001calls meeting to order. Only one agenda, right? So, yeah, it's just we're going to talk about the budget changes. Um, and I think I know you wanted to make some comments and Jonathan's gonna make some comments. And I think my objective, and I'm sure everyone's got some things they want to add, is just to um offer some guidelines for just to offer Oh, god. just to offer some um guidelines uh for the administration and team to um uh put together some ideas for us to consider um because I think this is a work in progress. We have a little bit of time but not as much time as people think which Tony you can comment on but does that sound good to everybody? Fine. Cool. Tony over to you. Um the first item I I
002wanted us to start with today was just making sure we all have the accurate number um because there's been so much information that's been floating around. So Ben Brandon is just going to walk us through and he's got it on a sheet so that you can see the numbers. Good evening all uh the sheet in front of you just to level set everyone I'll be referring to the line items which is on the line one through nine which is on the uh left hand side very quick can you zoom in at all is that possible I'll let Mike's handling that so I'll make sure give it a moment there we go that's better thank you all right so line one is is fiscal year 25 fiscal year that we're currently In uh line two is
003the superintendent's budget that was presented in November of last calendar year which was a $10.3 million increase or 5.35%. The board of ed as you know made a half a million dollar reduction which is line item three. And line item four is what was presented to the bet oh and the office of first lockman for their consideration which was a $9.8 million increase or 5.09 09. Uh after the BET's decision day last week, they made an adjustment of the 4,048621, which brings you down to the budget that BET will be presenting to the RTM, which is a 5.7 million increase or a 2.99% increase. What we want to be able just to put on the table is line items seven and eight. We're calling those the the known known. We we know that we have
004an issue of the the BET transferred funds uh from the board of ed to the uh town of Greenwich. Uh so the fiscal year we're sitting in, we had 50% of the salaries for three positions budgeted and the town had the other half budgeted. Uh when we built the budget in November, the assumption was those positions would be moving over to town hall. So we did not include those in the budget that both the superintendent and the board of ed approved. Uh subsequently the town did not approve the uh did not include it in their budget either. Uh during the budget deliberations we had with the BET in February we said we had this known problem of the 334,000 almost 335,000 of three positions that are critical for the operations of of the district and
005the town. However, they have no budgetary home. So, we need to uh add those back in uh to the budget. And also, as we as we look at the enrollment numbers, we we have high degree of certainty that line item eight for the fall of of September of 25, we know we're going to be adding the 18th classroom. Uh so, I think it makes sense again to make sure if we known, we add that, which includes the teacher and the 2.4 Paris. So, you add those two additional numbers. The total adjustment that we're proposing we need to find is the 4.587962 which is line item nine. Ben, can you just offer um the the predictability around the the prek just so people understand uh what drives that and why it evolves over time. I'm going
006to kick that over to Dr. Jones. She can speak much more eloquently to that than I can. Preschool is required by federal law and that's why we have it. We don't have universal prek in Connecticut. Um so what it means is it's just children that are qualifying for services and these are children that uh live in our local community. They're out sometimes in community preks. Um they realize they may have been in birth to three. So they're actually even identified, you know, when they're the first week of their life. Um and then they qualify. And when the children qualify, we must provide those services. And so that that's when we add a prek. It's on need. And just that it's fair to say that that's something that it's not something we go out and seek.
007We get reported numbers and we got updated numbers and we're just updating the budget accordingly for the updated numbers. Right. That's correct. It's called Child Find and it is usually if they're in community preks, they're usually making a recommendation to us, a referral. Um and these are children that you know they go through an assessment process. Some qualify, some don't. Um, and so if they don't qualify, they stay wherever they are now. If they do qualify, um, sometimes they'll still stay where they are, but usually they will choose to be in Greenwich Public Schools because it's a special needs program um, that understands how to work with children who have these special needs. And and Tony, the qualification of prek is is pretty cut and dry. It's not subjective. It's a quantifiable. It's all based
008on uh, it's all based on on testing test scores. Absolutely. Right. So, I just and this will be posted for those of you that are taking copious notes. We'll make sure uh we post this for you tomorrow. Um the next thing that I've asked I'm sorry, just before we go, Ben, can you What are the three What are the three FTEEs um that on the town side that aren't funded? It was number seven. It was our Lend is the director of purchasing for the board of ed and two of our time and attendance uh personnel or compensation or essentially the payroll department that processes all the time in attendance for the board of ed last year. So the for fiscal year 25 the bet during decision day made a made a motion to fund 50%
