001okay we're live great good morning everyone it's January 22nd 2024 um it's 9:03 this is a meeting of the Weston Board of Education special meeting uh budget Workshop the first item on the agenda is uh verification of a quarum which we have uh the second item is a pledge of allegiance we could do that please pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thanks everybody uh item number three is a discussion uh of the fiscal 25 Opera in capital budget and just for anyone that uh may be watching um this is uh the last in a series of meetings um that we've been having having over the past month or so on the
002operating in the capital budget for the upcoming fiscal year um tomorrow evening at six o'clock the board will meet um and the board will vote uh on uh the budget which will then be uh transmitted uh uh in February to uh to uh the board of Selectmen and then uh to uh the board of Finance um culminates in our town meeting um where the town will vote to approve the budget um both the Board of Education as well as the towns Lisa do you want to take it from here are there is there anything that um the board would like to discuss on the uh on the proposed budget are there outstanding questions um I hope everyone's read the responses to all the different questions that have been submitted by the members as well as
003submitted by the uh by the town's uh by the town's people as well why don't we start um with any um questions and just open it up I have a couple I'll jump in sure jump in David all right so Phil last time we spoke uh you said that we were trending to about a $656,000 surplus okay and uh do you have a sense of where we're going to end the year I I know that they're unknowns but you've been doing this long enough uh you should probably have a sense of being that worth you know end of January where where we're going to land in June that is um yeah yeah da but that's a it's it's a challenging question right in terms of where we will land if I if I'm to answer
004answer that question in terms of whether or not we'll have a surplus I can say yes we will have a surplus in terms of what that Surplus will be as we get closer to to the end of the year it's going to be a little bit challenging um I know that we've been um we've been watching um spread for example um in terms of placement you know we've always discussed how uncertainty that could be right now in our anticipated expenditures we have both a positive and a negative EXP expenditure um we may have within the next couple of weeks um changes within certain placement that may require a spend money um and it may end us that we may have um a negative in in those two lines so we will be in the range
005of where we are right now give and take I know we do have some expenditures or some on plan for repairs I know we have the fiber repairs and then we also going to be doing the testing in addition to that want to our skid steer which is our major snow snow removing piece of equipment or pretty much our allrounder is out for repair and that is a significant um repair cost as well so it's it's it's going to play some it's so I I don't want to say we're going to be at 600,000 700,000 300,000 but it is trending to be a service okay so why wouldn't we do what we did last year with which is to encumber some of that money or use some of that money to pre purchase for the
0062425 school year and reduce our budget ask I mean it seems to me like if things are trending the way you're suggesting there should be about a half a million dollars conservatively that we could pre- buby and reduce our budget ask by 500,000 because if we don't do it chances are good the town's going to do it or the board of Finance is going to do it so why don't we be proactive about it um if I may um thank you for asking that question um because I think we do um have uh some things that we proactively could do um we anticipated that that question um so I I don't know Phil if you want to take it um from there because we did look at that what would be a reasonable amount that
007we could look to do that um if called upon sure I mean we can have the discussion now or we can have it later in the meeting it's I'm I'm open to either way why don't we have it now okay um if I do have permission to share my screen let me see if I can do that um if Jody or or Dan if you guys could give me um permission to just to share so as before okay thank before I present I just want to talk about a few things right so we do have those items within our budget that we know that we we can preby because these are non-recurrent items and we try to lean toward expenditures that are non-recurrent in Natures um to really to to do any kind of pre
008purchase right in addition to that we do have some new information um you know we've always said that the budget is a marathon right we we start in October and the process doesn't really end until midm March so since that so from we start until the end we're going to have some pluses and we're going to have some minus in addition to the to the items that we're going to be um that we're going to propose to pre purchase there are some pluses and some minuses so let me start with that let me try to do this and let me know when everyone can see the screen got it per perfect so our current plan um David as you mentioned last year we did pre purchase um for the reading program um last year our
009plan or we're proposing to do the same this year for a K2 reading program um in addition to that for year two there's some consumables um that's needed for that so in terms of the reading Pro the reading initiative the k initiative we're proposing to pre purchase um $287,000 um worth of supplies and everything else we have some other one-offs um we have a project leadway course equipment at the high school we have sustainability equipment at the high school balances some textbooks and some um and and some um music instruments um so Allin we're proposing to pre purchase approximately $350,000 using our current sters in addition to that at our last um finance committee meeting we had um discussion talking about just expiring contracts one of our contracts that that is expiring this year is
010our transportation contract um based in what we have seen in Lower ffield County as the trend um we do believe whether we do an extension to our current contract or if we do an RFP it's going to be a double digit increase so we have adjusted the budget to reflect that and that will mean an increase of approximately approximately $663,000 um David you you did um mention to take some credits or to budget for some credits for Trans for transportation credits um conservatively we're looking at about $14,000 um in addition to that we have expenditures for um open Choice which is above um the limit so to speak so we are anticipating getting a refund or reimbursement from other districts of approximately $77,000 as I mentioned before um in terms of spreed we are we're
011at this point based on information that we know we are proposing a reduction to to tuition reduction of of $84,000 um and also transportation of $43,000 all in all it will have an impact to our excess cost um reimbursement of $14,000 so Al together we are proposing a reduction of $390,000 or 67% off our requested increase that will get us to a request of 2.85% and I'm going to pause okay so a couple of questions why uh only [Music] 350,000 if we're at 656 or so at the moment and things are trending in our um favor well the difficult part is in that David is because there really aren't any non-recurring items that that that that we can really that we can purchase right um and so everything else that we have is really within
012the normal course of our operations um we we have had discussions before in terms of a nonlin account and how pretty much we the board of Finance is with a nonlin account based on our budget there aren't any items that I would recommend at this point for us to pre- purchase okay what about using so I might be reading between the tea leaves but you didn't argue with me about maybe some more money of that 656 th000 so how about using some of that for the capital budget ask for the upcoming year and encumber the money and schedule some of the work um to occur now or soon as school is out but pay for in this fiscal year sure I mean that's always that that's always an option but but but but do keep
013in mind that by using our operating budget for capital expenditure it's not going to have an impact to our operating um increase because the capital is separate from our operating budget and it's not counted as a part of our annual increase so that's an option right there there there's always several different things or several different ways how we can you know how we can approach this but for right now based on where we are at this moment this is pretty much our recommendation right so my my question on using some of the money for the capital is if we don't use the money it goes back to the town right and then we can go back to the town and ask for a special appropriation or the town takes the money and we don't really
014know where it goes right but it certainly has left our budget so I would it not make sense at this point to work towards looking at a capital project um and spending some of the money for a capital project I think there were I know the numbers changed but there were yeah you know you know David if if we're going to do that right I think in for the past two years one of those items were we reviews our operating budget the fund Pro you know the capital capital projects has to do with pay Bank um we are coming up with um a plan we are working with the beta group as I mentioned previously to kind of give us a multi-year repair and replacement kind of plan so that's one area where we could
