Tolland Joint Budget Meeting - April 2, 2025

001I will call this meeting to order 7:06 p.m and we'll move right to item two which is opening statements um first by me Town Council chair and then by chairman Tony Holt to the board of education so I'll keep keep my remarks brief I know we got a decent amount up on this agenda um I'll just note that as we all know this is a a very difficult budget year um we've got a lot of pressures that we've got to work through and I hope that tonight's conversation is one where both elected bodies can see um the difficult dilemmas each one faces so we can have a comprehensive picture of the current scenario that we're in and I just asked that the conversation is courteous and respectful we know that um we see things differently

002some of us um and you know that's part of our our Democratic process and I just hope that we can uh listen and and have a good conversation so that I'll turn over to uh you chairman H all right thank you chairman muray thank you first I would like to voice my appreciation to all the counselors that joined us in requesting this joint meeting as uh chairman Mari mentioned there's far more information available than can simply be conveyed in the budget requests or in the meetings that we've had so far is my hope that through events like tonight we can ensure that you all have the necessary information to make the difficult decisions that have been entrusted to you for this to work we must believe that everyone involved in this process is doing so

003because they genuinely care for our children our neighbors and our community we must take it on faith that no one has ulterior motives and that the information presented is done so with honest conviction we are all here to help the Board of Education proposed budget took a slightly different path than in previous years beginning last June we began having conversations on critical budget topics such as Usef transportation and overall spending in August we worked through the recent neas audit report we made sure to digest where the district was strong and where we had room to grow November brought a focus on enrollment what was the trend where did the predictions have us going what would that do to existing class sizes on the various educational levels we then sat down with the superintendent to understand

004what initiatives he and his staff were already working from all that the team identified four priorities for Dr Willet to focus his energies on develop and begin implementation of a full day prek four-year-old program expand the pathways program to include additional Pathways and expand student pathway oriented engagement activities and internships continue to develop district and School Safety and Security measures and resources including school resource officers reunification plans a district comprehensive threat assessment process and additional staff training and fourth to increase multi-tiered systems of support for all students through organizational and programmatic improvements increasing support supportive environments student engagement differentiation And Timely and effective feedback the intent was to plan the path forward to ensure the appropriate educational opportunities that will continue to make our children competitive in a rapidly advancing world when the time came

005for Dr Willet to create his proposed budget he was asked to produce a budget proposal that included everything necessary to achieve the goals as identified by the state by the board and by his staff he was asked not to make any reductions at that point you see we recognize that budgets are about priorities for the board to assess its priorities it needs all the cards on the table we had many conversations about this multiple perspectives were discussed and significant compromises were reached school safety remained a priority to that end two SRO and a social worker were included in the proposal other things were not despite data showing over 28,000 visits to the nurse's office the medical staff was not postered one thing to remember when thinking about the request the resulting request for an increase

006of about 3.2 million included 2.5 million in must pays like contractual obligations Insurance transportation and energy put simply if the budget allocation is less than requested must pays have to be funded something else has to come tonight you are to hear about what those reductions could be let's be clear the board has not met to finalize these decisions that will wait until after the council has set its final numbers the board met to discuss the possible areas for understanding they met to identify opportunities to save it broke my heart to hear the passionate pleas of our neighbors and childrens last night no one on the board wants to reduce anything years of limited budgets have eliminated the lwh hanging there's just nothing left to reduce that won't have a tangable impact Dr Willet and his

007staff are left to ask themselves not what will have an effect on student experience but instead what will have the smallest effect on learning for the core subjects My Hope for tonight is that the council members leave with an appreciation of the weight of your decisions please don't dismiss the conversation is Doom and Gloom it is information meant to empower you to consider what your experts are advising you of we recognize that it is a difficult budget Year and that increased taxes are not desirable I am asking that your proposed budget better represent talin's overall priorities the board of education is tasked by the state to maintain good Public elementary and secondary schools implement the educational interests of the state and provide such other educational activities as is in its judgment will best serve the

008interests of our school district the Toler Board of education's budget request is our sincere effort to do just that thank you chairman mark thank you Mr Hol all right I believe that brings us to item three on our agenda um which is presentation on impact of the tax revaluation estimated property tax increases for home owners at the Town manager's current budget proposal of 3.03% um I had some slides that think are part of the larger deck please let me know when we're ready with those you ready go ahead is this what he yeah okay okay okay we can flip to the first content slide please all right so first the intent of these two items is to give everyone here an understanding the current predicament that the council faces um in other words I want

009to provide a bit more context for the reason why our Tom manager uh provided us with a 2.99% proposed increase rather than the full requested budget um now again uh this is this is for context only I think we can have a good conversation afterwards but I I do think it's important to discuss this so per state statute the town is required to do a reassessment of property values and recalc ated smill rate this has to be done every 5 years it cannot be deferred um or ignored and unfortunately the changes in the past for valuation were quite drastic not only did some homes Sky ret in their value um sometimes by upwards of 50% but our commercial property as a share of the grand list actually shrunk um as proportion it did not increase

010in value as much and the result was a shift in the tax burden from businesses to homeowners um and we're seeing the effect of this even at the 3.03% spending increase which is in the town manager's proposed budget um even at that level taxes for homeowners are expected to increase in average of 8 to %. um this is a an unprecedent situation it's important um that we we consider this impact um when it comes to passing a budget up on referendum and I'll also just add it's important that we get a budget to pass um relatively soon and one one or two tries um you know we have staff that need to plan around their budget for the next fiscal year um it's also just an important uh to show the town as being able

011to pass a budget for purposes of Staff retention and recruitment getting good talent that wants to come here and of course um too many fail referendums can also impact our credit reading especially if they happen um repetitively so that can we go to the next slide right um it's a little hard to see but I'm going to assume that you flipped to it um so lastly I do want to just touch because I know we've touched on some things because I know that this has been brought up in the past with some emails um and public participation at our public hearing last night so I do want to just um understand where we are today in the proposed budget with funds um whether it's unassigned fund balance or other funds and how they're playing up

012into this budget so um we're already looking at taking $300,000 in the proposed budget out of the tax stabilization fund um please note this is the maximum amount Allowed by our ordinance um so not the the current proposal um put forth by our town manager Brian Foley is not shy about using that fund um additionally we're looking to take another 300,000 from the unassigned fund balance to cover operating expenditures um and another 220 6,000 from that fund is proposed to be taken out to cover one-time Capital expenditures that would otherwise be covered by debt or operating funds so in total we're looking to spend 826000 from tax stabilization and unassigned before we even talk about additional ideas uh which the council is exploring um now I'll say I'm certainly willing to have a discussion with

013our finance department if there's more that we can do in a particularly tough year but I think it's it's it's critical we kind of understand where we where the proposal currently sits um additionally I'll just note that the council has been presented with a couple of other ideas which um I certainly speaking from my own personal opinion I'm definitely interested and pursuing um we are considering assuming that we do not get or or that we do get the same ECS amount as last year and and back stop that with unassigned if it doesn't come through um so in other words um that would be $300,000 benefit from the revenue side um that is not in town manager fly's budget that's something that the council will deliberate on tomorrow night um another idea that I floated

014and I want to continue to pursue um would be a higher tax collection rate of 99.1% based on actual collection rates uh from years past um I I think if if actual show that we're bringing in a little bit more than what we're predicting we should definitely um put that up in the calculations and then also um the Town Council at its uh meeting last week voted to revise how motor vehicle taxes are calculated um which added another 15 million um roughly to the Grand list and should help offset homeowners tax bills um because it'll it'll decrease that as a percentage of the budget it's not a huge impact it's it's relatively modest but it is something that the council did vote up on doing and um will be part of the proposal so that

015um I think that that covers it um or I guess I guess I could just mention one other thing that's on the slides but just something that public that was brought up a lot at the public hearing last night is with capital um again an area certainly me personally I'd be willing to explore however um it's important to note that as far as a lot of capital expenditures that uh Town manager fully ran through last night um most Capital expenditures are either funded through debt special funds that have very specific purposes like an ambulance fund or the do pound fund or um from the unassigned fund balance like I just mentioned so again something we can look into but there's limited opportunities there to use that as an ability to really offset um operating expenditures

016and make a major Dent but again I'm open to ideas um so that um I'll turn it over to Chairman Holt and uh Dr Willet uh for their presentation thank you chairman Mar Dr will okay excuse me I'm losing my voice a little bit so sorry for the raspiness of it so everybody's aware that um we have a particularly difficult budget season um you know I know that there are many um let me try to get this so better we'll just go with the slid all right so um you know it's been well articulated by the Town Council what the challenges are and I think the board has also articulated U things that it has struggled with to try to provide the best options for the schools um the budget season has um presented some

