001shifting some of our funding through the library space to be able to support that innovation lab. In addition, we are partnering the um what's happening in the innovation lab with our science curriculum and our science lab. Um making sure that we have um those ST and uh M of STEM, all of those different things. So those engineering and technology pieces um and our science curriculum. Uh and we're very lucky uh to have staffing that can um have the knowledge and expertise to support that. Uh in addition uh the same as what Laura was talking about is that healthy learning environment. We want to be sure that we have um our school psychologists and our social worker really supporting our general education classroom teachers with those tier one interventions um for um SEAL lessons um and
002maintaining those positive relationships so that our general education population knows that we have those resources because we do know that students who are happy and healthy are also successful academically. So, we want to make sure that we are maintaining um both the academic high standards and that of overall wellness for our students. And I will hand it off to Jason at the middle school unless you have any questions. >> Good morning everyone. It's I'm excited and proud to be here. Um want to talk a little bit about Western Middle School. So, as you know, middle school is really a bridge between childhood and adolescence. Um there's a big there's a big focus in our school on academic work but there's also a social component to learning um as we you know work to develop the
003intellectual, social, emotional uh components of our students. Um in terms of our enrollment um we are going up slightly as a school and that's um that's really connected to we have a sixth grade coming in that's a little larger than our eighth grade that's leaving. Um our class size remains pretty much on par. Um as um as Laura mentioned um staffing is is really the backbone of our work here and um our um our budget request really keeps in place our teameing model. So we have 24 sections in grades 6 through 8 and um allowing us to keep our staff the way it is will allow for that model to uh to continue. Um the importance of that model is around the interdisciplinary interdisciplinary nature of our work. It also is around supporting adolescence and
004making sure that every student in our school is known and heard. Um the model also allows us to keep our academic workshop in place. So our academ every teacher teaches an academic workshop class um that serves as um an intervention component. It serves as a place for executive functioning development and it serves as a place for enrichment of the curriculum. So we appreciate the ability to keep doing that work. Um, our general music classes are going to continue on a semesterl long basis in grades seven and eight, which will also allow for students to um, experience things like art enrichment and tech enrichment, which again, if looking at middle school philosophy and middle the middle school model, um, just develops different components of our students. Um, in terms of digital learning and technology, uh, Dan
005Devito talked a little bit last night about the six-year tech plan and replacing staff laptops. I just wanted to highlight a lot of our teachers are starting to, uh, get involved and really think about AI and how that applies to their work and having a new laptop obviously will um, will help them with that. So, we appreciate that. Um, in terms of a healthy learning environment, we continue to um support our connect advisory program which we do twice a month and our social emotional learning work which is um a big part of our school and has been accelerated this year through um through our our work with No Place for Hate has been accelerated through our community meetings that we're doing. We also again with middle school model we continue to offer a variety of
006clubs and after school activities as a result of um our budget request. Um that includes things from park and wreck like uh archery and floor hockey but also includes other clubs like Dungeons and Dragons and chess and we have a birding club here as well. Um again just supporting middle school students and middle the development of middle school students. Um we also continue to promote a distraction-free environment. We have our yonder pouches so our students um while many of our students do have phones they are put away for the day which helps them focus on um on their academic and social development. So again pleasure to be here and uh and appreciate your support this budget season. >> Hi everybody. Good morning. Um going to represent the high school this morning. Uh so the high
007school budget really continues to maintain all of the growth that we've made over the last uh few years at Weston High School. Um this budget really wants again, as I've said, to maintain the rigorous and dynamic programming we've had um over the years and continue to offer students that choice that we feel is really um really significant for students as they make their way through high school. We know in nth and tth grade often schedules can be more prescribed and as students age into high school we want to ensure that they can make some choices in terms of um their program going forward in their post-secary experience. So the high school budget really maintains a lot of the goals that we have set over the past few years that have led to a significant reduction
008in our chronic absenteeism rates. As you know, we were ranked the number three high school in the state of Connecticut by US News and World Report this year. Um, we like to also look at that and say we're really the number two public high school um in the state of Connecticut. So, kudos to our staff and our students here um at WHS. So, um our goal, we've put some things in place over the last few years. We want to maintain the student support specialist which has really been instrumental. One in engaging our students who can be more vulnerable and maybe at times resistant to schooling and that student support specialist um has really been instrumental in fostering those relationships and also building bridges between students and their um academic teachers as well and supporting our
009multi-tered system of supports leading those team meetings. So, we want to continue to maintain um that plan. As you know, over the last couple years, too, we have kind of reinvented what our math and literacy spaces look at the high school. We now have two dedicated spaces, our math lab and our literacy lab. A component of those labs is to ensure that we have places for students who are in our multi-tered system of supports who have scheduled supports that are targeted to their areas of need in either math and literacy. Those labs also provide an opportunity for students to sign up to get support and extra help when their teacher is not available maybe during their free period. And it also provides an opportunity for the math and literacy interventionists who are also certified math
010and um English teachers to push into classes to provide an additional level of support within the classroom experience for our students. So this budget um continues to maintain those supports for all students at WHS. As you know, the high school scheduling process um is um an ongoing process in the spring uh of each school year. So as we continue to take student requests which begin in February and into March, we will make determinations about which co courses are being offered, number of sections and who's teaching those and all of that. So that is a process that we continue to work through throughout the um spring semester. Um it's you can see in digital learning and technology, Mr. Dvito spoke to that replacing all staff laptops and then our healthy learning environment. We've done a lot
011of work on this over the years. As Jason had said, we are cell phone free here at high school. While we don't have the pouches, we have a unified effort across all of our staff um to maintain that cell phone free experience with our students. Um and it has really changed um the conversations in our free spaces, in our cafeteria, and it has also provided a distra distraction-free environment and taken that burden and pressure off of our teachers in the classroom. So, we're really proud of that and we're really proud of our students for how they have um engaged um in those new rules. Um we're going to continue to support Pacted, which as you know stands for positively achieving community together, our advisory program here at the high school. A couple years ago, we
012transitioned into having a once a week 30 minute pact. We're continuing to work um in that structure um and use that for multi multiple purposes. And so really part of the growth in a healthy learning environment is continuing to support all of those extracurricular um activities and um supporting the portrait of the graduate work that students do throughout their high school career which culminates in their portrait of the graduate portfolio. Impact is one of the ways that we help to ensure that students are continually working to prepare for that discussion as many of you on the board have participated in those panel discussions um in March which will be coming up soon here. We also continue to provide a rich co-curricular program. We have over 80 clubs um and clubs continue continue to be added.
