been here
129for a long time, have a lot of experience. We are looking to pull all of our experience and do our very best to you know to cover um you know these issues and um not use the resources as much as we can. I don't think we want to keep it that way forever. But you know if we get through a tough spot I think we're just going to need to be putting in extra time you know and making sure that we're controlling it to the best of our abilities. Dr. s has been here a long time. So I would say that if you if you were losing those people, you know, that have all of these years of collective experience who absolutely could not even take a chance at not having some of these things,
130but we have the great benefit at least for another couple of years of having a few of us who have been around here for a very long time. So you can take a chance when you've got that kind of experience, but you would want to be careful about that over a span of years. When most people leave, you know, something would have to be done because they're not going to be around to catch the problem. You know, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, so I'll just start with this pink here. Just kind of go down. So, uh, you have the board of education septic repair on this list for $8,500. Um, is this not needed for the, uh, building, I assume? We're just putting it off. Is that wise that we're going to have
131further expense down the road or what what is Well, I mean, it's just one of the things that you could potentially put off and you could also resubmit maybe potentially as capital. Um, we have a solution at the moment. It would be um you know it may be something that at the end of the year if we cover our 188 in ERF we could pro might be able to do that project out of end of year funds. Yeah. So it's something that is it's a it's an amount of money that can help us reach an end but we might be able to cover if there's end of year money to do it. Yeah. I just want to make sure we're not putting on fair or next year we come around. know we have a $17,000
132repair because we don't spend $8,500. Right. Right. Well, that's that goes to another, you know, you've got a great facilities director who knows really what he's doing. So, it's a mitigated risk, but you know, Yeah. What is the specific proof there? Do you know or Yeah. Well, um, so the pressure, um, and the piping in there, it kind of goes down at an angle that makes it clog a lot. And when it clogs, none of us can use the bathroom in the board of ed office, which is highly inconvenient. Yes. Um, and creates work work flow issues. So, so what happens is it gets if you when the repair will help ameliate the angle problem, it goes down and do you know where the propane tanks are? It goes down and have an angle that
133is very difficult to clear and they have to keep snaking it. And this would be a more permanent solution to having to snake it a lot whenever things happen. Yes. in his short version. All right. There wouldn't be any le uh TIS uh language arts workbooks was $10,000 seems like a pretty important learning aspect. um how would we be dealing with that or why are they not needed or what other resources are we going to use instead of these workbooks for the educational we'll be able to cover some of that pre an end of year it's the kind of figure that you might be able to hit with an end of year the end of this year out it's not um some of these little things might be able to not little you right now,
134but they are some five of those you get a nurse. Yeah, they may they're they're one time type of things. You might be able to get it out of an end of year thing, but it's not if you keep a position and keep it in perpetuity, you know, whereas this would be something that is expensed, but then it might not be needed. All right. Okay. Um, explain Maticia what this is. Decodable libraries, reduced decodable libraries, 17 plus thousand. Instead of a set for every classroom that would work with inter reading, they would share, there would be half as many and they would have to share among, you know, different two grades might have to share the same set. So, they would have a little less flexibility in how they're delivering their instruction. More coordination is
135necessary. which requires the CIA teams and the you know the other people to coordinate it repair it. Okay. So we have the resources we're just going to be sharing them. It's a way that in a in a really tough budget situation Oh no I understand all that. I'm just on an operational standpoint that we're not not buying something that we need for education. Frustrates some people to do this. No, I I understand that. But I I'm sure all of us is frustrated. It does. Every bit of this frustrates somebody severely. Oh, no. I'm I'm I completely understand. I have not about frustrating. I don't want to frustrate anybody, but I have to find solutions. Um they also gave just a little touch base on this Lexia Wagle differential for 5,000. We talked to the Lexia
136in the past there's a product called Waggle that might be a little cheaper and do the same thing. So what I've been trying to do in the times you know each time we've talked about things and if there was something that we could come up with Yes. that would give us a little bit of a break or a difference. Um and we have a great you know um we have a great humanities supervisor administrator who talked about it and there's a product called Waggle. Yeah. So we could dump the lexia by the wagon and instate five. Yeah, I looked up it a little bit earlier before I came this evening because this is on another list. It's just each time we try to work and figure out what else we can do. Okay. I just
137want to make sure we're not use losing that resource for students. That's all. Um hold on. Um what is the science a toz program 6500 plus? It's an excellent program used um in the younger grades to get kids acclimated and ready for NGSS the testing but it um because it covered a lot of the bases it augments what's going on in the classroom makes it you know more easy for the teacher to differentiate but if we had to choose between that collectively and positions it's better to not have that you know like if that plus the decodables plus the waggle plus whatever adds up to a It's better to get rid of these things than another person. [Music] So, so it's not necessar this is more or less for the te for the state testing.