009uh effective January 1 of 2025. they were going to move o move the staff over to town hall and so when we built the budget that's in front of you in November our assumption was that that plan was going to happen so we did not include them in our operating budget for fiscal year 26 between now and between then and now it's changed where the town uh did not want to include that uh it really wasn't going to work and so we ultimately both sides the board of ed and the town did not include them in the budget and we need to find a home for a budgetary home for them. Thanks. Um do you I think the point there is just there's a what the BET was working with wasn't this. So there's always
010an intellectual argument that if these came about a little later, we'd go and ask for an interim funding request. But by the way that the BET what they put forward, it just means that instead of a change to the budget of 4 million, it's a change of 4.58 million. Ben, can you also comment on one other thing just because there's a lot of numbers being thrown around and I think it's helpful to point out the BET looks at the BET and BOE look at slightly different numbers because of what goes in the BOE's the way we tabulate it and then what gets actually the total cost to the town. Uh can you just comment on that too just to help I think this is a meeting that some people are watching. So just for the
011the um entertainment factor could you help just tie out the numbers that the BET often cites with the numbers that are here? The numbers in front of you are for the general fund or the operating budget ex for the board of ed only. So this is what we we received to operate the the district. At the same time, the town budgets for both the town operations and the board of ed operations, the fixed charges or sometimes we just refer to them as the benefits, those are all of the defined benefit, defined contribution cost for the non-certified staff, med medical, payroll tax, all of those items, workers comp, that's the fixed charges. The town has an allocation method where they will then allocate those those budgetary expenses that are that are accounted for to the board
012of ed. So when you see a number I think the number that I saw was around 247 million that would be the difference between I believe it would be the difference between line item four which is what what we originally was presented and discussed in the public was a 202 when you hear the 247 they're doing an all-in number of operating plus fixed charges but for the what the board of ed has to make a decision on is the numbers in front of you which are the operating budget but when you hear the other numbers they're adding in fixed charges. Thanks. And uh can I comment on that? Yeah. Okay. I actually I'm happy you brought that up. Um I don't appreciate how that's sort of been thrown about at this time because when we
013were issued our BET guidelines, they were with very specific numbers. I feel like that's a matter of convenience that certain members of the BET are now using those numbers which are an allocation. Um, and so I'd rather not get into that this evening, but I think Ben was saying clearly we're working with we we went with a a budget that we worked a lot on as a group. I'll remind everyone the vote was 71 from the board of education and it was 22 million that we put forth. We are now looking at trying to fill a $4.6 $6 million hole, which none of us want. And I am really frustrated honestly about this because I feel like, and I'm going to be very clear, um, six Republicans made this decision for 60,000 people. And we
014now are going to talk about a lot of things tonight, none of which I'm going to endorse, but we have to make some serious decisions, of which I'm going to have to vote on. Tony, do this. Yeah. Yeah. Unless or Laura, do you want to say something? Uh, well, I mean, this is the saddest exercise I've ever had to engage in. So, I guess my question is if we're starting to look at programming, um, obviously we want to look at areas that don't impact the classroom because that's sort of the we really want to preserve to the extent we can the classroom experience for all of our students. And um, you know, I just I sort of have to ask um, you know, there are no I I've looked up at this budget book. I
015have all my notes. Um, one of the only discretionary programs we have is ALP. And um, if we were to eliminate ALP in the second grade, but keep it for the other grades, would that be a material? Um, because in their in our budget books, it's broken out by school, but not by grade. So, well, just maybe just a um before getting into the line item stuff, um I think it I think from an agenda standpoint, we're thinking Tony wanted to have Jonathan make some comments as it relates to the contract and how some of the contract dynamics work and say a little bit high level and then we can move into the zone of uh the sad exercise. Yeah. I mean, you're editorializing. Um, but, uh, do you want to you you want to
016intro, Jonathan? So, you know, obviously, when we're talking about a a budget, um, reduction of this amount, you you can't do it without impacting people and programs. That's that's the bottom line. And I haven't changed my stance on that from what I have said publicly. Um, and I think it's really important that a lot of people who make decisions come from the business world, not from the school world. And the way that you can go in and reduce positions, for instance, in a business, if you want to fire 10 people, you can go fire 10 people. We are very much a negotiated um, we have a we're a contract state. And so all of our positions have are part of a bargaining unit. And I want Jonathan just to talk about some of the complexities.