013We have some kids triing some clubs. Um with the launch of uh Sandy Hook Promise, the um app and the website that we've launched this year, the anonymous reporting system, we have students who came to us and who are really interested in creating a Save Promise club. So, we always want to make sure that we're responsive to the needs, desires, and interests of our students. and our extracurricular and co-curricular clubs are one way that we really ensure that we're always um listening to students and their voices leading the way. We we find our best success when we listen to our kids and as always we maintain a very robust interscolastic um athletics program that includes 32 sports. So we're very excited for the years ahead and to maintain these um amazing programs that we've um
014continued to support and have put in place over the last couple years. So, thank you. Thank >> Thank you, Megan. Um, and thank you to all the principles for giving us a basic overview relative [clears throat] to your budget narrative. Um, David, there was no questions that were submitted through the Google form, not surprisingly, between last night and this morning. Um, but I thought that we could entertain some basic level questions from board members or any clarifications that they may need relative to anything that was shared last night as part of the presentation um shared from our building principles this morning and or is in existence in the budget binder books. [clears throat] That sounds good. So, I don't know if board members any questions. >> It's it's early early days with this 250 page
015lovely binder or lack of binder as some of us got it electronically to still digging through it and trying to make sense of everything. Um, but I just come from this morning. Uh, one quick question. Can you touch a little bit more, Megan, this is for you at the high school, the student support specialist. Um you talked about this person um it's a I think it's a 0.5 FTE that we have for the student support specialist. Can you define where what department does this uh individual fall into and how does this differentiated from some of the other roles within that department? >> Sure. So this person is a 0.5 science teacher and a 0.5 um student support specialist. So that office is housed in our main office. So when you come in to that front
016door of the main office, um that is where this person's office is and where uh she resides. She um I I don't see where would the department it's. It's on my high school budget. So in terms of the department in which she falls into um I I don't know that I would categorize her in a specific department. Um she does work very closely with pupil services team. So she is coordinating with the assistant principles. She's coordinating with the CILs. She's coordinating with teachers and takes essentially referrals from the larger school to meet individually with students, connect with families. She chairs the multi-tiered system of support meeting. We just had a meeting this morning where she was chairing that to look at how we can further support our students um who don't already have a plan,
017but we see that they might need some supports to um help them out. I don't know if that answers your question. If you're asking specifically about a department, I can't name a department, but she's I would say she's pupil services adjacent. >> Okay. So, I guess what I'm trying to figure out is how this differentiates from um the guidance and yeah, the guidance department and how um how the how the responsibility of the student support specialists falls outside of what they would be doing in guidance. I guess that's what I'm trying to understand. >> Sure. So, the multi-tered system of support team meets regularly at the high school. This person chairs that multi-tered system of support team and coordinates the supports that are provided. the counselor is one of the members of that team that
018may provide support to that student in addition to what they're already doing in their typical counseling rule role. There is also an academic more so an academic as well as the social emotional and behavioral support but an academic component as we review the data whether it's data that comes out of um you know students grades or maybe it's a ninth grader where we've reviewed the NWE data and we've determined that students need a particular targeted support. So she helps to work one-on-one with students and also helps to coordinate the scheduling of that student oftentimes in our math lab and our literacy lab. >> Okay. So and this this um student support specialist is specifically to the high school only. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. So I guess the multi-tered um program that we have would
019fall under Tracy. Is that correct or no? How does it can you can you just can you explain? multi-tered system of support is really intended. I know that Dr. Henle also leads this work across the district K12. The multi-tered system of support is to really help to identify students who may need an extra level of intervention outside of their um classroom experience or extra help that might be provided within the classroom. >> Okay. All right. >> Tina did a presentation at one of the recent curriculum subcommittee meetings. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Where her team did like phase one of what the multi-tered system of supports looks like prek to 12. And it looks ve it looks very different because of the structures, the systems [clears throat] and sort of the the school personnel at
020each level. Um, but for the high school, this person is 0.5 the coordinator of the MTSS and 0.5 science teacher, >> right? No, no, no. Without a doubt, I'm I'm it sounds like a wonderful position. Don't get me wrong, it sounds like a, you know, something that we definitely want to make sure we're including in our district to make sure nobody falls between the cracks, that, you know, student special needs are are being met. My question is how is it that I mean is there any possibility that we could and again this is just this is not a ter a huge number so I'm just asking because we have to account for every penny right so I'm just asking if there's any possibility that rather than making it a half.5 FTE if it could be
021rol if it could be rolled into um another um another role maybe close more closely aligned with guidance or something along those lines. So, that was that's my only thought. Um, yeah, >> Megan, >> I hear what you're saying. Can I >> Oh, I was just going to interrupt. I just want to know how how many students that the student support specialists support. >> So, we have a certain number of students in um tiered support. Currently, it is a small number. Let me just see. Let me pull up that number. I'm going to provide you the numbers for students who are actively in um specific supports and referrals. But I this number does not represent the num the total number of students that the MTSS person um is working with. These are the numbers for
022students who are actively in um like math lab or literacy lab support currently. But I I I hear what you're saying, but I I want I don't want to know the MTSS, those students who are in support because that's a placement issue. I I want to know how many students that the student support specialist is actively engaged with >> outside of students who are placed in the math lab or literacy lab. >> Yes. >> Okay, I'll get you that number. I don't have it offhand right now. >> Thanks. >> What I will say, Lisa, is that number is evolving. So it that number can fluctuate daily based on the referrals, based on you know counsel referrals, teacher referrals, but I can get you that number. >> Thank you. >> I think it's also important to
023note that I hear Sharon what you're saying about could this role be embedded into counseling. Each of the counselors has their specific case load. this specific 0.5 role is really um the person that is like the umbrella to all of those. So pulling that all together, the counselors may be a part of a student's multi-tered system of support plan just like a literacy lab just like onetoone meetings with the um student support specialist. They also help um our more vulnerable populations of students, students who may be resistant to school. So the there's just um it's a multi-faceted approach um and a pretty dynamic position here at the high school. I think we also have to remember when you look at student schedules at the high school, the flexibility necessary to help support students is really
024essential because no student has the [clears throat] same schedule. And so trying to work with students um you know in a way that we can best serve them and individualize our supports for students which is really one of the hallmarks of a Weston education is really vital and that's also another um component of this multi-tier or this student support specialist >> that but that almost makes the argument that it should be it should reside in guidance because if you have someone who's teaching science half time or you know part-time and then doing this part-time then their availability is going to be limited by their classroom time, right? And that because the person that we have doing this um student support specialist now is you mentioned earlier is um half this and then um half science.
