001will be discussed or voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law. As the Hartford Board of Education, we are here to set goals, listen to the reports of the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, and personnel appointments, and make policy for the district. We are not here to make management decisions or solve problems of individuals. Management is the responsibility of the superintendent. The monthly meetings of the board are open to the public. They are a time when the board conducts its business of governing the school system in a public arena. The regular meetings are not meetings with the public. Therefore, comments from the audience will be confined to the time designated for the public to address the board. It's decorum and courtesy are important elements in the effective public meetings. Please silence your
002cell phones or communication devices and retain re refrain from talking while others are speaking. Since it is legally mandated that proceedings be accurately recorded, I may ask for order periodically should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities. I am pleased that you have taken time to join us this evening. We are very proud of the school system and thank you for your interest in the Hartford Public Schools. This will now be read in Spanish. at the Harford. Superended. fores. Harford. Thank you. Uh this we will now move on to public comments. Mr. else. We as a board in collaboration with the superintendent and district leadership are committed to cultivating a culture of excellence at all levels of HPS. We thank you for taking the time to attend tonight's board meeting. We appreciate you coming
003out to learn more about Hartford Public Schools and for sharing your thoughts and concerns. We have established a protocol to track and respond to concerns raised. We want you to know that we take your concerns seriously and to that end, staff will follow up within 48 hours if follow-up is required via the preferred method of contact the speaker has indicated on the sign-in sheet. We will follow this no contact method of followup for the time being adhering to safety protocols. As a reminder, you have three minutes to speak. At the two-minute mark, the bell will ring, letting you know that you have one minute left. At the second bell, please wrap up your comments. Now, this will be read in Spanish by someone that's not me. Excellenc. Harford Harford. Protocol. investig Our first speaker is
004Tamika. The Mac Grant Mac Good evening everyone. My name is Tama Grant Mack and I am the principal of Opportunity Academy. In alignment with the boards of education's five core beliefs, our piece of the pie known as OP and Opportunity Academy strongly believe that community collaboration is fundamental to achieving and sustaining success. We would like to thank you for this partnership. Our school provides a learning environment for overaged and underredited students who have not found success in the traditional setting. Through relentless engagement, barrier reducing efforts, and individualized work with our students, our students are able to thrive. Raven Hill states, "The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity." As we look at individual students, we must continue to have understanding, patience, and tolerance for the time it takes for
005students to get to and through their educational goals. The skills they learn at Opportunity Academy are an important part of the of growing up and will help them as they strive for economic independence and work on their postsecary goals. I um ha at the last board meeting that opportunity academy um um participated in the board had asked for some information and some um and some students to speak. So we have two students from opportunity academy who will follow me and then we have given a packet of information for you with the written responses you had requested. Thank you, Haley Luggo. My name is Haley Lugo. I am 19 years old. I joined Opportunity Academy in 2023. I went to Harford Magnet Trinity College Academy from sixth grade to 10th grade. I'm the youngest in my
006household, but I had to work to help to provide for my family. That made it tough for me to go to school at HMCA. I skipped class, argued with teachers, and the principal a lot. My guidance counselor recommended me OA and I I remember my sister used to go to OP. At first, I was struggling to adjust and I was rude to staff at my old school like like at my old like at my old school when I realized I was running out of time to finish my degree. So, I took advantage of OA has to offer. At my old school, there was not not enough time to as an individual to learn. Everything was was taught one by one. At OA, the classes are way smaller. we get more time to work on oneonone
007with our teachers. I also have my YDS, Mr. Nelson. He he texts me and make sure I'm on time in school. Last fall, Mr. Nelson referred me to OP, Heart for Youth Service Corp. This program connected me to Boys and Girls Club where I now work with younger kids every day. Now I am five credits in left to earn my high school diploma. I am graduating this year in June. My goal is to earn to enroll in Manchester Community College Academy. I mean Manchester Manchester Community College culinary program this fall. I am already sell my own baked goods. I want to earn my degree to make my own business. OA is a good school for kids who feel like their only need is to drop out. I know I want to earn my diploma instead
008of my GED. So now I'm determined to earn my diploma. Mr. Nelson and the other OA staffs for Thank you for Mr. Nelson and the other OA staffs for encouraging me for OP. That's it. [Applause] Denique Campbell. Hello. I'm kind of nervous, so bear with me, please. Okay. My name is Denise Campbell and I'm 21 years old. I started away in September 20 September 2020 September 2022. 2022. Yeah. Yeah. Before I went there, I was a sophomore at Harford Public High School. At the time, I was having family problems and skipping classes. My grandpa ended up dying during this time and the death impacted me very badly and I gave up on school. Miss Gomez, a graduation specialist at Harford High, recommended me to OA. When I started at OA, I was still missing a
009lot of school. My YDS at the time, Miss Cologne, gave me one more chance to improve. My new YDS, Mr. and Nelson called me every day at 7:00 a.m. to make sure I got up on time. They both motivated me a lot to come to school. Last summer, I went to jail because of an argument with my brother. Being in that cell helped me understand that I needed to become something. Everything that I went through is just motivating me to do better. In December 2024, I graduated with my high school diploma from OA. And I'm very proud of that because I didn't see myself coming this far in school. I'm glad I came to OA because it really helped me. And I appreciate all the support that I continue to get through OP. Since joining
010OP's digital dividend program, I have earned a Google Corsera IT certification and have learned how to refurbish computers for community members in need. OA helps youth who are struggling in traditional schools. When you look at what I and other OA alumni have accomplished, you can see the importance of having alternative schools like this. I have now been accepted to Capitol Community College and will be studying criminal justice in the fall. I am very thankful for all the staff at OP and I wouldn't have reached this far without their help. Thank you, Elizabeth Becker and Charlotte Patterson. to students. Yeah. Hello, my name is Elizabeth Becker and I am eighth I'm in eighth grade at No Webster Micro Society Magnet School. and my name is Charlotte Patterson and I'm a fifth grader at Noah Webster Micro
011Society Magnet School. At our school, we've noticed a continuous problem with mice in our school and is seems to becoming a health hazard. We've noticed that some teachers will find um mouse feces on their desks and we have continuously seen mice running AC across classrooms and in the lunchroom. Also, one teacher has already caught 35 mice this past school year. And that and that's just in this past school year. There was probably two there they that teacher has probably caught two times as much in the last two years. And we know that um this is probably there's a lot of diseases that can be transmitted by mice and by mice feces. And so we um would like to start working on this problem before it becomes an even bigger problem. And we already have enough
012um sicknesses going around our school. Not to mention that there's the mice that will that could be buy our food and utensils that we use in the cafeteria. So, if we could like um figure out like who is responsible for like making sure that um animals and like diseases from animals are not being like transmitted or like being a problem at schools and we could like work on fixing that especially at our school because it could be happening at other schools as well. Thank [Music] [Applause] you, Mike McGary. Well, thank you for this opportunity to congratulate the school system on this spring. My name is Mike McGary. I'm register our voters and this spring we visited most of the schools um the upper grades and we did get quite a few young men and women
013to become voters. Well, you might know that anyone 17 right now can register to be a voter for November. And which most young people didn't know, they can actually work the polls. If you're 16 or 17, we'd love to have young people work the polls, especially this year when the election won't be quite as hectic as other years. They not only get a chance to make a couple hundred dollars, but they'll learn a system and hopefully we'll have pole workers, enough of them. It's very difficult. You got to get up in the morning, you're up there till late at night, but you can earn good money. You can learn a lot. And I'm sure the kids would like a day off from regular school. So, we had success this spring and then we hope in
014the fall to work with your staff to come up with a great ideas and different ideas. Get the kids really involved. One of the tricks is to ask them these these stories and see what they say. You have one state rep in 2010 who lost by one vote, then won by two in the recount. Who's that? Matt Ritter now the second most powerful guy in the state arguably Matt Ritter in 2010 lost by one and won by two in a recount. So that's how important your vote is and we get that across to the kids the young people and I guess they'll be more involved. We're going to try working with your staff. Uh we can try new tactics. For example, I go to the NRZ's and I tell them this story they can tell
015their kids, young people. Um, now we also have another project going called the connections which will be a database of every organization in the city. Everything from the uh CRDA down to the lady that gives away food in the street. We'll have a complete dossier of all the organizations in the city and anybody can use it, especially the young people. They're putting on something special. They want everybody to know about it. It'll be free. Push a button and hundreds of organizations will know what you're doing. So we're bringing it changing a little bit because very hard job register our voters much harder than I thought. Uh there's a lot of work there. Every day it changes and every day there's a little problem and they handle it very well. Our staff they went through a
016couple of tough elections as you might know. We'd like to see the voting totals go up both in registration and actual vote. Um, so pass this on uh you, the uh leaders of the gang here and teachers and administrators that we want the 17 year olds to be able to vote in the next election and we'd like them to be staff on the polls and learn a little bit and actually make a few dollars. Thank you very [Applause] much, Michael Susi. Good evening. Um, there's no place I'd rather be on my spring break than sitting here in front of you guys. Um, but I'm experiencing a little bit of a deja vu compared to last year. So last year we had those huge budget cuts that resulted in a uh what was described as a
017teacher speed dating where it was kind of an insult to some of us teachers where we kind of had to do like these like speed uh interviews with school districts because our position was being cut. Uh luckily my position was saved. Um, but this year my position is not being saved. So, those of you who don't know, I've been teaching at Hartford High very proudly for this is my fourth year. Um, I tell people that I was introduced like I was brought into Hartford High, like I was recruited, but I've decided to stay. I've turned down applications to go in other districts. I've appi I've I haven't even applied to outside of my first year. I've never applied to another job, but I know that I know that things are tough, but there's this idea
018of just cutting and cutting and cutting, right? I'm yes, I'm talking about my position, but as far as I know with my school, there's social studies position. You're cutting two SSOs, which we're already short to start with. Um, at least one BT, an ELA, a math. Uh, hope apparently is on the is could be talked about which helps a lot of students who maybe can't work in a setting um a conventional setting. They go into a different place to um get their credits more controlled environment. SSC, I've heard we're making cuts to SSC which helps students with credit recovery. Um, a lot of students use that program very very well. So the people the programs that seem to work those are the programs that are on the chopping block. I know we've I had a
019there was a couple students talking about from OP from OP um where their stories they've seem to work but I'm trying to think of what incentive there is for teachers to stay. What incentive do we have especially as a non-tenure teacher? What incentive do we have to stay if we're constantly dealing with this? If we're constantly dealing with having to deal with these budget cuts, wondering if we're going to have our position next year. I have developed a very good rapport with my students as one of you, Mr. Chairwoman, you had seen me at one of our softball games. I go to the events. I go to all that. And I know that it's not I'm not the only one in this school district who does that. I know I'm not the only person in
020my school who does that. But we have to start looking at the teachers. We have to start looking at what is best for the kids. And these budget cuts is not it. You have to invest in our students. You have to invest in our schools and our teachers and our support staff and our SSOs because if not, we're going to have a lot of students falling through the uh the cracks. a lot of students not being able to cross this stage and a lot of students feeling like they don't have a place because that teacher, that SSO, that support staff that they have a relationship with, they don't get anymore. [Applause] Carol Gail and Carol will be followed by William Moffett. Good evening members of the board, student representatives, and superintendent. My name is Carol
021Gail. I'm the president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers. On this evening's agenda, the board says it's going to review a tentative agreement reached by the Hartford Federation of Pareducators, and I certainly urge the board to approve that contract. Also on tonight's agenda is a motion to approve a budget for the next fiscal year. HFT supports the board approving a budget that does ask the city to increase their funding level by at least $6.7 million in order to avoid cutting even deeper into the essential educational needs of our students. The district has already cut 194 positions from the HFT bargaining unit alone. for our students. This means higher class sizes, less course offerings, less support, less enrichment, less opportunities. Further cuts only exacerbate the losses. Sadly, the city has flatfunded our public schools for 10
022years. Last year they added1 million more dollars to restore a small fraction of the 320 cut positions and this year they announced an additional three million. It is time they step up to recognize the increasing cost of educating Hartford youth and support the budget that includes the $6.7 million more than their flat funding. Our students are taking the hit of losing 194 staff members in order to reduce already $30 million budget deficit to the current 6.7 million deficit. The least the city can do is stop the bleeding there. So, thank you for holding the city council and the mayor accountable. HFT will do the same and continue to fight for full funding that our students need and deserve. But the fight doesn't stop there. We must all also continue to push for more state funding.
