001Uh so let's start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. We start this evening uh with public comment which is very germanine tonight as this is a public forum. um inviting comments uh about our proposed 2026 27 uh operating and capital budgets. However, I need to read our caveats. So, let me um do that. Uh the board welcomes the opportunity to hear from members of the public about matters concerning the Western schools. Public comments an important chance for the board to receive input and feedback. We listen attentively. While we value and play pay close attention to public comment, it is our practice not to respond substantively or sometimes
002at all during public comments. There are reasons for this. First, engaging in a discussion on non-aggenda items could violate the board's obligations to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. Second, the board or the administration may not be prepared to discuss certain matters raised in the first instance by public comment. Third, the board develops its meeting agenda carefully to ensure that the board addresses matters that are pressing or relevant at the time of the meeting. We encourage members of the public with very specific questions, concerns, or complaints about our schools to reach out directly to superintendent 40. You may also email the board at board of educationps.org. All right. So, having said all that, Jody, are there um public comments this evening? >> I do see a few people who are sitting out here as
003attendees. If you are interested in speaking, please do me a favor and click the little raise hand button that is at the bottom of your screen. Um I will call you one by one. I'm your address. Turn on your camera when I promote you to a panelist and then you will have five minutes to speak and I will let you know when your time is up. I am going to start with the first individual. Uh Lisa, I am going to promote you to a panelist. You're going to see something come across the bottom of your screen. You're going to click on that. You will be promoted to a panelist. Okay, Lisa, you can turn your camera on. State your full name and state your street address for us, please. >> And you are on mute
004right now. Can you unmute yourself? >> Sorry about that. >> That's okay. And I'll start I'll start your five minutes as soon as you start speaking. >> Okay. My name is Lisa Yoni. I'm at Nine Partridge Lane. Um, I first want to say I want to thank you guys so much for doing this public forum through Zoom and just in general the transparency that you've done with both the budget and uh, board of ed meetings. I feel fully informed and I'm just really proud of the transparency that this town is doing with these important decisions being made. Um, I also want to thank the superintendent for coming to the PTO meeting that I attended to explain the budget. Um, I thought it was thoroughly helpful and I thought she was really receptive to a lot
005of the comments that were given. Um, what I want to say tonight is not explicitly towards the budget, which I 100% approve and think was very thoughtfully done. It's about um the the middle school project that is sort of in the background of this budget. Um, specifically, I wanted to respond to the brickandmortar newsletter with the um, breakdown as to both the steps and the brainstorming going on. Um, the concern I wanted to bring up is the idea of rethinking the breakdown of um, the Hurbbit, WIS, and Middle School as it is right now. I have a child at Hurbbit and a child at WIS who went through the Herbut system. Um, both of my children have had an amazing experience in the Weston school system. I have a fourth grader and a current first
006grader. Um, I say all the time that not a week goes by that I'm not truly thankful that my kids are in the school system. Um, I think a huge part of why Herlbut and WIS are successful, which then bleeds into the successfulness of the middle school and high school, is because we have one school for preK to two and another school for 3 to five. That breakdown and then to have a separate middle school allows the kids to grow according to the age development that's needed and have the kind of support they're needed as well as the independence that they need. So, while I really applaud all the brainstorming that's going on with the board of ed, I truly hope as you guys focus on the middle school infrastructure project that you hold to
007the breakdown of prek through 2, 3 through 5, and 6 through 8, which I think has been a crucial element into both the vibe of our community as well as the success that we've seen in our school districts. Thank you. so much. >> Thank you very much, Lisa. Give me just one moment. I'm going to move you back to an attendee. >> Yes. Thank you. All right. Okay. The next person, Chad, I am going to promote you to a panelist. You're going to see something come across the bottom of your screen. Please click the button and you will be joining the webinar. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for the time. My name is Chad Heapner. I live at 25 Whiteb Road. We'll jump right into it. I wrote my comments down because I want
008to make sure I stick to five minutes and I know you have a busy evening. I hope to reframe some of the ways in which we envision our budget process. I was on the board of ed just last year. So, I sat in your seats and I went through all the same things you're considering now. Last spring, we had a painful reckoning because of the budget decisions we had made in the fall. In the spring, the district had to fire some of the most beloved teachers and reduce some of its most cherished programs. I didn't know explicitly the human and educational cost that those.5% and.25% decisions would make when I voted yes on the final budget, but I saw it clearly in the spring when we fired some of our kids' favorite teachers. I vividly
009remember in one of our budget meetings pushing as forcefully as I could to arrest the direction we were heading in of trying to carve off every tenth of percentage point we possibly could. And if you recall the boundary we came back from would have also meant losing one of only two musical productions and the cheerleading program not to mention more of the teaching staff in the spring. I regretted that I hadn't pushed much much harder. So please, this year in the future, let's avoid passing budgets that necessitate a bunch of unwelcome terminations in the spring. And even more audaciously, I don't think expand should be a dirty word. I don't mean budgets, I mean vision. But I also don't think that increased budget should be taboo. We live in a community where many parents pay
010the same teachers who teach their kids during the day to tutor their kids in the afternoon at the Weston Library. People want to invest in their children. They want to invest in their schools. And they also want to know that that investment is supporting visionary worldclass 21st century education. So expand where? Expand our focus on science and math especially at 5th through 8th. expand the number of enrichment resources, more robotics, more of the book vending machines that are treasured at WHIS, more chances for our kids to explore music and art. As a parent, I find it bewildering that we have so many kids who want to be in robotics or project challenge or the performing arts only to find limited spots. How many of those programs could have a second or third or fourth section
011added? Expand innovative ways to use the campus. We can offer night classes, community events, and drive both financial benefit for the district and community appreciation of our physical spaces. Those are just some of my ideas as a board and an administration. I'm sure you have lots of others. So, instead of asking our administration the same zero someum questions intended to justify shaving off a tenth of a point here or there, why not ask them questions that put their first class skills and training to use? Here are just a couple. Superintendent 40, you have an incredible track record of doing innovative things with limited resources. Question, how will you lean on community expertise in this budget to get worldclass resources or expertise for limited money? Dr. Henle, where is your exceptional background and scholarship in projectbased
012[snorts] learning leveraged most powerfully in this year's budget? And how can you do more of that without bloating line items? Everybody, given the thrilling accolades that Weston garnered last year, blue ribbon, etc., which aspects of the curriculum instruction leader program are worth expanding and are there any that are worth sunsetting for everybody? Are the American Reading Company materials worth it? Are you happy with them in year three? I think it is. Are they good enough? Should we augment them somehow? Could we get those books secondhand? If they're not that great, could we get better ones? All have we really interrogated the technology tools? I mean really are we paying money for equipment, devices, apps, software that are actually hurting our kids' cognition? I know I have this reputation, but don't just listen to me. Listen
013to the testimony that Dr. Jared Cooney Horovath, a former teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist, gave to the Senate last week. Here's an excerpt. Once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly to the point where kids who use computers about 5 hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over 2/3 of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school. And later in his testimony, he distills this to one sentence. When tech enters education, learning goes down. So these are just some of the questions that I think we should ask. And I know what you might be thinking. These are great questions, but they belong in curriculum committee meeting. And I would say no, they don't. They belong here because those are the kind of questions
014that will lead us to fixing, not firing. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Chad. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. And Chad, I'm sorry the um other forum, you came late and um we didn't recognize you at that point. So anyway, thank you for coming back. Appreciate >> you shouldn't apologize for that. That should be on on me for being late. So, thank you for all that you do. >> Thank you, Chad. I'm going to move you back to an attendee now. >> Okay. The next person is Aaron Burkoff. Aaron, I'm going to promote you to a panelist. Give me just a moment. You're going to see something come across the bottom of your screen and please click it to accept. Okay. Okay. Erin, if you wouldn't mind turning on your camera