025Correct. >> Correct. >> Right. Can I maybe create a little bit of a distinction and clarify a little bit the role of the school counselor because I think that's part of this conversation. So I don't want to oversimplify it, but what I think Megan is describing and Megan you can certainly correct me if I'm wrong. Uh the student support specialist is looking through the lens of MTSS I would say with an emphasis on the academic components of MTSS, math, language arts, etc. Our counselors are yes supporting general education students. Their primary responsibilities are around the social, emotional, mental health, well-being of our students. And they have a variety of additional responsibilities that have nothing to do with this um support specialist position. They are case managers to students who have 504 plans, for example. They
026are navigating crisis situations with students. They are working on scheduling. They are working in conjunction with the college and career counselor. So I think this is the role that Megan is describing is more of an academic role which is why it's staffed by a teacher versus the role of a counselor is more around all of the other aspects of a student's school experience. So I don't know if that is helpful or not. I I think it is helpful, Tracy, because I think what we [clears throat] need to view it as as a coordination of bringing all of the supports that a student may need together and not losing sight of the academic side. Um, and doing that in a very systematic and personalized manner that requires high levels of touch. [clears throat] Excuse me. Um,
027one thing I really noticed here in Weston is that the district really prides itself on this idea of personalization and these high levels of touch and support and the accessibility that students and parents have of the staff members and the support staff that are available to them. Um, I've I've heard it conveyed at PTO meetings. I've heard it conveyed at some um presentation meetings to the board of ed. I've heard it conveyed um by individuals at the um in the curriculum subcommittee. Um [clears throat] and I think that that is something very unique and important to this community. And so when you have somebody who h takes on a role of the coordination of the levels of touch in a comprehensive manner that a student might need from the academic to the social emotional to
028the [clears throat] parental and parent engagement um to the executive functioning skills to the behavior management to the attendance um I think it's that level of coordination that allows for the efforts to be succinct and really in alignment with the individual student needs making it very very unique. Uh I I um just help me understand right because you know MTS is part of guidance and guidance works to support academic and emotional strength. And in in the high school we have four guidance counselors and a social worker who support the students. the the case load is like 140 students a uh for for uh each guidance. I'm sorry that's for uh um it's it's even less for they have a very small case load. Why they wouldn't have the time? They know the students. They've worked
029with these students over the number of years that they're there. They know what their program for, their academics, their parents. Um, and I I don't understand why the student support specialist wouldn't be part of the guidance or social workers um dis job >> because then you would be divi can I sorry you would be dividing that among five counselors. Uh Lisa, I think you might be dividing the total number of counselors by the population of the high school. So we also have a guidance director and the school counseling director. The school counseling director has a lower case load given the other responsibilities of the school counseling director. So I believe um and I'm going to have to go back and look specifically at those case load numbers. I had the number. Um I think that
030we may be upwards of 160 depending. I know that we have a smaller 9th grade class coming in next year. We're graduating a class of 175, I believe, and we're um 165 and we're bringing in a class of 139. Um so I hear you. Um you would still be deferring that to um several counselors rather than to have this one person. So you would lose the level of coordination and whole systems analysis to provide the key support for the students who need that extra help in school. >> But I don't understand because it's the guidance counselor who really supports the student, knows his academics, knows his emotional well-being and can s support MTSS through um that that knowledge and information. um whether and it's something that all of the guidance counselors should know even though
031you're dividing it they work together and support each other. Um why these few students couldn't be supported by their guidance counselor is something that um I I would think that they would want to do because they they know their students better than anyone else. I I can see where they're actually a part of the team and the importance of the guidance counselors being a part of the team for the MT MTSS. Um but you just mentioned Megan the um you have a guidance coordinator. List the people in the guidance counsel in the guidance office. You said there how many how many are there? >> You have four school counselors. >> Okay. The fifth school counselor is has a reduced case load because she is also the director of school counseling and we have a college
032and career counselor. >> Correct. Okay. So would the director of school counseling would that not be a natural fit for her then to become the person who oversees the the coordination of of this? >> I don't believe so. I believe that this is a 0.5 position at the high school and that you would be um putting another significant layer of responsibility on our school counseling director. >> Okay. I thought you worker as well. >> I'm sorry. >> I thought you the high school has a social worker as well. >> We do have a social worker which is not part of technically our school counseling department. that as part of our overall pupil personnel department. We have a social worker and a school psychologist who run groups, do one-to-one counseling, and we also have a social
033worker who supports our pathways program. So, if I can just chime in again, um I think we're we're mixing a number of things together that don't necessarily fit together in the same way that you might be thinking. So, I understand that in having this conversation, we're thinking a lot about numbers of high school students, but I do think it's important for budget context and for a discussion about guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other providers that despite any declining enrollment anywhere in the in the district, we have seen a steady incremental increase in the number of students who qualify for IEPs and 504 plans in this district for the last 6 plus years. It is not unique to Weston. Um but it is certainly noteworthy. So just so you have some context because we're talking
034about providers now who are not only supporting general education students, but they are also supporting students with 504 plans and they are also supporting in many of these cases students with IEPs. Just for context, in 2018 in Weston, we had 249 students with IEPs, right? I understand that our enrollment at that point was higher, but there were 249 eligible students. In 2024, that number district-wide was 323. We are still below the state average, which is around 17.9%. We're in the 14.5% range. So I'm not concerned about overidentification but that is a significant increase in the number of students who are receiving special education services. We also have in addition to that and our social workers and psychologists are supporting students in with those plans and in some cases our counselors. We also have 278 504
035plans districtwide. Uh 180 of those are at the high school. And you in some ways I can't speak for every district but in some ways Weston is unique in that the school counselor is serving as the case manager for those 504 plans. If we average it out it is not a perfect average but that's 36 plans per counselor. That's 36 annual review 504 meetings. That's facilitation with classroom teachers. Um that's working with families. And that's in addition to all of their other responsibilities which we haven't even kind of delved into yet. So I I just want to put some context. There's a lot of talk about less students in Weston and there are more students in Weston, not just percentage-wise, actual concrete numbers of students who need more intensive types of support across all of