017significant challenges obviously there's a tough tax reevaluation year for tand that can't be ignored and provides a lot of concerns and pressure there's concerns over utilization of the fund balance for reoccurring costs that are completely understandable on the board side over a million dollar this year uh there's been over a million dollar increase for insurance that represents a 2.2% and in years like this it's tragic if sometimes these fluctuations in insurance if there aren't any other places to go they can cost uh they can cost staff and they can cost impacts in a district that maybe in a different year those impacts would be less or they would be able to be mitigated in other ways so it's a kind of tragic uh situation that Insurance is as high it is we've had some good

018years this one is not so good year so the Board of Ed faces an over million dollar increase in insurance that has about a 2.2% composition of the budget it's very difficult Talent Public Schools also have a 10-year average increase of 1.67% with a 5-year average of 1.88% the talent per expenditure is and has continued to be in the lowest core tile in Connecticut right now it's about 129 out of 165 and while special education and Paris support staff slightly increased due to IEP needs and state mandates the TPS have reduced 47 teaching positions since fiscal year 2006 so any adjustment for enrollment has been made already the TPS enrollment evens out in 7 2728 and is projected to increase from that year at least through 2035 by 88.2% TPS negotiated contracts with bargaining units

019are at or below the average settlements in the state so they were well done and there's no abuse there the average percentage of budget remaining at the end of the year from fiscal year 2014 to 2024 was approximately 89% with a median of. 31% so there haven't been a tremendous amount left over either there were some crazy years with the state budget crisis and Co but mostly you you can see that there hasn't been a ton left do so despite years of District efforts to create cost avoidance in Revenue programs the low average budget increase has had a significant cumulative effect if one considers that the typical budget average increase to maintain Services over say a 10-year period is about 3% the Talon public schools have over 10 years been allocated about 5.2 million less

020than what a 3% would have provided which has again had a cumulative impact so both the town and the board are in a tough place because that kind of budget over span of years doesn't leave a budget with a lot of options when you have a tough year with insurance under these circumstances it's a very hard thing to mitigate without the loss of Staff or significant loss of programs and that's something we're trying to find a way through so we're not coming tonight with simply a statement of the challenge because we all pretty much have a good idea of what the challenge is we're going to talk a little bit about you know how that might impact the school district this year and then we'll talk a little bit about offering a potential solution so

021for possible reductions or things that could be reduced this year to try to C to that point you have about five teachers from schools across the district secretaries nurses custodians probably about one secretary couple of nurses maybe a custodian the Middle School athletics program um all board funding for clubs and activities in the school district and that would include things like a Washington trip because what people have to remember about that is what that is is the stiens I saw something out there that it's 10,000 it's not 10,000 it's 130,000 and so these are stiens that are paid to the people to run the clubs and eliminating those stiens would eliminate the funding for the clubs reductions in buses and routes are being considered again including a additional reduction of two routes two more routes

022um significant reductions in multiple programs Ela math science art music and things like pep band academic supports for struggling Learners which we call mtss it's multi-tiered systems of support it's a state terminology that could be impacted or reduced from the high school taken out of the budget um that we were trying to create with it in it these reductions are on top of Prior reductions made in the superintendent's proposed budget and the Bo and the Boe adopted bu and if you look at those documents you can see more information about some of the additional ones they included 4.0 or four par educator phans and a nurse as well parent Guardians could also be subject to increased pay to participation fees of possibly $300 per student so these are some of the impacts and the board

023had reviewed and thought about and mold over some um some that are not on this list as well there's quite a few in order to get there and what people have to keep in mind is that if you're going to go from where the board of adopted budget was to where understandably the town had set that that is a $1.9 million reduction so a $1.9 million reduction does not come easily as we know and so there are many things that would have to be reduced to get there possible solutions that we could think about instead of using Capital funds for the TMS Auditorium seating replacement there's about 180 8,000 that are allocated for the seating in TMS the educational Reserve fund at the end of every year um there's a possibility of transferring end ofe

024funds but that might be left over from one year to the next but those funds are not available until the third third quarter of the next fiscal year but if the town were willing to re you know reconsider the TMS seaing replacement and instead put the 188,000 towards the capital technology investment of the tech initiative then at the third quarter of the next fiscal year if there were erf funds available at the end of this year that could be used to pay for the TMS Auditorium replacement so the 188 could be used up front for that technology which would offset this budget and help save positions and other things and those could still be done at the end of the third quarter of next fiscal year or that summer through any erf funds that we

025may have available at that time this is not that different that stuff that we've had on the capital request for years as Tech up or lab upgrades it qualifies the same type of thing and we've had those in capital for years so it should qualify as a capital expense and it's a a way to do it that would not make any change in what was requested by the town manager and understandably it's 3% if we had 3% all the years in the past we probably wouldn't be in the same spot we're in now the next thing that we could do is utilization of the uisf fund it's utility internal service fund to offset the shift the exive shift in the cost of electrical power the uisf fund was set up partially to handle things exactly

026like this so we have had a excessive shift in electrical power and all of you know that electrical costs have gone up this fund exists partially to handle things like this the Board of Education ended the 2024 year with the uisf Reserve balance of $614,500 $7,000 in that fiscal year I'm suggesting we use 380,000 of these funds to offset the 777 879 projected um electricity cost this would leave about 234,000 in this fond typically a kerma deductible if a boiler or something blows up is 25,000 so it still would allow us roughly nine events we could handle nine events if we were submitting these to Kera it's a still a reasonable thing to leave in there so we can handle situations that might arise but these funds would help again offset the impacts and between

027these funds and the capital funds we may be able to keep these crucial jobs TMS Athletics uh clubs and activities and things like that there would still have to be reductions but they would not be as severe if we can utilize uisf funds for what they say in the agreement they can be utilized for and reconsider the use of those Capital funds the uisf agreement contains the language under Section Five that it can be used for potential exposure to excessive seasonal shifts in utility costs which is exactly what happened so between these two we would be able to hopefully restore a number of the positions TMS Athletics and the clubs in activities as well as maybe a few other things to make the impact of this budget season not as severe because of that insurance

028increase so we're not just coming tonight to say boohoo here because everybody has presented a very difficult situation we're coming to present Solutions offered respectfully and that's all that I have thank you Dr will can I just ask that a copy of these slides be sent like ASAP to council particularly for me I can't really see them from back there and I like to look at them yeah sure I appreciate that okay I believe that brings us to item five of our agenda which is a general discussion of um what has been presented tonight um so I'll open the floor up um I'll ask if Vice chair Moran and uh chairman Holtz can help me direct traffic here um try to do my best but is a little difficult to see oh part Year back

029there so again welcome everybody and those that spoken last night did a great job and glad we're contining the public um session tomorrow so more people need to speak the want to speak there's that opportunity um I appreciate Dr will let you share in these great Solutions I look forward to actually having them in front of me so I can really look at them I did jot down some maybe ideas but it sounds like you've already come to some really great ones I just want to mention we did get a email from a writer and this is just an idea because I guess other towns do it so we have an integrated preschool I guess sometimes do charge a fee I don't know how that works and that creates a big Revenue into the school

030system so I'm not sure the board has ever talked about that maybe not this year but next year um it might be just not perfect but it's another way to get some sort of source for to do theol system a lot of things since it sounds like clubs and sports are going to be okay maybe maybe maybe right but I was gonna say I didn't know none of these are perfect they're just ideas I didn't know if like some Middle School sports could play like JB Sports if that's an option so they don't miss out on an extra that's an option that could be considered as well um and I know the 1% has gone up to the 2% I guess now and right it used to be 1% town I think just recently it's

0312% and it doesn't have to Count Council anymore great so I'm not really too sure on all that from that I don't know Tony can you use that now on anything or is it still very prescribed do certain V yeah it's um under 10 248a you can use it for anything you can put up to 2% at the end of every year tricky part about it is when you do have an end ofe balance yeah um you you have to wait until the audit is complete so you know in one year you couldn't really use that immediately for the next year because you're not sure until the audit is complete if that amount is is available um so it's usually available in the third quarter of the following year in which case it could then

032be transferred into the erf not up to 2% yeah the erf fund currently though for the board is heavily utilized to try to offset this budget even so it would have H last we looked if we use it for what we were saying potentially they might use it for there would be 19,000 left in attention they have to make decisions and I know bus transportation I did listen to do actually try to listen to the recorded meeting not own to go back listen anything I know um member we buta brought bus transportation could you go over how much savings because if I listen correctly it sound like it could be a charge back if we reduce two buses is that correct the way that it's set up and the companies do this because they contract

033for a certain number of buses so they also have to plan for that so after a certain number of uh if you reduce buses there is a kind of penalty for reducing the bus that offsets some of the cost that you may gain back of um of doing that so I can give you the exact amount in a minute I'd have to look it up because I'm just sending that it's about 100 100,000 114,000 would be saved by reducing two more routes the board of V reduced two routes in the last budget cycle and would be reducing additional two routes and it would be roughly 100,000 a little more than that have to check it out that would be brought back in the budget for that um the the downside is that many people may

