Tolland Budget Public Hearing - April 1, 2025

001with that I will call the public hearing for the town manager's proposed budget uh to order at 7:05 p.m. and I'll turn it over to Brian to give a brief presentation up on the budget before we proceed towards our public comment portion of the meeting Jacob if it's okay with you I'm going to go out the hall and notify them that they still have the right to you know come in they have the right to speak um at public comment if that's okay with you yeah yeah I think that's the way way to proceed I I unfortunately I think you know per Sarah best advice we we kind of need to proceed in the room per you know the standard 24-hour notice that the hearing has been noticed um and unfortunately we don't really have

002opportunities to reschedule to another night given that we are two days out from our budget meeting I do just want to acknowledge and thank marily Lee for at least um having submitted the request for backup location I know it didn't it didn't come through but I appreciate marily for doing that so I'll just uh run out to the hall real quick Jacob and uh then we can sure okay let me know when you're back Chris Jacob I just had Chris I just had a question great there's so many people here but is if the people that standing maybe they get to speak first we even go home and watch on zo just another option Chris I'd ask you to try to get the people standing or outside to speak first yeah whatever I love you

003[Music] Brian at is [Music] don't gra laptop things that's if I counted right you better let every think [Laughter] how many you I can't think [Music] I'm glad you she yeah uh excuse me everyone I just want to let you know what's going on so we are at capacity on Zoom as well so uh we're just trying to see if there's anything that can be done about that or whether uh you know how we're going to proceed from here but I just want to let you know that's that's what the holdup is right now um thank you all for coming and thank you for your patience as well no problem at all [Music] Jo good can I have the council's attention please attention Okay thank you um after Consulting with uh Vice chair Moran we're

004going to proceed as scheduled um with the public hearing um so with that can we go to town manager Foley's public hearing presentation and then we will open it up to public comment great um thank you Mr chair uh thank you everybody my name is Brian Foley Town manager town of tland uh tonight is a public hearing on our uh my proposed budget uh and prior to any uh budget deliberations by Town Council coming up uh later this week I want to thank everybody that came uh this is this is fantastic uh to have this much uh involvement in our uh budget process uh this is a public hearing and anyone that wants to will be given an opportunity in here uh to speak tonight I'm sorry we don't a larger room uh we we

005have to go with what we have here um so the good news is uh that I have proposed a budget uh for our town our town is a beautiful town uh we have a wonderful school system it is a safe Community we have incredible Services here in town when you compare it to others uh our property values have gone up a ton our mill rate is going down it is a desirable town uh to live in uh that being said um when I decide on a budget I have to consider a lot of factors uh I only have one vote in the budget and that's the same as everybody here in the room uh that is as a resident so uh heavy is the crown uh to those on Council I thank you uh for

006volunteering and and offering to listen tonight to the residents at Talent uh in in consideration uh of my budget and I understand again uh the heavy uh decision that you have in front of you so with that I'm going to begin uh my my budget presentation here for the uh town of talent again it's a balanced budget basically uh the money coming in equals the money uh going out uh we have a lot a lot of things to consider uh all the different departments the capital investment we have things like Insurance the utilities there's there's a lot that goes into it and I'll start to get into that now so uh this is the basics of the budget uh in fiscal year 2026 the general fund is projected the revenue is projected to be 65,536

007488 uh that is the same that is expected to be of expenditures when compared to fiscal year 2025 this adop uh when compared to last year's budget there's an increase of 3.03% when compared to last year's budget the budget that I am proposing uh that is an increase in the town operating budget by 2.8% or $392,900 uh I am proposing uh a capital Improvement uh plan to increase by $226 2 2 6,829 uh with a proposed onetime expense to be offset by the ass unassigned fund balance currently and this this is a moving Target the propos proposed new mill rate will be 2 point I propose 2.26 which reflects a decrease of just over 25% or 9.51 Mills from last year's adopted mill rate of 3.77 uh this is all due to the reval and

008we'll get more into the reval as we move through uh this budget my my proposal includes our fiveyear Capital plan I'll get into that to some degree as we move forward I want to talk about the main sources of revenue so where do we get the funding to pay uh for all the services for education for public safety of the the the staff uh Public Works everything uh obviously the main source is our property taxes and the beef of our property taxes are from um homes personal homes as opposed to uh commercial property taxes are going to account for 52 m767 987 that's an increase in property taxes of 1,710 n51 or 3.35 increase uh again an increase of 1.7 million roughly uh there is also uh Revenue sources that come in it's and that

009is 8.8 million in education grants between the tax revenue and the education grants that's where we get uh the most of our money uh there will be a contribution from our Municipal tax stabilization fund uh I'm proposing of 300,000 that is the same as last year that is the max amount that we can contribute from that fund uh there is a contribution from fund balance of $527,000 uh and that is an increase of 70 over 75% from last from what we contributed last year looking at expenditures the total town operating budget is4 m421 634 the board of education budget that I'm proposing is 4,174 141 an increase of$ 2.99% Capital Improvements is I'm opposing is $624,000 uh quite an increase uh from last year and our debt service remains flat deeper dive into the revenues

010again the proposed budget for fiscal year 2526 is an increase of 3.03% totaling 1,935 48 when compared to adopted budget fiscal year of of last year's budget the primary source property taxes that again that constitutes 80 over 80% of our overall Revenue uh and as I said before the second largest is our education grants and in this chart you can see uh where where some of the revenues also come from but again the thief of it is education grants and taxes and that just fractions from the rest of them looking at at the state in regards to the governor's proposed budget for the town of talin uh it decreased by $248,000 compared to fiscal year 2025 uh that is estimated from uh funding from the state again it's estimated uh and there's some uh we're

011not exactly sure uh as to what we're going to get from them and that is also a moving Target uh basically our ECS our education uh Grant is less almost $300,000 and uh after talking to our State Delegate we're hoping that we will get that $300,000 back uh and if that's the case we can uh look at the budget differently by adding uh 300,000 more in Revenue uh so this is a look at other non- tax revenues the other non- tax Vue sources again the big ones are are the property taxes and the grants but these are some of the smaller ones uh you have non-education uh state and federal grants our Pilots disability veterans grants uh Town preservation and state Municipal grants totals about $50,000 we have a robust uh license and permit and

012fees uh Revenue coming in down into our office of Planning and Building uh this is our building permits our town clerk fees and our the cannabis sales tax we estimate the building permits to be about 80,000 uh and the Cannabis are around 40,000 again these These are moving targets I can tell you the start of the building season has begun I spoke to our uh our our building inspector today and he says it has been a robust start we are estimating about 115,000 in Revenue coming in from there charges for current Services that's largely out of our clerk's office based on uh projected Trends and we're looking at that being about $22,000 less than last year uh and then interest uh in income and others around uh 100 so basically around 148,000 for is the

013total that we're looking at for non- tax revenue the state of Connecticut requires municipalities to conduct a townwide revaluation every five years we just had ours as most of you are probably aware I can uh go ahead and forewarn you that there will be another one in five years this is not anything that we want to do here in the town this is a state law and we are required to do that uh reevaluation means determining the market value of real property to establish the tax base and ultimately equalize the tax burden uh within the town it's important to note that our last reval was in 2019 so much has changed in our town in the state in the country in the world since 2019 uh the our property values certainly have gone up a

014lot uh since preo when the last reval was your homes value increased for the 2024 revaluation as the market value of your property has increased the value determined for the 2024 revaluation will be your properties's assessed value for the next five years providing you don't add anything or do anything to your to your house to affect uh that value all right this is this is the nuts and bolts of the reval and I'll try to explain you know I'm a I'm a homeowner as well and I wonder why why is my my are my taxes going up so much based on the reval and so um what it what it kind of boils down to in simplest of terms between commercial and Industry and our homes in town those of the the the the housing

015market and the industry and Commercial Market are the two buckets where the taxes come in from the housing market the housing values went up so much when compared to the commercial so now because the housing market has gone up so so high the values of our homes have gone up so much more and the commercial values they did went the the businesses the values went up they just didn't go up proportionately to the home values so now the home value Bears the brunt of that that is the the probably the biggest Factor so uh y would you like to explain this this chart here that we have here yes I think you good evening everyone anything think Town manager just U nailed it uh this is exactly where we trying to explain how the different

016is in the value um we don't have a our assessor today but he's on a call and if he can help me here I'm really appreciate it um so the first table we um we broke down in motor vehicle real estate which we broke to resident commercial and personal property and at the last column of the table one you can see the variances in the gr uh rows actually the last in the last column it shows how the value decrease or an increase and the residential increased by 51% where we see commercial decrease and personal property just increased about 6% so you can see that that there was a huge shift where we don't have um you know hand that this is this is the market and it was driven by the market value and

017the second table actually gives the medium of uh residential property value and the tax bill and also commercial IT Compares both in the last column it shows that the the median value increase on the residential by 45% where commercial property value increased also 10% not not the same percentage not the same level but it also increased but the tax bill actually went down for commercials versus the residential and this is just an example in um we have a tax uh calculator available able online if you have any questions you would like to calculate it's um there is a link in the budget book that you can go and kind of estimated what would be for that estimated Bill rate thank you y okay I'd like to move forward and look at uh budget revenues again

018and the use of the fund balance and Municipal tax stabilization fund uh the use of the unassigned balance is we increased this year to $227,000 compared to 2025 uh for a total of5 27,000 uh this is largely to offset the one-time CIP expenditure uh use of fund balances uh is typically uh the best recommendation is to use for one-time expenses uh and the uh the town policy mandates the unassigned balance remain between 10 and 15% of Gap expenditures uh if the basically what that means is we have a we have a an account of money that we're required to have a certain amount in in case there's emergencies uh that certain amount is B between 10 and 15% of GA Gap expenditures uh part that that uh well-funded count account goes towards our AAA Bond

019rating we are very close to losing our AAA Bond rating each year and so we want to have a robust account uh in the unassigned fund balance that we don't lose that if the unassigned fund balance drops below 10% it cannot be used as a revenue Source until it recovers to that level again as I said before we're using 300,000 from $300,000 contribution from the municipal tax stabilization fund and let's look at some expenditures more closely again fiscal year 2026 proposed budget uh the expenditure expenditure increase is 3.03% that I'm proposing and 1.9 million or so uh in dollar amounts the total uh on the for the town total operating budget is an increase of 392,000 for 2.8 8% increase uh the Board of Education operating budget increased $1.3 million or 2.99% increase and Capital

020Improvements uh a 226,000 or almost $227,000 or 57% uh increase uh this next page this is a look at the major uh expenditures in town that have that have increased and basically that have caused uh this that the ma major driver in our taxes going up on top of the reval the motor vehicle taxes uh the major costs for the town that have gone up and this is uh our benefits our health insurance that's going up $139,000 uh payroll for Union contracts and non-union uh pre-approved pay increases is up $193,000 and then $30,000 to pay for the revaluation we just had a revaluation we have to pay for another one in five years uh we're planning on uh paying for that so we with $30,000 each year to help pay for that these three things

021alone of the town's increase of $392,000 these three things alone account for 362,000 uh in the uh increases of it so here is my uh proposed budget for the Board of Education as I mentioned before I'm proposing 4,174 141 I'm proposing it 2.99% increase of $1.3 million compared to fiscal year 2025 on February 12th the Board of Education presented his budget the Board of Ed presented two separate budgets the superintendent proposed budget was for an increase of 11.1% uh to 48 m737 71 the Board of Education propos proposed budget was a 7.34 increase or 47 mil 85 a $1.3 million uh increase moving on to the capital budget capital budget is basically planning for a really big expensive things uh buildings large apparatus uh Emergency Equipment dump trucks um facilities technology uh these are things

022that we have to plan for and plan out uh we have to plan for responsibly certain trucks as they get older become more costly to repair than to uh and it outweighs the cost to keep it so so we have to plan responsibly uh to uh rotate the stock so it doesn't become more expensive to keep the truck parts become harder to find as you if you watch or our Capital presentation every piece of equipment we have we run well beyond its life expectancy our DPW does a good job of getting and our fire department does a good job of getting the most out of our large apparatus uh assets must must be purchased maintained and replaced on a timely basis uh or their usefulness in providing public service will diminish we also just can't

023keep pushing and pushing things down the road we have to plan out our debt responsibly this also contributes to our AAA Bond rating is that we have a consistent plan uh for paying for these things and and if we push everything out and push everything out at some point it's going to come back and pile up on us so uh we have done a good job I believe and and the bond rating uh agencies also believe uh in our five-year uh Capital plan and how we plan out our our expenses these are the these are the funds uh that help pay for the Capital Improvements when when money comes into the town we put them in different funds the the top two there uh general fund our general fund and the capital non- reoccurring funds

024are big ones and then there's non- referendum notes we just went for one for um the paving last year we had a referendum uh those are really the big ones the other ones are are smaller uh these are the capital fund contributions from the last uh five years you can see obviously it's it's going up uh last year we we contributed just over $397,000 to the uh Capital uh for the general fund towards Capital uh for 2026 I'm proposing $624,900 of our town operating budget we use the general fund uh to pay for some things in the capital budget uh and this we're going to kind of take a look at that now the increase in a general fund over last year is approximately $227,000 again this is a planned increase uh and will be

025reduced by in 2027 and moving on so we have we have planned this out over five years uh thanks to council over the last uh four or five years we have stuck to this plan uh and that the money will start going down after that as long as we continue to spend and plan responsibly uh we plan on recommending a onetime general fund use of the unassigned fund balance to cover this increase in order to have a zero impact on the mill rate uh town uh Town Administration projects so there's some some Town Projects basically that we have to pay for and that is our our water pollution control wpca that is our sewer system we we pay into that 134,000 or almost 135,000 every year uh out of our general fund and that goes

026that helps us pay for our sewer services to the town of Vernon where they have a water treatment facility we have a sewer system we do not have a water treatment facility so we pump our sewer systems to Vernon uh and that costs money there was a upgrade to the Vernon facility several years ago that was in the millions of dollars our uh portion of that was around 5% we'll get into that uh down the road and that's what this this money is to pay for that uh we have a fleet of town Vehicles 10 10 Town vehicles and three Board of Education vehicles uh we have to plan for repairs we have to plan for replacement uh so out of the general fund we have uh 54,500 out of the town and 15,500 for

027the uh Board of Education vehicles uh some uh from the general fund for the Board of Education uh this year we we intend on uh spending in the capital I'm sorry the capital budget coming out of the general fund uh we plan on putting new seats in the TM Auditorium seating uh that that is 188,000 those seats are very old they were there when I went to high school in that building and it's time uh for them we can't find replacements anymore uh District fire doors at $112,000 have to be replaced per our fire marshall in our superintendent there's Capital Equipment uh to projects totaling $68,000 and that is the light duty Reserve again for for two of our um three of our pickup trucks in DPW and we also going to replace a Parks

028a John Deere tractor at $55,000 uh drainage we oppose $50,000 out of the general fund for drainage Construction and design it's something we do uh every year and that is for any drainage projects um catch Basin Projects around around the town something could happen at any one of those and we can blow through that pretty easily in one project so we try to keep it as again as conservative as possible we stay pretty much level around there moving back to the water pollution control the total that we pay to Vernon uh is $164,950 M2 98,0 subject to some minor changes uh that again so so we have annual pay this is the sixth year of our de payment the annual payments for the following 14 years will be $164,950 each year unless again there's some

029change in the debt structure talin share many towns use the Vernon um water treatment facility to include Vernon South Windsor Bolton tand there may there might be others that leave Manchester as well our share of the project to rebuild the water treatment facility was 5.63% that's where that three million uh came from obviously it was a large project to to rebuild that uh the general to to get to that 164 again as I mentioned before 137 134,000 comes out of general fund and then another 30,000 comes out of the capital non- reoccurring fund uh we are continuing to phas in the burden of this general fund by using a portion of a lawsuit settlement that was deposited into cnre uh several years ago more uh cap more uh funding different funding sources for uh capital

