Board of Education Meeting - March 10, 2026

0017:00. Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for being here tonight. Um, this is the Tuesday, March 10th, 2026 meeting of the Weathersfield Board of Education. It is 700 p.m. and we are in town hall council chambers. Uh, Bobby Granado could not make it tonight, so I'm here in her place. I will try to uh do her well by the best of my ability. She's a tremendous chair. It's going to be big shoes to fill, but we'll get through this night. Uh, as she normally reminds everyone, please turn off your cell phones because this meeting is live and it is being recorded. So, with that, roll call. >> Good evening, everyone. Miss Ken Carson, >> present. >> Mr. Kerry >> here. >> Ms. Debbacco >> here. >> Mrs. Roberts >> here. >> Mrs. Drew >> here.

002>> Mrs. Gold >> here. >> Mr. Riley >> here. >> Vice Chair Mr. Lacavoli >> here. >> Chairperson Granado is absent and Weathersfield High School student representative Miss Anushka Gandhi >> here. All present. >> Thank you, Ellen. Could we uh so we do the pledge of alleg pledge of allegiance before every meeting. Could we please have principal uh highest principal DO and the highest community lead us in the pledge of allegiance tonight? I aliance 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. >> Thank you all. So, the second item on our agenda tonight is one of our favorite. Um it's not often when we get to see what is going on in these schools, but

003we love when the kids come in and show us what is going on. So tonight we have student and staff recognition highest glow art presentation. You can all take it away. >> First of all, I want to thank you all for coming and joining us to celebrate these young artists and our very talented teacher, Mrs. Thompson. She is one of the best art teachers I've ever worked with. Um, these guys have been working so hard on all of their art projects and they're getting ready for our art show. So, our school right now is covered in artwork and it's amazing from all grades, kindergarten through sixth grade. So, today we're very excited and we thank the board of ed and superintendent Wibby for inviting us here today and all the parents for joining us to

004celebrate these glowing artists. And we also want to share some bright spots with you tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. I'm Jill Thompson, art teacher at Highest. Um these students are here to show you their glowing art. Uh the week before um winter break, we surprised all the students with glow-in-the-dark artwork. They had no idea it was coming. And for the whole week, we painted in the dark with black lights. And this is the art that they created. Each student is going to share with you their favorite part of the week. And um we're going to turn off the lights in a moment. And thanks to the PTO, we were able to do this. They funded this project, the lights, the supplies, and we're hoping to make it an annual um

005thing. So, we're going to hit the lights and turn on our black lights. Just give us a moment. his shirt's gone. >> Really? >> Wow. >> Oh, wow. Hold them up. >> Super cool. >> That's cool. >> All right, Jackson is over here. He's going to go first. Go ahead, Jackson. Um, my favorite thing I liked about Glow Week is how I got to mix the colors for my sand of my um, ocean and how I looked at the paper and drew um, all my sea animals. >> Thank you, Jackson. This is Jackson's brother, Kayen. Kayen, what was your favorite part about Glow Week? when we when I made the paint and when I got the the pastels and I colored my paint painting. Thank you, Kayen. Here's Annie. >> My favorite part of Glow

006Week was using a ton of different colors and ombre. This is Kora. >> My favorite part of Glow Week was like seeing all the neon different colors glowing. Here's Mila. >> My favorite part of glow week was being able to sit with all my friends. >> Kai, >> my favorite part of glow week was how we used paint colors and lots of different different pastels. >> This is Kent. >> My favorite part of Glow Week was that we got to walk in the dark. Luke, >> my favorite part of Glow Week was seeing all the neon and just cool colors glow in the dark. Fiona, >> my favorite part of Glow Week was getting to work with shading in very bright colors. This is Austin. >> Um I think um my favorite part of Glow

007Week because is that I like that everything was growing. >> This is Savannah. What I like um about glow week is using different materials. >> Marina, >> my favorite thing about glow week was um making all the different designs on my painting. >> Tyler, >> um like when it's all like glowing and you get to paint when the lights are out. and Cole. >> My favorite part of Glow Week was using glow-in-the-dark paint and seeing the paint glow. >> Thank you so much, artists. Your artwork is beautiful, and we hope everyone enjoyed seeing our glowing art. So the the artwork was extremely impressive, but almost equally impressive is that our teacher knew every student's name in the dark. That was great personalization. >> Needed a filler to get the lights back. >> How it feels

008dark in here. >> Our meetings in the dark. >> Yeah. I get a joke. >> All right. Thank you. Hi, Crest so much. Thank you, Principal Cleo. Thank you, Miss Thompson. Buddy, >> nice work tonight. >> Good job. >> Thank you for coming and helping us. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming. Adorable. >> Thank you all for coming tonight. >> Incredible work. >> Oh man, there goes our audience. >> Stay the rest. Are you surprised? >> Yeah. And there was admin. >> Yeah. >> Look who's left. >> Funny. >> Now it's just the regulars. >> All right. We can get to um agenda item three right now in which we approve minutes of previous meetings. I'll start with agenda item 3A. I move to approve the uh meeting minutes of the January 27th, 2026

009regular board of education meeting. Do I have a second? >> Second >> discussion. >> Um yes. On page 11, um the student's name that I mentioned, Raj is his is spelled um R O G rather than R AJ, which I I would have thought it was R A, but it's R O G. Anything else? >> Uh, all in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. >> Abstain. >> Thank you. >> That motion passes or those minutes are approved. Um, so uh item agenda item three B. I move to approve the February 10th, 2026 board of education workshop meeting minutes. Do I have a second? >> Second >> discussion. >> Yes, Mr. Chairperson. I'm starting on page three at the bottom. None of this is minutes. >> Okay. >> And I have a and so it says

010it says entry plan which is clearly identified in the agenda and his agenda attachment. So, I'm not sure I see the relevance of listing it as minutes cuz it's really not minutes. >> Is it entry plan or is it >> It's all as entry plan stuff. >> Okay. >> And that goes all the way to page nine. So, >> so you would like to strike that? >> I would I don't see it as minutes of of the meeting. I I see it as the attachment which we have as an agenda item. And typically in my experience, you would see as a discussion point and maybe highlight a couple of what his major points, but not list out his whole entry plan as part of the minutes unless we're going to verbatimly list the minutes. >>

011Okay. >> So, delete all that you're saying. >> So, what page 3 through nine you would like to? >> Yeah. Everything that's is is basically not minutes. It's literally just ver is his your entry plan relisted on there. Unless you think I'm wrong. >> You're friendly. You're asking for a friendly amendment of the minutes to just reference the >> that you you present it your entry plan, right? I mean, and that's that's really what the minutes should be. It shouldn't be a list of your entry plan cuz the entry plan is the agenda item and it has the attachment that has your whole entry plan. >> Makes sense. >> That's fine. Um, so I would have to make a motion to approve the minutes as amended by Chuck. Do I have a second? Second. >>

012All in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. >> Um, can you tell me who second? >> Me. >> Thank you, >> Lindy. >> Thank you, Chuck. >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, uh, agenda item three, uh, letter D. Uh, I move to approve the minutes of the February 17th, 2026 board of education budget workshop meeting number two. Do I have a second? >> Second >> discussion. All in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. Those minutes have been approved. Uh finally, agenda item three, letter E. I move to approve the minutes from the March 4th, 2026 board of education budget workshop meeting number three. Do I have a second? Second >> discussion. >> Hold on. Pardon. Did we do I'm very confused. >> We'll get it at the end. >> We skipped one. >> Yeah. Go

013ahead. Let this ride. >> I I understand. I just need to know which one we're on. I'm I've been looking through my >> E4 E. We're on E3. >> Okay. I was I was ready for the other one. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Got excited. >> So, no discussion. All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Abstain. That passes. I skipped over C inadvertently. Thank you, Jeff. Um, I would move to approve the February 14th, 2026 Board of Education budget workshop meeting from budget workshop meeting one. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I oppose abstain. Those minutes are approved. Uh, we are now at the public comment section of tonight's meeting. If there are any members of the public who have anything to say, please come up to the

014podium and give us your thoughts. Please keep in mind that you have five minutes and the board members will not respond to your comments at the moment. I'll give you a little nod when you're coming up on 5 minutes. >> Okay. >> It's not strict, but keep it close to 5 minutes. >> There's a huge line behind me. So, >> please please state your name and your address and then you have the floor. >> Yep. My name is Josie Peruda. Um I live at 88 Copper Mill and um good evening. Thanks for the time. I'm going to read this so I stick with my five minutes. Um just a little bit a bit of a background about me. I am an active member of our high crust community. I was the previous president of the