034remember about two years or three years ago one of the main priorities of the board was to make Transportation better and not have as many late buses and so on we'd be going back to more what we had before with respect to the know the number of routes and buses what was the cost from that it's about 100,000 I give you the exact minute I just want to send this over to the to the council those are just my questions now but I also just want to add um I'm honestly asking every question of the town man authors like Brian and copy bris and Jacob so they see them I'm trying to turn over every Rock trying to understand everything so I just want people to know I'm not just go along I'm actually ask

035in every question if it's already been asked in the budget so I have it in front of me and can share to hisus and Jacob can to his as well that's all I thank you councelor you get a check was were you complete with your remarks yes I was thank you Jacob J had yeah just ahead can you clarify youren can you Claire question on on Sports on the te I'm sorry I missed what you asked suggestion perfect just so um I was just saying that maybe middle schoolers would play eth grade seven whatever it is can play freshman ball or JB scho I mean I believe we did that about chusetts it's not ideal but it's still at least something okay I don't know what the I know right now my son is on

036the frostmore baseball team and his games are starting at 230 I think that would be difficult for middle school but I'm not sure what that looks like and juggling and readjusting schedules the way to say another way to say well and and just to kind of tag in and I think Brian had brought up more in line with the bus and the transportation type savings you know some of the options of adjusting schedules um which would be in line you know one of the issues or the challenges with addressing it right now has to do with sports and some of the the requirements as far as when the the games could begin uh that's not saying that that idea is Nicks uh it's more saying that that's not an option for this one that it's

037something the district needs to take a little time look over all those Dynamics and see if how we would adjust those and how we get those scheduled so it's more a question for the next budget cycle or the one after that as far as the possibility not a bad idea just one that has to go in the parking now Jacob I think right yeah I I I'm just trying to wrap around the financial numbers Jacob what was the numbers that you had put forward as possibilities and know everything in here is possibilities but what were the numbers that you had mentioned in your uh beginning presentation of possible solutions sorry talking to me Brian yeah sorry okay yeah sorry um so I I wasn't I wasn't laying out more solutions as just kind of laying

038the the current state of things were you looking for like budget percent increases or the property tax increases yeah I thought you had mentioned one of the slides that you had put forward some sort of solution numbers or something that you had come across oh maybe maybe it was what we're already using from the funds correct me if I'm going down a road that isn't what you wanted but um the current proposed budget by the town manager which you know as we know is not been voted on or adopted but what's currently in there includes $300,000 from unassigned uh fund balance plus an additional 226,000 from the F from the fund balance specifically for onetime Capital expenditures and it also includes $300,000 from the tax stabilization fund which is the maximum that we can possibly

039take from that fund per ordinance um so we're utilizing $826,000 between those funds um in the in the proposed budget does that was that does that answer your question yeah the Jacob at the end you um you said that so you had some possible solutions as well you talked about maybe assuming a 99.1% tax r yeah you're you're right you know I'm sorry I've been up since six uh working since six earlier up up earlier than that um sorry so yes so we we are looking at a few different ideas um one one proposal that has been floated um and I want the council to deliberate um if they're so inclined tomorrow um is to assume that we're going to get the ECS funding um so in the current Governor's proposed budget they're assuming a

040$300,000 cut to tand which would be something that we would have to make up for um what we could do because according to our state legislators it looks likely that we're not going to kick cut that will be reversed again it's not a guarantee but it looks likely we could assume that we going to get a $300,000 which would help us from a revenue perspective and then if things didn't pan out you know and there was a um a you know shortfall and that amount um you know you would have to use our fund balance to cover that amount so that's one solution or potential idea um the other two we're assuming a 99.1% um tax collection rate which is a bit higher than what we currently assume um that's because um our current assumptions

041the town manager budget is less than the actuals that we've actually collected over the past three years so that's good we're collecting more of the grand list than we initially anticipated so we should take a little credit for it that's that's um would be what I propose to council and then the last thing um is actually already going to be part of the solution which is um we are going to be assessing our Motor Vehicles differently um so they depreciate less quickly um for the tax Schedule um so that increases the value of the grand list by 15 million um which you it's it's relatively modest impact but it does decrease the um the the proportion that homes make up of the grand list so that will help your home tax bill a little bit

042um in in that way so that that's those are some ideas that we are thinking about all right thanks so much and Dr what was the portion of those two U solutions that you had put forward on your slide there with the energy fund and also the uh 568 huh 568 568 potential 300 I'm just trying to do some math there all right you can move on if someone else has something thank you a point of clarification so on your possible reductions is and Dr included because I didn't see them on the list okay you said it again just because we can't hear you I was asking Dr Willet because I didn't see the DECA or drama listed in the clubs be thank you [Music] um yeah I just want to make it clear that

043uh for for those of you that don't I appreciate all the students that came out last night um and the parents uh for those of you that don't know me um I spent my Saturdays All Conference in football and then um my Fridays and Pikes uh singing for the prestigious magical group uh all aell group here uh in town I was one out of 30 teners to be selected for Easter regionals choir um Frank Sinatra and guys and doll I mean the list goes on so I'm not the one to play with when it comes to being threatened that we're taking our kids drama um I feel like my chips have been taken off of the table um because what everyone knows that I'm most passionate about and fent about has seemingly sounding like it's

044going to disappear which is public safety for our children so I wanted to make the statement last night to thank those that have come out here to speak um I appreciate your your fervent opinions um but I think number one if you guys the second I hear that public safety's back for our school kids you'll have me reined again because right now I'm pretty frustrated with that it's been a long time coming it seemed like it took more than a year and now that's gone so and just a point of clarification we're in no way are the proposed or the the suggested list of reductions a threat we we're we're not trying I didn't say that you did in no way why did I say that it was a threat it's it's okay you probably

045didn't mean it that way but we were threatening to take away let me please yeah that's that's what I was getting out so and that's that's a clarification I'd like to make we're we're not making threat where we're not putting together a list to scare to intimidate to move people what we're trying to do is show that to get from the budget re or the budget request that we put in to the number that is currently proposed reductions have to be made when we start looking at all of the costs associated with running the district and we start asking the questions what minimizes the impact to teaching the core things and we want to teach everything we want to offer the every opportunity that not only we currently have but moving forward but that costs

046money if that money isn't there where do we start making reductions and those are the things that are there were thoseo seat the seats sound great and councelor councelor Nunan if you could just give uh chairman Holt opportunity to response then I'll give you an opportunity to um to follow up with any remarks that you have none of the items there were chosen with any particular person any particular motivation again it's looking at where effect can be minimized that that those came up with the decisions haven't been made to to reiterate we we've talked about these we've discussed these our intent here is to bring this information to the council so that you guys can use that in part of your deoration not to threaten thank you coun n did you want to follow up

047or respond in any way question was where were the the two solutions that we were just shown where were those two nights ago uh so two things um where did you get the the security or S on the cut I had read a post on one of our correspondent pages online that said that school safety was coming off of the priority so this that's not what's here the SRO is still in the budget that there still roughly one SRO would still be there um and again when you have 1.9 million of reductions there's a list of things that get from the you know the point of 7.34 to 2.99 so the board did its best and was trying to figure out what to do um this was the result of me looking at everything I

048could possibly think of and you know running by um the chairs before I came in um what you're getting were what the board was trying to struggle with and everything that's there is what it would take to get from um 7.34 down to 299 so this is a this is a summary of it um that's what they were chewing on and that's what was available when you had your meeting the other night but you know there wasn't an opportunity to be accessed either nobody asked me any questions about that so and this does point though those things require ire Town Council so the uisf fund is a board ofed fund but it requires the council the council would have to act in order for those funds to be allocated which why which is why it

049wasn't something immediately on the table it's not something the board can do by itself I I think those two implementations will be uh well recepted by Council I just would like this to be and I've talked to a couple other of my um you know counselors on Council I'd like this to be a more holistic group experience here because if we're going to start saying Republicans don't care about schools I'll just say Democrats don't care about school safety is that true because if that's not true then I would like BS to be spoken and I would like to do this as a grp so I'm gonna take a couple breaths coun um yeah yeah I think we can and I think tonight we can have a good conversation about how we um are approaching our

050Solutions I think um we can uh we can review what what the uh what the Board of Ed has submitted and see what we can what we can do to um mitigate any impacts um that yep I'll go to uh Board of Education member Gant thank you so to start I'm going to I guess avoid meeting with the same energy H lder louder I'm going to avoid meeting Mr Nan with the same initial energy however I'm very frustrated too I'm glad that you're frustrated I think that we're all frustrated and in terms of chips on the table all of my chips are off the table I don't want any of these cups and no one is surprised at that um I want to clarify that you made a statement about made several statements about safety

051so I hope you understand that it's important for me to clarify these things as well absolutely so the first is is that you said that it had taken more than a year so you were frustrated that we were removing safety the implication of that is that you're discussing the two part-time positions that we had for an SRO that we couldn't fill and we wanted to make it to a full-time position that has taken a very long time that was not under the board of education's control we did everything we could from our side and we met about that two the Board of Ed didn't have a meeting two nights ago and at our last meeting we didn't know if we were going to have the opportunity to speak to you again so this was the