030projects moving forward uh some of the Capital Equipment non- referendum debt of 582,000 $5 for the roadside mower that's the mower or that's the tractor that has the arm that cuts down growth along the the roadsides and the intersections uh and the replacement of a large apparatus dump truck one of our main plows uh in town both of those uh total about uh 582,000 and then out of uh cnre for 155,000 we have a wood Tripper the previous wood chipper we had was from 1994 it's becoming uh difficult to get parts on it and EXP for upkeep so we plan on buying another one of those and hopefully we'll get another 30 years out of the next one as well and then replacement of a 2007 for to F250 at $80,000 uh Public Safety funding

031uh the ambulance Reserve funding for uh firefighter protective gear at $7,000 obviously they can't understate the point importance of that uh we're looking at doing a steel beam installation at station 240 uh so that we can um help fit some things that the new apparatus that are in there uh and our firefighters can utilize the entire station a little bit better than what they can right now and then a replacement of two trailers uh that Chief LEL has requested as well for 70,000 that's all paid for out of the ambulance Reserve fund uh Parkson Recreation we're looking to spend $595,000 of non referendum debt funding uh 565,000 of it will be for replacement of our both our basketball courts the basketball court at crandles and the basketball court at Herring Cove hering Cove is so

032in such a state of disrepair it's almost abandoned at this point and the courts at crandles are well over 20 years old and and time to be replaced we are not doing it in concrete we are doing them both uh in Asphalt there's some cost savings and makes the repairs a little bit easier uh for our staff and upkeep uh CNR e funding $30,000 to pay for the tala Middle School softball field renovation when I got here there was no plan to um pay for the field upkeep we have a lot of baseball fields soccer fields athletic fields all throughout the town and it's kind of like it was it was being done on the wacka thing when something popped up and need to be replaced or replaced it uh I worked with DPW I

033the recreation board uh Dr will and and his athletic staff uh to come up with a plan to uh upkeep all our our um athletic facilities the first the first one that Dr Willow recommended and and we all concur is the softball field so we look to spend $30,000 on the softball field at tal middle school and then over the next 20 years we'll look at different fields uh and that way there there's no surprises and we have it reasonably and responsibly planned out uh moving forward uh looking at loet funding for public facilities the uh exterior cleaning and staining of our lodge the lodge is a revenue generator for us uh it has never been cleaned nor painted or stained as as it is so we look to do that with 52,000 we have

034an old oil tank sitting in the ground over at the senior center uh the state of Connecticut would love for us to remove it if we don't it will start to cost us money the state will start hitting us so we'd like to get that out at a cost of 25 and then about 50 Grand to start replacing uh some of the failing windows and doorways here uh in the Hicks building uh we're looking at spending uh cnre uh again Capital non-referring funds 49,000 uh basically 79,000 for uh it and then I'm sorry 49,000 brii and then as I mentioned earlier a portion of that will go towards the um our sewer system uh Public Works a total of $70,000 in our tar Aid Road Grant that's a grant we get every year uh we

035use it for uh tree trimming and hazardous trees uh due to insect uh infestation around town uh and then us we just went to referendum in 2024 for 1.4 million uh to help keep up with our um Paving they roughly we try to do uh five uh five miles of Road a year we used to be able to do that with a million dollars we can't anymore obviously the prices of of everything has gone up and makes it difficult to do that uh and then uh we look for for um loow for between losf and the Grant another 313 or almost $314,000 again to help pay for our upkeep of our town roads all right this is the town debt management plan schedule from uh 2026 through 2030 again um we are we are recognized

036by our um by the bond rating agencies for our strong um capital budget planning and and we expect the capital budget I'm sorry the general fund portion of that will remain level at 5,300 7648 uh the negative amount listed below under amount to be paid from Debt Service and C CN is the amount to be contributed to cover the total debt payments in that year the debt management plan will allow for the budget to begin being reduced in fiscal year 2627 to eventually get reduced to an amount determined by Town Council the plan is to begin Capital uh begin the plan is to begin building Capital reserves to fund future projects on a pay as you go basis to avoid having debt uh this will be done as Deb debt falls off the books this

037would allow for Less dependence on issuing debt and moving forward for our Capital needs uh the positive amounts reflects the amounts that can be put towards future Capital debt and capital needs in the J Lo all right and lastly um these are some some important dates I'll add one in uh tomorrow night there's a a discussion with Board of Ed and Town Council uh that when they will discuss the uh the board of V Budget on April 3rd the council will deliberate and finalize their budget to go to referendum on April 9th we will advertise the said budget uh on April uh 16th and 17th the town chair and the 16th will present the budget here on the 17th I believe I will be presenting it at the senior center as well uh on May

0386th the again every year the first Tuesday of May this year it's May 6th is the annual budget referendum and then uh should the budget referendum pass the Town Council will establish uh the mill rate on May 13th back to you Mr chair thank you Brian for walking us through that all right at this time um I'll just say quickly for procedural purposes um I'll have uh I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing um once that motion passes I will turn turn it over briefly to councelor UD to give a summary of written correspondence that the council has received um and then we'll go to the room for public participation I've asked uh Vice chair Moran since I fortunately cannot intend in person tonight to um uh help me with uh iners participation

039in the room and we'll try to uh get to those who are standing or um aren't able to be in the room first um so that they can uh they can go so with that um I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing second all right uh is there any discussion all right not hearing any we'll do a roll call vote uh counselor Shay know if we can unmute counselor Shay hi sorry about that hi thank you um councelor buckler hi councelor Nunan hi councelor gich hi councelor Moran hi councelor bb hi I'm and I as well so the public hearing is open I'll just turn it over to counselor you to check as discussed thank you chair so we got first of all I want to thanks s Beth she went through that's

040part of her procedure of any emails we get so we got a total of 78 emails as of 6:30 tonight um one four letters of we got reevaluation one letter depolarization four letters joint needen one letter Grand list one letter forye request one letter General government one letter of funding suggestion 61 levels L excuse me 61 letters of support of the board of education budget proposal four letters do not support the Boe budget proposal and one off and not on the registration L thank you councelor you to check okay with that we'll go to public participation um because it is cramped to the room I'll have uh someone in the room go first counselor Moran can you just uh help me with that sure yeah if anyone standing or anyone in the hall to if

041uh if they could speak first or students as well you know we'd ask to just try to work together on that so um yeah and just as a reminder uh provide your name and address before you speak so if you want to speak in the room just come right up to the table right [Music] here yeah sure if you can project loud enough you rather stay where you are that's fine stay here hi thank you honor thank you for allowing us the opportunity to participate tonight I recognize the pressure the town is currently under and I understand that you will make the decision that best represents the community with that being said I believe it to be critical now more than ever to emphasize the necessity of extracurriculars specifically those pertaining to business and developing

042well-rounded and academically driven individuals here at colum High School in a Cutting Edge Society where college applications and interviews are undeniably more competitive than 20 or even 10 years ago I believe it is tall and high school's responsibility to give each student a Competitive Edge nowadays 4.0 gpas have become the standard and AP classes are an expectation so how can we as active and dedicated students possibly dream of separating ourselves from hundreds of thousands of other candidates I believe the answer lies in our business asra curriculars as members of deca we are not only taught information relevant to the business field but to every aspect of life we learn presentation skills through our competitions employability skills through our officer elections and most importantly how to utilize your potential and find your Competitive Edge in every

043school you can find extraordinary grades in every school you can find rigorous classwork but every school does not produce a student well equipped to thrive in the Working World I humbly request that you ask yourselves whether toand is prepared to accept that burden without the reinforcement of deca and other business Plus thank you thank you great thank you uh we have well now we'll go back to someone online um I see Rebecca has her hand raised can we unmute Rebecca are we able to unmute Rebecca TR right there just keep looking that I unmuted her okay well Jacob while we we have a couple of people that have been waiting in the hall that would like to speak is that all right if I yeah in the entrance of time we'll come back to Rebecca

044so we can go to another person in the room okay Stephanie Verdine and we're at 4 Deerwood um I just wanted to say we moved to talland about three years ago and we paid probably $1,000 extra for our house over a house we found in another County due to the quality of the schools um so that was one of the first things we looked at when moving to Connecticut and tand was actually a target for us and that was one of the only houses we could find in tand County so we ended up paying that much of a difference just to be here um when the school ratings drop people who are going to pay the taxes and people B who want to buy the houses and spend the money here they won't move here

045they'll move to a better school district and so we need to ensure that we're providing quality education for our students but also so we're attracting new people into our communities um and continuing to build up talin to be one of the in my opinion one of the best counties you can live at in Connecticut that was our everything thank you yeah okay we'll try to go back to Rebecca still having trouble I'll go to another person in the room yeah we have another individual from the hall yep thank you for the opportunity to speak very so M side parent of two children in col schools so I'm here to express my deep concern about the 1.9 million reduction from the proposed Boe budget so if I understand correct correctly the average Boe budget increased over

046the past 10 years has been 1.68% per year so on the other hand you are look into the website the town overall budget increase rate is actually higher so that means another portion of the Town budget increase at a higher rate so while look deeper into the numbers so for example the capital Improvement budget where we just discussed has seen average increase of 24% per year for the past 10 years and rising from 100, 10 years ago to the proposed 620,000 for the next year so to be clear I'm not suggesting that investing in capital Improvement was inappropriate so I'm trust those individuals our members who work really hard and their decisions are made with careful consideration and for the best interest of the town but however I'm just saying looking at these world numers

047can be confusing or misleading so similarly I TR start relate and the Board of Education who propos a budget must be ad careful consideration as they feel necessary for the town schools so while the proposed budg is a increase from last year the proposed b e budg was 7% increase from last year but it should be seen as a necessary correction following the good card of last year and also a near 0% increase over uh the year 2017 to 2020 so we are all here for the best of the town so if we see CS of d in the roads with be we have to fix it it's a necessary spense but poor school funding also causes harm except the damages are to our children in town and they are not always visible by public

048or by so but it doesn't make L damage less real or less important so I feel the budg needs to be fixed from the past damages so I urge you as members to reinstate the original proposed po budget and to fix our schools thank you okay thank you um we'll go to I'll give Rebecca another chance and if still has trouble with audio maybe she can just message Us in the chat to let her to let us know when she can get off mute but Rebecca I'll give you give you another chance okay um just just just send us a message in the in the chat if you're able to get off mute Rebecca um I'll move to Brianna online hi can you hear me yes okay I'm Brianna angelotti of 43 roads Road I'm

049currently a senior at Bentley University and I attended ton high school and graduated in 2021 the importance of EXT School curricular activities is extremely important in the not only the college application process but also jobs after I also am an intern at Blue Cross Blue Shield Rhode Island and the reason I got my internship is because of my extracurricular activities I had no work experience so the fact that I was able to get into Bentley and get into my internship was due to my extracurriculars and the fact that I excelled in them and coming to Bentley I realized how many kids go to private school and how many have opportunities that are Beyond a public school's um funding but being able to have the extra School extracurricular activities like Deca the student me student manag

050investment fund were what got me into Bentley and what we were able to give me scholarship to be able to go to Bentley at a reduced cost so I urge the Board of Ed to rethink the budget cuts around extra School extracurricular activities because without them our students are not going to be able to compete against other students who have way more opportunities than just what's provided in the classroom thank you thank you we'll have another speaker up in the room just a reminder in a public hearing and can sa of Applause and any other sort of reactions um for another Forum all right do we have someone else in the room who would like to speak we do Jacob okay would like to again stipulate that you all have a hard job you God

051bless you for volunteering it's not easy and I understand that you know and I was looking at this I'm retired sir sorry just name and address my name's Tom pal we live on Paul Joy Lane thank you um but I'm retired but wife's retired we have one more left in school she's done so I have no invested bias but it comes down to options I mean a lot of passion you've seen here is on the extracurriculars and we always hear one side the last three years that I've been retired I've been poking around at budgets because got some experience in commercial with that and it feels like we lock all the other pieces of the budget like ja and the town budget and all of those and then we argue about what we're not going

052to do in the schools and it just feels that way I don't know all the context I'm probably wrong but it feels that way and you know the question I have is what are the other options and maybe the school doesn't get back to one point 9 million that they're asking for relative to last year's budget but what are the options I did some quick math on the salaries and this is going to be popular but roughly 80 people employed by the town of toal what if 10% of that doesn't right is a discussion Point that's 800,000 that can go towards exra C right we're going to expense some of this capital budget so it won't be on the balance sheet it's going to end up going to the bottom line but if we don't

053exp what have we buy used $350,000 for tractors and $80,000 going to pick up and and Tomy I get it I've run businesses you can't bow wave these things out because you're gonna pay for them at some point but what are the options and what is the visibility of those options so as a as a voter and a taxpayer you can kind of away okay I get it right we can't take it from here because here's the things that won't happen in town and you weigh that against all of the information we're getting on the school budget right because we got a whole list of things that potentially could be cut yet we don't know what the other options are and only you guys do and maybe we don't need to know but it'd be

054interesting for me as a voter when when I go to vote yes or no on this budget is there visibility to other options that weren't discussed in any form that I'm aware and then longer term I've been here 30 years three kids to the school system I agree with all the senes our kids are doing great in in the school system in the town itself has been a wonderful place to raise kids but what is that future view of it's like a rinse and repeat cycle right now every year it's a 3% increase on the budget that's what ultimately gets negotiated plus or minus two10 of a percent and then the taxes go up and it flows through the tax payers but what is the long long term view you know when I saw that

055revalve and I get it you know my taxes went up as Town manager showed but from a commercial perspective and a strategy perspective it can't be every year for the next 20 years that the discussion is it's a 3% increase in taxes like what's that broader strategy so that we're not sitting in this room next year the year after the year after debating what we need to cut because we haven't done anything different L with respect to the mix in our town and I get it we don't want to have big boxes all over tand but these things don't have to be mutually exclusive you can get more revenue from commercial sources without changing the fabric of our town and I know it's not easy but again as a as a voter I don't have

056visibility to that either so it's hard to say I'm gonna vote Yes to this budget or it'll get modified I would predict it's going to be voted down initially and then it'll come back again but knowing that could just give me a better feeling as to what I'm actually voting for thank you thank you um do we have anyone online who would like to speak all right see none I'll go back to the room yeah hi my name is Katie starger I live at 8 Lisa Lane talland your role as members of Town Council is a difficult one I know firsthand from my time in one of these seats I understand the circumstances of the current Town budget and the consideration that you need to make I understand the impact of the reevaluation on single

057family homes in town I understand the needs of all the residents in town what you have in front of you is not an easy situation and in all likelihood the answers won't be easy it will come as no surprise to you that I'm here today advocating for a fully funded education budget I know it's a surprise I've been advocating for that for a number of years and unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of success what I have seen is resiliency in the children of our town and I am wicked proud of you guys I want to share with you the impact that the current budget that's being considered would have on my children I am a single mother of three kids two of them are currently in the Middle School and one is in high

058school my high school child participates in after school activities 3 to five days a week none of these activities are sports to cut all student clubs would mean that instead of my child being in the school participating in coordinated and organized activities with other children under adult supervision my child would be at home some days my kid would be home alone I have to work and I cannot be home every single day after school that is the economic reality of my household so my high school student would be home alone my kid's a good kid I trust my child and while I sometimes leave my kid home alone unsupervised I'm not sure if I'm very comfortable with the Outlook of having my kid home alone and bored every single day instead of participating in activities

059like drama or ATS instead of participating in model un or the GSA my kid will be home alone and Bor it doesn't seem like a really good situation that will leave lead to tremendous success one of my middle school children is very active in a number of after school activities at talin Middle School none of these activities are sports right now one of my middle schoolers is participating in the school play because of the role that my child has not play they participate in after school activities four days a week if this budget were to pass as is the drama club would be cancelled and next year we would be looking at a situation where my child would be home alone and bored many days after school right now my child participates in this organized

060and coordinated drama activity under the supervision of adults compared to my middle middle schooler being home alone and you guessed it bored I would prefer they participate in the drama club this is the real impact of this Budget on my household I have three of talin's enrolled student population living with me and I don't think I'm entirely unique I think there are a lot of other children that participate in after school clubs where they are in a safe structured supervised environment interacting with other children in a productive way after school you have in front of you a budget for your consideration that would end those activities please don't do that please please don't do that it's not good for my kids and it's not good for a whole bunch of other kids too so I