023Connecticut must fully fund our local public schools to guarantee every child in Connecticut receives a highquality education, no matter where they live or how much money their parents make. We must continue to expose the inequities in the funding formulas, the inherent bias in a system that relies on property tax to fund local schools, and the disintegration of our communities when families in their quest for a good education must send their children to two or more schools in possibly two or more districts. Furthermore, the state must be held accountable to funding special education fairly and adequately and to not perpetuate a system in which the kids who need the most are getting the least. Finally, we must also acknowledge that education is under attack from our federal government. We must all do our part and stand
024up for what kids need. They need Title One. They need a funds. Need they clinics. Elevate their needs wherever you can in letters to the editor, in online petition drives, in public testimony to our state legislators and city council. And most importantly, I urge all of you and everyone in this audience to take this message to the streets and to the court of public opinion. We really must act now. Our students education and actually their lives depend on it. Thank you. William Muffet. Uh, good evening, Harvard Board of Education. My name is Will Moffett. I do not work for the Harvard public school system. Uh, as far as I know, I have no kids in the system. Um, I was raised in East Harvard, so that's the school system I went to. I don't really
025pay property taxes, but I'm still here in solidarity, and my heart breaks um for the community at large, knowing how much harder it is about to get to do the work we're supposed to do. Um, it's easier right now. We can all scapegoat the federal government. what they're doing is a nightmare. Societyy's crumbling before our eyes. Um I noted one interesting thing in the agenda that they did mark money for um juvenile detention education centers. Now obviously if we're going to uh detain children against their will, we should provide them a proper education. But that shows you where they want our children to be. They the two options now, prison or the grave. And it's not just the federal government. This state for decades and decades by deaths of a thousand cuts or not additions
026in this city as well has not provided the proper funding and it's not because of intention of malicious intent. Um when I was younger I used to think oh it's it's their fault whoever's holding it it's it's your guy's fault. It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. We are all trying our best but we're in a system that is designed to fail. that is designed to exploit children to turn them out. Even on a good day, school can be so soul crushing. You you go in there and you just feel like I'm not learning the proper things because ultimately you're not. And how much harder is it going to get now where you can't even say, "Oh, this is a state with so much savage wealth inequity, with so much classism and racism." And
027even just saying that, we're going to be in a spot where like you're gonna lose your job, where you're going to use funding because of federal mandates. Um, but we still can't get so distraught by despair that we don't at the very least try to be there and give our kids a lesson about it not being too late to speak the truth. Um, it's sad to say, but even at the beginning of the meeting when you said we are proud of our system, how can you be proud of what we've done collectively, the opportunities we provide, the prison pipeline and budgets are moral budgets and it's not just because of Trump. Every mayor and every governor constantly tries to throw money at at the symptoms of the problem, creating this this this loop. I don't
028know what the solutions are, but I want to say thank you for trying. Please go to the city. They deep down they have the money. The state has the money. They're not going to want to do it because they constantly see Harford as a scapegoat, but Harford is the way it is so that those that have the funds can live the way they live. So, um, thank you. Keep hope alive. It's going to be a hard year, but be honest with the kids and it'll make it easier for them. Thank you, Michael DS, followed by Rosemali [Music] Rodriguez. Good evening, uh, board members, superintendent. Um, my name is Michael DS. I live at 74 Rosemont Street in Hartford. And uh, last night I spoke before the city council. And pretty much I asked them for
029the same thing as I suggested that uh, the um, at the last uh, budget hearing that we had here or a meeting a couple of weeks ago and uh, that there's a trillion dollars worth of corporations in this city and there should be money. We should not be short of money in this u in this city in education. Um cut to the chase. There's a notice that a half a billion dollars of u almost a half a billion dollars of school budget. Um and it is proposed a um $6.7 uh million dollars extra from the city. uh we should formally address that and ask for that money and uh ask that the council appropriate it and uh with the agreement uh with the mayor um with a trillion dollars worth of corporations, a half a
030billion dollars is minuscule and um I mean they they could easily come up with 50 or $60 million to uh fund our educ education. They they're entities that are in this city. I don't care if the corporate heads moved out. They still uh exist in this city. They use prop they use property of the city and they get cheap they get breaks on uh taxes. They should be their tax should be increased. Um also I mentioned that education is a state function and uh some of you maybe maybe remember a little young to remember but 1998 the state came in and took over the board of education stating it was a state function and um the responsibility of the state diversity equity Inclusion and integration is the responsibility of the state and uh to do
031that we had to increase our education budget. So most of our much of our budget is uh in education costs. The state should take over all education costs and uh u and that that will require um members of the board and members of the unions and uh people that work for the Harford public schools and people that live in Hartford to go to the bo the city council and um bring these issues up. The money's there. You just have to figure a way of u getting the money, obtaining the money. And uh as I said last night, I've said before here, if we have to get their attention by increasing taxes drastically, we should do it. Thank you. [Applause] Rosemali Rodriguez followed by Sarah Sweats. [Music] Okay. I I Mother,ch. Solar evidential. for mechan. polit
032Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Oh, God. [Music] [Applause] Greetings to our school board members. This is the translation of Rosali Rodriguez's testimony. My name is Rosali Rodriguez and I'm here today to speak on behalf of the Madre Guerreras or Warrior Mother's Parent Committee here in Hartford. Our group testified two weeks ago against cuts to school services, calling on the school board and our city council members to fight with us for municipal and state funds. We are so glad to see that the Hartford School Board has answered our call and decided to stand up for our students and families by creating a budget that reflects need instead of numbers. It is shameful that our city has not increased the education budget for 10 years. This causes cuts to school services and it hurts our students. That is clear.
033We are already hearing stories about this year's cuts and how they are going to impact students. But just as much as the cuts hurt our students, they also hurt our community. They heard our potential to work together as parents, families, schoolboard members, city council members, and our mayor. How can we work together as a city, as a team to get justice at the state level if city council can't even do their small part, can't even do their small part, and our school board just does their dirty work instead of holding them accountable. It is deeply disrespectful to the people of Hartford to flatfund our schools for an entire decade, then offer just $3 million. We understand that this is politics and compromises are made, especially since we still hope to get state funds. But 3
034million out of 30 million is not a compromise. It is an insult to the people of Hartford. For these reasons, we support the school board in voting to approve a budget that includes the additional 6.7 million investment in our schools in order to avoid cutting essential programs. We agree that the city can do better than three million, and we have your backs in demanding that our council members find the funds. The city needs to turn that three million into a 10 million into 10 million. As Hartford residents, it's our tax money and we want it spent on our schools. Considering that there is a $30 million shortfall, 10 million is the least that our city can do. Thank you to our school board members for holding the city council and the mayor accountable, and we
035will continue to do the same as we fight for the full 30 million and more that our schools need and deserve. Thank you. Sarah Sweets off. I use my space to do the translation. Understood. Thank you. Karen Russ followed by Lakesha Mitchell Thorp. Just relax. [Music] Good evening, madame chair, board members, and Dr. Torres Rodriguez. My name is Karen D. Russ, and I am the president of Harford Federation of School Secretaries. I come before you with concerns in regards to recent reductions in positions due to the budget deficit. I received several phone calls and emails from clerical support staff who positions were either eliminated or reduced to a 0.5 position. I completely understand about the $30 million deficit the district has. However, I am concerned how it's going to impact our stakeholders, the primary beneficiaries
036of education, our students and their families before this becomes a problem. Is there a plan in place with a solution to assist our students and families? Thank you, Lisha. [Music] Good evening. My name is Lisha Mitchell Thorp. I am an executive assistant at Batanis Magnet School. This year I was one of the um schools that was affected from last year's um budget cuts and this year we also have more budget cuts. I just want to give you a insight of my day-to-day life. Um, with any assistance, I am a secretary, an exec who has to do the day-to-day exec work with also um office assistant, which means I'm doing the payroll requisitions. Um, and I'm asked to do also the record record requests and um, anything that comes from downtown as well. Um, I also
037assist 205 students every day that come in either late, need tardy passes, and answering the phones constantly ringing um, without, you know, hesitation. Um, it's a lot for one person. There's no staff but myself. And I don't feel comfortable telling my parents, "Hey, it's just me." Um, it's unacceptable. Um but I've heard that um the FCSSP role is essential and I just want to understand what makes the FCSSP role an essential role versus a clerical role in the school who has to um see the students and greet the students in the morning. um may have to um in um pass out late passes and things like that. We need people to greet and see our parents and have um day-to-day interactions with students. If there's no one there to answer the f um phones or
038open our doors to our students, what happens? Who's there to support them? I just would like to know. Thank you. [Applause] Nancy Medina followed by Daily Ger. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Nancy Medina. I'm I work at Betans Learning Lab Magnet School. I'm a little bit nervous um because of the budget. This is it affected me and my position. Um, I just want to elaborate on what exactly that I do. I do work at a magnet school, so we do have a little bit more to do. I mean, I greet the parents, the visitors, and if you've been into my building, you will, you know who I am. I am, Miss Medina. I greet everybody. Um, I assist the teachers when they call, whether they need the nurse, the security, or anything that
039they need for me to help them with coverage, especially if they need to go to the ladies room or anything. Uh, Power School, I do update Power School every day. Do the tardies, um, the late students and check the attendances. Um, I do the mail, transportation, um, the cumes, everything. Um, we do have is the registrations and I'm currently, um, working on and I have about 103 of them that I'm actually doing now and I have to register them and then meet the parents. So, it's not an easy job. So, I don't understand how is it that they're going to have one person do that job when you need more than than one. I've been doing this for 23 years and I just want to be here to support my staff and hopefully that'll help
040us solve this issue. Thank [Applause] you. Daily Ger followed by Nancy Mendes. Hi, my name is Dolly and I'm an executive assistant at Bur Middle School. I'm reaching out with a heavy heart to express my deep concern over the decision to let go of our office assistants including Yolanda Gonzalez and she is right here. Um, just looking at her made me emotional. Um, who has been an incredible support to me and so many others. Yolanda and all of the OAS are the backbone of our school. From the moment she walks through the door, she's answering phones, assisting parents, guiding students, and stepping in wherever help is needed. Her presence brings order, care, and a sense of calm to a space that is constantly in motion. These ladies described a minimal portion of the amount of
041work that they do on a daily basis from the moment they walk in to the the moment they leave. The in addition the work we do as an executive assistant is already full and demanding. There are times where I don't take a lunch 10 minutes tops. I don't know how we're expected to do two jobs. To expect us to take on the responsibilities of both roles is not only unrealistic, it's unsustainable. The emotional and physical toll would be overwhelming. Please, I urge you from both a professional and personal place. Reconsider this decision. Removing our OAS doesn't just impact staffing. It affects the heart and function of our school. Without them, we risk losing not only efficiency, but also the people who keep our schools running with compassion and care. And if this decision stands, I
042truly fear many executive assistants may feel forced to walk away, not out of choice, but out of sheer burnout. Thank you, Nancy Mendes. Good evening. My name is Nancy Mendes. Thank you, superintendent. Thank you, board. Um, I'm here on wearing a couple hats, right? Um, a lot of the board have known me for many years. I've always been an advocate as a community member, as a parent. Um, and now I'm back as an employee. Um, I am the executive assistant at HMGCA. Um, I got to tell you, when school year started last year, I was a new exec. That was a brand new role to me. And when the school started, I didn't have an away. I can't imagine for any of you ladies to have to go back to that because I literally I
043I was ready to walk away. All right. So, if you don't value that role, I got to tell you that it's a huge value to the school, to the families, to the students. Um it is unfortunate that when decisions are made for budget cuts, we're not looking at really what's happening happening at the school level. Uh you are looking at numbers and it's unfortunate because I did bring some numbers. Anybody have a pen? Start writing because here I go. So we have HMGCA has a total of 901 students right now in the school. It is by far the largest school in the district and yet we're affected with budget cuts. They want our students to be 28 students per teacher. And if a class had 10, 15, 18, we were told get rid of that
044class. You don't need it. So what classes got affected? AP virtual high school early college learning classes. Yes, we're supposed to be a high school magnet high school that is connected to a miny Ivy League school, Trinity College. And yet the board of ed does not value any of that. So, I told you HMTCA has 900 students. Let's go back and look at some of the schools that kind of have the same grade levels as we do, middle to high school. Let's look, for example, at Classical. Classical has a total of 420 students for the whole school. SMSA has 443. Capital Prep has 259. Let me remind you, HMTCA has 900 students. And so, let's look at other schools. Canella High School has 102 students. Hartford High has 712 students. Buckley 561. Weaver 732. And
045let me remind you that HMTCA has 900 students. So, if you're going to tell me that you want nine uh 28 students per teacher, how are you going to put 28 students at classical where you have in the sixth grade 28 students in the eighth grade, 44 in the 12th grade, 62 SMS, you got 46 students on the sixth grade. You got a graduating class of 58. HMTCA has a graduating class of 112. Our sixth grade are 118. Seventh grade is 121. Eighth grade 156. Ninth grade 149. 10th grade 108. 11 133. So, how are these numbers mathing for you? Because they're not mathing for us. You want us to continue to make budget cuts, you need to really look at where they need to be made. and is definitely not at the school. Thank
046[Applause] you. And that concludes public comment. Thank you. And thank you to everyone who came out to speak tonight. We, as always, we appreciate your comments and we appreciate you taking the time to come speak to us. Uh, Miss Yenni, did you sign up? Go. Go ahead. I take that back. We have one more for public comment. Good evening board members, superintendent. I'm Haya Cynthiani, a community leader, town committee member, um, and I live in the neighborhood for 45 years. You know, as I listen to this same argument, 45 years I've been hearing the same thing over and over again, and we never get it right. What is wrong with us? Okay. Now, superintendent, I've asked you please, let's seriously and the board, let's seriously look at consolidating some of these schools. We cannot afford
047to have all these schools almost empty. Okay? We have to do something about it. This is hard time. Okay? You look at Washington, they're telling us, "You're on your own. So now we have to figure out how we do this." Taxpayers in the city of Hartford, we can't afford it. our house value goes up and the tax goes up, right? And more people are going to be leaving our community for the simple reason is they can't afford the high taxes to work on education. We have to find other ways and means to address this situation. And it can be done. We just all have to put our heads together and do it. And I know you're all new up there and you don't really seems to understand what this concept is all about. But it's
048something we have gone through for years and years, right? And I say we don't learn anything. We have to do better and we can do better. So I'm asking you all to put your heads together and let's work on this and get it done. Thank you. [Applause] All right, thank you. Uh, we're now going to move on to the chair's report. Uh, there was a school visit this month, so board member Walker and I visited Classical Magnet earlier this month. We appreciated the time talking to Dr. Sullivan and meeting various staff members and students. We look forward to future school visits in order to see firsthand what the day in the life of our students really looks like and how our policies affect our students each day. The legislative and advocacy task force continues to
049meet to learn about upcoming bills and testimony opportunities. There will be a hearing on special education next week, likely Monday. Once confirmed, the committee members will be providing written and live testimony. Please note that you do not need to be a member of this committee to be part of the testimony. We are looking forward to attending the Hartford Day at the Legislative Office Building on Thursday, May 29th, starting at 3:30, and we look forward to seeing you all there advocating for the needs of Hartford Public Schools. We are grateful for the support from the task force and the community. I encourage anyone interested in advocating for more funds for Hartford Public Schools to please get involved. If you wish to learn more about how to get involved with advocacy, please contact Miss Christina Santiago at
050cantiagoartfordschools.org. Uh, as you know, the board is has retained a search firm to assist with the superintendent transition. As this is an incredibly important process, we look forward to the expertise and guidance that the search firm will bring to this process. The firm has launched a survey for all stakeholders. So, that's everyone here, all of our community members ending uh April 22nd. They have also scheduled an in-person town hall to gather stakeholders, again, you, our community, um to gather feedback on Monday, April 21st at 6 p.m. at Weaver High School. Please see this information as well as the timeline for the search process on the school's website. The application, once open, will be available for one month. Once the application is launched, it will be noticed on the Hartford Public Schools website, on social media,