052first time we could present any solutions so and then I I want to say this well I also want to touch the fact that I don't think Democrats are saying that Republicans don't care about children and I don't think Republicans should say that Democrats don't care about safety agre I've been very vocal in my meetings that I do care very much about safety the entire board bipartisan completely every single member has said they care very much about safety good I have also added that school safety is not simply just about school security and I've been very vocal that that is why I am pushing for things like a social worker because the research shows that those things are actually more important than having armed Personnel in the school so I want to to cover all

053of it when we talk about SA I also have two students the school right okay and then the other thing that I think it's important to touch on is that and I thank you for taking back the comments that you said that you were threatened oh yeah absolutely thank you there's 74 line items of Productions okay 32 were in our B in the first adopted budget right the rest are in this potential reductions sorry so these reductions they touch every student in someone that's actually the issue we had the other night in our meeting right every path we went down to try to say what could we do here what could we do here it just led to something else right it trickled down it it affected everything now two groups of students came out

054in Mass last night right drama and deca and I'm so proud of them for doing so and supporting each other and doing stuff but the reality is is that there's a lot of reductions there's a lot of clubs and activities TMS Athletics heck maybe it was a little too late for the TMS kids to come out and ask for their Athletics I know how important Athletics the middle school was for my son but I chose not to bring him last night we've also gotten I think Colleen reported you guys yesterday got 70 emails or so yes okay we got more last night during the meeting we got more today I know I'm on some of the ones that you guys are on you probably got more so in those emails and in the discussions from

055parents students and staff last night we did hear about a lot of other things so yeah would I have like 20 math students to talk about like how classes of 28 in the high school are affecting them yep I would have they didn't come last night would I have like TMS Athletics to come last night sure would I have like I think you saw the email that we received from our nursing coordinator there are so many students who rely upon going into that nurse's office and getting care every day all day and I'm sure there's a lot of concerned parents that when their child goes in diabetic issue that now we're not going to be able to have staff get to done really quickly right so there's so many kids affected there's so many parents

056affected we are getting that feedback it's just that these those wonderful children showed up the most to support it that doesn't mean that we said drama and deca we said there's a potential to cut every single Club in activity with a total of $130,000 thank you for that c last time was very confusing so that's that is helpful to me and I appreciate so do you think that what Walt has given tonight with those two CES do you think that that might I am asking questions the the two proposes uh the seats and the you can pull it back up back you said do we think that those could be possible fixes for some of the aforementioned possible Cuts I think I yes I think so because I think it fits and I'm sorry that

057you I'm projecting my voice so I have to make it louder I'm not yelling here I only have one setting um I appreciate it Dr will so uh I in my opinion that's what the uisf fund was set up for partially was to offset exactly the situation we're in so the reason though it's here is that it does require Town Council approval it's a board ofed fund but this would require the council to say go ahead which would be helpful um and I I would have to leave it up to um you know the wisdom and knowledge the town manager about the capital fund with respect to that if that was possible though if we were able to do that and then we could cover it with our erf in third quarter we'll be able

058to get both done the reason why we can't cover it with irf now is we even if we had any your funds we wouldn't have access till the third quarter so we that's why we would need to swap these and if that's possible between these two things in my opinion we'd be able to save crucial jobs the Athletics and at least the clubs and activities there other things that will still be cut you know know um but those those core things would be we would try to go to them first in my opinion I think that's where people would want us to go to you'll be ultimately the boards there not mine uh Jacob Vice chair Dallas I just wanted go back to go ahead it sounded like Alex was asking our opinion and I

059was I'm glad he asked um I think that they're I think that they're great right I think that I think that we have to look for things are they optimal you know do I want to push out one of our Capital things for what no but we're all in up we're all in a position here where we have to do this I will tell you though that this doesn't cover a lot it's great it's a great starting point and we can't be specific but I have run some numbers on some of the things that really touch the students this doesn't get us there and it's still only a very short list compared to everything that was gone that could be could be gone um so I hope that I hope that the conversation doesn't end

060with these two things right d right thank you Jacob I have sort of a follow on to what uh G said yep go ahead um so I first I want to thank B again and the superintendent for all the time and effort that you all put into your budget um I know how much time you spend on it um and it's definitely appreciated you're doing what you're elected do which was to to do its best for our students appreciate it I also want to thank uh you and and Dr will for coming with some potential Solutions um I just want to note a couple of things before I ask my question um it is a fact that the board ofed has been underfunded for over a decade we've talked about this numerous times so we'll

061go with into details but the number don't lie it's also a fact that this year's Ral had a disproportionate impact on residential property values um the residents could see um a tax increase even with limited budgetary increases unfortunately we're in a position this year where the town might legitimately have to tighten its belt um given the impact of Ral but because the Board of Ed hasn't been adequately funded in the last decade the school our schools are not in a position to uh to weather a difficult year because they've been doing that for the last 10 years um so I think like all of the counselors have we've been spending time trying to think about alternative sources for funding or trying to be all the needs of the Town departments but especially the board of

062ENT given its history of inadequate funding so my question to the board ofed um you know any of you is this um if the council wasn't able to you know meet your fully fund your board of ed request is there some number or some something tangible you could help us understand that um would help you meet the most essential things that you that you think are important off the list is there somewhere you know that we can need I'm just I guess I'm looking for some guidance what would be most helpful what does the board you know need if we can't get to 7 you know % I appreciate the question CH Vice chair Mar and and I'll turn it over to Dr WL in just a minute but you know that that question is

063really the purpose of what we asked for this you know what we requested to have this conversation was to put in front of the the council those Rec or those red potential reductions again not as this is what we have to do but as saying you know what we've gone through we've reduced from what would that perfect number be for us to to maintain services and to advance in a couple areas is about 11% reducing that down to okay what do we need to do to protect critical resources such as you know staff Arts programs you know those kind of things while absorbing some reductions and that's where we come up with the seven number the possible reductions here are meant to show the council okay if we go lower this is what we have

064to do not saying that you know what going from a seven to a 6.5 means this this this that that's not necessary and so it's difficult to tell you that that drop dead number is a 5.2 or a 6.3 whatever because we we' again have to go back and say okay if the reduction is 300,000 where do we find that how do we find that is 300,000 a temporary thing that we could find maybe uh the 1.8 1.9 million was too much to absorb potentially which is why you start seeing some of those and long-term cuts and reduction having um so all that just to say we're not trying to avoid giving it's just that it's very difficult to pinpoint that without back around and seeing how the Domino start will sure and just so

065that you know where I'm coming from I completely appreciate that the board has to make those determinations about what you know how how you'll ultimately allocate money once it's once once it's decided and all that um but just so you know my perspective um I think counselor Butler at our last meeting had sort of try to ask you know I think for all of the word just to sort of get some idea some consensus as to where everyone's felt like the budget should end and so again I get that you know I'm trying to ask you a broader question that doesn't drill down it's all the specific things that you all have to make really difficult decisions about um and just I guess I'm asking for purposes with our conversation tomorrow night um you know

066any insight you can give us in that regard is is um helpful um not that I'm holding you to a specific number or anything um just you know just trying to get so I understand you can't so let me let me let me just reiterate your question just to make sure that Dr will got it over here then we'll turn mic over to him here but but essentially Dr will would I think he's asking is that tomorrow when the council goes and deliverance and they start working if they can't make you know 74% but they end up somewhere lower do we have a gut feel to where that where that critical point yeah that's that's fair yeah well um no I think for me and this question if it's being answered by me I'll tell

067you where I think the critical point is you know I think that everybody might have a different view of what the critical point is um for me the critical point is uh retaining staff because again as I said in in a difficult Insurance year the one of the biggest tragedies could be that you know it's the staff that serve the students the students benefit greatly by what the staff provides and you know if we have staff reduced because of that in a year where maybe we wouldn't have to do it you know in another year um I would like to to have that be the the first line so that you know because it's the St it's the interventionist that teaches the child or helps the child with dyslexia you know it's the classroom teacher

068in kindergarten with class sizes as they are or one or two you know that makes things possible for those kids not having reading instruction and not having the right kind of instruction or help can and impacted job all the way through their whole school career so to me it's staff and I think that um you know when looking at all of this if the Town Council and the board you know can work together on it and I and I think that would be a great opportunity for every year that you know we have this chance to work together that the use of these uis funds and the capital reallocation would provide about that 568 which would cover most of the staff that would have been reduced as well as some of these other things those

069stiens that are clubs are also things that are provided to staff so that's why it all kind of goes together um so if that's something that can be done I think it will make a big big difference and I understand that in a very difficult budget year there's not a lot of options with respect to putting more of a burden on the tax base this would put no additional burden on the tax Bas it's existing funds that are already there or were already allocated for a purpose it fits under what the town manager requests want and I I appreciate that Dr will and I also appreciate you know exploring ways that are not going to impact or not going to in taxes I think that's something that we need to seriously be talking about tomorrow