017um when we get into really talking about positions. So, Jonathan, let me turn it over to you. Sure. Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Dr. Jones has asked me to speak this evening on just what might be a few relevant principles in regard to personnel and the budget reconciliation process. Uh first, the vast majority of our personnel belong to collective bargaining associations unions, three of which are Greenwich Public Schools unions and an additional four are unions through the town of Greenwich with employees who work for the board of education. All of those people have various contractual rights, some of which govern the procedures by which the workforce can be reduced. So if decisions are made by the board to reduce the number of individuals employed in a particular employee group, then the relevant
018contractual language would govern the processes to be followed. In some cases of job reduction, more senior employees could have the right to bump into positions currently held by less senior employees. The various union contracts also contain provisions regarding transfer. These provisions could come into play if decisions are made by the board that would cause some individuals currently in one position to move into other positions. With certified staff, seniority and certification come into play with non-instructional staff such as but not limited to administrative assistants, custodians, and others. Transfer language may have an impact into positions in those groups who work for the town. Greenwich Public Schools, a Greenwich Public Schools non-instructional staff member with seniority rights may be able to move into a town position in the same union. Uh in addition, there is a provision
019in the administrative contract under article 8 which addresses any reduction in force. A full-time administrator who gets bumped to a different position in year one is paid 80% of the difference between the salary received and the salary at the time the administrator was notified of displacement. And that goes on for five years from 80% 55% then 30% 10% in year four and then ceases in year five. So, for example, if an individual moved from a $175,000 administrative job to $125,000 teacher position, the district would pay 80% of the difference in salary next year. So, what might be thought of as a $50,000 difference would cost the district $40,000. So, savings are not as easily captured as one might think. And in addition, if the person we're talking about bumps another administrator on a different salary
020lane, we could have several people impacted. Kind of like a domino effect. Now, I I just have a couple more comments, but actually what I've described so far are some aspects of our staff's contractual rights. Beyond that, the employment of our certified staff. Now, that includes our teachers, our administrators, and most members of the cabinet. that employment is also governed by statutory provisions of Connecticut's teacher tenure law. And those provisions could come into play if there's any potential for the dismissal of individuals in any of those groups. So, as an example, if the board's decisions were to cause the end of employment in GPS for a tenur teacher, administrator, or cabinet member, that individual may have the right to jump into the position of another individual, even in aation area different utilized currently for by
021individual. So, for example, a tenur cabinet member or administrator would have a right to another tenure job within GPS, potentially within the teacher unit. So, uh as uh speaking for the superintendent, Mr. Brandon and myself, this why it takes time for this process and why we can't make decisions in one meeting and provide precise calculation of the savings. We have to know first which employees would be impacted. Then we would work with the finance personnel to calculate the actual savings. Uh we might have a reduction in force of a $75,000 less senior teacher but be adding a $133,000 teacher who has moved from the administration workg group to become a teacher and then pay the 80% differential. So at any rate, please know that if decisions are made by the board that affect the details
022of employees work, the superintendent and I will work with the necessary parties involved, including the finance personnel, as quickly as possible, as we must issue contracts and salary agreements for next year. We certainly don't want people to panic and leave because they're not feeling confident about their positions, which is why we will implement what you ask us to in a precise and sensitive way. Thank you, Jon. Jonathan, it's a it's a it's a fine point. Is it is it 80% of the difference between uh the two salary lines or is it 80% of the um of the of the s the the salary difference salary is the difference 80% is difference. Okay. Um I wanted to as a followup to that um Tony if you don't mind if I put you on the spot for
023a moment. the uh I think a from when you look at the surface budget numbers, it's very interesting because you go, "Oh, you know, someone like me looks and says the budget grows every year and or the the spending grows every year and there's always this talk about cuts and all this stuff, but it's like, hey, spending's growing every year. Why does it feel like there's always so much pressure on programs or some things?" Um, and I think there's some unique aspects to Connecticut that I thought would be interesting to hear your perspective on having worked in a lot of other districts. I think it's useful for people to understand the constraints that are unique to this state uh and then therefore the district. Sure. Um, I think you know we are a bargaining state
024and we have to recognize that and the largest driver that we have when we build the budget every year is our salary line. And so like we don't really control that a great deal other than during the bargaining process of which you can go to arbitration and I think people that are in the community that that are elected officials understand how it works. Um but you know if people don't really like that salaries are growing that fast then you need to take it up with Hartford because that's that's a that's a legislative action. We are doing what we are required to do by law and it is very different than when you're in a state that's a non bargaining state. For instance, when I was in Virginia, they have a teachers union, but it's not
025unionized to the same rules that you have in Connecticut, which are very tightly regulated. So, when I was building the budget, if we were having a difficult year in that state, you could set the increase of whatever you wanted from zero to whatever the board wanted to do to stay competitive in the region. whatever you want to do each year. We cannot do that. We have these contracts. They are legal and they are binding and that's what drives our budget. Thank you. Um it reminds I was I was in Spain this morning and yesterday and I was talking to someone there and I said, "Oh, what's the best job to get when you graduate college?" And they said, "Well, working in the government because it be that job becomes your property. You can never lose