015use them where we could use the funds for that and that is over $100,000 um I think we have a budget of 170,000 $170,000 um we we could do the wind replacement at the at the high school I mean there's several there's several different items on our current capital budget where we can use those funds if that's the direction that the board wants us to do I just want to caution that if we do that it reduces our ability to mitigate our operating budget at this point right we can further analyze where budget and prior to um our discussion with the board of Finance in March we could propose other reductions which we have done in the past so Phil what I'm thinking is um you know being a small town and roughly 80% of
016my tax dollar goes to schools you're taxing me regardless if it's going to the schools or if it's going to paving norfield road for example so my feeling as a taxpayer and Board of Ed member trying to be a good Steward of the tax dollars that we collect is if we took 200,000 or 170,000 uh put it towards the capital expense but uh for Paving for example and if we send the budget with that additional reduction to the board of Selectmen and then the board of finance and we get into an issue with our operating budget because some unknown occurs between February and end of March or February and may we could go back to the town for a special appropriation uh um yes however hold on one quick second there I'm the issue with
017going for a special appropriation and I'm I we we try our very best not to do that because as you as youve pointed out before every additional dollar that we spend will have an impact on the MBR the minimum budget requirement if we do a special appropriation that's going to get counted to our MBR so my the way I approach things is not is try to anticipate as best as possible um based on how things are trending and um and use the resources that we have instead of going to the board of Finance for that special appropriation because of the negative impact of the MB but at the moment and this is the question um if you if you took 100 for round number purposes you took $170,000 of the of the projected uh Surplus
018yeah and you applied it towards the paving uh when it comes to the MBR um we we've set our MBR for 2425 based on what we budgeted 2324 so if you took the 170,000 and applied it towards the capital uh project and we don't need to go and ask special appropriation I know it's it's not a lot of money but we have set a better starting point for an MBR in 2526 right we've reduced our budget by 170,000 only if we have an unanticipated expense where we have to go to the town and ask for a special appropriation does it then uh negatively impact the MBR no I'm sorry if if we use operating funds to to mitigate the capital budget it will not impact our MBR the MBR is is only focused on operating
019budget so I I think we can do this right because we have we've used we've used um operating funds for Capital project and we we have had the conversation with the board of Finance before when we've done that way they say you shouldn't be doing that and stuff like that we could at this moment um do two things we can propose to mitigate operating budget and also propose to mitigate the capital budget and then pause right if you you you mentioned 500,000 or so we could do that or not right but again I would I would prefer that we wait that we take the reduction as we propose right now give it another month or two when things are clearer and then before the ultimate discussion and the ultimate vote by the board of Finance
020we can propose other the reduction if possible but can can we make a more simplistic decision here we're going to have a surplus whatever that number ultimately turns out to be let's assume round numbers at $600,000 to David's point it's already in the tax base um can we can we just make a determination um as a board I don't know if they do it here or redo it tonight that we're going to keep that $600,000 and we're going to allocate it to Board of Education projects whatever those might be the ones you just outlined or to David's point to Capital but um there's no re if we turn it back to the town what whatever the number is round number is a couple hundred thousand dollar it's just going to go in the general fund
021and if we have to go for a special appropriation there's always a chance they say no because there's a lot of stuff going on you know it's ours to determine you know and so we might as well just say we are going to use as much of it you know as prudent um and we'll allocate it you know you know as we see fit I agree Steve I think that that is The Prudent thing to do um but the only concern and I'm not disagreeing again I agree but the concern that I have and Tracy maybe you can help us out with this excuse me fed can be very volatile so if what sort of cushion have or what have we seen historically that could that we could utilize as a guide as to of
022that 600 how much maybe we earmark until a certain point maybe it's the end of March like he said like B said and if it's not utilized then of course towards Capital but sorry to interrupt I think to Steve's point and it might be I'm happy to hear from Tracy but to Steve's point I think what Steve is saying is as a board it seems like what we should be doing is saying maybe not encumber or to have us leave the meeting today where we take for arguments take 170,000 beyond the 350 but what we should be doing is as we get cl to the end of the year we should right so yes no I agree I agree I think that we should 100% keep this money and not turn it back to the
023town and not do it in as far as we are not as a board trying to be greedy but like if we're trying to everyone is going to be super super sensitive this year we've just had a huge Ral in town everyone's going to be super sensitive if they see the board you know pumping up a budget for next year without utilizing the money this year that's going to make their you know the mill rate is not going to be what they want it to be Etc they're going to feel as if we're taking advantage and I certainly do not want that to be the perception so I think that we really need to make sure we sharpen our pencils with this budget going forward and that we utilize all the dollars that we have
024um budgeted to us this year to offset any cost for next year so David I agree with you can you believe that yeah and in ter and excuse me and in terms of going back to the town for a special appropriation as much as as much as this probably doesn't sound correct um if we're going to go back for a special Corporation I'd rather do it for an unexpected special education requirement you know than Paving a road um right I mean yeah you know Paving the road is under our control you know an unexpected situation in special education um we if we come to the determination that it's something that has to be handled in a different fashion you know that's that's part of the that's part of the process and it's not and it's
025not discretionary on our on our part excuse me Gracie did you have something that you wanted to perhaps add about this thinking with regards to special ed because I know that you you you're really good at working through it at all but without being too in the weeds yeah so we're clearly talking about two different things we're talking about this year's budget and um potential Surplus which I can just tell you we monitor on an ongoing basis um Phil just spoke to an anticipated need that we'll have through the end of the school year that we're going to respond to um and we'll continue to do that and Phil and I will be in regular communication about those needs when they arise I think the bigger piece to this is how we plan strategically for
026next school year and I'm going to be transparent as I have been in previous years our tuition line for the projected budget um does not include what we could refer to as like contingencies right that tuition line is based on the information that we have right now about our students and the programs that they're going to need for all of next school year and I think Phil spoke to the fact that this is a marathon not a Sprint that is our that is my best um estimate based on what I know about student needs um and I think that's the smart way to budget this line just to be transparent I think we're doing the right thing there at the same time everything that Steve just said is accurate student needs can change at any
027time we can have students move out of district and obviously their costs go with them we could have students move into District who have specific required services that we need to provide or we could have students who are already in the district whose needs change and we need to be responsive to that so I think both for this budget year that we are navigating through um and for the projected budget year we have the right numbers in place based on the information that we have at this moment and there will be communication obviously um if things change in this area moving forward if if if I may um so to that based on everything that we discuss and and the plan if utilizing all the available surface regardless of what that amount is um can
028we can we have some more time in terms of what that final mitigating amount is um it's a little bit where I think the board will vote tomorrow I mean right now we we we're recommending getting the budget to 2.85 then we'll meet with the board of Selectmen next month and then the board of Finance in March can we just have a few few more weeks just just to work through the budget and just to take a second look at all the items that we have in the budget to see if there's any additional items that we could that could be mitigate it well no it's no well yes obviously but but your confidence in the $600,000 number I'm fairly C maybe not 600 it's going to be again as we said right so we