015and turning on your microphone, state your full name for us and your street address, please. And then you'll have five minutes to speak. >> Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay, great. Uh, good evening everyone. My name is Aaron Buroff. I live at 38 Northfield Woods Road. Uh I just wanted to join the meeting this evening just to voice my strong feeling as a parent of three here in me in Weston who moved here to Weston because of the great school system that we have and as a parent of three who's so appreciative for the great education that my children are getting here in town. Um, but I just wanted to voice my strong feeling um that we continue to invest in our schools and uh not overscrutinize the line
016items relating to staffing. Um, we all know this from research that's been done. Individualized education is paramount for highquality education. Uh so I'm all for putting my tax dollars toward ensuring that we have enough teachers and enough uh curriculum uh curriculum implementation leaison to support the individual individualized attention that we all want our kids to have. And you know as Chad mentioned we have u so many parents here in town who are investing uh beyond school hours in their in their children's education. It's just so clear that we're also devoted or so many here in town are devoted to really trying to help our children thrive and and that's what we love about the school system here. Um, and Chad mentioned this too, but I wanted to add that, you know, we were really disheartened
017to see some of the teachers we loved let go at the end of the last school year. Uh, and we just don't want to see that happen again. So, I know I'm not alone in this in this position and sharing these thoughts. You've already heard them from from Lisa and Chad. You'll probably hear from others. And I suspect there are many many more uh who I've talked about these same feelings that we have uh at the community events in town. They become friends in town in part because of our shared commitment to the community and the education that our kids are getting here. Um and and they may not join because they're busy Ubering their kids around to uh to events or getting their younger kids off to bed. Uh I just want to note
018there are so many of us here in Weston who do place this top priority on the education and investing in our children um and their education. So I just wanted to to join share these thoughts and and again ask that we support the BOE's requested budget. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you for your comments and I'm going to bring you back to an attendee now. And that is it for public comment. I don't see any other hands raised. Nobody, no other participants. >> All right. Thank you, Jody. >> Um maybe just keep an eye on it for another five 10 minutes and we can interrupt if we if we need to. Um, okay. So, that leads us directly into our continued uh discussion on our operating and capital budget. Um, Eric,
019uh, Superintendent 40, I will turn it over to you in terms of organizing the topics we address tonight. >> Thank you, Debbie. I appreciate it. Of >> course. >> Can everybody hear me? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, so at the last meeting we concluded the staffing section. We are going to move into the next section that has a few questions on transportation. I'm going to turn it over um to Phil who will answer the first transportation question and then we'll call on um Tracy to pop in for the second question. >> Thank you Erica. Good evening everyone. Um there's a question about a review offer overall transportation. Um so as you guys may know the board may know historically Western has has low uh wrership on all our buses and for us uh reduced enrollment does
020not necessarily translate to to um we do not see a direct correlation to reduce enrollment to our ridership level. So during co um co afforded us a a really good opportunity to evaluate all of our runs to find efficiencies during that process when we were short drivers. Um you may all remember most of you remember how painful it was when we had to combine most of our buses through that experience. We did we did carefully reduce one bus um and that was done very carefully to minimize disruption to families and also to not extend the wrership longer than what it needed to be. When we were combining our buses we found that children were on the buses for beyond an hour and that is not our practice. So we have to be mindful and when
021we review view transportation we have to remember that our transportation fleet also [clears throat] serves our athletic charter. We have to remember that any d the same buses that we use for the high school and middle school also serves our lower grades. Any disruption that we we have in the first year which is the high school and middle school will directly impact um the K5 or our lower grades. With that being said, we have requested I've reached out to to first student to evaluate our runs to see if there is any possibility of us reducing the bus even further. Um, so we should have word on that hopefully by Monday before our next [clears throat] budget workshop or Juda workshop. Thank you, Phil. Um, there the next question, Tracy, would you mind? It was from
022Nicole on the early learning center transportation. >> Yes. Um, good evening everybody. A similar question from Nicole about is there a need for two vans to support the ELC program given the number of students who ride on each van. Um and as Phil talked about in his response, it's not just about number of students on a vehicle. So we can't exceed um a certain duration of time, an hour on the various routes. And so we need to take into consideration where we are transporting students. Um and right now there is no way to get all of the students home in the time that we need on one vehicle. So again less about number of children and more about duration of ride. Thank you. Does the board have any additional questions specific to transportation as those
023were our only two questions? Uh, no. But thank you, Phil, for um uh reaching out and asking the question at least um because each of us is um around 80,000 or I'm not sure what the number is, but you know it could be significant if we can um reduce even by one. So, thank you for investigating that. Can >> I do have one question just or just verification, Phil? If I remember correctly, we do have very low ridership. But I think two things are true. We still have to offer transportation for everybody. So a bus has to pass, for example, my road where I don't think very many kids, if any, take the bus. And so the the loop, even though they're not picking up and dropping off kids, the loop or the the routes
024that would remain the same, right? Um that is that is correct. >> And uh if can parents totally opt out and would that change anything if they did? >> Um we have we have explored that um but we haven't really dive into it to see if we allow parents. One of the difficulties that that we have David is that by state law we have to afford a seat for everyone that's enrolled in the district. So we do not have that information when we're applying our roads to find to identify those students who will not be right in. It is something to consider um as we plan our roads routes for each year and as we start up the year if we can allow the families to opt out of transportation. >> Okay. But that's not
025something that we would have ready to go for this budget. >> Not for this budget. No. >> Okay. All right, if there's no further questions, um we're going to roll into the next section, which are some additional questions that surfaced from board members in um previous meetings um and and provide some responses to those. The first question is from David. Um, and it is, is it safe to assume that this proposed budget includes less than 1% of the increase going towards instructional materials and resources to support teaching and learning? Is this 1% outside of benefits and salary a reasonable number for the district to be planning for in the future? And what was this percentage the last three years? um not including salaries and benefits. So to the first part of the question, yes, the
026the increase is less than 1% for those instructional materials and resources that would support teaching and learning. For the second part of the question, um it really depends if it's reasonable to say that this is what we need to plan for moving forward and if it's sustainable. It depends on the curriculum initiatives and when the district is in a formal cycle for widescale program adoption relative to science, math, reading or social studies. Um, and for the next part, the the it was less than 1% of the total budget increase over the last 3 years. Um, and as a reminder, just and just as an aside, 1% of this current proposed budget is is a little more than $600,000. So, if we don't have any more questions or follow-up comments on that question, we can move
027into the next one. Um, and that will be Julie. Good evening everyone. Um, as part of a previous discussion, uh, particularly surrounding the budget for substitutes, there was a follow-up question that was asked, uh, regarding our, uh, teacher attendance. Um, and so we're bringing you this evening some information related to, um, historical classroom teacher attendance. So, um, Dr. Hingle, if you could just adjust to the next slide. Great. So, this chart um as as have been others that we have shown you is from Edsite. It's publicly available data and it shows you um the historical data for average days absent amongst classroom teachers. Um, and we're showing you teachers specifically because that is the largest group that requires substitute coverage. The data spans back to the 2021 school year. Um, and you can see Weston's