026it." We're not quite there yet with the unions of Connecticut, but we're we're on our way. Um, anyways, uh, I think for next of just the way to do this, um, guidelines for you all in terms of how of what to focus on from us and then, uh, any individual items that we want to raise, which Laura, I know you started doing. I think if we wanted as a committee to go through and just um bring up ideas, I think um it it and I wouldn't just for people listening, this is not the moment where we go, oh this program, this program and this person are all being cut or something like that because there's actually a lot of work and to Jonathan's point. Um it's actually much more difficult to figure out what the
027impacts are. Um my I I can say in a moment what or I'll say it now. My focus is to offer enough guidance such that in perhaps a two week or you know slightly more than two weeks because there's a vacation coming up uh you know 2 to 3 week period the administration can come back and say here's um u called a menu of recommendations or potential uh actions that um the this committee and then the board uh can adopt in order to be in line with the BET's numbers. Um, but in order for you to do that, I think you probably need guidance from us on what our priorities are and then also ideas from us to the extent that people want to flag specific things that they're focused on. And then since I
028think we have somewhat of an audience, um, if anyone else has any really good ideas, we're always open to hear them. Uh, you know, I've taken a few calls this week and it's you always learn something. Um, so, uh, do does anyone, um, want to start with just proposing different things that they'd like specifically for Tony or Ben to look into? Uh, Laura, you already got us started. Do you want to you want to take the Well, I mean, some of us have been staring at this book since the um, BET voted. So, um, yeah. Well, I mean, we've been whatever. you know what I mean? Taking another close look at this book. So, um but the thing that um I raised um about second grade ALP funding because our expenses in our budget book
029are broken out by um individual schools. Um it's not easy to tell what might be saved by just trimming ALP um in the second grade. Um but leaving it as is in three, four and five. Um as I said before, it's our only discretionary program that we have. I mean other than sports. God. Um, so I, you know, I wanted to ask that question and then ask if there are any, um, consultants, um, that we employ as a district that are a, um, um, a significant cost because I think we want to preserve those teachers that are in front of our children and preserve the classroom experience to the degree that we can. So I'm you know um just thinking outside the box to ask that question. So in in terms of consultants it is
030a line that I think a lot of people get confused on. We have one consultant Dr. White which our staff know very well and he does tremendous work for us. He's not a super expensive line in the budget. um what they're seeing are mainly consultants that are used in special education. If we need uh specialized assessments, for instance, um for maybe a student who has could be hearing impaired and we need somebody specialized to do the assessment, most of the consultants fall in that line. in special ed. I think it would be good to quantify um I guess what that cost to the district is and whether we have anybody in our stable of employees or direct employees that could fill that role. No, no, go ahead, please. Um yeah, because you want me to
031fall on the sword in some way. No, thank you. Uh um no because I mean I'm going to I I'll stop making it political but um although everything is but um again nothing I suggest tonight do I want to do. I'm going to keep going back to the fact that I really liked the budget we put together. In fact the night I spoke and advocated for it in front of the BET I said in the eight years I've been on the board I'm pretty sure I never had a 71 vote. So, um, to me that said everything and it should have delivered what we were hoping for. Um, but nevertheless, here we are tonight. Um, you're right, Cody, in the sense that we've had a lot of calls with lots of thoughts this week. I'm
032sure we've all been taking taking lots of phone calls and I seem there seems to be one thing that keeps rising to the top. I have to admit I feel very conflicted about it. Um, so I don't even love raising it, but um, it seems that GOSA and GA seemingly are aligned on this one. Um, and that is changing start time and um, that actually happened before I was on the board. I actually remember Peter Sher was a big advocate for it. Um, and at the time it was I think like 1.2 million and again it was be it was right before I came on the board of education that they made this decision. Um, so I have to imagine it's grown significantly since then just based on our busing contract. So I think we
033have to look at it. I think it's going to be something that we have to really talk about as a community because it was a big community discussion at that time. But given how many people have suggested that, I feel like I have to say it. Yeah. I think there's a few other smaller modifications to school bus contracts too that they're looking at. And and I and and I think the key thing here is it's um I mean we don't do that much because I think Tony and Ben are really good at this and are already on top of it, but we can say look bus contracts or specific programs and then they're in the process and Patrick too. Um they're in the process of tabulating the numbers that we can gather again as a
034budget committee in two or three weeks and and then actually look at the menu. But yeah, the the the I think the the school bus one is one that's already underway. We won't let that Peter was a We won't hold that against the program when we when we assess it. Yeah, if you want to. Yeah. Yeah. People might be confused why why that's a budget savings. Yeah. I I think it's um it's worth talking about because first of all, let me talk about process. So, when the guidelines come out and and we're building the budget after the budget passes, we're always paying attention if we are higher or lower um a higher amount than what the the guidelines say. So we start working on things behind the scenes because if this happens now this is
035the worst case scenario since I've been here but we start working on things just like generating ideas. This idea comes up every year and so um we ask um our transportation coordinator to start working on this issue. She worked on it for well over a month for something that may never come to fruition. But we're talking about it tonight and this is why we had her do it and Ben I think is prepared. I checked with him this morning and he can kind of share a little bit about the number and what it means in number of buses to change start time. Exact the exact time. So the the model we looked at and I'll just go by the the the schools from the time. So the the big adjustment is going to be the