061know I know the Town Council does not set how the board of EDS spends their money believe me I know but you've already heard from the board of you know what the Board of Ed plans to do and how they plan to run the schools with the budget that you are considering you guys have that information you have skin in the game you each one of you counselor Mari counselor Moran counselor BBE counselor udek counselor Nunan counselor Buckler counselor's day you have skin in this game this budget sits in your hands and you are responsible for the impact that this budget has on our kids so I'll go back to where I started you have a hard job you have hard things to decide upon I wish you the very best as you make your

062decisions and I hope that whatever ever budget you put towards the community for consideration at referendum that you can sleep at night with that decision best of luck thank you okay we'll go online um I Believe Miss Meyer raised her hand first so we'll go to her first and we unmute Miss Meyer yeah yeah can you can you hear me yes we can thank you uh my name is is Nava Meyer I live at 14 Stevens Road um I am a parent of a special needs child and I am also a College University Professor I understand what it takes to get to college and I also understand the type of support needed for kids with special needs um very very acutely I absolutely support um The increased budget for the Board of educ from the

063Board of Education and not the um one in the town budget so I can't stress enough how much um funding for schools matters and also as one previous person stated we move to this town entirely because of the school system if it continues to be underfunded we will leave the town and move elsewhere thank you thank you thank you Miss Meer we'll go back to the room anyone in the room yes sir hi John grany 26 Grant Hill Road um we're talk a lot of people are talking about the support of the budget I'm one of them but I'd like to talk about the process uh last week's Town council meeting Town counselor asked the town manager why he chose 2.99% Town manager said he felt that it was a number that was more palatable

064of Voters and had a better chance of passing he also said because I don't want to go through what we went through last year three referendum votes is messy three votes takes work it takes time and it takes money but by the third vote last year 332 more voters had showed up residents got engaged and we can argue whether the additional cuts for the increased engagement got it across the line but we shouldn't discourage it it's also not the first time we've had three votes we had three votes in 2011 and in 2005 and in four in 2004 and in 200 7 it took six tries to get across the line and 33% of the voters showed up that's how democracy works it's messy and it takes effort but you honor the process by letting

065the people usted make to make the decisions make the decisions recommending a rate based solely on what might be the easiest cell has consequences superintendent Board of Ed that we elected spent countless hours pouring over budget numbers to deliver a comprehensive responsible budget to the Town Council Republicans and Democrats work together volunteering their time on a Herculean effort for our children to immediately tell them after they've completed their job that their numbers are irrelevant and that 2.99% sounds better regardless of the motivation it discounts their work it discounts their role in the process it discounts their role in the community and it suppresses their voices the voices of the people who elected them the voters need the Town Council the town manager Board of bed to be on the same team you are on our

066team the voters team tomorrow night there's an opportunity to bridge that Gap and discuss how we're going to fix the financial mess that we've gotten ourselves into with revals up residential taxes up commercial taxes down and an underfunded school budget on the brink of collapse there's no way out of this without painfully hard work it doesn't take a sales pitch and number that looks entic it means honoring the process and respecting all the stakeholders in it and it means rolling up your sleeves to match the effort of everyone Upstream in the process and handing it to the voters Downstream for as many rounds as it takes regardless of what side of the issue you're on the process is designed wherever you are in that process to allow you a voice without anyone trying to make

067that decision for you thank you just a reminder please refrain from appause or other noise during a public hearing we go to the next person online I believe uh Mark raised his hand so um can we unmute Mark please um hi sorry this is Sarah frell actually uh I live at 112 Sugar Hill Road um just briefly we moved here about a decade ago because of the schools and their reputation opportunities that came with them so tonight I'm lending my support to reinstating the requested seven or so percent from the Board of Education thank you thank you we'll go online or will go in person sorry oh sure sorry thank you should I go up or can I you can stay there if okay um good afternoon my name is Sophia I'm a student at

068Talent high school I just want to start off by saying I have no idea what I want to do after high school I'm currently a senior I'm going to Bright University next year for business which I gained through this amazing school system but this is not about me and it's instead about all the other kids at the high school and at the middle school and our elementary schools who will be affected by this budget I want you to think about the student who struggles in math the one who spends hours studying only to feel like they're always one step behind everybody else think about the student who isn't the fastest test taker who feels like the the traditional classroom does not reflect what they're truly capable of now imagine that student standing in front of

069a Deca judge delivering a business pitch with confidence and realizing that maybe for the first time in their life that they are capable and that they do have a future Deca like Smith or theater isn't just another extracurricular it's a launching path it gives students opportunities they might never have otherwise scholarships leadership experience and career skills it FS confidence in students who might have not found their place elsewhere it helps us identify with our with our attributes whether in public speaking critical thinking or even just learning how to carry ourselves professionally cutting Deca would not just be taking away a club just like if you were to cut theater or Smith it would be taking away opportunities opportunities for students to find their passions to develop skills that will carry them Beyond high school and

070to discover their own potential we always talk about preparing our students for the future let's not take away one of the best tools we've had to do that now thank you thank you right we'll go online to Sarah raised her hand go to Sarah Soka hi everyone my name is Sarah Soka and I live at 58 Mountain Laurel Drive I would like it to be on record tonight that it is a bit frustrating that only 100 people were allowed in on this Zoom call and I think that it should be known that there are several other residents whose voices are not able to be heard tonight and are still out there as residents that are planning on attending on this call and we're not able to it is a little bit of poor planning on

071TC's part and should be planned better for the future I do understand that the current town the I do understand the current Town budget that is being proposed Ed and as a teacher and a parent in talin I will never stop fighting and advocating for education in this great town I moved here over 10 years ago for the schools and it is so important for me to continue to stand up and support the Board of Education and that budget is just invaluable our children cannot afford any of the cuts that are being proposed we need more we need to stop cutting and it is imperative that I stand up and continue to Advocate I do worry about the cuts and all the opportunities that are not being provided to students in talin that are being

072provided in other surrounding districts other districts are outperforming us and we absolutely need to make sure that we are on par in talin with everyone else I am asking the Town Council to please come together please support our school system please work with the Board of Education they are doing everything that they possibly can to help our kids in talin and I appreciate them thank you we'll go to the room [Music] next um hi I'm col my address is 160 anthy Ro um I want to talk about the vital role clubs and extracurricular activities play in our school they are fundamental in making students want to come to school every day I am one of these students these clubs give students a sense of belonging in school they let kids connect with peers they have

073similar interests when students feel like they belong they are more likely to engage in education and attend school regularly a study published in the Journal of educational psychology found that students involved in extracurricular activities are more likely to build a sense of responsibility and time management skills additionally clubs also encourage students to work collaboratively and set goals for themselves and learn problem solving skills later in life I participate in THS drama and this club truthfully changed my life what I'm wanting to pursue later in life is because of these clubs extra extracurricular activities will help me today tomorrow and in the future by building skills connections and opportunities of [Applause] success we'll go to Rebecca's iPhone hello yes we can hear you okay I had some technical technical difficulties with my phone I'm sorry um

074I'm I'm probably not going to sound as eloquent as um even the student that just spoke um I am a very frustrated parent um I keep fighting and we moved here because we didn't have to fight anymore in the town that we lived in before um I have two children that are in the system in Talon schools and they absolutely adore the um Sports and all the clubs and activities I don't understand why you would fix a softball field if you're going to take Sports away that doesn't make any sense to me um my daughter I told her today that they may cut all TMS Sports and she bursted out into tears it is something that is good not only for these kids mental health in times where it's just every day is scary for

075them because of what's going on my generation we only had fire drills and once in a while you know the the bomb threat possibly but you know it's you're getting rid of Mental Health social workers you're getting rid of school clubs Sports I don't understand you already cut stuff from the high school that my daughter was interested in and now if you cut some more teachers that's also going to impact her future for she'll be a senior next year um I I'm just beyond frustrated my ears are burning right now because of how sad my daughter was how much she was crying because she because she is now doing Track and Field Crossing Country she does lacrosse and she has opened up into a beautiful flower into just a child who is happy and loves

076going to school and has friends and you guys want to take that away I don't understand I would really really appreciate if people would consider what it felt like to be a kid and what it feels like to be a kid now in today's society there are so many things going against kids now just please help us out thank you and my address is 64 tand Farms Road in tand it's Rebecca leine thank you thank you thank you we'll go to the room sure okay good evening my name is ellaa and I live at 151 Old Kent Road North I am currently a sophomore at Talen high school and a member of the theater program my peers and I have gathered here to advocate for our school's clubs and to oppose their removal or restriction

077I know that in my case without theater I would not have been confident enough to take a stand in this room right now theater has been my Guiding Light that carried me out of some of the darkest points in my life I know that is also the case for many of my peers and that theater has had a lasting impact on their character and identity a 2023 study done by the after school Alliance found that students who participated in clubs at least two days a week were 18% less likely to drink alcohol 39% less likely to smoke marijuana and 28% less likely to skip school without reason by giving students the opportunity to join clubs and after school programs where they can make friends and contribute to the community they will be preoccupied with things

078to do and feel less compelled to resort to substance abuse because they will have a place where they feel like they belong along with that according to BNA Health one study found that young adults who regularly participate in extracurriculars show lower levels of anxiety and depression overall theater and other clubs have had overwhelmingly positive impact on many students lives in including my own and I hope that everyone in this room considers the impacts of removing or restricting extracurriculars in the Tallen public school system thank you for your time thank you I will go to someone online I think uh think I saw Laura's hand first so we'll go to Laura cassenti uh hi uh can you hear me yes we can awesome all right uh so my name is Laura cassenti I live at 55

079Hilltop Road and um I'm kind of start string of social anxiety so this is hard but um hopefully I won't glitch out on you guys um so I have some concerns with the current budget proposal I would like to go back to the Board of Education um proposal um so I have a i a mom I am also a THS THS Alum from 1993 I graduated at the top of my class and I went to MIT um and my first day at MIT it became app parent that the education I got here in tand was deficient compared to the other incoming classmates um and so I had some real misgivings about returning but uh after my divorce I needed some family help when I found myself a single mom with no support from my ex-husband

080um so I moved back here with uh some fears but um my two older children thrived they uh are National Merit Scholars one of them was salutatorian of his class and is at MIT right now the other one's at Yukon studying biomed um but my youngest daughter uh has some severe disabilities and she has an IEP and I am particularly concerned because we have been underfunding our school system for years Paras are simply not paid enough they are not paid competitive wages and last year in uh my daughter's understaffed classroom she fell broke her nose and ended up needing stitches children are being hurt right now in our classrooms because we decided one year to give a 0% increase in the budget and we have not made up for that shortfall um if we paid

081peris more competitive wages than when her perah left midyear last year we might have been able to find someone to fill that slot I'm also concerned because on a federal level there was an illegal executive order uh dismantling the Department of Education and they know it's illegal so they're doing it or on the slide skirting the system and that may very will impact Federal funding for our most vulnerable students in town Title One students and students with IEPs um we don't know the full impact of that Connecticut is a pretty strong State um there's feelings that we might be able to fully fund our uh education but with also cuts to Social Security Health Care Etc um there might not be we might not be able to make up for the shortcomings what's going to

082happen to the students in our if our town needs to make up for that budget shortfall um do we have a plan in place do we have extra funding I think we need to start thinking about it a town in Ohio on I believe it was the 26th of March decided they're no longer going to support students with IEPs um so these are very real prospects that people in our country are facing right now and additionally while property values did go up they were up Nationwide and I sent a table with information to uh Town Council and Board of Ed showing that our property values did not go up the same percentage that they did um on average throughout the country so our school system also has a ranking if we look at us news

083if we believe in that of 4,000 roughly Across the Nation and I compared it to another school district that was up that upper 200 or around 200 um property values are just we're not keeping up people are looking at the district and thinking maybe there's somewh place better where they're better funded so I think for the future of our town we need to support education we need to think about the future and where we need to put our money and I agree with uh other members of the Town who said that uh we should not have capitulated to fear about the budget process we should uh consider what the Board of Ed has to say and we should consider all input um and other avenues so with that I want to say thank you for

084your time thanks for listening um and I appreciate the tough decisions that you have to make thank you thank you thank you we'll go to someone in the room hello my name is Julie case and I live at 207 Coley Road although I am not able to speak on behalf of my friends I'm able to speak on behalf of my family my family is a military family as most know military families send a around a lot before we moved to tland my parents looked for good safe school system in time for my sister and I to grow up in not only do we find that here but we have found a place in the community sorry this community has allowed my special need sister to be able to have the assistance she needs in both

085school and sports this school Community allows my mother to not only have a high school science classroom as a teacher but also coach softball and cross country at the middle school this community has led me to be able to find my place in Middle School through clubs that I able to explore more in high school through club sports and elected classes at school I've been able to enjoy School more because we can all agree everyday classes can get kind of boring with the proposed budget cuts ways the students Express themselves as being threatened although I may not understand or be able to understand why there is there is one thing I do understand last year during budget cut season my mother's job was on the line not only did I have an effect on my

086parents but had an effect on both me and my sister so many what if questions were thrown in the air the top one being what if a different school would be better for both my sister and I but thankfully my mother was able to keep her job this year there was a lot more than just teachers being affected Middle School sports all School clubs opportunities for special needs students and education Pathways of the high school are only a few of the things on the list of WS just looking at the Filled Room of people doesn't give Justice amount of people being affected by this year's budget cuts although I cannot vote all I ask is that when it comes down to what seeson what goes you think about the students not as numbers but as

087people in this room from theater with their Hades Town shirts on to Deca to people in sports of the Middle School to pair of professionals are not are not able to be in this room think about how the decision that you make has impact on all School lives thank you thank you thank you we'll go to Courtney online hi can you hear me yes we can hi I'm Courtney petrowitz I live at 148 Mile Hill Road I'm speaking as a taxpaying resident but also a teacher at tall and High School in my short time here I've already seen ramifications of former budget cuts and I'm currently advocating for the support of our school system Educators and our students I wanted to just briefly outline some of the extracurriculars and activities that may have already been

088that have already been spoken about so we have concrete examples to consider the proposed budget outlines cutting the f foll in activities and extracurriculars student council and class officers and advisers who help facilitate activities like dances such as prom Spirit Week class night and graduation Cuts also include the removal of unified friends theater Productions rage robotics who just completed in the competed in the playoffs for the New England District this past weekend botney Club Health Sciences the kindness campaign GSA news crew audio Technical Services Ski and Snowboard Club mountain biking Club student managed investment funds the Smith Club model un Deca World Culture Club National Business Honor Society World Language Honor Society National Honor Society and lastly none of these activities are commemorated without the help of the yearbook Club it produces a long lasting

089Keepsake it's a tangible way for our students to look back on their journey through our schools and reflect on the friendships they built experiences they share in the moments that help Define who they are when they were that person if we cut these extracurriculars and continue to cut staff personnel and programs from this District we cut opportunities from our students in their futur they are our future we can't forget that thank you and I hope for your consideration thank you someone in the room hello Katherine Henrickson 192 Goose Lane um I've had three children in the public T public schools my youngest as a senior so as a retired person I could say well we've got ours and I don't want my taxes to go up but that is absolutely not my position I want

090the Town Council to support the Board of Education budget I think it's so important that the children have the opportunities both the terms of support and in terms of all the extracurriculars so as one example my middle son is autistic he had an IEP from sixth grade to 12th grade and honestly the his participation in the extracurriculars was more important to give him joy and the experience of teamwork and social interaction that anything that came out that I and to cut that out for kids especially neurode diverent kids I think is a is a terrible decision and the other point I'd like to make if I were looking around at to buy a home nowadays if I saw a school district that had zero after school and extracurricular activities I would look somewhere else so

091I think this is just I want to Echo what Mrs cendi said before have the courage to do what the board of education is recommended to you give the taxpayers a chance to see what needs to be done to raise adequate funds and let us vote on that that's my opinion thank you we'll go to Kate valow online or Kate V you got it um Mr Mari thank you so much it's Kate valow ad toins green um this evening I'm speaking in favor of increasing funding to the Board of Education portion of the Town budget while I do understand that it is not the town council's purview to determine which elements of the Boe would be cut it Remains the responsibility of the Town Council to fully fund education and ensure that all Town Services

