2-1-21 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Is Jay coming? >> No, he sent a message saying that he will not be able to join us. So, I actually think we are it. So, Susan, if you and your group want to start us on the journey, that would be dandy. >> Okay. So, um I'd like to orient you to the pink tab, which is our function codes 112 for art 6 through 12. This whole session which probably should last about 45 minutes will be on all those function codes for regular instruction for grades 6 through 12. So therefore I invited Ted to join us and um I invited Peter Bass to also join us. And um as we go through here we will also indicate if there's any additional requests from the staff and Ken has put together a really nice chart. There's

002just a couple, but it's something that we want the board to um consider. So, let's start with the art and Ken, if you can help us march through this, that would be terrific. >> Sure. So, I'm going to display I'll display each function at the end of each function. I'll bring it back so that we can see all the faces and then we'll go on to each function like that. >> Thank you. So, I'm going to start with page 5-6 under pink as um as Susan had indicated. Uh, okay. Can everyone see that? >> And is is it big enough? >> Well, I've got I'm looking at the one that I actually have on print. >> Okay. So, this is a page 5-6. This is art for 6 through 12. Uh, this first page uh

003goes over the number of FTEEs with a program description. And the second page is the is the dollars. Uh so on this page 5-6 shows that we have six teachers uh uh in the art program. Uh and there are no significant changes uh to this program uh for this year. Um we'll go down to the dollars page and this shows a slight increase in salaries which is uh due to contract. there's a decrease in the employee benefits which we're going to see in all of these because of uh we do an allocation of our health insurance expense and we have a uh a reduction to the health insurance reserve which we'll go over in more detail at a later time but uh uh baked into this and so you're going to notice that this is

004going to be negative in almost every uh function that we go over >> but we shouldn't be excited about that right because we're probably gonna our experience is going to be larger next year. Is that >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Next year. Uh because we're taking that reduction to the health insurance reserve, we have to bring that back. Uh and so um yeah, it's nothing to really get too excited about it. It's good for this year, but um uh we'll have to pay for it next year. Uh and then the uh the object codes below employee benefits uh object codes 300 down to 800 for uh for these functions here. These are all coming through the site budget. So this is what Peter and Ted uh would have put through on their site budgets. Uh so

005we've got uh some repair of equipment, some travel for field trips, uh some supplies, and uh some equipment. Uh overall for for art it shows a uh $12,185 increase of 1.8%. So I will stop. >> I have a question Ken. >> Yeah. >> Why why why is there a difference be the of 3.3% for salary and wages for the classroom teachers in 101? Are they all 3.3%. >> No. So the the the >> amount for this for this budget year that we're looking at the 561 uh,479 >> that's cost for all six teachers. Uh they're probably all at different uh levels at different steps. And so uh the 3.3% is an average across those six teachers >> and and otherwise it's 2.5 when you look at 120. >> Uh 120 right 120 is the substitute

006teacher line. Uh and what we do there is we uh we allocate a pool a substitute teacher pool uh based upon the number of teachers that are in this function. Uh and so yeah, this this was the uh allocation that they got 13,372. >> Is this only for the substitutes or is it also for the teachers? >> Uh line 120 is just for substitutes. >> So then what's 101? >> 101 is is the actual teachers, the six teachers that uh uh >> Right. But is there a percent of increase or decrease there? Um, you want to know what the percentage increase for just 101 was? >> Oh, um, >> it's probably right around that 3.3. >> Yeah, it's a little bit less. 3.2 is what it works out to be. It might round a little

007bit. Um, >> and Rita, you might recall that I said even on the onset of us looking at the budget that with the steps and the increase um, per the contract that it really is about 3.1%. And that was interestingly the number that we first came in on, you remember? Um but then we were able to work out some details especially with the health um savings reserve to bring it down to 1.1. >> Okay. And when are we going to have a discussion about all these um substitutes that are in the budget for each school? I mean I I don't believe the board ever agreed to having so many at each of the schools. So I I I'd like a future discussion definitely about >> based on the CARES Act. We actually talked to you

008about that when we got >> Yes. But I meant going forward for next year. I don't mean for this past year, but for next year. I just don't think they all need to be hired for next year as they were this year. But that that's my feeling and that's why I'd really like a a discussion at the committee of the whole sometime in the future. I'm sorry. I was supposed to stop sharing. Um, >> were those substitutes um building subs or are they just in preparation for um people who may be out? the the decision was made that through the car's act, the way that we were funding it, to add one additional building sub to each of the schools. And um especially with the the inability to get subs this year, it was really

009a a a terrific thing that we were able to do um to secure them because when you have a building sub, they're like having part of the staff and they don't make much more money than a regular sub. But um it certainly secured having people who would come in every day. >> Okay. So this this right here these subs these regular subs 120 they are considered the building subs and their number is has been increased but will stay increased for next year. Is that my understanding? So, so the 120 uh that we're looking at in this budget, uh these are for the the regular subs that we've had uh regular number of subs that we've had uh over the past few years. >> A small increase because we are proposing a small increase to the

010to the sub rate to to keep up with uh with the market and with >> we had discussed that too. >> Yes. Yes. I just I want to clarify, Kent, that's all >> it and these and these substitutes aren't necessarily uh building substitutes. These could be on call substitutes. These are just to cover for any any of the art teachers for this particular function that may or may not be out for um for whatever reason. >> My sense is that's not Rita's question that I've written down. Her question is how many subs per building and what is the proposed for next year? Do I have that? So, it's not necessarily about the sub account that you're talking about. It just moved you into another conversation in your mind which is about building subs and having

011them. Okay. >> That there there's been a a a large increase um over the past couple of years and um I think it's something the board needs to discuss. >> All right. It probably will not happen in the budget season, but I'll get it on. Okay. In fact, maybe um one second, Dean. I got you. Uh maybe that will some that can go to the finance and facilities where they can first investigate that and bring it back back to the board >> and and to see a timeline of how much they've increased. >> Okay. All right. Dean. >> Yeah. Uh this topic has come up before the question of uh the the little break we're enjoying in the uh in the self uh self-funded health care plan. Uh, I'm going to use this the arts

012uh just as a it just occurred to me when you said we'll be making it up next year. Are we simply not going to see this uh fund number again or are we going to have to cover sort of double the ground uh actuarially so that next year there'll be a it'll be like 2021 never happened kind of thing because I'm thinking if we're going to have to sort of if we're okay now but next year we're going to have to run back and cover all the ground that we haven't covered this year on you know metaphor uh then we'll see a larger than normal increase next year but what what's the real scenario look like? >> Yeah. So, so we do have to discuss health insurance reserve. I think that we have that on

013a future um meeting topic. >> Okay. >> Uh but but essentially what we're doing is uh is uh um uh reducing our health insurance expense uh so that the health insurance reserve uh can go to the to the level that we want it to be. and and yeah, it's it's a it's usually a one-time um uh benefit, a one-year benefit. Uh the next year you have to make that up because you're um um it won't be there to to to take advantage of again. >> I mean, is it the case where we would be better off kind of um ignoring this year, if you will, in other words, overfunding it for this year so that we will have less of a shock next year. Are we >> I think we're in a really good place,

014Dean. Okay. >> With it that it's it's really um pretty high at this point. So, we felt pretty confident taking the 1.5 million for this year. Um so, you know, but I do think that we just have to be cognizant that next year we're not going to probably be able to do that. >> Well, I'm I'm I'm aware of it. I'm just thinking in in in terms of just in general with most things. Uh people never like things increasing, but they understand that they do, but they really don't like large shocks. >> No, they rather be boiled slowly. >> Y I just thought of that with this this function. Okay, thank you. >> I agree. >> All right, Ken, move us along. >> Right, I will reshare. Um and we're going to page 5-8. This

015function is language arts. Uh this shows that across the two uh schools we have 24 and a half uh uh teachers uh for this group. Uh and we are not expecting any uh major changes uh in this group. This function I should >> what I I see 13 and a half 13 and a half. >> You're on the wrong page. >> Five five-8. Oh, we're on eight now. >> Eight and nine. Yep. >> Eight and nine, right? >> Yep. >> And as you recall when remember when we went from four teams to three teams per grade level at the middle school. So we have a reduction um to to nine teachers in ELA um at Bronten Middle School, but we still have the 15.5 from the high school. >> Yep. Um as far as the

016dollars are concerned you uh so the uh salaries and wages that one that one's up two and a half percent uh a different mix of teachers so different uh different steps uh once again the uh the the the negative number under employee benefits uh and then uh travel down uh supplies up by 900 and uh equipment down by 500. And so it's a $19,775 or 0.8% uh increase over prior year budget. I'll stop sharing. >> Any questions on this? This seems pretty straightforward folks. This one >> in the future, can we have the class count for English, please? We don't have we never received any of the class um exactly how many people are in a classroom. how many students are sitting in those chairs that we have 15 and a half teachers in for

017English because I know for a while there um it was based on 20 students in the classroom and I know that that has since changed but when you look at math and social studies there's a large discrepancy with the number of teachers in well in English as there is in terms of not so much at the middle school but at the high How um how tough is that Susan to get class sizes for high school? >> Um we can certainly pull them from powers school. The problem is that with the cohorting, you know, we're going to have the halfsized class, but I can I can work with Heidi on that. >> I'd be very happy with last year's numbers. >> Okay. because usually the board always received a whole big print out of who was

018in which classes, which classes were being taken, and and we haven't received that in a while. So, I'd be very happy with last year's numbers. >> So, Ted, you're on here. So, you and I will work with Aaron's probably one of the best people to pull that data y for us. >> Thank you. >> Not a problem. >> Thank you. All right. On to page 5-10. This is world languages. Um, this is this 13 and a half teachers, five at the middle school, eight and a half at the high school. Um, no changes uh for this uh function. Uh, as far as the dollars, uh, it's a 2.9% um, uh, increase for wages. Employee benefits um a reduction. Other purchase services down $291. Um supplies are up um uh five uh $4,920. Uh big increase

019there. Um and so that's a total increase of 27,912 for this function 2.2%. >> Can you talk a little bit about what are the supplies? Sorry Dean. So, the supplies um uh text and workbooks um look like they're increasing. Uh that's the majority of that increase. >> They've also purchased some software because I think the real um push right now in world language is to have kids speaking it. Um and so they've purchased some software that assists students. >> You froze, Susan. >> Oh, no. And it looks like it's pretty even from the high school and the middle school as far as those uh increases. >> Dean Andrea Dean first and then Andrea. >> I I I had a question. It may be a question more for Susan, but anybody's happy to, you know, I'll

020take an answer from anybody. >> Languages is one of those things where, you know, there's sort of an elastic demand and and a supply. uh unlike a lot of the other subjects where you can guarantee maths is going to be taught somewhere in English etc. How do we determine how does any school district determine what languages we're going to teach? Is it just based on perceived demand uh availability of instructors a combination? How how do we know what languages to offer or try to offer anyway? >> Is TED there? >> Yep. Yeah. No, I think uh I think you hit it on the head. I think it's a it's a kind of a combination of both. Um you know the first thing is that uh you know what languages uh do we really have that

021are an interest to our students? Um and you know a lot of times it's uh you know the Spanish is kind of the default you know that that most uh you'll find most public schools will offer. Um but oftentimes French uh there has been uh more demand for uh sign language recently in in different schools. Uh but when you when you bring these and Latin obviously is something that's that's brought in a lot but when you bring these in you also need to bring in teachers and the more exotic the languages the tougher it can be to get instructors uh to teach those languages. So um so yes it is a combination of both. It's what you can offer based upon the instructors that you have uh and the demand you know really comes down