138Yeah, it it is a tool to help prepare kids in science or online utilization, you know, using computers online or whatever, but it's not necessary the way a person would be necessary, you know. So, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm I'm not I'm not I don't want us to decide on money on just statemandated testing personally. I mean, it is one of those things that our NDSS, we know it'll stay probably where it is, it's probably not going to do leaps and bounds, but people haven't been that worried about that either. So, if there's a place to take a hit place, all right, next. I'm just going down the list here if you don't mind. Just find uh the Can you What are the initials? HMH dimension $12,000 uh hardport Hartman Hardport um it's part of um
139it's part of the ELA programming but it's something that we can't Oops. I'm losing the wrong people here. Um it's one of the things that is going to probably annoy people but that we could do our best to work without you know um it's part of ELA programming. It helps with all of the aspects of um you know preparing them but we have other options and the inter reading V3 has things in it or promises to have things in it that will allow us to consolidate some of the things we're doing now and this is part of it. We're taking a shot at maybe that happening taking a risk. Um, but that is something that we could work with next year, you know, and we have other options for covering. Don't sound too positive on
140that, but well, it's because we don't even have B3 yet. You know, we're taking measured risks on this kind of thing. It's better to get and when we add those up, I don't want to lose another ELA person. We don't want to lose, you know, it's just one of those things that and I did. It's not like I just took a dart board and started throwing darts at it. You know, I went and talked to admin. We talked about what we could do, you know, in a desperate situation. Um, and so we came up with these types of things. Well, I I completely understand and I appreciate see, you know, having uh this list here when I'm trying to put together someone can see what we're actually looking at specifically. So, I thank you. Um,
141right. There's other positions. So, um, now I want to go back to the clubs. Um, so now you said there's part in the union contract where the club I'm sorry, can I clarify something? Yes. The HMH is uh it's it's more specifically it's the science digital textbook but we have hard copies HMH dementia is yeah it's this particular thing is it's it is a science digital textbook we have physical copies the issue is it has additional re digital resources that kids can use at home and it helps prepare us for the NDS assess and so on. Which grade is this? This goes to a couple. This is available to kids, I think. It's quite it's uh the younger schools, but we have the textbooks. It's just these were digital resources that got kids more prepared
142for NGSS and all that. So, I just want to clarify that's exactly what that is. Okay. It's digital resources that augment the textbook that we were just not there. Well, maybe somebody do some research or some free sites students can use. All right. Hope. All right. Um going back to the uh subsection which said 38 to 34 with the gain contract to club choices. Um, it's a sticking point on trying to ruffle my feathers, but there's a possibility to go and ask the union. um see if there's some sort of alternation that can be made to have like Jen was saying like to have these volunteers to where we're not trying to offset them but we also you know we hope that the staff and the teachers would realize that we're in a tough cycle
143of budget here but we also still want to provide re uh opportunities for children to participate in these clubs, but if we're kind of set by the union, we're not trying to not have the opportunity for the for the union staff to make money, but at the same time, we'll try to still run a community that would like still in our district provide these, you know, opportunities for children. I don't know how this would go about, but that would be my option if we can just kind of bring it in a gentle more economical community type sense, which we're in a very tough spot here. I would, you know, obviously it's probably up to everybody here on the board, but that would be a suggestion of mine. We have a few months time to possibly
144see whether yes or no, they'd be willing to do that for the September um school year. yourself. And I don't know how people feel about that. I don't, like I said, I don't want to ruffle anybody's further, but I think we're in a tough spot here. I don't want to u you know, not lose some of these ones that we might have community members who will to step up and say, "Yeah, hey, I'll run the Lego club. I'll be there every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks or 8 weeks or whatever from 3 to 4:15 to run it." You know, you might have people that step up. Um like my wife and I are trying to get a chess club going at the library. The library doesn't want to provide us. So we're going around
145trying to get names and uh resources to run the club and we let them provide the room and we'll kind of figure it out as volunteers for some for families to do. So hopefully that does pan out. But it's we're trying to get that going. So, I'm sure there's other people in the community who would be willing to step up, provide that sort of um action for their kids. Um so, some of these like the yearbook club, they say if we don't have 20, the yearbook, we only have uh 12 to 15 students. Um sorry, I'm trying to find the list here a second. Club participation. So according to this here, there's no fees associated with the yearbook. Uh where do you see it does not include cost? I don't see that. What should that
146list is that that's sent out to us? Scroll to the right. It's you talking about participation. I'm on the club money does not include cost and voice and support list. Um, I thought the ones that were in yellow were the ones that added up to the 30,000 here that are the no fee clubs, but that one's not highlighted on my list. Yeah, I I if it's not highlighted, it's probably not. It would be one that we might We have club advisor yearbook $5,600, sir. All right. Club money does not include and here's the line item. Are the yellow ones on this list the ones that add up to the 30,971 spreadsheet? I don't even know what that spreadsheet it was. Yeah, the yellows are the ones that are the 3971 and those are the ones
147that you have in the budget that are are not going to be erased. Correct. Usually they're the ones we have to absorb for one reason or another like advisor or club transportation. That's like the Birch Grove transportation. Oh yeah. Advisor, sophomore class, senior class, freshman class, excuse me. They end up costing more money if you try to do it another way. So those that's why you see that the reduction is more like 116 because the one that we Oh, I completely understand that. That's why I'm asking the question though. So is the yearbook not going to run because it's not highlighted in yellow in this 30? can't collect enough money for everyone to be able to find another way. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, on on budget question 65, you attached um a spreadsheet with
148the club cost breakdown and that high school yearbook club with 12 to 15 is listed as a no fees club. No on this on this sheep here it's saying there is a fee right so probably between the two times what's happening is when I talk about it with the business manager and others it's one that we will have to charge a fee for now because other like the Birch Grove Transportation Club we would not want to try to do differently but that one you could probably do it differently okay yeah you can just add in the 5,600 and the cost whoever buys a yearbook, the yearbook would just went up, you know, $9. Like there's options on that, right? Again, that sort of thing. There is a there's a method to the madness on this.