070night is you know what you know we sort of you have this unide fund balance rainy day fund sort of at one of those rainy days I think that's something we'll explore we don't have to get into that tonight but um yeah but thank you I appreciate your answer can I uh yeah Jacob can I answer uh yes and then I'd like to speak if it's okay but if you're just responding I'll go ahead I can say this Chris and um I'm in no way making any decisions for any board members or or anything like this but to answer this personally um with the numbers that I've looked at from what the board of EDS saw the other night um in order to retain my goal would be well my my minimum goal would be

071at least to retain the five teaching positions to add the social worker to add the SRO um to add Athletics back to add student clubs and activities to add Pathways back and to add the um mtss stiens which are the intervention stiens that at a minimum would be about a percent and a half can I clarify you you would want to add the second Sr correct yeah the additional Sr because the SRO and security officers are the SRO that was proposed in our adopted budget this would be the second sorry you said sorry a percent and a half that what you said yeah okay thank you and a half like managers propos budget for that is that say um yeah I don't on top of the 2.99 but with taking out the 568 right then

072that would not be a percent and a half what I have is about follow the ma to what I have is about 7 $4,000 add $740,000 to the proposed budget that the town manager has sent it forus 500 and 500 that's me simply saying if I could have more than the 2.99% this is what I so the the additional cost on the 2.99 is 740,000 if you want to take that out of the 740,000 then it's less 56 740 minus 56 change right but again that's merely my op understood I'm just trying to do the math little less than 200,000 okay so so an additional again I'm not holding any but an additional with these implemented at least help for I did not on this but yeah I just a quick oh I asked I

073C I don't think you specified okay General it would affect uh three schools the nurse reductions would affect these schools if we went forward thank you and again just to reiterate like I I understand that we're all we're not talking about ideal situations for anyone I also understand that I'm not you know asking for the board to like speak one voice um so I'm just looking for perspective so thank you for all that thank you on that point thank you okay um i' like to ask a question here so I'll make a comment first um so first I just want to thank the board of ed for coming forward with these two solutions um I think this is this has been a good discussion and um there certainly something I would be interested in looking

074into further um but I did want to ask just I I know I've got Brian in the room I don't know if we have our finance director have these ideas been run by our fin finance department they haven't typing literally an email to to her right now asking her and Mike are human to discuss Yousef tomorrow the capital idea but we we have other things going but knowing how Yol is she's gonna she'll be she'll be working on this soon um so literally typing in as we speak I'll CC um Chris Y and like said Dr Willet was brainstorming and coming up with ideas I think we got the text about 5:45 saying I have a couple ideas do you mind if I present them during this and and the expectation is even after all

075the way up to the point when the first Bell Rings you know that our staff is going to continue to to look to try to turn Str gold so this is no no I I um I it's not a not a slate that they have been presented I just wanted to know if um our town staff had had any opinions or input um and it looks like we'll probably have that tomorrow night um in time for our budget deliberations but um certainly something I would be interested in exploring further I guess one other question to Brian um so if we were to look go forward with this both of these items are not they're a little outside the regular budget process but I would assume we would need to include that in any budget motion

076if we were to proceed with a say a Usef transfer or change swapping out Capital items um in any motion tomorrow night there's going to be a lot of I think there'll be a lot of that um and we would have to include that yes because because I know that we have some stuff too um that you mentioned so there's going to be some moving around okay we'll be preparing for that all day tomorrow okay thank you yeah I just wanted to give a clarification um but that's all I'll go to whoever wants to speak next is there anybody counc boun thank you I want to thank everybody for their questions and for um the input this has been really useful um I just need to so as I mentioned before so this is my

077first budget season um it's a little unusual that think we might get $300,000 that is currently not allocated by the state for educational cost sharing um however if we do get that money that would just go into the general fund right it wouldn't be routed to the Board of Education okay so um so just wanted to make clear that even if we do get that money it won't necessarily end up in the board of educations budget um we have and I and I have participated in discussion about this before and I don't really understand it we have a fund called an educational Reserve fund um that is a another sort of like reserve fund like the tax stabilization fund like the unassigned fund balance so we have several of these funds the educational Reserve fund

078needs Town Council approval for the Board of Education not not at this time in the past it was ordinance 86 chapter 8 that managed it but it was replaced by the state statute 10 248a okay so now um no okay but in the past yes but that fund would be at $199,000 if we use the things that are possible to use to offset this budget okay so the state law changed to allow Boards of Education to have control that autonomy over 2% thanks that that was thank you and then um one of the questions I had because I know we talked about it's important for us to maintain our our a rainy day fund which we call the unsign fund balance um because it affects our our bond ratings um which are currently at the

079highest level so I guess this question goes would probably be for yita but I'll G thow to Brian the town manager so to the bond bonding agencies or Bond raing agencies look at all of our surplus funds as an aggregate when they look at how effective we are at funding a rainy day account I don't think as an aggregate is accurate um but they look at everything everything all the funds all the fund policies how we spend them okay everything it's more granular than than right so it's absolutely right so so it's so they look at like the tax stabilization fund and they look at the and they and our policies and then how stay towards policies yes very very in yes okay thank you so I I assumed that was so but now you

080confirm it thank you um I think I'm gonna uh yield the floor right now I might have a couple of questions later but thank you thank you councelor bb um I'll go to anyone else who has questions or comments there any hands chairman hold or uh sorry I don't know who spoke but you have the floor I was just identifying okay go ahead thank you Jacob um so first I just wanted to say thank you to everybody um I'm glad that we have the second meeting um I think it's been really helpful to tonight um you know there there's been there's a lot of feeling involved from people in town um but I think in general uh everybody here has their heart in the right place um I know that there's been um some people

081who've been upset with the town manager proposed budget as it um from the board of that standpoint um I think that his heart was in the right place as to proposed that I think he was trying to propose something that was fair that took consideration and took the C to consideration but you know he didn't have a crystal ball and he wasn't aware of what impact that would have to the board event what things on The Chopping Block not the choing block or you know in general what from listening to the discussions about what was being cut um it sounded like there were a lot of things that were being taken into consideration but it had kind of this Snowball Effect so you know you consider reducing something but then that affects something else or

082affects another program or infects um and those are types of things that the Town Council the town manager we can't we can't really understand because we're not dealing with this every single meeting we're not discussing the board event or what the board event does we not we're not discussing the schools every single meeting um I guess my general question was um when we're discussing these things I think we we've come to a place of more of an understanding where the Board of Ed is um and and maybe some ideas that wouldn't quite deviate as much from what has been proposed by the town manager but are just kind of thinking outside the box to kind of give you guys a little bit more wingle ground um but is there anything in general um that you

083can think of that we can take into consideration tomorrow night when we're discussing this um or any suggestions that haven't been made tonight um that may make the process easier for you guys to um discuss uh how you're going to allocate those funds I know it's a very general question but and basically I want to know what don't we know that we haven't discussed already that might be helpful when we're all discussing things tomorrow night excuse me and and that's a that's a great question C I wish I had a a very succinct answer um I think you you summed it up beautifully when you said that the items tend to snowball you know when when we and we had it in our last meeting ourselves as we went through you know Dr Will's list

084of proposed places where reductions could be made and you know we said well why can't you just cut some money from here why can't you just take it from here and and he tried to sit down and explain you know even to us and we've spent a lot of time in the schools a lot of discussions but try to explain how if I I pull on this string you know for something as small as you know a subscription to you know a reading program that that we think is only used here we take that away and now that has to be replaced by something and and now the training that was involved to to get the teachers to that point that training has to be replaced or it has to be moved down the road

085and we have to look to our our neighbors for help there there's a lot of things that are involved such that when we kick our ideas to Dr Willi in Step but take a couple of days for them to run those bases and come back um so the purpose and I think I think tonight was wonderfully and it's going wonderfully and I want to you know extend as Brian said you know there's going to be conversation and you guys are going to be doing ideas all the way through tomorrow feel free and Al you could reach out to me and I can get the information back to you but our goal is to make sure you know everything we can feed you before you have to make your that you know an educated decision it's

086the best decision here I think that's what I was trying to touch upon with my question is is there anything that we haven't touched upon tonight that need to discuss or we should discuss that you know maybe help with tomorrow are there any ideas that as we're sitting here any of the board members can think of maybe an outside the box approach to um you know saving a little bit more money or adding a little bit more funds to something and I think this is one of those situations where um as time goes on and things progress and we take into consideration uh what people in town you know sometimes we think of additional things that you know we look back and go gosh I wish we discuss that I wish we brought that up