015WSPC. I also um am one of the girls head lacrosse coaches. So I do spend a lot of time in our town doing anything I can to help. Um, while I recognize it's already been requested, I do feel given all the recent snow days, I'd like to make a formal request to revisit the 2026 27 calendar, specifically December break, where students will have a 16day learning gap that includes weekends, 16 days. I want to acknowledge that the decision um that was made to give the two weeks off was likely made with good intention. However, I don't feel it was made with the entire town's representation for our educational growth, both for the town and for our students in mind. To my understanding, when um this was revisited earlier this school year, some teachers expressed that

016they had um a concern that they already had vacation plans. And um I guess questions that I know you can't answer, but things to just kind of think about. Do the number of vacation plans outweigh the importance of keeping kids in the classroom? Is there proof given by a majority of educators that they had already purchased tickets a year in advance or trips? Just some food for thought. Um, couple of things I also want to mention. our town is um to my understanding currently not really on par um with curriculum performance when you consider some surrounding towns like specifically I know Glastonbury um and given the 16-day gap um I believe and and I believe that it will lead to a learning loss due to loss of instructional momentum. This will require teachers to spend

017time retteaching materials when students return from having more than a half of a month off, which is a really long time for little ones. We must consider the practical real reality for Weathersfield families, too. Parents work. Our taxes are high and um a majority of us cannot leave children at home since they're too young. It can cause a financial hardship for those parents due to this decision that was supported by a leader who is no longer with us and um to my understanding a committee that also voted for it. Every day we add due to snow days is a is a day we risk adding to the end of June and we've seen that already this year with whatever winter storms can you know can come our way that'll quickly add up um at the

018end of the year. pushing this the school year deeper into June in buildings that lack full climate control is also a safety and a learning concern for our children. So, I urge you guys um the board to reconsider review for the December vacation um for two reasons. Instructional integrity, maintaining instructional momentum in December is better for academic retention than adding days to a potentially sweltering June. And by the way, watching movies at the end of June doesn't help with learning cuz that's what my kids are doing. Um, and then community impact. The financial burden of those extra days in looking for child care is a significant hint to household budgets. It's expensive. Daycare is outrageous. Um, and I do respectfully ask the board to put this back on the agenda or ask the community, can

019we do issue a community survey through parent square to see what parents are thinking? It is a year, what is it, eight, nine months out. So th those are my thoughts for this evening. I really do appreciate your service. I know that what you all do is hard and I appreciate the time on the floor this evening. So thank you everybody. >> Thank you for your thoughts. >> Good evening. Sally Kading 109 Church Street, but I am here to um provide uh vocal comment from Sarah Smith. Uh Sarah lives at 14 Huitt Street in Weathersfield. Um so I'm going to read what she wrote. She wasn't able to be here today. She has a 2-year-old and a fourth grader. Um so here's Sarah's question. At the WSPC uh meeting, it was noted the recent meeting,

020it was noted that elementary classes in the 24 to 27 student range require additional instructional supports to ensure effective small groupoup instruction. At Hanmer, the current fourth grade classes are 26 and 27 students. After moving from three sections to two following last year's staffing change, several families have raised concerns about the impact of class size on instruction and classroom climate. Has the district considered restoring a third section for this cohort? And if that is not feasible, what consistent instructional supports will be in place for these classrooms now and as they move as the group moves into fifth grade? Thank you. Thank you. All right, that's the first section of public comment. We're now moving on to agenda item five, superintendence report. Chairman, I just want to bring to your attention, we don't normally do a

021superintendence report in a workshop evening because we had a board snow out uh for our second February meeting. I have included in the packet the uh superintendent report from that board meeting and I'm just going to pull out a couple of brief things because these are a little bit couple weeks back for some of them. However, I do want to pull out uh the first thing the community engagement update connected to the Windham the Weathersfield High School Coralair performance. I'm pleased to share that our Weathersfield High School Coralers performed today for our senior center um and over at the Pickin Center ballroom. This event featured also our Weathersfield Public Schools culinary experiences pro provided by our students. So, our culinary kids actually made uh treats and brought coffee for the seniors there. Um and then

022the coralers uh had an opportunity to to sing. It was great. Uh we were so proud to give the kids an opportunity to um perform for our Weathersfield senior citizens and um I think that they kind of enjoyed it uh as well. So that was one thing I just wanted to highlight. The second thing we heard um in the SPS committee uh earlier this evening uh about our new technology districtwide technology committee which is one of the 56 deliverables for the the district continuous improvement plan. So check off check off yes for this one. Uh we've officially uh received three View Sonic viewboards which are are part of our new current inventory of classroom view displays. Now the viewboards are in replacement of the old Smartboards and we're really excited for a couple of reasons.

023One, the old smartboards in the classroom usually were priced around $5,000 to $5,500 and they had bulbs in them that were between $500 and $900. The new viewboards are we purchased them for about $1,700. So over the course of 5 years as we replace them, we're replacing the smartboards for these new viewboards for less than 50% of the costs of those old smartboards. The second part that we're really excited about is this new committee which is comprised of educ teacher classroom teachers and IT staff and administrators. They actually got to pilot several boards. So people who are going to be using the boards in the classroom had a voice in the selection process. So, we're really excited about uh both the new committee and the decision to make both an economical and qualitative improvement in

024um the classroom view boards. I also want to bring to the board's attention that the uh grades 5 through 8 is going through uh a middlegrades literacy field test team. And we talked a little bit about that at the um at the SPS committee as well where they're piloting two science of reading uh pathways uh where they'll actually select one and bring it back to the board in May and then we'll do a very in-depth pilot uh next fall grades 5 through 8 in the science of reading. So, we're going to complete uh you know the the we we embarked on K through three science of reading the last few years and we're looking to um to extend that all the way up through grade 8 science of reading. And I think uh that's uh

025most of it for for this month. Thank you, Jeff. That brings us to our action items, which we have a couple of tonight. I'm going to get right into it. We'll do action item 6A, which is a an approval of health food certification. Bear with me. It's quite lengthy. moved that pursuant to CGS section 10-215F, the Weathersfield Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to

026school stores, vending machines, school cafeteria, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups. and further moved that the Weathersfield Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut Nutrition Standards and Beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes, provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. and three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or a school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer

027games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsal, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight of 4 to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I abstain. Objected. That motion passes. That brings us to action item 6B. Moved that the Weathersfield Board of Education accepts Weathersfield High School state project number 159-01 RNV/E as complete and authorizes the superintendent to prepare and submit form SCG-049F to the Office of Grants Administration. Second >> discussion. >> Can we have some background what exactly this is, Mr. Wibby? >> Absolutely. So, what this means is the board

028is accepting as complete the high school project that was done many years ago. And this is so that the Department of Administrative Services can close out the books. But they can't do that until the board of education says we we got what uh we got from the construction project what we paid for and uh we're accepting the project as complete and this would allow the DAS to close the books officially on the high school project >> and there hasn't been next step would be the final audit. Correct. >> I believe that is the next step. We're we're telling them we've accepted the project and then DAS does do project audits. >> Do you know how much money of Weather Shield's still being held by the state until the audit is that we will be getting

029back from the project being finalized? >> I do not know the exact amount. What? And and it fluctuates wildly sometimes as these projects close out and I've even seen the audited sum change by a half a million or more on projects that I've kind of dealt with. So, my answer is I don't know the exact number, but they're also not um it's not worth hanging your hat on until the audited balance comes back from DAS and we will report that, you know, at a future date. >> All right. Could you get it get us what the number is expected at this point because there's a contingency fund as we know. I was on the committee 10 years ago now, so I forget, but I'm just curious of what they're what the state's been holding on

030to. >> Sure. So, and I know it goes straight to the town and we don't benefit from it, but it'll help pay down the bonds that we took out and hopefully then eliminate some of our debt so from the high school. >> Mr. Chairman, would it would it please the group if uh that would be something that we brought to the finance uh subcommittee and uh so that you could get some full discussion uh from from that group? >> Certainly. >> And then that could be reported back to the full board. >> We welcome it. >> Okay. We're happy to do that. >> Thank you for the questions, Chuck. Any more questions? All in favor? >> I oppose. Abstain. That motion passes. Next up, uh action item 6C. I move that the Weathersfield Board of

031Education approve the operating budget for the 2026 2027 school year as presented by the administration in the amount of $70,490,88. We have a second. >> Second. discussion. Can you present? Jeff's going to present and then we can all ask questions and discuss. Much appreciated. Thank you. Kristen, do you want this? You want to do this? Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about our uh annual budget proposal, the superintendent's proposal. First of all, I want to thank our team. First and foremost, I want to thank uh finance director Kazaka. This has been the most seamless experience I've had nine or 10 years as a superintendent of schools. His preparation and his expertise uh made the budget process uh flows uh so well. So, uh, just a lot of kudos to Matt