149It's just, you know, it breaks down to a deeper conversation about why on that one and where else could you get it and, you know, are there other options for funding, you know? So, that's why it falls that way. No, I understand that. But if we're having a money item in here necessar maybe necessarily what I'm getting at here is if this is still going to run then that number isn't necessarily the the proper number or am I out of whack saying that what we're essentially doing is saying that of all of these clubs and the amount that we would spend on them the 116 is what we can reasonably cut and still be able to within the budget to fund the ones that you need to in order to not spend more like the
150BGP transportation club is in you know um it's it's basically you know you're kind of looking at it again with some level of risk you know because if uh people aren't willing to pay something like that then it doesn't run now you got to find another way to generate your so you know there has to be some discretion involved in well we have this amount to play with and these is this is where that that funding is going to go. Uh for instance, if there's a a club that's necessary for Title N for some reason, that might be a good idea to find, you know, you know, somewhere in that 30, you might want to use it for that one. So, it's there's going to be some maneuverability in here. It's just um 116 is
151a figure that would wipe unfortunately wipe out a lot of the board funding for a lot of the clubs, but that's how it breaks down in in this iteration at this moment in time when these discussions occur. And that's why the budget process is long. Most of the FAQ stuff is probably months old at this point. So between then and now it's well can we run that without that? Probably. How would we do that? Maybe read out a cost to this, maybe, you know, that conversation might happen over a year. But yeah, no, I'm not grabbing that. That was Bill grabbing that that data point. I'm not grabbing that data point in reference to our mist, Bill. I'm just good. The information that was provided to us, this is kind of just in that sheet
152that you had, where did we get that 116? Here's where we get the 116. What considerations were part of that? These were part of it that tab. It's just trying to show you how that figure was arrived at with this particular iteration of it now in you know the second referendum situation. Okay. Well, I I I you know and and some of these and I know some organizations do but I don't know how many actually do or don't. But I think some of these you could probably you know reach out to some people like uh like Jen was saying like engage some interest like say the ski club. Some of these, you know, groups might even uh step up with trying to do fundraisers on their own, you know, to to provide some I think
153it's uh and like even for this SAT prep that we're supposed to be covering for $3,600. Um, and it's something that you that we actually charge the money for the SAT prep and don't actually put this 3,600 in the budget here, but we actually have the people want to sign up for the SAT prep and pay a fee and put that into for uh some other resource that we can use in in the budget. And the other question um the uh advisor for eighth grade is there a reason why there's three advisors for just for eighth grade and we have the freshman, junior, senior, and sophomore advisors are only having two advisors. Um I off the top of my head I don't know. No, no. I would have to go back and look, but it
154probably has to do with something like um that's another 2,000. There's a number of activities and there's the Washington trip and I don't know if they Well, that's a different those are four line items for the Washington trip. So, I don't in 8th grade I know there's a lot of stuff they do. I'm not exactly sure why there's three. I'd have to look, but that's taking from what we had budgeted from previous years. I'm not sure why. You'd be you would be um Yeah, I don't I say I don't know. I was saying we'd claw back $2,000 if we could just everyone just have two advisors instead of this three. Like there's fun. Can I add to that real quick? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Class advisor point. I'm glad you mentioned it because I didn't notice
155it before now. Um when I correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Will, when we did the whole class office stuff and all these things, who was your class advisor? Mrs. Hill ran all of that. it was just her. And so I only recall one known class adviser for our class. And then I believe Mrs. Ericson and Mrs. Duire, they were in eighth grade with me at the time. Um, you know, they were sort of leaders for the Washington trip and all that. And so are these so that they might be categorized into maybe the club adviser for Washington trip but not adviser for eighth grade. Where that is a good it's a good question. Where are these other two? Well, first of all, when when these kind of things come up like this, typically they
156come up this way because at some point or another, some workload conversation probably occurred and somebody pointed out that the number of hours to execute all these things was more than in the contracts allocation for the club at that compensation level, you know, etc., etc. So then you have to add another if you want to you know have those people involved and if they're not involved you have to scale back what you're doing because people only there's this fixed amount of time that is allocated or if you look at that contract it says you know there's this many hours for this kind of thing at this thing. So if there's three in there it's because at some point or another there was some kind of conversation about well I can do this but I can't
157do all this. So you need to get someone in there to do this. Having said that, you're at 923 and really what we're doing with clubs here is you're just not funding, you know, you're you're reducing 116 of the of the board's funding for the clubs. So, understood the time. I understand the here is just everybody had a chance. I I I I think this is very important to all of us here. I don't know how many people came to the town council meetings. Your next question, wrote in letters, did everything here. I think this is one of the most important things that we're discussing tonight. Then let's continue. So I I I think that we need to dig in. Not obviously not at not at 9:23, but I think the next No, I'm not
158finished with my statement, please. I think we need to dig in and find out specifically what these advisors for eighth grade what all of these people are doing just to ensure that these are being fulfilled by people and what the actual task is. He says that there's work being done and he's unsure of what the specific work is for each one of these. 2000 2000 2000 16 2000 2000 24 16 that we should get some answers to this. Everybody had a time. I don't like when people do that. Brian, I'm just saying let's let's continue with your talk. Well, I and I'm actually not suggesting what you're saying is unimportant. What I'm saying is there's a fixed amount you're spending on book clubs. you're, you know, you're reducing it by that 116 here. So, I
159can come up with the answers to what why there's three. But in order to reach your budget figure, you're going to probably have to take a chunk from somewhere. And this is just a recommendation to you guys respectfully that this is where you take because of options you have, other options you have for it. I'm done. So you not not really but go I'm done. Okay. So and I just have one comment uh as I look through the recommendation and and table two as rel as related to table three. Uh I think you mentioned earlier uh is a risk. You know, there are a couple items in here where we're not necessarily betting the farm, but we're we're relying upon experience and probability. Uh, for example, some of the the legal questions with special education