028data specifically is shown in blue as compared with the state average, which is shown in yellow. It's easy to see. The data reflects that average classroom teacher attendance um in Weston is relatively aligned with statewide trends. I should note that this is attendance data related to teacher absences for illness or personal reasons which would include personal and family illness days, workers compensation, personal business, bereiement, religious holidays, and jury duties. So it's pretty comprehensive look. Um I will note that data from the years the school years 2021 and 2122 should be interpreted with caution because as you know these school years were significantly impacted by the CO 19 pandemic. Um, in particular, the 2021 school year data appears low uh because a good portion of absences that year were due to required quarantines and not specifically
029um for personal illness or personal reasons on the part of teachers. So the 2223 and 2324 data more accurately reflect typical levels of staff attendance uh or staff absence I should say in Weston. Um, and while the 2425 data is not yet available on Edsite, I can share with you that Weston's data will show the average holding steady at around 13 days. Um, relevant to the conversation, the contract, as you know, between the board of education and the western western teachers association provides for 2 days of personal leave annually and 15 days of sick leave annually, which may be carried over in future years up to a maximum of 187 days. So in light of this information, uh we do believe that the substitute budget that we have planned for is appropriate. Um knowing that
030this is the historical level of absence and that projecting forward that that is unlikely to shift significantly uh next year. >> Thank you, Julie. Does anybody have any follow-up questions? >> I do. Uh, so what 2324 says is that Western teachers in a sense behave like all the other state of Connecticut teachers. You know, no, I'm not quite sure how you put [clears throat] a a gauge on this. No better, no worse, but that's that's what West that's what state of Connecticut teachers do. If we pursue, if we aspire to having more teacher days in the classroom, is that may relate to higher test scores. Is it is it conceivable or has it ever been practice to incentivize teachers the sort of not Mr. days for schools for other reasons? Is that plausible? because a
031few extra days could mean a few better test scores uh and not just settle for doing what the rest of the state average does. So that's just sort of my my input. >> Yeah, I think it's it's difficult because um you know so often absences are for really significant and legitimate reasons that are outside of our teachers control, right? It is it is our preference for people to stay home when they are ill. We we do do not want to in a school environment um promote the spread of illness. There are things that are outside of people's control. When we talk about um bereiement days, jury duty, duty, jury duty, excuse me, workers compensation, those are things that are unanticipated. Um there are also, you know, shorter term leaves that are part of this um
032that fall under perhaps eligibility under uh family and medical leave. So, um I understand obviously we want to ensure that our teachers are in the classroom as much as possible and maintaining that contact time with students and recognizing um that they are humans and that there are things that happen in life and we want to um promote their safety and well-being as much as we can as well because that also translates into the experience that students have in the classroom. So, I think there are opportunities for us to um look at ideas that might help promote attendance where it might be able to shift more positively toward uh additional time in the classroom. But I think it would also be unrealistic to expect that there would be a significant shift because truly we all know
033there are things that happen in everyday life that require us to be out of work from time to time. Um I just have a follow-up question. Um these are um you know absence because you know of either illness or other uncontrollable uh situations. So my question is um you know to what extent are teachers pulled out of the classroom [clears throat] for um other reasons such as professional development or meetings and um especially with the advent of uh coaches etc. Have we have those days lessened so that we have teachers actually in the classroom more than going out for workshops? And I'm not against professional development at all, but uh to Peter's point about teachers being in the classroom as much as possible. It's a it's a really great point. There are of course other
034reasons uh that pull teachers out of the classroom and you mentioned some of them, professional development, um school business things such as meetings, um field trips. And I what I would say to that is that those types of absences are reviewed very carefully um by a variety of players. So for instance, when there is a request by a teacher for professional development time, those requests are reviewed by both the building level principles as well as Dr. Hankle's office. um including understanding the purpose of that professional development, the timing of it um and attendance is a factor in making those decisions. I know that Dr. Hangle in particular is very aware of the amount of time um that professional development can take teachers out of the classroom and really seeking to balance the benefits of how
035does that time away enhance the experience for students when the teachers come back into the classroom. Um and similarly with field trips. Field trips have a very significant review process as well. um school business absences are reviewed through our principles. So while there are other activities that take teachers out of the classroom, there's a lot of oversight over uh those types of absences because we are really invested in ensuring that to the extent possible our teachers are in the classroom and when we are pulling them out that it's for very um purposeful and significant reasons. Thank you. >> Any additional questions on that particular item? Okay, we are moving on. Um, one of the questions was about modeling the reduced elementary sections using the low projection model. Um, we posted those documents under the supplemental
036budget documents on our website and so they're posted there and we also emailed bo the board members PDF copies of those. The next question was specific to what are the historical sixth grade class sizes? So Tina, if you can just advance the slide. Um, sorry I'm not doing good tonight. Hold on. No, you're doing just fine. There we go. All right. So, um, we took the October 1 snapshots for district enrollment that we report to the state as part of our compliance reporting from October 1, 2021 through this past October 1st, 2025. And you can see the trend goes from 176 students in 2021 to 183 in 2022, down to 151 in 2023, down a little bit more in 2024 to 142 students, and then back up in 2025 to 172 students. Um the pro
037SLAM's medium projection for next year um is 171 students. Any questions? >> What's the um what's the current class size for fifth grade right now then? >> Hang on one second. I'm gonna have to look that up. [clears throat] >> I think that's in our books. I'm sorry. I probably I could have looked it up as well, but I'm [clears throat] just curious if they're if the medium has the class growing, shrinking, or staying the same. October one, grade five is 158. >> And they're expecting it to grow. >> That's that's >> that's the media projection. Yes. [clears throat] >> I wonder if it's grown in the past. That's something that we should Okay. All right. Thank you. Erica, can [clears throat] can you um show us so I know this came up at our
038one of our previous meetings where to I think a little bit to Sharon's point. So there's some expectation that the sixth grade is going to grow between spring and uh and fall. Um and we the number of sections for sixth grade I think you had them you modeled out but do we have the sixth grade by itself if I know I saw a slide that had eight seven and six sections and I think we discussed seven is really not a doable number because of the diad model. So do you have or can you remind us with eight sections I I believe my numbers are correct with eight sections of sixth grade we would have x number of open seats and with six sections of sixth grade at 172 we'd have y number of open seats
039is that >> David she the diad is for fifth grade sixth grade is teeming >> oh sorry >> so that's why the the odd number was for fifth Yeah. >> Sorry. I uh I recall my question. [laughter] Never never sent it. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I I guess I would just be nervous. I would I would like to take a look because it does sound like a big jump. I mean, that's that's a pretty substantial jump for going from fifth grade to sixth grade. It's not like a typical year that kids make a lot of changes in schools. Um, and so I would be curious how that number compares with previous growth from fifth to sixth to make sure that we are on track, realistically on track. >> Yes, we can follow up on
040that to take a look to make sure that you know >> Yeah, just a trend fifth to six. >> Yeah, >> trend fifth to six from 2021 to 2025. That'll help to make sure that the slam projections are what what we've seen in the past and what we should be gearing up for. >> Sure. And just to prove I tuned back in, I think we looked at this and I think the issue if I remember correctly with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade is because we have the real teameming model, you'd have to see a significant and I mean beyond I think any number we could anticipate reduction because you you you would destroy the teameing model um which we obviously don't want to do. If I remember correctly, I think we did look at a
041couple of these scenarios and I agree with you Sharon, the number seems uh aggressive uh or inspirational, but even if the number wasn't that, if it was someplace in between or even if it stayed at the at 150 some odd students that moved up, we would destroy the teaming model if we got rid of a second. >> Okay. So, you know what? To your point, David, absolutely right, Erica, I'm just being nosy. You do not need to go and get that information for me. It's fine. I can I can go to other charts that we've had in the past and I can get that information. So, don't worry about that. >> Thank you. >> I'm sure it's in um the report we heard earlier on enrollment projections. He has the whole history laid out. >>