092remain strong this evening we're all hearing from articulate and passionate residents of all ages who are reminding us of the unique and Powerful role the education plays in all of our Lives it draws people to our town has the power to keep people here and it is now at very serious risk collectively you have the power to present residents with the opportunity to vote on a budget that fully funds high quality education please let us have a voice at the polls by presenting us with a town budget that includes a minimum of 7% for the board of education on another note for the past couple of years I've had the honor of coordinating a grant program designed to support enrichment activities for youth the tand Alice enrichment partnership has provided subsidies for activity fear fees

093gear clothing cleats and other equipment to support Talen youth's participation and a variety of enrichment activities it is worth noting that the partnership is together with the Talen Public Schools um as well as United Way I wrote the very first grant and subsequent grants for this as one small way to support the mental health and overall Wellness of the youth in our town I ask that you take great care not to depend on a variety of Grant programs to fund enrichment for our youth it is not and will never be enough please keep the ways that we care for our youth in our community institutionalized by fully funding education including all extracurriculars clubs Sports and enth and enrichment activities please make a strong statement in the way that you proceed that lets our community know

094that you both care and commit to support our youth by listening to what your community is asking for right now give us a chance to vote on this how many times it takes um I want to thank you all for your service I know that this isn't easy and I appreciate the work that you all doing on behalf of the residents in tand I hope that you will have give us a chance to really fully be part of this process um and lastly I just wanted to Echo what a previous speaker said about um the the challenges that were presented to join this meeting this evening I understand the technical difficulties that happened um I was wondering I I wasn't at the beginning of the meeting so please forgive me if this has already been

095um addressed but I was wondering if it might be possible to add public participation the beginning of the meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening to make sure that all residents that care to have a voice in this process do have an opportunity to speak thank you so much thank you thank you we'll go to someone in the room yeah I just want to mention that uh I think councelor Mari and I will be discussing I think um you know consistent with the rules I definitely would like to you know make sure that everybody has the opportunity to speak even that's at at our next meeting but councel Mar and I will talk about that um coun you check um thank you first of all everybody spoke up so far I know we're at Max but I

096guess there's a lot of people in the way room that would like to speak so I guess people that spoke they could jump off so give somebody else to spot talk I don't know just an IDE to give everybody OPP ask me I'm just just people want to talk just just and there is another seat if somebody wants to come in and sit here yes hello my name is Nora Russell I'm a junior at high school and I'm here today on behalf of the as well as every other student in high school um not only because I I fear that getting rid of extracurricular programs at both the high school and middle school and throughout the entire District uh would be absolutely devastating but also because there are so many other things that would be

097cut that would be detrimental to education and would most likely send the schools rtings and education down that could affect the whole town and would definitely like cause lots of parents and people in general to not want to move there if the education system does not have that good of rating um I I'm very nervous to be up here but the only reason I can is because I have so much support from my peers from these extracurricular programs they have helped me be who I am today Break Down The Walls that bad friends have in the past forc me like force myself to build up on on myself and we've been living and will sadly most likely continue to live for a while in a severe team Mental Health crisis especially as drugs and like

098alcohol sadly become more accessible day by day which is insane and scary to think about as these things may make people with depression and anxiety and other mental health issues feel better for a few days or weeks but it will just continue to send them spiraling and they might not come back at all from the spiral and I feel that strongly feel that having a community from extracurricular programs by being with their friends can severely help with that as I experienced it it's helpy more than I can even imagine thank you thank you we'll go to N Miller on Zoom hi my name is Nicholas Miller and I live at 55 Hilltop Road um I'm a recent graduate from tand high school and I would just like to start by saying that I have greatly

099benefited from uh my education at the pal Public Schools as mentioned by others the extracurriculars offered me offered to me H had given me a great experience uh for work and in life they had also given me um a good community and friends and help me build my social relationships with others um in addition the courses offered by Talon High School have also helped accelerate me through high through college um the AP and early colle Hood experience uh have given me credits for college I think about 30 something I don't know um during my high school career uh which has gave me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of uh effort uh I'm saying this just to demonstrate my personal experience with you know how good our schools have been to to me um

100I understand that cost are rising for talin's residents uh and I recognize that many may not like any major increases in the education budget uh yet a decrease in the budget would also come with great cost to our challenge children I also understand the town manager's concern about having a repeat of last year with several fail referendums uh and eventually leading to only a small increase in their school budget uh but I disagree with the choice to concede in advance uh what is the cost of rerunning the referendum and is it worth the cost of underfunding the schools and of denying democracy to us uh give our schools another chance and give pal residents a chance to vote I would also like to say I still have a sister in the school district she has

101an ie she and her classmates deserve a good education and Community um as stated by my mother a few speakers ago uh Cuts have impacted her classroom right now and further Cuts would remove her access to education could further remove her access to education for Community um and finally as I end my term in college I will be considering to live Holland is on that list but the current constant underfunding of the schools in previous years have made me less and less likely to consider continuing to live here if I ever have children I would like them to have a good education and I'm not and I'm certain I'm not alone in this so in conclusion I would like to advocate for returning to the board of EDS proposed budget please thank you thank you

102we'll go to the room James F 43 dearwood um as my wife stated previously we moved here from Texas um which you know their education I think ranks not even anywhere near the top 25 in as far as States go um and I'm just deeply I mean hearing hearing her list all of the extracurriculars and opportunities that are getting cut including National Honor Society is just it's sad beyond sad I'm sick to my stomach um to think that we are going to deny them not only opportunities to learn and have these experiences like Nick Miller said but that directly affects their ability to get scholarships I mean National H soci these are Financial incentives that are going to help these kids get into college pay for good educations higher education so they can get better

103jobs now if we're here to just you know push on minimum effort and let them just be minimum effort wage slav to corporations for the rest of their lives then gay that's that's awesome we've done our minimum due diligence to get them out the door and have them earn minimum wage but I think we can all agree regardless of whether we have par kids in the system or not we want better for the next Generation than we had we want better for I want better for your kids and your kids and your kids not just my kids I want all of them to have the opportunities that they need to succeed Beyond because it's getting more and more difficult I graduated high school in the 90s and frankly without a bachelor's degree I wouldn't get

104anything at this point bachelor's degree is practically garbage in the professional industry in technology where I work you have to have almost a master's degree and then 10 years of experience plus 15 certifications no you don't have access to any of this without a proper education this it starts now it starts in Middle School it starts in high school the access and ability to get where they need to go starts now we need to give them the the velocity they need to leave the house and succeed with the trajectory towards awesomeness anyway that's that's P you will go online I don't see any hands online so we'll go back to the room for another speaker someone in the back you been standing sir go ahead sure uh real quick my name is Todd Bryden I

105live on a ten Place been here in toin for about 15 years I've got two kids in high school one kid in Middle School uh I want to speak on behalf of my family as well as all the people who could not get into the zoom call and actually had to drive here or couldn't drive here so um I'm actually relatively new I just found out about the cuts that were happening in here and so as an actuary I was doing the math and you probably know the budget better than I do but I think what we're trying to trade off here is a couple hundred dollars more per resident and versus investing in our future and and to me I think somebody said before this is a really tough decision I don't think it

106is I think we're asking to say do we want to invest in our future and have our residents pay a few extra100 or are we going to do what we do in the business World which is shrink our way to Greatness I really don't believe we can shrink our way to Greatness we cannot invest in we cannot invest in our future and continue to try to constrain and constrain and constrain and expect to have a vibrant and thriving community so I guess I would ask the Town Council please go back to the bu budget please go back to the original Board of Ed funding request we cannot cut out all of the opportunities for our children or we're not going to have a thriving Community we're not going to grow we're not going to invest

107in our future and our town is going to shrink and shrink and shrink and I don't want to to like that thank you he seeing nobody online still we'll go to another person in the room hi my name is Bend I L I'm currently a senior at col High School um and I'll be able to to vote for the next referendum um I've gone through six years of extracurriculars middle school and high school obviously um Sports and theater I didn't make the team um I wouldn't have half of my friends I wouldn't have half the majority of my service offers I wouldn't have I wouldn't be who I would who I am currently I am part of the theater Department mainly um and it's done wonders for me I wouldn't be here if I wasn't

108part of the vi after the pandemic obviously socialization took a massive hit and if we remove extra curriculars from all of our schools where are they going to socialize they're not going to all go to crle because why would they go to crle they could just go home um it would affect 10 10 to 18 year olds because we're moving their Sports How are um athletes supposed to go from R Grove and to high school sports if there's no middle school sports there's no pathway there they'd lose out on years of experience and years of bonding with each other um school exra just please keep our clubs we need them we need them as a community and we need them to grow thanks thank you right we will go online to Jamie Davis can you

109hear me yes we can perfect okay Jamie Davis 23 Johnson Road I have two children in the school um I'm just going to keep this short I believe um the current proposal for the school budget is entirely too low and we need to fund our schools we're going to be nowhere as a town and as a community without properly funding our future that's all I have thank you thank you we'll go to speaker in the room hi everybody uh I'm student at Tom High School my name is Ryan I live at 34 bir Hill Drive so uh just to be clear the only reason I'm brave enough to speak uh to you guys is because of DEA Deca has um it has really helped my growth my experiences it's made me the person I am

110today and as a result of deca I've been able to compete at um State competitions at ICDC I um have been able to stand out not just for colleges but for the career work Fields anything else I think it really extends Beyond College um it's helps your personality your characteristics it makes you stand out as a person instead of just as a student I think um Middle School sports are also extremely important I have played um I've competed in track tennis cross country and soccer all those Sports have helped me become the person I am today um my parents did not move here um to tand because of the tax rates they moved here because of the school system now the school system was very highly rated however I think if we take out those

111extracurriculars those clubs those Sports we will not have prospering students and those students will not be able to compete in the workforce and in college or even just as a person thank you thank you uh seeing no one with their hand raised on Zoom we'll go to another person in the room Amber Como 64 Morgan Lane was not planning to speak in front of everyone this evening but after hearing all of these awesome students do so and look everyone in the eye while people listening can't look them back in the eye um yeah you guys as a mother um my third grader and a seventh grader in this town we moved here for school system um one of them thrives on the clubs and after school activities he's not a sports person he needs those

112things they helped him find who he was at a tough school time um was going to try to keep it as a parent but also as a special education par educator in this town I see every day what the Cs have done over the past few years and you're on a path of not even legally meeting IEPs continue to cut the way you're cutting we pay far less for pars than any District around and I don't care because I love the students in this town I love the teachers I work for but you're losing them right we'll go to another person in the room still not seeing any hands on zoom and I would like to speak on behalf of the pathways and clubs specifically Deca clubs and Pathways aren't just some expense on a

113spreadsheet that you can delete they are real things that make a real impact on so many students in t High School both of these have had such an amazing and positive impact on my life that will help me well into the future before I joined Deca as a freshman you couldn't have paid me to be standing here talking to you but now although still nervous Here I Am the knowledge that business and other clubs give help in all aspects of life and Foster sense of community throughout students in clubs and through pathway activities students are able to connect with so many others that they would have never interacted with otherwise students are also able to meet and talk with Fascinating People throughout the business Community Building connections for the future Business Clubs teach and offer

114students so many crucial skills it is so important that one of those classes personal finance and investment is now a state mandated graduation requirement I implore you to please consider the long-term ramifications of your actions our future is in your hands so please do not let us down thank you uh we'll go to another person in the room good afternoon my name is Aaron I live on 34 Lane here in tand I am a junior at T high school and I'm not only speaking on behalf of the theater department but also our clubs and our students that are not only in clubs extracurriculars now but will be in the future and first of all our extracurriculars they teach life lessons in skills that classes on their own B and we can go into these extracurriculars

115learning about our passions and what we want to do we can really find what we are meant to be and how we can carry ourselves in the future and in the workforce and no extracurriculars would mean that we as students aren't prepared for our future and the kids and the people that are capable and will one day run the country won't have that and we are seeing this around the country as well where some students are just not in extracurriculars anymore because they are being cut and that is leading to less education and less people living there and moving to those towns I mean my family we also moved here and we mainly came here for the education and because there are so many opportunities not just for us but for everyone in town and

116for many generations to come and I would just like to say I wouldn't be here right now if it wouldn't be for those extracurriculars especially theater and I know that many kids in DEC and Smith also wouldn't be comfortable being here today or also on the zoom right now and just listening participating in the real world so please as a student as a resident take us into consideration because our education is very important and will lead us to Greatness down the road as a town and as students thank you thank you thank you we'll go to another person in the room I'll go to you sorry hi Ro somebody has closing view point let I'm a lifetime resident I serve my country and my family and myself my sister we're all being forced out of

117town it's nice to have all these nice to have but what are you doing for the rest of us there was 26 of my family growing up now there's two everybody moved out they can't afford for to live here the woman I'm dating right now she was a resident until 2022 she moved out she couldn't live here seniors can afford to live in this town we have all these nice we want and clubs and all these other things those are nice but if the school wants that cut some overhead there's 6,000 less kids in school than it was 10 years ago we've lost teachers of course found that and yet the upper management type is increased by like 12 14% look at up it was just in the newspaper last week so why you we

118need to if you need to cut and you need more money in education find a good place to cut it I would say get rid of some of that management in in high school uh another thing I'm more worried about paying my electricity and buying my food those are the important things to me I got a total of $22.80 this year from Social Security $190 a month after they took out cu they increased my insurance so what am I going to do with 2280 that's more than a few hundred that's going to cost me to give more money to the school that's not reality uh what are we going to cut Parks Rex it it just doesn't make any sense why why why were we forcing us oldtimers out the seniors aren't here but young

119people realize someday you will be a senior and maybe you're recently reti retired or whatever maybe you have some money I've been retired a number of years and I've been on a fixed income for a number of years every year I have less money any increase in the town budget hurts me I'm worse off than the year before the year before so my SP to just because I'm a lifetime resident just move and just leave that what I deserve is that what other seniors deserve I don't think so let's let's be fair and think about everybody and not just that's nice that all these young people I wonder if they teach that in school oh by the way you know your clubs and all these other things that you want are forcing people out of

120town do they teach that I probably don't and another thing that irks the hell out of me is that they're always talking about all these Cuts there is no Cuts it's reduced to the amount of increase is what a million and a half dollars more the border is is getting that's not a reduction that's reduction in the I uh inflation went up 2 and a half% last year how how can it the uh Grand Kua out there ask for 11% when everybody else is getting two and a half% on average it doesn't even make sense how can you justify things like that and for the rest of us to even take it seriously when you're asking for Pie in the Sky we I where I work thousands of people got laid off many times we

121had a budget and we had a contract and they came to us and said if you don't accept the cut and pay we're just going to lay you off so times get tough and and this is the way it is and now we have a new King in charge it was on the news today they're cutting $4 million coming through the uh Connecticut for inducation you know every blue state in this country is going to get hit and they're hitting everything they're hitting uh Medicaid and all the things the their state budget doesn't have enough money to cover all these things everybody's going to hurt so in reality let's just think about where can we cut if we need to cut if you think the school needs more then we're we're going to do less

122work on our roads we're going to close up all the ball I don't care I don't play ball I don't play tennis you want to give it all those courts if that's what you think you need then do that but let's keep it within reason the rest of us can live with be fair to all of us and not just the young people thank you thank you thank you uh we'll go to the participant online see Teresa has raised her hand hi good evening my name is Juliet KY I'm a senior at tand high school I just want to share how much extracurriculars in sports have helped shape me into the person and leader I am today because of all the various extracurriculars offered at Talent high schools such as National Honor Society World Language

123Honors Society Deca student Council softball and many more these all have helped me get not only accepted into college with scholarships but also accepted in their competitive leadership programs the diverse ability availability of clubs Sports and even Advanced courses and not only the high school but Middle School have encouraged me to try new things and learn what kind of person I want to be THS has offered so many opportunities for me to grow this year I have a seminar with our principal Mr Poland and working with him every day having meetings with teachers and seeing the more behind the scenes of the schools have just furthered helped me see how much I want to become a teacher in the future and help students I know I'm graduating this year but I still have younger brothers