032and his team up in the finance office. They were outstanding. I also want to thank our cabinet team who are all here this evening, as well as uh our our leadership and our staff members uh across the district uh for the preparation of this uh proposal before you uh tonight for consideration. Um first of all, you know, kind of the the preamble of this budget is um you know, we we paused this year due to the town fiscal conditions and the finite resources as well as the overwhelming generosity that was afforded to us by the Weathersfield taxpayers addressing upgrading our elementary facilities. There are many areas that we want to address for growth. However, we are doing so prudently and sustainably over time. Um, this is a year for let's stick with that slide for

033a second, Kristen. This this is the year for us to be reticent of Weathersfield local conditions. I am presenting one of the regionally and DUR lowest proposed budgets for FY27. We are sticking to a priority and paramount needs budget only. I want to stress that I'm a new superintendent of schools here in Weathersfield and there's a lot of things that I would like to work on. However, this is not the year to propose dozens of new ideas, new things. This is the year to kind of take a step back, pause, and show a great deal of gratitude to our taxpayers this year. So those two things, our paramount needs, our highest needs, and respect for the generosity that's been afforded to us of the taxpayers are two of the big driving forces. We can go

034ahead now to the next one. I just want to summarize the overall budget pieces. My proposed budget is for $70,490,000 for next year. This is a increase of 4.48% which is a 3 million21,000 increase over last year. It's important to note salaries and benefits comprise 82.2% of the total proposed budget and salaries and benefits account for 92% of the total budget increase. So of that 4.4% 4% majority of it is going to the salary and benefits increase. I think it's important for me to note this budget that I'm putting before you includes no layoffs and it also includes no temporary RIFF papers either. As we know, there's a mandatory date that we have to notify certified staff when they could be uh laid off or reduced in force. And that date, unfortunately for boards of

035education across Connecticut, is usually before the actual date when budgets are approved. So it always puts boards of education across Connecticut in a a difficult position. Um and but this budget as proposed, we would not have to even do some of those um those hopefully temporary riffs. So the budget as proposed is a no riff budget and riff means reduction in force. Okay. As I said, we are presenting the town and the board with one of the regionally and district resource group comparatively lowest budget proposals of 4.48. I'm going to just share the proposed budgets in some of our neighboring communities. Cromwell was a 6.61% 61% increase. Newington was a 9.8% increase. Rocky Hill was an I'm going to get better glasses. An 8.9% increase. Our neighbors on the other side of the river in

036Glastonbury was a 5.8 and South Windsor was a 7.9%. These are tough times on families, taxpayers, consumers. We still have some inflationary measures that are lingering going back from the pandemic. Some have relaxed, some haven't. I'll point out a few differently. I had a great taxpayer who called my office and said, "Mr. Wibby, can you take it easy on us? This year my grocery bill is up higher and it's more expensive for me to do this, that, and the other thing." And I said, "I I totally understand." And I said, "You understand my grocery bill for feeding, you know, 3,600 kids is also up and my insurance rates are way up and my, you know, so that the the stress that's going on our taxpayers and our citizens also affects our our costs at the

037school level. So I mentioned all these 4.48 48 is a regional and a durg very we're we're in the lead league leaders so to speak of some of the lower one of the lower budget proposals uh that's out there. We can go ahead again uh just kind of looking at the numbers and the budget drivers. The budget drivers are like where the major parts of our expenditures lie. Number one are our salaries which it comprises uh a 71.4% of the total budget and that's a 4.93 year-over-year increase. We take a look at benefits is a 21.1% uh total percentage of the budget increase and the year-over-year increase is 5.6%. 6%. So if you just take those two, that's 92% of that budget increase. Um, so just to kind of give you a handle, those are

038the two big budget drivers. Transportation is in that pack two as well. Before I ask you, uh, before I tell you what I'm asking for, I want to tell you what I'm not asking for. So I have a slide here with deferred investments. These are all things that were identified through my entry plan process that these are things that we really want to consider but not this year. These are you know the just wanted to show our process of fiscal constraint for this year. We we really need these things but I think we can hold off another year on these. First I have 10.4 reading tutors. So it's 10 point 10 10 people but it would be 04 FTE. So a little bit less than a half a day. Um people come in and uh

039help support us. Similarly with math teachers we're looking for five. We would we would be looking for more EL te tutors in the potential future. I really would like to hear or to see uh sports added at Silistine Middle School. We're one of the few middle schools that don't have any um athletic activities for kids after school. And I heard from many of our families and parents that they would like to see more connective activities for the middle school. Love to see another K6 bed teacher. We would love to add uh EL certified staff. I would love to add uh K through six building and grounds patrol officers. I would like to add a K6 fizzed teacher, um, math interventionists, lead teachers, um, and of course, uh, BCBAS. We want to make positive but sustainable

040changes over time that can be supported by our local tax base. I don't want to come in and just throw a million things up there and say, I need all of these. Let's get a few of these. Uh, but I need all of these. I don't think that's fair or sustainable for our taxpayers. So, we limited our ask this year to the things that are very strategic, very important, and we'll talk about it in a minute, but uh we we're we're just want to show that we're we we we're exercising great restraint. We want to make sure our planning will be scalable for a five and 10year implementation strategically. I don't want to ask for things this year that I'll have to come back in three years and say, "Ah, we can't afford these anymore."

041I want to make sure the things that I ask for, we can sustain over time through staff planning and staff efficiencies. Like I said, I have many ideas or strategic improvements, uh, but we want to defer some of these. We won't constantly push for more from the board of ed and for the taxpayers, but we may push for differences over time. We'll identify opportunities for efficiencies and changes. I'm never going to come to you and say, "I need 10 more teachers. I need 50 more of these." We'll say, "We might need to do things differently, and we'll give you a strategic plan on how we can get there because we know funds are limited. We don't have a last time I checked, I don't think there's a money printing machine downstairs. And um we we

042want to be respectful to uh the folks who are so generous to us here in the schools and be respectful of their taxes. Here's what we are going to look for. Um you know, we want to invest in one big thing for next year and that's early literacy. I want to go through a few slides for a few minutes with you to to explain why this isn't so so important. But we want to build the rock or the foundation of Weathersfield Public Schools on early literacy uh particularly kindergarten through grade 4. In my budget proposal, I have five elementary reading interventionists. The reason why I'm asking for these is because they affect all our kids. They affect our students who have IEPs. They they support our EEL students, but they also support our students who

043are achieving ahead of grade level so that we can provide enrichment opportunities for those kids. Reading interventionists help all of our kids and they support our classroom teachers. The second thing that I have well before I move forward I'm asking for five but I can all I can I I really can find funding for two through efficiencies tonight. I can tell you that we found an opportunity elsewhere to pay for two of those five. So, it's like shopping at the Big Y. You buy two and you get three for free almost. And that's that's kind of, you know, similar to to the way we're looking at. We've found a way to fund two of these through other efficiencies within the budget. We It would be reckless of me to offer the board tonight in early

044March more of those efficiencies. I know in my head that things are evolving with the budget, but I think publicly at this time it would be reckless of me to say, "Oh, I could find more or there's more over here or more over there." Um, it just we're not ready. There's a lot there's a lot more chips that have to fall or move throughout the school year before I'm I'm prepared to to do that. I also have included uh kindergarten pareducators who are focused on early literacy. These would be folks that we would hire and we would provide training over the summer to help support early reading in kindergarten. Um and finally, we're asking for a service delivery program review, which is $75,000. And this would be to come in and help provide an audit

045of our EL systems, our IEP systems, um our our tier 2, tier three intervention systems, or what we call MTSS. You'll hear us frequently say that. That's known as multi-tered systems of support. So, this would be a comprehensive look under the hood. Um, it would be like my entry plan on steroids, so to speak. Um, there'd be a team of of highly skilled educators that would come in and work with our team and and look at this. You know, I want to tell you, well, what Jeeoff, how come? Why? Let me tell you why early literacy is important. And this is why we're starting with this. Um, it's a simple, powerful truth. Early literacy is one of the strongest predictors of a child's long-term success. By the end of third grade, students shift from learning

046to read to reading to learn. If kids aren't reading on grade level, by the end of third grade, they struggle to wrestle with the more rigorous, complex concepts in grades 4 through 12. National research shows that they are four times more likely to drop out of high school if they're not reading by uh by the end of grade three. And there's a higher propensity that they will be incarcerated by age 19 than be in higher education if they're reading below grade level. Therefore, it's an absolute crisis across America to make sure kids are reading on grade level. This doesn't mean literacy alone determines children's futures, but it does mean early reading proficiency is a foundational skill that opens doors for our children. When students struggle early, the challenges ripple outward for years. Our goal is