051on various job sites, and other avenues as deemed appropriate by the search firm and the search committee. The goal is to have our next superintendent name by July 1st. In addition to our regularly scheduled meetings this month, the board also held an additional budget discussion on April Thursday, April 10th. In addition to the board budget meetings, the board has been very busy meeting with city council members, Mayor Arunin, members of our state delegation, our community and philanthropic partners, teachers, principles, and students. Board members have been actively participating in this budget process since November of 2024. I am personally grateful to the superintendent and her staff for allowing us to be so involved in this process, allowing us to better understand how we are spending our funds and what we've had to cut from the very
052beginning. This is an unusual process, but it has made us all better informed board members, which allows us to advocate for funding in a very educated manner. Our budget discussions will not end tonight. We will continue to advocate for funding for our incredibly deserving students. Again, if you are interested in learning more about the budget or advocating, um I would encourage you to watch the recordings or read the summaries from our budget meetings over the past six months, um which you can find on board docs. As a reminder, you can find the superintendent reports, full committee reports, student reports, all attachments and videos in the meetings agenda on board docs. All committee and workshop meetings are livereamed as well as viewable after the meeting. The YouTube links are saved in each meeting's agendas on board
053docs. I highly encourage the community to view the meetings and read the reports when possible. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact Christina Santiago, our board liaison at cantiago hartfordschools.org. Uh we will now move on to the report of the superintendent. Good evening. Um my report will actually be um the presentation for uh the budget adoption that will be taken up later. Um so I u if Miss Santiago could support with um the presentation, some of which the content might be um familiar for those of you specifically that have um joined us throughout this budget development process. So, I'll quickly review the timeline, the proposed budget with the revenue and of course the um expenses and then the final mitigation update. So, just a quick highlight that we are tonight at the final
054milestone in our timeline for your vote on the proposed budget. You can see um high level view of the five months of engagement represented here where we've worked uh collaboratively with many of you certainly with with you all here the board many throughout our community on legislative advocacy and on identifying key priorities and our reduction opportunities um in our budget through engaging with uh many of you and I'll give you a summary of of the advocacy um where we are and the deficit mitigation and I know chairperson Hockenhal talked about the future opportunities for legislative advocacy as well. So as um if we go to the next slide as we have been messaging we did start with a $30 million deficit and I I heard lots of the public comment referencing that. So that means
055that you know there's been a lot of engagement um around this and um we have been engaging since the beginning on deficit mitigation and the legislative advocacy work in parallel uh to reduce that deficit based on our last projections. Right? We've reduced about 15.3 million. The number is slightly uh larger than the 13 million that we had previously communicated throughout our community um budget forums because we reduced additional um positions at the central office. We went um from 20 we added an additional 10 positions to reduce plus some additional savings achieved through um non-sary expenses. We also, as uh you heard some reference tonight, will be uh receiving an additional $3 million from the city of Hartford, which brings that total mitigation to the 18.3. Um and um we know that uh for this year,
056so last during last budget cycle, we did receive a one-time infusion of $5 million from the state. We uh believe that this is a reasonable and also a fiscally prudent assumption for next year based on the current legislative agenda. And so when including that $5 million additional from the state as a as a placeholder, it leaves us with the $6.7 million left to mitigate. And so I'll share with you in a few slides ahead the final mitigation plan um in the event that that there is no additional funding. This here is just an updated summary of our reductions that reflect that 15.3 million um right combination of school site uh reductions, district off office office personnel, non-personnel changes as well as um a reduction target for transportation of door-to-door services. And I want to clarify
057we are not saying that we are going to uh eliminate um door-to-door transportation. um we are going to comply with you know the individualized education planning. What we are going to ask our teams to do is to take a closer look and identify what those current uh transportation needs are to see if there are opportunities for efficiencies there. So now let's look at um revenue compared to right money coming in compared to re uh money going out. This is a visual a view of our starting deficit and mitigation efforts. So the blue bars that you see uh right represents the revenue and the green represents the expense the money that's going out. On the left you can see the fiscal year 25 budget passed by by the board which was balanced. Uh in the middle
058uh graphs uh bar graphs you see the projection for fiscal year 2026 which showed uh revenue growing slightly. However, the expenses growing significantly uh due to tuition, transportation, and our contractual salaried obligations. The middle chart is where you see that $30 million gap that we started the budget development process with. So on the right, you will see uh the proposed budget for next year. We have increased revenue through the additional city funding that I referenced. that assumption for uh state funds for $5 million, the inclusion of grant funding, and we have decreased those expenses throughout those mitigation strategies, and it still leaves us with that 6.7 gap between the revenue, the money that we're expecting to come in, and then the money that we're expecting to pay out. Um, and that is what we will
059be uh discussing tonight. Um before I discuss that gap, if we go to the next slide, we see just a breakdown of the money, the revenue, the money that's coming in um from the current year and how it compares to next year. And so as you can see that the ECS, the education cost sharing and the city of Hartford general fund contributions, those are staying the same. Where we see the increase is in the final year of the phasing in of the ECS which is part of um what you see the other state funding through our alliance uh grant um aotment. The other state uh section also includes the assumption of that one-time $5 million additional state funding based on the legislative agenda. Uh the federal revenue, the federal monies shows uh an increase because
060we are including grants such as the North Hartford Ascend pipeline grant and the comprehensive school uh improvement grants for uh some of our schools that um are lower in performance. And so those uh they get the additional funding. and then also the city's contribution of the $3 million um you see there is captured in the other funds section. Turning to the money that is going out the expenses the donut uh chart shows the breakdown of our expenses across five key categories. the fixed expenses which right those include our tuition, the transportation, keeping our lights on, school budgets and central office budgets uh which are broken into direct supports in schools um direct services and administrative uh costs. You can see the breakdown for the current year on the left and for next year to the
061right. And I guess the headline here um is uh the that the fixed expenses continue to grow. Our tuition, transportation, the lights, the heating, right? We're 33% of the budget this year. However, 37.4% of the budget next year. This means that we have had to shrink the proportion of the budget that is allocated to schools and to district office teams. And in the next slide shows the specific changes in um our staffing changes at the district office, changes across our school sites. Uh what more detail you have in your uh budget books. There are uh the projection and the proposal are for 40 fewer positions at district level team. That's a reduction of 12% at the district office and at school sites about the same about 40 positions um for 1.5% reduction across our schools.
062That's a total of 82 fewer positions across the district. The additional reduction in positions at central office includes um the floating security guard positions, the eight floaters that uh are not assigned to specific schools. So, um, as a reminder, right, these numbers are based on last year's budget, um, adoption that that the board, uh, adopted and do not include that one-time funding that we received from the state. And it also it does not include other grants added throughout uh, the school year. So I'll uh now speak to the mitigation that 6.7. Um and I'll just remind us that um you know the the the mitigations are not are not new. We heard that through commentary today. Um this is actually an updated slide that I'm sharing today. Um while I haven't um been around for
063all of these, you know, represented columns of mitigations, I certainly you see the darker line there. Darker line to the right. Those are the budgets that I would claim, you know, I've been responsible for alongside uh the boards of education. Um, but it just gives you an aerial view of the mitigation over the last 11 years where the district has had to mitigate almost $200 million in costs and has eliminated 644 positions to adopt balanced budgets year after year. Um, and right, if I reflect back on just the years that I've I've served as superintendent, the total mitigation there is $144 million. Um, next slide. Um, we can talk about uh the overview of the results from the survey that we asked you as a board to complete for what we were calling and still
064are calling unaccounted items in our budget. There were some very clear areas of consensus and this is just try to get a visual representation to share with our community um as to where you were as a board. Um the most important items that you all felt uh needed to be maintained were middle school athletics, our student success um centers, all full service community school, lead agency funding. Um, among the least important items overall to keep were buildings and grounds and non-personnel expenses, uh, readyct and and CT rise grant uh, contracts, centralbased coaching positions and the AP positions. And we're calling in the middle of the pack. There were, you know, diff differences in in opinions, but mostly around the middle. um were Hope Academy and Opportunity Academy. And some of you might remember that. Um
065we worked really hard with um our community on several things. Our instructional vision, the portrait of a graduate, and the continuum of post-secary success where we identified tier one, tier 2, and tier three uh supports and programming for our students. and hope academy and opportunity um academy are part of that continuum um for students that have the highest level of need. Um, and then in the next slide, um, I am kind of applying the color-coded, um, suggestions that you all had in terms of your ranking um, to the final proposed mitigation. The items that the board felt were most important to keep are at the top of the list and and the proposal is no or partial reductions to them. uh we put the items that were least important to keep at the bottom or
066the items that already through previous meetings such as board workshops there had been decisions around um the reductions already, right? Like um the AP positions. I know that there was loud and clear last time in one of our budget um workshops that those should be reduced for schools with 250 students or less. Nonetheless, I I'm putting those at the bottom. Um, and then you see there in the middle of the pack, uh, Hope Academy and Opportunity Academy, and the proposal is to keep part of Hope Academy and reduce Opportunity Academy fully. Um, knowing that uh, we've heard loud and clear to make sure that we first prioritize what is happening in schools in the classrooms. I want to be clear that all of these um outside of the ones that were already uh decided on
067by you all as a board um are are high risk to reduce. Um many of these um were uh identified early on when we engaged community in consolidating and closing schools. And some of what we heard from community was well you know we don't agree with school closures and consolidations. However, if you superintendent are saying that this is necessary in order to have either efficiencies or improve the experience of students and educators. These are things that must be true such as middle school athletics. Go figure. middle school athletics as as if that were something from out of this world that exists in other communities as a given, but yet in our community is what our what our community was asking for. It's like nothing out of the ordinary at least well right in other communities.
068Um student support and success centers we heard loud and clear because our students needed additional support to get caught up, stay on track to graduate. um our full service community schools. We heard um requests for additional support and expansion. Um and so I'm I'm I'm sharing those and the context behind those because these are not recommendations that are made lightly. Um however um if no additional funding um comes in this this is the proposal and so I am going to pause here. That concludes my report. Thank you, superintendent. Uh, we will now move on to the report of the student representatives. Hi. Hello. Okay. My name is Tosh Brown and I'm a part of the superintendent student advisory council. Um, the goal of our last meeting was to work collaboratively to improve our public speaking
069skills. So during this meeting, the superintendent introduced the group to chairperson Jennifer Hawinho. The city of Hartford treasurer Carmen Sierra and Corey Mills, assistant treasure. Each of these leaders told us a bit about their journeys and explained why they were committed to our district. We were also informed of the bilingual financial literacy symposium event and they stayed and observed for a while. Um throughout the session, all members were pulled by Deb Zimmerman, communications manager for the district to share the impact that the council has had on us and the most important things that we had learned. The core of this meeting was the interactive public speaking presentation that was facilitated by Andre Santiago, MS vice president and chief program officer for the leadership greater Hartford. We talked about effective communication, learned about the importance of
070appropriate body language, how to improve confidence, and learn techniques that will improve our public speaking skills overall. So, the objective of the presentation was to enhance presentational skills, speak to command a response, communicate objectives clearly, and inspire and garner the attention of the audience. as well as ignite action within others. So some positives from this meeting were we got the chance to showcase our public speaking skills. Um the group work was engaging for the entire duration of the session. Um students learned ways to improve the way that we present ourselves when speaking in front of others and we also were informed of the bilingual financial literacy symposium. Um and we had a lot of fun. So overall, the meeting allowed us to share what's going on in our schools and what we learned about public
071speaking and we are excited to keep learning and collaborating with the council. Thank you. Thank you for your report. All right, we will now move on to the agenda. Um the business agenda item 4.1 resolution adoption of the budget. Motion that the board of education adopt a fiscal year 2025206 itemized estimate of expenditures in the amount of $458,839,83 effective July 1st, 2025. Do I have a motion? Um, superintendent, did you want to say anything? No. Okay, you do. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm going to toss it over to Dr. Torres Rodriguez. Just want to um reiterate some some comments that I've I've made before about um the impact. But first, just thank everyone in Harford Public Schools for um your commitment, your dedication, how you continue to show up and for trying to do everything possible
072for our our students in our classrooms, in our cafeterias, outside, on the buses, everywhere. Um we know that um you know the impact of the budget over the years um has required us to make some really difficult decisions and to to stretch the dollar when we thought like we couldn't stretch the dollar anymore. We went at it again the next year to stretch it. Um we've been we've been tactical. We've been strategic. We have um restructured essential office over and over again. We have um reallocated funds. We have um merged schools. We have colloccated schools. We have um improved the pathways of our schools. We have closed schools. we 20% of the footprint of the of our schools. We reduced, we did that, we did that as a community. Significant um interruptions and we did
073it because we we had to find a different way to try to maximize efficiencies and also try to deliver on our promise to our young people and to our educators so that they too can have a great experience, so that they too can feel supported. Um and so that they come at their best every single day for our students. Um and it has taken a toll and we we we are called again right to to to cut even deeper. Um and and I hope that this does not come across um as pointing any fingers. That is not the spirit. Um I and I I just wanted to voice um the frustration and and you see it. We see it. You've gone to schools, right? You see how hard our our our team members are working
074and you you heard tonight and and right it's it's yes it's a budget and it's people and it's scarcity and I and I I don't want us to to like stay only in that space of scarcity and there's no other answer. Um, I always look for like what's the bright spot here? What's the opportunity? Oh, I'm having a hard time finding that. Um, and it does require us to to truly step back and think about um the footprint that we have. Is is that is that it? And I know it's not just about closures and consolidations. Look, I I know how painful that is. And I know that it's about advocacy. It's all about a lot of different things. I don't know that the conversation can be um delayed much longer, but it also has
075to come with additional resources because we saw it last time. We did all that work, all of that interruption because they it does we we closed schools and we did it. I'm I'm hearing that Hartford is one of three national models in the history of school closures. But did it really solve the structural deficit? No. Right. Um so it's that and so much more. Um, so I I do have I do have a heavy heart and I know in talking to all of you individually that you do as well. So, we're not going to stop advocating. Um, [Music] Santos. Fore tactes. Dwell individual. [Music] Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Atosantochech. Thomas, gracias. Thank you, Superintendent. [Music] Motion to amend the motion on the table that the board of education adopts the proposed fiscal year 202526 itemized
076estimate of expenditures in the amount of $452,110,14. $4 effective July 1st, 2025 in order to pass a balanced budget. Furthermore, the board and the superintendent will continue to look for ways and funding to fully restore services and programs which had to be eliminated or reduced in order to pass a balanced budget and to advocate for the needs of Hartford Public Schools. Second. Uh, it has been moved and seconded that we amend the motion on the floor. All those in favor? Point of clarification. Sorry. I'm sorry. First, we have to have discussion. Yes, please. Okay. I'm sorry about that. Um, any discussion? And actually, should I just I'll just start with you, Miss Brody, and we can go this way. Um, can we clarify because we keep using the word balanced. If we observe any school
077district that's we can we've all we always see it on the news. Almost every school district that I watch that is broadcast on the nightly news, they ask their city council, their town council for what they need for their students, right? So from that the city or the town council responds to the board of education and say this is what we can do. So this amendment um which surprises me because we all out of it was only one vote no for it to be presented like this this evening. So, I'm a little confused of what happened between Thursday and today, but we're saying with this amendment that we are not going to ask our mayor and our city council for what we agreed that our kids deserve. So, that's what this amendment represents. What is
078the worst that can happen? they can say no, we go back to the drawing board and we have to make the cuts that we have to make. So, I'm surprised I'm confused too that we are not showing our families, we are not showing our children that guess what, we know we need this budget that was presented to us tonight, but instead we're going to make an amendment. So the city council and the mayor does not have to answer to us that every other every other town is afforded this thing of saying this is what we need. We were reminded of that on Thursday um that our responsibility is to present to our city what we need. So, we're changing that through this amendment. Amendment that is ridiculous and an amendment that will not support Mr.