160are highly dependent on what happens, the the students that come, the questions that arise, the PPTs that happen. Uh, where we can make our best guess, but until that happens, we really don't know. Uh, one question I had, there's a 2% increase for and then has an alphabet soup uh, right there in the pink underneath the the yellows there. What are those? Are those programs? Are they Where did you ask about Tony? Just so I can follow. It's uh, line 49. J 49 on table two. Thank you. All right. If that is limiting those individuals to a 2% increase, okay, you save that amount of money by limiting those individuals, the people in those position classes to supers, which would not be, you know, there's again there is a risk to doing that keeping the
161market competitive, keeping those people here, you know, that type of thing. Right. Right. Okay. And and you know the the comment was just to mention you know we're looking at a list that has about 94 different items. Uh to to your point as we've gone iteration by iteration you know that the first what is it that the blue we reduced the things that we thought we needed to to advance the district. uh we came back the next color we started deducing you know the people in the programs you know not not necessarily low hanging fruit but these we're we're taking away the low hanging fruit now we're at the stuff where we're having to make some the septic system uh which gets incredibly unpleasant as that backs up so we're taking a look um my
162my point in being is that you know I look at this and I look at table three and I see table three not necessarily as things we could swap in. But if our assumptions in table two, if one or two of them happen to lean a little bit towards the bad side, we could find ourselves in table three anyway. Uh so that that ends up being a bit of a a buffer uh albeit an unpleasant one. Uh I I think we go back to the point where the the expectation of course and I think you articulated it well was the staff that the district is going to do everything they can to find you know pennies under couch cushions to try to limit the effect of some of these items. But from a budget perspective
163we have to say here's the number we have and how do we what's our goal for doing that? So, and I recognize all the conversations that we've had and all of the the clarifications that point out that, you know, these 94 items while they sign significantly represent an attempt to keep staff, it still affects staff. Uh, it affects art students. It affects the health of our kids. It affects the big safety conversation as far as social workers, people. Um, the the SRO's, the the person out there watching the buses. We're reducing the bus numbers on here. So, the parent standing outside, their kid comes a little bit later. all of these things. There's not a person in the district that is going to avoid being touched by these 94 items. Recognizing that is what we
164have to do and it's an absolutely terrible thing that we have to do. My caution and just for everybody, the people in here, the people on the phone, uh is to assume that all we have to do is get through this next year. I think that's something we said last year. uh and when we start reducing some of these things, we have to do so recognizing the fact that we are very quickly eroding what we have. Well, it could be. So, just want to make sure that we're all cognizant aware of that. Okay. So, um, and I thank you for pointing out the time, but what I want to do now is give everybody a quick opportunity or that would like to to have a go back. Well, I was only doing that to say
165you're getting close to 10. I didn't appreciate anything else by that. Before we go around, is there a reason why we're not screen sharing? Is it just for Well, the this is your tool. This is until you make a decision hopefully tonight. We discussed that. When you make a decision tonight, I will take everything and put it into a doc that that is published. That is your decision. The board approves a set of reductions. We didn't approve a set of reductions last meeting and one was posted. So that statement that you just made is inaccurate. I'm talking about live right now with our participants being able to follow along with our conversation. It is I I'm looking at a million documents and like I know what Brian was and I was looking at the wrong
166page when you were saying about inside in yellow and I was in a different document and I'm seeing the documents. So again I I I just didn't know why we weren't. Yeah, that was that was a decision that was wrong. understand. Well, this is everything whereas what was being talked about prior was what you already mentioned in your minutes. Anything sent out I was talking about last meeting, right? But anything I mean I'm just saying the stuff you put out there is what you've already talked about in the minutes. This stuff is literally everything. So, uh, would anybody like an opportunity for go back? Yeah. Is there any precedent? I I know a lot of our salaries are union contract. There any precedent for doing a a wage freeze? Well, contracts mean you can't just
167freeze it except unless you're talking about non-contract employees, which should be the 2% type people that you're looking at there. You can ask. Have we ever done that? Yes. And what has the outcome been? Mixed. I I don't think there's an appetite for that anymore. When was the last time we did it? Few years ago, but the context of things have changed dramatically. Um, you know, so to give you, you know, a general idea of how someone might view this in a bargaining unit, maybe tass years ago, n president I asked Don once or twice did it, but then um things happen to that bargaining unit anyway, regardless of whether that was done or not, the bargaining unit will probably not look at doing that again ever. Plus, they also lose years on their retirement.
168there was a magnifying factor of multiplier on their retirement if they do that because now you're not making the you know if you skipped two years of that you're not making those tears anymore and they weren't made up anywhere else there was nothing that happened to make that better so they're less likely to go that direction again I'm just speculating um something like teachers um teachers union you know they work really the teachers work amazingly hard like all the other staff um you know recently. Um, you know, if there's fewer clubs and activities, they're not. That's not income they're making. If their bargaining unit uh through negotiations, you know, it uh a really good indicator of what where you're at is when you go into negotiations and you have a settlement, where is that settlement
169in the spectrum of settlements at that time? Ours is typically average or below, and that's what it was last time. So for a bargaining unit getting an average or below percentage increase while they're not going to be getting income from clubs or activities or any of these other things is already going to probably be looking at it as uh those are losses of opportunities for them. So why would they give up anything else? you know, and and sometimes people will look at it and say, "Well, look, there's all these steps and uh we're going to publish a random step sheet and say, look, everybody gets paid." It has to be looked at in the context of the state. Where are the teachers with respect to how everybody's paid in the state? Where are the teachers
170with respect to how the bargaining unit at negotiations, you know, finished? Are they way above, way below, at average? and our settlements have been average and below average for that compensation. So our teachers are not ridiculously paid and in the in recent years there's things that they're not getting paid for anymore. Um so that so this reduction list that we have where does this set us up for next year? Does it put us in any are are we putting a foot in front of each other or are we just continuing to take steps back? Well, I mean, I I think we're reacting to um you had a 734 that you're getting to a 146 and you have 10 years, 12 years of these 1.6es, you know, as an average. So, it's hurting you. It's absolutely