087um so I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything that anyone think of that we have not discussed that could be helpful when we're discussing tomorrow night let me turn to the the other board members anything J I appreciate your question and uh it's a good question I don't have what you're looking for out of that question I do have something else in the sense of I think I made myself Mr clear last week Mr Town manager uh to the board to the councel um I made myself pretty clear that I was pretty frustrated not with our process and how we went about you know I'm consistently impressed by our group and our willingness to sort of throw things aside and say what are the facts what's the objective truth here what do we

088need to provide for our schools in the kids excuse me students sitting in the in the audience the best answer I have for you Jen or Miss buckler is I hope at the bare minimum that the solutions that are on that screen right now that Dr Willet sent over are simply at least bare minimum considered that's what I'm asking as a board of education member as somebody who didn't put the effort into this it wasn't my effort that went into this it was it was our superintendent and there's more to it than just that I mean you know we've had a joint meeting before I planned on being at the last meeting in person there was some complications there but you know even during that meeting the difference in how I felt leaving that meeting

089and even how I feel now is is is pretty Grand and and the conversation that was held last meeting was very One Direction very here to here and not much back and forth and so this meeting I'm sensing this this willingness from both sides here both the council and and the Board of Ed to say well let's find a solution here there's got to be a solution these students look I was a Deca kid I know there's a bunch of deca kids in the audience I was a class officer right you know the I was very involved in the morning announcements I don't know if anybody hears on the morning announcements out there and what not yeah yeah I see you I see you uh you know I take a lot of pride in those

090things I mentioned last week during last week's meeting that it's not just the club right it's not just the what what you're doing in DEC we're learning handshake today that was always my favorite meeting the handshake meeting you know event to the point where we're running that meeting you know we're learning these things great awesome wonderful but again like I mentioned last week if you go on that website you'll find hundreds of scholarship opportunities hundreds of of of links that lead to job opportunities H you know college uh uh uh uh support uh items and whatnot I just hope and by the way that's one club that one subject that's one line item one piece in one line item there's a lot here and I wish you guys could see the screen I'm looking at

091right now because there's a lot here I I can't necessarily get into it all just yet because again nothing's official but what I hope to get out of this meeting what I hope before we leave is that tomorrow at 6:30 or I forget when you guys 6:30 it got moved to as of last night that the counselor's in this room and not the counselor's in this meeting and not are taking everything that has been discussed over the last four or five months especially the last four or five weeks into account and that's my hope and so and that also includes the town manager just like the superintendent puts effort into uh uh uh sort of reaching both sides here and trying to find compromises um I know the town manager is putting a lot of

092effort into doing the same but at some point I need to see as you know not just as a board V member but as a resident like the people sitting in me I need to see that and so I made myself very clear last week I was FR frustrated as a board of education member but put that aside for a second as a resident I asked Mr Hol last week because he was somebody who was affected by the buses the bus the transportation Ma you on not to put your business out there you know and whatnot but I can deal with getting 90 emails I'll read through those and I you know and I can deal with that what I can't stand is that we've got Solutions on the table right here B right here

093and prior to the budget cycle starting that would help not just the parents in that but the children who are not getting home till dinner you know so it's basic I I talked about two line items two items one club in the clubs line item and the bus is just down those are two issues there's a does there's a couple dozen few dozen if not hundreds that have not even been discussed that that haven't discussed like they deserve to be discussed and so I hope I really hope I really hope that we have not wasted The public's time tonight that we have not wasted each other's time tonight that we don't cast stones at one another for this the rest of this process that we figure this out because there's got to be a solution

094in here somewhere and so what that solution is to answer your question I wish I knew off the top of my head but up to this point I feel that my colleagues and I on the board of bed have done a pretty Splendid job at least mapping out how we feel the school should be funed so that's the best answer I got for you I wish I had more and more specific but that's what I have for you right now yeah I think you been a really good point I mean we've never done this before we had a second joint budget meeting where we you know we had the propos you know Town manager budget and then you guys discuss what would that mean for B bed and then we got back together and we

095discussed okay what are some potential solutions for some of the issues that are very true navigate um because really it should be a collaboration between the board ofed and the Town Council um and I think there's been something proposed um by both sides that are that they're not unreasonable um I think it's something that you know it's it's not going to break the bank um and I and I think it's is combining being financially responsible with um you know trying to find a way to the needs of the board event because you guys are are the ones that are sitting here trying to decide how are we going to make this work for the kids um and that's a hard thing to do and we should we should make it easier to navigate for you

096if it's possible um so I think we have a lot of solutions tonight um I'm looking forward to discussing those tomorrow night and I think a lot of us are really on the same page with what we want to see and which is good you know that's a good starting point when you're on the right on the same page as somebody else um so I really hope the Town Council take things consideration tomorrow night and we're discussing instead of just like kind of throwing it out okay we're gonna start over here um because I think I think we're at a really good point now between The Bard and the Town Council and it is a better discussion than it was um at the last meeting so uh thank you for your answer and I just

097want to say one thing to Jaden I um I agree I think this meeting has been um more like a dialogue between our two boards I think that's been great and just from the perspective of you know I think you know as you said before do great work I I really believe that the Town Council is is trying to do that right so like I've had great conversation with you know my own caucus I've had great conversations with councel unit about things that are important to him and his Co is things are important to me in mind trying to find a place where we become come together um and you know navigate a through these situation so I do have a lot of faith that the council is also trying to work collaboratively to arrive

098at a good you know arrive at a good budget in difficult circumstances so um I appreciate what you had to say sorry j yeah I just I wanted to answer Jenna's question too um in terms of like like you know a lot of the things that we talk about you know data points right numbers on spreadsheets um all of the expertise that Dr Willet brings in but there's more data points that go into you know the decision- making that the board of ENT did in this process I think one of the things that we have access to which is great is rounds at the schools so you know we I won't belabor you with all of the details I went over some of them in our our recent meeting but again as data points you

099know we went we just had a recent round at the middle school um where we looked at the unified Arts programming which is you know gym music our um technology um and then um and that was myself and Tony and Dana and then earlier about a month ago we went to Birch Grove and we looked at mtss which is intervention and that was myself Tony Bill Brian um so in those um in those rounds we we have the staff there right we have the administration we have curriculum supervisors and directors we're meeting with teachers we're meeting with students right so in intervention at Birch bro we got to see them in their math Labs we got to see you know the littlest guys working on their iPads with their reading Intervention Program we got to

100see them in their their small groups working with interventionists then we got to talk to the interventionists and the administration about how children are chosen for intervention what their intervention rate looks like how long they're in if they're if they can take everyone if they have to turn you know wait on kids um you know at when we talked about we when we're with the older students we get to actually talk to them as well so at the middle school we were able to sit with a group of eight students they talked about what was important to them they and and they asked they were able to tell us what they've lost you know things that they've had reduced already from sixth to e8th grade that we wouldn't necessar you know if you don't have

101a student you might not necessarily know they don't have elective choice e grade or and and I think like if they take a language they can't they can't take wood shop you know things things like that they're they're making choices that their older they were mentioning their older brothers and sisters didn't have to take there were students talking about how they weren't interested in you know music but they they did music and it opened up a whole new world for them and it's something that're they're looking forward to doing now in the high school and Beyond same with art they were asking for you know to expand coding options that they're working on technology they were talking about how they were now utilizing these things one student in particular he actually created the video that

102we looked at that that saw every unified art so he was a a band member um he loved pep band he was he a drummer Dr drummer but he also was big into technology he did I think things at the Wizards game like made made videos or so we are bringing that real time data into our discussions you know especially when we're talking about things like programs we might have to cut when you lose a position sometimes that some of these electives go right they they have to go first usually because they're not mandated when we're talking about intervention we got to see it firsthand teachers talked to us about both at Birch grow and when we had it at tis about how class sizes are impacting the way that they break out into intervention

103into tier one tier one is the classroom tier two and tier three so we're bringing all of those data points into our deliberations too it's not just what Dr Willet is bringing and it's not just the numbers on the page it's the things that we are are seeing and viewing and being presented on in school and just the one thing that I want to add is you know one of the one of the conversations that we had early in this was you know how do we get more people to to engage you know in the process and and try you know for For Better or For Worse you know I would point to point to the emails and point to the communication that we had not just last night people that are coming in today

104the almost hundred people that are online right now I mean we we have to this is what my point to your question council is we have to look at this not as a one-year this budget the these budgets are multi-year effects you know with Dr Willet brings up that we're having an extremely difficult Insurance year that we're having an extremely the the reevaluation is kicking everybody in in the backside and our budgets are difficult but if we take this and we say you know what we're going to we're going to underfund this year but we'll be fine next year we we have to look at the long-term effects I mean we have you look out in the audience now I see multiple of the the Hades Town shirts and St and you know my 8-year-old

105asked me today if was not going to be able to run the sets when she gets into high school because of what she's hearing there you know that that if we have to make these reductions now not all of them come back so we have to and recognizing that you know recognizing it's a tough year and decisions have to be made and priorities have to be made but I just ask that we look at this from a long-term perspective how do we do things now so that we can weather this but still keep the things that have to be here that have to stay and I think what this experience has showed us is that will speak and that we as two distinct boards two distinct groups can come together and have conversations like this