079No, Madame Chair. Uh, yes, Mr. Mills. Um, a couple things. One, I wrote a really long speech that seemed a little superolous now. Um, so I'm not really going to read all of it, but I I am going to to mention a few things. one specifically this amendment that last statement that that we put into it there is the next step. It is the we go to the city council and the mayor and we say this is the budget that we have because we are obligated and duty bound to present a balanced budget at least according to me who was a budget analyst and that's what I used to do is I understand budgets. The next step is we then present a resolution saying these are the things that we need in order to not
080cut these programs. This is us putting that back into their hands like board member Brody suggested, albeit differently. I will admit I was not here for Thursday's meeting last week, so I'm not actually sure of all of the conversations that happened, but this is the response. This is us saying as a board, we do not have the funding in order to fund our education in a way that our residents and our community deserves. Please help us. That is the next step. I am going to talk about one part of the speech that I wrote. Um, the city of Hartford is 49% taxable. The state of Connecticut funds education via property taxes. There are 169 municipalities, all of which have different funding situations. At its very core, this is a system that was set up to
081be unequal. Onethird of our budget goes to transportation for either special education students or to transport Hartford residents out of district to comply with the legal ruling that was forced upon the city in an attempt to prevent some to provide some sort of equity without the funding to actually make any meaningful change. And as this is and this is before we even talk about the economic disparity between our residents that of Connecticut. Connecticut is the 10th wealthiest state in the country and yet routinely ties Wyoming as the state with the highest wealth disparity in the nation. Hartford is the poorest capital city in the country and is often ranked as one of the top 10 poorest cities in the nation. That is what we are asked to educate our youth with. There is an already
082a narrative that says that the city of Hartford and the Hartford school system are not financially responsible. We hear it every time there's a Hartford current article about Hartford. The narrative totally ignores the reality of our situation and it is an insult to the hardworking people of our city and our staff trying to make things work, especially in our school systems. If we pass an unbalanced budget, we are playing into that narrative that Hartford cannot be trusted. I'm asking everybody on this board to amend our budget to request a balanced budget. The responsible thing to do, at least my opinion, is to present a balanced budget and present a request to the council during our budget proceedings detailing our need so that no more cuts need to be made in our system. We hear you.
083You are not numbers. We do not want to cut services, position, or staffs. We have a duty to pass a balanced budget, but we also have a duty to work tirelessly for more funding to adhere to the noble cause of educating our community. Thank you. [Music] Thank you. Sorry, Mr. Walker. Thank you, Chair. I wanted to um flesh out um the proceedings from last Thursday and to clarify that what we um what we found is that the the uh school district funding process is a two-step process. And so uh step one um the board has an obligation to put forward what it considers a responsible estimate of what uh the school district needs to function. that is their first step. Um that first step is not tied to appropriations. It's the step in which the
084the board puts forward here's what we believe the district needs to function. That particular estimate goes to uh appropriators. At that time appropriators are free to share with us what they can provide uh whether all of it or some portion of it. Now, in response to that, step two is that the board has an obligation by state statute to take um the actual final appropriations and then we are to produce a balanced budget. And so there there is an obligation for the board to produce a balanced budget. There's also um the obligation for the board to produce uh an estimate of what the district needs. Um in terms of what's happened in Harford, it appears that in Harford, we have been so tied to being responsible and having a balanced budget that we often take
085the money that we're given and then we create a budget to the money we're given. And in saying that, I don't think that we have ever fully articulated here's what we actually need. We just take what we've been given. And so, um, regardless to what occurs this evening, I do think we need to fix that defect to create a funding process where the board is given their opportunity to actually articulate here is what we need and then appropriators feeling free to to share what they can provide and then we fulfill our obligation to provide a balanced budget. And so I just want to be to be perfectly clear. Um uh the board in this first step does not have an obligation to produce a balanced budget in this first step. Now, it may occur tonight
086as a courtesy, but let's understand the board is not being irresponsible and articulating here's what the district actually needs to function because that's actually kind of our responsibility to say what the district actually needs to function. Mr. Tatum Yeah, this is my first time through this budget process and along with with several of the board members and I feel like the the process has taught me a lot and I've learned about some of what um Mr. Walker just laid out in terms of like how how this really works and and I think that the problem that Mr. Walker just identified of the Hartford Board of Education under um duress in some ways has balanced the budget out of the need to feel physically responsible for the past decade or more um probably more like two
087decades. And that has in some ways led us to the position that we're in. That we have had persistent structural de deficits, persistent cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts that have um meant such drastic uh impact on the education that we feel we're able to provide. that at this point when we see the list of the programs that we have not identified funding for um what was the word that you used miss superintendent I liked the phrasing this time the high-risk cuts um but there was another um I'm sorry I'm not pulling it up right now but but the point is when we saw that list as a board we were unified in our sense that this crosses a line that we can mitigate, mitigate, mitigate. And we did in this budget cycle. We accepted 15.3 million
088in in reductions and we said, "Okay, I think we can live with that." When it came to those remaining programs that totaled $6.7 million as a board, I felt there was a alignment that we did not want to accept those cuts. We could not in good conscience say yes, we can run our school system without these programs. And so a point that I would like to emphasize here is that any disagreement that's happening now about the process of how we make a request for additional funds or how we um communicate effectively that we are not acquiescing to these cuts or if we do so it is under uh great protest. Um we might disagree about that process. Uh, and I'm prepared to, you know, if it if it doesn't happen in this budget vote, if
089the amendment that we're currently debating passes, uh, and and we vote on a $6.7 million less budget than was presented to us, I'm prepared to find another way um, perhaps at this meeting to make a formal request. But what the part that I'd like to emphasize is that I I feel as a board we are unified in the desire to make that request and and can do so formally. Give me just one moment to see if there's anything else that I want to want to pull out of here. Um I think that'll do it for now. Thank you. Um, thank you. Uh, this is also my first time going through this budget process. Um, and we did have at least twothirds of our meetings the past couple of months have been about this budget and
090we sort of arrived at the budget as presented. Um, we painstakingly found ways to make more cuts where we think it will cost cause the least harm. Um, and the 6.7 million nets left, as we've said before, or the cuts that we think cause so much harm that we just could not get ourselves to even agree that we should have those cuts. Um, and this is very complex. It's a lot of moving parts and quite literally as of yesterday new information when you're asking Miss Broady how this came about. As of yesterday, at least for me, I feel new information has been thrown at me at a speed that's almost undigestible or at a speed at which I can't really vet and personally check myself. So I am faced with this tension of what I
091have observed with my own two eyes tell me that we really need more money and these cuts will be really tragic to our students. Right? So that's been my own observation. And to support that observation, we've had this audit, this independent audit that only finds $400,000 in savings and we're faced with a $30 million deficit. Right? So if there's mismanagement, I have not observed it and I think with everything else, I'm not saying it's a 100% efficiency, but I think there is good faith with the funds that are given to us so that we spend it wisely, right? And I take that seriously as as as a board member who is a fiduciary of the funds we are given. I do take that seriously. I also understand from the position of finances when it comes
092to money, you don't get what you don't ask for. Right? If I am an employee and I am, I work somewhere. I really want a raise because my bills have gone up, right? My kids have more needs, inflation is happening. I could hope that my boss will give me a raise because they think I'm a wonderful worker, which they may think. or I can go and request a raise and my boss can say no, sorry, I don't have the money. But the reality is from my perspective, I don't know my company's entire budget or what my boss is working with, but I know what I need and I can ask for what I need for myself. As a board member, as a mother of children in Hartford schools, I see what we need and I
093can see that we need this money and I can see that within my position, I can ask for that money. I do think we're all acting in good faith. I think city council will act in good faith. I'm even willing to to admit that I will accept to know if there's really no way to give us more money. But the idea of I'm not going to ask for that money seems to me like I'm really not advocating zealously for the position I've been appointed for. Just as I as an individual would not not ask for a raise that I believe I need because I literally cannot make ends ends meet. I can't accept that I really don't ask for this when I know my children need it. when I know 16,500 Hartford students need this.