022anything it's any it's not just world language it's any courses really comes down to student sign up. You can offer all the courses in the world, but the students need to sign up in order to take them. Um, so, uh, I hope that answers your question. >> Yeah, I was just curious. Do you ever see something like, "Hey, Italian's not offered. Where's the Italian class?" And you don't know whether that's the two people complaining, but they represent 20 people or >> Right. And sometimes it's, you know, it's about surveying the kids. Uh but also um if you do have a student that may be interested in and and this is not just world language, it's in any core subject, something that we might not offer, that's when the online courses become something that uh you

023know we can we could uh steer them to there. Uh that becomes sometimes an issue when kids transfer into the district and have had languages in another district that maybe we can we do not offer and we want to see what we could do in order to to help service that that particular student. So, um, yeah, it's but but often, like I said, in terms of your general offerings, it's really just a combination of supply and demand. >> All right. Thanks. >> Welcome, Susan. >> Pardon me, Kim. >> I was frozen. Yes, >> Andrea. >> Kim, I I actually have two questions now. I think that Susan would be able to direct would be able to answer this because I think it really has to do with curriculum, but I think I saw that in

024art and in world languages, there's money allocated for for field trips and given what's happening in the world today, where are they going? >> So, it's interesting. A lot of these field trips that we've had, especially the sciences like Project O and NES, they've actually been able to provide what they call virtual field trips and they're highly engaging for kids. Um, they don't cost as much. You're not putting everybody on the bus. And I'm not saying that will happen forever. We hope that, you know, when we go back to what we thought was normal or the new normal, maybe there's a combination of ways we can do field trips, you know. So, um I would say that especially in the middle school through the MSAP grant, we've actually done a lot with um our partners,

025so the Mystic Arts Center and even taking kids to the art center. So, those are the kinds of things that um typically they would do. >> I know what they would do typically, but I'm I'm just worried worried about the Corona problem, >> right? So, typically, but not this year. They've been doing more of those online virtual field trips this year. >> Okay. And the second thing is that and I didn't think about this until u Ted just mentioned it and that was when a child comes in or a student comes in from I don't know anywhere um according to the military compact we're supposed to be able to to uh to um give that individual whatever course they're they're they're taking. and they don't have in their at at Fitch. How do we accommodate

026that? >> Well, I think um as was said, you know, by Ted that having this online apex and having online availability for courses that oftent times if it's a a one out there like the Italian course that we can probably handle that through online. >> Send them. Okay. Thank you. All right. >> Westerly. >> Yeah. At one time, um, when Fitch stopped, um, offering German, they the students were able to go to Ledger High School >> and take German. >> My son had an experience like that too, Rita, where he had to go to a different high school >> for that. >> And we do still have children, I believe, taking Mandarin online. Well, well, at least we did for a long time. >> All right, Ken. >> All right. >> Oh, jeez. >> Okay,

027we're on to FA page five- 12. Uh, this is function 11 106, culinary arts. Uh, we have two teachers. Uh, and we anticipate no changes at this uh this function. Uh, as far as the dollars, uh, 3.9% increase in in salaries and wages, just a different different group of, uh, of teachers. Um, um, the decrease in employee benefits, um, there's $260 in there for travel, for field trips. Uh, and then the supplies and, um, are the same and equipment is zero, actually. And so it's a $2,163 increase or 1.3%. >> And I just want you to know I lost power in noank. So I'm on >> Oh no. >> I don't know how long stay on. I'm in the dark. >> It's probably gonna happen again. >> Do you have any candles? >> I think

028so. Downstairs. >> So >> I thought you were going romantic. >> Yeah. all by myself. >> I just was wondering, I was looking at this um the uh supplies and stuff. Now, Falcon Academy, I mean, Falcon Cafe hasn't run. There hasn't been as active a um you know, culinary classes, I would assume, because of co COVID. have, you know, has there been a savings in their uh consumer science supplies over this year? Just was wondering, Ken, >> well, I can speak to that a little bit. Ken, do you mind? >> Please do. >> Uh, so in ter talking about this year's budget, uh, the the savings has really been in the the actual food. >> Um, you know, we haven't been able to there has been it's not a a complete savings. uh we still

029have students that are coming into the the building and we are still having them cook. It's just been uh you know it's a little bit less um the uh you know we have used some of that uh you know to try to replace some of the equipment that we have and I think that's one of the things that we've seen in next year's budget where we did need to budget for some of the um replacement of you know the spatulas and the you know the the cooking equipment and things of that nature. So, I think we've tried to, you know, uh working with Ken and and uh and uh and uh Shelley as the department head trying to, you know, look at um using those funds to to replace some of that equipment. >> Okay.

030Thank you. >> Just trying to find savings. >> Yeah. Ken, did you um just go right across and give every every little function code some substitute teachers? Is that what you did? >> Yeah. So the way the substitute teachers are allocated is uh we we have a we have a a pool what what the substitute teachers cost and then based upon the number of teachers uh in each function al you know assuming you know they're all going to be out. It's an assumption of course that they're all going to be out for a similar period of time. And so yeah that that that's how substitutes are allocated here in to >> is that is is that a change? I don't ever remember it like that before split up. I think we asked for that last

031year because we wanted to know um we wanted to we we wanted to have a sense about what the sub account looked for each of the departments but maybe maybe I'm wrong on that. Susan, are you without power? >> I just got it back. >> Wow, that was quick. H >> so that it's the same way oops sorry it's the same way I allocated the substitute teachers for last year um >> when when a when a we do have a substitute that replacing uh for in this instance a culinary arts teacher we're able to identify it charge it to this function so the application was just a way to um uh to to mimic that um that type of Any other questions on this? If not, we're going to move on. >> All right. So,

032on to 5-14. Oh, it's not showing. 5-14. Um, and that is uh technology education. Uh, so there is a change here. Um we had five teachers in the budget uh last year and three at um at Fitch High School. Uh we actually were able to uh um pay for one of these teachers out of the MSAP grant uh for this year and we're we're proposing to do that again next year. And then uh half of the project lead the way teacher um uh was uh transferred to the middle school and we're also paying for that out of the um out of the MSAP grant for this year and proposing for next year. Um and then that's going to be reflected in the salaries and wages. That's why you see a decrease here of uh 16.9%.

033This is uh the one and a half teachers uh no longer in the budget offset by a by a small increase of around 3.1%. Um that's why you see that uh decrease there. Uh employee benefits uh a similar type of decrease. Um and then the expenses um property services, purchase services, supplies are all the same uh with a small increase in equipment. uh of $170. So overall for this function um we're looking at 139,479 decrease uh driven by the by the removal of the that one and a half teacher >> Liz >> uh Ken just one quick question the MSAP grant you said that we're going to take this over we're we're transferring um How long is that MSAP grant with us? I mean, is this something we have to be able to then reallocate

034into our budget like in the very near future? >> Yes. Yeah. F FY22 is the last year of the MSAP grant. >> Oh, >> this budget year that we're looking at right now. >> Okay. So, we're going to have to absorb that eventually again. Thank you. So this I have a question about this with for Susan and Ken. Is there a way and maybe this does not make any sense but is there a way that for some of the teachers or some of the things that we are moving over to the MSAC which is going to be over next year. Is that correct? >> Um see I have no memory. I can't even remember conversation that Liz had a minute ago. Um, is there is there a way that we could split the salary? It

035goes back to Dean's point around the health insurance, you know, is like, you know, to make it a like a low boil or low burn versus like going from this to this. Is there a way that we can support half of that salary so that next year when we have to increase to have that, it won't be such a big jump? That's just a thought. >> That was my concern. That's why I thank you. >> I think that's done with this um project lead the way is we're paying half and then half will go to the MSAP grant. That was actually what we were thinking. Um >> yeah and and the reason for um um move transferring these uh positions to the MSAP grant was due to the due to the uh the uh transportation

036uh the fact that the MSAP grant stopped this year paying for the additional buses that we um that we needed. And so to offset that we we we move these positions. Um, and so if you take those funds out of the MSAP grant, even in half, and put it into into this budget, um, we just have we'd it would impact, um, uh, how we how we spent the MSAP grant, uh, for next year. I would say I'm sorry, Rita. >> No, I was just thinking that next year we'd have to weigh which positions are relevant, which positions we need that have been carried with the MSAD grant and which ones we can no longer sustain. >> I mean, that'll be a a tough decision next year unless there's another grant. >> Well, we've got we

037put in for two, >> right? put in for the DoD STEM >> um you know which is a partnership with learn >> and quite significant and then we've put in for the DODIA STEM and that does include some project lead the way and other things. So, >> um, but you just don't know that you're going to get it. And you do have to sustain these grants and and some of the things that you've said are just the way we do it, like we take on more responsibility come towards the end of the grant and um, and then it becomes ours if if it's a if it's a priority. You know, the other thing I want to mention too, and we can get to that in transportation, but I've talked to Kim about having another transportation

038study done, especially related to the software provider to make sure that we're getting all the efficiencies we can out of this, especially as we go to a five magnet school elementary. Um, I really want to make sure that, um, you know, we, you know, I really don't want to add more buses to our list. So you know so that's something we will be doing this year >> sorry >> on to 5-16 this is mathematics um nine uh FTEES at the middle school 12.5 at the high school uh no major changes uh anticipated for this function. Uh dollar-wise, it's a 4.9% increases increase in sorry in salary and wages. Um decrease in employee benefits. Uh and then looks like we have decreases in the supplies, instructional equipment and in dues uh section. Uh so for a

039total increase of 66,930 or 3.3%. Kim, I have this the my same question. >> Everyone at Fitch has to take math. Everyone has to take language, I mean English. >> So why are there 15.5 teachers in English and 12.5 in math? I I still think that goes back to this archaic thing we had when when um we had a lot of um we had fewer students in the English classes than we had in all the other classes. So I'd really really like to look at that >> and I think when you get to social studies you'll see even fewer teachers. >> So >> yeah, been there, done that. Yeah, >> I can explain this to you that in our middle school when we reduced down to nine, we were really tight. Like we had 25

04026 in a classroom and had to go down to 24. So even our math specialist would help support some of those classes um so that we could you know get those numbers down. So I would say that um also at Fitch they have four grade levels. So, four independent grade levels that pathways that kids have to take instead of the three. So, you've got even though they're the same number of kids, there's there's different there's more courses to offer because of the different grade levels, >> right? That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the middle school and the high school. I'm only focusing on the high school that there are 15.5 teachers take in um in English at the high school. There are 12.5 math teachers at the high school. They all

041should be taking math and English all four years. I just want to know what the difference is, why there is such a discrepancy. Kim Jim, >> Yep. Andrea, I say this respectfully, but the math teacher at at night goes home with a key. the English teacher goes home with papers and if you really want to concentrate on helping children, you have to be able to to look at their work and de devote a great deal of time to it. And I think that's the reason that one of the reasons, Rita, that there are more English teachers than there are math. But then again, when when we get to social studies, there'll be even fewer social studies teachers who I hope are reading all the essays and all the papers. So there there's something not quite