029do have a responsibility that's going to happen right if everything else holds I can say if everything else holds right now we probably looking at an a reduction of the Surplus between 75 to $100,000 right but there may be other things that that may come up right but I'm saying that that's fine but you know if you can put a you know a stake in the ground right now you're comfortable and saying we're going to have we want to offset I can't remember the number Phil 300 300 some OD thousand dollars 400 400,000 we on numbers that that that we're going to use we're comfortable we have a surplus of at least that amount that we can we can reduce the upcoming fiscal year budget by that number correct okay Elizabeth that's great yeah I
030mean I think that's a good place to start then keeping in mind as we watch pretty much you know every couple of weeks we're checking in and then determining you know where that Tipping Point is if there is more I think that then that can be discussed and I I think that the direction you're talking about about using it for um uh other things that will help with the with the capital is perfectly appropriate but I think that you know I know we talked as a team and we do feel comfortable with the 309 using that now buying those reoccurring items non- reoccurring items sorry no no no that's fine at least it is with me um the question my my real question was if you really feel comfortable about the 600 number maybe we
031don't want to address all that right now we could use that to that we're going to use all 600 for something but if if you'd rather leave a contingency that the number may not be 600 rather the number is going to be four whatever the number you just said Phil then let's just leave that open and you can you know as we get closer to the end of fiscal year we can then uh use whatever the balance is between the four and six um for educational purposes whatever they may be what's the date of the vote it's May what for the public when we when the public passes the budget do we know the key the the key one prior to that is Board of Finance right so Board of I'm just thinking about when
032in the in the um taking a look in the book here when the dates are I'm sorry our initial com discussion with the board of Select was going to be in March 6 I know but but Bo of Select don't have any control no the board of Finance the board of Finance March 14th and they voted March 14th so Phil if we have so at the moment rough numbers again there was 656 th000 657 th000 in anticipated Surplus you've also uncovered I don't I know you took the the chart about 50,000 in other uh uh unspent or or Not unspent Sorry credits right between the busing and and the other things so if we're if we're looking at Round number purposes now 700,000 at this moment why uh can't we this moment take or spend
033or encumber another 170,000 because to Steve's Point um if we do have an unexpected expense whether it's in sped or a fiber break uh we could not have reasonably anticipated that and we should be able to go to the town and ask for a special appropriation otherwise my concern is that what's going to happen is if we move this budget forward as is it's going to go to the board of Finance right because the board of selectman they look at it right but they don't have any per they don't have any Authority on it so it's going to go to the board of finance and the board of Finance is going to probably do what they do every year which is they've got a number that's I think usually around 200 to 250,000 I don't
034know if that's a number they always use or it's some percentage of the budget and they're going to ask you to cut 200 to 200 50,000 so knowing that they're probably going to do that why don't we send them a lean budget that's been approved by us and not leave it to them to say hey cut 200 250,000 why don't I'm a bit confused I understand what you're saying right up until the end this is talking about this budget and next year's budget is a different budget well but not if we're taking money out of next year's budget by paying things upfront this year no I understand that so if we get it down to like the 2.85 so you're saying get it down even lower last year I don't remember they're telling us to
035cut did they I don't think they did I remember last year so much work be all along the way I thought that it went through fine I remember last year and I think Steve you were on the Boe last year this time right yes okay so if I remember correctly last year uh it was the paving you know there even though Paving should not have not in our operating uh they they took something out and they kind of took a little bit of a Victory lap you know that they were able to cut the budget by 200,000 or they ask by 200,000 I might have it wrong but I remember the paving piece was what the board of Finance I think that was capital I don't think it was but AR are we talking about
036we have in your mind Phil currently you're comfortable with the somewhat ,000 right now is it 300 is not quite 400 is it the it's it's actually 39 39,821 I like the round numbers $400,000 $400,000 yeah you're not you're not totally sure the numers this 600 and some odd thousand dollars no I it's it's going to be I mean if everything else holds I know it's going to come down but but but Steve just real quick so David we're not we I think we're all saying the same thing right I but I think you wanted that before and I'm saying we will a month right because we have the month of February where we can still work one of the concerns that I have David is that if we if we take non-recurrent expenditures and
037we re and we pre purchase those non-recurring expenditures we're going to expect to see that that request come back in the next budget cycle which will then increase the budget so so so yes we may be reducing this year and for the 2425 budget year but if we if we cut this non-recurrent expenditure for the budget of year 2526 it's going to come back and we're going to be in the same position so my my request right now is we're we're proposing raw numbers a cut of 400,000 which will get us to 2.85 I'm asking that to that the board allows us another month to kind of really take a second look at at whatever other request that may there may be that could potentially get up to another 100 100 100 100 plus thousand
038dollar but not take that reduction at this point but the that's fine because ultimately if we do take it that will be the budget correct so right now we can propose the reduction by the number that you've put up and by the time it gets to the to the board of Finance we may not not certainly it's not certain we may come back and say we want to the budget is going to be reduced by another whatever that number is um yeah we're not giving it to the board of Finance until the 1 of March yes that's right okay all right so I'm sorry go ahead yeah I I was gonna say that they then vote on the board of Finance then votes votes on it uh at the beginning of April so that gives
039us even a little bit more before it goes to the town we can readjust a little bit is what you're saying right Steve yes yeah but my just to make sure I'm clear the the reduction however moving forward on the new budget may be out of the capital and not the operating depending on what you want to do with these funds correct uh because I have to tell you I don't know where I would find another 300 in the current budget that we have unless we did the Transportation things like that and hope for the best yeah I think I know you're I heard you saying that like that extra money could reduce some of those projects you were talking about that's all capital so the the decrease might actually be in capital not in
040Opera correct it is a POS Excuse me yes okay all right so I think to summarize um what we said is the 35 the the 3 59 or whatever Phil or 400 Al together that looks good brings us down to 2.85 we're going to see how the next month goes and the intent here is not to return money to the town because we have projects that we could be using the money for so you know before on before the budget goes to the board of Finance look at how things in February are going and potentially uh encumber some of that money for for Capital and then we could potentially be asking the board of Finance for even less of a uh increase so so hold on um well not really because what Lisa is saying
041is if we're taking money out of the capital budget for next year that's not going to affect the operating budget for next year so that's not going to lower their percentage if we throw it into Capital but what about think but it will lower the capital number we've already yeah we've already with what Phil has proposed we've already lowered no sorry we've already lowered the operating and it will lower the capital but the capital is not part of our ask on the regular right I mean it is but it's not that's not part of the town the referendum yes it is is it so we have two separate line items for them to vote on is it the budget or the operating and capital are two separate or do we go with one no when
042they vote two separate okay all right so well then we could reduce the the operating but at the same time if we want to keep it or we could reduce the capital if we want to keep it in the operating we could utilize some of that money for um some of what Dan is requesting because that was a pretty big nut too um and that's part of operating or that's part of operating right Dan so some of the purchases that he needed to make maybe he could purchase them this year no Sharon because that the items that that Dan I'm sorry the item that Dan is that he's proposing those items will be leased and the the proposed cost for that is going to be 90 plus ,000 um so so what you have there