042I can I can find that. And that's not I don't want to put that on you guys. You've got enough stuff going on. So, I'll take a look. >> All right. Great. If nobody else has any questions, we are going to move on to the next question. And I'm going to turn it over to Tina. Great. I too have an additional follow-up question which is related to a previous response regarding multi-tered systems of support and our framework in providing uh math and reading academic support for students. Um the previous question that this is linked to is from questions 30 through 33. Um and so the question is how do we um how do our interventionists fill their day and their schedule? So, I want to be able to go through um some criteria and some
043constraints on how um our interventionists build their schedule and the information that they use to do so. And then we'll look at an actual sample uh that I analyzed in the district with one of our full-time interventionists as well. So um interventionist schedules are developed collaboratively with building administrators, our curriculum and instruction leaders and the goal is to maximize their instructional time while of course adhering to the multi-tered system of support guidelines that I mentioned and and reviewed back in that previous few questions. Um um I can't remember if it was last time or the time before. So when we talk about um how a interventionist builds their schedule, it's important to understand that this is not a traditional teaching schedule. It's a multi-layered process driven first and foremost by student data. And therefore, at
044minimum, these schedules change every at minimum they change every time that we administer our universal screening assessments. Dibbles 8 for example, NWA for example in the fall, winter and the spring because we administer those assessments three times a year. We identify which students need additional support in reading or math and determine whether that support should be provided at a tier 2 or tier three level. So once students are identified um the group size becomes a major constraint. Um so we talked first about the student need and at what level based on that data. So tier 2 groups are limited to 3 to five students and tier three groups are even smaller typically one to three students in a group. Um so group size and uh is also a constraint. So students can also only be
045grouped together if they are working on the same targeted skill or standard which then also creates a significant limit on how that group is formed. So we are looking at making sure that once we identify the students we then group those students based on their shared goals and depending on the um tiered level of support that they need it's the size of that group that we can put students together in. Um and then the next layer is instructional intensity. So as I mentioned if a student needs tier 2 support and intervention that is typically um provided three times per week and if they need tier three intensive support that is required within our MTSS guidelines to be provided four to five times per week. So this level of frequency is intentional. It's designed to accelerate
046student growth so that um students can successfully exit MTSS rather than remain in intervention for the long term. So in addition to that um it is required that it in order to see that accelerated amount of growth when students are receiving intervention the time that they're um working needs to be a minimum of 30 minutes in length which then also provides an additional constraint and flexibility when an interventionist is building their schedule. So when you combine all these minimum session lengths, the group size, the repeated weekly sessions, the schedule fills up pretty quickly. So interventionists build their build also build in time for tier one monitoring. Um and this is particularly important because it supports students transition um between the tiers so that when they are um exiting tier 2 or tier three support, we
047want to make sure that we're um gathering enough data uh progress monitoring data to fully exit the program and the framework um independently. So we want to make sure we have that information whether that be small groupoup instruction where we're gathering that data in the classroom or providing some a little bit additional support so that we are confident um that they can work independently on grade level without some additional support. So um in addition to all of those MTSS guidelines as I went through um the instructional planning must also happen within the contract contractual expectations right just like any other teacher an interventionist does have to follow the constraints of the contract as well um which means that they also have to have a 30 minute duty-free lunch throughout the week. They are required to
048have 300 minutes of prep time um each week and they also are required to have a duty um with uh approximately which is approximately 25 minutes and those are determined at the school level depending on the need. So those are some of those constraints that we have to take into consideration when we're building out a robust and comprehensive schedule. So um what I then did is took a sample schedule and started to analyze time and minutes and where their emphasis of support was within a given week. Right? Because when I'm talking about those scheduling constraints, it's not a day, it's within the week in order to serve the groups that need tier three intervention, which is about size and about intensity and all the way down to some of the other um contractual limitations, too.
049when we're looking at their schedule. So, this table um represents an intervention schedule. Um you could see that 67% of their uh work week is spent providing um student academic support, whether that be any one of the three tiers and that's where their greatest concentration of time is. Um you can see that tier three of course is going to need more time because they have to be seen a minimum of 30 minutes a week. um 30 minutes within a a time frame within a session four to five times per week. So those students are with an intervention for a longer u more um consistent period of time within a week. Um you'll also see that um students receiving tier three support typically I started to correlate what is the minutes what percentage is that within
050a week based on the number of minutes within somebody's work uh work week. Um so this kind of overlaps um some of those some of that information um but I did not include their lunch. So I really focused on um the contractual time, the duty time um the tiered support that the interventionists are support are providing and then also um there is a time common planning time to analyze data make decisions around the instructional delivery model for students within the tiers as well um because they are part of the MTSS process and to be effective. Part of that is looking at progress monitoring data and we talked about that before. Michael asked a question specifically about how are we making decisions and determining um whether or not students are moving up and down within the
051tiers and that's where that progress monitoring and collaboration comes into play. And then um finally the last table is another [clears throat] summary of the instructional intent intensity um each student receives based on their level of need within the sample schedule that I that I mentioned and that I use this data based off of. Um, so you'll see that uh tier three support receives the most intensive amount of time throughout a week. Um, and within this schedule in particular, that's about 7 to nine students. And um, then it goes down because I think one of the questions, Deb, I think this was your follow-up question. I can't remember. Um, but how many students um, are they typically serving? Um so based on this interventionist schedule um this is approximately the number of students they serve
052within a week and the number of minutes and allocation of time just within the tiered level of academic support that they provide. Um so in closing it's important to emphasize that I hope that this helps provide um a little bit further detail around the flexibility that is needed for the interventionist. the the fact that this is is not a schedule that um is built that is as clean as maybe a classroom teacher with um classes that are determined based on blocks of time throughout the day. Um but that it is a multi-layered approach and it's um very um it's flexible in that it adjusts throughout the the year based on the data and the students that they have and the performance of the students throughout throughout the school year and the data that we're gathering
053from either the interventions that they're receiving or the universal screening assessments that we're providing and administering three times a year. So um it's often like a jigsaw puzzle. We when if I actually showed you the pre uh the schedule, you would see that the color codes and the correlation between the different tiers and the number of times that they meet with different students uh based on their goals is looks just like a jigsaw puzzle. um each piece um each student need, each group size, the instructional intensity, the session uh length, and all that coupled with the constraints of the contra of the contract as well has to fit together in order to make sure that the system works and and works efficiently and we're maximizing their time. I'll end there and open it up for
054any questions. Um, no. Thank Oh, I'm sorry. I'm I'm sorry. Can you hear me, Deb? >> Can you guys hear me? >> Deb went on mute, but I can hear you, Michael. Go ahead. >> Okay. Okay. Got it. Perfect. [laughter] Uh, a apologies. I'm traveling all around tonight and uh, so my camera's off. Um, question for you just quickly, Tuna, on this. um in this cohort of individuals, what is the what is the turnover um in this cohort? Um I can't imagine I mean that seems like a pretty challenging schedule, right? For some I could see how it's how it could be at least. >> Um do those people who are in this cohort, you know, do do they like the schedule? Is there a lot of churn that you're seeing um from this cohort?