036high school. That's your number one constraint when you take a look at your number of buses needed. It's the sheer volume of students at at that facility that drives the uh the number of buses you need. And if you can't run a three- tier system, which allows you to do high school, middle school, and elementary, that creates ine inefficiency. So you have more buses because you have overlap of of the time uh between the middle school, elementary, and high school. So, if you can solve for the high school by moving them uh 60 minutes earlier, so they go from 8:30 to 7:30, the middle schools, you move them 5 minutes later, so they go from 8:00 to 8:05. And a couple of the uh and then the Hamav, Julian, Curtis, and New Leb, they move
03715 minutes later. They're currently 8:15, so they would move to 8:30. Parkway is currently 8:45. They would move to 9. And the balance of all the elementary schools would move 10 minutes. They would move uh currently from uh 8:45 to 8:55. When we take when we do that and we run through the uh number of buses and routes needed, you can have a reduction of 23 buses, which brings you based on the budget we have built with the the daily run rate $2.5 million savings. So, that's that's the quick quick and dirty of the uh adjustments to transportation schedule, $2.5 million uh budgetary savings by 23 less buses because you've you created a more efficient uh route for each bus that we would have then would would be uh be able to run three routes
038because you're paying the same cost for the bus regardless if they run one route or two or So in this scenario, the high school would start at 7:30 a.m. Correct. Okay. I mean, the community was um very loud and um in their advocacy years ago to move to a later start time for the um for the teenagers who you know needed sleep. But um I think we've got to consider all our options and um and I know that that will complicate people's um work schedules and and child care coordination, but um it's something to put on the table. And um for me just uh I think from a guidance standpoint I think it's very important that what we end up with from a for the budget committee and the board to consider is a list
039or a menu that is longer than what the total amount that we're solving for is. Uh because the tradeoffs associated with any of these choices are going to be the key uh decisions that are made. if we just have a specific set of um items that add up exactly to the 4.6 six or 4.1 or whatever um then it doesn't leave a lot of room for deliberation whereas what I think would be ideal and this is sort of in the guidance um and hopefully everyone uh is on board with this from this is speak just me speaking for myself at the moment um that we can have a list of items and then debate the merits of it such that we can say okay well you know do we think that the potential impact on
040sleep or whatever as it relates to student outcome comes and uh is worth it or should we get these changes you know should we make changes elsewhere so this this is all about tradeoffs and when I think about the trade-offs the question is trade-off relative to impact on student outcomes but specifically the student outcomes that we're most focused on in our strategic goal strategic goals and and um the metrics that we track to it like the whole point of having a strategy and having things we focus on is that it can allow us to prioritize and evaluate trade-offs So just for Ben, Patrick, Tony, um the uh you know my my ask uh for the committee would be that we come up with more things uh than we will end up doing so that we
041can evaluate where the mar where the correct marginal trade-off is and actually be able to talk about things like the merits of a school bus change versus other potential changes that we could make. Yeah. I um to take big picture. Yeah, I think I think that's really important uh for for a couple reasons like like you're saying um um we have um we come up with a list that you know magically gets to 4 and a.5 million. I don't think you're we're responding to the claim that there is um um fluff in the budget or areas that we can shrink in things. I mean reducing start time is a big number and obviously we have to look at it. um that is that doesn't do anything to address you know any charges of that there's
042that there's padding in the budget right that's changing programs are what I would argue is a suboptimal program uh for a lot of reasons um but um all the more reason why I think we need a list um similar to that two points I think there's been a lot of talk about um substitute costs um admin costs um and the um the relationship between our current enrollment and costs um compared to um years past. And I know that there were a lot the the district put forth a lot of facts and things during the um during the budget debate about that. Um but I think um if we're when we look at this list um I think we have to have that we have to talk about that list in relation to those things as
043well. They um I know that there are things in the substitute cost that in that line that have to do with a lot more than just a person calling out sick. Um just like there's a lot in the consultant line um that is not a consultant coming in to tell the administrators about great ideas. they um but it's a consultant giving a a hearing examination that's something that someone no one's going to do no district employees are going to do for um um so um I think breaking those things out um as part of you know as a second thing I think is very important for a committee to look at um to make sure we can come back and say here's where here's what these cuts really mean um we've looked at all these
044other areas of concern And um this is a realistic assessment of what we're of of of of of what what's in and isn't in the budget. Um while I have the mic, one other point um we're not all doom and gloom. Um I do think I'm going to get an email about this from people, but I do think there might be um a silver lining here in that it does provide opportunity. there is such a thing as you know u institutional in nurser in certain in in schools and in districts and things like that and there might be some areas and this is for you uh Tony and your team to look at there might be some areas where of of of improvement whether it's efficiency or other areas of improvement where we know we've
045been wanting to do things better um and now we have a bad k that we can point to um that might allow us to do that um and affect change in a way that maybe we couldn't before. So, I would I would uh I would challenge us when looking at this list to look at it from a couple of lenses. Absolutely. Number one, like Laura said, um um what's not going to impact students um and kids, but secondly, if there are areas where um we might be able to um use this to our advantage to affect some changes that we've wanted to make and it been harder to affect. Obviously, this this might be a chance to do that. Second grade Alp might be one of those reasons in all honesty, but that's different. I'm