043we we did propose um here to to reduce the equipment purchase not not significantly um but we are proposing to reduce it by $62,000 um in included in the items that we have which we will be sharing for the board so so here's where we are guys so in March right so one of the big ticking items that we have is transport an increase for transportation I'm still going to at our last meeting I did I we spoke to the I I told the company that I'm going to be having f the discussion with first student about the increase I do have a call with them this morning to talk about that in addition to that the ultimate rate for seniors will we will get that rate sometime in about midm March or so so
044that's I'm saying allow time allow us allow the time to to to help us right instead of trying to do everything right at this moment I think where we are right now in terms of what we're proposing is comfortable these items that we're proposing to reduced well are not are there nonrecurring items right so let's take where we are right now and we can regroup in March Phil the key thing is we're we're not going to ask the Board of Ed Board of Finance to be able to hold back some of this money like we have in the past which they've rejected correct and so correctly the money has been allocated to the board of education and it's RS to allocate in a fashion that we deem prodence and we're we we'll work to use
045as much of that number as prudent um in whatever fashion we think is prudent because it's already in the tax base and that number will be you're going to recommend a number that you know today that we'll discuss and vote on tomorrow night and that number could be lower um by the time it gets to the board of Finance can I just play back something just so I understand everyone um first time going through this obviously So currently Phil we have about 650 in Surplus that number May that number may come down sort of you know somewhat about 390 or 400,000 of that is going to be applied to the operating budget to reduce that specifically for non-recurring items um I I I don't I I guess I guess I I have a question about
046just a sidebar question about why we don't why we wouldn't take any additional and apply it to recurring maybe that throws off future budgets Etc but um you know you you can tell me about that later but so we have the 400 we're left with about you know in rough numbers as per Steve you know 250 of that 250 now we would any we're g to we're going to hold some of that back any of the extra there is going to be applied to the capital budget because the limiting factor on further reducing the op operating budget is onetime items and we've basically maxed out it's not that we're expecting um that that 650 let's say number comes down and you know we're not going to further apply anything we we can't further apply anything
047to the operating budget right like we've maxed out basically according to how it's how it's laid out we've maxed out the amount of money that we can apply to the operating budget because it's limited by non non-recurring expenses right so anything extra then goes to capital budget which is to your point Steve I think in the past um and I don't I don't know these numbers but I think in the past that capital budget has been about a million bucks let's say give or take anything above that if that gets if that gets too heavy of course the board of Finance is going to come back and say no you have to cut that and so by us applying let's say up to $250,000 then we can mitigate I guess some of that and get
048that more in line the capital budget that is more in line with what it's been in the past is that correct just just playing that back I just want to make sure I understand what's going on you're right okay okay so we good with a two-step process here what what what the board is what Phil and Lisa are recommending currently and that number may be different uh by the time it gets to the board of Finance and in the interim as we get closer to a final number that we're comfortable with how we allocate it or how it's allocated you know we can determine between now and when the board of Finance ultimately has to vote I'm comfortable with that knowing that I think uh Phil the new percentage increase you gave was a 2.83
0492.85 something along those lines percent I think we needed to get it below three um so I'm comfortable with that with the understanding that it'll go nowhere but down from there hopefully making it go down from there hopefully yeah I think that's reasonable any other comments or questions on the budget before uh I have one more hopefully it doesn't take as much time but I think it was pretty thought-provoking the last one and you guys are well prepared for it so so uh hopefully this one is and no we did not talk ahead of time right we didn't cue this softball question up um no but usually you ask that so we wanted to have our you know plan okay um yeah that's what happens when you have a board of bed that's seasoned right
050we've seen this before um can you just explain to me one more time I understand so I had brought up the question about uh I don't have my notes in front of me but the fourth and fifth grade or you know at we we had positive numbers with the sections but they were relatively low there's only two seats available for one grade and maybe three seats for another grade um so I had asked why are we budgeting for an additional section now and what you said was because if we don't budget for it now and the students show up we might find ourselves H having to hire a teacher or two in August and nobody wants to be hiring teachers in August so my question is uh why from a budg and this was my
051original question it's more about budgeting it has nothing to do with uh student uh teacher ratio from a budgeting perspective why wouldn't we budget for the the the lower two sections uh of those two classes we would know by what April or May whether or not the students show up and if we need those two additional sections or one additional section that would be a perfectly reasonable request to the town for a special appropriation because I think what you said to me was or the board was if we budget and the students don't show up you take that money which I think we said was about 125,000 per section and you reallocate it to something else in the district I know that was a mouthful but does that make does my question make uh was
052my question clear in there yes um and I'm going to ask and DeVito to kindly open up the document the second board ofed Workshop to discussion document that has the charts of the comparison of the medium and the low enrollment and I think that perhaps can can help me with that answer if you will you want me to just quickly share them Whoever has it share it it's the one medium enrollment fourth grade I'm not sure what page it's on that's go to the Chart please go to page four page four please keep going sorry it's like page six I think I was just looking at it I'm looking at the right and I don't know what it what it's saying okay stop here there we go yeah right here okay so there's a couple
053of things with um how we make the decision on that and the first thing I need to say is is I think we were we we um look at it very carefully to to figure it out and there's there's some different thing factors that go in and you're right we don't want to be making this decision um the second week in August because quite frankly The Pool isn't that good the other thing is is that I think that Patty um explained that it was very odd what happened this past summer with one of the grade levels where we never would have anticipated like I think it was eight families moved to Europe which is it was just kind of a was it was a it was odd so if you look at the medium enrollment
054right here okay and you look at 0405 and you have um uh 166 students um for 0405 we're budgeting eight sections that's 20.8 open seats yes they are 26 if we go to option two we are down to already some classes being at 24 and some classes um being at 23 and there's only two open seats that makes us a bit nervous because for example this year we held it was a we held where we were and over the course of of this year we got about four new students in that grade level so having it that high is a little bit um concerning go up to the low enrollment please if you look at the low enrollment okay I think it's interesting um someone I think was Miss Flanigan had asked about that if
055you look at the low enrollment for 0405 you know and you look at um the uh the different options again and you see okay could you go down to seven sections yes but you're already again starting the year with some sections um close so it's really a judgment call on do we want to start the year maxed out in the majority of our classes are not can you go to fifth grade please so if we look at fifth grade okay 0405 you know at fifth grade 8 20.8 is a good number and then you look at open sections 2 six well why don't you make another section of it we could however the average would be 23.7 and we would only have two open seats um that's pushing it as far as we're concerned and
056especially in fifth grade where that's a transition you're going into six and that's where the the die ads are and everything else where the students get used to having two different teachers so it's it's again basically on it's a judgment call and as far as knowing in April and May most of the movement takes place over the summer last time when we had this movement um it was over the summer it was July I because I remember talking to to Patty end of June beginning of July thinking how did all of a sudden these families um move um to they all went either out of state or to Europe which it wasn't like they moved to within state which was very um odd I guess I would say so I don't know if I'm um