055Just just curious as to from their perspective, is this is this a schedule that they enjoy that um they tolerate that people are in for a short period of time? Just curious. >> Yeah, it's a great question. Um I will say that it's an intense process to build the schedule um in response to the student need. Um, but it's it's critical in order to maximize the MTSS framework that we've developed, right? We can't we don't want students to be receiving um um intensive academic support if they don't need it, right? We want them to maximize their time in the classroom. And um so I think there's a level of intensity around these schedules as I described before because they're they're re um reallocated and redesigned for lack of a better term. redesigned every single time
056that students are either um exiting their goals or if they're exiting because the universal screener that we're administering is showing that um they've grown enough and the gap has closed so they don't need as much support. Um, so I think that um, an interventionist that the model that I used here, um, this individual is good at what they do and they're really good at building their schedule quickly. Um, and so we just completed one of the we're in the middle of completing the winter screening. And so this sample schedule is actually just rebuilt. So it's actually good timing. and the question was good timing so that it was more um you know uh relevant given the question and when it was asked. So these are rebuilt like I said a minimum of three times a
057year and sometimes depending on the success of the students within their interventionist sometimes they're they're adjusted even uh between the fall winter and spring administration. >> Great. Thanks. Yeah, >> you know, I I do have a question um >> on the number of interventions that we have. So >> I wear my gray hair stripes on the board of ed because I remember when we received ESSER funds. >> Yes. >> Specifically because of COVID for interventionists. So my question is and I'm not sure there's a direct correlation but that's part of my question >> are how what are the number of what are the number of interventionists we had before co and I guess my question is more along the lines of are these interventionists that are now essentially part of our budget were at one
058at one point were these paid for through er funds >> and if so which I believe is the case. Do we imagine a need for interventionist for the foreseeable future? Is it just to recover from the learning loss that occurred during COVID? Just kind of paint the picture for me if this is related to ESER. If at one point this was offset by ESSER, now this is in our budget and if it's in our budget and it's because of learning loss during COVID, is this something we envision potentially moving beyond at some point or this is just where we are today and for the foreseeable future? Yeah. So, I I wasn't here during um that time frame and Phil, you would definitely have a little bit more background and historical context around how we've how
059Weston used those funds. Um I will say that I've never I think there will always be a need for support for students. The number of students and the level of intensity um is not something we can all predict, but um we all know that there will always be some level of support. It's just a mount a matter of how many students need that support and to what extent uh we need to provide the time as outlined within the chart here. I mean the go the ultimate goal of course is that there are no there is no need for academic um intervention support within tier 2 and tier three. Uh we're very fortunate here that our numbers are lower than most districts. But one of the aspects that varies which is some it's hard to explain
060is that if you have let's say you know 40 students in a given school that need academic support. This is why it's important to understand the constraints within that multi-tered system is that that doesn't mean you can divide 40 by eight and get 40 groups because the students that are in an intervention need to be working on the same goal and that goal has to match the correct intervention to it. So that's why the complexity of an intervention schedule is some is is really complex. It's hard to build and in our district especially um we have the correct interventions based on the explicit skills that are need are needed for literacy and math and the group sizes um are always redistributed so that the student need and the size of the group are connected together.
061So, the ESSER funds, and Phil, you might want to chime in here. Um, I don't believe that we ever I can't remember if we ever got enough for one full-time position in that allocation. And we do use um a portion of our title funds to support um one position in our budget, but we don't receive enough title funds to even account for one full-time position. Is that accurate, Phil? From the Tyler funds perspective, it's partial, >> right? >> Um, in terms of how much money, we did not receive a lot of money um for CO. I would have to go back and look at the data to give you an accurate amount if that's still needed. No, I think I think my question is and I'm not sure if I heard an answer is do
062we envision is this due to learning loss during COVID or is this just how we operate today? this I I heard you say Tina that can't anticipate student needs and we need interventions to help those students but are we at a point where it's elevated because of learning loss or this is essentially what we can expect year-over-year outside of a significant unpredictable change. >> Yeah, since I've been here I'm entering my fifth year. This is a consistent number of academic support interventions that we've had for the last five years. So although the students change within the groups, the numbers seem to be consistent. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yep. Shall we move on to the next follow-up question? >> Yes. >> Great. Okay. The next follow-up question I have as well and the question was um
063have we ever asked our teachers directly about the impact of a curriculum and instructional leaders role and in short the answer is yes but I'm going to elaborate. So um teachers provide direct recurring feedback on the impact of curriculum instruction leaders. Although I like uh Mr. Burkoff's change of title to curriculum instruction liaison. That was that was interesting. Um CIL's through formal district professional development evaluations, ongoing job embedded coaching interactions and unsolicited anecdotal feedback throughout the school year. So this feedback provides clear evidence of the CIL's role in supporting instructional practice and student learning. So this table um I went back to this uh current school year from August and we the CIL team has provided 33 formal professional development sessions um to our teachers since August. each session. At the end of each session
064session, it includes a standardized feedback form and it's completed by every teacher that participates in that session. And we ask them a variety of different questions um that rate the impact of the session on their instructional practice. It rates the the content knowledge that they walked away with from that session. um the anticipated student outcomes as well as the quality and the relevance of the professional learning experience that the CIL um designs um and facilitates. So this is a um a cross-section of those 33 feedback forms and it's aggregated um across the department not by individual facilitators but the trend shows that um there is a representative overall pattern and trend from our teachers which rate primarily um falling within the pos strongly positive and agree uh range. This is a collective view of the
065impact of the CIL department's work rather than focusing on just individual uh sessions that they've offered. So in addition, we also um look for some common themes that emerged throughout the open-ended responses and you'll see that that provides some context around some quantitative ratings as well. So together the table offers a clear snapshot of how the teachers across the district perceive the value, the effectiveness and the impact of a of a CI CIL and the formal professional development that they lead for our teachers. Um several themes emerged from um the analysis of the open-ended teacher feedback across the sessions. Um the teachers are not asking those are some of the bottom ones here. Um the teachers are not asking whether CILs are valuable. are asking for more time, more followup, more sustained access and some
066continued job embedded support that are given directly to them from their CILs because they know that the time that they spend with them um it impacts their instructional practice which ultimately reflects in um increased student learning. Um but it's important to know that we don't just look at those standardized feedback forms. Sometimes um we also get uh some unsolicited comments and feedback right because um our CIL's work u beyond those uh professional development days that are planned and organized they are working through um uh uh formal coaching cycles with staff. They work with them through curriculum work and curriculum development. They co-plan with their departments and the people the teachers in their departments. They go in and model lessons. They provide classroom support. Um and they also work to develop collaboration opportunities across the their
067departments. So this feedback um I just took a couple sound bites from some of the unsolicited feedback in the department and it really underscores the value of um why a CIL role and the embedded instructional leadership that they provide in between those um uh planned professional development days is so critical um because this is the throughine that they play when it comes to curriculum adoption, curriculum implementation, shift in pedigogy OG research and just um ongoing partnership and having a thought partner on how to professionally grow in this profession. So these are some unsolicited comments that reinforce um what the formal data table that I showed you before demonstrates and the value of a CIL role and hopefully it helps to clearly articulate its impact on their practice and their and student learning. Um and and
068just so you know, I gave this is a snapshot of some qualitative anecdotal notes, but then also the through the formal um professional development feedback forms that we gather. We also um on a yearly basis do um ask for additional survey questions uh within the departments. So there's more specific opportunities for us to take that information as a department to grow um into these roles and see what some other explicit ways that our CILs can support teachers on a more granular level. Questions about the CILs? >> Are teachers required to the professional development? >> Are they required? Yes. I mean, it's part of their contractual year. Um, unless they're sick and they they can't attend that day, but yes, >> it's part of their school year. >> So, for those teachers who completed the form