094So, this is what has informed my decision. I fully appreciate detention, right? I don't know what I don't know and I wish a lot of this surfaced sooner so I could make a more informed decision. But I also think we are acting in good faith and I am acting in good faith. If it is an honest no, we cannot find the money, let's explain that to our residents. Let's explain that to our parents and let's be transparent about the process. But to not ask at all when it is completely within our statutory um powers to request it, that that's what the statute says. We present an itemized budget, right? And we we've done that. We've presented an itemized budget. We've even presented what we would cut if we can't get these funds. So I think
095it is completely responsible when we're saying that this amendment is to allow us to pursue this additional funding and you know I've been told that it's really semantics ultimately we're still asking for the money. If it's really only semantics, why are we being asked to do it at all? Right? I have to question that because the the from my perspective, I think again, if we go back to to the metaphor earlier, asking for the raise and just hoping that my hard work is acknowledged and I just get the raise. It's a huge difference, right? And I would prefer to be in a position of asking for that raise and being told no than not asking at all. Mr. Wilson. Um, I actually went back and forth over this. Um, I was one of the original
096people who even proposed um that we ask the city for what it is that we need. Um, and to Ruth's point, um, gathering more information, understanding this the situation that we may be in as a city, um, trying to get blood from a stone, right? If you don't have it, you don't have it. Um, and I think we all can understand that. The problem is is that's not our charge. Our charge is not to uh uh u look at what the city can and cannot do and make that decision. and our charge is to do what's best for our children and our families. Um, and I think it would be a um a deration of duty not to ask for what we need. To your point, they can say no. And that's fine. Um, but
097if we don't ask, who is going to ask? Right. If we sit down and we say, "Hey, um, we need we we give them a balanced budget." and then we don't get the $3 million that is promised or we don't get the $5 million that is um that we're as a placeholder from the state. What happens then? We have to even make some more cuts. So, it needs to be bought brought to the forefront that we need these funds and these programs. It's not just about these programs as well. Every single year we're consistently asking, I say begging for an influx of funds, resources into our school system so that we can uh um just manage what we have. Why are we consistently in that position, right? We need to have our budget raised. And
098I think it's our responsibility to ask Um, I wanted to say, um, thank you everyone for your thoughts and and sort of how you got to the space. Um, I'm a Harvard public school kid. I graduated from Weaver. I'm a neighborhood school kid. I have nieces and nephews in the school system right now um, who have hard time accessing psychiatrists, counselors, uh, because of all the budget cuts that have already put in place. Um, I want to address a couple of things uh, while we're here. Uh first I wanted to accept uh address the perception of the state on Hartford. The reality of it is like board member uh Fortune shared there was an independent conversation audit. $400,000 was found not 30 million. Um and we're talking about a school system that has been defunded
099or flatfunded which equals defunded. Right? When you are ra when you give the same amount of money that you had today 10 years ago to pay for the for the expenses of today we know that everything is more expensive. So that means that we are going to be doing more. We're going to have be asked to do more with less money. Right? How many of you have seen your rents increases, your food your your food increases, your child care increase, um your health insurance increase, all of those things are still increasing in the in department of educa in our school systems. Right? So, I wanted to address the reality. Hartford has passed an independent budget. Hartford has mitigated the way that we're supposed to mitigate. The the re the the assumption that the state can
100come back and say that we don't know what we're doing and that we have passed an imbalanced budget is false. We've done it. We are living, like a lot of board members have said, and the consequences of what it likes to live in a place where there's institutional racism and classism. That's the reality. We have a class issue where the students in Greenwich get an education that the students in Hartford have no hope of ever getting. And part of that conversation is the flat funding. Why are there two Connecticut? Why are there two different school systems for our kids? Why do Hartford public school kids have to adhere to whatever is left over? So I wanted to address the reality that in fact I think uh after 10 plus years of def of flat funding
101that then equals defunding recognizing that the state has inequitably provided resources to their cities Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, but particularly let's talk about Hartford because we're here, right? We have def we have flatfunded our schools which means you've defunded the schools, right? And so we need better equitable distribution of resources at the state level. That's true. But it what it is also true is that we always have needed more funding from the state legislature. And so I don't I guess my say my my two cents here is I don't understand why can we ask for more dollars from the city and the city take that request and take it to the state and say we have done everything we possibly can to cut our budget. We need you to step in not just this time
102but in general. And also the city should be able to say listen we don't have it. That's okay. We have one million, we have two millions, we have no millions to give you and this is why. That's also okay. That's part of the process in the conversation. So I would be I wanted to address those two things because I think those are two separate things. We get to ask the city and we get to ask the state and we get to acknowledge that whatever lies are told about Hartford public schools, we address them as such because we have done our due diligence. We continue to do our due diligence and our students are the ones suffering from it. So if we keep balancing budgets without asking for additional funds, when is it enough? when there's
103no more schools, when there's no more budgets, when there's no more when there's nowhere to cut, are next year going to be more cuts, too, it's going to be worse. So, for me, I think it's going to be really important to recognize that we are not operating on a vacuum of just 2024, 2025, or 2026. We are talking about a historical defunding of our public school system. And because of the multiple crisises we're experiencing at the national level, at the state level, and at the city level, we are due a conversation about our funding for Harford Public School. So, I'll rest there. I have a whole lot more to say, but that's where I'll stop because I think it would behoove us not to ask for more funds, even if the answer is no. And
104then we get to rally really hard at the at the legislature and tell them, you're shortch changing us in special education. you're not actually funding us properly in English language learners. You're actually not funding the way that you should be. So, we get to do both. And I don't think this is an eitheror conversation. And so, those are my two cents of where we can go and I'm looking forward to the rest of the discussion to see what folks have to say. Um, but as a neighborhood kid who whose school at Weaver always got left behind, I have to at least ask the answer's no. The answer is no. Thank you. So in the motion to amend there is the last part that I read was further and I'm going to read it again. Furthermore,
105the board and the superintendent will continue to look for ways and funding to fully restore services and programs which had to be eliminated or reduced in order to pass a balanced budget and to advocate for the needs of Hartford public schools. Now, as a parent, a Hartford parent who has a child who attends Hartford Public Schools, as an educator who has worked for Hartford Public Schools in the past, as a board member, as an advocate for young people, for education, for equity in education for all. We lack a great deal in Hartford public schools with regards to what the students are getting, what the student versus what they need. And I would not vote on a budget that is not balanced. But it clearly states and we are going to continue the work. We are
106going to ask. This does not mean that we're not going to ask. But we can I cannot vote for a budget that is not balanced. So it's important for the community to step forward. Um and we need to be mindful and remember that it was us who elected those who are who are making these decisions. whether it's the board of education, whether it's city council, the mayor, everyone. So, this is part of this is the result of folks who have been who we have as Hartford residents have voted for. So, it's important that we ask for what we need. We need to make our voices heard. That's all I have to say. Um just two things. Um since a lot of information, as I mentioned before, sort of um was brought to my attention um
107yesterday with the limited time I've had with today being tax day and and other um work um commitments. I haven't had a chance to do as much research as I would have liked, but again within the past 24 hours, my understanding is, and please feel free to correct the record if I'm wrong, this is not a radical concept to have a budget with a placeholder. The superintendent did that in 2017 and she was told no, right? Did Hartford crash down? It was a no and she took that no. That happened. Other school districts do that. they they put a budget forward. It's a proposed budget and it's voted and and the city council or town committee, whichever, they choose whether or not they're granting this. So I in terms of if we're trying to situate
108this historically, this is really not radical. It it's quite common place. Um so the the idea that you know one cannot vote on a budget that's not balanced, it's not really an impossibility. It is simply a choice not to vote and have this proposed unbalanced budget, not something that is impossible and quite to the contrary, it's actually permissible under Connecticut law and it's part of what we actually have a duty to do is present an itemized budget which is what we would be doing whether or not it is balanced or not balanced. And secondly, and my last point to take a step back, right? You would think some of us here are like in disagreement with each other, whereas the reality is we all actually agree we need more money. We're probably we're disagreeing now
109on how we get that more money. But it's it's it is the tragedy of being underresourced and and facing scarcity because we spend so much energy, so much time, so much of our intellect intellectual capacity just trying to strategize that we're creating ways for us to disagree because we're trying to find a path forward. Imagine if we had all of this time, all of this energy to actually do the things that are substantive, where children learn more, where children get the support that they need. It's really it's it when you think of it, right, you're looking from your from some vantage point, you're probably thinking this is a board that's divided and and if a vote is not unanimous, it's probably going to be the the board of education is divided. But the reality is
110we're so united on the fact that we need more money. We're all trying to get at it in different ways. And the truth is I don't know that my way is the guaranteed way that's going to work. Right? You don't know that the amendment is the guaranteed way that it's going to work. Right? I could see pros and and cons to both side, but we actually all agree and I just don't want it to be lost on any of us that so much of this energy and so much of this time that we have, which is a a mighty resource of ours, is spent on just trying to find strategies so that we could try to convince someone that we are fiscally responsible and that we should get some money to try to do the
111thing that we are asked to do. I just want you to bear that in mind. And if however we vote tonight, I really hope that city council understands we're not trying to put anyone in a difficult position. We're not trying to put anyone in a tough spot. We're not trying to compel a no out of anyone. I simply want my kindergartener to not come home crying because she hates being in a new class when her teacher's absent because she can't get a substitute. Right? She can't get a substitute. So they split her class for a matter of weeks into three different classes and she misses her classmates and she's crying. This is what I'm hoping to avoid. And and I think we all are fighting for the same thing. If we're coming at it from
112different angles, the real victim, the the the real villain, if you will, it's not really any of us. It's the person who's trying to frame this as we are attacking each other or we don't agree because we do agree and we all are trying to achieve the same thing. Thank you uh chair. Um to to move us forward I know the amendment as proposed is um extracts the 6.7 million out of the budget. I think it may be helpful now to clarify where that ask is going to be found where to so that it's understood that that 6.7 is not totally a loss for all time. I think we need to at least explain to fellow board members where is that 6.7 going to find its way when we move beyond this amendment. I'm not
113quite sure. I thought there was going to be a resolution. Oh, sorry. Uh, Miss Mr. T. Well, I'm just saying I think you just you can explain it. You don't have to say it. Well, so thank you. Thank you. It builds very nicely off what um board member Fortune was just saying. Um I think this board has had to try to navigate through a difficult situation um which is largely you know again the unity on the substance of what is up here uh is what's most important. I think there's disagreement on the process which is ultimately a political disagreement um and not really about what's right for kids. Um I think we can just name it as that. It is a reality that adults have to deal with in their, you know, responsibility for a
114system as large and as complicated as this one is. And I am someone who naturally is like a peacemaker and trying to find the right way and going through things and it's just something that I struggle with um and think is helpful at sometimes. This might be one of them. Um I'm prepared to and and I think we need to check the process wise here because we there is a amended motion on the floor uh that needs that we are discussing. Um, I'm prepared at some point in tonight's meeting to put forward a resol resolution that would acknowledge all of these budget contexts and formally ask that the city of Hartford appropriate an additional $6.7 million to Hartford Public Schools for the purposes of funding these essential programs that we've discussed. This does, in my
115mind, a couple of things. and and and I realize that this sounds procedural and and um might not be necessary. However, there is concern on the board among board members which has led to the uh amendment that the that passing an unbalanced budget, the so-called unbalanced budget uh is not something that all board members are willing to do. But it's possible that more board members would be willing to pass a separate resolution that essentially uh does the same thing that asks the city for the additional funding. I personally am not persuaded by the arguments that voting on the budget as it is presented un amended constitutes passing an unbalanced budget. In fact, uh if if just as a point of clarity, um Mr. stairst ledger. Could you read the first sentence of the amendment that
116that that describes the I think it's just the first sentence uh that includes the phrase itemized estimate of expenses. Sure. So, the board of educ I'm just going to read the whole thing. Okay. Motion to amend the motion on the table that the board of education adopts the proposed fiscal year 2025 2026 itemized estimate of expenditures in the amount of $452 million,14 effective July 1st, 2025 in order to pass a balanced budget. So that phrase that's at the beginning of that statement that you're proposing an itemized estimate of expenditures is taken from the state statute that governs this process. Uh whereby a board of education prepares what is described not as a budget but an itemized estimate of expenditures and then turns that over to the municipality that has the authority to make an appropriation.
117that as my colleagues have mentioned is a pro a very common process that happens in towns all across the state and indeed all across the country. Um, so a vote in my mind, again, speaking for myself, a vote to adopt the presented budget, which includes $6.7 million of services that we have not yet identified funding for, does not mean that we are passing an unbalanced budget. It means that we are estimating that this is what it will cost to fund the school district, which we've already cut 15.3 million. So, like there's that. Um, but it it's not passing an unbalanced budget. It is passing a estimate of what it would cost to our municipality that has the authority to make an appropriation. Um, so I I'm not persuaded by the argument that we would be
118irresponsible by voting to approve the budget as it is not amend as it is un amended. And it's possible that um, you know, if that doesn't pass, if we pass the amendment, if we um, you know, vote, we'll have to vote on the amendment in a moment. Um and and uh there is another way to um make that a formal request. I don't think it's as compelling a way personally. Um but uh it's something that we all want to do. It's something that the community is crystal clear about. Um, I know that my email inbox was pinged throughout the day today with um, meaningful statements from people that um, have said that they're they're fed up with this history of cuts and that they want us to take a stand. Um, and and fellow board
119members have spoken to that powerfully tonight as well. Um, we're not leaving here tonight, if I have anything to say about it, without making a formal request for the dollars. I personally think that we can do that by just approving the itemized estimate of expenditures as it was presented un amended. If we don't do that then um there's another way to do it as well. Miss Berie, my first thought when I heard resolution, as we know the um personally, I just think that the resolution is not going to be worth more than the paper is going to be printed on. I wholeheartly believe that. Secondly, I think one point that has not been made tonight, if we ask the mayor and city council for the additional 6.7 and they give us the 6.7, they're on
120the hook statutoily to give us that same amount next year, including the 6.7. They cannot give us less than they have given us the previous year. Maybe that's why the fight is such harsh on let's work around another way and not make the formal acts um to the city. So that means so if you want if they give it to us outside of the um budget then next year they could say we gave you that amount we could give you this amount but we'll be back at that 452. So they're on the hook for the 6.7 if that's within the acts and they grant it. They don't want to be on the hook for that. They want to flat fund us again and then just give us whatever extra funds they feel fit to give
121us. So I just did want to make that point. They don't want to be on hook on a hook for the 6.7 which is not enough because we had to start cutting from 30 million. So I think that's the big push. That's the pressure that 6.7 you don't want it added in being the the new flat funding. They don't want that to be the new flat um funded amount. So I wanted to make sure um that was on the record. So, I'm slightly confused cuz my understanding when I first mentioned this that second part of the motion is that resolution. So, what board member Tatum just said that was what our intent was with this amendment was we adopt we approved this budget sending the message that this is the budget that my understanding as
122a person who does budgets is what we are supposed to be doing. And then the next step is we then bring that resolution to the city council during that same budget meeting. That was my intent this entire time. So when everyone's saying we need to ask for more that that's the intent like this this is that at least in my head. I you guys could understand it differently if that's okay. But my intent at the very beginning of this process was we pass a balanced budget and we make that request in front of the city council which the school system has to present to in a week, two weeks, right? Next week like that is the same. So what you know board member Brody is saying about that money being put into the budget and
123having to be done every single year. Yes, that that is the intent. Like I want that too. So, just so we're clear, maybe we're going about it differently, but like that's the intent. Also, like the city council and the mayor's recommended budget, what that is, they can't add more money to the general fund budget. They can only move things around. So, like another flaw in all of this is that we are presenting a budget in April when the city budget process starts in January. So like there's there's another problem that we have structurally to this ask. So like this is an ongoing problem that we will continue to have until we start doing things differently. My proposal and and you know board member Deredger's proposal to pass this as a balanced budget and then put
124together a resolution saying hi we need this money. We do not want to cut these services. We do not want to cut these positions. That is what will happen if we do not get this money. We don't want to do that. But that is that's what has to that's what happens. This is asking for that funding. That that's all. Like I I don't understand. Again, maybe we just it's just a conscious decision that we disagree on this one thing, but like my understanding and my interpretation of this is that's what we get at the end of this amendment is that ask, that very ask, that very resolution that board member Tatum talked about writing. the end. So I I think for everyone including myself perhaps we should be clear about what this means because to
125put it in other terms, board member Brody, her approach, the way she explained it, if it's in the resolution that we pass, it's like getting a raise and a raise is permanent. as she puts it, if it's in the separate resolution, it's like getting a one-time bonus and then you may not get that bonus the next year, right? And you may never get that bonus again or you may keep getting the bonus. As you put it, you're saying either way, it's a raise and both of those things cannot be true. So, I would like clarity on that point, please. Okay. So, as I mentioned a few time, and again, like I'm not trying to sound holier than thou, but like I worked in the budget office for the city of Hartford for 5 years. The
126way that the budget is constructed presently, right? There is a specific amount of money that comes from the state. There's a specific amount of money that comes from the city. That is the school systems budget for the following year. What ends up getting passed at the end of this budget cycle is the city council's approved budget. The mayor recommended one thing. The city council then gets to take that budget and move things around within that larger budget. Board member Brody's recommendation is accurate in so much that if the city council puts money in the board, it stays with the board next year as well. I'm saying the same thing. We're just going about it differently. What's going to end up happening is regardless of which way we get, the city council has to be the
127one to make that change. it is on them. And again, that's not like I'm not trying to pressure them, but that is what happens with this budget. It has to be inserted into the school system and that's what the city council will then do in this process. The way in which we get it to there is actually sort of immaterial to the fact that the city council still has to do it themselves. So like whether or not we pos put it in that way or my way, realistically the only difference to me is one way has a balanced budget, which I clearly care about. Again, that's not like to insult any of my other board, but I care about a balanced budget. And so that resolution is the way that I get a balanced budget
128because I did budgets. That's important to me. And then that resolution handles that second ask. Either way, both both suggestions go in front of the city council and then the city council has to put that into that line item regardless of how it gets there. So, we're not actually arguing about that specific thing. Okay. Um yeah, just one real quick, one clarifying thing. So, um what Mr. Mill says is correct, right? If the city council adds more money to the school budget, it's the MBR, the minimum requirement, sorry, minimum budget requirement. The minimum budget requirement. Thank you, Superintendent. So, that is the one that's the thing that then becomes the floor. However, if the city council or you know, say the mayor has a surplus, the city has a surplus and then they they fund
129the school an additional $3 million next year, that does not go to the MBR. That is just additional funding for one year. So, I hope that that um that that kind of settles that a little bit, but um yeah, Mr. Tatum. Yeah, just a couple clarifying questions then. Um, first I think there are important and substantive differences between the language in the second half of that you're describing as the ask and what I had drafted as a possible resolution that we can talk about. Um, I guess my question is to you is, and I'm genuinely open-minded about this, what's the difference between passing an amended version of this budget that is $6.7 million less and includes a clear resolution that says, "And we want to fund these programs with $6.7 that we haven't that we
130don't have yet. please give us $6.7 million more dollars to fund these programs, which is my understanding based of what you're proposing based on what you just said. And passing the unmended budget that says here are all the programs that we want to run, these $6.7 million worth of programs. We don't currently have an idea of what the source is for, and we are therefore asking for that money. Like what what is the difference between reducing the 6.7 million from the budget and asking for more and and asking for the full amount as part of one package. If I may, Madam Chair, I think he's asking me specifically, passing a balanced budget is incredibly important for everybody who does budgets. Like best budgeting practices is a very important thing that people get audited on. Like
131this is I'm not just making this up because I like talking about budgets. I was a history major. I just this like this is what I was trained to do. This is why I'm on this board. Like literally, I do not have children in the Hartford public school system. I went to the Hartford public school system. My mother worked here for 27 years. I got to see her deal with budget cuts as she the inside suspension pair professional for Hartford High for 20 years had to deal with more and more and more. So I got to watch her. So like this is not some abstract concept to me but budgets and passing balanced budget is an important thing for us for the state for everybody who does budgets. So I'm not just harping on this.