042right. And it's been like that for a while. We really need to to look at this. I understand about the the the math. And whoever has on there um somebody needs um whoever is Mark, Mark, can you just mute us all? >> Kim, could I just speak to Rita's question here for a sec because I think it's Rita, I think it's uh I think I think right at the beginning of the meeting um you know uh in asking for the for the the course uh numbers. Uh I think that's going to be really telling. Um, one of the things for math and English, you're absolutely right that they both have uh four credits for uh graduation requirements in the past when math was just three graduation requirements for most schools. Again, I don't know what

043it was forgotten back then, but you know, you'd have a few less math teachers because you had a few less classes that the kids need to take. Uh what I found in looking at the section numbers, it really comes down to the types of uh the types of classes that we are offering in both math and English. In mathematics, most of your courses are just the uh the regular one-year courses, you know, your algebraas, your geometries, and so on. We don't really have a lot of math electives. One of the things that we've done in English, which quite frankly I've been very impressed with, uh I because I've been in only schools that have really just offered the basic English classes, we offer a lot of elective courses in English and and that's great. That's

044that's a really awesome thing that we do. >> Uh but it does oftentimes require a few more teachers because those electives, you're going to have less sections of them. So, uh that can bump up your number of teachers a little bit. Um, and so I think that's one of the things that's looking at it, but the fact of the matter is we're really not going to have an answer to that until we look at those numbers and say, "Okay, you know, this is exactly what's causing it." But I can tell you that the elective piece is part of it. And and uh, you know, I'd like to also make sure that Amy's part of the discussion as well, um, you know, as we're going through this and and and so on. But, um, but definitely

045that's that's definitely part of it. So, you know, but what you know, once we get the numbers, we'll really be able to to nail down exactly what we're looking at for the teachers in each of those areas. >> Right. I I really appreciate that. Thank you. >> You bet. >> Ted, thank you for the um clarification. I appreciate that. >> Hearing nothing more, we're going to move on. >> All right, we're on to page 5-18. This is uh music uh five uh five teachers at middle school, two at the high school. Uh no changes to this group. Uh increase of 2.7 for salary wages, uh a decrease in employee benefits. Um there's a slight decrease in other purchase services. Uh an increase in supplies and a decrease in equipment. Uh overall $6,445 increase or a

0460.9%. >> Yes. >> I heard I correct me if I'm wrong. I heard five m music teachers at the middle level and two at the high school. Help me understand that. >> So it's the same thing that Ted was talking about where in the middle school kids in sixth, seventh, and eth are able to take a general music. in addition to a band, an orchestra, and a chorus. Where at the high school, we really basically have the band, orchestra, and chorus only. So, it's actually woven in to their um schedule. So, that and they also have some other things, especially in this magnet, you know, steam middle school where they can take African drumming and guitar and other courses as well. So, it's the number of electives that is supporting that number of teachers and

047the number of choices kids can take in the museum. >> Thank you. >> And again, I have the question Andrea had about field trips. >> Yeah, I'm I'm not sure where they're going for music. Um, but we could find out. I don't know if Peter is here. I don't know, you know, if um >> I am I can tell you they go to the Coast Guard. >> Um we we >> I mean right now we >> right now right now we're we're doing our best to have uh inschool field trips if you will. So we'll we'll pay folks to uh present virtually. But for this year um it won't be as much as as a typical year. Just >> this budget is for the next year. >> Okay. >> Well, I was just hoped to

048see a savings from last year. >> I move. >> What's your question, Rita? >> Oh, sorry. >> That that's it. You know, it would be nice. You know how you see the actual and then you have the real actual for Y20. So I mean it has gone down a little bit in 2019 2020 but with 2021 it's like still the same carried over and it it's just confusing. I guess we can't have the actual until June. >> Right. Right. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> All right. Move us on. can >> moving us on to 5-20 I think. Yeah, physical education. Um and so we have a change here. Uh we had four uh teachers in the middle school and 5.9 at the high school. Uh we have an increase of one and I believe we

049had to increase one for uh the scheduling purposes and that will be reflected in the salaries. you'll see uh bigger than the 3 point uh% that we've looked at before. There's a 6.7% increase uh employee benefits uh decrease uh small decrease on on um purchased purchased property services. Um it's a little hard to read, isn't it? Uh other purchase services is uh same. Uh supplies is up $140 and uh equipment up $358. So a 56,636 uh increase or 4.9% uh being driven by the additional uh position that uh has been added. >> And is that 238.7% is that correct for our total equipment? >> Yeah. So it when you when you have an increase over huge number, >> it's it's math. And so it's an increase of $358 over a base of 150. And so

050yeah, it looks like looks like quite an increase. Uh but dollar-wise, it's not a very big increase, but percentage-wise it is. >> That's why I taught social studies for 30 years. >> Is does a 0.9 does that 0.1% also teach health? Is that where that comes from? that there are >> that's that's why it's it's it's not a full FTE. I think we have 1.1 um uh health teachers and so yeah, between the between the two of them we have um seven teachers. Uh but yeah, they're all split out into health and PE. >> Thank you. Barching on to science. >> We're marching on to science. That's page 5-22. Uh and this is um there's a decrease here. We had nine uh teachers at the middle school. Uh last year's budget. This year we have

051eight. And once again, this is the uh MSAP grant. So a total of two and a half teachers. 1.5 was from teched and one here uh that were transferred to the MSAP grant. Uh there are 12 teachers at the high school. >> And if you notice, we tried to look at every narrative when we went through these to really make sure they're saying what they need to say. And then under the changes for 2021, 2022, we wanted to make sure that we added those changes in here. So you'll notice that too in each of the boxes. And you said, how do you keep track of all of that? So that's one of the ways we're keeping track. >> Um in the year of um really science um we had a big drop. Is that because

052of the drop in teachers? >> Yeah. Oh yeah. So in the dollars you mean? >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. So you'll notice in under teachers it's a decrease of of uh uh 37,351 for classroom teachers. That's a direct result of uh a reduction of one teacher offset by uh contractual increases >> as well as a decrease in employee benefits uh that we've been seeing throughout. U there are some increases in um purchase services and in um and in supplies as well as in equipment. Uh but overall for this group it's a $90,000 $90,349 decrease or 3.9% decrease. >> Um I did want to get a little um honor to science for 202021 >> Liz. Um, Ken, and maybe this is more for the principles, Peter and Ed. Ted, um, do they really use workbooks? >>

053No. >> I mean, do you really have do these kids really have workbooks that were spending a couple of thousand dollars on workbooks in math and in science and stuff? I mean, >> answer is yes. >> Really? Okay. >> You have some consumables. um you know it's we've gotten kind of away from the oldfashioned textbook and we're doing more digitally and so sometimes there's um workbooks, journals, other things for kids to actually do writing in. But um you know a lot a lot of the shift has been not purchasing the $100 textbook in lie of having something digitally that gets updated all the time. >> Okay, that's my question. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Yeah. Again, look at that field trip line and there's a huge jump from 2019 2020. >> Is that

054where we put project O or project O is another another section? >> Project O is in here. It's line 321 instructional services. That's the 58,48. >> That's every year. And Project O um is actually um you know mostly work with middle school and high school. And that's our partnership with Project O that we've paid for for all the years that I've been here. >> Right. >> Yep. I'm not I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the field trips, the other field trips, the 6,000. >> Yeah. On line 588. >> We can look into that, Rita. And just I mean I don't know if the principles know on the top of their head. >> I can tell you that um NES is is a big one that we do and um >> okay >> it

055um it's something that has been at least partially grant funded previous to this but uh that's starting to sunset now and it it's a it's one of those that uh the grant pay some and we can offset. It's a it's it's a pricey one. >> I I also think Rita that we're just assuming Yeah, we have to make the assumption that wherever we're sending our kids for field trips that those prices would increase as well. >> No, I I don't think we're sending them anywhere right now, >> but this is for next year. >> Yeah, I know. But it's just carried over from last year and it it's just like to me it's like an easy thing for someone to say, "Listen, did these kids really go someplace? Are you patting the budget and just

056moving $6,000 over?" You know, those are the questions you can get from the public. And I'd like, you know, I just want to understand, well, are these where are these kids going? How can we respond? >> You're not not you're not on you're not wrong on that. Uh now in terms of science, the high school didn't actually include any uh field trips for science. Um but the um you know, Rita, I can't tell you that um as we're going through the budget, uh we're we're asking all of our departments to start out with zero and to they certainly look at their their spending from the years before, but for things like field trips or textbooks or anything like that, I'm questioning each of our department heads and and my conversations with Peter, he is as

057well in terms of okay, what is this actually going to be? um you know and we talked about project O science wasn't looking at any real field trip money this year um it you know and so on you know so it's it's something where um now this year obviously last year's budget plan was definitely changed uh based upon you know the fact that we couldn't take any field trips um and some of that money you know still there but the you know this year it's not like well you had $6,000 in field trips just throw that over for next year and you'll have it for next year um you know for the band and the thing. They're thinking about the transportation. They're thinking about the different events that they're going to. So, if there is

058ever a question of uh hey, I wonder what the music field trips are all about, um we can certainly have Andrew or or any of the department heads give you a list of what those uh plans were because it's not we're just throwing in $1,000 in case you think you want to go on a field trip. It's at an actual event that they're they're planning on doing. Yeah. >> Um so, >> it's not the music that I'm concerned about. I'm just saying that as an example. Yeah. Just as >> Yeah. I mean, if you look at 2019, 2020, it was $1,79 and then all of a sudden there's a huge jump to 6,000. >> Mhm. >> And it's carried across and really they probably wasn't even used this past year, very much of it. So

059that that's that's my question. Well, we'll see that savings right at the end of the year when the actuals come in because they have they have spa they have spent some money because they are doing the virtual stuff. Correct. >> Right. That's right. Even with the Mystic SE port. So, you know, we've we've got creative and it's we've heard from a lot of parents who have really um said that that has been a very engaging thing for their kids and you know, it's embedded coaching for our teachers too. So, any other questions? >> All right, Ken, moving on. >> All right, 5-24. This is uh social studies. Uh here there is an increase. We had nine teachers uh in the budget last year for the middle school. Uh we have 10 uh in this budget.