069at a professional development session, >> the teachers were required to go to those sessions. >> They are they're scheduled. We create a schedule for them. We communicate that out. Um, the March 27th professional development uh this year is one that we build a menu and they get to choose the session that they attend. But those sessions also have a feedback form where they're expected to complete it and give feedback to the facilitator. And we use that data throughout every single time we administer a feedback form. We review that data within our district professional development committee and it helps us um gauge and adjust how we can better improve the the quality of the professional development for our teachers. >> So So it seems like a lot of people did not fill out the form. Um
070so the these are just um anecdotal um comments. >> In the previous slide you said it was based on 33 forms. >> Um no these what I said was 33 sessions >> across. So we have 12 curriculum instruction leaders just so everyone knows in the district uh to support all the different content areas. So between August and November um those are the last two full professional development days that we've provided. Um across the department we've offered 33 different sessions. Um I did not include the the count here but all the teachers are required to attend and we ask that they provide feedback on that form. Yeah, good question. And I will say just a common theme, I couldn't put them all on the screen because it wouldn't I couldn't fit them all. Um, our teachers
071have said over and over again, they really value having their own faculty members and members of their departments provide that professional development because they feel there's a number one a relationship and an understanding of where they currently are in their learning. Um, and they really value having um their own colleagues provide professional development to them. Okay. Any others? >> Oh, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, that concludes all of the questions that were submitted um from board members in the supplemental questions that arose at the the previous meetings. So, we are um complete Well, um, thank you and I'm sure I'm speaking on behalf of all the members. Um, we appreciate how thorough and comprehensive and, um, your answers are and your explanations and your data, both current and historical. Um, so thank you
072for compiling all of that and also thank you for posting a lot or all of this online so the the public can also gain further understanding of some of the roles and responsibilities of um positions and their titles. So thank you. >> You're welcome. So, Superintendent uh 40, um we're we are headed for three meetings next week um around the budget. Um but I understand um uh you know before we sort of get into uh some of the specifics and our perspectives on the operating budget proposal. Um, do you anticipate any adjustments to the budget request? >> Yes, we we have sort of a an updated budget um for you this evening. Um, it's very simple. It's a very high level overview. Uh Phil's going to present it to you and it is as a
073result of some new knowns that have recently surfaced um specific to health insurance um positions um and other unanticipated reductions. So I'm going to turn it over to Phil. He may want to share his screen. >> Well, I'm getting the screen ready. For those of you who who have been on the board for a while, you know, my favorite term is um my expression is that this is [clears throat] a marathon and it's a marathon that starts for us in October and will continue not at the end of January, but will continue all the way to when we present to the board of finance. But in the interim, um, I'm going to present to you some changes that we have. Give me one quick second. Let me try to get this right and let me
074know if you guys can see this. Awesome. Um so from our last minute with Chuck I think Chuck spoke to us about the anticipated increase on the state partnership plan with a range between on the low end of 12 and at the high end at 15%. The 15% is typically what we can expect for Fairfield County. Our initial budget requests um included at 12.5%. uh since then and also since Monday or Tuesday of this week the state updated their projection and that projection remains unchanged um as of right now. They will give us a further update in um in March but all indications are that we can expect to see a 15% increase for health insurance. So what I the number that I have here the 168,000 is a combination is an is a combination
075of health insurance premium anticipated and also anticipated uh employee and retirey cost share. So we'll have a plus of approximately 28% relating to health insurance. Um early retirement incentives you will recall that the board did approve an early retirement incentive. The first of three payments will be approximately $84,000 beginning in fiscal year 27. Erica mentioned um that we have pretty much look at our staffing. Um you should know that our review of staffing to gain efficiency is an ongoing process and whenever an opportunity presents itself and we do evaluate that to see if any staffing efficiencies can be gained as we look ahead to fiscal this year and also for fiscal 27. We have identified a position right now that will help or will give us greater efficiency while not compromising the service levels to
076our staff and also to our students. For that position, the combined salary and payroll taxes will be approximately $88,000. Also continuing um in our spe special education department um Tracy has identified additional savings um as it relates to changing in student needs. Um so we do anticipate savings for sped of approximately $170,000. So all in all that's all those pluses and minuses will have a net effect more than overall our current request is approximately increase is 3.91% which is down by 01%. And that are all that's all the updates that we have currently. >> Hey hey hey Phil Phil it's Michael. Uh um do you mind double clicking just on that insurance uh number there? So I guess since we last spoke about the insurance and we talked to Brown about Brown the consultant um
077there was this meeting that was upcoming right that I guess you know we we just had essentially where the state communicated or I guess communicated that and reiterated that it would be 15% let's say for um for for Fairfield County that number that 168,000 in change. Does that number then represent and I know there there are a couple of there are a couple of items within that number if you can just dive into a little bit more because I think um as you mentioned we had budgeted 12 and a half they're coming in at 15 but the 2 and a half% is more than this 168. So could you give me sort of the you know give us the puts and takes to how you got to this number because I I believe that 2
078and a half% number um increase would be much greater than this. Is that is that correct or >> Yes, it is. So the number that's been presented here is the net. So you'll remember when Chuck when Chuck mentioned that ultimately the ultim the final cost to the board will be our premium less any employee cost share. So on the gross side, the pre gross premium is just over 200,000. I think the number came in at about 210,000 or so. >> So the 40 the 40 or so thousand difference that you're looking at here represents the employee the employee cost share. >> Okay. >> Employee share of the premiums. And so our next update here and I guess the next and final update I guess if if I'm thinking about that correctly that's going to be
079provided to us by the state in March. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> Okay. All right. Thanks Phil. >> You're welcome. >> Um and Phil um there's not there hasn't been any indication that this might come down. Um based on on the call uh early this week, the state is saying that that the claims continue to trend negatively and they do not anticipate any um any further reduction. >> Okay. So it's now close to the end of January and so you know I'm just I don't have a crystal ball but there's no reason to think that this number will get better. Um, and it's hard to tell if it might get worse. Is that a fair >> I I I I think it's fair to say that it will not get any better
080in terms of where the worst. I do not anticipate that it'll be any worse. Um state um Chuck did mention at our last meeting that the the state has been very mindful of any potential changes in their forecast um because I think two to three years ago they did provide a significant increase after they early suggested that the rates will be at a lower rate. So I think wor our worst case scenario is going to be the 15%. >> Okay. Thank you. Um if other board members have comments, I just with the screen um with Phil's thing there, which is great. I think you want to look at it. Um please just jump in. >> Um yeah, I have a question. So from two two weeks ago when we met in person, um I had
081spotted that the tuition for ELC referenced was lower than the tuition that you mentioned in the meeting. And so I'm wondering if this budget, this updated budget reflects that. >> The the original budget that was presented does include the the higher amount, the narrative or the verbiage that needed correction. >> Okay, thanks. >> Well, this is the proverbial good news, bad news. Um I'm not exactly sure um how it balanced out. I mean it's it's fortuitous that it balanced out that the good news caught up with the bad news but I wish it had been only good news. Uh so our budget increase on the operating side stands at 3.91. Am I right from that? Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. um we need to again come to a a final determination um early next
082week or later next week depending on how many meetings uh we need but it might be helpful uh to just look at a couple things um one is we haven't yet looked at our capital budget and I think uh after speaking with Erica earlier today and Phil that that is scheduled for Monday morning our workshop then um so I I think that will be a um hefty discussion so we need to kind of reserve some bandwidth for that. Um the other thing is that if we want to make adjustments any in any direction on our operating budget we need to start indicating that so that the administration could figure out what the impact would be and what changes if any are needed. So, I'm getting to the point now of asking the the question of
083all board members. Um, if you're prepared to say something, and perhaps you are. I'm hoping so. Um, it's kind of the overall question about the operating budget and all the questions that have been asked and answered and the final numbers that we've presented were presented with the rationale. Um, how do we feel as individuals at this point? um about the operating budget request. Do we feel that it is too high? Do we feel that it is about right or do we feel that it is too low? Uh and then from there we can have more of a discussion. But I kind of would like a general sense of what your perspective is at this point. I think we've heard a lot of information etc. If you can't make a judgment at this point, you know,
084certainly you can pass, but we really have to come to this fairly fairly soon in order to make our final decision. So, I encourage you if you have thoughts tonight to um please kind of weigh in now. Um and that um will give us a sense of where we are as a group and it will give the administration and the staff a chance to prepare if needed. So, I'm not sure if anyone wants to start first or or not. Okay. I used to be a teacher and they used to have this thing called wait time where you just kind of ask the question and then just kind of wait it out. So, and I'm not I really don't mean to put that kind of pressure on anybody, but >> Deb, I'll go first. >> Okay.