132This is like that's a thing that's a very important thing that we have a balanced budget and that resolution afterwards is that ask um yes u thank you chair. So um um one the reason I started the discussion is because as I heard the amendment that second asked to me wasn't clearly spiked out for me I found it cleaner in that resolution and so that that was the only reason I I think um that was the only reason that discussion now to answer to me the question a different way um is political motive um if we if we provide the the the if we provide the un amended budget to the city council. Everything I understand about the process right now today is they will say no, we will get less than that and then
133um to um to board member um Mill's point, we would have to go through some res reconciliation and so forth to make it balanced and then eventually we'll have a budget we can work with. the the importance of of creating a balanced budget tonight is that it allows a budget to go forth to city council that we can feel confident that they will say yes to. And so the budget piece is then done and then that becomes a secondary ask. So we can we can still hold them accountable for the ask, but we get a budget actually that they can say yes to. And so in essence, in essence then I'm just answering the question, the politics of it. They get to say yes and then post that yes potentially the board, the mayor, the
134council can then run to the state in addition to the city to to do more asking. But that's the real reason is so that so bottom line one one way ensures that we get the money every single year and the other way ensures that we have to ask for it every single year. That's that's the bottom line of what that's what we disagree about. That's that's the difference. We're going back and forth saying the same thing. I'm sorry. I don't mean to cut but that's we're we're see that's where we disagree at. So, and so Madam Chair, oh through through chair and so correct and the reason I brought politics into this is that part of the direction that we choose the direction we select in some ways is going it's going to rest on
135our willingness to trust the integrity of city council, the mayor and those players to actually work to help us find money, help to make the budget situation um better. I'm just I mean well that's the d that's the real deal because in some ways um you you're going to if you in in essence if you're giving them the budget they want then the trade-off is that somehow you're we're going to buy into okay that they're going to work with us to really make this thing better. I just have My question is directed to you. Um uh uh Mr. Mills, uh uh could we have the resolution the end of it read again because you you said multiple times that the intent is for us to go to the city council to ask for the additional
136funds, which I personally do not have a problem with. I don't have a problem with um coming to a compromise about how we ask for the funds if the disagreement alone is just worried about um being on the hook or being off the hook. But in the resolution that's currently on the table, it it doesn't explicitly say that based on what I heard at the end of it. So So that is correct. Okay. The amendment does not state explicitly that we will write a resolution. It says we will do it's do more essentially after this meeting to do more. Right? But like again keep in mind that's open-ended so that we could have that conversation and figure out the best way to ask. My firm intent I think the best way to ask is by
137presenting a resolution that says we need all of these things. Here is a balanced budget. Here is an attached an attached resolution. Not a separate ask. an attached resolution to that balanced budget that says we would also require this amount of money or that or is very important services get cut and that places that onus on the city council and the city of Hartford. My second point, this budget that we have and when it goes to the city council is sort of nebulous, right? Like money needs to be put in to that account and it has to be with intent from the city council. So this idea that one way gets that money in and gets it in every year and the other way doesn't is not correct because that money needs to be placed
138in that line item by the city council in both suggestions. Like both are a request. Both of them needs the city council to literally put in a resolution. We are moving this amount of money into the Hartford school system in order for it to be a year-over-year thing. Like both of these require them to do the thing. Like just because we approved this budget today in either form does not mean that the city council has to do quite frankly if they don't like this budget right now they can lessen it. I mean well not this I'm sorry they can't do that but like if they if they don't like this budget like none of that is guaranteed. They have to take that with intent to do it for both of our suggestions. like they have
139to literally put in a resolution. I'm increasing the school systems budget from this to this by decreasing it somewhere else from this to this for both of our suggestions. I'd like to propose in order to move maybe toward more consensus here a friendly amendment to the amendment based on could we have a point of clarity before that we have at we have city attorneys here that I want to get a clear understanding on what was said um from another board member about how and what has to be funded the next year I I want to hear from a city attorney. I'm sorry, Lori. So if it's added to to the actual whole budget, right, then that is a number that goes forward regardless if we do it through the resolution or through sending a full
140unbal an unbalanced budget or this the original budget to the council. If the mayor comes back and says, you know, we have a bigger surplus than we thought. We'll give you an extra $2 million next year. That's the money that won't go year-over-year because that's not being added to our MBR. Does that Does that Okay. But what are we doing? I don't know what we're doing tonight. Now, we're going to have another friendly amendment to the already amendment. Um, and we could just ask for the we could just vote for what's in front of us. We've already we we for those who missed Thursday meetings, it might it might be good to go back to have gone back and looked at it before tonight because we were advised by um Attorney Mooney. We were advised,
141he's written a million additions to school board policy that there is no the only obligation we have is to present to the city what we need balance unbalanced. We could we could say unbalanced but it's not convincing anyone. We can say that it's not convincing anyone because we it's our the only obligation we have is to present what we need. So this amendment is not presenting what we need which we were already explained is our obligation. So it this amendment says nothing about a resolution and now we're going to amend the amendment when we could just be bold enough right now to vote on the what we need and that's our obligation. like we're going around in circles because what we're trying to do, we're trying to prevent the mayor and city council from saying
142no or finding money. So, let's just do the right thing by our kids. There there is something slightly circular happening. I'm I guess you're the chair. Um are we ready to to right call a question? Yes, we uh Oh, sorry. Point of clarification. So before I just need to know exactly if it's going to be if if that motion to amend is going to be approved or not or what exactly how will the vote be read? I mean how will the how will the motion be read? I I believe that the motion on the table right now is the amended motion. So I I believe we vote on the amended motion first and then if that fails then we go back to the initial the original motion. So yes. So is that correct? Okay, understood.
143Um yeah, I'm sorry. I I need more clarification. I just want to make sure I understand before we vote what is being said is no matter whether we ask for it within the budget or we ask for it in the resolution if it is a part of the overall budget that gets approved the city is the city is on the hook for that money. So so long as yes that funding is added to the line item budget from the council. Correct. And what we what is being proposed by our colleagues here is that we we vote on a balanced budget to then now go and ask for this money to be put into the line item u um separately outside of the budget that we're we're presenting to be added to the budget. Yeah, that
144is but we but we are going to present a balanced budget. That is the request. Correct. Okay. And I would say that they the city council can say no, we could still get this onetime money, right? like there there's still other ways to do it. But yeah, let me yeah, let me clarify. To me, however this goes forward, we're we're asking for more money. And I know you're asking the question, but what I'm saying is if we if we if Hang on. If we if we submit the the budget as it currently is. All right. the the city council has several ways to fulfill that um request for more money. Oh. Oh or yes. But I'm saying that the thing about being on the hook is only if they fulfill that request by putting it
145in the what is that minimum right? There's no confusion on that. Okay. There's no confusion on that. That's not that wasn't my confusion. That I'm all set. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. I just have a question for clarity. So if we just to see where the resolution falls in all of this, right? So if we are to vote yes on amending the the budget to remove the $6.7 million ask because we are going to pass a separate resolution official resolution to ask for those dollars. When in the process does that happen? Does it happen immediately today? It it can yeah we can add it as a um we can add it to the agenda with a two-thirds vote. I thought because the language wasn't clear that it was a resolution that's why I had a question
146of what the next step is because when originally it was read said we will continue our efforts it didn't say we will have a resolution on top of it. So that's why I wanted to clarify right and through you madam chair now that I understand the intent of the language of the amendment I think it's possible that what I had prepared as a resolution could be added to as an as a again friendly amendment which means it it is clarifying the intent of the amendment that was proposed if it and it has to be accepted by the people who voted and seconded on the amend on the amendment. Um that I think would do those two things in one step. Um we would still then vote on whether we want to go through with the
147amendment whether you accepted it or not. Would you like to have me read that and then you could accept adding it to your You got to read the your proposed amendment first. Um so there are a couple contexts of where's and then the resolution that clearly um I think articulates the ask. Uh, it says, "Whereas Harvard Public Schools has faced flat funding and a structural deficit for over a decade, which has required the board to make $170 million in cuts to balance the budget since 2016. Whereas the last time a request for additional revenue uh was uh 2017 and the budget process for 2025 2026 began with a projected $30 million deficit. Whereas district staff have already identified 15.3 million in reductions to services to close this gap. Whereas revenue projections leave a remaining budget
148deficit of $6 million $6.7 million. And whereas the program programs and services that would need to be cut without the additional $6.7 million have been identified by the district and the superintendent, be it resolved that the Hartford Board of Education formally requests that the city of Hartford identify an additional appropriation of $6.7 million to fund essential programs. Just a second. I guess I'm okay with that. I think you have to say that, too. I I think we're first just amending the wording to our um to our a our amendment to add a resolution, but I think correct as the original motion and second we have to agree to correct in order for it to be just a thing. So I think we just need to add a resolution on that and we'll be good. I'm
149I'm good with that, Madam Chair. with no mentioning of the MBE or whatever that acronym was MBR. So we're not asking for it to be added to that. Madam, do you madam chair the comment about the comment that he said about putting it into the budget is that like that that is the budget that is can we spell it out in the proposed in the amended amendment to the amendment or would it go in I think it would go in the resolution. I think that's the the place um Miss Brody to what you're saying I think that is where that would go. I think yeah if I'm if I may what what adding what adding this what I have been calling resolution to the amendment means there would not be a resolution separate it would
150just be part of what it would essentially become part of the budget that we approve. Okay. Um as amended. Okay. So no additional resolution. That's this will just be part of the amendment. My apologies for that's my understanding based on what we've discussed tonight. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm okay with that still. Okay. All right. Question. Do we do we I if if the question is can we even do that to the amendment? No. Do we need to I guess we can but yeah. Can do you do we need to reread it in totality? we we do when we vote. If if if I could real quick, um I I haven't said much. I truly appreciate every word that is said here tonight by my fellow board members. Um you know, as as many of
151you have said, we're all after the exact same thing. We need more money to fund our schools, to take care of our everdeserving um very capable students. So, without a doubt, that is that is what we're all here to do today. Um, I I feel like and you know, I've only been on the board for nine months, but I feel like we've made great strides in our relationships between the council and the mayor and our state delegate um our delegation. I feel like, you know, I've had many one-on-one conversations with many of them. I feel like we're moving forward in the right direction. The city council, you know, will approve their budget in May. The state will approve their budget in June. Um, I have very high hopes that there will be great things that
152come out of these discussions. So, I am just I'm just incredibly grateful for all of the um the hard work and efforts of everyone here on this board and um of the district for putting this budget together. Um I know how difficult it is and I um am really really grateful. So, thank you so much. Um so, I I will not repeat anything that's already been said because all other great things have been said. So, um, with that, I will call for a vote. And I believe I I need to read the amendment, but I might actually ask Mr. Tatum, will you read the motion? This is the start of it. I could if that's okay. Yes, please. Okay. So, the amendment reads um that the board of education adopts the proposed fiscal year 2025
15320226 itemized estimate of expenditures in the amount of $452,110,14 effective July 1st, 2025 in order to pass a balanced budget. Furthermore, whereas Hartford Public Schools has faced flat funding and a structural deficit for over a decade, which has required the board to make $170 million in cuts to balance the budget since 2016. Whereas the budget process for 2025 2026 began with a projected $30 million deficit, whereas district staff have already identified 15.3 million in reductions to services to close this gap. Whereas revenue projections leave a remaining budget deficit of $6.7 million. And whereas the programs and services that would need to be cut without the additional $6.7 million have been identified by the district and the superintendent. Be it resolved that the Harford Board of Education formally requests that the city of Hartford identify an
154additional appropriation of $6.7 million to fund essential programs. Thank you, Mr. Tatum. Do I have a motion? So move. Do I have a second? What's that? But now we're voting on it, right? So we motion and second. Okay. So we just vote. Okay. All right. My apologies. Um we'll just vote and I'm just going to do a voice vote. Um starting uh with Miss Brody. Absolutely no. Mr. Wilson. Yay. Mr. Tatum. Yay. Mr. Walker. Oh, I'm so sorry, Miss Fortune. No, Mr. Walker. Um, yes. Uh, Mr. Aristo ledger. Yay. Mr. Mills. Yes. Uh, Mrs. Strader Perez. No. With one, two. Oh, I'm sorry. And I vote I two, three, four, five. I believe that the motion passes with I can't read my own handwriting. I'm so sorry. Um with six yeses. Um thank you. So