060Uh there we added one FTE once again for uh for scheduling purposes. I think this was that approaches to learning teacher. >> Um and uh the high school is uh nine and a half as it was in the prior year uh budget. Um so the increase in teacher is reflected in the in the salaries. Uh so it's an increase of a teacher as well as the uh contractual increases. Uh the reduction in employee benefits. Uh then there's um other purchase services up uh $500 and supplies up uh $2,450. Um that that's showing up as 163. Once again, there's that math. Um it's a big increase over last year's budget of $1,500 for supplies. Uh but the total for this uh function increase of 57,138 or 3.2%. >> And that's mostly because of salary. >> Well,

061yeah. Yeah. The the the increase of number of teachers uh is what's driving that increase. >> Question. Well, I hope we can increase this in the high school, especially because we're going to have another another very important course >> absolutely >> being taught. So, I mean, I could see this going up a.5 in the high school there. It But Liz can speak to that, I'm sure. >> Well, we've decreased this department over the years. >> Yes. >> And it's it's now down to bare bones. And I really think that we need to start looking at not only this nude course that's going to be offered, we have to start preparing because quite frankly we have um we're beginning to have a group of students now that are starting to get interested in academic competitions that

062cost money and um this is at the middle school as well as the high school and we have to be able I think to have some support for them. So, you know, I don't know where Math Counts comes in or or where any of the other academic competitions come in, how they're funded. Um, but speaking from my own experience, um, if we if we continue and and hopefully encourage our students to do, um, I'm just going to say, Connecticut History Day, let's face it, it's going to be it is very um, it does not get expensive unless they make it to nationals and then if they go to and and nationals is the goal. Let's face it, you want to go for the goal. So, I think we need to be prepared for the increase

063especially that that class is going to have because I know that class is going to be very very very popular. Um, I would expect we're going to have to have at least point at least a.5 teacher if not a full teacher that has going to have to help work with that. And as we start to evaluate and improve our our elective offerings and also we need to start looking at and this I know this is coming it's not for next year but for the year after I just want to say it so that we have it in our back of our minds right now social studies is only required three credits which is too low and especially we have to start looking at that and I think that's something that the curriculum committee is going

064to have to work on is we have to you know one of the reasons I I think that we're in a a problem in our nation is that we don't have a good solid full credit and an understanding of government and civic responsibility. And I think that's something we need to look at as a district. So, >> so my sense, >> thank you very much. So my sense is is that um obviously Ted and Susan and Ken will be looking at this for next year specifically with our new class and how what's the interest of that but right now um it stands the way that it stands unless we are above and beyond. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I think uh just uh speaking to uh the the the questions that just came up uh right

065now the the budget really reflects the textbooks that we're going to need uh for that class and uh you know I think once we get an idea of the students that are signing up and and if there are changes made in the graduation requirements which certainly would be I think an interesting discussion um you know that that could change things as well but right now we just don't have enough information yet about what the the class sizes are going to be in order to make any decisions on on uh teacher numbers for next year. >> But the money is in there for the textbooks. >> Thank you. >> I have a real concern. I mean, I have sat in some of the American history classes when we were allowed in the building at one time

066and were able to go in a building. Um, and the American history classes were huge, very, very big. And then you can go to an English class or they're they're smaller. I I I think it's a disservice to our students to not have almost as many social studies teachers that we have English teachers and math teachers in the high school. I know I have my masters is um American studies. though I do have you know and I taught social studies but when I look at this and I I've sat in those classes they're huge huge classes >> I think you had made a request Rita to check those class sizes out so we'll definitely data to you >> okay >> thank you >> and I'm just I just want to do a time check because

067we do have other guests coming on um to do special education so I was going to ask Ken where are we how much more of the regular instruction do we have so that I can I see um Carrie Carter's here to talk about adult ed and I know that um Denise and Naen will be hopping back on here soon too. >> Yeah, we definitely have quite a bit of regular instruction left um because we we were going to go from to 5-41 we're through 5-25. So there is quite a bit to go. So I don't know what how you want to um uh >> Well, I think we just keep marching along, you know. Okay. >> So, we're now on the um are we on 26 and 27? 527. Okay. >> That's correct. And this

068is uh this is the middle years program. Uh this is grades 6 through 10. Um there's no there's no teachers per se that are uh allocated to this uh to this pro to this function. Uh you will notice that there is some cost in here uh under uh salaries and this was uh u costs that uh over and above what the MSAP grant paid for uh for our uh coordinators. Uh so that's what that amount uh represents in FY21. FY22 we expect that to be zero because we uh have have adjusted the budget uh the f the MSAP budget to to uh account for all of that. Um, as far as the expenses, um, there is an increase in, uh, dues, uh, um, line 812 of $9,000. Um, so these costs are because these aren't

069included in the MSAP grant because these are all costs that are being borne at the high school level. Uh, MSAP only goes sixth through eight. Uh, so this is for the ninth and tth graders at the high school. uh the costs for for the program at that uh at at that school. Uh so $9,000 is the total increase for this function over last year's budget. Um that's it's actually 62 uh.7% because it's was such a small number last year >> question. I s I still don't know what will happen when the MSAC grant runs out. How are we going to absorb all these costs? It's just something to think about. So, I would love to actually hear and probably not at this time, but maybe that will be a very good conversation for Susan and

070um Ted and Peter to kind of get together and talk to us about um with the NSA grant leaving and we have the middle years, how do we h how because I mean we're we're committed as a community for this. So, for us to then like cut it um doesn't make any sense. So, what's how do we then build how do we build build our budget? um so that um it supports that and it's not a huge drain for us. >> Yeah. And we can talk about a sustainability plan very similar to what we did when the literacy grant was done after training all those teachers, but we'd love to come back and talk about that at the CO. >> I think we need to because um if anything I I say this Oh, I'm

071sorry. I'm eating my food. Oh, my mom will be so angry at me. I'll come back to it. Okay, it's we need to know what the company line is. We need to know sort of like how if someone comes up to me and says, "How are we how are we funding this middle years program?" Because the grant we've heard the grant is done. >> I I should be able to have that pretty fluid off of my off my tongue and and same with my eight other colleagues. >> That's right. Let's do it. >> Okay. I I'm making I'm making that note. Um um and Joan, if you could also make that note, too, so that Susan and I know that we need to put that on the community the whole. >> All right, go on.

072>> Uh 5-28 is um the health uh health education. Um there's the one and I think that one is uh made up of a bunch of pieces of teacher or at least the 1.1 at the high school is I know that um uh so same number of teachers uh as last year's um as far as the dollars um a slight increase in uh in salaries um and an increase in supplies of $460. uh overall uh a decrease of 3,246 or 1.4% for this function. >> Um that's a big drop. >> Yeah. >> Um at a time when we should be paying attention especially to health. >> The uh the drop here is being driven by the health insurance uh reserve um or the health insurance expense I should say um reduction that's due to the

073health insurance reserve. Um >> and that's the only real big drop. >> Yeah. >> So Mary, your concerns are my concerns and I would say that certainly through the curriculum development process, we look at mental health as a part of health. We haven't reduced any teachers or reduced any lessons. As a matter of fact, we're actually making sure and ensuring that we take care of social emotional learning and mental health um needs. So that is not affected by any decreases in that budget. >> Okay. I did have some concerns just um the the timing is extraordinary >> to drop health but I'll keep my mouth shut. >> No just we haven't >> I know and and now that I I understand that but the it's good to hear. >> Yeah. Yeah. 530 and 531. I

074see >> 530 531. Correct. This is so this is uh this is magnet school support. We put this in a couple years ago uh because we only had the two uh magnet school uh magna elementary schools. >> Uh and so we wanted to be sure that those magnet themes were being supported. And so we created this function and uh and funded it uh with um with some funds to to ensure that that was happening. Uh the uh going forward uh starting in this year the not this year but this budget year that we're looking at here uh all five elementary schools are going to be uh magnet elementary schools. And so rather than maintain the separate account to um to to ensure that there's funding for those magnet uh themes uh we we we uh

075suggested that the principles uh just incorporate this into their regular site budgets. Uh so uh the plan is to discontinue that's why you'll notice oops that the zeros under FY22 uh because the site budgets were just increased to uh to account for this. Um, >> so we took that 30,000 divided by the five elementaryaries and they, you know, then were able to take that amount of money and add to their site budgets. >> Exactly. >> Any questions? Moving on. >> All right. 5-32. This is Oh, come on, guy. >> Yeah, I see. >> 5-33. Uh, 32 and 33. This is ID. uh we don't have teachers allocated directly to IB anymore. They they they are resident and within their um their um their um uh you'll notice back in 19 we we were allocating uh

076teachers but we uh we discontinued doing that. Um but as far as the expenses um uh the the per uh the technical services uh the same at 6,000 um purchase services uh down by $2,000. uh supplies uh down by uh 20,395 and equipment there's an increase in equipment of 5,450 and a decrease in dues of 2,000 overall uh decrease of 18,945 or 22% for this function. >> That's a big lowering amount also. Is that explained by what you started off with? >> No, there's no there are no uh teachers allocated here. So there's no health insurance impact. Uh this is all uh as a result of uh of the site budgets uh or the the amount that was allocated by the uh by by by Ted's group. >> Actually, could I speak? >> Not lowering

077it. >> We are lowering it, but the the reasoning is number one is the um the number of tests that we're expecting to give out is a little bit lower next year. Um and also online uh training uh has been increased through IB. Um so that that we had a reduction in the travel amounts. Um we didn't reduce it uh too much because we don't want to be uh we're hoping that they're going to offer continue to offer a lot of this online. We won't have to pay as much for travel, but we didn't want to kind of bet the farm on it, so to speak. Um, so the uh but that that really the testing is what really is uh driving the um uh the the decrease. In addition, because we're also going to

078be paying NYP and IB, the dues are lower a little bit. >> Okay. >> Any curious? Um, Kim, when when when we do get all the class size information for the high school, can we also see which teachers are teaching the IB classes and if they're also teaching other classes because this was always in our budget pre up the past two years and now it's like, you know, well, we have no budget for IB and we really do have teachers and some of them just only teach IB. So, it'd be nice to have an accurate account of what's going on. >> Is that true that we teachers only teaching IB or do they teach other courses? >> We'll find out. >> Yeah, I I'd have to get the I don't have every teacher schedule in

079my head like Aaron McGuire does. Uh, but the uh uh I I will uh I'm pretty sure that most of our teachers teach a uh kind of a a variety of different courses. So, I don't think there's any teachers that just teach IB. Uh, but if I'm not thinking of somebody, I apologize, but I I'll take a look. >> Thank you, Ed. >> Ted, I got it. >> All right, moving on. >> 5-34. So, this this is a new uh this is a new function uh this year and I I apologize that there's no program description in here, but I do I did get one uh um that uh we'll be putting in there. Um uh but uh and this should say of course uh this this is a new function this year. Um the

080dollars are here um instructional improvement services for 2500 uh travel for um for workshops uh 13,500 supplies 4625 and dues of 11,54. So a total of 31,679 uh which uh there's nothing to compare it against. So there's no no percentage increase to uh to give. So under international balariat we are um a candidate for um careers program and that ties in really well with our careers pathways as you know so that we're offering more and more um pathways. So we've always had the health and nursing. We now have the project lead the way and have expanded that. Um we the culinary arts um and of course the manufacturing and the manufacturing pipeline. So that does tie in nicely. We really um want to look at our career pathways from middle school to high school and

081want and both of those new grants that we have applied for does just that. So we're excited about that. >> Any other questions? If not, >> I just I want to understand about the FTEES. I mean, if we're having somebody or one or two people go to travel for $13,500, I'd like to know who that is. I mean, is it one person? Is it two people? It just is so vague. But so maybe that can h happen in the future. So yeah, Rita, it's it's something where, you know, we're going to have to look at what the availability is uh and and what career pathways we're going to be offering. So for example, we might be sending our nursing teacher uh or the and oftentimes they require these head of school trainings or the coordinator

082trainings. So it's um a lot of times we're, you know, it's it's it's really up to what we have available for people to go. Um so for next year again it's unfortunately we just don't know what that training is going to look like this year. Uh you know for I'll give you a perfect example this year I needed to do the IB head of school training uh that was required. Normally they'd be sending me to wherever to go do that. Uh but I was able to do it online. Uh and you know obviously that that was a savings for us uh because we were able to do it online. Um but the uh you know so you know it's it's a little hard to give you that information yet. Uh but we know that we're

083going to have some trainings that are available. So we're trying to estimate based upon the the training cost and the the general uh travel costs that we we generally acrew for those. >> So there are no full-time FTEEs. >> No, because these teachers all teach in other areas as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Would it be I don't want to go back to it, but would it be helpful if we had a narrative that TED kind of just stated that that we are going to be having trainings if we don't know what the trainings are and it um because we don't know what category it is. >> I think we could probably get more detail than that, Kim. I think we have a narrative and I'm sure that when they were putting together this particular

084cost they were thinking of so many teachers you know and this is the the cost. We certainly have found a lot of efficiencies with some of the online conferences and workshops. So I'm hoping that lots of organizations will continue to offer that. >> Thank you. Moving on. >> Okay, I'm muted. Sorry. Um 5-36. This is unclassified. This is uh this uh function is to capture all the costs for the secondary school that does don't necessarily fall into any particular function. Um we do have one uh one aid in this in this function. Um and if we go down >> a lot of money >> there's the there's the aid on on line 11. Um and then uh these are substitutes. line 120 there substitutes for uh that are not that aren't replacing a particular teacher.