106and we can make the profit I appreciate I appreciate that and and and to your point it makes sense and it kind of a trickle down thing when you're under funding for one year it affects the the years to come um you know lot ofat enough to do if you just for one year but if you have issues with multiple years you know then you you can run into a bigger pickle if you're not touching on um I mean to your point it's I've got an eighth grader going into ninth grade she's a theater kid you know she's in newsy she ask she asks about things all the time she was ped on on seeing eight to kids here uh last night I'm sure she ped on seeing tonight too um you know and she's

107got a younger sister and and you want to see things you know most parents want to see things stay consistent um you know I don't want my fifth grader um to not have the opportunities that my current eighth grader has um you know I think most parents feel that way I got a three-year-old and a two-year-old I hope that they were coming into the schools and they're going to say see the same same that their sisters um half right now um and I think for the most part that's that's what everyone wants you know you want think so we stay consistent um and so I think that was the point of my question originally was if there's anything that the Town Council is doing to make that difficult to just at least meet status quo

108just to kind of keep things the way that they are um then you know want to hear that and and you know I can only speak for myself but I'm at least open to what the board of has to say about that because this this is this is what you guys do what you're elected to do we weren't elected to to you know look at the board EV under a microscope that's what you guys are going to do and whatever you guys tell us I'm gonna I'm G to take that um because better than to tell us what's what's the issues so thank you for your answer thanks um lot of obviously um do appreciate having the second meeting appreciate us working as a cive team um I think it's important that what we are

109Comm Council Board of planning zon all of our working together for the whole so I do appreciate having the second meeting I do appreciate back and forth collaboration versus um in the past my first Bo Town council meeting I felt like we had to that we were almost begging right for someone to listen to us so and why we have presented this for our students and our um in our future and future St so it's really important having this cies conversation and to continue that of conversation and be United I think it's it's important to appreciate differences and view points that's so again I just want to miss buckler J um you did use the word being financially responsible in your question um and that that thinking financially responsible fiscally responsible isn't necessarily cut taking

110away it's being financially so when I first came to the Board of Ed I asked previous board members to explain to me what the typical day and how to how to read the budget how to understand the budget um um and it's very different than writing your checkbook and budgeting your checkbook there's reoccurring funds and we there's things that come in and out and there's grants and stons and other different funding opportunity however when we don't fund we're just pushing the so the next year when we need those funds for something else if looks like we're being extravagant and Swinging the time going the other way however we're just trying to compensate for whatever was reduced that needs to come back in makes sense right um so when you said financially responsible which brought me

111back to page 16 of Dr well it's our original excuse me superintendent for both budget he gave us on January 8 our fiveyear average is 1.8 Which is less than the average increase any employee or any group would get the 2.54 quot average increase our 12 year average is 1.73 I do hear different folks in town I do hear different folks on boards saying well we got a we got a 3.3% 2.03 which is one of the highest we've had in the decades but if we were to have been funding for decades it wouldn't have been that EX drant wouldn't been that high of a swing and we wouldn't be be makes sense so I want to make sure that everybody understands that there's nothing that we're asking for as a board of that's extravagant

112we're asking to allow us the funds um whether it be in the proposed budget whether being usually utilizing you know ER un assign taxation different funds that we can use and I know there's restrictions on some of it where there's Capital recurring those different things but we do have a lot of options that was that were proposed today by Town Council by board B and through these conversations I think there's an opportunity for us to really look at Dr Will's original proposed budget we EV budget as well as um what our town manager provided us is just I find that that media that Happ media but I think and again when we're talking bu of talk I again that that's real life real real reality but as a board event member and as a guardian

113of Education um I've taken that to heart of what that really means to help provide our staff the tools and those resources to educate us and to provide the resources to our students to be educated for the whole student we've heard it in the rounds that Jen mentioned we've been PR pry to um we learned I mean in Co I was able to go to the one to one rounds with Mar Grandy and TMS and understand why it so important to have one toone technology that was instituted because of the way that our educa community in the way that our students showed how they were merging the classroom with them we continue to go to those rounds we continue to go to the community workshops which are open to our counselors the community as well

114as a board of acts so we can listen to our resident experts at the schools what they need inv there's nothing that they've said that I have heard anybody say that seems so outrageous everything that they say is you need this to our class we need this to provide this to our students we need this for a tier one 123 for instruction we need this to help our students with special education we need this to be resources for our nurses and medical staff we need this for our Safety and Security we need this for our mental health none of it's the flashy sparkly car the $200,000 vehicle the 200 anything like that this is what they need to flourish with their education um we had hear business Pathways I think a lot about our business

115Pathways and we have several board members Town Council and bed who have recently gone through the T public school system and I'm sure took advantage of the opportunities the business Pathways to get to where they are and their in their respective GRS I we know we talk a lot about Jacob and Jaden who are probably been our most recent graduates but even if we have a conversation where where they are at their professional careers I know that Jaden says a lot about Jacka right Jacka helped drive him and helped him focus on his mathematics his Ela his those different things because he had those reasons I can't speak for for Jacob but I'd like to have a conversation about how those business packways helped him in his career growth now we we've seen it talks

116a lot about mental health and um C talks Safety and Security I think a lot of that all incomp think it's important Jen you ask if there's anything new I don't think I'm saying anything new but I'm trying to say it from a different lens and maybe a different point of view because what these students or what the board of AD presented or Dr Willet presented these students are asking nothing is extravagant they're asking to help them be educated to help them become the next teacher the next superintendent the next Safety and Security Officer the next you know fire you know fire the next placement whatever it might be it's very important we talked about this student with the video the videography at the middle school it's important to understand that that student because of

117that opportunity doing those videos he's excelling in this in the classroom it's important to understand that our drama students and our theater students maybe they're the next future future folks that are going I don't know burnsy or what whatever it might be this is opportunities for our students so we talk about these extracurriculars they're not fun activities they are fun activities right but they're activities that get our students wheels turning and there activities that get our students excited excited or opportunities for them to find a career path we had the rounds at the high school and I don't know if it was this calendar year J probably but this last calendar year where we sat there with the students and the Brilliance with their Ceramics and pottery and drawing and phography and we had um

118the valoran and she was utilizing her artistic abilities as well so it was last year Val so opportunities to get into her college to be competitive and maybe it's not going to a university maybe it's going to a tradeo maybe it's going to the military maybe it's going to that but that's what all these Sports Athletics clubs Tech decka drama art all these things the track and HEI so these are things that you can't necessarily do in the community through our next center community these are things that are helping build the future our future and someone said it last night I think it was a parent that said they want more for their kids than they had for themselves I want more for my kids and these kids and these students than I had for

119myself and right now some of in the in the restricted number that were given because of the 1.73 12 year average because of since 2019 I've been on the board of ed in the conversation has been reduced reduced reduced we have taken away things things don't how when you take away people you take away educat you take away programs you take away Pathways you take away opportunity again not new what I'm saying Jen but I'm hoping that some of the points maybe comes from a different direction it's important that we support our entire Community we have our opportunities to be creative as a unified team from various backgrounds and various ideas and resources that we can do what's right for all the partners in the town I understand the board ofation is the biggest budget

120right it's the biggest part of the town so when we're talking about percentages and fudge what's the easiest way to streamline right from the biggest budget but is that the right thing to do or is the right thing to do to access funds and such that our tax us taxpayers had put money into and utilize it accordingly so I just think we need to be resourceful with some of those things that's what I have I'll thank you chairman Mari um I have one question uh to Dr Willet um and forgive me if if I'm just not remembering um from your presentation earlier but one thing has the Board of Ed looked at potential attrition um and the salary line as a potential opportunity for savings yes uh we work that in so when I interpret

121you're um Ed to the term attrition as if they re retire is there a differential between the higher and retired individuals and people that we might hire employ yes okay and I guess may just one followup um has there been any accounting for you know positions being vacant throughout the year I you know I know it's a little hard to calculate but I imagine over the past couple of years you have like an average um balance left over up in that line that might be useful to calculate again understand this is a board of education budget but just thinking of some opportunities potentially so yes there's usually are in the par educator Zone but um when we don't have a person say hired as a par educator because we post it and uh you know

122not a lot of applicants are coming in we have to still provide the services with substitutes or with contracted services so even though we have say an opening we contract with an outside service that um provides a person for that job or we have to have a sub doing it so even though there may be some funds in those lines and other lines uh we incur cost in order to provide coverage thank you all right um I don't see anybody else's hand up so I guess I'll go is there anyone else who has questions or comments um so thank you um c um so this follow on uh some of what other folks said um especially about this particular uh exchange here um and I personally like to see us do two things right I