047to intervene before those gaps widen. Let me talk to you a little bit about Weathersfield current reality. You may say, "Ah, Jeff, that's not here in Weathersfield. you know, that might be, you know, those are national statistics. Let me share with you a little bit about what Weathersfield looks like as well as the the rest of the country. In Weathersfield, our data mirrors what we are seeing nationally. Roughly a quarter of our K3 students here need tier 2 or tier three literacy report uh support. 24% of Weathersfield students needed the tier 2, tier three. If you look at nationally, before the pandemic, it was about 20 to 45%. Uh after the pandemic, it's 35 uh up into the higher 40 percentile. We're also serving more multilingual learners here in Weathersfield than ever before, which is

048a strength for our community, but it also increases the need for strong foundational literacy instruction. These numbers tell us something important about our early literacy system. It's under real pressure. Our classroom teachers are under real pressure to be providing tier 2 and tier three intervention in our tier one or our regular classrooms. Um and and we do that. That's why we're asking for this support. Early lit early intervention saves money. Jeff, you're telling me this? How can that be true? Um, one of the clearest findings in educational research is that early intervention is more effective, but it's also more economical than remediation. A tier 2 or tier three intervention in early grades costs a fraction of what it takes to support a student who needs inter intensive services in middle or high school. Special education

049literacy services can cost 10 to 15 times more than early intervention in kinder, first or second grade. This just isn't about dollars. It's also about giving students the right support at the right time. K through three is a foundational developmental period. When we intervene early, we prevent years of frustration for students and families and we avoid the escalating costs that come with delayed support. Let me just give you a a example. High school. If we have to hire Orton Gillingham reading specialist teacher at the high school, chances are there might be 5 to 10 kids at the high school that might need intensive OG support. If that teacher was making, just for ease of numbers, bear with me. I'm a social studies teacher. Let's just say the teacher's making about $100,000. So, if there's five

050kids, okay, you're paying about $20,000 a kid. If there's 10 kids, it's about $10,000 a kid. So, that gives you the scope of the costs of intervention. If they're at an elementary school, the same hundred kids could be spread out in groups, five or six different groups, eight or nine different groups with five or six different kids. Now you're paying about $2,000 a student. So, and and there's a reason for that. As kids grow older, their skills the the variance of their skills grows wider. When kids are in kindergarten, their skills may vary like this. If you look at the data for your whole kindergarten group, their skills might be this far apart. As they go to first grade, maybe a little more. As they get up to third grade, it gets a little further.

051When you get to 9th grade, it's this wide. So, it's very expensive and it's hard to schedule for us. It's like a spray effect is effect. As the kids get farther apart from each other, it's harder to schedule and more expensive. Just a little bit on early literacy. Um, this proposal that we have in front of you focuses on uh targeted investments that directly address the needs we're seeing. First, adding these interventionists will reduce case loads of our staff, increase the amount of daily support our students receive. Second, we're investing in evidence-based materials and assessments aligned with the science of reading. Third, we're strengthening our teacher training in every classroom. Uh, finally, we're expanding high dosage tutoring. Together, these investments total less than 1% of our operating budget, but it'll have the potential to dramatically

052change the outcomes for hundreds and hundreds of our students. The bottom line, the bottom line is simple. We on the tree. There we go. You The bottom line is simple. Early literacy is one of the smartest, most preventative investments we can make as a district. It improves student achievement, strengthens equity, and reduces long-term costs, not just in education, but across social services and the broader community. As we know, if students are struggling with reading, they get disengaged. They become behavior problems sometimes, and it incurs other costs. By investing now, we're not only supporting our youngest learners, we're protecting our future budgets, strengthening our graduation rates, and ensuring every child in Weathersfield has the foundation they need to thrive. This is a strategic investment in our students, our schools, and our community's future. Again, this is

053uh budget drivers, our salaries. Um 4.93%. Um I will always say our talent is our biggest lever we have in student achievement. Um inflationary times, national workforce shortages, uh catching up to be competitive. All this talent management is important for us to consider. Uh let's go ahead. This is a uh these are bits and pieces of things that I've already showed the board. I bring to your attention again our current certified staffing levels remain reasonably in the middle of our durg. You look at certified staff to student ratios. I would say they're not too high, they're not too low. They're in a good spot towards the middle of the DUI. It's important for us to look at this as we do our budget process every year. It gives the board a good idea of you

054know how many how how how are we doing with our staffing current administrator level re uh remains one of the bottom two in the DIR. We have the fewest certified administrators, the second fewest certified administrators of any school district uh in in our DUIR. And just it's important to note we're not proposing any new administrators, you know, this year, but we're really on the low end. And finally, our current per pupil expenditure trails the DUI and the state mean and median. As you can see, we're um we're a little bit up uh towards the the top. As I kind of pointed out earlier, we expend about 19,000 per student. Um oh man, I got to get better glasses. These these are really small. Uh Old Sabbrook is the highest at 27,000 and uh Leard is

055the lowest at 16,000. So you kind of see the array or the expenditure. I'm not really putting a judgment but I do like to provide the board with data as we kind of take a look at this. Want to shift to staff planning. Um moving forward we always want to come to the board with a staff plan particularly during budget season so that we look at the composition of our staff over time. over time with strategic staff planning we can generate budget opportunities for the board. I don't want to talk too much about about this but um you know if you kind of look at the distribution of the staff we have um 70% of our staff are at the highest step and I think if you go step 9 10 and 11 it moves

056up to 80%. um you know, that's going to be a liability for us because we're going to lose all of our veteran staff probably at the same time and that's going to be a big brain drain for us that we have to kind of start thinking about and bracing for because we have such a majority of our staff up there. So, we want to really embrace talent management and preparation for that. They call it sometimes the silver tsunami when a lot of people are going to age out at the same time and leave us um in a situation where um you know we're we're understaffed and we know that there's a national teacher shortage. So we really want to be mindful of having a healthy distribution across that. As you see we have very few

057uh teachers at the at the bottom end of that distribution. We want to work towards a more evenly distributed staff grouping over time. This is something that it's a goal for us to plan for over 5 years, over 10 years, but it's it makes up over 80% of your budget and we want to be able to manage it reasonably. Um, you know, just bring attention to budget drivers, benefits, uh, big driver here. I'm going to go to the next slide. We looked back at our last 10 years for a budget and insurance. And I said, you know, insurance is is a is a big driver for us. We've seen generationally high inflationary pressures, especially on insuranceances. Over the last 7 years, this has significantly reduced the board's buying power for other vital needs like professional

058development and staffing. Don't forget insurance is a cumulative effect. So if it went up 10% 3 or four years ago, that 10% is still woven into your current budget. It's important for me to remind everybody four out of the last seven years we have had doubledigit increases in insurance. So this has over time greatly reduced or eroded the board's ability to purchase materials, professional development, hire staff, um, and so on and so on. This is like the gift that keeps on giving these inflationary pressures connected to insurance. Um, this next slide is a newer slide. We didn't show this in the workshops, but it just shows the ECS entitlements um you know that Weathersfield uh has been receiving. And um you know I think somebody had asked about this. So we wanted to we this

059was we circled back based on one of the board's uh questions to just show the ECS funding level um and increases over time. You can go ahead Kristen again all the other budget drivers um aggregate transportation uh is increasing 136,000 next year. Um instructional program improvements is going up 56,000 with the inclusion of the new service delivery program review. So, it would have normally gone down, but we're adding in that $75,000 line, but it's only moving the total uh the the total line to 56,000 because we found other efficiencies in this particular line. Pupil services is increasing 60,000 based on um projected student constitutions and evaluations. Uh technology equipment is decreasing $105,000. uh as Chromebook inventory uh is being refreshed. So, this is an opportunity for a little bit of efficiencies. Um I think it's

060very important. Uh I I really applaud the board of education has had an extremely transparent budget timeline. We had multiple budget workshops. We had one on Saturday, February 14th, one on Tuesday, February 17th. Um we we presented on February uh 24th. Did we No, that was the snow out date. We're doing that now. Um board of ed action. Oh, I got to look at the slide, not my my notes here. I got the wrong dates in my my notes. Uh board of ed presentation uh was tonight. Ob obviously. And again, these dates uh have been communicated for for some time. So again, we're looking forward to joint town and uh board budget hearings moving forward. And um we really thank the board uh for this opportunity. Uh we we had some really outstanding questions from

061all of our board. Uh we we appreciate how engaged the board was and how inquisitive and how many questions that you asked. Um, you know, I I we deeply appreciated your interest and your deep dive into our budget process and it's been such a great working relationship between our administration and the board of education. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Um, so before I open the floor to group discussion, I just want to offer my input and my discussion and my thoughts thus far. Um, you're getting better every time you present it. Um, I appreciate the fact that you paint a picture uh and you go into detail to explain why you're asking what you're asking for. That's much appreciated. I sort of just want to um provide a little context um in terms of what