085Thank you, Sharon. >> I was waiting for David, but no, I'll go first. So, um, my thought is 3.91, um, is still higher than I would like for it to be. Um, it scares me because, you know, I've had many people say, "How long can we do this? This just isn't sustainable." And I get that. But at the same time, I also, you know, we've been hit really hard with some things that we quite honestly can't cut. We we if the only way we are going to be able to really cut this budget is to start cutting teachers and we've I think we've turned the administration into a pretzel to try to figure out where we can make a cut here and a cut there. And then we have parents who are coming on meetings
086tonight saying please don't make cuts here and cuts there. So you know do I love 3.91? No. Do I think that if we start making cuts on the budget as we have it now that it's going to start to negatively impact the students and their learning? Yeah, I do. um because unfortunately it's it's only going to be with personnel and I know that um the administration is being as thoughtful as possible in trying to make sure that we're not overspending in areas um where you know we would need to make these cuts in order to make an effective change. So, um, so I guess I've gotten to the point where, um, and also looking around at other districts in the area and seeing where they are as far as a percentage increases concerned, I think
087that we're actually pretty good. So, I'm I'm comfortable right now with the 3.91 there. I was the first one. Jump in everybody else. >> So, I'll go next because Ditto Sharon, I I totally agree with you. I think this is a very competitive budget. I think 3.9 is more than it usually is except in these economic times and with the unusual costs of health insurance that are not only for the schools but across the country. Um it is a very competitive budget and it is very competitive for what's going on in Duray. So I did a what you say and I I think it was competitive and thoughtful and you know looking closely at the budget and looking at it we have some very successful programs. So it's not only that the money is um
088being spent but the data shows um students success academically and emotionally with this budget. Thank you. Um, anyone else? >> All right, I'll jump in. So, I think the budget is acceptable. I think that every year I feel like we have some obligation to keep our budget low in order to offset what the town is going to come back with back with with their budget request. But that's not our problem at the end of the day. And I think we've heard from so many people that people move to Weston, my family included, for the schools. And so I think that this board at times, I know I do, feel pressure to keep our budget low to offset what the town is going to do. I think this year is probably going to be the year
089of the reckoning, so to speak, because uh, you know, we have our operating budget, we have our capital budget, we have a new school facilities and so forth. So, I think to keep looking at destroying the education system in Weston to try and keep our budget low so that the town can do their thing doesn't make a lot of sense. We have to focus on what we're here for. Our board is a board of education. We're here to educate the kids, continue to give the kids the education that they get in a town like this and let the town deal with their financial problems. So, I'm in support of our budget because this is why people move to Weston. Okay, thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Only one left or is Michael still on the
090phone? [clears throat] >> Um, Michael's there. >> I'm here. I'm still here. >> Okay, I I'll wait. Michael. >> Okay. Uh, Peter, do you have the floor? >> Oh, sure. I just have an observation. I've Excellent work, by the way. I think this may be the best sessions I've had in my four years on the board. Um, for the benefit of ourselves, I think for the benefit of this district and staff and certainly for the benefit of parents and non-parents, I think they really understand the operation of of the school district. My my observation and I almost wanted to give a pop quiz but we're all getting tired of my pop quizzes but in the sentence we continue to maintain what's the adverb and what's the verb. The adverb is continue the verb is maintain
091and that's sort of the observation of our budgeting. And remarkably uh there was a letter in Weston today by Mr. Haythornne and in his first paragraph I think he caught on to that. He called it status quo but we continue to maintain. Good news is we maintain at a pretty high level. Uh the balance you have against that is either great austerity, we're not going there, or where we heard from parents tonight, right? Can we have aspirations for the future? Sort of echo things I think I've said in the past and others. That's not going to happen. But I think it informs uh the superintendent staff that the parents may want to see more than less moving forward because you can hear lots of good ideas that have been generated. But again, that's not happening
092in this budget session. Maybe next year. So, in general, my observation is approval, right? I mean, this is our continuing to maintain, but our maintaining at pretty high standards. So, that's uh to echo David, that's the that's our job, right? Our job is to drive the school district forward. And if this is the budget that does it for fiscal year 27, this is the budget that does it. That's sort of my last input. Thank you. >> I I have a question. >> Salary increases for staff in the CBAs, is that because I know that they were just finalized last year. Do those increase every single year or is that a one-time increase for the duration of the CBA? etc. >> That is an increase every single year either both with GWI gross wage increase and
093also combined with step increase for teachers who are not at max step. >> Okay. >> Um so I would agree with everybody else. I it's really it's really tough to trim a budget when the bulk of the budget is coming from is coming is going to salary and health insurance. I would agree with David. We individualized education is something to be celebrated and something that parents want for their children. Um and it's something that can be done in a small school district. Um, and it's really hard to make for for me personally, it's really hard to to try to tweak, as somebody said in public comment, things that are relating to staffing because you don't know we like we don't know how that's going to end up. And I was on the receiving end of
094that last year and was with a lot of other parents who were very very very disappointed to see some beloved teachers at risk of losing their jobs and they would have done anything to save their teachers but it was out of their control. So I really don't want to be involved in doing that. Um I guess I would say like and I've also I really appreciate everybody's preparation of qu answers to questions. It's really helpful. I have learned so much through this process. Um, but I again similarly to public comments do sometimes wonder outside of the staffing the you know all of these really bigger items what's going on in some of these smaller line items. What is how is it how is the day-to-day really looking with some of the things that you're using
095in school and maybe there are efficiencies that can be made. Maybe you don't need to use a certain software. I know Tina was talking about how well Tina and Dan, you know, if we use this AI then we it might it might render other software unnecessary and so there could be efficiencies in the longer term. But I I think some of those smaller day-to-day things really questioning whether some of it's necessary or something else can be done because I um and also I think a lot of school and work life is about a good culture, having a good employer, feeling good about where you work, feeling valued, feeling appreciated, especially in a place where staff and professionals are at the heart of what makes system work and be successful. So, I would I would rather
096keep morale positive and continue to try to improve it with with staff than try to cut. >> All right. Thank you. Uh Michael, do you want to say anything? >> Yeah, I'll jump in just really quickly because I I pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. book from the beginning I think of this budget season you know it [clears throat] was apparent that there were you know two major line items here um that were driving the bulk of the increases right and the opportunity to impact this in a significant way um would have to address one of those those two line items which were of course headcount and the health insurance unfortunately the health insurance has come in a little bit higher than we expected Um, and I think it's become apparent throughout