046not a fan, but I I don't know. That's just like the funniest analogy came to my head, which maybe not everyone will appreciate besides the one that follows the markets. That was kind of like the silver lining that the Treasury Secretary tried to put out about the markets. Like the good news is that the infrastructure worked when everyone was losing billions. But um I don't know if anyone else follows the I'm sure Cody appreciates what I just said, but um Okay. Well, it was it was a you liked it. It was Yeah, the infrastructure worked while the everyone was imploding. The market was imploding. Um so I'm not finding many silver linings here. I But um I appreciate that. Yeah. Again, it kind of goes back to what I said at the very beginning. There's
047a lot of misinformation that has been put out. Unfortunately, on the radio show, in the paper, in the public meeting decision day, there were people saying we can cut $2 million from the sub budget. That's our entire subbudget. When when we have a teacher who is not here, you cannot have eight-year-old children running around a classroom with no adult. It is not like being in an office. So, I just want to clarify that because I don't need to wait another two weeks to do so. Um I also we're we're talking about just for a second 1% of the town budget. Okay, this is we're about to like basically people are going on vacation right now worried about their jobs and I mean I actually have three kids in the public schools. I don't think many
048of the people that made this decision do and um kids are worried. So, I don't take any of this lightly. And um we know I don't usually speak like this. That's how like this is me being like fairly balanced. Um but this is this is a lot Mhm. to be asking. And so I'm not sure I'm ready for like I said it to you like death by a thousand cuts. I'm really I because I think we need to measure what we're about to do, right? Um, and therefore I think it can only really be a few things because we're going to have to see how bad it was really. I'm a little more sorry. Go for it. So, I anyone who follows um the budget process year after year after year, as some of us
049have on the RTM and now the board of ed, um you know, we've seen what this looks like before. We've seen we've stared this in the face during CO when we were flatfunded and we had no way to um to really do a full assessment because you know the schools were closed. We wound up getting lucky with our transportation contract, but we had to stare down you know the idea that we had no money for library books and professional development and you know all of those things. um became you know painful to read in the paper. Greenwich doesn't have enough money for library books. Greenwich doesn't have enough money to invest in its teachers with professional development. And that wasn't even during co that was um when Ralph Mayo was our acting superintendent before Tony
050came to us. We had no money for professional development to invest in our teachers. We've had to make these horribly um disappointing decisions over and over and over again. And this is by far um the most depressing and egregious. But I mean, none of the options are attractive. And I think, you know, I don't look at this as an opportunity. I look at this as um this is Defcon one to have to find $4 million. So I I mean, you know, some of us have been looking at the least awful scenario and and those are the ones, you know, that we can still preserve the classroom with, you know, we could I guess Greenwich doesn't have enough money for library books this year again. Mhm. Well, just on the your point, Laura, I think if
051we get a list of things and we decide that library books are the thing that should go, but I think just to keep a sense of proportion about this, it is both true that we had a very I thought reasonable and thoughtful budget and that Patrick, Ben, Tony, and team do a great job assembling this stuff and managing all of the ridiculous complexities that a school a public school system has to deal with uh as it relates to the unions and laws and the cartel status that of our counterparties. Um, and uh, so they do a great job dealing with all that. Nonetheless, I probably take a slightly less apocalyptic view of the idea that 2% is 2% and it's very heavily squeezed between two, you know, aggressive boulders and uh, mandatory spending that we
052have related to special ed and mandatory spending that we have related to salaries. But um I'm interested to see what I like I don't I don't think we have the answers yet. The whole point of this is offer some guidance. I know it's a little diff feels a little different than our normal budget meetings that like two people attend but um where we can you know a little less theatrics but um but it's have some guidance for the team who's very smart and capable and see what they come back with and it'll be very interesting to see like what the ultimate things on the menu are and then we can make calls and um it's very unlikely to me that we have you know all the dollars in the system impact students in some way
053presumably even in the very faintest way. So, it really just comes down to a question of trade-offs and um when we're looking at it, we'll say, okay, you know, maybe the impact isn't really quite worth it here. But I do think long-term structurally that there's a very big issue that if parents want to really um said this somewhere else, but the the the the biggest problems are from Hartford. And so all the pitchforks and everything, if they want to do the longer drive and go there, that's probably the better place to focus long term. But we we'll see what we can do. I'm I'm a little optimistic that we can that at least our team is good enough to come up with some interesting ideas like the school bus changes and other things. Um you'll
054recall we already gave Tony that job. We said we want to reduce this budget. I mean I didn't want to. That was someone else's idea. But um to ask Dr. Jones to find 500,000 in savings and it resulted in in headcount reduction. So, I don't know that I'm anxious to give another um homework assignment to our administration who've boarded it over and turned it over a thousand times. Um, I think we all have to sort of look this in the face and um, and really solidify what this means for our families. Um, you know, I think this is a pretty this is a pretty big cut and it didn't come from Hartford. It came from six people on the BET. Well, just remember that we have a we're we're growing spending depending the fully loaded
055amount of cost in the system. and we're growing spending 3%. So it's where's that money going, right? Like we say cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut we are spending more money in fiscal year 25 than than we did in the year before like this is very well some of the people that crunch the numbers who fancy themselves experts as experts on this matter did not consider our contractual obligations in the budgeting and that's a pretty egregious mistake so I'm you know I'm feeling less charitable to those individuals, they know who they are. Oh, and I would just say um we have our job to do, right? We have the budget that we liked. Um it is what it is.