085They could be a building sub. They could be um uh just uh floating or or doing more than more than one um uh assignment in a day. Um uh group uh group insurance um is uh is is down due to what we talked about before. Uh we also put in here um unemployment compensation. Um we we we carry that in here. We're hoping that's going to kind of go back to the um uh pre this year level uh 50,000 um equipment uh repair of equipment. we are uh we're moving to a uh a managed print solution and so we are feeling like we don't need as much um uh repair of equipment as we have had in the prior years. Um um what else is uh classroom supplies uh so these are the classroom supplies

086ordered by uh the the um high school and middle school. Um, I think last year, last year we we we we had a surplus and so we didn't need as much uh in last year's budget, but we're anticipating uh that to be higher this year. Um, and then a decrease in uh equipment uh of $3,800. So overall, a decrease of 96,566 for this function. >> Any questions? >> Um, yes. I'm curious about the zero on the FY22 budget for retirement award. >> So we that parenthes that um decrease amount is very close to what that was the year before. Is are we anticipating a large retirement award? Um, so, uh, for FY22, uh, at the time we we, uh, put this together, we didn't have the, uh, the the the final retirement number, uh, which

087I believe going to talk about in a in a future, um, meeting. >> Uh, but, uh, it is anticipated that, uh, that any retirement awards, uh, uh, as long as we got the paperwork in, we can pay for it out of this year. Okay. >> Questions? If not, we're moving on. >> All right. 5-38 is uh business education. Uh there are three teachers at the high school. Um we are not anticipating any changes. Um the salaries up two and a half%. Um travel up $1,000 uh 40%. Um, and that's a total of uh increase of $4,613 or 1 and a.5% over last year's budget >> questions. >> All right, we're moving on. >> Next is 5-40. This is um where is it? That's health occupations. Uh so there's one one teacher at the high school

088for this. >> That's our that's our nursing teacher for the certification program. That's right. Um I she I think this was a newer teacher this year. Um I think we had a retirement. That's why you're seeing a decrease there. Um and then um as far as the expenses um increase of $65 under supplies, but overall a decrease of $49,180 uh over uh last year's budget. >> Is that explained by the lowering of the one teacher? And can we still offer everything with that one teacher lowered? >> Well, her salary is >> Huh. >> It's it's still the same amount of FTEEs. It's one teacher that we had that retired and one teacher that we have now, but she's a newer teacher, fewer years experience. That's where the cost savings is. >> Oh, okay. >> Yep.

089>> Because we are in a pandemic and I had concerns about lowering this particular one. and the with the Dr. Fouchy effect especially >> now we love to grow our nursing program actually. So, >> uh, so actually this is a really good stopping point, um, uh, to switch over to, um, um, to special education if we want to do that because we've got quite a few more pages. Uh, but they're numerically. Uh, the next the next page 5-42 starts, uh, um, um, preschool. Uh, so it may not be a bad idea to just move on from here, >> I think. So, I like going through it numerically. We can always go back to the central office information. I think at some point though, um, Susan, we need to talk about athletics and, um, all that

090stuff. Uh, not maybe not tonight, but we got to make sure that that gets into the into our schedule. >> Yeah, athletics is on the schedule for uh, for February 8th. >> Oh, stop being so on top of things, Ken. >> But the other ones, I think I think we can move those either to the eth, but we also have the ninth. So, I think um >> yeah, we have the two days. >> All right, good. >> Okay, so we're going to move on to uh page 5-42 uh in preschool. Let's see. I'll bring that up here. >> Thank you. Good evening uh members of the board, Madame President, Susan, and staff that have joined us. So my name is Naen Mlin and I am the supervisor for one of the supervisors of PPS and

091I also supervise our early childhood programs in district. And so I'm just going to take us through uh the budget pages for preschool. So these pages are specifically for our special education uh preschool staff specifically. Um, and so as you can see here, um, we, you know, we have two, uh, in integrated preschool teachers at Cladchester, we have three integrated preschool teachers at Mary Morrison, and we have four, um, special education staff at SP Butler, which also includes a speech and language pathologist for our early childhood assessment team. So, with the consolidation of our three elementary schools, we will actually be moving our preschool programs, as you know, to our two new elementary magnet schools. So, we will have 4.5 staff members at each location. Um, and then the same breakdown for our regular and

092special education teacher aids. Um, as you can see just numerically, we've um pretty much just split the staff um at each of the new sites. So we have seven uh regular and special education teacher aids at Fames River and we also have uh seven at Mystic River Magnet. So there are no changes in terms of the number of staff in terms of the actual budget. Uh, as you can see the first line, there is a huge uh decrease of $82,000, a little over $82,000. And that's uh due to the fact that last year we um had one of our veteran uh integrated preschool teachers retire and also uh one of our preschool uh SLPs resigned. So, and she was also um a veteran SLP as well. So that that accounts for the huge decrease. And

093we have since hired um a firstear uh integrated preschool special ed teacher as well as a firstear speech and language pathologist that is a part of our early childhood assessment team. Um as we go down we see that there um in terms of insurance there was a slight decrease in insurance and also as we go down we see that travel expenses um there was also a decrease in travel expenses as well. So the total um increase was just a little over $7,000. Naen, um would this would this also include any contract services that we have for special education? This this line or is it someplace else? >> No, this is all of our full-time um BOE staff. >> Okay. >> So, no contract work is included here. >> And where is that in the budget?

094Maybe Ken can tell us. >> Yeah. >> Um I believe that's under um function 1230. Okay, >> let's see. Let make sure here. Uh, yes. 12:30, I think. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> You're welcome. Any other questions? >> All right, I will put myself back on mute. >> Thank you. So, who's doing summer school? >> Um, I'll do that. I'll do that page. >> Um, >> I saw Allison Lub's on here, too, and she's been directing it, so that's cool. >> Good evening, everyone. I'm Denise Doolittle, director of pupil services. Um, the next page that you're looking at, 5-44, um, is a placeholder for our extended school year program, which is a summer program for students with significant disabilities um to help them maintain their skills. Uh, we don't necessarily have any staffing on

095this page. If you look at the next page, you'll see that we budget um approximately $20,000 to offset the rest of the costs of the program which are paid for out of the idea grant. This program serves about 110 students. Uh you can see that we um last year spent more than we had budgeted uh because we were running uh parallel programs due to co 19. We wanted to be able to provide programming for students in person. Um but we had a large number of students who opted to work remotely. So we had parallel programs last summer. We're hoping that that will not be the case this summer. What's your plan if we do? >> We're hoping that we'll have less students that will be um remote. Last summer we had um it was actually

096the opposite. We had a very small number in school because it was the first time students had been in school since March and we had a large number of remote students. So, we're hoping that this summer it's the opposite. Any other questions for Denise? All right, we're moving on. >> Right. 5-46 is other special instruction. This is um I think it's mainly uh services for English language earn learners. Sorry. Um, and we do have uh an additional uh FTE um included in here, but there was a reduction of one FTE tutor uh as an offsetting um >> so we now have um an ELA um teacher, certified teacher, bilingual. Actually, all three of our teachers will be both bilingual and um Tesaw trained. And so we have someone at the elementary level, someone at the

097middle school, and someone at the high school level. >> Excellent. >> That is excellent. Thank you. >> Uh as far as the dollars, you can see under uh salaries and wages uh increase uh mainly due to the increase uh in the FTE at the uh one teacher. Um uh that additional teacher uh attracts more employee benefits. There's an increase there as well. Um and then there's no expenses budgeted for this. So it's an increase of 107434. >> And what why what is driving that increase again? >> Uh mainly the increase of the one FTE uh uh ELLL teacher. >> So we reduced a tutor position but we added a teacher certified teacher position. We also get an EL grant, title three, and so that covers a couple of our tutors in that grant as well,

098questions, comments. >> All right. Thank you, Ken. >> All right. Um 5-48 is special education. Um I mean I'll just go over this quickly uh Denise and then you can um you can um um you give more detail. But as far as the FTEES um we are budgeting um 50 FTEES um same as the prior year um just broken up uh differently because of the closing of the three schools uh but there was a reduction in the uh Paris uh of 3.1 uh that uh that tutor uh right there uh on the bottom uh that was missed. So that should say 1.0 and I believe the dollars have to follow it. So, uh, I think this tutor is is is in another place and so, uh, I'll just have to fix that, but I just

099wanted to apologize for that. Um, I think that was, uh, that was that. And then, do you want to talk to dollars? Uh, Denise. >> Um, sure, Ken, if you could go back to 5-48. >> Sure. >> Um, there is a reduction of one resource teacher with the consolidation. So we actually have seven teachers moving to Mystic River. Uh four resource teachers and three ABA teachers. And then we have a total of six teachers at Thames River. Four resource teachers and two academy teachers. So um it's really a reduction of one. >> So are these numbers going to change then because of this? >> Yeah. Yeah. There's there's a just a typo on this page. Themes river should say six. >> Um Right. But um CK should be four, right? That we said >> CK

100Let's see where's CK. >> Yes, CK should say four. We have a self-contained program moving to CK. >> So So I think the total number is fine. I just think it's the uh it's the way they're broken up uh across the schools. And so that that that will change and be corrected. Oh, okay. Thanks, Ken. >> Yep. >> Um, so we do have a self-contained program at Mary Morrison that's moving to CK. That's what Ken was referring to. >> Yep. Yeah. And we should put we should put a note in the uh in the changes. >> Yeah. But both schools will have four resource teachers. >> The academy programs will go to Themes River. The ABA programs will stay at will go to Mystic River. >> All right. Should I move on, Denise? >> Yes.