171hurting you. Are we looking at more reductions next year? I don't know what next year's budget will be. I'm doing everything I can to prevent that. I think a lot of us are. We have all of the people working in this district are trying to prevent that, you know, with the leaps and the TTAs and the open joints and, you know, all these things that we're trying to do. Um, we're trying desperately to prevent it. We're dealing with budgets that have been on average lower than what it takes to maintain your services. So, that's what you're struggling with. And so, I hope so. I hope not. I hope next year is 3% or higher. And then just really quickly, um I know there's certain clubs and I'm actually going to gear this sort of toward
172you a little bit. Rage Robotics is one of those clubs that doesn't necessarily operate as a ths club. It's a external club that is based out of town. So what's the difference in in terms of they don't get any board of ed funding. They don't get any they just get the space. Correct. So they range does what we talked about before. They they are a partner but they have building use stuff and you know Yep. they fill out the permit and they actually have kids from Ellington and all around and it's it's not strictly we we are a partner with them and like boys they house them and you know there's a room they rent or whatever yet but we're not um they're not a school sponsored activity per se. So you mentioned the you
173know students coming from Ellington and whatnot and this is just something to consider you know down the road and whatnot. Um, I'm curious how many of these clubs out of that 115,000 and whatnot. Um, could I guess go into that model? DECA is not one of those. So, I'll just tell you just from what I know. Um, but a RA robotics where again you're meeting how often do you meet for those types of clubs? Is it a weekly meet or is it a monthly meet or is it a during season? They're meeting three times a week. Three times a week. So, that's those are opportunities for us to bring in I'm sorry. offer things that other towns might not, you know, and and and and and make it um a little bigger that way. And
174maybe that's how you bring in some external revenue. I don't know. Um it just made me think because Rage does operate differently from a debt, from a student council, from this and that. And so, um in terms of how much of that 115 could we get back if we just expanded those ideas a little bit, I'd be curious. That's not a this year problem, unfortunately. Would be, um more so next year. But um I just wanted to get that clarified. I just wasn't sure as of there was something that we could currently do. Um and then I do have other questions, but they're from they're from whatever. So um I will get those answered elsewhere. That's all. Um I just have one question and that is why are there no totals on this? Couldn't we
175really like to have a total on the purple, total on the red, total on the total, something? No totals except for in table three. And this is why I asked Well, table one has to look over here. Yeah, table. That's where the totals are is table one. Oh, yeah. Okay. But but I mean these different these different iterations. Okay. Maybe. Okay. On the dashboard and the the other piece is now you have some you have been talking about I didn't see that part. reject. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and just as an aside, some of you have been talking about some of the things that were done in the past. I mean, technically, you can do what you want here. It's just you've already done some things that you published or talked about. Was that? Yes. Anybody
176else would like to go back? Thank you, Dr. W. I entertain a motion to move this to board action. So it should between two here. Yes. Oh, sorry. I was like discussion. All right. Again, motion is to move this into board action. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Jaden. Hi Greeny. Hi Brent. Hi Bill. Hi Jim. Hi Jana. Hi Katie. Hi. All right. That is moved into board action item N2. Okay. Board action item N1 food service meal increase. Dr. Will, if you could be so kind in show that up here. Okay. Somewhere in here. So, the uh the proposed motion is there at the bottom. All right. Uh We'll entertain the motion because anybody can read it. Motion. Oh, go ahead. No, no, doesn't matter. Motion to approve the school lunch price increases as recommended
177by the superintendent of schools and as proposed in agenda item L1 of the May 28, 2025 meeting. Second. Is the bill second. Okay. Any additional discussion? Okay. Hearing none. I Bill. Hi. Hi. Jen. Hi. Dana. Hi. Eddie. Hi. Dr. Bullet. Motion passes. Now, that will take effect at the beginning of next school year. Yes, that moving on. Board action item M2. I will entertain the motion to accept um the reductions as listed in table two. Plus, it's any modifications. All seconded discussion. Just a clarification. Just to clarify for anybody following along here. Although they don't see the table. Never mind. It's approved to look at table two. We're reducing from table two. Yes. And your motion will add it to Yeah. So will this be a time where if I didn't agree with that I
178would say what my thoughts are. Yes. Okay. Then can I talk? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My thoughts are and um I'm also trying to think of this year. I'm also trying to think of years to come would be to that IT par educator position into the reduction list and use that $27,000 to bring back stuff to bring back. Oh, we said stuff stuff to bring back some some things to bring back the nurse. Find another 27. It just seemed to me that when giving a description of what that IT position did, it it seemed to me that that would be a little bit easier to cover than some of the items that we're losing. So that being my thought further discussion. I'm confused. Where's the I know we talked about the it all three. He's talking
179about taking it out of here, putting it in there. And I'm not talking about the specialist, right? So where's the second one? Yes. So, you want to restore programs or I mean Well, I'm open to that discussion. I'm I'm just saying that move that $27,000 into column two and I'm open to discussion about moving, you know, I like the nurse idea, you know, finding, you know, a way to to bring that position back or or other, you know, I even see funding the the co-ops. Um, you know, a summer custodian. we heard from the custodians how important that position was. So, you know, I'm open to that discussion, but you know, my initial thoughts were to to move that to the reductions. So, so um go ahead. So, my concern with that is twofold, which
180would lead me to a question. One, it's a it's an it's a person. Um, two, when you were explaining it, Dr. Willlet, you said that there are three current IT special. It's just I guess I'm I'm not opposed to looking at any of these things. My concern is is that a heck of a lot in our school system of business runs through computers and programs and things I use and touch every single day. um like Power School and I'm sure most people are using that bus app every single day and I don't know where all this falls in but I want to make sure that there's no programs especially the ones that parents need to touch to know what's going on with their kids or their kids safety would be in jeopardy if we don't
181have enough technical people in our district. Our district just feels really big to have only three IT people. So if it was three IT people and a pair of educator, you'd have to go back to the numbers. But I guess I just want some understanding on what a further understanding if we're going to make an amendment to what these people do and some kind of assurance that the programs will still run as necessary. with the so I mean that job provides support for all the other staff as you know you know and so that means people will be you know unable to move forward with the things they're living until somebody of the remaining three people can get around to help them and the remaining three people all are tasked with various you know responsibilities