062we're spending on education here in town. before I give my opinions on the budget. Um, so currently the town of Weathersfield is spending less than the district group average and the state average in terms of per pupil spending. Um, despite that, we're performing relatively well. We're in the top third in the accountability index. Um, which is a measure I really like. It's not just test scores. It measures the whole the whole kid, the whole student. Um, I think that because of us spending less and us performing well, I think it indicates that in the past years, we've been responsible. We've been responsible as a school district. We're not ask we don't have crazy asks of the taxpayers. Um, and I think that this budget is just a continuation of that. I I don't think this

063deviates from us being responsible as a school district. Um the number that Jeff presented in my opinion is responsible. Um it's responsible in terms of what other area superintendent are asking of their boards and it's also responsible in terms of the number that we as a board normally bring to the council and ask for. This is relatively low historically for what we're going to present to the council if if we end up adopting it and voting on it. um not not only is it targeted uh at kindergarten and early literacy, so it's going after kids um at a young age, but I think it's multiaceted. I I I believe that investing in kindergarten and early literacy pays dividends not just in literacy, but also in EL, in math, in scores, in the accountability index. Um,

064I also think that over the past couple elections here in town, specifically with the referendum, I think that Weathersfield voters and Weathersfield taxpayers have expressed a willingness and a desire to invest in education. Um, I I think that this this budget is a responsible investment in education. Um, I certainly support it. I I can't speak for everybody else up here, but my thoughts out of the way, I obviously open the floor to anybody else that has any opinions on this budget or thoughts. Hands. Show of hands. Marjorie. >> Yeah, I'll say a few words. I I agree with you, Matt. Um, and I would say like the word targeted is very um, you know, perfect for this plan because it is targeted and very focused and there could be like you see all the other

065things we probably need. We absolutely need certain things, but this is what I think is a plan instead of like I feel like in sometimes in past budgets we are just reacting to the year and um this feels like there's more of like a plan for many years because if you invest now you spend less later um especially as Mr. Webby talked about like how much you spend at the high school level or, you know, middle school, high school level on services for kids that may have just, you know, not needed to do that if they had just been reading at uh grade level by third grade earlier. So, I think this looks into the future. This is this is responsible because there's a point and purpose to it. um the the the the added

066um the the things he's trying to add to the budget as far as like the uh literacy. Um and I also think that um it is tough. I mean the ECS funding we we talked about that is like is the is the um educational cost sharing by the legislature and they give money a certain amount of money every year. Um there is a hope that they'll increase it this budget cycle. We'll see. um but we don't know and so we're just given what we have here and that money goes to the town in anyway. Um, but I think this is a really good targeted um, proposal by the superintendent. And I also just think it's great good to just take what he says as someone who's new has a different perspective from having been a

067superintendent in other places, having seen other budgets, giving us kind of another point of view and look at what we've been doing and what we can do in the future and what he sees are the needs and gaps that maybe hasn't been really looked at in the past. Um so I I completely um um support this budget that he's proposed. >> Thank you. Marjorie Mindy found some thoughts so that I someone who's um very passionate about early childhood education and early literacy. I wanted to make sure I was able to capture my thoughts. So um I just wanted to take a minute to voice my strong support of Superintendent Wibby's proposed budget. As a new member of the board this year, I've been incredibly impressed not only by the thoughtfulness of the proposal itself, but

068by the clarity and transparency with which it was presented to us. I listened carefully during our three budget workshops. We asked questions and we received thorough, thoughtful answers from a team that clearly knows this work deeply. And my trust in the experts who built this budget has been earned. As others have mentioned, this is one of the lowest budgets not only in our dur but beyond it. And I want to be clear, I personally don't celebrate a low budget because it's low. I support this budget because of what it prioritizes and why. And while I'm not a budget expert, I do know a lot about early childhood investment. And what I see here is a superintendent who asked exactly the right question. Where does investment pay off the most right now? And the answer from

069him and his team is early literacy and the strongest possible kindergarten experience. And I just agree wholeheartedly. Meeting children as early as possible in their development isn't just good educational practice, but as we heard is it's fis it uh it is fiscally responsible governance. Strategic early investment reduces the need for far more expensive interventions later in a child's educational career. We spend less and we serve children better. And what while those two things don't always go together, when they do, I think we should seize it. I also want to say something about how Jeff and his team approach this work because they are systems builders. They are not applying band-aids. They are looking holistically at the structures and conditions that will enable good educational work to flow, not just this year, but for years to

070come. And I think that's exactly how public dollars should be spent. Um, and the desire that Matt talked about from our taxpayers, not chasing problems, but building the capacity to prevent them. So, I'm grateful to be at this table. I'm grateful for the educators and administrators who carry the enormous responsibility of actually delivering these outcomes every day. and their expertise deser deserves our respect and our resources. Um, so I just wanted to thank the team uh for all of their hard work and I'm I'm really grateful for to support this budget. >> Thank you, Mindy. Additional thoughts, Janice? >> Um, I don't have a lot to add. I think it's been well said by Marjorie and Matt and Mindy, but um my thoughts go to um the fact that Mr. Wiblies um has a track

071record of improvement achievement um academic achievement improvement um and so I I go to his experience with that and his understanding of what's going to get us to where we would we want want to be and uh so I think that's a really important thing to note. I also, excuse me, would like to echo what the previous board members had stated and support this budget. Um, as a first-time member on the board and someone who's still kind of learning the ropes to all of these different processes, I just want to extend my thank you to the entire administrative team for all the work you put in to creating what I believe is a very clear and concise budget. You explained what's in it, why you're asking for what you're asking for, and looking at the

072numbers of the DUI, this feels like a very responsible and targeted budget moving forward, and I am honored to be at the table and to extend my support. >> Thank you, Gabby. Amanda, go ahead. >> Um, I'm going to change things up, and I'd like to uh move that we amend the budget amount to 70,111,473. What was that number again? >> 70,111,473. I looked at it and then I was like, am I saying it right? >> That's fine. >> So, there's an amendment made to this motion. Is there a second? I second discussion. >> I would like to say my my reason for this. >> Yes. Um, number one, I appreciate everything that um has been said and I believe that we all agree um just a little bit differently. So, um just like what

073the very first thing that the superintendent said, we really need to respect and appreciate what the taxpayers did for us in this referendum. um they basically said that they were willing to to upgrade our buildings um at a at a higher cost and they took on that and we need to respect what they did. Um and uh the other issue that I have is that um there's been a lot of changes to the upper levels of the administration this year. Um, and we we actually have some spaces and I want to make sure that the superintendent has the time and the uh resources to create a master plan for us. So, it's not just peace meal. I want something because I feel like the superintendent has a lot of ideas. He's even said it. He

074has a vision for us. And what I would like to see is him to put that vision, that five-year plan, and present it to us. So then therefore, um, we're able to see what is going to be happening. So we're not, you know, catching up to what we need to do. Um, and as far as the durg and the number, I just want to say it's a little conflated because, um, we do not handle the maintenance portion of, um, of the of our budget. And so the numbers that, you know, the towns of Glastonberry or they actually handle their maintenance. So that's a large number um that we don't take into consideration. So, you know, when you have those numbers of what their budgets are, you know, you can't tell me that it the majority

075could possibly be like maintenance and not that. Um, so, and I I I I also have we're going to be changing the structure of our schools soon. And how great would it be to have our experts in the room designing the plan for us come next year so that we have it. And um so that's why I fully believe that we should have the audit 110%. And that's why the number that I have is there. It's not just um uh taking away you know um people. I believe the audit would actually help with efficiency and it might even save us money where we would be able to even bring in people. Um but right now I just feel like we should be um super responsible. This number would I think it's 3.92 is the number.

076Um so it's well under four and um I think that also goes along with what town council um will probably bring us at. So then we will be we are we are being responsible stewards of the budget of the budget where they really don't have much of an argument with us. Um and we would make sure that we wouldn't fire anybody or have to do the um you know that big long motion to you know hold everybody. So that's that's what I said. I I appreciate it. I you know again thank you very much for listening to me. No. >> So, so just um for clarity, the dollar amount that your uh amendment entails is salaries and benefits plus just the audit. >> Yes. >> Okay. Door's open. >> Yes. So, go ahead. Chairperson, madam.