101Thank you, Ken. >> Yep. Thanks. >> It might be helpful to put that in our narrative. >> I agree. >> Transitions. Let's get that in order. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Um Okay. So, on 5-49, um we have a slight increase um in terms of salaries and wages that is contractual. And uh there's overall an increase of 0.1%. We did actually increase slightly the um the supplies for this group. That would be under It's hard for me to read it. >> 615 near the bottom. >> Thank you. Yes, >> 615 has a slight increase um for supplies because we have um we have certain um apps for uh the iPads and certain uh materials that the teachers need and um and then I think everything else. Oh, did we want to talk about vocational

102skills instruction here, Ken? This is where um line 561 is includes Ledger High School VOAG program as well as we have some students who work with some of our partners such as sharp training for vocational instruction beyond high school. It's a very small number. They're generally students whose skill set would not be a good match for the students in the transition academy and they attend uh sharp training for employment skills two to three days per week in the community with a small group and a job coach. >> Any other questions list? Um I'm going back to that uh line and could you explain to me why in 2018 2019 the actual was 439 318 and then 1920 was 159 521. >> That seems like a significant change. And then we budgeted for this year again

103250. Can you explain that? I don't understand that. >> Yeah, I can explain that. Uh so in in 1920 there's a reclass that's just not it's not reflected in here and I apologize. Uh this number uh needs to be adjusted. Um uh and so this this will be corrected in the in the final. Um uh but this this number uh yeah when I reviewed this with Denise we we discovered that as well. So that number is closer to the uh closer to the 439 number than the 159. So I apologize. >> Okay. >> Thank you Ken. And could you tell us what instructional improvement services on online um 322? >> Yeah, I may want to answer that one, Denise, because we put that in there. Uh so, previously uh if when um the some of

104the PD training that um some of Denise's group uh uh go to uh we had uh previously been um budgeting that under I think it was teaching and learning. Uh and uh just for clarification and so Denise knows you know how much the pool is uh we we broke it out this year so that um uh it can be uh it can be seen uh a little more readily. Uh so um this was previously budgeted on teaching and learning. So you should see a decrease in under the teaching and learning uh instructional improvement services. So, our total was always about um 30,000 and Denise always had 10,000 to spend, but we just thought we should really earmark it in special ed because that's where it's located. So, you know, we've done some things like that

105over the years to try to really get it in the right buckets. >> Yeah. Actually, improvement of instruction, not teaching learning. Sorry. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Good question, Rita. >> No. Anything else? >> We can note that under the footnotes, too. >> Yeah, we could. That would be a good idea, Ken. >> Okay. >> By the time we get this out to the public, you guys will have us all organized. That's why we go through it with a fine tooth comb like this. So, thank you. >> All right. Uh 5-50 is our um uh teacher of the blind. We do have uh part-time services from the teacher of the blind. Um her case load has been uh reducing over the years. Um so she is uh part-time in the transition academy. She um assumed

106that position when we had a retirement last year and we are remaining uh with 0.5 teacher of the blind um to service a small case load and any students who may move in um in the future. >> It looked like we cured blindness. >> We just for some reason have had fewer and fewer students with uh with that disability. >> I love the thought of curing blindness. Um Denise, where where would we find in this budget the students that are placed at Ocean Avenue Learning Center or other outplacement? >> Oh, sure. >> That's that's coming at the end >> later on. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, I'll just wait. >> Okay. Um so on page 5-51 uh you can see in terms of the teacher um we have her um a decrease overall

107because this is a reduction. Okay. Again last year she was 1.0 and this year she's.5. Well, well, to be clear, Denise, um this this what everyone has reflects uh going from 0.5 to to zero. Uh but >> in our discussions uh that we had last week, uh I think we decided we were going to uh leave uh point was it 02 or or >> Oh, that's right. We're going to do one day a week. That's true. Okay. Thank you. >> To maintain the program. And so so this will be adjusted, but uh the the the dollars uh from this will come out of the special education uh budget. >> Thank you. So instead of eliminating it all together, we're going to keep one day per week. >> That's right. >> For the small case load.

108>> Good. >> And where where where is this case load? The case load is primarily uh there's one out of district student and there's several in district students that receive consult only but due to the fact that we have a highly mobile population we want to be sure that we maintain at least one day per week because we you know our enrollment is uncertain and we don't know you know what type of needs might move into the district in terms of um students. So this teacher, is she sort of on call or is she teaching other special education classes and and also can do this if needed? >> No, she's working in the transition academy. >> Okay. Thank you. >> She assumed the retirement last year. Any other questions? >> If not, we're going to

109move on. >> All right. So, we'll we'll stay with um special education um and we're going to go to 5-56. Um we will revisit these pages uh on a future meeting. 5-56. Where are you? >> Hearing impaired. So, this is uh function 1280 uh hearing impaired. >> Okay. Um so, currently we have 1.0 0 FTE teacher um of the deaf. She uh services students throughout the district prek through grade 12 who have significant hearing impairments. She's um our expert in terms of aiological equipment and evaluations. She's also an expert in American Sign Language and she teaches one course at Fitch High School in American Sign Language. So on the next page uh 5-57 uh you can see uh salaries and wages. Uh she does have money um in her budget for repairing equipment. This is

110generally hearing aids, um microphones that the teachers wear and receivers. Um all of the equipment that we utilize for students who have hearing impairments uh is Bluetooth. Um and there are times when um uh microphones get dropped or receivers break or the uh ear molds for the students crack and we need to have repairs to that equipment. She also has travel in her budget because she is itinerant. Um so there is actually a reduction in this budget by.3%. >> Are there any questions? >> All right, moving on. >> Right. Um So, we do have Carrie Carter here if we wanted to switch over to our high school completion program. >> Good evening everyone. >> Hey Carrie, >> members of the board and Susan. Uh I'm Carrie Carter uh co-director along with Allison Lubs uh for

111our continuing diploma program. Um just a quick background about the program. Um we have continuing diploma where students are earning credits um towards their high school diploma. Also GED and ESL uh as part of that along with New London who oversees those two portions along with all the data management. Um, we currently have uh Allison and I running the program with 12 part-time teachers, most who are also uh full-time grat teachers in Grten uh along with two counselors and um two part-time secretaries. The program operates uh two semesters in the fall and spring on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30. And um currently students have to complete uh 22 credit hours in order to be eligible to receive their diploma. Um and they get one from uh Grten and evening division. Um and

112we're in the process uh increasing uh that limit per the uh state's recommendation to uh 26 credits by 2023. Um, in terms of the functions, uh, Allison and I are the co-directors. Um, we have again the 12 part-time staff and the two, um, clerical. Um, as far as an increase, um, at the bottom, a slight increase, uh, 3.9% um, due to supplies. Um, we recently moved from the westside location to the high school, which is fabulous, by the way. >> Oh, good. I was going to ask. >> It has worked out great being uh having kind of our our own entrance. Um, one thing that we've kind of uh needed to purchase was we had some some aging uh computers and technology and uh due to COVID, we shifted our our program uh entirely kind

113of online uh in March and uh kept it running. and students. We graduated 12 students uh this um past year 2020 and uh we just actually graduated four more >> and in our fall program. >> Yay. Um, one one quick question and I'm not sure if it could be answered another time or here is uh we Allison and I we we reached out to the state and the recommendation on uh increasing the credit uh requirement and I didn't know if that was something uh that was board approval and we would have to present that or um something we just kind of go along with and it would start with 24 credits uh next year and then 26 and our current students would be currently grandfathered into where they are now. >> Carrie, have they told

114you how did they have they told you um what courses or which where the credits would have to come from like an increase in social studies, increase in science? >> So, what so one for sure um Miss Border would be uh the new course, black and Latino studies. We would add that course. Uh so that would be it but they no direct guidance as to um what those credits would have to be. >> So can you tell me I'm sorry I'm not too aver minimum requirements for English, math, science, social studies that they need to have? >> Yes, absolutely. Um so those minimums >> and do you offer any electives? >> We do off we do offer electives uh through uh VHS which is a free uh program online through the state uh where students

115are able to earn half credits and for six weeks uh variety of different classes >> and >> no that's a long one. students are able to kind of u take our classes in person and also uh do those classes as well. Our current diploma requirements uh Liz are four credits in English, three credits in math, uh three in social studies, which will be now four adding that um three in science, one credit in uh vocational or fine arts, and eight credits in electives. >> Eight credits in electives. Okay. So, you've not really gotten any direction about where it's where the increase should go. >> No, but their their main goal is to uh increase to equal the high school. But >> I was going to say math probably would need an increase and science will

116need an increase at least. And that other course, the um Latino studies of the black African-American black the whole is not a required course yet. It is an elective course in there. It has not been deemed to the state yet. Has not deemed it as a requirement for graduation. Are you thinking about making mandating that as a requirement for >> um authority >> but be being proactive and and having a teacher ready to teach that course in case you know we get uh transfer students or uh students from the high school when they need that course in the future. >> Okay. Thank you. Um Carrie um where is the entrance now? I taught for many years in that program. Students, we came in through the main entrance. I was just curious how where you're located.

117>> So, our entrance is if you're going to the baseball field on the left of Pitch High School. >> Yes. Um it's right there uh on the the bottom level wing and we utilize all those classrooms when they first walk in and it's great because the students don't get lost in the school and we know primarily they're going to be down there. So it's it's a great and they can park right outside so it's a great situation. >> That's wonderful. I'm so happy you're back at the high school >> and there's parking. >> Yes. >> It's good. It makes the students feel as if they are getting their high school diploma. >> Yes, >> absolutely. >> We had big talks about that, Rita. >> We Carrie and I we really wanted that to happen for

118them. >> Yes. Yeah. Thank you. >> Any questions for Carrie? >> Thank you, Carrie and Allison. It's it's a a wonderful service that we provide and and the kids are so proud when they receive their their diploma. >> Yeah. You guys are great. Like you're sort of like I feel like you're the heart and soul because you're giving >> kids a chance, adults a chance, people a chance. >> So, thank you. >> Yeah. Thanks. Where to next? >> All right, let's move on to 5-60. Um, this is uh this is adult education. So, this is adult education program uh through the New London public schools. Um, and this is we pay we pay a flat uh rate to uh them. Uh, it's been $27,000 uh for the past couple years. Uh we budgeted a small

119increase of uh about two 1% increase. So $210,000 for this for this. >> Do we get reimbursed by a grant for this though? >> Uh we uh we do not get uh reimbursed. Um >> I feel like there is an adult Carrie, are you still here? There is a grant. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, there there actually is a grant uh at the end of the year. It's um ED uh 244 and I believe they that may I would like to say because I'm just about to get started on it now. We Allison and I just had a meeting with representatives on Friday about the grant >> and does it offset any of these costs or does it provide something additionally? >> Um it it does offset some of our some of our costs. in

120the GED or in your costs. >> Um I believe it and the over overall overarching program >> and they send those percentages out and um I'll certainly share those with you uh as I'm working on that and then they develop their uh formula. >> So you're right in 20 we got 113,451. It goes directly to the town. >> Okay. Oh, >> that's a great thing to note. >> It is a good thing to note because when we, you know, when we provide these services, we're paying out of operationally out of our board of ed budget, but the town does get something for that. So, >> right. Please indicate. >> Yeah, I think it's also great to indicate on here that because we are contracting with New London, any graten um citizen can take all those

121wonderful programs in in the New London adult education program that they have and trips and um so that should also be in the little blurb. It's a it's just a great service. They have an amazing catalog. Got it. >> Thanks. >> All right, moving on. >> I also think in the narrative it should be that the monies that we get from any of those grants go directly to the town, >> right? >> Yeah, I thought we said that. >> You might have I'm a little slow to this. >> You made a note. I got it. >> All right. Uh, next is we're going to skip to pageuh 5-66, right? 5- lost a little here. Five dash >> sports services special ed. >> That's right. Yeah. Okay. >> You're right. You got it. >> Thank you,

122Ken. This would be uh pupil services. >> And this would be um the uh one FTE for the pupil services director. uh three FTEES for the special education supervisors. Um again we have um one supervisor Naen Mlin who you met tonight who oversees early childhood education um including preschool programs and out of district. We also have um Lori Luciani who's with us here tonight. And Lori supervises our academy programs at the middle school and the elementary level. And Lori has a case load of students out of district as well. And then we have Amy Roullo who was unable to be with us tonight. Um Amy supervises the alternative program at the high school and she has an out ofd district case load uh consisting of Marine Science Magnet um Ledger High School and several other