036our buildings, especially at the high school. So, I just want us to be mindful of that as we have these discussions about both general education and PPS staffing. >> Thank Thank you, Tracy, and thank you, Lisa and Sharon, for for your thoughts and input. Um, I think this this conversation and discussion gives us some good information to go back and reflect on, take a look at some roles and responsibilities and um, think about ways we can create some some efficiencies. So, we do appreciate the input here. >> Can I just can I just add to what Tracy said just from the legal standpoint? >> Yes. um professionals who are working with children with special needs and disabilities have a lot on their plate. And also as Tracy has mentioned last night and in previous meetings
037and Phil as well has every year a lot fluctuates in PPS depending on the students who are under the purview of PPS. It changes from student to student. So for example there is going to be an additional onetoone parah because there is a specific student who is coming into the district who has that need and we are legally required to support every single individual student. So if we overburden the people or the professionals who are working with them then they are not available to provide the individualized support that is required by law and then that becomes we're not supporting the student which is first and foremost the most important but it also becomes a legal liability for the school district. Thank you, Nicole. We appreciate that. Are there any other questions? >> I have I
038I have just a couple questions I wanted to get out into the public, but I'm not necessarily looking for a response now because I think that they require going back. So, I'm going to put them into the um Google sheet, but I just wanted to at least get the get it out among my uh you know, the rest of the administration and the board members. Um, so the first thing I was going to ask for was, can you model one less section? And this comes up every year. So this is a bit of an exercise, but can you model one less section across K5? So both Hess and WIS, even if the numbers are beyond um our guidance, it'd be it'd be nice to see that. It helps to put into perspective why we're running
039the sections we're running. um at at the fifth grade I know we use the teameing model. So if we were to uh remove a section that would be I believe the equivalence of removing two sections. Is that correct? Okay. So that's probably dead on arrival. But the next part of my question and Erica I'll email these to you as well. Um so then my next question is relative to teaming model especially in the fifth grade. Do we have some data that backs up the value of the teameing model at fifth grade in WIS? I know we use a teaming model at the middle school. So, uh if we can't I if taking one section out of the fifth grade requires taking two sections, it blows up our uh guidance for number of kids in a
040classroom. So some some data around the teameing model and how it's it's uh you know it's the upsides to that especially in the fifth grade. Uh then for the high school is there a minimum enrollment that we look for in for example the elective courses that once that minimum enrollment or once you're close to that minimum enrollment is the class looked at to be dropped? I know Megan from years on the board we've talked about classes that might have low enrollment but that's sometimes due to just shifting interests among the student body. So is there some sort of trigger that you look at enrollment and even if there's not a replacement course due to student interest is there some kind of trigger that a course is a course has low enrollment low interest and therefore
041it gets dropped and then my last question is kind of a bigger question probably for you Erica which is it would be helpful to know when does declining enrollment show up in the budget and so what I mean by that is that you know I'll I'll go back to kind of the way the private sector operates right if the private sector is providing a service and there's less demand for that service you generally see a scale back in resources providing the service so it would be helpful I think for the community to understand kind of the way you opened up the conversation which is that to to continue to provide the the one-on-one the individualized uh uh education the the the the the what we do today. Why with declining enrollment, we're not seeing some
042sort of offset with uh the number of people providing the services to the students. So, I know that's a lot. I just, you know, I'm not looking for any answers right now and I will email those to you, but I wanted to at least get that out among the group just kind of let you know where some of my questions were. And by the way, Sharon, if you got the right people, you can get a book. And so uh the book is still available in hard copy. Ah Nicole as well. >> Just doing my best to save the earth. Go ahead. >> So kind. Um thank you David for those questions. Obviously we'll need some time to prepare some responses, [clears throat] but just as a little snapshot, Laura does have um some of those
043numbers available relative to the reduction of of sections. If you'd like her to just sort of showcase that at this moment in time as an example of what it would do, >> I would be happy to. David, I know you, this is something you and I talk about every year. I feel so strongly about those early elementary years being really a critical foundation for what we set up for the district. So, as the students move through the schools, they are prepared and they have all the skills and resources at their disposal to succeed and thrive. And I think we've really um shown that really that personalization and maintaining um what I feel are critical class- size guidelines is so important as they start their educational journey. So um we we you know we look at
044this every year when we look at how many sections we're going to propose. So if we reduced either K or one next year down to six sections, we would be starting with classes of 22 and 23 per section. That is not good practice. you know, we're talking about 5-year-olds. So, 23 5-year-olds in a class with the level of personalization and support and whole child learning that we need to do is just not not okay. It's not a good idea. Um, if we brought down our second grade from six sections to five, we would be starting the year with most classes at 24 or 23. that is you know for children at this age six seven years old with the foundational skills and the the habit the habits needed to succeed in a high achieving district
045our students need that support it is critical you know I'm in these classrooms every day and I see this teachers working individually supporting every child and making sure they have exactly what they need every minute of every day and children at this age or 5 to seven years old need a very high level of supervision and support. You know, we don't just say, "Okay, you know, math is over. We'll see you in reading." They these teachers are with them every minute of every day to ensure that they're safe, they're supported, and that they're thriving in the education. Um, just looking at the K the K1 and two enrollments, the current 399 and next year 391, and we're reducing, we're already reducing a section. So, we are really we can't go any lower and I will
046advocate that. I'm happy to speak to it at every single meeting. You know, we have to start these students off with a very strong solid foundation in how they feel about school, how they're supported at school, socially, emotionally, and academically. And I really strongly believe that's why by the end of the year, we're looking at 96 97 97% of all students, including students with disabilities. IEPs, 504s that are thriving in our school and it's because of our staff. >> Thank you, Laura. Appreciate that. Um, David, just in terms of declining enrollment, [clears throat] excuse me, I'm so sorry. Um there's last night in my presentation there was a slide it was slide five on district enrollment [clears throat] and while we are showing a decline of 52 students um we are enrolling 70 prek students.