056And so it's just we could do a therapy session afterwards, but in terms of what our job is, we have to come up with a set of choices, deliberate where the trade-offs are, and and I think right now what you all need is just, you know, and I should actually now that I think we've all said our two cents, if any of your team has questions for us that you things you want us to clarify before we have this two to three week period where we kind of assemble the the different set set of ideas. We have a meeting tomorrow. Yeah, but nothing's going to happen. The meeting tomorrow is going to be a repeat of this. It's not like speaking of theatrics. Well, I'm not sure. I mean, this is I'm I'm trying not
057to be theatrical here. I mean, I have a kid calling me right now. So, I mean, like I this is this is really impacting people. Okay. And um I think I I'm kind of I don't have any ideas. I don't think we can ask Dr. Jones and men to come up with ideas because they they worked hard to give us a budget. I think it's now on the board honestly to suggest things that are not I guess mandated right and that's everything but what special education I mean well no there's there's a lot of general ed curriculum requirements okay exactly so ideas I mean that's kind of where we're at so so I I I was going to go there I think I think it's both I think we have to look I think we
058have to confront the brutal facts And I think that means the expert the true experts in the room to your Laura Laura to your point are uh Dr. Jones and the team and I think we need to put everything out there. I said that in December. So we really understand what these things look like and different options. That said the um we're both right. You're both right because it's up for all of us too. And I know we having things uh having those uh conversations and all of us have some certain ideas. There are certain ideas that probably aren't um are probably best for private conversations at this point. The um but there are others do that. We have to do everything in public. No, there are certain I'm not going to talk about individual
059jobs um at this meeting. I can tell hey I can say to Dr. Jones I think all of us have to talk to Dr. Jones privately say hey what about this line? What about this line? What's going on there? if you're saying that the um because because here's why because I don't want people because I don't have all the answers because and I think we have to be very careful to everybody's point what we're saying in public and I can't say it would be un it would be unresponsible right now for me to say um what about these coaching positions right they um because um which I'm not advocating because if I'm in one of these coaching positions Tomorrow I'm going to go out look at one ads and see what what's out there. And
060I think that's why we have to be very responsible what we're saying in public meetings because I don't think we want to do untold damage. Um because there were a lot of people concerned and whatnot because I have that conversation in private about this position or that position and Dr. Jones says well actually because I'm not the expert you know and Dr. Jones says well actually the um we can't do that because this line actually means this this and that. But meanwhile that line's out there. So I think we have to balance that. I do think we have to prioritize you know I do think you know we have to you know lowhanging fruit. I think you know consultants that are not those people that were going out and evaluating kids like you've mentioned Dr.
061White the um I think that's that's uh that's that's got to be towards the top of the list probably. I do think we do have some open positions including at cabinet. I think that's you know got to be at the top of the list uh for consideration. I do think they um we have to look carefully about um a freeze on all travel. Um I think we have to look at PD being u more in-house. Um I think there were probably some other in efficiencies of that matter that we can look into. So yes, there's absolutely those ideas, but I think some of those things we have to um at this point we have to be very mindful of what we're saying. Well, I just gave you those ideas, but for somebody who was um
062you know, deeply involved in the strategic plan and moving this district forward, we're now faced with a situation where because of our funding, it makes implementing all the um benefits to our students a very cloudy prospect. And I'm, you know, I am I willing to part with, you know, library books, you know, and PD? Sure, to save jobs, to save the the teachers in front of our kids, but I think we have to be pretty realistic at, you know, what we're looking at here. And I'm going to tell you, it looks pretty bleak because those those line items are not going to get us to 4 million. We can't and we can't cut our way there. You know, if if we're going to look at start times, that'll get us halfway, but not all the
063way. And it's pretty pretty um it's pretty scary. No, I just appreciate that you started to put out ideas is what I was going to say. So yeah, I was trying to get there. We were starting big picture and then getting ideas. So I was going there. Yeah. And I'm I'm anti- ideas in public, which I know everyone will have an issue with. I saw a line the other day that I liked that was if the constitutional convention was done in public, we wouldn't have ended up with the constitution. Um, but I do have a lot of faith and confidence in Tony and Ben and Patrick and others to at least come up with ideas. It doesn't mean that they're coming forward and saying this is what I would do if I was in charge
064of this. It just says now that I have new constraints and you know you may think that they may think that it's suboptimal but they can at least are extremely comp like more than competent enough to put forward where they think the marginal changes need to be even if they don't agree with them at an absolute level. And so I think uh I'm very comfortable relying on that and then taking that set of recommended changes based on their closeness to the subject matter and then having the board deliberate about the at the margin versus trying to you know take broader swings uh where we're you know probably less uh not as well positioned as they are to come up with the you know the areas to focus on. again recognizing that it's not it's not
065what their um optimal choice is. Again, I am I think we might need legal advice. I am not sure we're allowed to do any of that behind closed doors. So, I would be I caution you about that. Well, the list has to be public eventually. Yes, but really all of our conversations have to be as well. Yeah, but committee. Yes, but I'm I don't I'm not going to do this. First of all, we've done this already. I am not going to ask Dr. Jones. I mean, let's just call a spade a spade. You either have to cut teachers. I mean, this is a $4.5 million hole. So, um, and you're only going to get halfway there with start time. So, everything's on the table, guys. And I'm not sure we can ask them to do