097this this whole process that unless we're willing to make meaningful changes that may cut cut into muscle here and have knock-on effects with respect to headcount. Um there's just not much here um for us to really cut um in those two line items. Um I appreciate actually Nicole's comments on just you know going through the line items and just trying to find efficiencies and I think think we've done a reasonable job of that this year actually and there have been a lot of questions that have been really good questions. Um, you know, I I just at this point I I don't see where we're going to get any meaningful savings from where the budget stands today. The way I look at it is last year when everyone else's budget around um in our area they
098were going up by three and a half, four, four and a half%. We kept our budget last year under three. um um in terms of a year-over-year increase. And so this year, I would imagine that we are not going to be an outlier. Um and so if I look at the two years together, we're probably still the lowest increase um of any of the districts sort of in the surrounding area. So would I have liked it lower? Yes. Um, am I willing to, again, given all all of the questions that you all have answered, which has been really appreciated, am I willing to cut sort of into muscle here to, you know, try to save, I don't know, a couple, you know, a half percentage point, a quarter percentage point. Um uh look, our first
099responsibility is to ensuring um positive student outcomes here. And so uh you know, at this point, I think I'm pretty satisfied. Um again, I would love it lower, but I'm pretty satisfied, you know, where we ended up given all the circumstances that uh we've had to deal with this year. >> Sorry. Can I just add one more thing? >> Of course. I know that we've all talked about how we want to keep and you know celebrate our teachers, but just for people watching to put it into a larger context and any of you administrators can chime in or add more um to the extent it's helpful, but there is a statewide teacher shortage in Connecticut. It is really really hard to hire good teachers. It's really hard to get wellcertified teachers. And so if we
100are in a district that is WIS blue ribbon number three high school and it's because of the teachers that we have, I really don't want to be losing good teachers in this climate. >> Good point. Okay. Well, thank you all for your comments and um and I am so pleased that we are basically all on the same page um with a little grumbling um under our breath. Um I started out uh thinking 3.91 was you know within the realm of reasonable but it needed to come down. um like all of you ideally I would like to see it lower and I would have um suggested you know maybe to Michael's point in the range of trying to get it down a half a point or so um that became impossible to me tonight after looking
101at the newest um insurance increase uh that wiped out uh potential savings that we could have actually gotten closer to maybe a 35 or a 36. Uh but the insurance really ran away is the train that sort of took this budget and ran. So, um I think what we need to do though for the future is look at how we can um I don't know afford isn't the right word, but how we can apply how we can plan for insurance costs and that's going to take some outside expertise or some guidance or something. But we cannot sustain a 15% annual increase in insurance. That um is crazy. Um I'm hoping that is not the new normal. Uh so we need to try to focus on I don't know what strategies there are, what other districts
102are doing. Is there a solution? And maybe the answer is no. But on a school budget um again where most of our money is in staff and benefits, it's a killer. So I think we need to kind of wrap our arms um in terms of planning forward what to do. Um, I also haven't given up on maybe we could lose a bus. So, Phil, please don't unask the question. Please pursue it. Um, and also, um, and maybe this is not for conversation tonight, but I asked you earlier, uh, we have some money in what's called the, um, what is it? the internal service fund um that is reserved for um insurance emergencies um at this point around dental plans as I understand it. I could be totally wrong. Uh, but I'm wondering um there is
103a bit of reserve there and I'm not suggesting that we wipe it out, but it might be something that we have a conversation with the town about and is that is now a time uh with such a dramatic increase in health insurance that we can put a little bit towards that or maybe the um the difference is so insignificant it doesn't matter. So those are just my two thoughts on I am grasping at ways to bring the budget down a little bit. Um, but I agree with everyone else that what we have in Weston is too valuable to um, risk its quality. And I so appreciate the thoughtfulness and the comprehensive answers to everything. So um, unless we, you know, looked at programs and said, "Okay, which we don't want to do." And that really
104is the only place in this budget to go. Um, you know, counting the the textbooks and the pencils and stuff. um while not unimportant, I think we have done that and I think the staff is has done a great job with that too. So um we will face Monday morning uh depending on how much snow we have to dig out from under but the meeting is going to be via Zoom. So let's hold it on our calendar. Hope that we still have power. Um there may be unanticipated situations that arise. So we'll be certainly in contact. Uh but the next um kind of bear that we have to tackle is the capital budget and there's some news around that that is not that's going to be challenging as well. So let's um if you could
105review it tonight or or some I'm sorry before Monday not tonight but before Monday's meeting um and then Phil will take us through that and then there's some some news to add um with that. There's a challenge there as well. Uh, so any other comments for tonight? >> I I would just like to, if you don't mind, Debbie, of course, thank the board for um your attention and listening to our responses [clears throat] of all the questions that you submitted. They were really thoughtful questions and they gave us an opportunity to really talk and educate and lift the community's knowledge and be transparent about what we do here in Western Public Schools. I'd also like to thank the principles and my cap and the cabinet members for all the time and effort that they spent
106in putting into those responses and also all of our backend meetings that led to the 3.92 and for their thoughtfulness in how we can reduce headcount with not without impacting individuals specific to layoffs. And um I appreciate the board's support in this budget and I just want to let you know that we are committed to take continually taking a look at it and when those opportunities arise where there's a a a natural attrition and we can evaluate that opportunity and figure out if we can move forward without potentially rehiring, we will do that intensely and be responsible in that manner. So, um, it is always the intent not to lose or reduce staff or see people who are really good teachers, to Nicole's point, leave this district. Um, but I think we do need to
107capitalize on opportunities that are presented to us where we could naturally make changes and look for efficiencies um, when they present themselves. So, thank you very much to the principles, the cabinet members, and to the board of education. >> Okay. Thank you for those those comments. And um I think one of the uh biggest gifts tonight um in addition to our excellent staff representing a tremendous program is the fact that all of us as board members um have come to the same conclusion. And I think um hopefully what will become eventually a unanimous vote on the budget is really important because I think that sends a message to the community as well. um that we have looked at things thoroughly from totally different perspectives many times and come to the same conclusion. I think that's
108really valuable. So is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Actually before I make a motion I would love to make that motion but I want to thank the administration. Um I think that you guys did a wonderful job handling all these questions and you were so thorough in your answers and it was great both for the board and also for the people who are viewing these um videos and who are in attendance. Um the thoroughess was just great and and you know you you made it abundantly clear that you have not left any stones unturned. So I want to tell you how much I appreciate that. I know it took a lot of time and and um as as a board we I'm sure everyone here will probably nod a lot saying we all appreciate
109all the all the work you put into this. So thank you to everyone for doing that. And with that I will make a motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> That wasn't fast and updated. >> All right. All in favor? >> No. I