047So the decline is actually 34 students over all of the grade levels prek through grade 12. So it's not as significant. And so, [clears throat] you know, unlike a company that that may be focused on sales volumes, like a school district, success is measured by the educational quality and the student outcomes and the community service and partnerships, not growth for its own sake. Um so enrollment projections are generally used so we can responsibly plan staffing facilities and budgets. Um when you have 34 students over you know 13 14 grade levels there's not a significant place where that enrollment is small enough where you can reduce anything in whole. Um so the enrollment projections reflect sort of like this forecasting. Um, and I think a company's declining demand sometimes is because of lagging indicators of performance
048problems, whereas like enrollment projections are more forward-looking and preventative. But for us here, think about all of the accomplishments, the accolades, the achievements, what we've showcased throughout the year, and the growth that we've demonstrated [clears throat] again at levels where it's really hard to move the needle. My thought is that is that because that is personalized. There are high levels of touch. It's individualized um and it's thoughtfully planned and coordinated. When you start to thin those things out in terms of coordination or you start to increase case loads, you're going to lose the personalization, you're going to lose the hightouch, you're going to lose the accessibility. And so I just need I think we need to um really think about what is most important to us and if our achievements are really a result of
049those high levels of personalization and high touch and the uniqueness we have here because we operate more like a private school. And that is really really at the heart of our of our school district and community and we want to keep that then we need to budget for it. Hey, hey, Erica. Let me jump in here just with a quick question. Um, I think you mentioned this last night. I think you mentioned that Brown and Brown Consultancy. So, those consultants that help us on the healthc care front um would be attending I think it was you Erica um would be attending one of these meetings coming up. I believe you said it was on the 15th. Is that is that correct? >> That is correct. Phil, give me a thumbs up if I got the
050date right. Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. Um, look, I I I think just stepping back and I'm still getting through the document. So, I'll I will chime in into the uh into the Google doc with a bunch of questions probably, you know, towards the end of this week. Um, but when I look just holistically, you know, at at the budget itself, I mean, essentially, I'm speaking from memory here because I don't have it in front of me, but essentially, you know, of the of the $2.3 million increase in the budget, I think, you know, salaries and health benefits are like 2.7 million. And so what that means is that across all of the other v various categories basically we are the budget is is down um from what I can see. And so thereby you
051know what that means ultimately is here um to make any meaningful change here in in terms of the impact to the budget. I'm not saying anything that anyone here doesn't know already know if they've looked at the numbers. Um it's those two categories and I think we're also hamstrung within those categories um by what was negotiated in terms of salaries and so I'm not sure how much there is there to work through. Um and then of course that leaves the benefits which continues to be just you know a big challenge not only for our school district but the but the school districts you know across across the state and I'm sure across the country and so we're we're trying to find a balance here. I again I think I think given that fact you know
052the only real sort of issue here in in terms of making a real impact to moderating this budget is head is headcount unfortunately and I think look I appreciated um Sharon's discussion and Lisa chiming in as well in terms of you know what's going on with guidance support um because we really do have to dig into these numbers and I and and I I I firmly sort of, you know, understand um Erica and and everyone else, all the school principles. I understand um you know, what makes us unique, what makes us special is the personalization that we deliver. And part of that is of course all the support that we're providing to the school district um with the headcount that we currently have. So I I think my my questions just will focus on um
053you know what is you know where can we potentially um maybe make some changes on the headcount front um if there are any changes to be made. I I again um I appreciate Laura's Miss Cadis's um explanation of the sections and how important it is to maintain um the number of sections that we have and to maintain class sizes that are somewhat you know smaller. Um because of the support, you know, those children need. Um I I I do think we just need to take a look again and I'll focus on this uh I don't want to go on and on this diet tribe but uh just on you know I I don't want to really impact what's happening in the front of the classroom. Um are there are there places I know Erica you
054and I have sort of discussed this very superficially before this came out. Are there places in which you know you all see where um we can get efficiencies sort of the administrative side? I I I don't know. Maybe the answer is no. Um but sort of, you know, that's my 300 that's my 30,000 foot view as I just take a look at the budget and we struggle with the fact that every year we we're dealing with 10%, you know, plus increases in health care costs, right? And so, um, I I appreciate everyone's patience and and and, you know, listen to my comments there, but, you know, I I do think when you look at the rest of this budget outside of, you know, again, salaries and uh um and and and benefits, you know, it
055it it it doesn't seem like um you know, there's a whole lot of fat there. again, I I'll go through the document and see if there are opportunities and and we'll of course ask questions. Um, but it is it is unfortunate just and how much the uh I think the healthc care costs have have gone up over the last couple years. >> Thank you, Michael. I really appreciate that [cough] and sort [clears throat] of reiterating like there is minimal other places other than headcount where you can make reductions and that becomes really challenging because when you make reductions relative to a headcount you're forfeiting something else on the other side and so we've got to weigh that very carefully and so um I really do respect and value your your input and your thoughts and
056if you find anything in that other 10%. Please let us know. >> Eric, I have one quick question. So, are we as just thinking about the time or this meeting in particular, I know that we queued up the building administrators. I know Phil is here. I have some potential questions for Phil. Is the plan um to sort of, you know, maybe let have the building administrators do their piece as far as the schools, potentially let them go back to doing what they do best, educating our our students, and then we continue on with questions potentially for Phil. Does that work for a for a plan? >> That would be wonderful. Thank you. >> All right. So maybe I'm just thinking what we can do is as a a board is if we have if we
057don't have any other questions for the building administrators and for that matter Tracy you as well um maybe we can let them go and uh then I think right cuz Phil you'll probably have some portion of a presentation or talk about your budget as the the not the that part portion of the budget >> we could see um how everything fits together. Um, David. >> Okay. >> All right. So, is it okay if the building principles >> Can I Can I actually just ask Laura a quick question and Tracy maybe? Um, just I if you could elaborate more on the staffing shift in Hurbut given the departure of the larger second grade and the addition of the new prek class, but you also said you're not hiring a new teacher. So if you look at
058the K2 um enrollment on the chart on the hurlbut section. So you kind of have to look at the preschool the ELC which the ELC is our preschool. You have to look at that a little bit separately. So the K1 and two we are moving a second a larger second grade cohort the 153. Next year we'll be going to the intermediate school and we're projected to have about 134 kindergarteners. So with that lower section we that lower number we are reducing um a section K2. We have 21 sections in K through2 this year. Next year we'll have 20. There is an increase in the preschool. So think about that separately. We have four ELC classes this year, one next year. >> Um >> one more next year. So we'll have five. Correct me if I'm
059wrong, but last night, I don't know if maybe because ELC is different from Hurlbut when you were talking last night, there was no staffing change, even though Right. >> So, last night was the districtwide. I'll let Erica speak to that, but that was a district-wide overview. This is by building, >> right? But yes, but I thought Erica had said in Hurlbutt there was the addition of the ELC class, but there was going to be no certified staffing change, but there would be a non-certified staffing change with addition of the parah. Yeah. So if you think of it prek to two up one preschool class, we're shifting in the other grades and down a section. So yes, overall at Hurb, but the number of teachers preK through two will be the same because we're down a
060section from 21 sections K1 and 2 to 20 K1 and two, but we're up one preschool. >> Nicole, real quick, may maybe this will help. So when you look from a budget to budget, it seem as if we're flat, but we made a decision mid year right after the budget was approved to add an additional um grade or section to to grade two. Um, so if you look in the actuals, you'll see like actual budget to actuals, you'll see that we're actually down by one FTE. So pretty much we added one last year and we're taking that one back and that one person is going towards the ELC or the preK the prek. >> So that's why you see >> that hiring somebody new or is it an existing teacher? >> Existing staff. >> Thanks.