077No, Mr. Right. Mr. Good. All right. >> Either or. >> So, first of all, thank you to Jeff and his team, especially Matt, and I know all the hard work that goes into it, and he's a brilliant finance guy. So today is my turn to to give you a bit little bit of an ego. So I do appreciate it. Jeff, you've created quite the team down at central office and kind of along those same lines as Amanda. My thoughts is let's get a plan on paper. Let's get a 2, threeear plan, four-year plan and then start implementing it. I don't think you're peacemailing it. I wouldn't say I think it's a thoughtful roll out in your mind. I just as a board member and as a taxpayer I want to see the full plan before

078we decide what we're going to support and what we're going to roll out. So I do believe in early childhood education. My my masters is in that. I understand the need for that. I just want to see some roll out off of your slides though. What was interesting is the national average of tier 2, tier three, which is what most of your add-ons are addressing, is 35 to 45% and we're at 24%. So, we're below, and I still think 24% is way too high for our district. What I'm curious is, and you don't need to I don't need an answer, is what were we pre- pandemic? So, this the the the national average went up 10 15% your slide elegantly showed. I'm just curious, did we stay status quo? Did we go up or did

079we go down? I mean, 24% versus the nation is great and I think it's not great for where we should be, but on that slide, it actually doesn't look bad. So, I'm just curious about where we were pre- pandemic and if there's any movement. Um, since there was a slide and a comment about it, I do want to make it clear. We have added four administrators since the superintendent has taken the seat, all outside of the budget process, which I have an issue with, and we've already aired my concerns around that. But we do have four more certified administrators than we had on July 1st of this year. Four eliminating the director of HR who wasn't in a certified administrator and creating that administration makes the fourth. >> Right. When we think about certified administrators,

080he was not a certified administrator. The former HR director. >> Your statement was accurate, but it was still a trade of one position. >> No. Well, I understand it's just four administrators. Now, I didn't say you created four new positions. Your statement was accurate. Yeah. >> Can I ask a question? Are you saying he he added >> point of order? >> Oh, sorry. >> The floor is mine. Let him finish. >> Okay. I'm not finished. >> Hold that thought. >> Okay. >> Since we had a whole slide on everybody who's over our budget, I've done some research very quickly. And in our DUR, Wingford was 3.29. Um, close to us. I won't not our DUR. East Harford's 1.9%, Ellington's 2.93%, Graanby's 3.8%. 8% Simsbury is 3.25 and I think we all know Simsbury is usually

081at one of the highest achieving districts. So to put a whole slide up there of everyone who's above us was great but it would have been nice if we intermingled people who are actually below us who are around us. Uh East Winds are 3.97. So I mean I can give the same statistics that say we we we are coming in high compared to people around us. I just want to make sure. Um, I'm just curious if we could have some research around the fact that we save money by uh early childhood. I mean, I heard your statement about the high school and I'm not really a believer in that how we how you're doing apples to apples, but is there research based on that statement and you don't need to say it now. Just if

082you could share with us the research behind that. You you kind of alluded to research based on that. So, I'm just curious about that as well. >> Thank you, Marjorie. than we can. >> Marjorie, what was your question? >> I was just asked Mr. Ruby, does he is he saying you added former positions that didn't exist before or are you just filled four positions? >> We filled positions and he's accurate that we went from a certified from a non-certified to a certified, but it wasn't an additional extra position. But what he said was we did shift from a one person who used to not be certified and we changed that person to certified. That is a factually accurate. However, we stayed with um you know at that position wasn't an increase. It was just a

083change increase in FTE I should say. >> Thank you. comments, Jim. >> I just wanted to say that um you know, I'm thankful for all the hard work and everyone's effort into this uh budget process. Um I do agree with uh Amanda and Chuck that, you know, our taxpayers have to be taken into consideration. Um in addition to the you know the referendum that's been approved, we also have the real estate um reval that is increasing over the next uh 3 years. So we certainly have to be um cognizant of that. I do agree that the 75,000 is money well spent. Um who knows what um fruits that might uh bring us. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jim. Uh yes. So I just have some thoughts on the amended dollar amount. Um a long-term plan

084is being asked for. I believe any long-term plan that would end up being implemented would probably start with early literacy and kindergarten. So I I don't foresee that changing if a long-term plan had been presented. Um I too am a taxpayer. Um I'm far from wealthy. I watch every dollar I have. I count them all. Um I try to save as much as possible. So any increase in the board of ed budget would also affect me. That being said, I value the investment in education just a little bit more. Don't get me wrong, you all are making great comments. I I respect all of your opinions. Um you brought a shrewd eye to this budget process. Um, I remember going through the budget binder just like you did when I first got on the board,

085putting post-its on every line asking what's this, what's that, what's this. Um, the work that you put in has been appreciated. Um, you know what you're doing. You know what you're talking about. Um, I just feel like I can't support the number in this amendment because we hired our superintendent to do a job. I think we need to give that superintendent the tools to do that job. I I don't want to put off advancing scores and advancing student achievement and advancing us moving up in the accountability index measures. The numbers that we're talking about, yeah, there's there's a little bit of a gap. 3.92 you're at. We're at 4.48. Um I I just can't I I appreciate the amendment. I I just can't I I couldn't vote on 3.92 just just for those reasons I

086just stated. I'm sorry. Anybody else have any thoughts on this amendment? >> Yeah, I don't think I could support that either, just because I think this isn't a big ask and I don't I think everyone knows that reading and literacy at an early age is a the biggest investment you can make. And I don't think a wait and see approach is really what we need right now. Um we could wait 5 months and they'll the answer will still be the same. It'll still be the same. Um, and I also know that we have a very large amount of EL students who are considered special needs or special ed and that this could also help that, you know, these resources could make maybe avoid that in the future. Um, and so, you know, sometimes it's hard

087to tell if it's a language issue or if it's a learning issue, but I think if we have the resources early on like this, we'll be able to figure out much faster than we have been. So, and with that, it definitely saves money. um and the resources. So, I'm all for it and I'm all for the um the superintendent's budget and I I don't think these cuts to early literacy will help us as a district. >> Any more thoughts or comments on the amended Mindy? >> Uh I I I echo those thoughts. Um I I do think that we've been given um like I said the superintendent Whitby is and his team have been thinking in systems and structures um and frameworks that build on each other. So if the idea is well we you

088know the money that would be invested this year might be for not should there be a five-year plan? Uh, sure. But I I think as is being said here, um, early literacy, uh, is the foundation for any 5year, 10-year strategic plan. Um, and I think Superintendent Whibby has done a great job of painting that strategic future for us. Um, so I actually think that's the strength of the number that he's given us is that it is the first step in a a longer term effort. Um, and and just to echo Matt's sentiments, you know, we all are taxpayers as well. So I think we always have the hat on of being good stewards of taxpayer money. Um, and I think this does a good job of fulfilling our obligations to our taxpayers to invest in

089public education. Any more uh thoughts on this amendment? Okay, so we have an amendment on the table. Um, so now we have to vote on it. Um, what we are voting on right now is the amended motion that Amanda presented of 3.92%. I think I'm going to get ahead of this cuz I feel like Chuck normally does this, right? You like a roll call vote, Chuck? >> Yep. Thank you, >> Ellen. We're going to do a roll call vote on the amended motion >> that Amanda put forth on 3.92%. Miss Ken Carson, >> no. >> Mr. Kerry, >> yes. >> Miss Debbco, >> no. >> Mrs. Roberts, >> no. >> Mrs. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gold, >> no. >> Mr. Riley, >> yes. >> Vice Chair, Mr. Lacaboli. >> No. >> And Bobby is

090absent. So, >> 5 to three against. >> Thank you. So, now that we're over the amended motion, um, back for discussion, is the original motion, which was Jeff's initial budget of 4.48% that he just presented. We can have more discussion about that if anybody would like. >> Yes, m Mr. Chairperson. So, Mr. Webby, I was a little shocked in my 10 years of being on the board over the last 14 years. We've always had some kind of salary savings because we've had inklings of people retiring and certainly I've heard of people retiring and most of them are at top step. I'm a little myiffed why we don't have any salary savings in this budget. So if you could address that director Kazak is going to help out with the specifics. Yeah, we have 50,000 savings

091in the budget, but that was based on our November December timeline. So, as you mentioned, we do have additional, but as Mr. Wibby stated that we have the need for five reading interventionists and three are funded in the budget. So, there's the potential for some additional savings to get to that proposal, but there is an explicit $50,000 retire retirement savings in the budget. >> What page was that on? >> I don't know. We discussed it at the last workshop. We had it in our notes. >> I don't know the exact page. >> That help a little bit? >> Yeah. I mean, I just think we all know there's more than $50,000 of savings coming >> potentially. You do, but like I said, it would be reckless of us to project at this point in March.