124in first and nth grade and they deserve an equal opportunity to have a true School experience just like I did so I would like to encourage you to reinstate the requested board of education budget proposal thank you thank you we'll go to the room again we have anyone else in the room who'd like to speak last time sorry the young [Music] lady evening my name is carold and I live at 194 Sugar Hill Road I am currently a junior at the high school and I'm a member of deca pep band World Language aor Society a future captain of the indoor track team and on the outdoor track team as many of you know Junior year is usually the year when you start to consider what you will do after high school and a good majority

125of students decide to go to college I am one of those students competitive colleges don't look at just your academics they also look at what you do outside of school hours they look for students who are well-rounded participate in leadership opportunities and engage in their Community the opportunity to do all of this for many students comes from doing clubs or Sports colge don't just want to see service hours or good test scores they want to see students engaged in their school Community if these options were removed it would be difficult for tall students to compete for spons in these competitive programs I implore you to increase the allocations to the board of education budget and to please consider the impact your decisions have on our education thank you for your time thank you uh still

126seeing we do not have anyone with hands raised on Zoom we'll continue to go to the room my name is Cheryl leabe I've lived in tand all my life um I sympathize a lot of kids I really do in the cuts for your you know extracurricular activities when I was in high school they were important to me too there were clubs that I one thing we have to realize though just like at home home there's a certain amount of income coming in and we have to take and say all right this is what we have money for this this is what we can spend and we can't go above that or we're going to drive up our credit cards and we're going to be in debt so we determine our wants from our needs and

127if there's a want that stands out so much somewhere along the line you have to sacrifice a need and it's the same way with the town the town has a budget they have so much they can spend it has to be figured out where a cut can be made because if you go too high you're asking oh other people to put in more money maybe than they have it becomes hard for some people and like George said it forces them out in your budget there are other expenditures if you can find a way to cut some of those without it affecting too much of what needs to be done in the town roads important of keeping buildings important paying the teachers important but livelihood of the people that are here we're not all making a

128big amount of money we're not all making $100,000 a year or even $70,000 here we're living on 30 something thousand a year from money that we had put in 401ks what we're getting from Social Security and a lot of us didn't have pensions either so we've got to do what we need to do to keep our budget and I'm asking the town to do the same I'm not saying education isn't important at all it is my son and my other two kids went through talin school and I went through talin school we didn't have a high school then went to Rockville it gave us a good education we went on from there I headed the lab at Rockville my son is one of the executives for ING we've done well but still with the cost

129and way the economy is we have to budget and we have to live within that budget and I'm just asking people to take that consideration thank you thank you look like we have someone on Zoom we'll go to Michelle okay can you hear me yes we can right Michelle Harold 194 Sugar Hill Road um I would just like to start off by saying I'm really disappointed that the Town Council and the town manager saw what was being considered for reductions last week from the Board of Education and didn't anticipate people would want to participate in this meeting and they didn't move it to a location where it could accommodate people who were upset um I would like to talk about the fund balance and our AAA rating and I wonder if those things are so

130important that we've been reducing our opportunities in our schools for a decade and to protect these things but what's it worth when our children aren't getting a well-rounded education that really meets all of our students needs because we don't have enough intervention we don't have a lot of things that we need I also um would just like to touch on the town manager mentioned the $300,000 from the state that we might get and I just want to say that if we do get that money it would come after the referendum it would not be used on education this year it would go to the tax stabilization fund so it's not like it's a solution to the problem at hand I do hope that you can find it in your hearts to be paying attention to

131all of us that are imploring you to increase um the money provided to the Board of Education this year and cons consider using other options if you don't want to raise taxes because it's necessary we've seen this coming for years we've said this is going to be a problem when we underfund our schools and give them 1% increases every year and here we are this is your come to Jesus moment and it's your choice to do what you want with the education of our students thanks thank you thank you we'll go to the room is there anyone in the room who'd like to speak one and two yeah whichever way you want to go thanks at school schol a huge part of life only I only stud them for sucessful they can overall the removal

132of after school activities public school system will a negative impact on all students thank you thank you we will go online to Keith hello yeah we can hear you hi how you doing uh my name is Keith Anderson I live on Apple Road in town I uh first of all just want to say thank you so much to all of you who are serving on the board and the Board of Ed I know you guys uh donate a lot of your time to our town and it's much appreciated um a lot of what I'm about to say has been said already but I just think a lot of it also deserves repeating um I'm a member here in town I'm also a coach uh that for several different sports several different levels and uh um

133I just really uh really enjoy being a part of this town I would have loved to be there in person tonight but I have uh three three kids at home a high schooler a middle schooler and a 5-year-old so and I was on a little league uh field when the meeting started but I would have loved to been there in person I think it's uh really frustrating that the meeting tonight was held at such a small um venue when you guys probably were expecting a lot of people I also think it's frustrating that only a 100 people can get on through Zoom I had a uh I thankfully I got home and saw that my wife was on Zoom so that's the only reason I'm able to participate tonight so I really think uh you

134guys should really consider tomorrow night maybe postponing tomorrow night's meeting and allowing for another public hearing to take place in a bigger venue maybe one of our auditoriums so some of the people in town could see the uh beautiful facilities that we have in town maybe uh something at the middle school but a bigger venue where more people could participate and be heard uh like they were tonight um and I do appreciate that you are giving us the time to to express because uh you know they they tell us that we should be participating in our local government so that's what we're doing um just wanted to say my wife and I moved here about 10 years ago and uh we moved here strictly because of the school system I didn't know toin at all

135I uh heard it was a nice town and we but we moved here strictly because of the school system one uh we we moved here we lived here for the past 12 13 years we we not only fell in love with the school system we also fell in love with the town the parks the rec system beautiful you know crle Park is one of the best parks in in the area and there's so much to do there I appreciate all the time that all you guys are putting into that but I do think uh it would be um really really upsetting to a lot of residents um if if you cut uh any more from the Board of Ed and didn't pass the proposed budget for pro um that they put forward um I really

136think it's important um not only for uh the EXT the extra activities um the teachers that we're losing um but also uh the sports program like I said I'm a coach here in town and I think it's uh It's upsetting to see that we could be losing our Middle School uh sports program I know um other varsity coaches who uh are are part of our system are are a little nervous about this because that's our feeder system and to our high school program um so I think our quality of coaches would probably dip a little bit we have some really great coaches right now our Sports and Athletics are doing some amazing things at the state level and I think that would uh start to dwindle if uh we lost our middle school program also

137I don't know if it was mentioned tonight but our increase to pay for our high school students would be increasing um which would make a lot of families you know really second guess whether their kid could participate in sports or not um so again uh and then finally U my my daughter who's in Middle School you know the theater program has been extremely special to her I don't know if she would have got through Middle School without it so uh she made a lot of great friends through that and uh it's what she wants to do in her career now and that's all because of the time and energy and effort that people in our town put into you know the theater program extracurricular activities we heard from so many of our amazing high school

138students tonight how many towns can have that many high school students come forward at a town meeting sounds so eloquent eloquent even more eloquent than me and uh and it just so impressive to see the quality of students that we're putting out so I think it' be U just really sad to see uh that that if we cut from the school budget and I am very very empathetic to the people who also spoke and said that it would um cost them money that they don't have right now and I just want to uh also just encourage people to to look at our um uh local Town p uh pantry you know uh they they they're doing some great things each month they're having different collections for different food so there are some really great programs

139going on in town and I just want to uh encourage anyone who can um help and volunteer with those programs to do that as well so thanks again for letting me be heard tonight and uh good luck the rest of the way and again I just encourage you guys to maybe postpone tomorrow night and allow for a bigger audience to to participate like tonight thank you thank you right we'll go back to the room hi I'm Zach bont I live at 54 n Road I am a graduate from T High School back in 2021 and I have been working with students since September working on the student production of P town and I've done a lot throughout this entire um two semesters with these kids um and I'd like to consider also not only the

140clubs and budget cuts there but also for the par professional as well as the custodian work both if you've ever worked with students which I have for the last two semesters you know that they get messy and I'd really like to make sure that our school stay clean really important but not only that I I I think that cutting professionals is a terrible idea um even for when you don't have that kids who need as much special needs even if you need anything I mean I right now am in college at Easter and I have a 3.92 GPA and that is not without hard work but without that without the professional work at in high school I don't think I would have got there honestly because back in the middle school I I mean I

141have ADHD now and I have medication for that but even with that I was still very much struggling with fractions and math at a very like below 10% in in my path scores it was terrible and the only reason I got through it was because of those par professionals and because there were people who were actually dedicated to helping me figure out how to do things that everyone else in my grade were able do with no so I really think it's important the other thing is of course the clubs um my I am so so proud of everyone who worked on a Town and it's not only that they they did it without any help for funding from the T budget schools at all they were able to do so much they also have a

142stateof the art lighting board and a state of their soundboard and a bunch of like faculty and staff who just don't stop caring for these students and what they do and I I it would pain me and everyone else so much to see these clubs die hear me was that okay was that sound just paying so much and I really I really hope you guys understand where this budget is coming from and where we can possibly cut other worlds because if you look around the room how many people have shown up today and couldn't have shown up today in the zoom meting um in defense of the T public schools I I don't see any other town like places where that budget could possibly be shifted around they aren't defending their place but we're all

143here standing today in front of you telling you not to cut this bud please don't cut this budget thank you thank you we'll go to another person in the room oh never mind sorry go ahead sorry to the lady yeah hi my name is I live on and I came here not in the position of wanting to speak at all I fig out this meeting was happening a couple of days ago and like was not mentally physically prepared to be here even though am sitting on two ex still here tonight at 9M listening to everyone speak their Amazing Ideas and speak their opinions and their perspectives I think are all super important I feel like a main thing that happened with the school is that there's no voice to know anything this was even happening

144I hear students in my class didn't care because this doesn't affect them anyway they don't know how it doesn't affect them they don't know how these serious budget cuts are going to implement their life harshly and how they won't be able to do things they did before and then they'll just complain and be like we used to have that well now you don't because you didn't show up and you didn't speak your opinion to people who care like care about what you have to say I'm so proud of all my students here who came in support of their own clubs and their own attributes to speak up and say how they felt and hold their own op opinions and I feel like we're all very respectful here we respect our elders our teachers our boards

145every person in the world is fully respected and cared about and we stand here just wanting change for our futures and for everyone else's future we don't know how people live and we come here so we can all learn to be better and and every other person who has an opinion this and in the game they can make the change for us we're only the people and we have only so much power and our voices are so important especially in journalism I feel like that whole the whole point of Journalism is to speak de and everybody and only students came here today to learn about what was going on I think here who actually on the 100 people Zoom meet I feel like any person here their op matters matters be very detrimental to everybody

146pertaining to specialized transport to their Care Professionals to clubs which build commun everything about this is community there's no connection then people won't really care or want to show UPS until it's impacting them directly then people want to speak out and listen and I feel like that's the main important event of tonight and what can be happening tomorrow night wherever it happens I just feel like people need speak up and listen not be about what other people listening will have to say about itk thank you we'll go on line got a hand on Zoom claudet Morehouse uh hello everybody claudet Morehouse 89 Merlo way talin um I'd like to thank George and the lady next to him for speaking up on behalf of the Forgotten population of the seniors on fixed income and other struggling

147families in town if talin needs all this money in taxes to support the education then I strongly ask that seniors on fixed incomes get a tax break not the ordinance 60 that is kind of a joke half the people can't qualify and those a do everything is added up and collected when your house is transferred with interest I just wish that you come up with a plan for those who have supported the schools but can't no longer these people have supported the schools for decades and now they've reached the point in their life where they have to live on Social Security I work in town I work for a lot of people and these struggles are real it's either food or meds it's either electricity or heat we can do better for our seniors and

148I I do you know understand the the the students they're they're they're wanting the the um the clubs and all this other stuff I get that but we also have to take care of the the hidden population in town thank you thank you point of order yes just wanted to clarify the ordinance 60 is a direct tax credit it doesn't ACR to your property it's not repayable there's no interest charge to it um there is an income qualification but it does not acre um against your property there is another tax freeze or tax credit that does but ordinance 60 is a direct tax credit for 25 possibly and and for for not just for seniors but for disabled veterans that that qualify thank you thank you all right um let's go back to the room

149um hi my name is I live at 53 and I here of someone who could not be here um who has prepared a speech so I'll be their best now hi my name is Harper Tumi and I live at s Lisa L I attend ton high school and I in the nth grade I have been involved in the Lego Club and theater at the middle school and ATS the Middle School the the musical and Robotics of high school the programs at the middle school and high school have changed my life they are the reasons where I am where I am today and the reason I will go on to bigger things and better things they have also shaped who I am and who I friends with in the middle school I participated in the first

150Le club and they have first labor league club they have there and it's the reason I do robotics now that's also the reason I'm not here right now I'm not robotics we are about to go to districts and have things to do most of the drama programs have shaped who I am they have shaped my group of friends and the relationship I with so many people I have done backstage for the middle school and I was recently uh the stage manager for the High School drama club from the middle school program I gained relationships with people who I wouldn't have other who I wouldn't have known otherwise and I can't imagine my life without I also gained many skills from those programs like thinking on my feet and more more and being able to more

151quickly s with people two life skills that I would argue will help in life a lot um also from Robotics and I've gained a lot from robotics I learned how to code python something not many people know how to do and I know will help me get job down the road from I got pushed outside my comfort zone gained more friends and more respect for people I wouldn't have other way I wouldn't know otherwise L and Robotics will be the reason I go to a good college and end up in a good spot the clubs in different extracurriculars at that schools in the district hold a lot of weight for so many kids and they would be crushed with programs that the schools provide I would have nothing and I also would have no social

152life I urge you to think very very carefully about what you were doing because without even knowing you could get rid of everything so many kids and get rid of the only social time so many kids have I would also like to add there's not much of a point to adding new seats in the middle school if you're not going to have a theater program to use them thank you thank you thank you all right uh let's go back to the [Music] room H school I'm GSA president I take a strong leadership role in APS but I'm also a member of bney un and um oh ands announcements um these clubs are a significant part of my life most of my time after school is Tak that practice um I've learned valuable skills that will

153help me in the future um my mental health has greatly improved um as of 2023 50% of colleges take into account extra players there is 2,146 students in schools if you take that stat and put it in 1,73 students might not school um the goal of pal Public Schools is to make every student College and Career ready but this's budget hinders that um for example public Deca is one of the best in the world at least from what I've heard at school I'm not in I know that at least two of you probably more were at the musical this year that was all student Talent from hard work are you gonna take that away from us I'm also um in t special education program par of professionals has strongly helped me throughout the years without

154them I would not be here um they've helped me through um small tests to um helping read through exams so are you going to take away our livelihood in PLS and thank you thank you uh we still don't have any new hands up on Zoom so we'll keep going to the room Savannah Davis 363 Garing Road as a student I can speak for the community of students that feel that in these phases they have a comfortable place to show their passion and drive for things they feel strongly about as a freshman finding a club like Deca contributed my ambition for business and helping me to decide what to do after high school not only did this decision change the trajectory of my time at school but also assisted with me being comfortable when faced with

155speaking in front of others with the effects of Co more students feel uneasy about speaking in front of people but upon participating in classes and clubs such as Deca or our theater program we skills such as public speaking can be improved in a positive environment outside of the classroom learning o learning opportunities provide a favorable environment for students to have additional opportunities to learn and show their skills in a place and Community suited for these individuals before making a decision please consider the students in their future beyond the classroom along with how these students after and their after school programs are helping them be more comfortable around their peers thank you thank thank you all right do we have anyone else in the room sorry you just repeat your name and address Sarah carrer 96

156Road um I have a unique perspective at any given time I have one to six kids in my house most of them not in col schools because of where they come from um the rules in my house are you come to my house and you are a member of our family you go to school you go to your therapies whatever that tails you do extracurricular activities and you volunteer um you don't want to do that we're not the house for you um because of where the kids come from we don't utilize Public Schools we don't utilize the activities in the extracurriculars extracurricular is extra that being said all my kids are in theater all my kids are in music all my kids are doing robotics they're doing all the same stuff we have a budget

157issue the other the ability to get out there for parents and for children to find these activities that are not funded by the town taxpayers it's there we I don't have any issues finding it I will gladly help parents that they need to help back all in this surrounding area I work for the government I'm about to lose my job my husband works in Aerospace he's about to his job where's the money coming from I look at the thing for one of our properties we're going to be paying over $2,000 a year extra for other property I haven't even looked at it because I really just don't want um so we're in a budget crisis it's not getting better we're gonna keep losing money we live in Connecticut we all I think most people in