182right so it takes a while that's why that person's there it's taking a very long um so you know if you are going to make that a cut that does not save a position by itself. So other cuts will have to be made in addition to it you know so if you're bringing back the um the nurse you know that 27 won't cover that more will have to be reduced so um00 so I tried to you know I grade out a couple things that that's 36130 you know we would be 9,000 shy so if we took the that IT par educator training and the PS the SIS support or add report stuff which you know will affect operations a bit that would be um we'd still have to we can cut those but we have
183to find nine somewhere and that can be I can work with that if you want I can try to find the nine I I can increase the amount that we take from legal but I'm really worried about that you know those are the things that there's no place to get that nine that's easy that's the problem with trying to replace an entire to Saturday. Can I respond? Yeah, please. If I remember in in one of our in the in one of our conversations, don't we use a lot of um students to do stuff it related summer? There's a lot of kids in the summer, but they they're they do like Yeah, there's a they do a tremendous amount, right? They won't be ready. They do all the manual things for all the machine, the whole
184district, right? We just sort of these individuals that are during the year put their fingers in the holes, so to speak, but in the summer, that's when all the updates happen, all the cleaning out happens, you know. Um, that's why they are crucial. I mean, I I I also, you know, thinking of that $27,000, that's, you know, multi-ter support system was, you know, we had all talked about that that was an important thing and I I think we didn't like losing it, but that's three stipens right there to, you know, help with the the MTSS. You can um and you know, and I don't know where what we would pull back. I'm just saying that, you know, we're we're that's one thing that I would say that we're losing a lot of programs and not
185that we can a it's never good to lose people. U none of this is easy. Um but I'm I'm thinking about where can we save some programs um that we're losing out on. So you could you could put the 27 in as a cut and cut less of the MTSS and fund that that way. Um yeah, I would say I I appreciate the the idea of sort of swapping and and getting some programs back. I'm going to try to stay as consistent as I possibly can since I started being on this board. As many people as we can keep in the buildings as possible. You could take away my my calculators and our homework bins at work. You could take away my, you know, computer for the afternoon. You can take away the hope is
186that I can still me do a job and care for the child and this and that. This job specifically, the difference between this one, the par educator, IT pair educator and the specialist from what I understand two very different things. The specialist doing a lot of the data driven uh work uh to oblige by the state's standard. this person and again Jen just sort of pointed it out um with the what is it there there's three there's three of these people there's three of these uh I the three IT people um across the district we eliminate one I think Dr. Dr. Will, you mentioned before the time to travel between, you know, how quickly can I get my computer to work so I can show my lesson on the Smartboard today. You know, it's things
187like that that, you know, I I I want to be cognizant of if we don't have the program, you know, there's alternatives to those. If we don't have the resources to teach or to or the or the the people to help us teach, um, there's no such there's there's no class. we can't I can't run my lesson if I don't have the materials I need for that lesson. And so um but again for these programs there are alternative programs like the waggle was it called waggle waddle waddle um you know so and to your to your point about sort of swapping it in for something else. My initial thought was let's take the IT parah out put back the um nurse nurse position in the 7. The problem is there's a gap of about what
188$2,500 whatever it is. So now we're looking at something along the lines of like the Microsoft trainings and the powers school and we've gotten rid of so many of these trainings already that I'm again now we're affecting how staff are able to do their job. And so I think it's a fair ask to to bring that over. Um, where I'm at though right now is is is again I we're losing I did I I did a tally over here of how many people we're losing and it's kind of jaw-dropping jawdropping um um relative to the programs that is also jaw-dropping. So right now I would not necessarily be in favor of moving that par it pareducator um over into the reductions list as of right now. if we have another referendum failed and we're forced
189our our hand is forced then those are discussions that we can have down the road. Um but I'm happy to talk about whatever anybody wants to talk about. So the thing that and my point and I'm on board with with kind of what Jaden was saying there uh you know I look through this list of reductions and I see we're talking about reducing uh upgrades to the Prometheian boards. We're talking about reducing upgrades to the Windows computers. We're talking about reducing, you know, it iPads. We're reducing certain programs that work together and replacing them with programs that should do the same thing but are a cheaper uh cheaper cost. Uh we're looking at not filling certain banking fees, certain parent type things. Uh the point of all that to be is that we are going
190to have an increased reliance on aged electronics and equipment. Uh, I think the number of times that a teacher has to call and have their, you know, their their internet reset or their their PC fix, those ankle biter type things that are hard enough to do when you're sitting by yourself, but impossible to do when you're trying to watch 21 kids and keep things moving. Um, having that resource that can get in there that can get it up and going and get them back to normal operation is is is going to be a deal breaker. Uh, I think it's going to end up while you know MTSS obviously is is critical and something we want to say. I think if we don't have the IT resources there to keep things going, we're going to see
191more of a degradation than TSS. So, I think the IT staff is something that has begun and has to be nurtured. How long we have that? Oh, go ahead. I just was going to say that I I really appreciate you trying to bring something like MTSS in. Like I hate even this is just awful, right? This is just really hard and you know I so I just don't want you to think or or anyone as this continues like I you make a you make a suggestion like that and I want to jump all over it but then the other part of me doesn't doesn't want to for what I said what Tony Tony just made an excellent point about the aged equipment. I hadn't even thought about that and that it's someone's job. So, I
192just I hope people understand that we're between a rock and a hard place and um but I really do especially you know how I feel about MTSS. So, I really do love that you just tried to bring that back and I just wanted to make that statement. It's like you know it's just so hard to be in this position right now and try to juggle things. And I honestly want to look up and say I don't know. I really don't know. But yet I know that I was voted in here to make decisions and every year these decisions just keep getting harder and and harder. So that's all I How long have we had that IT pared educator position in this? Couple of years. And you say couple is too few is I I'm estimating
193I it all blends together for me. It's not been 10 years probably in the zone of five or three or you know five. It's uh it's definitely not been something as long as 10. I'm sorry to keep at I'm sorry. But so what happened before that role? Before that role was created, who was solving the problems? Who was? We used to have edtech coaches deployed in every building. There was for them and there there were they were the ones who handled it, but then they got caught. So now just fell off. So then then it was we were having major problems because they weren't able to get to people and pro you know they were crying and that was a solution to that. So we cut edtech coaches somewhere along the lines added an IT