057if I'm explaining myself well but I would I would not recommend that we start with that with that higher uh by by with one section reduced I I wouldn't because I think that it puts us in a precarious position look people move to Weston because they expect low class sizes at the elementary school and starting the year where we might only have can you go back to fourth grade please thank you if you go back to fourth grade keep going thank you on the medium you know you only have two open seats with the other one I I would be concerned at that as as is Mrs falo all right so just to kind of close the loop for me on this it's not so much about the class size and I agree with you
058uh the smaller the class size the better but it comes at a cost right so um we're budgeting for the eight sections of fourth grade for example uh if more than two uh if if only one or two students show up uh we wind up with uh potentially uh where where is let me back up you had mentioned last time we spoke that if the students don't materialize there's probably some number that you're going to use you reallocate is it you're reallocating the teacher or are you reallocating the uh money reallocating the what was the last thing you said the teacher or the money um it depends um and I you know if really depends on the situation I'll give you an example we have one less section in uh horob but we're going to
059reallocate that teacher someone from harbut is coming over to the intermediate school that's a reallocation of a of a person now last year we made the decision to reallocate one of the two positions that we originally put forth in quite frankly because we were concerned about math and um Wanted to increase the level of intervention now as we move forward in this uh upcoming budget we have decreased that intervention um it was it was a reallocation of I guess you would call programmed based on on the scores working on piloting some things in the middle school so that's why we did that piece I don't know if I'm explaining myself yeah I think so so just if I hear you correctly I remember last time we spoke you you said you reallocate um and you
060so in this case you're hiring so let's just say uh for fourth grade uh no additional students show up um and so uh do you let's say 166 students show up um how many sections do you intend to run eight eight okay so you'll you'll um uh word so 166 students show up the intent is to have the smaller class size rather than reallocate the teacher correct okay that was the other part of my question because there was a parent that spoke the other day who I asked for clarification because it didn't make a lot of sense to me it was reduce the costs and increase the the oneon-one of a you know student to teacher ratio and you can't can't have it both ways right now for example yeah you can't and I and
061I think you pointed that out sorry in TR right now I just want to double check remember these numbers are based on October right now we have 165 students in fourth grade it's it's uh it's not 163 we put in 163 because we our responsibility is to go by the enrollment of October but it's already um higher than that if you will and and it's about 125,000 at that grade level the cost of a new teacher fully loaded yeah I think so right Phil between 120 and 140 is that about right give her maybe a little bit more but that's that's in that's a good ballpark can you go to third grade for exam for please T I just wanted to look at something um or rather fourth grade sorry thank you okay does that
062you know and the bottom line is is we're not going to hire excess staff we're being very prudent with what we're doing I'll give you the other example of what happened this course of this school year we had a teacher that was teaching full-time reading at HBA it became glaringly apparent the first month of school that we needed more special um Education Services so we were able to figure out a way where half of her she was certified in both took over a special ed piece and based on the numbers and everything else we were able to make it work to maintain um the reading intervention take care of the special needs piece and now moving forward into next year's budget we have retained that model and we reduced reading by 0. five so all
063that I think is helpful and how are we able to do that as well remember when the Sills go in and are working in classrooms and coaching and co-planning with teachers that's a big win you know you see this sill not only planning with teachers but also going into the classroom so these are things that you know I wasn't going to wait till the end of the year we could we could mitigate it now we did very successfully and in the long term next year it's resulting in a 0.5 decrease in Reading at herot which we're pleased about David is that yeah I'm good thank you just want to make sure okay any any other questions does anyone have Mike Sharon Chad Peter I probably did I miss anyone I don't think so I have
064my my question and uh we'll uh we'll let Tina shine here for a minute oh I'll build on on uh Sharon and I had very similar requests and then um we got the uh Q&A document answer but I think it needs more clarity and my objective is to pitch for more focus on science sill and science faar guidance so I if I'm anticipating a nice answer it's all that Tina run with do you want to repeat the question are we looking at um specific yeah so uh both Shan and I wrote in the uh Q part of the Q&A that uh we were examining the sill program with respect to science and why there wasn't a full-time sort of glue from K to 12 of a sill that could really just drive uh science uh
065education and and the best practices but also building on that maybe be the the coners of science bears and guidance from K to 12 just like for example we have teen many cheerleaders I see and in by high school they're big cheerleaders but they learn along the way someone pulls them along the way why don't we have something similar to pull kids that show promise and science early that want to eventally participate in science faes and use the s's capabilities to sort of not only drive better Science Education through the teachers but also actually be sort of the coners to to manage that so that was the I think the combination I don't want to speak entirely for Sharon but I think if I read her in my questions they were similar and then uh
066I looked at the a part of the Q&A document and uh I thought it needed more more attention so that is that clear yeah sure um you're preaching of the choir as you know um last year to take it back a little bit we had a team of curriculum instruction leaders to support all content areas across the district remember a curriculum instruction leader supports the core areas we have you know stem we have Humanities we have um art we have music we have PE Health um and at that time um Mo majority of you were here last year where you heard kind of the rationale around really allowing these individuals to focus a little bit more intently um around the core area specifically for literacy and Mathematics so the goal last year was to transform
067those positions focusing in math and literacy based on a lot of our district initiatives last year and allow them to focus specifically on instructional coaching and supporting staff around the implementation of our curriculum and pedagogy and um co-planning modeling co- teing um so that we can Elevate the tier one which is the core instructional practice for all students across the district so we currently have six individuals who are now full-time they function under one job description and they service specifically at the lower grades K2 stem math and science uh 35 Math and Science and then when you get up to the secondary level we only have 612 math our science support at the secondary level is a 05 teacher and a 0.5 um curriculum instruction leader that was the old model before you know um
068before I arrived last year when we committed to transforming a few of the positions um as we discussed the impact of a individual person's working under two job descriptions there's always a give and a get right there's always a give and a get and so the secondary sill right now um her science is supporting only half of the teachers in the in the secondary Department so she supports middle and high school teachers but because she teaches full day um excuse me because she teaches half day every day she does not get to support basically half of the department in grade six through 12 because she just can't get to them um she does an outstanding job with um the curriculum partner time that she has with the teachers in secondary at the secondary level co-planning
069she uses Department time after school when she has the opportunity to do so around planning and supporting the implementation um but if she has to do any curriculum design work for example this is the give to get and she receives any professional development because she's a coach um that I'm providing to build her capacity as a coach she gets pulled out of the classroom and we have to get a substitute right so that that is the um the push and the pull around this the model if she were to transform in to a full-time secondary science position she would support we would now have the support for Math and Science from kindergarten through 12th grade it is the only pested content area that do we do not currently have instructional support um within that content
070area and as you know our district Improvement plan and our school Improvement plan we're going to do a presentation in February to show our progress but our our areas of academic Excellence are focused on literacy Math and Science um so we we're maximizing the the position we have and she's doing a phenomenal job but um it's only within a halftime capacity so to your point Peter um and Sharon um some of the support that that position would be um you know supporting if it was full-time would be some of the enrichment activities and the enhancement of the curriculum it could um you know explore additional opportunities we do have we do um we do have SC Odyssey of the mind we do have um Atomic and math counts different kind of um competitive things at