092Um and we could as we get closer and closer to the end of the current fiscal year, we could have more confidence in providing a you know a harder uh you know more factual number. Uh just we feel uncomfortable with projecting something that has moving variables at this point. We appreciate your point. >> I I also agree with um Jeff. I'd rather not gamble on retirements. I mean, my mother was a middle school math teacher. She retired. District couldn't fill her position. They brought her back the next year. You never know if things like that are going to happen. Um, I know that, yeah, some retirements have been spoken about. They've been brought up, but I don't think it's a responsible way to go about handling taxpayer money, anticipating on whatifs. I would rather not

093build that in the budget. Just like we don't anticipate the insurance being lower, we're currently factoring it at 13 1.5%. I think it would be reckless and irresponsible to gamble on it coming in at 12% or 11%. So, we're working with the facts that we have at the moment. May there be savings realized through retirements? I hope there are, but I would not feel comfortable putting that in a budget, putting that in and relying them being set in stone. point of fact um more than two I believe more than two or three happen to be in extreme shortage areas like science and mathematics. So it would definitely be a risky proposition. Um the last thing we would want to do is have to double back to the board and say oops u we could you

094know couldn't find someone at a particular price range. Um therefore we had to hire somebody at a higher price range and um you know I think that that would generate uh a a large loss of confidence in us. So we really we put as Matt said uh $50,000 in a conservative number now. We might be able it's just too much it's too speculative speculative of us right now. So but we do appreciate your point. I >> I think the doom and gloom is kind of overdramatic by some of you. eight is historically've always been put in there. Master is like step seven and guess what? We've hired people over master step seven. There's no coming back to the board. I I mean I appreciate that we want to hold on to it. But to give

095the doom and gloom of losing trust, we would never know. It's happened. I know it has. I've been in chair for four years when it's happened. We've hired above what we've budgeted, but we've hired below what we've budgeted. You have people who are going to retire in July where there's going to be savings, but historically it's been who's ever retired, you might put master step six in the budget. So, at least there's some savings. It may maybe be more, maybe less, give or take. But to give the doom and gloom, I think is disingenuous. >> Well, hope hopefully that $50,000 takes a little less shock out of you. >> Hopefully it goes up. It could get better. Any thoughts, questions? Okay. So currently um we are going to be voting on the initial recommended motion

096um of Jeff's proposed operating budget of $70,490,88. Um we can do a roll call vote for this as well, please. >> Miss Callen Carson, >> yes. >> Mr. Kerry, >> no. >> Miss Debakco, >> yes. >> Mrs. D Roberts, >> yes. >> Mrs. Drew, >> no. >> Mrs. Gold, >> yes. >> Mr. Riley, >> no. >> Vice Chair, Mr. Lacavoli, >> yes. >> Motion passes 5 to three. >> Thank you. >> Favor. >> All right. On to the next agenda item. We are now on agenda item 6D having to do with policy. Moved that the Weathersfield Board of Education approved the proposed policy 1110 civility and decorum. Do I have a second? >> Second >> discussion. Can I add one point of um the the board's approving the uh policy the item of information review

097uh the regulation is not an item for board approval this evening as you know we the board doesn't need to approve the admin rags we got some very good feedback and points of clarification during the policy meeting from one of our board members and we're currently addressing that with the board's attorney to make the language on the um the regulation uh more clear. So, we do appreciate uh that uh the board comment that helped us with that. But I just want to reiterate the board is only approving uh voting to approve policy 1110 uh not the uh admin rag. So in the near future we'll in well we won't I won't use that word in the future not let's not use near in the future you'll provide us with the regulations for our reading pleasure

098>> 100% we will bring the uh back to the policy committee and if the chair of the policy committee so approves we will be happy to bring it forward to the full board. The answer is a a whopping yes. I I just want to say that I love this policy. We never write policy. We always usually just adopt policy that comes from shipment or comes from state legislatores or federal regulations. Um it's rare when we actually get in the weeds and get our hands dirty and write something. Um this got kicked off throughout our last board. What did this start in the HR committee? Right, >> Janice? >> We saw this uh we saw another board of ed in in the state of Connecticut had done this and we like the idea. Um, two of

099our former board members took it on, Liz and Christina. Have to shout out to them. Um, I think civility and decorum is something we should always strive for. I think tonight's board meeting is a perfect example of it. We disagreed, but we did so with civility and decorum. I think that's how we need to carry ourselves in these meetings and in public and whenever possible. Um, I appreciate the work that went into this policy and I'm I'm going to be happy to vote for it. Any other thoughts? I I would just say a few words again. Thank thank you Christina Hernandez Williams for really putting putting this forward um and just staying with it and um and and um Liz Walters was very helpful as well and just fine-tuning the language and just the whole

100spirit of it and um I think it was just really important that she kept it going and um grateful that that Mr. Bobby um embraced it when he started and kept the ball rolling very much so like very much so like took it in like football throw to a touchdown kind of thing. Um if I can use one of your analogies and not the best one but um but I'm I'm happy to see this um this go forward and um and also you know maybe the town council will also take it up. I just wanted to say um >> again I wasn't part of the other prior board um and my question was going to be what the reason was for this because I feel like we have um immense civil and civil discourse on

101this this board. Um but thank you Matt for explaining like the background of it. So cuz I was I was concerned that maybe I missed something. No, there was nothing that popped up that that drove us to adopt this. We were sort of being preemptive just with like the political climate nowadays and how people like to yell at each other and it shows up on Twitter. Go ahead, Jeff. >> Just a point of clarification, too, is uh I've seen nothing short of outstanding behavior by all of the board members, old and new, and but this policy is for the entire school district. So it's it's not just it's it's obviously the board of education would follow its own expectations but this would be for all the interactions and transactions that go on across this is

102an an aspirational policy by the board of education saying it is our expectation that everybody will behave in the Weathersfield public schools with civility to each other and with decorum. So it is definitely a aspirational board of ed policy that would um reach all across uh the entire uh school district. But I would agree Amanda I I've I've never seen such civility and decorum particularly in the budget workshops as people disagreed. They did it so respectfully even here tonight. Very appreciative to work. All right. There's there's discussion. We'll take a vote. All in favor? I >> I >> oppos abstain. That motion passes. We're now going to go to agenda item 6E. I'll get through this rather quickly. We um we pulled that policy out just because it did garner a little bit of discussion

103in committee. Um these next 10 policy updates are rather mundane. Uh they come from legislative and federal guidelines and statutes. we essentially have to adopt them. Um even if we don't adopt them, we have to play by these rules. So we really don't have a choice with these. The following policies are I move that the Weathersfield Board of Education approve the proposed 10 policy updates. >> Second. >> I was going to read them off, but that's okay. I don't even like that. >> I was reading the motion. >> All right. So we have a second. We have a second. Any discussion? >> I believe there's no discussion on consent agendas. I learned something new tonight. All in favor? >> I object abstain. That motion passes. Now we are on to agenda item number seven, meetings

104held. Our esteemed chairwoman usually does correct counsel. She's not here tonight, so she'll give us an update when she is back and in action. The finance and operations committee meeting listed here was postponed due to snow wet. Mindy, >> yes. Uh, I had the pleasure of attending the WE meeting yesterday. Um, we had a great turnout as usual. Uh, principal David Huber of Charles Wright um was in attendance and he is going to serve as the principal liaison to Wack. Um, it was great to hear about his experience and passion for early childhood education. It really echoed a lot of the themes of uh Superintendent Wibby's budget presentation and overall strategy of investing in early childhood education. He's specifically interested in strengthening the prek decay um transition and the skills needed to support that transition.

105Um the more skills that are taught, the more likely you are to prevent behavior-based outplacements. And um it's just so great to to have that uh involvement from the elementary school level. Um we had a guest speaker uh Ava Bermuda Zimmerman of Child Care for CT was there to talk about um the state landscape of early childhood education. um the advocacy they do at the state level, the creation of early start program, um which is how the state funds subsidized slots in town. Uh she was shocked, I would say jaw-dropped to hear that Weathersfield only has four early start slots in town. Um which is something we would love to change in the future. to change that at least for uh to receive early start funding funded slots you need to be a full day

106program. And so since our town programs are not full day, I think they're like 2 and 1/2 hours. Um that's something I would love to see changed so that we can get more early start funding in town. Um I think that was it. I I also just appreciate all of the parent stories that were shared. Um people are very vulnerable in those meetings sharing the hardships that they struggle with trying to find very expensive child care as one of our public commenters um mentioned earlier. So just uh I always appreciate those discussions. >> Can you tell me the name of the um guest speaker again? I didn't catch it. >> Yeah, Ava Evva Bermuda Zimmerman. She is the coalition director of child care for CT. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mindy. Student programs and services.