194pair educator. We cut the edtech coaches and the um ETIT person. There was a teacher who was also helping with that that wiped out years. So all of these these coaches and this person were wiped out from a budget perspective. And then that person was brought on here somewhere to help cover the holes that were created because of all that. All right. So the motion on the floor is as written. Is there any other discussion before we go to that one? All right. Jaden. Hi Re. Hi. Hi. Bill. No. I 10. Hi Dana. Nay. Katie. Hi. Right. Dr. Willlet. Motion passes. Good. I'll publish this list to the board of eds budget page. Perfect. All right. I'd like to make a motion to go past 10. Oh, I just think we're getting too close to
195public. You are absolutely. Is there a second? I'll second it. That hurt. Any discussion? All right, Jaden. I Rainey. Nay. Brian. Hi, Bill. My hand. Dana, hi. Katie, I motion passes. Do those cookies? I do want those cookies. Um, so public participation two minute comments must be limited to items on this agenda. Again, if you're in the room and would like to speak, please raise your hand. The I will find you. If you are online, please raise your Zoom hand. As always, please start with your name and address for the minutes. Second time. If you're in the room, please raise your hand. If you are online, please raise your Zoom p. Uh, Northfields. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Thank you. So, good evening though, three beach road. Um, I just had
196a couple quick questions or comments. Um, just regarding the clubs and advisers that if we go down the path of the mentioned 25 minimum paying participants to run a club. Um, at the current club fee right now that's 20 40 bucks per participant. Um, that comes out to a,000 bucks. But most of our clubs in the contract are run at 3% which is $1,26 or clubs such as DECA NHS are 5% which is $2,11 or clubs like yearbook like you said are above that where is the additional money getting subsidized from or you're asking students to pay the difference. So, for example, like drama um or yearbook, which you said is 5,600 or $6,500. That comes out to about $200 per student for like a 25 or 30 p person club, which would jeopardize a
197lot of these clubs from running from being too expensive because we have a lot of students at the high school that are multi- club or play sports and do clubs. So, we're putting a very financial burden and barrier on them which will prohibit the clubs from running or sports running. Um, additionally, like you said, yearbook. If students are paying for that and they do not sign up and there's no club stipen for that or the students not going to have a yearbook next year um for things like that. And the last one was just that um some other things that fall under like class officers, the people in charge of prom, class A, class night, where is that funding coming from? And such stuff such as chaperones and security also fall under the stipens article.
198So, where is that funding also coming from? Thank you, Noah. Would anybody else like to speak? Rebecca Rizley. Hi, uh, Rebecca Rizley, 103 Mountain Spring Road. Um, thanks for giving me the time to speak. Um, I didn't prepare anything because I don't even know what to say at this point. Um, I have a sophomore. Um, looking ahead at the next two years of having for myself personally, but for the entire town, these these cuts are insane. Um, as you all know, and um, especially around the clubs. I I there's a few things to keep in mind. I think, you know, there's a lot of parents out there who maybe can't afford these increases, but won't raise their hands and say they need help. And there's going to be kids that miss out. There's going to
199be kids that are not going to know how to go and get the help for themselves or to ask for help or to um get assistance. There's going to be so many kids that you don't even realize that are going to fall through the cracks. And that's on this town. And they don't see it now. They're only looking at their own personal situations. But they're going to see it in the next year to five years. The deterioration of the schools and the negative impact on these kids is going to be palpable. And I know I'm speaking to people who are doing their best. I see that. I appreciate that. I just needed to speak up and put something on record because I'm not on any of the Facebook groups, the open discussion disgustingness or any
200of that stuff. But this is this is so detrimental to our kids. Just so detrimental. and I just needed to put that on record. Thank you. Thank you. Jason, Jason Sullivan, 11 Harvest Lane. Uh, first I just want to say it's a sad day for Taland. Uh but I did instead of focusing on just all that negativity today uh as this is a tough day for everyone to swallow. Uh I did want to thank everybody on the board and the super for all the hard work you guys do. Uh today was a tough job. So thank you very much Jason. Anybody else? All right. Thank you all. Point of information. Anybody from the board like to make a comment? J, please. Um, so I don't I don't have the exact figure, but what I think
201it is, so um, and Dr. Willlet, I don't know if I know this. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but um I believe that the reduction, the referendum reduction from a 2% to a 1.5, I think that cut the board of added additional like $223,000. Does that sound right? Yeah, I'd have to do the math. Sure, okay. So, and in total, the board of ed has been reduced $673,390. And that's just from the original vote from the town council that is up for more people. Right. So the reason why I'm making this point and it's important for me to do it publicly too is that um I've seen some things that have been said to me online where there are, you know, people explaining that this drop from 2% to 1.5% overall
202for the town is only going to save them a dollar or $11 a month. So I get that. and we can't put ourselves in anyone's shoes of what they can and they can't afford. But I do believe um councelor Bey did a good job at the town council meeting when she talked about framing. And so this is my opportunity to at least frame this to the public that even though that may have only saved you $1 or $11 or $3 or whatever the cost may be. It has required us to to cut almost another quarter of a million dollars from the school district. That's just the fact. And overall, we're cutting, you know, over a half a million dollars from where we were. The 672390 or I'm sorry, like the increase from last year from
203the board of ed right now is 639 639,13 from our last year's budget. That doesn't even cover one of our fixed costs. It doesn't cover our insurance. Our insurance cost alone is a million dollars. Doesn't cover our transportation. So year over year, this just requires us to keep reducing and and reducing and reducing. And I understand that that's the position we're in, but again, I think it's important to bring it in. Um, we talked about a lot of things tonight that, you know, I said last time, they're very concerning. I really appreciate what Dr. Willlet um provided us. I think he is doing everything he can and and and the people he's working with in the district to turn over every stone that we can. But there are still, as you described it, I wrote
204it down and you said it, measured risks. And I'm not one to beg for trouble and I don't say a lot out loud, but even the things that we've done tonight makes me worry about things that could happen in our schools and us being prepared for it. Physical, mental, things with our staff. We are we are getting to a very detrimental place. And I know that we all know this. And the reason why some of us, you know, had moments tonight is because we all care very much. There's not one person here that wanted to take away the things that we just did. I am going to do what I can to push this referendum as I have. Social media, parents, whatnot. I'd like to request that everybody listening and everybody here in this room