071the secondary level um but maybe at not at the fullest capacity yet we have a robotics teacher and a robotics coach that we do a lot of Robotics work but she is a a middle school teacher that is supporting the middle and high school teams um and she receives a stien for that but um the curriculum instruction leader would be able to support her uh and support that program in that capacity as well so those are just some examples quickly that um we're working on you know maybe next year while I while I advocated for it this year you know we knew that we had some other initiatives that we needed to focus the the funds on and so right now that full-time curriculum instruction leader is not part of the budget for this year
072or for the 25 school year can I ask a question yeah one of our full-time curriculum instruction leaders is PE and health correct no okay all right that was my misunderstanding then yes yes the only just to clarify for everyone on the call the only full-time curriculum and instruction leaders right now are for Math and literacy we have a K2 um Math and Science curriculum instruction leader full-time at H and full-time at whis when you get to the secondary level because certifications and and such um we only have a 612 math full-time position and a full-time literacy position every other um sill the art the PE Health music they are all less than half either halftime or less than half time okay so just to boil it down Peter and I are not getting our
073ask of a full-time science right Lisa no um you are not and let me explain a little bit um why if you will um the the full-time position is um for Math and um we went back and forth of this with math and language arts is um new and um I I think that we need another year to keep working on that model um I I think quite frankly that we um while there's always work to do um I'm looking specifically um now at the at the high school I think that um um people will agree the high school um science program and the project leader way program is in really good shape and I I mean to to be frank it's it's an expensive model and I think we need another year um with
074the full-time model um you know minimum of two years before we come back with another ask um regarding science you know sometimes these positions again can be flexed and I think we need to evaluate where we are and um reflect on that before we ask for um ask to move forward with that yeah and just to elaborate a little bit on what Lisa said um I do agree right while I would love to um respond and advocate for the full-time sill uh we we as a team are still in the process of Designing our vision we're still building their capacity around what it looks what a formal coaching cycle looks like so when Chad and and David and Bernie at the curriculum subcommittee meeting when we talk about the impact of these positions we have
075that quantitative and qualitative aspect of impact um you know the surveys and the questionnaires that we're going to be that we've started to gather this school year based on those uh the teams of teachers that have been working with our SS it's just not fully it's just not fully gathered yet so at the end of this school year we'll have some data really really strong data around the beginning of the year to the end of the year and to Lisa's Point um one more year will be even more um impactful I think I totally understand that and I completely agree that we have to measure the program we've been talking about that um this year so but I would definitely like to have the note and I think Peter you agree with me that if
076if we are successful if this program is really truly like doing what we had hoped and are planning it to do then I think that our next I would like to say that as far as a board of ed member here and looking at Sciences how important it is so the curriculum and the performance of our students I think that that should be our next priority for a sill is a is science so fulltime that's my sense and can I slightly I mean I think Sharon I just want to finish my thought David and jump in so to be a little pesy you have some teachers in K through 12 that aren't benefiting from the science sill currently right because it's only half of it so it's 12 so you you know the takeaway is
077they're rooting for the teachers that are benefiting from right because it proves in the program right they're like go go go because i' like to learn what you've learned this past year so if we uh if we keep an eye on that you know we can actually um Champion for a sale that covers six through 12 so that's part A Part B is we have great micro programs that the students participate in like robotics sometimes there's a students that go hey I want to participate here but there's really no no formalization of that and it's sort of up to the individual teacher to figure it out for that particular student or cohort or their parents right I mean it's just like maybe some unique Sports they play and this happens to be science as a
078sport but that that will live with for at least this school year and through next school year but that's another one let's keep an eye on that because that you know again I think some students are champing for their fellow students hey go do that if it if it works out I want to do something like that next year and that would make the case for participation in fairs engineering and science fairs that I did I hear that right also because we really didn't cover that part absolutely and I think I would encourage anyone to join us for the February meeting uh for the curriculum committee meeting where we continue with our Tech integration kind of conversation with our library media Specialists where our SC our secondary science sill will also be talking about our
079engineering courses our next steps for computer science our Project Lead the Way courses and um some of the added enhanced kind of experiences that we provide to students to cultivate their passion around stem whatever those passions are um and so we're going to be presenting um and our secondary science cill will be collab collaborating with our library media specialist and presenting in the February curriculum subcommittee meeting which I think is the 12th um in the afternoon so I encourage everyone to join um but to your point Peter yes I think that the a full-time position would definitely support curricular enhancements and allow for not only um enrichment type of activities but also um act assured experiences that all kids would get when they transition um from K5 into 612 and um that role that position
080would support the enhancement of just not only projectly the way type of courses or robotics types of experiences but um there's a variety of different stem enrichment activities that we um we could be enhancing the curriculum through the revision process and also making sure that that individual is also going to be supporting the um the curriculum design for computer science which is a mandatory requirement by 2025 so um it's when we think about science at the secondary level it expands it broadens Beyond just the the science curriculum for K5 it now takes on a whole different layer of tech integration engineering um and computer science and projectly the way that now kind of broadens that scope also so it's not just the biology or the chemistry or the physics courses any longer because sometimes when
081we say science sence we only think about that um those courses specifically it's a lot bigger if I can um just make a couple of points in our co-curricular program we spend over $15,000 in stiens and supplies for our robotics program at the middle school and the high school that's a significant amount for a co-curricular if you will that I think that we should we should note that we have Science Olympiad at the high school I think that we're in a we look when we put in Project Lead the Way We Built those beautiful facilities in both buildings you know the Middle School um engineering Wing is right on par with the high school the unfortunate thing is we still have issues with the Middle School Labs that hopefully we will be able to look
082at that we look at renovating in the middle school I and and we've spoken about that when you have kids that don't have enough sinks they can't even walk around the back of the lab together and collaborate there's also some limit itations there so it's kind of moving forward at an appropriate Pace while ensuring that we have a solid robust program we have more levels than physics at the high school yes it is it's physics but than our surrounding neighbor schools between honors 2ap levels standard sustainability green teams you know Hydroponics at the middle school we're that's why I felt that and Tina agreed we could hold another year and see where out with this and I think the other thing we have to remember about these curcular instructional leaders fulltime is there may be
083a point where we do not need a full-time language arts curriculum instructional leader 612 do we flip it you know do you say okay we've done this now now we're going to flip it and science will be that and we're going to go to the parttime because we've made much a much uh a much you know needed Improvement there that's still on the table we have to see because I'm very conscious of being you know our fiduciary responsibility ility to the town and we have to make sure that you know when we reach a Tipping Point of professional growth and work that we've done in this and that perhaps not promising we can pull back on one area and put it into the other area for a couple years and then pull back again like