123think we watch and shoot them at the same time I would like us to find these to help restore Mone to the board of education and find resources to help mitigate the tax burden on the residents because this is I have sh so this is Page 71 of our book of our budget book this is this is this year this is 40 some per right this is the the difference and it is unprecedented what we are experiencing in terms of the inflation of the grand list and the reduction of or the or the not keeping Pace with commercial properties we've never seen this before I um this this is a rain day so we R new funds it's pouring on our residents and I think we need to do both things um and I would

124like us to I would like us to look at ways to do that I think this process is super useful because it gave us a chance to come together again I would love to see us restructure our budget process to allow this to happen again in a in a less frenetic fashion um so I think this this has been very very useful um so so those to everyone for doing that um I want to emphasize the importance of the process of public engagement um in this process in town government all the documents are online there are multiple public meetings there are multiple public hearings partip democracy is super messy but if you don't use it you lose it and you're seeing that now right students that have come out last night and tonight and possibly

125tomorrow night bless you for you guys so I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm older right I I went to school in the in the 60s and 70s right your generation your age group you were the people that rode on buses as wrers you are the people that protested the Vietnam War some of you are of the age so you got of high school when I was still in school when I was high school you were rapidly being sent to Vietnam so the idea that you are here is toally with the history of this democracy and what is the corner step of our democracy and rber referend if we do this but nobody votes then it it doesn't do us any good so kudos to you for following a grand tradition and this all the way back

126to if you if you watch Hamilton Alexander alexanderon standing around 1890 in New York City debating with people and changing the so this is there's anle prent for this in our grand 20 you old experiment um this is a so this is a super difficult year inflation and the cost of living increases that we have out fact of life right this is something that happens the education budget is an ADM to it it happens every year everyone must deal with it expecting the community to go into stases For Worse retrograde so that we don't have to deal with it it's unrealistic um there may be emergency situations like Co like during 2008 where we have to we have to do things we don't you know unprecedented things we don't like to do but we must

127plan for the eventuality of the fact that we are going to as our Capital design and see us have these increases every year it's called growth and business depends on it and they EXO it and Wall Street rewards it and when we get down to it at this level we've got a lot of Ang about it so the nature of the process unfortunately induces our communi to pin ourselves against each other we don't need to do that we need to reject that we walk them at the same time be empathetic senors we can expand the ordinance and take some of their ta bur and put it on the shoulders of those of us who can afford it so that's great um and if you look at if you look at things like I have two

128kids in the school syp them a long time ago my youngest had French in the second grade there were multiple languages in the high school my oldest never saw pay to play uh I'm sorry she did when she was older um there were multiple electives you you guys have different things down because of Technology but what I've seen over the years is the chicking away back that and none of us as professionals as persons would accept 40y old 20y old even 10y old medical technology or computer technology in our businesses and we are we also need to understand that we should not be expecting 20y old 40y old educational standards um that's can't produce 21st century Leaders with 20 mid 20th century educational stand um and and finally um I think that we need to

129look at I know don't tell um so for the latest this unassigned fund balance that we've been talking about is our Randy day fund combined with other funds the latest figure that we were able to be given which needs to be updated was 12.3 million as of June of 2024 we are working to get a more updated figure but $1.3 million is1 18.75% 18.75% of our fiscal 2526 propos budget of 65 million approximately $600,000 so we have money there that we could use to pay for costs that I would supposed we talk about this tomorrow like the extraordinary Insurance things that we're taking a hit on the onetime insurance thing that we're taking a hit on hopefully it's not going to be next year as well as to help use some of that to to

130fund the budget to take the bonus and the burden off of our taxpayers and especially our most vulnerable taxpayers so it's something that I would really like to look at as we talk about this tomorrow so I I I love what we were doing here tonight I think we need to continue doing this and I really thank you all for all of your but it's been fabulous listening to everybody I that thank you councelor B um any other comments or questions from counselors or board members I think is Goodman Mar all right then I think we can proceed to our last item up on the agenda last substantive item and that is anyway which was closing statements um let me see let me pull up the agenda here oh I go first um all right

131I I guess I'll just thank everybody for having a good conversation tonight I mean I don't think I need to continue to restate that this is this is a difficult year but I do want to uh thank um the board of ed for coming here with a couple of Creative Solutions um I think the council is certainly interested in exploring um the two that's presented I I would love to get our finance department to weigh in up on them but I I'm definitely uh interested to to see um what's possible here and um I just want to thank everyone for the respectful conversation and uh you know we'll continue continue this um as the process requires uh with our meeting tomorrow and um all the meetings throughout April that lead up to our referendum in

132May turn it over to you chairman Hol thank you chairman Mari I'm going to hand off my time to Vice chair Gan uh thanks Tony so I know done a lot of talking tonight already um I just want to say again I really appreciate um Jacob you agreeing to have this meeting and I really appreciate the counselors that are here and the Board of Ed that's here I see that Dan's online so we have everybody here so thank you thanks again to the students who are coming and everybody listening on online and the parents community members here knowing that there was no public participation um as much as I'd like to end it there for all of us because I know everybody wants to be done if you know me you know that I got

133to fight the fight until the end and um this is my chance to talk to you so I'm going to take it um but I will try to maybe say a little less than I was planning to originally um we talked about you know already that there we have 74 line items of proposed deductions and the fact that this is going to touch every student um we mentioned how grateful we are that the students spoke last night there's no one that we could hear it better from than the students themselves um and the students that an email too so thank you so much for advocating for yourself and your peers um I did want to touch on you know some of the things some more of the things that we did receive because the community

134doesn't know that those things so I wrote down things as I was going through emails and trying my best to get back to students first um so these discussed class sizes loss of high school electives lack of elective in lack lack of electives in the Arts loss of Middle School electives put past budget reductions concerns with limiting the nursing staff High pay to play fees concerns with longer bus routes co- teing reduction concerns Safety and Security lack of a social worker at the middle in high school following 504s and IEPs loss of past staff impacts on college applications impacts on scholarships and grant opportunities for colleges and much more um I did also something occurred to me when I was thinking about this the other day I don't know if they do this anymore but

135you know the you know those password the frequently asked questions to remind you of your password um what street did you live on you know what what was the first car you had what what's another one of those questions who was your favorite teacher and what that really shows to me is that these questions are chosen because these are the things that were the most impactful or strongest memories things that people think that you would not forget people remember their favorite teacher right they remember their favorite coach they remember you know their favorite band director or what not because they're making an impact on our students they're making an impact on our students learning but they're making impacts on our students while they're learning you know we we talk about the the staff that we've

136lost lost and we talk about the Physicians we also lost those people you know they were advisers to students they were people that our students counted on it's more than just our concerns about increasing class sizes and and I know those things are the things that we have to look at but it is the trusted people that you know get our CH get some of our children through so I don't know if you know you necessarily all realize this as you go through emails or there was public speaking last night but there was a lot of staff as well so we heard from an elementary interventionist we heard from a high school math teacher we heard from an High School Ela teacher we T we heard from the THS Coral teacher and drama club advisor

137we heard from multiple pair of professionals we heard from the nurse and District nursing coordinator and each of these people spoke about the tremendous impacts that the reduction has on students they discussed low wages in comparison to other districts they discuss true concerns for student academic achievement for mental health and for you know we we hear a lot of you know I didn't have these things right we we didn't maybe we didn't grow up with some of these things right um but I don't know about you my household doesn't look the same as the household that I grew up with with my parents it doesn't look the same as the household with my grandparents the things the requirements that are placed on my children and um you know what is necessary to to get into

138them every day and every year is well beyond what it was for me the com going through the college application process which is something that I just did very different world you know so many of our students talked about it's not just grades anymore it is so much more so I ask you to keep that in mind you know we don't there's a lot of things that we have to do now there's that were not mandated then there the world is different our homes look different our families look different what we need to provide for children in the course of a school day is different and you know for the I think councelor Nan touched on this at the beginning you know I think that we do we need to stop pointing fingers right we're

139all this is a community we all contribute it contribute to services in this town that help it succeed every student every individual in this town could tell you how they contribute right we have volunteers in the schools we have volunteers at the senior center we have volunteer firefighters um we need businesses to come to town right to increase our commercial Revenue well we need those existing businesses and new businesses to succeed right so who's who's going to keep them here who's going to frequent the restaurants who's going to be at that new gymnastics facility who's going to be at Starbucks you know lots of students are employed at Big why you know the students and the parents are contributing a lot to this um Community as well you know I'll leave you with that I

140I believe that the community every every piece of it is important students parents single families seniors um we all have to do our part to support every Department in this town but I will say that this the education is this town largest asset it's not only its largest business it has the most employees and it has the most customers but it's its largest asset to enable us to take care of everyone in this community so I hope very much that when you all deliberate tomorrow that you take everything that we talked about tonight into account everything that you've heard thus far if you have any more questions please feel free to ask us in between um I thank the superintendent for providing those Solutions I hope that you trly explore them and more thank you

141thank you right with that um we'll go to the final item which is adjournment um is there any objection to adjournment right without objection we are adjourned at 9:08 p.m. thank you all and hope you have all have a great great night