158Connecticut understand that money is leaving so where's the money coming from are we taking it from people who are then just going to move and I love I was I was a technical theater minor so I this is amazing that you guys are here I'm so proud of you and you guys did it without much you know the school had to pay for electricity school had to pay for a couple things that money will be there and the town will support that but as an overall a 7% I can't afford that yeah thank you thank you if you have a hand on online Chris um we'll go to iPhone although please State your your name and address um hi my name is kasha WS I live at 31 Stacy Lane um I'm all for keeping

159the school programs and sports however as a resident who moved to to two years ago we can afford another $4,300 tax increase many residents said they moved to ton because of the great school systems well if you can't afford the taxes you will be forced out of the town so we have to think about that too thank you thank you thank you we'll go to the room um hello my name is Rael buer and I um I'm a junior in high school I live in uh 191 walers Road um I'd like to talk about the community that clubs bring to students um I know that I would be in a much worse place if I never joined clubs because um I moved here right after covid um and for two years I I did not

160talk to anybody I did not make any friends essentially until I started joining clubs and and immediately I met so many amazing people and I got brought into um like I I got brought into such a great community and I we have such great communities in our clubs and if we got rid of them this year there's no way to bring back the history that those communities are built on top of I'm in ATS which is very heavily built on top of itself um people uh all the way back you know we we've been working with um a college student who was in ATS when he was in high school and we're still like we had knowledge from back when he was in high school and he like we've built so much on top of

161each other and if we get rid of clubs even for even if we like could find a way to bring it back later it wouldn't matter like we we would erase so much that we built um and I also want to say that I I know that clubs have like brought me a lot of like motivation and purpose um during Hades Town um I I've never felt more motivated even with school even when we were spending like 20 25 hours a week like after school doing stuff I've never never felt more motivated to get my school work done because I wanted to be involved in the play I wanted to be helping I the clubs do so much for us and like we would not be the people we are without them um and I

162think we would be worse people I think we would be less happy people and I think we would be less motivated people even without talking about how important it is for college or whatever just for us as people and for us as like learning to become people having these communities is so great for us thank you thank you thank you uh we'll continue to go to the room hi I'm Juliana gray and I live on 69 part Z ever since I was little I've been an active part of this community either if it was sports like soccer to theater I have been a part of it I can't imagine a world which I can't be a part of something I want to grow up and look back at these years and see my growth my

163hard work and my dedication pay make dedication pay off sorry I have found myself happier and more fulfilled it's okay I want to grow up and look back at these years to see my grow my hard work and my dedication pay off I have found myself happier and more fulfilled community and friends I have found have made I've been able to express myself in ways I couldn't have imagined and I just want to say how lucky I am to be in this position of family something my advisor Mr Fields constantly says that we are family and that's something I never want to forget thank you thank you thank you all right I we continue to go to the room um hi hi I'm Abby and I live I'll keep this brief because a lot of

164it has been said but it's important to it's great severity I'm the TS drama student director without that Deion given to me by Mr fields and Mr I would not be sending today um clubs form connections whether it be in theater or Deca these Bond and connections are not and will never be equivalent to a letter grade or a pride award um we are your future seniors we are the future of this town please take us into please take us into your [Applause] consideration thank you keep going to the room hello my name is James Caro at the 47 Angela drive and I am one of many students here from high school tonight let me start off let me start this off by saying like so many others I will not be here tonight with

165a theater I would not had the courage to stand here nor would I have met the people here who got me to care about stand all being said I can imagine how many kids just like me TI and quiet letting the world pass them by who will now stay as those quiet children if this Choice falls through after school activities are so immensely important to children whether it be in middle school high school or earlier take a look back into your own high school years how many of your memories are based in after school club or Sport and think about how many think about how your school life would have been without all those mes I have a sister four years younger than I am she's going to be a freshman of high school next

166year I care about her I don't want to see her spend the next four four years of her life and school stri to nothing but the par especially when that school is the same on I isn't just the students's welfare state K the town Town's image is just a changer here whenever I I mention T to somebody out of town the first response is always oh I heard they have good schools there and after these changes I don't think those statements will thank you thank you we'll go online now to Christina FL hi guys Christina PL 101 meath Road uh thanks for doing this um I know it's been a lot of work I do think that there's going to be a ton of people surprised by the tax increase I think everyone of you

167that's been around for a while knows that um it's a relatively can you hear me sorry um it's a relatively low um voter turnout for budgets uh and with the reval I think people are going to get that tax bill in the mail and be very surprised uh so we do have you know a group of people here you know advocating for the schools and I'm not saying that I'm not advocating the schools I have two young ones uh in the in the schools U and we have great schools um I just think that you're pricing people out of town and that would achieve um further broaden the achievement Gap uh and I think you're putting a struggle on families that are taking those funds uh and using it to further the education of their

168kids also outside of the school they need they need dollars for their school their kids extracurriculars they need money for Camp over the summer they need money for babysitters like for every half day that there is during the school year um so you really need to take into account the entire town um and just realize what this particular budget is going to do to people because it is going to be a big surprise to anyone that is not paying attention thank you thank you thank you Miss cord um we'll go back to the room um hi my name is Lily ham and I live at 198 Coley Road um I'm currently a senior at T and high school and we've been seeing Cuts since my freshman year which we've never been able to afford a

169students um seeing teachers that myself and others valued being cut has been incredibly difficult and to hear that you suggested cutting our extracurriculars is crazy to me I understand that the budget is tight however cutting extracurriculars is not the route you should go down this was my first year doing theater and it was honestly one of the best decisions I've ever made theater has been one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life and I know anyone can say that same thing about any club they are involved in although I am graduating I ask that you please not cut extracurriculars as you are not cutting into our wants but our needs thank you thank you go ahead sorry my name is Dan C and I live on 16 cor Road I'm currently

170a junior at Town high school and I didn't plan on speaking tonight like many others so this is something I quickly typed up I'd like to start by saying my sixth grade year was when Co hit and from then on my middle school experience was hindered by the time freshman year rolled around I had pretty much no friends and that was the lowest point of my life I was in chorus and that opened up Pathways for where I am now sophomore year I went out on whim and joined stage crew for that Year's theater prodction I know everyone here has said something similar to this but it can't be stress enough how much of a positive impact that had on my life I've made friends with people I would have walked past every day and

171these people have been some of my greatest supporters these social connections go beyond School interactions since most are now my closest friends and I spend time with them outside of school I would not be in this room today if it weren't for my peers I see myself and some of my younger peers and I strongly urge them to continue with whatever brings them Joy but they cannot do that without these clubs thank you thank you we'll go to zoom to Tracy's icon can we unmute Tracy's iPhone y hi there thank you um couple of things I wasn't planning on speaking tonight either thank you everyone everybody that uh came out and everybody that's participating in all this it's really um just encouraging to see on all sides um a couple points that haven't um haven't

172been brought up that I've heard yet um just that I wanted to kind of get out into the open um I am completely sympathetic to to both sides of this and understand that um you know thinking longer term and thinking about the future and our students um versus what is needed now feels really um feels really difficult and I agree with that um and so I would encourage um and and I don't know the budget well enough I will fully admit that um but maybe look into some of the other things you know capital projects I have no idea what's on there um but just keep in mind that that's also investing in our future right and so if we can be supportive of investing in our future in terms of um facilities or in

173terms of really tangible practical things um then we really should be thoughtful about doing that for our humans and our kids you know in addition to that um another random kind of thing um you know I I heard a lot tonight about or not a lot tonight I've heard a little bit tonight about um the idea of pamps or after school care or some of those things that you know that cost a lot money um if you put a kid in a camp or in a in a daycare setting in a while um it'll break your bank for sure um and now that's going to have to increase right because you know the the middle school kids are getting out at 2:30 in the afternoon and if their parents work until 5: they're either uh

174you know at home playing video games and you know their parents are at work and meanwhile being criticized on social media for not taking care of their kids um or they're being criticized on social media for you know the kids riding around on their their bikes all the time and running a muck in town um you know now they're getting out at 1:30 in the afternoon and have nowhere else to go um so just something to consider there you're hearing a lot tonight from um our DEA and our theater kids and I have a theater kid and um I'm so proud of all of you for for coming out tonight on this um but please don't think that this is reflective of the entire student population um you'll hear a lot of the same things

175coming from theater kids and coming from Deca kids and how school and clubs and activities have changed their lives and that is real and that is tangible and that is awesome um but they're just two clubs all you've heard from tonight is two clubs um out of all of the ones that we're talking about here and these are the kids that are willing to kind of get up and talk and and be public about their feelings um there's a lot of kids in a lot of activities that aren't able to to kind of speak out today um my son's filling out job applications and um you know he's he's 16 he's out into the world out into the workforce and I don't think I've seen an application that doesn't ask about extracurricular activities and sports

176and what you were involved in in school um and so now those kids would have no nothing to put on those which makes them uncompetitive um for things um in the future whether they choose to go to college or not thank you thank you go back to the room um my name is w and I live at 79 I'm a sophomore at Tom high school I'm also a member of Tom Bea I want to thank all of you for the hard work you have done for the budget I know it's definitely not easy to satisfy every single member these extracurricular clubs that are planning to be have impacted the many lives and characters of the high school students skills and experiences that the extracurricular clubs have given will be that we we'll be with them

177for a lifetime they're intangible and no one can take them my grandfather D my cousin they run a family business called wall Enterprises I talked to all of them about Deca and my sister as well and they all wish they had the opportunity to be at Deca to learn these skills that I have learned right now they've been in the business game for 50 years and they all think highly a Deca it's been a really great experience to talk with interviews talk with people and get a good creative process and deal with customers in a good professional manner especially my sister Leah Walsh she's a sophomore at Yukon stores right now and during the pandemic she made to trans to high school and she had a tough time with it she gained a lot of

178anxiety and a lot of problems within that and doing Deca and she also participated in the mared Poppins play back in 2023 and it really helped her gain a lot of social status and talk with a lot of people it really helped her in a lot of ways to gain skills now at Yukon she's the president of deca and she has inspired many other people to join as well there are many other schools that she has heard that hasn't even heard of it's not even a concept at the schools and she's given them the opportunity at Yukon as president to express and learn these new skills so that also helped me a lot as well speaking as my other member Ryan her has heard said as well it's really helped me with talking talking to

179all of you if you asked me to do this before um doing Deca and all these other extracurricular clubs I would have said no and I a lot and I know a lot of people here know that as well and they feel that way too many people said that as well and activities has affected many aspects of my life and I wanted to pass that down to my little sister Rea Walsh she's a freshman in high school right now and I really want to provide her with those opportunities as well so she can do many great things just like my older sister would I L to my older sister in a very great way because the many things she did and kind of comeback that she had these clubs helped her a lot in our

180time of need especially with me right now with my trouble with talking and from large audiences and talking professionally Becca and many other clubs helped all of us as well especially since GSA has allowed people of the lgbtq community to express themselves with people that they relate to and theater allows people to perform to show their skills from of the live audience it also helps them with their public speaking as well it's great and all these clubs show so many benefits for their future that I cannot express enough and I want those opportunities for my sister as well thank you thank you right I'll just make a note before we continue um we do have we are below the zoom capacity so if you know anyone who'd like to join the zoom to make comment

181now would be a good time um just want to make everybody aware of that however um we don't have any hands up at the moment so we can go to the room if there is additional public comment from the room in the back deeply back to school all opportunities available to me because of the current and previous support for this I wasn't originally plan this speak but all people here tonight have the effects of this budget and I hope they have made you all Rec consider I'm a junior at T High School I took part in sports while at the middle school and have been involved in several clubs during my years of high school most important to me is the program just really changed my life I'm here today because of all my ts

182who got together because of how devastating was program that means so much to all of us je of being C my younger sister is an eth grader right now and to come to the high school next year she's part of mul Club at the middle school and is looking forward to taking Parts the clubs in high school whether she joed DEA and participate or participate in next year's school or join many of the other club and opportunities that are currently available next scho if the current project has passed my parents have been talked about sending her to a different school that have better opportunities for her I know that many other people have talked about this I'm not going to waste your time but please take the time to think about all people this world

183thank you thank you uh we'll go online to Annie singer who has our hand raised we unmute Annie were we able to unmute Annie we'll come back to Annie and go back to the room um come back when she's able to talk he my name is Maya Balman I'm from 52 Williams B and I have a son at BR and thank you for all who have stayed online or in this room I stand before you tonight to support the board of education budget we have an undeniable obligation to our children to provide them with a quality education that prepares them for the future a well-funded education system gives our children the tools to succeed critical thinking skills creativity and the ability to adapt in an everchanging World provide stability for families allowing parents to work

184with the peace of mind that their children are getting the support they need and it benefits society as a whole because today's students are tomorrow's Workforce tomorrow's leaders and tomorrow's caregivers cutting funding now means larger class sizes it means fewer resources and it means diminished opportunities it means losing enrichment programs impacts the Sports and overburden teachers and make no mistake these Cuts will have lasting consequences for our children and our community on a personal note I grew up in a working class family I know what it is to be broke and I know what it is to be hungry I'm where I am today because of opportunities education gave me both inside and outside the classroom School sports taught me teamwork drama and debate taught me to think and speak with confidence volunteering taught me

185compassion the Shir programs gave me the tools to navigate a world I was not born into without these free public programs I wouldn't be standing here today now we're asking our children the face of world with the very opportunities without the very opportunties that shaped us I'm not okay with that and neither should you in my goodness I went to public school in Texas and I had more opportunities than our children and tand have now that's not okay I've seen the argument online that our town doesn't have the money to fund education that we need Solutions not just demands so at the risk of going in a tangent here's my take tent has a revenue problem not a spinning problem we rely too heavily on property taxes putting an unfair burden on families and seniors

186and low income folks that we've heard from tonight meanwhile our dollars flow into neighboring towns instead of staying here but we can fix this to go back to the analogy that some folks have BR brought up tonight about tightening the budget of a household budget where is the equipment of our town finding a side hustle we can fix our budget by attracting established businesses maybe even a few change that would increase revenue and shift the tax for opal winners with that Revenue we can invest in small new small businesses to not just American-owned and americanmade but tall and owned and tall and made and keep our money circul in talland we can develop affordable commercial spaces so small businesses can Thrive and Lev vacancy taxes on Long empty properties you know what I'm talking about

187to push landlords to reinvest in our town bringing in affordable housing will expand our tax Spas for full growth as well also we have Business Leaders entrepreneurs and experts in our community we're going to Safe Yukon has an entrepreneurship program we should tap into everyone's knowledge and build a sustainable future one more funding our schools isn't a question but a given we have the means to invest in our children and in our town and our seniors and in our lowi income folks we just need the will to do it right now we shape our children's future but soon they'll be shaping ours when that day comes will they remember a community that turned their back on them or one that invested in them so let's do by by our kids and by our community and

188let's ensure that education remains a priority not just for today but for the future we are all building together for these reasons I urge you to adopt the board of education budget thank you thank you all right I'll try to go back to Annie singer hi sorry that my microphone wasn't working um I'm Annie singer and I'm at 51 graany Street and I'm a THS student who's in link clue World Language Honor Society on the cross country team in drama club and the vice president of the junior class and I fully agree with what has been said about the communities that clubs and extracurriculars bring and I also fully believe that clubs and activities are so important for the future of all of our students CU at tent high school they emphasize every year that

189their mission is to get all of their students College and Career ready by graduation and if they take away the extracurriculars students won't have the abilities to apply to colleges and have the opportunities to get in without any extracurriculars or have the skills they need for various careers and although some people have said that you can participate in other extracurricular activities outside of school I would say that those activities often cost way more money and also require students to have transportation that they don't often have which means that they're limited to many different students and I do understand that the tax bracket raising would be very detrimental to a lot of Tallen citizens but I think that the budget could be sorted out in a different way so that the students are protected better um