061That was a good question. And thank you, Nicole. Okay. If there's no further questions for our principles, I'd like to be able to let them get back to their administrative duties. Is that okay, David? >> Yeah, 100%. Thank you for >> Thank you so much for your time this morning. We really appreciate it. And then there were about 12. >> Okay. Um, David, did you have you said you had a couple questions for Phil? Are they more technical? >> No. >> To the budget. Oh, okay. >> Nope. It was just more of like once we were done with the you know individual school is there did you want to continue through the budget like the next section of the budget like >> um I wasn't going to necessarily go through each one of this the
062sections in order um but certainly can start in a section if anybody has any specific questions >> you I don't have a specific question about a specific section, but there's something that I forgot to ask that I should have asked a second ago, but I think Tracy, you can help me out with this. Um, we are adding an additional prek section next year, correct? And so, how many based upon that based upon in the past whenever we've had a certain number of prek sections, we can kind of figure out what the incoming kindergarten class is going to look like. Is that accurate? >> Tell me more about what you mean. You mean kindergarten for the 2728 school year? >> Yes. So, if we're adding a section this year, we're going to have a Does it
063appear that we're then going to have a larger kindergarten section for the 2728 school year, or is that just more identified students, which therefore opens it up to more kids that can be eligible for the prek? >> Yeah, it's a great question. I'm trying to remember what happened the last time we had an additional section. My my immediate answer to that is it's not um just because we have a higher need in ELC doesn't necessarily equate to a bigger kindergarten class because obviously not all of our kindergarten students attend our ELC program. Um I can look to see what happened the year after five classes related to kindergarten and get back to you >> if you could. That'd be great because that'll just help us with moving forward staffing planning at at uh Hess and
064and the other schools as well. So, thanks >> Sharon. I think that's a really good question. Definitely increasing the number of sections of prek helps like with better predictability about the number of kindergarten enrollments. >> Yeah. And we have to keep in mind that the low number of first graders, you know, whereas it looked like a huge hit had all had to do with the state law, the change of the state law and the eligibility for kindergarten. So, we have to keep that in mind when we're making all these plans. It's not as if, you know, our our population is dwindling on a daily. >> It's a good point. >> That's it for me for right now. And I I'll ask a Phil question. Um this is more of a generalized question, especially on the
065heels of the bigger facility study that we're doing and the and the impact. Um I always say essentially there's two hands that that feed the budget of this town, the left and the right hand. You're just moving money back and forth when 80% of our tax dollars go into schools. Um so my question is on the $2.6 $6 million capital budget which is uh very much higher than it has been in the past and I think we sort of last year if I remember correctly I think we asked for about 1.5 million and or we wound up back then we thought we would never ask for more so I guess my question on the 2.6 Six, capital budget is it uh how does trying to think how to phrase the the question because it sort
066of it throws off a bit of the planning I think the town is doing on the facilities side and I know every year it's again it's moving money from the left hand to the right hand but for example paving it almost always shows up in our capital ask and then the board of finance says no no no that's our responsibility and they take it out of our capital but from from a taxpayers perspective you're just moving the money from my left hand to my right hand so I guess my question on the 2.6 6 million is have you had a conversation with for example the town to determine two things how does it impact them when it comes to the study that they're doing I guess in parallel with us for facilities in general and
067then are there things that are in our capital that we can reasonably expect the town is going to say no that's going to wind up being our responsibility Well, we have just started and I think the first step always is just to have the conversation with the board of education in terms of what our needs are. Um, if you think about where we started last year, um, this the initial request last year was significantly more than what we ended up with, right? I think we started out at close to $3 million. Um, and a lot of that had to do with um, the North House HVAC. But if you look at last year and and what we projected that the following years would be those were significant um estimates that we had um last year
068for example we initially anticipated that FY27 would be around 4 million followed by 7 million and then followed by 3 million that almost four four million. So there's not a lot of things here that the town would necessarily say that this going to be their responsibility. Um the the pavement for example as you mentioned that really relates to pavement within the district um pretty much within on on school road the parking lot and stuff like that and not not necessarily anything outside of um school road and the the school campus. So and you know we we there's a lot of capital needs that we have and we we try to to balance out the short term and the long term. our our purpose or our goal is to definitely get um to the board's attention
069those items that are are what we consider to be a priority and then just to get those items done because if you look at the requests that we have here everything here majority of this here really focuses on indoor air quality. There's a significant request for roof and repairs also at Herbut as well. So there may be some items that we could defer for another year, but deferring it doesn't mean that it goes away. >> We're good at defermenting. >> Um in in my experience with capital, David, and I think you ask a really good question because there's overlap there, right? And so when taxpayers see things in in several buckets and [clears throat] it becomes confusing where they believe that there's redundancy there. But in my experience, I think we as on the educational
070side have an obligation to put in our capital request what we actually need. And then that then sort of leads um as an on-ramp to more of an open dialogue and conversation with the town as to what they're doing, what we have in our capital that already may be included in theirs. And from there, we can collaborate on refining that. But initially, as Phil stated, as a as a board of education and as an educational community, I think we need to put it all out there initially. >> Yeah. And you that's 100% correct, Erica. That was that the the confusion as to where an item shows up and does it show up twice and then does it some, you know, if it shows up in our budget or the town budget, it sometimes uh artificially
071looks like one budget is higher than the other. And just from a timing perspective with the, you know, the facility study that the town is undertaking along with the board of ed. um you know, if we're borrowing money for projects, we don't want to have money show up in the board of ed that should be, so to speak, part of facilities and and and the overall um debt, for example, to the town for 20 or 30 or so. Um but you Yeah, Erica, you're right. It it there's confusion when things can show up in two different places. Uh ultimately, it winds up in the same place, which is, you know, for the schools and the betterment of our students. But whose books does it wind up on? >> Right? And I think it's really good
072just to lift that out because I think it it underpins something else that's sort of disguised in what we're saying here. And that is earning the trust from the community that both on the board side and the town side we are working together in concert so that we're creating efficiencies. there are no redundancies and that while initially our capital request includes this at the end of the day it's all appropriately budgeted in the right buckets and that trust is really important. Can I can I ask about the um central office HVAC replacement? Is I understand it's passed its useful life, but is the central office the annex? >> I'm sorry, Nicole, can you repeat the last part? >> Is the C What is the central office? Is that the annex? >> It's No, it's actually
073the building next door, the white building >> where where you all are housed. >> Well, I'm housed in the annex, but that's where Yes. >> Okay. where Erica is. Okay. Yes. Um, okay. Because I was just I was just going to say if it was the annex just as kind of as David was talking about, we're talking about this whole facilities improvement and I don't know is the central office going to be part of that discussion. Is it not? And so I would just wonder is that an expense that maybe we hold off until we finalize whatever you know we're going to be submitting as part of the proposal for the facilities update. But if we're not >> absolutely there there there's there's no expense or expenditures projected for 27 for the annex. >> Okay.