123uh public and um private schools in the area where we have students placed >> and also their support extends I know Naen really helps us with all the elementarymentaries Lori overlaps with that and into the middle school and Amy supports those high school kids and sometimes middle school kids. So even kids who might need additional services, they're there to consult to help you know teachers um with tools in their toolkits for you know dealing with everything from behaviors to academics. >> Absolutely. They attend a lot of PPTs in district as well >> as does Denise do little. >> Yep. As do I. >> We also have um a clerical staff that support all of us. Um we have two full-time FTEEs in the pupil services office. One uh admin assistant focuses on preschool elementary. The

124other focuses on middle, high school, and out of district. And then we have a 0.5 admin assistant who coordinates uh schedules for the supervisors and maintains all of our confidential records. And and if I may, Denise, um uh there is one uh one more that should be on this page and it uh it it's a correction I need to make uh for the special services student services coordinator grades 3 6 through 12. Uh that's >> Yes. And um thank you, Ken. Um Mark Paluso has just lost power. So Mark is uh was planning on joining us this evening, but he is setting up his generator right now. Um Mark Paluso is our um grades 6 through 12 student services coordinator and he coordinates and facilitates PPT meetings at the middle school and high school so

125that the building administrators can spend more time monitoring curriculum and being in classrooms and that position has worked out extremely well this year. >> Yeah. So, in the corrected one, there'll be a 0.5 here under administration that was that was both under the uh budget uh as well as uh last year's budget as well as this year's budget. I apologize. >> Thank you, Ken. And if if we scroll down to um the next page, page uh 5-67, uh you can see that um Ken will be adding that curriculum coordinator position. Um actually, Ken, I think you did. you added uh so you put some funds in here to support that position for next year. >> Yeah, the dollars are there just not the FTE on top. So I apologize. >> Um and then we do

126have a decrease overall in total salaries and wages and insurance. We did reduce slightly our um software uh account and we did reduce our food. uh we we generally don't purchase a lot of food at all for meetings. So, we thought we could really put that down to hardly anything. Um and then our supplies we decreased as well. So, we're really um you know, we were really able to capture some efficiencies in terms of those lines. Any questions? Um >> Denise, line 144. >> Yes. clerical admin. Is that overtime? >> Yes, it is. We um have a lot of state deadlines that we need to meet and um this year was very difficult because of the unprecedented closure that we had from March until June. Um we're still struggling because schools have been closed for

127administrative reasons. Um the buildings are open but um it does take quite a bit of coordinating on the part of our office staff to disagregate the data and um meet our our deadlines for state reporting because everything has been so um you know just so >> different this year. >> Have all the have all your students been in school four days a week? most of them. >> Um well, our high need students have the the ones whose parents have um agreed to send them. We do have some high need students whose parents just don't feel comfortable sending them, and that's fine. Um and then, you know, we have other students who have IEPs, but um who attend two days per week because their teams, you know, felt that that was appropriate for them. We do

128revisit the decisions often though. >> Okay. So, about how many are going four days a week? How many students? >> I really couldn't say. I'd have to look. >> Okay, I'd appreciate that. Thank you. >> I can say that most of our self-contained students are not all, but most of them. Um, but in terms of our resource students, um, we'd have to go back and and gather that data for you. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Yes, Kim. >> Yes, I see online. Pardon me. 107 >> assistant principal. >> What is their role? What why are they here? Why are they here? >> Uh that's a slash specialed supervisor. Yes. >> So on this budget, the um position that is being budgeted is for the special education supervisor, not the assistant principal. >> Similar. >>

129They're they're on a similar scale contractually. >> So should we take that out? Assistant principal. Maybe put it in the narrative that it's part of the admin. >> Get that. >> Make that change. >> Thank you, Ken. >> Ken's on it. >> I think we're almost there. I think there were a couple things we can pick up at a later date, but was there anything else with special education? >> Um, the next is social work. Yeah. I mean, um, >> yeah. Okay. Did you want to keep going, Susan? >> Yeah. Social work, psychological services. I think there's some more that we should get through if >> this and then we can be >> tell us where to go. >> Yeah. And we have Lori here, too. So, if there's any questions, it's um she's here

130as a um a resource as well. So, the next >> 5-68. Yep. Sorry. >> 5-68 is our school social workers. Um we do have um two FTEES um at Charles Barnum who will move to Fames River with the academy programs. I'm sorry, one one FTE with the um the Charles Barnum program and she'll stay there. We have two social workers at Claude Chester who will move to Thames River with the academy program. Um and then we have uh one um social worker FTE who will be at Fames River. That's the one down below. And then Mystic River will have its own social worker as well. So the total elementary will be three actually. I think that should be four. Ken, >> yeah, we we had discussed that. Uh we have to review these uh the

131number of FTEEs here. Um >> okay, >> we did capture the dollars. Uh once again, it's this FTE schedule that's giving me some uh >> I'm sorry. And I my budget book is in the office, so I'm working off memory. So, >> right. >> Sorry about that. >> Is there is there one at Catholic Konowski? >> Well, that's what I was going to talk about next. We have several that are paid for out of grants. And yes, there's uh one social worker at Katherine Kolki um and one at Claude Chester who are paid for out of title grants. Um and we also have um at the middle school we have one social worker in the budget and then one also paid out of a grant. And at the high school, you can see we have

132one in our budget and we have one also paid for out of a grant. >> Liz, well, Liz, >> yeah, I'm just um I'll be honest with you. I'm really concerned about the the health and well-being of our kids and as I know we all are. And I know that we're really trying to keep this budget Then we're trying to be cognizant but if there's any place that we can increase I really think this is a place where we need to look to increase for mental health services for our students. Yeah, actually Liz, that that was a really timely comment because next year the only two schools that will not have a social worker for the general population will be Northeast and Charles Barnum. And Susan has talked about potentially using the CARES Act to

133provide uh a social worker for those two schools. So we hope to have social work support in every school next year. I think that needs to be a priority in my opinion. It's just me, but I think that needs to be something we really need to look at. I also think you need to have an increase of at least one at the middle school and the high school. >> I agree totally. And um will will that shared um will that be a shared job to the two schools? Well, um, when we move on to the school psychologist budget, you'll see that we also have mental health support for students that's delivered through the school psychologists. Um, so we do have two distinct roles, the school social workers and the school psychologists. Um, they work um

134together. They work very closely together. Um, so we do have um additional staff supplementing the school social workers that you'll see when we get to that page. I still think we need more. >> I think though, Liz, if you look at the narrative, we do have a lot more. They're just paid. They're just not paid out of our budget. >> We also >> also we have child and family. >> Yeah, I was gonna say we also >> we have quite a bit. >> Yeah, Liz, we also have the school-based healthc care centers that have um clinicians in the centers to work with students who are enrolled in those programs. I know. I still think there needs to be more. I'm sorry. I just >> up up until about what four or five years ago, we

135had one at at one social worker at the high school. >> I know. Believe me, I do. >> Look where we are. >> Yeah. >> I think we've done really well. >> We've increased significantly mostly through grant funds that Susan's been able to obtain. Um but together with our school social workers and our school psychologists and our guidance counselors who we now call school counselors they also in their standards uh target problem solving peer mediation they provide counseling to students as well. So, um, you know, we do have a, um, a number of individuals that that meet that need >> and it's needed now more than ever before. >> Yep. And that's my point. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, should we move down to the budget, Ken? >> Yep. Here it is. >> Okay. >>

136Um, h how easily can students access these people remotely? >> It's a good question. Well, um the the principles and the the teams are um very aware of which students are not engaging in their learning. Um and they, you know, work with their SRBI teams or their um student assistance teams in order to provide support to students who need it. Is there a way we can make that accessible to students? Um like a phone number or a a number >> they go beyond that they actually go to homes >> with I'm thinking about students make initiating the contact. Is there a way for them to do that? >> Yes, there is. >> Okay. >> There is. And especially for the ones who are already signed up with a social worker and have that permission. Um

137you know they do have access to one another through LMS systems and the remind app so that they can talk to them. But tell health has really um become a a new thing you know and it really does give us tremendous access to both medical and health and mental health support. So, so Rosemary, when those um student support teams sit down and they review students that they have concerns about, they don't just review concerns in academics, they also review students who have concerns either behaviorally, socially, or emotionally, and they plan interventions for those students as well with with parent permission. My only concern was um was there an access for students to make contact as the initiator of the contact? Was there was there a number or a vehicle for that? >> Well, at the

138middle school and high school, the students all know who their counselor is. >> Okay. >> Um you know that that position we used to call a guidance counselor. It's now called a school counselor. And the students meet with their school counselors on a regular basis. >> Okay. So we give them a vehicle for them to initiate the contact. >> Yes. >> Not as opposed to um a teacher initiating the contact. >> Yes. They can request to see their counselor. Um and at the elementary level um it's more through that classroom teacher and the classroom teacher reaching out due to concerns that either I'm sure that's going to be the most the most popular way. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But I just wanted to know that if if a student had a concern that they that

139that there was an obvious method. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um >> Kim, you guys agree. >> Yeah. Before you move on, I have heard concerns from high school students who are not able to reach their guidance counselors and they get, you know, well, we'll call you back and they don't. And that was even for some that were supposed to graduate this past January and their guidance counselors were not getting back to them. So, um, there are some concerns and I think it's important, yes, they know who their guiding counselors are, but but they have to make sure the counselors get back to them. >> If you have um specific information, that probably should go to Denise, but let's kind of keep it back to the budget if we can do that,

140please. >> Yep. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, okay. So, looking at uh page 5-69, um we do have uh an increase of 32.7% on salaries and wages and I believe that's because we um added a position in the budget that was previously grant funded and then we would have an increase in benefits. Um we did add um we did increase supplies because this group of professionals is growing. Um they've they've really not had a large amount of money to purchase uh curriculum special resources to to meet the needs of their students. So you can see it's increased over the years. Um this year we did or for next year we did increase it um uh by $2,000 from 2,000 to $4,000. Um, you know, the these individuals do work with students in small groups and

141one-on-one, and they do need materials, you know, to to do that, to teach their objectives, and we want to be sure they have what they need. Lori, did you want to add anything? I know a lot of these social workers uh work with students in the academy, and they do also buy specialized equipment for the academy. I I would love to thank you for letting me join you tonight. I I share the passion and concern for social work and the mental health supports. Um in our academy when I first came to Graten, we had two social workers throughout the district and with Dr. Ger and Susan Austin, we've really increased it up to 10 and every year it kind of goes up and up recognizing the need for it. So um I'm really grateful for

142that piece. in the academy programs in the elementary we added social workers and we found that we were really able to stabilize those high needs programs and use them as a resource. So, um I just wanted to comment on that piece, but we're also um doing quite a bit of training across the board so that uh social workers and school psychologists are working closely together and accessing whatever resources. So, not everything falls on Brttton public schools, but also we utilize all those resources available through child and family and community organizations and support um families connecting with those services. So, um, that's a big piece of what what we try to work on. Um, and in terms of supplies, you know, we have a lot of incentive programs connected to behavior intervention um, programs. Um, so

143we really try to be mindful to limit a lot of um, you know, a lot of the incentives are really buying time with people and and building that way, but we do need to sometimes um provide incentives that um, really motivate children. Um, and we want to stay on top of current curriculum, especially right now there's a a huge initiative for social emotional learning. um built in to the school day, you know, in a health curriculum, but also just built in throughout the day. So, we're doing quite a bit of training um to make sure we're staying current with the curriculums that are available right now to support disengaged students, um anxiety, things related to the pandemic. Any any questions? I said a mouthful in under 60 seconds, I think. >> Thank you, Lori. It's