155my papers are now out of order. Now we have to on the amended budget now. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay, I'm very sorry. My apologies to the viewing public as we muddle through this tonight. Okay, so we have voted on the amendment. So now, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the motion on the floor is that the Hartford Board of Education adopt the fiscal year 2526 itemized estimate of expenditures in the amount of $452,110,14 effective July 1st, 2025. Um, all those in favor signify by saying I with the amended stuff the whole resolution again. Okay. Uh, Mr. Tatum, you're up. Yes. Whereas Harvard Schools has faced flat funding and a structural deficit for over a decade, which has required the board to make $170 million in cuts to balance the budget since 2016. And
156the budget process for 2025 20226 began with a projected $30 million deficit. And district staff have identified 15.3 million in reductions to services to close this gap. And revenue projections have left a remaining deficit of $6.7 million. And they've identified the services that would need to be cut without that additional programming uh without that additional funding. It is resolved that the Hartford Board of Education formally requests that the city of Hartford identify an additional appropriation of $6.7 million to fund essential programs. Thank you, Mr. Tatum. Um, assuming that we will vote the same way that we just voted, I will do all those in favor signify by saying I I I I should I go back and do the I will do individually if you would please. Thank you. Okay. I will do it individually
157again. I'm sorry. Um it's Yeah, sorry to walk us backward now, but it sort of dawned on me now that we we've merged them into one. We don't have two separate votes. Now we before it was bifurcated. We could say no to the budget, yes to the resolution. Now you either vote yes to both or no to both. Correct. Um right. So on the one hand, the goal is we want to ask for more money. Right. So voting against the budget also means we're voting against asking for more money which is not the intent right because we it was bifurcated now we've merged it into one so someone like me who I wouldn't vote on the budget without the extra 6.7 million but now I don't have the opportunity to say no to the budget
158and send that message that we need more money but if I vote no to the budget I'm also saying no that to extra money so it seems like that all of us are in agreement that we want this additional fund. Are we have are we I guess we're still in discussion mode on the main supposed to be voting but well we really haven't had any discussion on the main amendment the main motion madam chair um yes Mr. Yes. Can I move to table the motion and go into executive session so we can come back with one plan? No, you can't break it. No, I think we're we're close to getting done. Just want to clarify what you were saying. Um if you it's so if we go back to ultimately the goal is we want
159more money. The way we can get more money is by having more of us asking for more money. Now, we've put ourselves one, we've had a a proposed expenditure that had a request for funds. With all these amendments to amendments to amendments that I've just learned about today, now as a board member, I'm forced to say no to the budget, including a request for more more money or yes to the budget without with the request for more money, but not with it embedded in the budget as we initially discuss. That's what I'm trying to answer. That's what I was trying to say. Ultimately, if you reject everything, it goes back to the original budget only if a majority of us Well, that's the way it is anyway. But no, that's not the way it is
160anyway. If we had two separate things we're voting on, if we're voting on a budget, then we're voting on a resolution. I could vote yes and no, or yes and yes, no or no, or a combination. Right now, I get one vote. So, I can't it. So my my principled stance of I want this budget to reflect the expenses that we need not I want the budget to reflect the expenses that we can afford and then ask for this additional funds outside of it. I can't I can't register that through this process that we've just invented today that we're just kind of figuring out how to do today. And it it's it's weakened our entire position collectively, right? Because we don't want to present. The way we do get that negative headline is to say
161this board has voted and they're not all in agreement that they want. I could see a journalist saying, you know what, the the board voted and some of them voted against wanting more money for the school because if I vote no now, I'm also saying no to an extra $6.7 million, which is not at all my intention. Let me ask the chair something. I I hear what you're saying. Okay. The original proposal was for the full amount of the money. The original proposal is that and should read that way. And then as a if I if I read the original proposal and then said as amended. Okay, it's in that amendment that I'm reducing I'm reducing the total of the budget but then adding that um um resolution for 6.7. If I if I reject
162if I if I if I reject the proposal as amended, then it's just the original proposal un amended. So I I'm I'm believing you need to read it with the full amount of the money because that's the original proposal with the understanding the as amended is what to her point. It's the as amended that reduces it and then adds the um resolution to ask for more money. Right. But that and that's what we're voting on. Yeah. But but you read it with the smaller number. The original proposal had the larger number in it. But we were voting on the amended which had the smaller number. Are we still on the amendment now? Yes. Not on the the main correct. Correct. The sorry the the amendment passed. Therefore, we are voting on the budget as amended
163which is less and includes language asking for more money. To address um Misfortune's very valid concern, I am prepared immediately after the budget vote to reintroduce the resolution as it exists. in isolation of the budget vote. Um, if that helps solve that problem, yes and no. Because then it's you what if I'm the only one who votes yes to the resolution? Then we don't have this unanimous resolution that at a minimum, right? If we don't pass this budget with this increased amount, at a bare minimum, we need to have unanimity with this request for 6.7 million, right? That's how we're going to send a strong united message. If we're thinking about this and and I I know I'm trained as a lawyer and I like to think of how do I have leverage and and
164and what's the power dynamic and that's is not at all what I really want to be thinking about. But the reality is one option we we are forced to get a no. The other option can just be ignored. And that's really the crust. I don't think the crust is really the the MBR no MBR because as we've appropriately discussed it's up to city council how they get to elevate that MBR regardless of how a request is made. What we have control over is whether we can demand an actual no or we can simply say yes to we can let them say yes to something and then ignore the request that would actually give them reason to consider how they allocate funds. And I say this fully understanding the the city doesn't just print its own
165money, right? We don't have our own currency. I know we have budget restrictions. All I'm asking is for a transparent process and a thoughtful process where from my perspective, I can compel them to really consider how they're allocating the dollars. I believe that they do it as well as they can. I believe they are acting in good faith and I believe I'm also acting in good faith to put this money in the budget so that they can say no in good faith to me if they really can do it. But if if if there's a way for them to find this money, I want them to really think twice before they say that no. And right now as presented, I don't have a way to register even a request for it in a separate resolution.
166I mean, hopefully we'd all vote yes to it, but it's it's if there's really no material difference, all of the amendments to the amendments and to I I I draft documents, I amend, I restate, you know, I throw clients, it's I I do that stuff and even I'm finding a hard time explaining to myself why we're doing all of this other than what I've just said. It's it's the option. It's it's we either force them to say no or I do believe they will do their best either way but what not why not just ask for what we think we need. Exactly. So that's I think that's a question hang on that that's a question madam to the budget to answer. So what the question you're asking is is this a two-piece thing clearly. So
167what what you're asking to me is is the process we're going to provide them a budget. they'll say yes or no on the budget and do we also provide them this resolution that they say yes or no to I just want to ask to the to um the assistant budget um board member Mills is that how this process will work through the chair my understanding of what we all just voted for in that amendment and what the current plan as this motion reads is there is the balanced budget which is the lower number which includes that say that the cuts which we all don't like but that's what the budget is and a resolution attached to that balanced budget saying we need $6.7 million in order to avoid those cuts but here is a balanced
168budget city council please take all of these requests and give us more money so the question that she's asking I want to know too is procedurally that if if that goes to city council does it go as two parts. Does it go then as a budget that the city council can say yes or no on? And then does it come then as a resolution that that they can say yes or no on? Because her question kind of is where's the leverage where we get to get them to say either vote for the 6.7 million or don't vote for the 6.7 million, but don't ignore it. Guys, so sorry. Sorry. So, what I was going to say is the resolution will go along with the budget, right? But the the this the city council's budget process
169is they received their budget books in March. They are now going through the departmental requests from all all the departments and we as board of ed is one of those departments, right? So we like just like public works or HR will go to the council and say here's our budget book and here's our resolution asking for an additional 6.7 million. It's bifurcated. It's different. It's you know we're trying something different here. Um, and then they'll hear all of the departments and then in the beginning of May they will get together again. They'll talk about all the information that they've received over the last month and a half and then they'll deliberate and decide if they're going to make any changes within the budget that was provided to them. So that's at the point that we'll
170find out if this if the board of ed gets additional funding. Did that did I answer the question or did she? Not exactly. Right. So, just as now I feel like the option to have two votes has now been combined into one, does city council have an obligation to answer to the resolution? I know they will make a good faith effort. Either way, they will make a good faith effort, but will we actually get an answer back or is it just potentially could go into the void, right? That's the question. And also, I do want to address this idea that I I'm a budget person, therefore balanced budget is critical. I have a finance undergraduate degree. I was a financial adviser. I'm a trust and estate planning attorney. I literally deal with money for like
171the past 12 13 years of my life. I I'm constantly dealing with numbers. Like I understand numbers and fiscally responsible does not mean you can't ask for more. That's not that that's not those two things are are not the same. Like you can be fiscally responsible. As a matter of fact, I would argue I'm so fiscally respons so fiscally responsible that I can't in good conscience not ask for more money because we can't do what we need to do with the funds that we're given. And if the city doesn't have the money and and I do I mean this mayor has been more generous. He's given us more money than the prior prior mayor onetime funds. and and city council has been I'm not saying anyone's acting in bad faith, but why not ask why
172are we I I'm confused about all of these motions and amendments. Why not just ask for the money in one clean request? Madam Chair, if it's all the same, why not ask in one clean request? Mr. Mills and then Mr. Wilson. That's literally what we just did. that this is the request. I keep mentioning that I did the budget for the city of Hartford so that I can explain the budget process. The city council is not going to get our request and vote on it immediately. They're not going to vote on the school system in one vote. They're going to put it in a one large resolution. So this thing that you're talking about where they take our budget and vote yes or no, and then they take this resolution, vote yes or no. That
173was never happening. Anyways, what they're going to do is take our request, they're going to circulate it amongst themselves. We will explain it. That's at least in my head. We will explain it next week when the school system presents their budget to the city council. The city council will then take said budget, deliberate amongst themselves and put together one resolution with every single department in the city. It's not a we are sending them their budget. We are sending them the resolution. I'm voting yes to this and yes to this and yes to this. It is all of them get into one gigantic resolution like that. The vote that you're talking about is not what's going to happen. And I'm not saying that like that's that's how the budget process works for the city of Hartford.
174Like that's what I'm trying to explain. That's why I keep bringing up that I'm on that did the budget. Not to insult everybody else or imply that you aren't good with budgets. It's that is what the city council process is. They vote for it all at once. Every single department in the city of Hartford has one gigantic resolution. The end. Point taken. That is precisely why I don't understand why a budget with a higher number versus a budget with an amendment with a resolution with a lower number in a piece of addition. Why does it matter? Because they they they're still going to look at their overall funds. What do they allocate? So, if it makes no substantive difference, why did we just spend two hours trying to separate the two so that we can
175get to an agreement? Like I I genuinely don't get that when when when I am planning something and I'm bifurcating a process and I'm doing separate documents and I'm increasing cost to to to someone there needs to be a clear rationale like it can't just be arbitrary and this feels quite arbitrary to me. It it it's I don't see the value added for all of that. I I I I'm failing to see it. And what I again going back to what I know is that we need more money. What I don't know is all of the things that happens in city council that I don't understand how it works. So, it's really hard for me to not act on the said information that I know so I can just take faith in a bunch of
176stuff that I don't know. Right. That's that to me is not logical, Miss Brody. to help my fellow board member out. You will not understand it because what we seen tonight is called Harford politics. So you will not understand it. Don't try to understand it. Have your understanding of what actually could have happened. Political pressure was applied from Thursday night until Tuesday afternoon right before we got here and political pressure one. We got an amendment before us and that's where we are. You will not understand it because it's Harford messy politics. Madam Chair, just real quickly, yeah, nobody pressured me. I pointed out at the very beginning of this process, balanced budgets matter to me. I would have voted this way on Thursday. I wasn't there. I did in fact listen to the video earlier.