084it it has to be I think more fluid you know sometimes um districts get in like well this is the model and it's going to be this way for the next 10 15 years and I I do think that's a mistake I think we have to look at the needs the needs now the needs in the future and when we make progress figure out how we can best um reallocate that funding okay I've timestamped this for a year from now so we can replay and uh concur where we want to go next uh and my last com would be you know you have to tap Talent too for seal and science so you have to have those available teachers because now they're not in the lab at chemistry or teaching computers right or environmental science
085they're they're full-time so that's something to keep in the back of our minds when we replay this that you have to have the talent in place oh yeah thank you for that yeah just so you know we're very conscious that who can teach what there are people that are cross- certified but at a high level um some people might not know this fun fact our videography teacher can teach the introductory level of the engineering program so we keep all that in mind um because it is important you can't have you have somebody weak and it's not good and I can say that science department is probably one of the the the strongest we have all right thank you for your attention to that this morning I think daveid had a had a had a question
086so I'll let him ask his question I just had a question relative to adding SS and uh and the question I was going to ask was um I do remember now this end of the school year will be coming up on the two-year Mark I remember two years ago when we right we we coming on the two-ear mark Mark for moving those one year mark this is the first year that they had fulltime okay yeah how time flies Okay do we have um a plan Benchmark to evaluate the program I do remember when we approved it as a board we said we want to have some quantifiable data and I do remember Tina you said it could be two years and you know that's the cycle and if the um sill program doesn't work out
087for a particular uh area specialty we could move that teacher back to being halftime sell and halftime teacher without a lot of contract problems so I guess really what my question is as I hear Peter talk about and and Sharon talking about adding a full-time sell to science I hear two things before I could get my arms around that I'd want to know where the data is that supports the Sills that we have is is having a positive effect on the student outcome and then I would also say as Lisa said because our science program is one of the strongest and we've got really good teachers in the science program do we need a s and that's that's not an answer I'm looking for today but what I'm saying is that we want to make
088sure that that we have evaluation data uh before we start throwing more full-time SS at a problem we may not have or if the full-time so program is not working out you know we wouldn't we want to rekey it before we make changes or sorry add more teachers to it yeah and I I hold true to the conversation we had last year when I presented how we were going to evaluate the program and look at the metrics where we have a combination of quantitative student achievement metrics as well as qualitative feedback from the teachers that are directly part of the program so um we have formal Co coaching cycles that we are gathering data on right now which which embeds actual qualitative and quantitative components in it right because when you do a formal coaching
089cycle with someone you define a goal you have some metrics that you include in that goal and you look at progress after the end of the cycle right um and then we also have um individual surveys um and questionnaires that are basically on a lyer scale uh based on how that partnership evolved and whether or not that they've changed practice it's like a case study if you've ever done like an action research case study so that's kind of how this evaluation is going to look we're going to have student metrics and then we're going to have some adult metrics that are both qualitative and quantitative and then we're going to have surveys too so we're in the process of gathering that it's just you know I think Sharon was the one that Sharon you're in
090sales right so I think last time we talked about you know building relationships that's part of um coaching is is having that trust and having that um rapport with the individuals that you can have open dialogue and conversations um and we're very small so we're very cautious and and cognizant of the fact that you know when we present this information it's not D directly connected to an individual but looking at a group and as a team that's the other piece that we need to be very mindful of and and Tina really quickly really quickly when would we expect to receive those results sure usually um so what we've done in last year we always have a um a re a year in review presentation that the SS do the entire team does and it h
091um we're going to add in the additional metrics that I talked about uh relative to the program into that end of year that year and review presentation that we do at the curriculum committee so it's always I think we did it in I think it was May or June right um last year um and it's it's the whole meeting it's an hour and and a half every Department gets to talk about some of their challenges some of their successes what are their next steps and then according uh you know as I mentioned we're going to add in some of the um Team metrics that we've been using throughout the year around specific coaching coaching cycles and student achievement that that's at a curriculum committee meeting it is and I just want to say too um
092we're going to start seeing some of these pieces in the February update um you know maybe not specific to the coaching cycle specifically or those surveys but we're going to start seeing some of these you know the movement around some of the student achievement metrics whether it be achievement or growth when we do our February update so um it'll be it'll be it'll be good yeah what what Dr Engle is referring to is February 12th before the vacation it's earlier um at the regular board meeting we are going to be giving you a midyear uh progress report specif on our uh Improvement plan specifically in the areas quite frankly of curriculum and instruction um student connections kind of some of the the big um student impact um ones so we're going to go in a
093little bit more in depth math science um language arts sustainability connections with students all of that and so at that time part of the curriculum instruction is uh how is this program working and last question from last question for me is there is there an Abridged version of that Tina that then gets presented to to the board or is it just at the curriculum committee level so we just do it at the curriculum level because the whole team is there and they prepare a pretty extensive presentation um and ultimately that's what that uh subcommittee is intended for for them but we videotape it and post it on the website correct yeah oh yeah so that's there and and we can certainly tweak it to perhaps make it a little bit more in depth at the
094at the corresponding Board of Ed meeting that's fine that that would be helpful I mean that was that was a big question you know on the last budget funding this and I think people want to see the outcome sure in the past what we've done is even make that meeting kind of a special board meeting if you will um in the afternoon and and everyone is there so we can certainly look we want to make sure that that everybody has access and can hear it and knows it and sees the report and all that so we can work on that but that's in the spring great other questions comments requests yeah I have a few questions when uh when possible but I don't know if we're done with have topic I can chime in in
095a second if Peter's done or Michael done go ahead Chad okay hi everyone first of all I apologize I've been off video for somebody his meetings turns out 900 a.m. on a Monday other people in the world want my time so as much as I would love to be full-time board member was all I did I have to do other stuff too so anyway hello everyone I've been listening the entire time I want to make greetings from Grand Central everyone I want to make a couple different points a couple of just requests and there's one question at the at the end of this the first thing is I want to Echo Sharon and and Peter's question about the science sill and also reinforced by the way Steve can you give me a thumbs up can
096you hear me okay Steve can you hear me okay yeah great I want to make a recommendation I really was persuaded by by what Peter brought up about uh some of those science fairs and I encourage folks to look at the video that you shared about one e in large part just because I think giving ourselves a goal of how some of these things look on the ground is a powerful one especially to make it specific so it's a it's a worthwhile thing to to shout out and put our attention on to the next thing is no the next thing is the next thing is regarding the um the sales I I'm very bullish about that program specifically because I think if we're going to invest money coaching dollars is an important place to do
097it for a faculty and uh so I'm I'm eager to see how that works out and I thank you the administration for doing some work to make sure that we're looking at both quantitative and qualitative measures so uh the other thing I want to say by the way I think I've not said this yet but it sure it's your bears being said you all uh Tina Lisa others thank you for filling out the question and answer document so comprehensively I cannot imagine how many hours goes into some of the tracking of all these questions that we throw your away so thank you for being so clear about all that okay now on to one of the questions I have from the curriculum aspect of this this is because I know a bunch of literacy experts