190and different cuts are made that are more priorities than just the clubs and activities thank you thank you right we'll go back to the room yes sir yeah good evening everybody Brett Wells 350 Old Post Road um I want to start by one of the fundamental issues tonight I have um a problem with um is you afforded 1% of the Town population access to tonight's public hearing you guys are deliberating expenditures of excess of $64 million of res resident's money is a taxpayer's money and you open the door to 1% of the Town that's unacceptable as a resident as a taxpayer unacceptable in my opinion you need to fix that and you need to look forward and think ahead and give the access to the town um I'd like the opportunity to thank all the

191students tonight um and my peers but mostly the students you guys are eloquent it takes bravery to stand up here before your elected officials before adults before people who are opposing your opinion that takes courage so thank you for that and keep pushing forward and that actually goes to show that the education in our Our Town the system is working because that right there what these kids did tonight should show all of you they got more courage than half the people and adults in this town Bar None and that comes from experience of living here all right so I'm not here advocating for my children my personal situation my my financial situation in town um I'm here advocating for the most vulnerable citizens in our community our children if we are not willing to invest

192in our children the future of our society what are you investing in what are you hiding from we we're hiding hiding using mathematics and Partyline Politics the children are the future of our society I've heard it before there are Future Leaders thinkers doctors politicians the future Workforce without a Workforce there is no retirement for all of us that are heading there or for th that need to sustain in retirement that's how the society works you lift up the most vulnerable you educate our youth you create a prosperous Community by stripping from the education year after year after year after year this com from 15 years experience as a taxpayer three kids in town my youngest who also was the first P day kindergarten class in town no longer is in public school in to that

193was a choice my family made with him because there was better opportunity outside of this community for that child that's a problem we need to fix that and if you're not willing to fund education please tell me what your plan is because I haven't heard one yet and I haven't seen one yet all these budget issues year after year we kick the can down the road failed referendum that's fine what are we doing what is the plan to fix this so I ask you work with the board of vet come together with a sustainable budget that works for everybody but supports the Board of Education and our most vulnerable our children thank you thank you thank you all right we'll go back to the room um my name is e man and I would like

194to speak on behalf of someone who cannot be here today um my name is Katherine Bohan cutting programs throughout the schools to this degree is Unthinkable extracurriculars sure serve as a Lifeline for several students throughout all of the schools and serve as a way for them to find communities in which they can fully be supported I am a senior at talland high however I recently moved to town my freshman year without various clubs such as theater and model un I would not be the person I am today and I'm sure many other students could say the same additionally cutting all library books and textbooks only fuels the fire 28% of adults score at a level one or lower reading level and cutting these crucial ources only sets up our students for the same failure finally

195reducing special ed services such as outplacement and legal services is incomprehensible for children like my sister who attends the American School of the deaf in West Hartford these Cuts would force her into a world of Silence where she has to attend a school without the resources she needs to thrive although I am graduating this year these issues extend far beyond myself and the current students enrolled in in T and I hope you take into consideration the damages that these Cuts would have on not only the present but also the future of our children thank you thank you thank you right we can keep going with the room um I have a little my voice so um my name is a Martel 6 in a road I was not going to speak at all whatsoever quite

196frankly I have horrible anxiety so bear with me but um I'm currently a junior at ton high school I have many of my peers among me and I've been involved not necessarily with theater directly but I was in a class for it and without theater there's not going to be a lot of class material to work with in theater studies that's literally what it is um also so I was speaking with my English teacher and we were just like talking about you know what's going on it with the educational system and things that might happen in our town and the idea that she wouldn't even be able to buy any books if they broke for whatever reason is ridiculous that is completely infuriating for not just me but many other teachers I'm sure uh I

197also work at a daycare so I completely understand their side of things to some tiny degree um yeah I don't know I I feel like this is not okay I feel like there are people who might not necessarily be on the same Spectrum as me that still are enraged with this to some degree with some part of it I think that this was not completely well thought out I have heard so many teachers freak out about their jobs I've heard so many students freak out about potentially having to go to a different school because they don't feel supportive I'm also somebody who has an ID I'm a part of the special education system and the idea of not potentially being supported properly is horrific to me I rely on that sometimes when I don't feel

198like I can be up and present as a human being a functional one and I feel like that's so disappointing and there was a legality aspect that somebody mentioned which is also so disappointing and I think that many teachers students and all of the above can can speak on that and I think that I mean I know at least somebody up there has a kid in the school system that I personally knew so um I think knowing that it's it's really frustrating that this was even a considered as the proposal I don't think that that really should have ever been considered to the degree that it has been and it's very disappointing for a lot of people here thank you thank you thank you right uh we'll keep going with the room good evening my

199name is Jo Lopez I'm 30 Crystal Ridge Drive um I spent 30 years in the Navy and after my 30 years in the Navy my wife and I didn't have any TXS anywhere where were we going to go what were we going to do um during that time in the military by the time this kid was born we moved 16 times right 16 times it's like never rooted trying to find a place and my wife calls it our forever home we came to talin for our forever home all right we came here because after much research in much investigating had the best school had the best superintendent had the best teachers had the best pars had the best teacher to student ratio had the best of everything that's why I came here all right and

200I know the Town Council I know the board of education is not the military however you have volunteered to get elected and get put into his position so it's incumbent upon all of you to do what we in the military often have to do well we didn't have the resources we didn't have the budget we didn't have the Manning we had depleted equipment and guess what the boss said when he came up from the top he said make it work so ladies and gentlemen make it work make it work for them make it work now [Applause] thanks all right uh still no one on Zoom so we'll keep going with the room my name is I would first like toiz I'm currently a senior at T high school and here tonight one with my peers

201to talk to you about the budget cuts that have been made since freshman District as you know these budget cuts are continuously being made to our school which was our education through yearly which we all saw last year the loss of teachers and curriculum and kindness that they taught us many residents and students including myself were not originally born here at to but were moved here by our parents when we were younger because they knew that the toand education system was abundant and knowledge and opportunities this year you threaten to take more from us including our clubs districtwide and opportunities provide so many students at the high school and the middle school use clubs as a safe place to express themselves and a new place to make friends as a freshman I was told by

202my guidance counselor that one of the best things I could do was join a club because it allowed me to get out of my compfort Z and make new friends I come here today as a student who has been part of multiple clubs I'm the co-president of the botney club a co-vice president of world Culture Club a past member of the gender sexuality Alliance Club a current member in the National Honor Society and a current member in the theater Department I'm here representing multiple clubs that do not have Representatives here tonight while I may not be in the taller High School System next year I still take this matter seriously and truly wish to leave behind a better school district for the many students and other classman that I have become friends with through these

203clubs including the many students that you see beside me now who I am so very proud of for standing up here tonight we plead and urge you to not take away the activities that allow so many kids to express themselves and to continue to let the future Generations kids that pass through this public education system to have the same opportunities that we do the last thing that I would like to say is that this should not be an Us Versus Them statement and our situation there are there are solutions that can be found within the budget that allow for many many people on both sides of this argument to have an agreement upon thank you for your time thank [Applause] you right we'll go online we do have a hand on Zoom Danny Santiago Danny

204Santiago I'm class president of the junior class at T High School the last few years we've seen significant budget cuts there's so many classes that are no longer available class sizes have grown larger and our school system cannot endure continued Cuts we're already at a barebones level and more Cuts will continue to diminish the quality of our educational system and harm the post-graduate opportunities available to our students I have a little brother and I'm afraid for his future if these Cuts continue year after year the town should approve the budget as proposed by the board with no additional reductions this town needs to step up and support its students and teachers thank you thank you thank you uh we'll go back to the room I can't project from B I wasn't in drama and I

205didn't have when I was school so yeah you guys and I don't have boys like Brett so Kenan 50 Mar away um I'm a parent of two t graduates 2020 and 2023 our current I'm gon to read F next late our current and future students need to know that someone chose Integrity that we have have courageous leaders that someone is looking out for them that they are a part of this community this Collective community and that they matter to all of us they are and can continue to be contributing members of our local community Fabric and Society we have lost all sense of what it means to be part of a community do right by them and find a way to support the proposed Boe education budget our fund balance is very healthy we have

206different buckets of funds that have been squired away behind rules and regulations around using them like the tax stabilization fund there's ways to offset and support all demographics in tand technically I'm a senior I can get a discount at Stop and Shop and yes I said that in public our superintendent has to make decisions now so that means pink slips for teachers and other planning that has to happen now he would never go here with these Cuts unless he had to and we find ourselves here because of a lack of consistent reasonable increases over the years comparable increases based on the town and Boe percentages of the budget we can't compare talin to other towns like everyone keeps doing because they've been doing this they've had consistent increases in their towns for their education budget

207and not the years and years and decades like tand has done of you know one point whatever average percent increase please support the the Boe budget the way it was proposed I know you all can find a way we have some funds available thank you thank you okay we'll go online to Griffin Christine Griffin ad Doon um as a taxpayer who's currently facing a 15% increase with the town manager's proposal I just had to say that I'm so disappointed right now in the board of education for even getting this far with with the threats to cut clubs in activity you had the power to squash that immediately and you didn't you let the superintendent propos these shock value cuts which have now overtaken our town and stressed out a whole lot of kids many whom

208you've all heard from tonight they don't deserve that they don't deserve to be wondering if Deca or theater club or any of the other clubs that they've been in are going to happen next year I implore you to immediately remove this potential cut stop even talking about it the Ridiculousness of it is just I can't even listen to it anymore if cuts are potentially out there that you have to do I implore you to also find um cuts that are not going to affect our students you have the power to do that also so I implore the Board of Education and the Town Council to consider that this conversation tonight is just unnecessary specific speically about the student clubs and activities thank you thank you thank you okay we'll go back to the room yes

209sir yes sir Chris angelotti 43 Road Road um I think you heard from my daughter as one of the first speakers and I want to say um all of these kids here probably better speakers than I am um but I'm a civil engineer and I'm I man major budgets I'm a public servant and I I was faced the other day with this very same thing you are today um so I want to say I understand and I want to thank you for responding to my email sure Chris um I really took it to heart um I do think it's tragic that the kids have to deal with this my tent Intermediate School child is scared and all I could offer her was if this continues we'll either move or I'll send you to another school

210it's really sad but I wrote down things that I heard tonight basketball court softball field roadway mower um we talked about a John Deere tractor one of the things I deal with every day is capitalization of cost right um Finance so you don't Finance you don't purchase a truck that's going to last 10 years and pave a road that's going to last five with with Finance money okay I'm I'm asking you people to think logically realistically and think for the town's people okay um I wouldn't buy an $80,000 pickup if I could Finance it for 10 years if I were in your situation okay so to capitalize major cost like that in one year is fiscal unresponsible first of all second of all you're you can't get back these kids future right so you're making

211a decision to fix up a softball field which when I sat on it last year I didn't think it was that bad um the basketball court is it unsafe because what you're doing to these kids is unsafe and you know for the gentleman that's still sitting here all night the the elderly person who doesn't have the funding right um again what I looked in the budget I saw it as a roadway mower not a John Deere tractor um so back to budgeting if I had to put off cutting my lawn a week I would do that with food on the table for these right and again all the DECA kids are better speakers than I am so I apologize um but what I wanted to close with is I've heard you know across the board

212that everybody cares a lot here um and they're here because of that and that's why I'm here and you heard my daughter um say what her experience is so again as a public sector employee I know that one of the toughest things is to do the right thing versus doing what the fiscal guard rails or you think people expect of you you know a lot of people do the bare minimum and uh I want to bring up Mr LEL Chief LEL I I find it hard to believe that he would buy two trailers if he knew what it was going to do to these kids thank you um no hands up on Zoom at the moment so we'll continue to go through the room is there anyone else in the room who'd like to make

213public comment no Fields three Beach Road I'd like to start off by saying thank you to those of you that were able to attend our musical ladies town this year it was really appreciated that you took some time to come out and support us and our students um with your support and our community support we sold approximately 1400 tickets this year and raised around $28,000 our musicals are quit on with no funding from the board of education budget we spent about $27,000 this year in Hades town in the time that I've been here we've never lost money we've never had to use education budget the only thing the budget pays for are the stiens on post cuts it is $5,000 that pays for us and it is severely under from the other towns we do

214it because we love it putting on these shows are no small feet between rehearsals building set riging lights administrative work etc I alone have logged 400 hours just being in the building this year that doesn't include my little fun trips to Lowe's getting wood and all that stuff based on the stien I received and the hours I just stated I'm making $5 an hour I say that's a good deal for the town to those that say our students can't have everything you're right they don't we must be physically responsible and we must find a way to get through this that provides for all parties however with a budget being proposed and saying that you can't you're saying the students can't have anything look at all the cuts at 2.99% would costs you're hearing from it

215tonight so those of you that say this is nothing more than scary tactics that I've seen on our open discussion board I would say to you why didn't you say that to Jessica Fontaine the high school librarian Adrian lumpkins a science teacher saes all the other numerous teachers across the district that were cut last year and numerous other years it's real those were real people that touched our students lives are no longer here to make an impact if you refuse to advocate for a school Community we will lose the identities that you've heard tonight that make our town tall and great Deca the musical we'll lose NHS and other honor societies student council Middle School athletics and much much more our students will lack the Competitive Edge as you've heard in the resumes um that

216they've used to get to where they are nowadays we'll be nothing more than a mere Factory building teaching mathematics with an advocus this great town will become a ghost town we have much no much more than our education system in this town I must say that it is ironic as other people said that our capital budget plans on Pro facilities softball fields athletic fields when there'll be nobody to use it if wece see these CS what do you think the high school teams will look like down the road without the Middle School theater I can tell you and I will hear about it in the car right home because I will not use right terminology that the High School cheer team that your daughter's on will not have um students to throw her up into

217her amazing stunts that she does year after year if there are not middle school students being trained on how to successfully Bas her and do it safely they need that theater program I moved to ton years ago because I saw promise I saw great things happening in the town I saw a community that supported excellence and even in this dark time of uncertainty I still see promise and T our students shouldn't have to be here late at night defending themselves to you they should be home studying which they wouldn't want to do doing homework FaceTiming with their friends perhaps playing Roblox um Minecraft or fortnite or just watching TV with their families we shouldn't have gotten to this point we should have worked collaboratively with the Board of Education when we had the chance instead

218of sitting there and not working cloudly or not saying anything and then just saying your budget will be slashed that's not working collaboratively I hope that tomorrow night you take the chance to talk across the tables or perhaps not sit across the library's enemies but as a community I hope next year I'm afforded the opportunity to reach out to all of you again and S you to our music next year the choice is yours will you work collabor collaboratively with our community and advocate for our future or not thank you thank you we'll keep going when the with the room you have anyone in the room anyone else in the room it's got a hand online well I'll go I'll go online then we'll go back back to back to you sorry uh Lauren Rodriguez

219hi thank you for having me my name's Lauren Rodriguez 154 bter Street and I am overwhelmed with the wonderful speeches tonight from the students um I back our fabulous um musical teacher who just spoke um and I recognize that these conversations really Bel at the Board of Education yet we're sitting here with you at the Town Council as you listen to this uh story go on and on my question is is it enough to make you think differently did you come into tonight knowing that you were going to sit here for hours and not change your mind when I read the talin open discussion board I have no ability to understand where the priorities are I hear about money Cuts but I don't see what we're dedicating to for our future I ask are you

220willing to be brave are you willing to change your mind in support of our students and in support of our teachers and in support of our schools they have taken a tremendous hit if you're not sure of where that hit is stop and talk to the kids who are behind you they've seen eighth grade eighth graders who have no more choices in the middle school did you know that in the library there is no longer a certified librarian at the high school how did these things happen year after year after year of cuts at some point I understand that we are having enrollment that's stagnant we have to make different decisions but I really hope that this doesn't come on the heels of our student students when they find their passions and they find the

221areas that make them light up we have to find a way to support them I ask you to be brave I ask you to think about this 2.99% that you've pushed forward totally disregarding the work that the Board of Ed has done and reconsider how this moves forward thank you for listening and thank you for the hours that you've put in tonight thank you you okay we'll go back to the gentleman in the room yeah I did forget one thing um you know thinking of of the people who can afford it I would gladly pitch in like to stay here because I did the math again as an engineer and it's going to cost me over $50,000 to move so again for my daughter to have have some of these extra curriculars and again I'm