107>> We just held our meeting this evening at 6:00 p.m. I was going to say 6:00 a.m. Um we um have agreed to send for to the board for um its approval next meeting. I would imagine um a AP pre-calculus class. Um, originally it was honors and um they teachers and administrators just didn't see any reason why they couldn't make it um an an AP class with some minor changes that make it line align with AP expectations. Um and the next one that we will at another date um ask the board to approve um is geometry one with the lab. Um the students will instead of having geometry level one and a geometry level two, they have an opportunity to take geometry one with a lab, which would be an opportunity to get more personalized

108help, small groupoup instruction, um to enable all students to have the same access eventually to higher mathematics if they choose. Um and we went through some course modifications that were made. Um, we received um a page from well a sample page from of updates from the Weathersfield High School course catalog and they were uh given to us according to uh whether it was just modifying a course name, modifying the credit, um modifying the prerequisites, um and then maybe having courses that are deleted also. Um and the they just want the courses to be more in line with what exactly the is in the content of this of the course. And um as um principal Okconor told us um the last time, they want to put in the course catalog more information for students and families

109um to see what pathways each of the courses would lead them to career-wise. um or in future studies. Um so also for information, we we heard about the uh grade five to eight literacy field test which I believe Mr. Weebi has already filled us in on as well as the technology committee launch. We just really appreciate that um the science of reading that we have put into our lower grades is going to be moved up at a grade level appropriate um uh level for grades 5 to 8. Um and there'll be many components to that that they'll be testing. the technology committee launch. Um just really having a five-year plan, developing it with lots of stakeholders. Um so that was basically it. Thank you, Janice. Meeting scheduled. We have CR council on and we will

110be having a finance and operations committee meeting on 32426. Public comment. If there's any members of the public here who want your five minutes, come on up. Board comment. Any board members have comment? just um on last Wednesday um I guess the Wednesday before on February 25th I went to the Charles Wright Elementary PTO and um I've heard that they had a family game night, a Lego night and a breakfast um which went were very successful and successful enough that the PTO is thinking about having a Connecticut science center night um or m and maybe a family goatyard card night um and another breakfast in April. They um are they raised more than $1,000 on their can and bottle drive that they had on the 20th of February. Um they are also raised um quite

111a bit of money from their savers fund drive. Um they received from people who contributed more than 3,000 pounds in um uh material in clothing. >> Pardon? >> Housewares. >> Yeah. So quite a bit. They did really well with that and it's quite an undertaking. It's it's a lot of work for the PTO as all of these items are. Um they are looking forward to this Friday night to their glow dance. Um they'll have the hawk helpers will be helping with that. They'll have games and crafts and pizza and um it's from 6 to 8 $5 and they're just reminding parents that it's not a drop off event. So um I imagine that means they have to stay. Um so that was a lot. There's a lot more but I think those were the highlights.

112Marjorie, >> I just wanted to um because I forgot to before thank the uh central office for all their help in uh working on the budget and all the work they've been doing so far in the school year. I know it's a lot of work going on behind the scenes and you don't get enough recognition. Um um also I just I attended the WSBC uh meeting and um it was it was great for these parents to hear um they kind of got an overview of the budget as well from Mr. Wibby uh that they can share with their PTOs as they go back to their meetings. But there's also some things that they as a group are doing. One is um they had done a winter walk that uh in February and that's like another

113thing. So it's usually walk walk to school day, bike to school day. One's in October, one's in Maine and they they tried out they tried to do districtwide events just to do something, you know, where everyone one can participate. Mostly elementary schools do this and they had a winter walk event. Um, and then, um, they're going to still plan a movie on the Cove in, uh, September, which is something that the WSPC had been doing for years. They always did it on Movie on the Green, but now we can only do on the Cove. So, that's in the works as well to bring again a district-wide event where you can bring kids together and families. Um, and that's in September. And also the the the one of the annual things they're doing, they're just kickstarting

114this is their annual volunteer of the year awards and recognition. And so if you know anybody, I think every PTO should be putting out there. I know the high school did it today. Um a link if you want to nominate a parent or a volunteer from your school who you think's gone above and beyond. If you nominate them, there's a Google link and you can nominate them and at some point in the next month or two, they're going to uh get, you know, pick one volunteer from each school. There's also um a community volunteer of the year which is somebody or a group or some person that has really helped the entire community like Keen Foundation's gotten in the past and other groups. Um and that's also if anyone thinks of somebody in that a

115community member or organization that's really helped the children of this town that's also um their nominations are open. So, >> go ahead, Chuck. >> Marjorie, I'm disappointed you didn't bring you didn't give the best news out of your house. Senior night, basketball, you were there. >> Sports center, your sports center highlight. >> You're not going to talk about it? It was great. It was beautiful. There was senior night at Well High School. I was there for boys basketball. Marjory's son was a senior. They had a great game. They won. The win qualified them for states. I do believe they lost in the first round, but it was I mean, I was impressed. The whole gym was packed, was it not, Marjorie? I mean, it was >> Yes. And it was it was senior night for

116high school, the basketball team, the dance team. >> Dance team, >> and the cheerleaders. Yeah. >> So, it was the whole place was it was like a sellout in the gym. It's been a long time since I've seen that. So, congratulations to you and to the boys basketball team. Uh, girls basketball made the tournament. I believe they lost in the first round, unfortunately. Boys hockey is playing tonight in the first round. I believe boys swimming had another great year and still may be swimming. And I believe the dance team had a great competition. Uh, I'd be remiss if I didn't wish everyone here happy board appreciation month. It's month of March and we are appreciated in this month along with our other 1400 people in the state that do this wonderful job that we take

117on. So that's it from ESPN. >> I want to thank you for this. Thank you for your normal sports center highlights. They're much appreciated. Um, I just have a really quick comment and then we can get over to you all. Um, I want to thank Jeff and his team and everybody up here on the board for their work on the budget. Um, there's usually a spike in activity for board of ed members during budget season. It takes us away from our hobbies, our friends, our family, all that. But the work that you're doing is noticed and it's necessary. So, thank you all for your work during budget season. Really appreciate it. Um, yeah, I think that's it. Amanda, you had something to say? >> No. >> Mindy, you had something to say? >> Yeah, >>

118I do. We were giggling about having hobbies. I haven't had a hobby in a long time. It's a good mining my children around. >> Um I did just want to talk about um the web PPTO meeting that I went to. It feels like forever ago now, but um a couple things I wanted to mention. Principal Craig was talking about a PD day that they had coming up. It probably already passed at this point, but um he said it was the most exciting professional development day because it's for the entire building, including office, custodians, um everyone. And he was so excited about it. There were like 18 choice sessions where everyone kind of got to decide where they wanted to spend some extra time um across uh concepts like literacy and science, building security, English language.

119So um he was just really really thrilled about that. He also made comments about um that they were it felt like the web community was really getting what they need. um for the first time they were able to add a social worker. Um really talked about early literacy and having um they're reimagining a reading consultant role. Um so just they were very in positive spirits about all of the good changes going on. Um he also mentioned that he is pretty sure that attendance went up when they got Lenny the dog, though he is still trying to collect the data to prove that. Um they had six students going to CMEA which uh was a great honor. Um >> CMEA >> it was >> music association. >> Yeah, it was a music festival. I was going

120to try to quiz myself on the acronym. >> Sorry, but Chuck stole my thunder. >> Um and then I wanted to also mention tomorrow's if at the high school. I'm very excited to attend and I'm just so grateful that our community comes together to celebrate um to celebrate together. So, >> thank you, Mindy. >> I I I would like just to um in regards to the public comment that we had to try to um put that back on our radar. Um I am also in agreement um with what she said in regards to having 16 days. I was not part of that discussion for it. Um so uh it is a very long time to have children out of school and especially if we are so focused on early education. This is this is a

121prime time that we need to make sure that our children are are uh are are are in our in our buildings. So, um I'm not sure what how that comes about if that's a if that's a subcommittee or whatever, but I just want to put that on on your radar that that is something that at least one of the board members would like to revisit. So, >> thank you, Amanda. No one else has anything to say. We'll go to unfinished business. >> Nope. Stop. We're done. >> I was going to >> for her. I was going to do that after unfinished business. >> Oh, yeah. No. >> Okay. >> I'm trying. Sorry. >> All right. Yeah. Yeah. No. Sorry. Sorry. >> I just don't want her to be skipped. She >> I did not forget.

122I know. We made her wait almost two. We We made her wait almost >> She can go first to be board comment. She should actually be put up first. >> She's here for the learning experience, right? >> That she sits through this a lot. >> She learned a lot tonight. >> I'm She was entertained. >> Thunder. But >> she learned a lot. She was entertained. And now our weather legal is going to tell us what's going on. Anushka, the floor is yours. >> Well, thanks for the intro. So, good evening everyone. Here's an update on the past month since we didn't meet a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago, many students, including myself, competed at the state DECA conference at the Aqua Turf, hoping to earn a spot at nationals. A few students qualified

123for nationals, so they're all extremely excited. I didn't, so it's fine. Um, as for this week, the high school's drama department is presenting the Drowsy Chaperon on the 13th, 14, 14th, and 15th. And on Friday, we are also hosting senior serving seniors where senior citizens can attend the Drowsy Chaperon and eat dinner together as well. Additionally, the high school is hosting an ifar tomorrow evening for members in our community who participate in Ramadan. And sports-wise, it's kind of been covered, but numerous teams had very successful runs and delivered strong performances at states. And now, as the weather starts to get warmer, winter starts are coming to an end, and spring sports are all underway. And that's everything that's been happening at ICE. >> Thank you. All right, it's 8:52. This was a long one. I

124move to adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I Jack Stain meeting's over.