205does that as well. I am not telling you to tell people how to vote. We all know people that are different walks of life. I'm really really frustrated for lack of using more eloquent words about the Democrat versus Republican, the seniors versus kids. We're a community. Let's just vote. Let's get more than 30% of people out there to vote. Let's do whatever we can to tell people to vote so that we know that people are are honestly providing us with an answer here. I think that's it. I I I just I I I hear what um I hear what one of our community members just said. This this is really devastating. Um I think it gets more and more devastating every year. I think that there were a lot of people who try to undermine
206the de devastations that we do um because we try our best to save people and it's like if there's not bodies littered on the floor then no one thinks that. We're really really making huge um taking huge measured risks here than we are and we're taking people away from our kids and every time you take people away from our kids there's less people to handle certain situations. um and we're taking things away and um programs and we're not instituting things that we really should be. But um but anyway, please please you're listening, if you watch me on YouTube, if you read the minutes, please encourage everyone that you know to vote. Katie, I saw your hand was up. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Tony. I put it down because I genuinely dislike so much repetitiveness,
207right? like we but I I mean I will go ahead and say that Jen is absolutely right. There's only one way out of this and that's for people to vote. That's for more people to go vote for themselves, for the community as a whole. Um before I joined this board, I I can't say I was super diligent about voting in referendums or watching any of this or educating myself, right? But now I, you know, it's really I'm disgusted with myself for the fact that I genuinely had no idea that this is how this was working in our town. Um, I'm watching things that we're losing that have helped my student who's a junior now and, you know, inducted into the National Honor Society, you know, through the work of the teachers in this town. That's
208where she's at, the nurses in the town, counselors disappearing. Um, I'm frustrated that other kids in the district won't have the same supports, but there's nothing the people in this room can do about it. Dr. Willlet has provided us with excellent guidance. Um, has done the best that he can to come up with, you know, a really good budget in a in a terrible, horrible situation, which I very much appreciate. Um, and like Jen said, I don't think there's anybody sitting in that room right now or me sitting at home who likes the fact that this is where we're at. So, I'm not sure what we do, but I think everybody's agreeing we don't really love that this is the budget that we're passing. Um, so maybe together we think about how we can make
209sure the referendum passes this time so we don't have this conversation again. Thank you. Any other comments? And I guess I'll say Ben, please. Um, thank you John for what you had to say and I know that my vote was different than several people in this room and my vote is and typically I you know I feel it's my job to vote right like I was elected to make a decision not of staying say yes or no day and although Dr. Will it, as Jen put it, New York Hat I remember uh put the best budget he could possibly put forth based on where we are currently. I can't in good conscience say yes a yay when there's six plus people humans being cut. Like I can't have it. But now conversely, do I say
210yes because this is the best we could do right now because of the two failed referendums? Probably, right? Um, I just there are so many things that are and and the woe is me and the sky is falling and all that rhetoric. The reality of it is is there's a lot of lot of stuff. There's a lot of teachers, there's a lot of administrators, there's a lot of programs, there's a lot of personnel, there's a lot of curriculum, there's I mean, we might as well go back to chalkboards. I really think I appreciate, Jen. You know what? There's so many parents proudly posting how they're going to vote and or or not vote or do whatever. There's plenty of 30%'s deplorable. It's pathetic. Um the reality is I don't think people really know. But when
211all sports go and all clubs go and that lacrosse mom or that football dad or that DECA parent or whatever, when that's actually gone, like the threat, we're not threatening that it's going away. We don't have the funding. It's going to go away because Dr. Wool is not going to be able to be more creative anymore to save the the SRO that the town should be paying for. It's a it's a position that's not filled yet, but if they we want safety, it should be from the town, right? This rhetoric of veteran or the you know the our our our retirey community, retirement community or the senior center versus the kids versus whatever in the community. Well, let's be let's be honest here. We're not going to have a school system. We're not going to
212have a rec center. We're not going to have a senior center. People keep voting down budget and not paying for anything. The reality of it is when I started paying for gasoline for my car, it was less than a dollar. I may be aging myself, but gasoline's never going to be a freaking dollar again. And I'm never going to pay the same amount of taxes on my car, on my sales tax, on my um food, any of that. I don't want my taxes to go up. My taxes would make most people vomit who live who are in this room. I probably pay higher taxes than most people. Sorry, maybe not judgment. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. My point is, or maybe not other people, you know, the people that they say have these these houses or
213these this or these that. Like, I'm sick of the BS online. I'm sick of the divisiveness. I have neighbors that are from all different walks of life and we can talk about Democrat and Republican and we're respectful to each other. Let's be respectful as a community, but the reality of it is if this does not pass and this stuff and the woe is me junk that people are saying, the Democrats say the sky is falling. Well, you want to be honest with you, there is so much stuff that's gone away from the school, we're not going to have French. The child care thing program doesn't exist at the high school anymore. Those are programs gone since I've been on the board of vet. I can go on and on and on. And Brian, I know
214that you got I appreciate your passion today because I feel I felt you today asking those questions and I appreciate you asking those questions. And Bill, I appre appreciate the creativity, you know, trying to get some other stuff going on so we can save some stuff. But the reality of it is we need to take care of our entire community because you want to know what the people when we say that we're not taking care of the entire community, we're going to have nothing. You're going to have big potholes in the road. You're going to we're not going to have that beautiful buildings get built at Crannle. You're not going to have stop signs that are put in the correct places. You're not going to have all those things. It's all resources for all community.
215And I didn't mean to put anybody on the spot with any of that stuff. I'll speak for myself. My taxes are high. Can I afford an extra Starbucks? Can I afford going to Dunkin Dons? No. No, I don't. Because I choose to build a future in the community in which I I've bought a house 10 plus years ago. That's what I have. Anybody else? Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of superintendent evaluation. So move invite into motion to enter executive session inviting the superintendent into that session. Second discussion. All right. Hi Rainy. Hi Brian. Hi. Bill. Hi. Hi again. Hi Anna Katie. Hi. Right. Uh Miss Lisa, you are more than welcome to shut down and go home. That's the last thing on the agenda. But people
216online, uh we will put you into the waiting room. When we exit executive session, we'll let you back in. There is nothing else on the agenda. So if you want to sign off, I certainly