222not proposing that that we um stick with socialism um there should be some graduated system so if someone can't afford it they should be Avail able to take you know part two um but I just wanted to say that I don't think anybody's talked about those ideas so I think it's going to take creative ideas but we shouldn't rule them out know just just to say you know it'll go through and then the other thing is is um I do a lot of negotiating in my job and I never start with the lowest offer that's another thing to think about thank you thank you all right we've got another hand online I we'll go to Julie um hi my name is Julie Brennan uh 127 Ellington Road um I just want to say thank you

223to every one that spoke tonight um it was nice to hear from all the young people um in the room and on Zoom um and it it's nice to see how passionate everyone is about you know school and and their clubs and activities um and so I just want to commend them for that um I have three kids in the uh school system two are at the middle school and one is at tis coming up to the Middle School in a in a couple years and I just think we need to start thinking longterm as far as our our tax base um with the re reevaluations this year everyone's taxes are going up and you know as Mr Foley stated at the beginning you know this is for the next five years so I just

224think we need to someone had mentioned it earlier bring in commercial tax more commercial businesses to the the town just to help offset the burden of residents um and this will help support the schools in return um so I just think we need to start thinking long term on these things you know so but um I also want to thank you guys all for um agreeing to meet with the board of ed tomorrow night um and to have that meeting and discussions and I think it needs to be had and the two councils you know need to work together to try to come to a you know solution for all this because our kids need it you know people in town need the help with their tax burdens the whole town needs it so thank

225you all and um again thanks for doing this for everyone thank you thank you right we'll go back to the room anybody else room anybody in the room for anyone in the room go back online give people online another chance like we might be near in the end but still opportunities right see a the hand from Mary Rose to baric uh can I mute Mary Rose hello um hello good evening um my name is Mary Rose deic 37 Ryan RH it was pretty amazing to hear all the students talk tonight and all the participants and the audience that are live and online Zoom is a great tool and it allows people who can't be there to be there but it also can prohibit a good communication and understanding when certain people are not on video

226I'm not on video right now but Jacob I think it would have been really good for you to be to have your video on so that people could understand if you're understanding what they're saying uh to read your feedback um and it's a respect it's a respect for the importance of the meeting and the participants I think it's um it's proper etiquette when we use zoom for major participants to to be on video um I think the kids deserve it and the people deserve it thank you very much thank you just provide a clarifying Point um I'm on business travel in a hotel and I'm working off of a Hotpot I have very little bandwidth and that's why my video was not on tonight but completely understand if I had Wi-Fi I would have my

227camera on um all right let's go to the room I go back online I'll go to the room again go back online I of last call for the room last call for online all right um this time uh entertain a motion to close the public hearing Jacob I'd uh asked that we not close the public hearing and we continue it uh to maybe Thursday before the beginning of uh at the beginning of our meeting just in case there's any members of the community that weren't able to attend tonight uh the person on Zoom we could do that I do know that the zoom has been below capacity for like an hour and a half so I don't know if we really need to do that we've had about two and a half hours of public

228comment not including Brian's participation understood I just want to make sure that uh you know that we make that that we ensure that everyone has the opportunity to speak if they if they want to that's are you making a motion you have a hand up there's no I'm not making I'm asking that we don't close the public hearing uh because okay the chair requested a a motion to close public asking that we uh I guess continue it okay um so looks like you have a looks like you have a person online that is asking for um public comment yeah okay we'll go to Keith and then revisit the uh potential to either close or I'm not sure what the alternative would be Chris but we'll go to keth Keith first yes I just don't think

229the last point was a fair one because uh when I logged on tonight it said 100 people were online you could try logging back on later um the only reason I was able to get online tonight was because when I got home my wife was uh already in it so I think that's a really unfair comment because how many people might have tried tonight and weren't able to get in and also uh just weren't able to be there physically because of the space uh capacity of that room as well so I just think you guys should take that into consideration that you should allow other people to speak their minds and be able to be heard because I really think like I said when you logged on tonight it's at 100 people Max you could

230try again later I tried at least for for the first half hour and was not able to get on so to expect people to keep trying over and over and over throughout the night I just think that's an unfair comment you should open it up to public opinion when you have your next meeting or have another one of these type of meetings and allow people to all be there and have it in a bigger venue than you did tonight thank you thank you Keith so I guess Jacob my request would just be that uh um we I think we would continue the public hearing or my request would be that we continue the public hearing until uh the beginning of our meeting on Thursday um that way we can also post uh about it more

231than 24 hours in advance like we have to do with public he um so that would be that would just be my request so just so I understand you are you making a motion to what would the motion be because I assume she I guess I I move to continue the public hearing uh until the beginning of this our meeting this Thursday is there sorry is there a second I seconded Jacob okay so there's a motion up on the floor um is there any discussion from Council I just had a comment Jacob if I may so how would that look like we got a special meeting at 7 or the meeting on 7 like how much would you give it like an hour 6 seven it's a good question can we get I don't know

232if there's any clarification if that would just continue indefinitely Or if it would you could put a time limit on it or how that would work um Jacob do you mind if I asked the town manager whether he was able to get whether he can either seek or has gotten a a legal opinion about if there's anything we're required to do yep that's fine tryan uh I don't know if you're were able to to uh reach out to the town attorney or just I just want to make sure we're cant with whatever we have to republ yes so you know I asked him basically we had acted in good faith in this room and that Zoom as it's been um the precedent that has been set uh for since I've been here for 20 years

233in this room and then that's not true okay at any rate um I asked him he's been here for a long time this is what we had it here as far as I know in Zoom has been U enough for us as well I can we continue it and he said continue with to Thursday seem reasonable okay so our attorney place or advice was to continue to Thursday to to be safe I don't know you read it yes read the email okay so I would I guess that's what I would just sort of based on that uh Jacob I would use that to support motion and I just have a comment too I know Jacob probably can't see raise my hand I can hear you thank you Jacob um I think just to be safe

234we should probably continue this to Thursday just to give a good big effort to allow all the residents of tand to come in and say their peace um I think this is something that we need to revisit in the future if we have a public hearing such as this where you may anticipate a large turnout um you need to accurately provide a space for a good number of the residents in tand and as we saw tonight we not only did had we didn't have capacity in the room that we're sitting in but we didn't have capacity online which to me is unheard of it's to to not be able to have more than 100% participants online for a town Zoom is inadequate and it's something that needs to be addressed and it's something that even

235smaller businesses have the ability to do have a large number of people so I me to be honest just my personal opinion I'd like to apologize for anyone who was unable to get online um or even get into the room but it's embarrassing as a town counselor to see that we have people who are not able to get online because our zoom level only reaches 100 um it really needs to be rectified um so for those reasons I think we should really continue this to allow people the opportunity to stay their pieace because this is the people's Forum I mean this is their building this is their Town Hall this is their public hearing they have a right to be heard and just because we don't want to stay here late and hear the oh

236well too bad I'd like to add to that Jacob because as you know I sent you uh an email this afternoon because we had adequate an adequate indication that we were going to be facing this very problem and I want to apologize to all of you in the room I want to apologize to everybody online um because we will do better in the future it is absolutely not legally appropriate nor is it acceptable for anybody to be turned away from a public hearing or to have to stand in a hallway or to not be able to get online I'm passionate about this and I you know for the most part I think that town manager Foley did a great job presenting his budget but this is something that could have been addressed and was brought

237up earlier today so I couldn't Act without the council telling me to do with that that is there's an opinion from how and sage and we've done this before that indicates that we can post notices on a door if we have to go to an overflow space or if we have to go to a different venue so we can follow that up with the town attorney and we could have had a uh a contingency plan um we have in the past and and I've been doing this for 30 years not on Town Council but on the land use boards and we have routinely had to go to other venues for various meetings including Town budget meetings because during controversial years so or during tough years so I promise you guys um online and in this

238room um that we will make every effort so that nothing like this ever happens again I'll just say you know I um agree that we need to look up into expanding our Zoom capacity you know I wasn't happy that we had the uh had the situation tonight I did respond to the email that you had sent earlier today uh merily Le although it wasn't um you get a an answer to my question up at that time um which is you know neither here nor there but um in any case um you know I would certainly be be interested in um entertaining larger venues up in the future because I agree it's important we have everybody to everybody has adequate room to participate um is there any other comments from counselors up on the motion on

239the floor which is I guess essentially to recess from the public hearing and then continue it up on Thursday think it's hi this is Joe sh um I'm sorry I couldn't raise my hand can you guys hear me yeah colen were you saying something did you want to go first I think I heard you first I spoke I can go back if Joe Joe wants to say something then you go back to jaob okay I guess councelor Shay sure so I think if if we do want to continue this um this public hearing I think it would be more appropriate to continue it tomorrow tomorrow um during the joint Board of Ed Town council meeting because from listening to all the the people that stood up there's a tremendous concern about why the board of

240vet is cutting the Afterschool programs and I think it's more appropriate to ask that question the Board of Ed than it is to ask it to the Town Council uh so there's an opportunity to see both both groups together and challenge the Board of Ed on a lot of the cuts that they're talking about making um as opposed to just hashing this through the Town Council again and I think I think Thursday's meeting if it's anything like last year and so far this budget cycle seems remarkably similar to last year um I think we're going to need that time to debate the budget and not have uh additional discussion uh thank you councelor shay just clarification I I agree that you know contextually it would make sense to have a conversation there but I don't

241know if we are able to do that because of 24hour notice requirements yeah Jacob I I don't NE I don't you know personally you know necessarily object to continue with tomorrow night but uh I think Rick our attorney um had suggested continuing it to Thursday I'm assuming because of the 24-hour notice so that's um where that came from um you to check to continue amend the special I'm sorry what was that can you amend the special beting though Tom even though it's posted I'm not sure you might be able to still amend it to add it you're not once you post a special meeting you're not allowed to change the agenda okay that's fine um I was just going to go back to the my original question though like how would you do the public

242he and on Thursday because the meeting already set for 7 o' do you start Mee special um public hearing at 5: and it goes to S I don't know understand how like Joe said um it's gonna be a long discussion I I assume on Thursday but I agree I would like more people would like to speak I don't have an issue with that it's just the timing of of it that makesense I would I would recommend if it is council's Will to continue the public hearing that we hold it at 6: PM if possible I think that would meet our requirements maybe it's a special meeting that would allow extra time for or would you know it would allow the public to speak but we would be able to um start our deliberations closer to

243uh the normal time I don't have any objection to starting at six I don't know what sorry councelor Shane yeah I would have difficulty with six o'clock and then the other question too is um since we were reprimanded several times about our venue would we also need to change the venue to be able to house more than 100 people in the event that we get a recurring number of uh excessive people showing up I'm reading um attorney kti's email he suggested the high school for Thursday so in light of the concerns raised by residents tonight I would recommend moving it to that venue um probably like the program room was what I was thinking but I suppose Auditorium know I don't know what's available yeah we wouldn't be able we just found out we wouldn't

244be able to use the auditorium because there's a concert uh uh Thursday night but Library perhaps the uh yeah either the I mean we can figure out I suppose the logistics and post it before the 24hour notice but um I don't yeah we'll have to figure out maybe the I don't know if the m is an auditorium or whatever it is I heard that the library doesn't have a lot of seats in the that was part of the problem for tonight school school a lot of chairs in there I would assume that would probably meet the need although you know there's no telling for sure yeah no that I mean that seems reasonable to me and then go from there is there any other comments from counselors on the the motion to continue the public

245hearing on on Thursday night um is it what's is it 6 to7 or how I mean you really can't close a public he so that's the problem that I think I'm struggling with right now I would prefer like five 5 o' I'm assuming that it at least two hours the public hearing if we have the same amount of people sorry counselor get a check um I think at least two hours if we have the same amount for fairness so I propose five o' so open it up to thoughts for uh for counselors I understand that could be difficult to for some um counselors to make I'll try my best to do do five o'clock but or we or we go to reverse end and start the discussion at 8 I mean either way I I

246do want to have it I'm just trying to figure out so we don't run into the 2 o00 morning like did last year whatever but just think Joe already said he has an issue with six I have an issue with five I think you have an issue with five probably just just work I just I get it I work I think that actually I'm just to give us no I get it so maybe we just bump it and then if we can start earlier with that council meeting earlier can we do that like 6 yeah we could start even at 6:30 and then a lot time in the beginning for to continue the public hearing and then start the discussion at 8 o' or whatever at 6:30 I know Joe has a problem with 6

247I would I tend to have an issue too if it goes to six or earlier um with work obligations um but would 6:30 work I can do 630 I could do 6:30 what about Joe is he still there yeah I cannot do 630 I struggle to get there at 7 so 6:30 is uh 6:30 is not doable for me and I I have an issue I mean I know we're going to take a vote on this but I have an issue with the with doing this the same night we're supposed to uh vote on a budget I think I think try to do this last second um and not putting this in front of the board of V I think is a mistake I agree with that as well so I guess it comes back

248to you Council Maran since you made the motion to determine the time that you'd like to I I I don't think you would let me back up I don't think you specified a time up in your motion but maybe would behoove everyone for clarification if we did specify if you amended your motion to specify a time and then you go from there yeah and again um just to be clear uh I you know I don't have any personal objections and I understand the the desire to have this done with the B of it I think is logical um the reason for my motion is based on the legal advice we received from our town attorney um an emergency meeting be an option then before the bo joint meeting tomorrow is that this be considered an

249emergency I don't think it would be considered a legal emergency I'd have to check but there's very few reasons you can call like a meeting with then without 24 hours notice we have a meeting we have a regular meeting scheduled for Monday right next Monday we do that would be after we voted on this though yeah splitting the C for why why why do we have to have our why can't we finalize our budget on Monday Charter ran or sth I believe it's Council or Charter requirements I believe that's accurate it is and it has to do with having enough time for the referendum question to be order the ballots and okay so we have to have a a first vote by a certain date so back we back count into this back F okay

250thank you so I guess um I guess I'll I mean obviously I'm open to to what I saying but I'll just stick with my motion being for Thursday because of the advice from our attorney um as far as the start time you know I'm I can be flexible after 6:30 but I also don't want councelor Shay not to have the opportunity to be here so as far as the time I you know sort of what everybody wants to do um I understand you know what counc you is saying you know with the potential for being along you know I think it's reasonable to want to start early I just don't want to exclude Council sh what do you think about the principle of doing it before we're about to arbitrate a budget like hours before

251or than minutes yeah I mean it's not ideal but it also isn't ideal that we didn't have the public able to all the public able to speak tonight so again I'm doing this because I think it's what we should be doing to ensure the public can speak and also you know just to make sure that the council is doing what it's legally required to do okay major motion but so is the time 6:30 is that the coun shade can't be here so not I would love him to be here obviously but if he can't be he's going to come over later then I think that's okay I don't think we have to you know yeah I mean if councelor Shay is fine with that I don't I mean that's otherwise we might have that Mis

252so if councelor Shay is okay with the 6:30 start time I would be fine with me amending my motion to be for it to start at 6:30 but um you know I want to make sure it's okay with counselor Shay um I certainly appreciate that councelor Mor um I'm just I'm just against the meeting I just think it's not it's not the right time to be doing it or uh or the place okay so understood counsel I do understand um yeah for the sake of moving the the the motion along to a vote and try to end tonight I El I'll amend my motion to say continue the public hearing until this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. um yeah so I guess that my amended motion okay um councelor BB I believe you seconded the motion

253are you okay with that amendment I am okay with the I I second the revised um motion right um we'll do a roll call vote then um councelor Shay n uh councelor Nunan councelor UD hi uh councelor Moran hi I'm realizing I'm forgot councelor buckler councelor buckler hi councelor bb hi I'm going to abstain from that motion so the motion carries I believe four to two to one so we will continue public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on April 3rd right um with that I think that brings us to our final item on the agenda which is adjournment um do I have a motion to adjourn or I don't know if it technically be a recess um Jacob whatever you whatever the appropriate whatever the terminology is to go home tonight I'll make that motion to

254turn okay I'll um I'll go with that is there a second second all right um roll call vote councelor Shay hi councelor buckler hi councelor Nunan hi councel uich hi counc Moran hi bb hi I'm and I as well we are adjourned thank you everyone have a good night thank you for everyone