066this exercise. I mean, maybe the Republican members of the BET have ideas because they were the ones that came up with this. So perhaps we should ask them for their thoughts. Again, I I the um I think it's helpful and constructive if we stay I do minimize the commentary. I think it is um uh the um I think that the team is more than competent enough to come up with incremental changes that again they don't have to agree with. in their optimal state of the world, but where they would say they they think we should focus. I think that's, you know, that's definitely part of the job description, no reason to think that they're not up to that task. Well, since it came up, um that our deputy superintendent has retired and she didn't work
067for free. She had a salary. Um but we don't have a deputy right now. And god forbid, you know, Tony had to go on a medical leave. Yeah. Um, who would we have to step in? We have no deputy superintendent now. I mean, I I think we have to think about practically, you know, are you volunteering, learn? Oh, god. If I had to hear about snow days and everybody's complaint about when to call the No. No, I'm not volunteering. Um, so I I do think we have some practical considerations, but just because we've had one cabinet u member retire, it's still not going to get us there. And I do think we need to replace them. Yes. Tony, is there any or or or the team, is there any other guidance or questions you have
068for us that would be helpful for what you're going to be doing over the next two or three weeks? I think most of us are gone next week. So, just be clear, you won't get a lot of emails from me. Um, but the week after I think we we'll start again. We've been working on this. That's why Ben could articulate so well about start time. So, we're always doing we go through this exercise. And I think that's what makes it so difficult. And I knew right out of the gate I could say it's going to have impacts because we would have brought you a budget that was $4 million less if we could have. We didn't. And there's a reason why we didn't. and what was being proposed now well I guess what we're living
069in doesn't even cover contractual cost so it's it is a challenge we will get through the exercise but I I do think we have to be very mindful that we are not having meetings offline because that's the last thing we want I wasn't I suggest that but what I what I was asked though and I want to be really clear was could we do an executive session um to to talk about this and so I I knew the answer, but I looked at the law book to make sure it's very very clear and really the intent was not to hide or not have public conversation. The intent was I think exactly where you were going that it's very difficult to talk about jobs when you have people that are in them and it is very
070emotional and the last thing I want is you know causing somebody to have a breakdown because they think they're not going to have a job and maybe that person is a single parent and maybe they need the health insurance that's here and maybe they're in a position that is not easy to go to another district and find. So I just I think we need to be very very thoughtful about it. Um and certainly Ben and I will get to work um with our whole team and we can we've done the menu I don't know if you remember Kathleen first or second year where you kind of have these choices and stuff but there's not a lot of great choices. Can I ask one more thing? The timing is just I'm sorry I think you said
071at the beginning but with the RTM or is it the BET? Who do we have to be concerned about in terms of timing? It's shorter. What? Yeah. Will you talk about it? Um, when we were looking it up today, um, it it's the date in April, Ben, was it the Actually, is it the 18th? I've got it written down. Can you bring it up, Ben? Because we looked it up today because somebody asked us about it. It's the submission date where like the BET submits. Is that what you mean? I think that's for the RTM call and then the BET has it first, right? Don't they have to? It goes back to them. No, no, no, no. It's going to the RTM and and that's next Thursday is when when they it's submitted. Next Thursday
072and then the um RTM will act on I believe it's May 5th. Um so that's the process for us. We have to work quickly because of teacher contracts and administrative contracts. That's what's really important. Talk say more about that. Well, I mean if a teacher doesn't have a contract and you're getting into May or June, we could have a mass exodus. This is not the clim This is just not the climate uh where we want that to happen and you know you lose a physics teacher even hiring another physics teacher in the summer and if you're kind of you know your seniority is down towards the bottom they're very nervous they're very scared and they have no idea what we're talking about tonight as far as where we're looking. So we have to get people
073contracts so that they feel secure because another district will be very happy to put them under contract very quickly. And and just to not induce mass panic, I think that's the reason that we want to accelerate the timeline that we're doing this on. So it's not a done by July 1st, but done kind of in April, right? Can I ask one more question? um the because since school start time, again, not saying I'm for it or against it, but since so many people have come to me with it, I do think we have to look at like we were the leaders on that at the time. Um I suspect other districts followed and all that's going to have a waterfall effect again with sports and all those other things. Um, so can we look at
074which other districts and is at FCA um made the same ch made the changes because I imagine we're gonna have to realign all of um our game times and everything like that. And I don't know if they adjusted for us, if we adjusted for them what happened there, but I suspect that's going to have an impact on that decision. I can certainly pull pull that information. And I do know some of my colleagues the reason they didn't go to 8:30 was the expense and but a lot of the districts around us are much smaller so they don't have the complexities that we do but I can certainly find out. Just very quickly I just want to say that RTA will take action May 12th. That's that's the the budget day. May May 12th is when
075they will uh formally adopt the budget. And just a reminder they cannot add to the budget. They can only reduce. All right. Thanks everyone. We can Oh, yeah. Motion to adjurnn. Kathleen seconds. All in favor? Great. Thank you.