098in different districts and I I want to point out that to make sure that the Sals program is effective we're going to be looking closely of course at how we implement the new reading curriculum and I want to make sure that the the line items about reading materials for this year that we're spending them wisely reason being I know that sometimes when we Institute these programs as an example the reading materials themselves like leveled reading books and things like that they may not actually be that great within a a specific type of curriculum although the reading instruction is quite good so this is really just a request to make sure that I think uh you know about 300K or whatever it is for reading materials within that new curriculum just making sure that we're looking
099to make sure that those materials are absolutely top-notch and not redundant especially if we're trying to make this shift to the the science of reading so I guess Tina just would bring all of my points to one question which is do you have full confidence that the reading materials within that new literacy program are as good as needs to be expected to make this change towards more of the science of reading approach and I'll go on mute now so it's not annoying background noise for all of you yeah great question uh we did an extensive review of the American reading company uh a year ago so I'm confident that the team that we had which was a K12 literacy team made the right choice based on um the program that we chose and the students
100that we had in Weston right part of the reason we chose American reading company was because of their authentic text their authentic authors and the varying levels of readability that is available to put to students in K through five because remember we have some high readers right and we want to make sure that we're pushing them and we're keeping we're making sure that they're passionate about reading and they want to continuously um we want to we want to make sure that we're cultivating that right in the classroom we also like the fact that this this program has um book challenges and the hundred book challenge within it so that we have some other incentives for kids to build build their love for reading around beyond the classroom and we have book uh bags that kids
101get to bring home and kind of exchange books and read at home and make those you know schoolto home Partnerships with reading as well we're actually full disclosure we're actually remember this is a K12 this this tool actually is a K12 tool although the Mandate does not require K12 when we were exploring our resources you know I'm a real big proponent of a K12 continuum doesn't matter what content area right I really don't believe in all these transitions not only for the adults because we like to do vertical teams but also for the student right they understand what the expectations are the routines and as they get older right they're immersed in the content areas and the resources that we've provided to them and we've got we wrote curriculum that is in this nice fluid
102Continuum over from kindergarten till grade 12 and American reading company is one of those tools right we've actually even started exploring the idea of maybe potentially using it in sixth grade so we have this real good strong k6 Continuum as well that's down the road um it's it's not proposed yet at all but when we look at quality resources and high and high quality tools we always look at that K12 Continuum and especially in reading all of which are aligned to the science of reading and the Five Pillars but also about authentic texts and choice and different genres as well okay great part of the reason I asked is because I think as board members it's important to uh also mention when you're dead wrong about things so I I think some of the questions
103I brought up about cell phones and technology are important ones and also flexible seating I don't know if you've been all tracking this or not but there's been some research that's coming out about standardized tests I've been pretty skeptical about standardized tests in the past but it's actually there's a lot of evidence that in terms of specifically evaluating curriculum around reading they're actually much more important that people might have fought you know 5 10 years ago as one measurement not the sum total of how we look at all education but the reason I'm mentioning that is I'm sure that we're going to be looking closely at our test scores over the next five years 10 years to make sure that this new science of reading program we're instituting is working well so that's partly where
104the urgency for my question comes from because you know we have to make sure that we see the improvement from this particular reading intervention also for parents but also board members who are listening to this I think that implementing this program is actually a a pretty important truth point on the whole idea of the sills in the first place because if the teachers aren't adopting this in the classroom I mean pretty much right away it it it's going to fall on on De to use that metaphor and just for the parents who are watching like this is a shift basically between guessing what words say and decoding them so you can actually uh learn reading from both a organic uh standpoint but also a much more phonics based standpoint so okay I'm glad to hear
105about the text thank you and uh I look forward to to continuing to hear more about it thanks everyone thanks Chad other questions comments Yeah question for fill on the capital budget if I make Steve yeah absolutely you know racking my head here and driving around campus I I don't know if I've ever seen that we had AC units that we put in Windows do we anywhere in the campus do you know I don't remember seeing any AC units yeah we do not very many and the reason you don't see them is because it's in they face out into an interior Courtyard at the high school right right so interest yeah example in our mou for the police the you the the offices have to be air conditioned and when the when the office at
106the high school when his air condition off when his office was in the back of the school um there was a window into the courtyard they had to put a a unit up there same thing in the in the faculty room so where they are you can't see them right right right I would think you know not speaking for Joe but that undermines some of the rationale for some of our initi is to have you know a break in the Integrity of the windows right okay that that's good because I I just got an email from the Department of energy I may be able to shave a few dollars off the capital budget because they're looking for classrooms that they could uh upgrade and in test through window AC units and dimable lighting so Phil
107you and I are gonna have a little money savings meeting with the Department of energy see if I can shave a few thousand off our budget well there's 15 school I'm sorry there's 15 classrooms at the high school that were never touched you know during that renovation when the air condition we still have the halves of the have knots um that can't get lost in the building projects so okay I think that I think it gives me something to write back to them with but I was just thinking we hadn't covered the capital budget this morning and I was just looking for where I can shave off a couple dollars or two and it looks like I found some so I'll leave it to uh our next uh Finance operation and Facilities meeting with Michael
108on board and we'll start talking to the toe about that okay thank you well related to uh the capital so last time we talked about the capital there was there's money set aside for LED lighting and we've done stff with that in the past but I asked the question if we've actually done an analysis yet to determine uh the true savings and I think you said no not yet um or maybe it was what the the analysis of what the savings would be if we took on that initiative so can you just re just tell me one more time if there's money in the budget to switch out to LED lighting for example um and we don't have an analysis yet of what the savings will be uh do we do that before undertaking the
109swap or do are we doing the swap regardless and then looking in the rearview mirror so the money that we do have in the budget serves to your point this is to do the analysis okay so the money is to determine if there would be a cost savings correct okay anyone else I guess we're good um so uh next step is tomorrow night at six o'clock um Lisa do you have anything else you want to say or you uh um just that just to review a couple of other dates so we have tomorrow at uh 6 pm to um discuss and vote and there's another um date uh I think it's Thursday correct if we um aren't ready to vote hopefully we are um or you are rather and we also have our executive session
110as a reminder coming up on security what's the date for that missa February 1 February 1 and our meeting on February 12th will be in person um because of the snow issue that we had and we will be recognizing some people in person as well as doing our um midyear update so I just kind of wanted to um get those dates on so we'll see you tomorrow at 6: pm and if necessary on Thursday at 6 PM right and remind me on the 1 what time is that Jody uh the 1 is going to be at 6 PM all right and I believe we've alloted at least 90 minutes to that right um director Rios is working on a a presentation and correct director Rios yes I think we're looking at an hour to an
111hour and a half Lisa okay and that's meeting so there's no public comment right it's an executive session session it is executive um so right seeing that can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second please second all those in favor I I I thanks everybody see you tomorrow night