177Um, so like I I know I didn't partake in the conversation, but like I pointed out earlier, balanced budgets are important for municipal governments and public entities. That's important to me as someone who did budgets, who does budgets, like that's that's a part of what government agents do. like government financial aid. That's a thing. It's not I'm not There's no political pressure, guys. I would have voted this way on Thursday. I'm I'm going to go ahead and just call the question now. I think the motion right now that we're voting on and vote up or down, we if we vote for this motion that we have read and includes the um includes the resolution, then that concludes the discussion on the budget tonight. If we vote not in favor of it, then I believe it
178reverts back it reverts back to the original this the original budget and then we will then vote on the original budget and I'm looking to the attorneys. Did I get that right? That is correct. Okay. Can you repeat that? I'm sorry. Just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, currently the motion is voting on the lower budget number with the resolution that Mr. Tatum prepared. That's the motion on the floor that we will vote on. If this motion fails, then it reverts back to the original motion, which is for the original budget amount, including the $6.7 million. So, the whole amount unbalanced. So, and we would vote on that, correct? After. Yes. Correct. I just have one thing. This is just a back and forth nonsense. We are asking in either the original budget or the revised one
179with the resolution attached, we are asking for the $6.7 million. It is my understanding that if city council, the mayor's office, they approve the $6.7 million that they are on the hook, which is one of the things that was a sticking point. They are on the hook for it. to Ruth's point. Sorry, I didn't mean to call you by your first name. Um, having the city I'm I'm I'm back and forth, having the city have to answer to tell us no, we are all aware well aware of where where the city is financially. We are not by adopting the current u um resolution or the current budget as constructed with the resolution on the floor. We are not sitting back and not pushing for the city to provide us with that 6.7. If it's in
180the budget, they can say no. And then where where do we stand there? Where do we stand if the city comes back and says no to the 6.7 that is in the original budget? Do we now come back and have to reconcile that? Correct. So what is I I'm I'm I'm struggling with what the difference is other than procedural that if there's a no other than us wanting them to officially say no when there's a resolution attached to our budget and we as a community know that there's a resolution attached to the budget and we can show up in force to ensure that that resolution is acknowledged and answered to. That's the part that I'm I'm I'm I'm struggling with. So, the compromise to me was to say, okay, we're we are submitting a balanced
181budget despite it being ridiculous that we're even in this position, and we're also making sure loud and clear that we're asking for the 6.7. So, and I think that it's also a part of our charge that if we're going to put that in as a resolution that we also have to make the concerted effort to ensure that we get a response. Not sitting on procedural because it's in the budget they have to respond, but making sure that this pro this hearing is public. Everyone knows in our budget that we are providing to the city that there is $6.7 million that we are telling you that we want not as a one-time ask but put into the budget so that we can continuously get that influx of of um funds and that's a part of our
182budget moving forward. So there's some leg work that goes in that goes into this that comes behind it and we just sort of have to be willing to do it. So, I I don't really see, you know, the argument back and forth over, you know, the it being a part of the budget because they could just if they don't have it, they can say no and then we're back here with a definitive no putting forth a budget that cuts out the $6.7 million. So, I agree with you, Mr. Wilson. But my question to you then is why do you think it matters to so many other people that we change this budget so much if it's irrelevant to them whether or not we include the money in one way or another? And this is where
183I can't choose, right? Because I know what I know. I don't know what I don't know. You're asking me to believe that it really doesn't matter. Yet you're you want this change made so badly. The two like it either matters or it doesn't. It just it simply doesn't add up to me. No. to to me it to me it's I agree it is all politics and I agree with that but it's politics on both sides. If you're telling me if we all everyone sat up here and said well the most they can say is no well that's not getting that's not getting our kids the funds. So if they're saying no is that not also a political stunt. What is more important? Are we not trying to get the money? Are we are trying to
184offend people? And I'm not trying to say that. I'm not trying to No, it's not offensive to ask. It's not offensive to ask. But every every single person up here in their speech about even myself, all they can do is say is no. And my thought while I sat up here, as we as I listened to every single person up here, well, okay, if they say no, what happens? Then we don't get the 6.7 million. We're back in here telling you that we're going to pass a budget. All of that is for the public to see. All of that puts these discussions put pressure on the the uh on city council and the mayor to do what they're supposed to do because we're consistently talking about the 6.7. We're not even talking about the 30.
185We're talking about 6.7. So in the context of 30 versus 6.7, it might seem like, oh yeah, well they should be able to do that because it's really a 30 windfall. Well, here nor there, we're making the ask no matter whether it's in the budget or not. And we have pe we have people on the board here who are are adamant about passing a balanced budget. And I'm adamant about ensuring that we get more funds and that it's not a one-time thing. And this the resolution as it's on the floor now allows us to do both. It allows us to put the the the the um make the request for the $6.7 million as well as um passing a um a balanced budget um in the eyes of some of the board members. So, with
186that being said, again, there's more leg there's leg work to be to be to be um to be done in terms of ensuring that we get a response on the resolution um versus a a no or yes um it with it built into the budget in that way. Thank you. Yep. Go ahead. I have a clarifying question is because what I'm also hearing in the ether is is there a difference between the powers of a resolution versus the powers of reconciliation. So if we introduce a 6.7 budget without the amount, we will have to go through a reconciliation process. Or if we introduce a budget with the additional 6.7 ask, we will have to go through a reconciliation process. If we don't do that, we do a a resolution. Is there a legal difference in
187the ways that they have to respond city council the mayor to both of those ask from those corners reconciliation versus resolution or not that we know of? I I don't believe that there is the resolution. I mean technically anyone could write a resolution, right? And no one has to respond to it. Um that I mean that that is the thing, right? Um if but also I maybe we'll look to the attorneys if we put I guess if we put forth a budget they will have to say yes or no to it. Correct. Even though what's in currently in the city budget though, right? What's currently in the city budget line item is the flat funding from last year. So that is the the budget that was presented to city council. Yeah. um through the chair.
188To be clear, the reconciliation is our activity. So the the big difference with the balanced budget is there's in essence no reconciliation. If someone gives you extra money, there's no reconciliation. You're just getting a windfall. I think we would have to go back and vote to accept Okay. The funds with acceptance and and then replenish, right? We'd have to decide what goes back. If we get all 6.7, we have the list, right? But if we don't, then we'll have to decide what comes back. But it's but it it what the point I was making the reconciliation part is the but you're not going to be irresponsible in in essence having an an unbalanced budget. Do you know what I'm saying that that you Yeah. Because legally we can't have an unbalanced budget as of June.
189So we would have to correct we would have to do that. So yes I I just said exactly what happened to us. I was I was trying to explain to her what was happening. So, so, so correct. So, so, so the point I'm making, the reconciliation is on us. It's it's that the city council only had to make a decision of what to appropriate to us. Then we do reconciliation. Either way, there's a reconciliation unless we get nothing. If we get nothing, then there's there's no reconciliation. Correct. If we get nothing and that is the the budget that we adopt today, then correct, there's no further action on our part. Um, just just to clarify what I was pointing out to the board members aside so that you do hear what I was saying is
190that if we get that 6.7, my understanding is the superintendent just backs that out of the presentation earlier. That that's all that I was trying to explain just so you're aware. All right. I believe that we are back to the same spot we were then voting on the current the current amended proposal that is before us which includes a budget which is an amended budget which is uh 6.7 million less than what was in our budget book and also includes that's actually sorry the budget book actually does not have the 6.7 million which is the other part that baffles me because we discussed it would have the 4.7 6.7 but this number is 4521104 which is the number without the 6.7 I had to just manually write in if you add in the 6 and
191please correct me is that no the latest book please okay so in the budget book you see the revenue is 452.1 and so that's why when we're saying balanced we're saying the expenses would equal the revenue that's on page seven. Page eight has the expenses that total to the 458.8 and you can see the gap on page nine. It shows the deficit between those is the 6.7. Thank you for clarifying. Yep. [Music] Okay. So, the motion on the floor. Do we need to read it again or have we we've already read it and then we continue to discuss. So, are we do we have to read it again? We're good. Okay. All right. Um, so with the motion that is currently on the floor, uh, Miss Brody, absolutely not. Mr. Wilson, yay. Mr. Tatum, yay.
192Miss Fortune, no. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Dariselle Ledger, yes. Mr. Mills, yes. Mrs. Estrada Perez, no. And I myself am an a yes. So with that, we have six yeses. Um the motion passes. Okay. Could we have a resolution separately so that hopefully we can get a unanimous vote on the resolution? Um that yes, that would require a twoth3 vote. Two vote. Yes. So, um, yes, and we will have to propose. I'm looking Stephen, you seem to or sorry, Mr. Tatum, you seem to really know how to do this earlier. So, I'd like to add an item to the agenda tonight. It is a resolution that I read earlier. And I wonder if there's a second to first add that to the agenda. I second it. All right. There's now we can vote to add
193it to the agenda. Okay. Uh all those in favor of adding the resolution discussion to the agenda signify by saying I. I. All those opposed extensions. All right. The motion passes. Um so Mr. Tatum, I'll turn it over to you. Motion to add a resolution which I read earlier. Um I'll summarize it for the purpose of moving on, but summar summarizing it. Um, the resolution asks the city to appropriate an additional 600 6.7 million to Hartford to fund essential programming. Thank you. Is there any additional discussion on this resolution? No. But could we make from wait for Mr. Walker to come before we vote? Uh, sure. Yes. Only because I I would like this to be a unanimous vote. I think it matters. Yes. Well, Yes, we'll we'll pause for one moment. Okay, everyone is
194back. Um, yeah. Okay. Um, sorry, I have now lost my dream of our the motion on the floor is that we uh vote to pass the resol sending the resolution to the city council uh requesting additional funding for our 2024 2025 2026 budget. I made the motion. And I'm actually not sure that it got seconded. Oh, second. Okay, Stephen Wilson. Thank you. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Wilson seconded. Sorry. Question. Excuse me. My only question in that space was was it still necessary since we incorporated in the amendment as a friendly amendment. We we wanted to include it as those who voted against the budget would still like to um would still like an opportunity to vote on the resolution. Okay. So that is that is the reason for this. Absolutely. Okay. All right.
195All those in favor of the resolution signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed extensions. All right. Motion passes. Thank you Mr. Tatum for bringing that and for writing it so eloquently and so quickly today. All right. Uh, moving on. Item 4.2, contract continuation approval, Power School. Motion that the Hartford Board of Education authorized the superintendent to execute a contract with Powers School for the term outlined in the contract ending June 30th, 2026 not to exceed $570,89.36. Do I have a motion? So move. Second. Second. All right. Um, Dr. Torres Rodriguez. Yes. and I'll ask the team to come and speak about P school, our student um management, student information management system. Um Deputy Foster, Abby Linger Quint is I think as we talked about Oh, there we go. As we talked about in
196committee, uh this is the core student information system. So this is the the platform that uh includes where we track attendance, we track grades, we attract attack, we what am I trying to say? It's late. Um this is the system where we track grading, attendance, behavioral issues. There are also several additional modules within P school that we use. So we use Naviance, which is our uh college access platform for purposes of submitting transcripts to schools. And so when you look at the dollar figure, it's really for a number of different modules that are uh supporting the core functioning of sort of tracking our student information. Abby, you want to say anything? Yeah, good evening. Um also just wanted to add our assessment management platform is included in this. That was an area that we made
197reductions last year to um have less reliance on computer adaptive box technology for assessments and instead we have built up our use of our assessment management system to capture those assessments that are close to closest to our curriculum based measures such as those assessments that kids are doing in their curriculum like Wit and Wisdom, Springboard, Eureka Math, Squared um as well as their foundational skill learning like foundation um excuse me, foundations. Um and also we use that system to administer all of our mastery based assessments in high school for those kids that are um either um trying to earn credit recovery or um testing out of courses to move into higher level courses. [Music] Any questions from my fellow board members? Nope. All right. Seeing none, the motion on the floor is that the Hartford
198Board of Education authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Power School for the term outlined in the contract ending June 30th, 2026 not to exceed $570,89.36. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Nays. Abstensions. The eyes have it. The motion moves. Thank you. All right. Item 4.3, contract continuation approval, Parent Square. Motion that the Hartford Board of Education authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Parent Square for the term outlined in the contract ending June 30th, 2026 not to exceed $94,228. Do I have a motion? So move. Second. All right. Uh Dr. Torres Rodriguez. Yes. This is a contract continuation for our uh district-wide all-in-one communication platform that allows us to communicate with families, school to family, district to family um and also allows for um families and staff to communicate
199with each other as well. Um there's also an element here in which we have access to several analytics that we use to identify how to support uh schools um improve their communication. Uh if you have any questions, we do have here Pedro Saias, our director of external relations and communications. Do we have any questions? Pedro, you've sat here patiently. Is there anything you would like to say? No. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Um, seeing no discussion, the motion on the floor is that the Hartford Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with Parent Square for the term outlined in the contract ending June 30th, 2026 not to exceed $94,228. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Nays. Abstensions. The eyes have it. The motion moves. Moving on
200to our consent agenda. Um, as a reminder, the contracts on the consent agenda were all discussed at various committees. The first reading will be discussed again at the policy committee, providing another opportunity for feedback before coming back next month for adoption. The items on the consent agenda are contract continuation approval for open architects, the approval for healthy food certification, contract approval for Nikros, approval of school construction plans and SCG042 submitt Buckley phase 9 for technology equipment. Acceptance of funds, state department of education, Domus Kids, Inc. The first reading on the graduation policy, the first reading on the school closing consolidation policy, the first reading on sexual abuse prevention and education program, and the approval of the minutes from the March 18th, 2025 meeting. Are there any questions or comments on the consent agenda? Nope. Hearing
201none, uh, do I have a motion to vote on the consent agenda? So move. Second. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Nays. Abstensions. The eyes have it. Last on our agenda tonight, um we're going into executive session to discuss the collective bargaining agreement. Um this is related to the Hartford Federation of Pareducators local 2221 AFT AFL CIO. Um, we will be taking in with us Superintendent Torres Rodriguez, Attorney Melinda Kaufman, Attorney Lori Miserak, and uh, Deputy Paul Foster. Do I have a motion to enter executive session? So move second. Second. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Uh, nays abstensions. The eyes have it. Uh, we'll be back in the auditorium to vote. Thank you. [Music] Sorry, I didn't want [Music] That was a
202long securative road. But um I am I am glad that the um the resolution got added because I think that's what allow us to get out of it because I was I was my concern is people are not going to vote on just balancing it with nothing else. Oh yeah. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music]