074But okay so central office is not part of our facilities discussion of facilities upgrade. >> It's it's a part of the total package. Um when we look at the entire facility um so yes it it is a part of it. Central office meaning the white building not the annex is a part of it. And going back to David to David's point, the entire conversation between the annex is a conversation that we're having with the town because house and the annex are are um staff members for both the board of education and the town. >> Right. >> Bill, I know I know you just muted yourself. I'm going to ask you another quick question. And actually might be more of a question for Jim, but didn't we approve the radio upgrade cost of 120,000 in this
075year's budget? >> We did. And I think what we what we initially said was that's pretty much just a a partial payment because what we anticipated was that going to be funded over two years. >> Okay. So, and again, this is not very much money in the grand scheme of things, but it's sort of we sort of ask ask some questions about things just because, you know, I think we should ask them. So, is it 120,000? Uh, if we partially paid, is the ask 120,000 again? >> Ask for the ask for fiscal 27 is an additional 120,000 for a grand total of about 350,000 or so. >> Oh, okay. I thought when we talked about this, I feel like it wasn't that long ago, but I think I've lost all sense of time when it
076comes to these meetings. I thought that it was 120,000 and No. Okay. >> No. We we it we have in our fiscal pretty much partial funding for the project because we did anticipate that this project would will run over multiple years. What we wanted to ensure was that there was money to to start the project and to put a down payment down on the project. Since Jim came about, he's been working with Narcom because there was a little bit of a pause in that. So Jim has been taking the lead on on working with the communications with Narcom. >> And Jim, this is part of the the overall radio upgrade that the PD did as well, right? We're sort of pigging back piggybacking a bit on that. >> Uh, no, this is completely independent and
077separate from the state project that the police department did. Just just just just a little bit of a clarification on that. So this project, David, you're rightly so. This goes back several years. Initially, this [snorts] project was supposed to be a part of that overall state improvement plan. That was a plan that the town would be taking the lead, the town would finance this, so to speak. Um, but there was a [snorts] change and with that change, we had to absorb the cost of that capital capital expenditure. So that's the main difference. >> Okay. >> And just just to clarify um what Phil said, the state project was to go on the state police infrastructure, which is public safety and first responders only. The digital encryption public schools can't use. >> Got it. >> That
078was before my time, but we're we're cleaning it up and we're almost there. >> Okay. Yeah. And just so you know, the spirit of my questioning is kind of very in line with the paving and other things where where should the money rightfully be allocated? Is it should it be allocated to the board of education or should it be allocated to the town? Because the more we take on it, it's it tells a taxpayer it comes out of, you know, my pocket. So, I want to make sure that things are allocated into the right place so that when the town looks at their facilities and how much we can borrow and what the the debt implication is, we don't wind up taking things into the board of education budget that kind of uh muddy what
079the real borrow or spend is on these various systems. So, thanks Jim and Phil. >> So, I have a couple of quick questions. one being a simple small one district-wide clock replacement. What what what's uh I mean it's only 75,000 but what what is the Can you give me a little color on that please? >> Bill, let me know if you want me to jump in on this, too. >> I'm gonna leave that one for both you and Mike. [laughter] >> So, uh I just want to make sure Oh, Mike, you're here. Go ahead, Mike. >> How you doing, everybody? Happy New Year. All right. Uh, district clocks. We've had a number of clocks start to fail. Um, some are original to building, some original to, uh, additional high school um, at the intermediate school.
080We're piloting this over to the high school to start to see what we can get. Um, years back, post Sandy Hook, there was a system that we had purchased, Viplex. So we had a hundred I believe clocks of battery clocks that we had. So as these clocks have been failing until we got to a capital project, we've been just installing these in. So we have battery clocks in some classrooms, some hallways, some areas trying to unify everything together. The problem with the battery clocks is daylight savings time. So our guys have to go in whether it's or maintenance or custodial and resettle the clocks. So the clocks starting to fail. So, we just want to get everything unified onto the system. I believe what we're going to do, this will be a it won't be
081tied into our PA system, won't be tied into our um our network, just into our Wi-Fi and into our server. >> So, these going to be analog clocks, digital clocks that automatically set. >> Yeah, they would be they would be analog. The digital would be would be awesome to have. The cost is incredible. >> No, I'd rather we stick with analog. I want to make sure they can still read a clock someday. >> Watch. Yeah, [laughter] >> you must have seen the news, Sharon, about that recently. How there was I think it was in New York where there were kids when when they did a cell phone ban in one of the schools. Then they realized the kids didn't know how to read analog clocks. >> I have kids who are doing that a son
082who I was like, "Look at the clock." And he was like, "Tell me what time it is." And I was shocked. But anyway, so yeah, >> I also wanted to piggyback with the clocks too that So we have centralized clock management systems, bunch of them, like Mike said. Um, but those clock systems in two of the buildings were they're so old they predate uh the daylight savings time change that happened a few years back. So now um the tech department and the maintenance department, they actually have to change the clocks four different times manually beyond the battery powered clocks because they go an hour early uh earlier. So they fall back earlier. So we have to fix that. Then we have to fix it when they truly fall behind. Then we have to fix it
083when they spring forward. And then we fix it again at the old spring forward. So there's we have so many systems in place. It's it's pretty maniacal. So this would help unify everything. >> Sounds like my microwave. Okay. All right. That makes sense. Um then [clears throat] the other question that I have, this is actually a bigger question. We're looking at um for the South House of boiler replacement and piping and then also at HS we're looking at asphalt roof replacement. totaling [clears throat] um about 1,90. And my question is as we're having our facilities conversations um you know we haven't ruled out that HES isn't going to be a large part of that facility conversation too. So where does that put us in this you know in this upcoming budget? Can somebody help me
084to understand? I mean, I don't want to neglect any further the buildings than they have been, but at the same time, if we're talking about making a, you know, doing a large upgrade of sorts, how does allocating over a million dollars to Hess work? >> You know, it it goes back to what I initially said, right? So, a lot of the items that we we have here and what we have done um in previous years, so we we it's important that we highlight to the board what our what our concerns are. um even if at the end of the day right when we get to the vote we decide that we may that is that is feasible to shift some of these items to to a future year but I think for our discussion our
085discussions right it's important that the board is aware of what our overwhelm needs are um we still do not know as of today what this what the campus will look like what buildings will be affected what projects are will be addressed first um so we we we are mindful of that. But we but I think we'd be remiss if we did not let the board know truly what all the concerns in all of our buildings are. >> Okay. Well, I mean, I just don't see anything here for the middle school at all with the exception of flexible furniture. So, um, >> right because it in in previous years as well, each time we we put stuff for the for the middle school, we have always replaced that. We've always taken it off for future years.
086I think we're mindful, right, especially with the middle school, that the main focus right now is at the middle school. So, we didn't want to put any any anything critical here that really that would pretty much be that's for lack of a better phrase wast waste of money. >> Okay. And then and thank you for that. On the opposite side of that, um with the exception of duct cleaning and a turf replacement at the high school, I'm not really seeing anything for WIS in the high school. So, if we want to make sure I'm just trying to make sure that we're covering our bases, we don't want to let anything these are these are good schools. They're in decent they're in pretty good shape and I don't want to neglect them and find ourselves behind
087the eightball with these two schools as well. So, is there anything that we are putting off with those two schools that we maybe need to be mindful of this year? >> Um, no. I think I think from where we are I think I had some long discussion with Michael about us and I think we're in a good good place um at especially at the west. um WH is probably close to 20 plus years at this point. So in in in the in the near term we'll definitely have um items to put on on our capital. What we are doing in is that we are going to do based on state mandate um an evaluation of all our HVAC system HVAC >> HVAC system once that is complete hopefully by early spring we'll have a better
088sense in terms of what the useful life of of all our equipment are and then we'll start to address those but I think in the near term in terms of items that needs to be addressed at the west I think we're in a good place at the high school we have put items there for future years. Um, I think there's a from our perspective um a focus on getting the renovation done at the D and I always get this wrong wrong, Mike. The D and the E-wing. Um, did I get that right? D and E. >> Yeah, we're going to we're going to mirror D-wing with E-wing and then next would be C-wing, >> right? So, I I think if you if you've been on a tour at the high school, the wing that was
089most recently renovated back in 2000, whenever that was, it's a big difference, right? So you take a few steps over the corridor and you see what what what it looks like. It's a big difference. We we've had a lot of focus. There's a lot of focus of allowing a lot of natural light into the building and we do not have the kind of natural light that we would need in the D-Wing. >> Okay. All right. Any other questions on this topic? Okay. Erica, what would make sense at this point um to cover? I know for most of us, we kind of took a first look at it, I think sometime between last night and this morning. So, I don't know if there's other areas you want to cover or >> maybe maybe this is a
090um a good time to pause um [clears throat] and give you an opportunity maybe to use the time to to take a look at the book. And really, we [clears throat] encourage you to submit your questions as soon as possible. We're not going to wait till Friday to look at them. We're going to look at them as they come in so we can start formulating responses and collecting the information needed to be able to provide responses [clears throat] in a timely manner. Um, and in the interim, if you have any like just simple technical questions over like the description of lines or anything, feel free to reach out. Can I can I ask a quick question that might not end up playing out in the budget, but it's here. In the supplemental tab, you have
091a list of all the athletics teams. Can somebody tell me what unified sports is and esports? I can explain unified sports. Um, [clears throat] unified sports is a program that we have that allows students with disabilities to engage in athletic activities with students without disabilities. And there are unified sports programs in other districts as well. So, we're able to um compete and engage in sports activities with our surrounding towns. It's a great uh program and really an asset to the high school on a lot of levels. >> And I can speak on esports. Esports is Yeah, I know, Phil. You're you're So esports is is competitive video gaming and it's one of the fastest growing competitive sports in the nation and in the world. So there we've had esports for a few years now and
092uh it's very very popular. A lot of kids do it. So yeah, it's competitive gaming like Rocket League and League of Legends. And there they have a whole rule and guideline list as to what games they can play, what games they can't play. >> Also, just so you know, Nicole, because at first when I heard about esports, I was like, "What? We're encouraging this? We're taking away electronics." But the reality is they actually get scholarships for this. >> Yes. Um, so this is a, you know, this is something that can help like further a child's development um, professionally as well. >> Yep. They give out significant college scholarships for esports now. >> And from my understanding, it's super competitive. >> Yeah. >> They've all been training since kindergarten. [snorts] >> Yep. All right. So that
093said, uh I think here's the plan if I remember correctly, Erica. So our next meeting relative to the budget is January 14th. And normally what we typically do is it's the uh community, it's the first of two community forums. And I was uh from memory what we typically do is we open up the meeting. We have the community uh ask their questions and we typically get low turnout. That's just the reality. And then we close the meeting. What we talked about doing this time was uh we will Erica correct me if I'm wrong but I think the plan is we're going to do the the community forum as scheduled and then from that we'll roll into the questions and answers from the board. So, questions that we've uh asked today that we don't have full
094closure on, questions that we're going to email Erica after our uh the public portion of our meeting on the um 14th uh concludes, we're just going to roll right into more of the questions and answers section of the budget. Does that Erica? >> Yes, that's sort of what we discussed yesterday morning. um you me and Deb and that was just to make more efficient use of that time. But I will say like our ability to sort of do that will be dependent on the board's submission of those questions in a timely manner and our ability to formulate responses to those questions. So you know it it will be dependent on that. So again, get the questions in, try to word them as clearly as possible, um, so that we know exactly what you're asking. >>
095Yeah. And just a reminder to the for the community that might be tuning in now or later, there are two opportunities for the community to ask questions about the budget. We uh are very much wanting to hear from the community. The concept is uh to ask the questions just like we did today. Give the administration uh superintendent 40 uh Phil Cross and the rest of the administration a chance to answer them. And then there's a second uh public forum as well. So the concept there is that ask questions, get clarification, and if you still have questions afterwards, there's a second opportunity as well. And then the board of ed meets uh after the public forum to discuss. So there's a lot of opportunities for the community to ask questions that are important to them that
096we haven't thought of, right? Uh hopefully we've thought about all the questions that the community might be thinking about, but we really want to hear from the community. Uh because there are things that we're just naturally not going to uh think about. So that said, we do have a special meeting just to kind of make it put on everyone's radar. Uh tomorrow night at 7:00 that is our standing monthly uh facilities meeting and that is remote if I remember correctly, Jody. And our January 14th meeting that is also is that remote, Jod? >> That's part of my question. Oh, >> I have them down as down as TBDs. I do have Zoom meetings set up for them. >> So, I think we generally do one of our budget meetings remote, one in person, >> I
097think that's a good thing to continue. >> Um, >> so if you'd like to do the one on the 14th in person and then the one on the 22nd remote. >> Yeah, I think that's a good plan. Yeah. getting a thumbs up from Sharon. Okay. So then our meeting on the our next budget meeting is the 14th. It will be in person. It will be for the community to ask any questions they have and then we'll roll into more questions and answers um from Erica and the rest of the administration. Okay. Then with that said, can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Second. >> All right. Thank you everyone. And we'll see you tomorrow night. And we'll see you on the 14th.