144good to see you. It's good to see you. Thank you for letting me join. >> Thank you, Lori. That was perfect. >> Okay. >> Thanks, >> Ken. Did you want to go on to guidance? >> Yes. Sorry. Um work guidance guidance services page 5-70. Um there was uh uh no decrease or increase the number of FTEEs in this uh in this function. Uh 126 uh guidance and four clerical uh between the two schools. Uh as far as the um far as the budget, uh there is an increase in salaries and wages for the uh I think it's the same teachers. um the decrease in the employee benefits. Uh there is an increase in um uh travel workshop as well as field trips. Uh this is is is Ted still with us? >> No, I think

145he's gone. >> Oh, so this comes from the high school. Um let's see. All I have on this is uh budget based on travel for counselors for different workshops. Uh one conference per counselor. Um, so that that's how that number was arrived at. Um, I don't have anything on what the field trips uh are but we can get that if if that's if that's a question. Uh, pupil test up 3,00 um those are for uh the PSATs I believe. >> Uh so in total this group up 33,878 are 2.1%. >> My guess is those field trips are like colleges. There's also field trips that they go to like for construction days. They go out to different um places like up to the casino to do look at um career opportunities for different elements there. So

146they do do a lot of different things. >> I have a concern. And I I believe our guidance counselors the ratio is 200 to one. Guidance counselor 200 students to one. And at the high school we have um 6.6. And how many students are there now? At the high school it's a little over a thousand. So we're way below our 200 to one >> which we used to be there. So the 0.5 is an additional careers counselor specifically around careers. So that's where that extra 0.5 it can you know >> I I'm I'm thinking of one whole guidance counselor not the.5 >> so it's just something to think about. I >> I would also add Rita that some of the duties that the counselors do I work directly with them regarding section 504. They are

147the case managers for the section 504 students. Um so they do participate in annual training. They chair the 504 meetings. They schedule them and they create the plans. They also distribute plans. They meet with teachers to be sure they understand the accommodations. Um they also attend PPT meetings. Um they deliver reports at PPT meetings in terms of progress. Um they obviously work with us on scheduling. um they do do a lot of um student services in terms of meeting with their students, especially if there's a crisis or uh a need that a student has to be seen by a counselor. Um they do a lot of parent outreach and they also do a lot of outreach with the school community regarding Naviance and the CTL uh lessons, the commitment to learn lessons. so that they're

148you know they're not just um you know taking NVA but they're working on those modules in terms of career exploration uh learning about their interests um and things of that nature. >> Okay. Did they always um have that much involvement in 504? >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. they they have always pretty much um taken on 504. >> Okay. >> And our you know 504 numbers have grown. I will say the >> I'm sure they have >> they had amendments in 2009 and it broadened the eligibility. So um >> you know it's a big job. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, are we ready to move on? >> I would say so. >> Okay. >> Where are we going? >> So, Ken, I believe we're on 5-72. >> Yep. Right here. Health services. Yep. >> Uh, and I

149believe that this is a 0.5 um parah to help out in the nurse's office. >> That's right. So, this would be a 0.5 um health aid at the high school in the nurse's office. Um the high school is impacted a little bit more than the other schools in the nurse's office because of the physicals. >> Any questions? If not, let's just move on. 5-74 is psychological services. >> So this is where we have our school psychologists and every building has a school psychologist. Some buildings have more than one. So for example um next year Graten Middle um Fames River and Mystic River will have 1.5. Um, so there will be a school psychologist that will split between the two new elementary schools and she will mostly conduct assessments and help support the PPT process. >>

150Correct. So there's no reduction at the elementary level. Um, Graten Middle School has three school psychologists. one is dedicated primarily to their academy program that Lori works with and then two work with students in terms of providing counseling, social skills and assessments and uh supporting PPTs at the um high school. There are two. One is in our alternative program um that's more of a clinically based program and one provides services to the population um in terms of the same duties that that the rest of the school psyches do um providing counseling, social skills assessment and reporting at PPTs. So we're not recommending any reductions for the school psychologists. And as we said earlier, they work very closely with the school social workers. Um, sometimes they even share case loads. >> I I just can't understand

151why the high school would have fewer than the the the middle school. Um, why did we carry over that extra person? >> Um, at Graten Middle School. >> Yes. I mean, I know one is with the uh the the program it's dedicated to, but then there are two where at the high school you have one that's, you know, at with the academy program, is it? And then, >> right, NBA and then one that's with the general student population, but the Graten Middle School still has an extra one. >> So, generally, Rita, there's less testing at the high school level. By the time the students are at the high school, particularly 10th, 11th, 12th grade, we do far less psychological testing uh than we do in in the lower grades. Um so, you know, generally the

152kids come to the high school and they've had three or four assessments throughout their school career and we generally don't continue to do a lot of assessments at the high school. We do a file review. We do um oftentimes we'll do behavioral checklists and rating scales. Um but generally speaking the testing is far less at the high school. >> Yes. But the need is greater >> because the need is greater but we have uh you know we have the 6.6 uh school counselors. We have the social workers. Um and we have an alternative high school program that Amy supervises that meets the needs of 20 at risk youth. um very successfully. >> I agree. But I still think we need to have one more person up there at the high school. There is especially considering

153our situation today and what we're looking at with this next year. I mean, we're already looking at I've been reading things where people are also saying the kids just the normal average everyday kid is going to have such um has experienced trauma >> and we'll need a and and we'll need more assistance and I think we need to be ready to do that. I think we need to be um planning for those types of things. But >> yeah, >> this is where I believe we need to have more. We we can agree >> we can certainly look into that, Liz. And we're also working with the school-based health care center. They're looking at um at conducting a wellness screening for the students who are enrolled in the school-based health care center. And we're interested in

154in learning more about that. So, I think that you have a very good point. >> Thank you. I mean, but Denise, from from the time you started here or even the past 10 years, this has grown tremendously, the school psychologists, I mean, because they they just mostly do testing. They and now we have all the social workers, but I mean this this whole thing has really gone up. Well, psychologists, the school psychologists have grown, but the group that's grown the most is really the social workers. >> I realize that. >> I know that. So, that's why I'm saying, do we need, you know, should maybe the the one that's the extra at the middle school? Do we need that person? Is it better like we we decided to to start funding social workers, which we

155hadn't done for a long time, you know? I just want to make sure we're directing our money in the right way. Yeah. No, I I completely understand. The school psychologists do do quite a bit of assessment. They also deliver services to students. They deliver social skills instruction. They deliver counseling and they're involved in crisis intervention. We also have a very detailed SRBI process with uh with qual with quality um intervention for behavior. And it's a tiered program and it's um we've trained all of our um school psychologists, our social workers, you know, we have these crisis teams in place and similar to the CST process too where child study where we could really help support kids not only in academics but also with their social, emotional and mental health needs. So I would say that

156has grown tremendously and has needed to grow. So not only do we have core programs in social emotional learning that all kids receive but we have tiered levels um of intervention. So that has definitely been a change Rita I have noticed over the past you know five six seven years. self. >> I have one too. >> We have a behavior consultant and because we were anticipating the two element the two middle schools closing and kind of morphing together, we've used her to meet with our school psychologists and school social workers in the middle school program. Um, and what she's done is really done an analysis of their positions and look at their actual service hours of their case load, crisis hours, PPT time, prepping, writing reports. She's broken it down into some percentages. Um, Peter

157Bass had asked us to work together to try try to frame a really solid middle school mental health team. Um, and we started with that. It's sort of twofold. It's really to look at because your point is is valid is what do we need and where do we need it and how are we spreading it through the district. So we looked at actual service hours and all the components of their position. Um we'd like to do it in the new elementary schools too as we come together. We want to have solid um systems in place. So we're we're looking at those pieces to figure out throughout the district allocating resources appropriately. Middle school tends to be a pretty fiery place. >> Yeah. >> Um so we know it gets real hot there. And then high

158school is a different kind of hot. So we are working with Mari Writington and uh we've been meeting every other week with that team and updating Mr. Bass and and the admin in the middle school. So just so you know, we are looking at that and we'll continue to branch that throughout the district. >> That might be a good topic for the CO someday. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Who who is this person that you're working with? >> Oh, she her name is Mari Writington. She does our profess she does quite a bit of our professional development. Um, she has her PhD in school psychology. She has a consulting business. She's been a clinical director. So, she understands the the uh school psychologist lens. Um, which works out great because my background is a social work

159school social worker. So, together we kind of are framing mental health. Um, and her role is to train. So, she's bringing us together and kind of keeping us up to date on current events, things that people are the trauma you're talking about, you know, that the average child and family are having. So, um, we can I I'd be happy to present, you know, our findings and what we're doing over time so that we we're allocating resources appropriately. >> That'd be wonderful. Sounds like a a wonderful um presentation for a >> a mental health summit. >> Truly. >> All right, let's move on. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Here's the budget for um psychological services, page 5-75. Um >> yeah they're they're um the primary uh driver is salaries um assessment because obviously these individuals conduct

160um individual assessments. We just talked about that quite a bit. And then um they do purchase curriculum to work with their groups and their students. So a very small increase 2% overall. Um and then 5-76 is uh speech and hearing services. >> Yes. Yes. So um again we have a speech and language uh pathologist in every school. There are certain schools that have um greater need and they have additional speech and language staff. One of those schools is Claude Chester because they have two preschool programs. um and many many of the preschoolers qualify for the program because of a lang speech and language delay. We also have Mary Morrison has two uh speech pathologists again they have three preschool programs um that are very heavy uh with children who need speech services. Butler has two

161speech pathologists because they have an ABA program there and many of those children are non-verbal. So they work more on assistive technology in order to be able to communicate with intent. So our hope for next year is um you know to to maintain these positions. Right now we have um obviously continuing with the 1.0 at Barnum, the 1.0 0 at Coloni, uh the 1.0 at Northeast. We're actually going to add an additional day to Katherryn Kolnaski because we have a self-contained classroom at Mary Morrison that's moving there. And right now, we really just split the two speech pathologists between the two schools. We're in the middle of an analysis of the case loads because we um we believe and I I just finished this afternoon there there will be a greater need for speech services

162at Mystic River uh as compared to Themes River because of the ABA programs. So, we're going to be meeting later this week to look at um what the actual FTEES will be, but um we're not anticipating any reduction right now. Um, the middle school has again two full-time speech pathologists. We do have two ABA programs, actually, one ABA, one multiple disability classroom at Grten Middle. Um, those students require intensive instruction because some of them are non-verbal. And then we have one SLP at Fitch High School. So, we're not anticipating any uh changes to the FTEEs, but we will be moving some folks around at the elementary level due to the consolidation of those three elementary schools into two. And then looking at the next page, page 5-77, um we have a slight increase 2.8% in

163salaries. Um, Ken, I'm assuming that's contractual, >> correct? >> Um, slight decrease in benefits. Uh, travel is the same. Uh, their testing, they do conduct quite a bit of testing. Um, their testing budget remains the same and their supplies are remaining the same. So, overall, we have a slight increase.9% mainly due to the salary increase. Great. Um, >> any questions? >> Denise, do we still have pair of professionals that um work with the students in terms of language? We did away, but we no longer they're all certified now. >> Yes, they are. We actually added um that's why you'll see that there's more than one SLP in certain schools. We increased our speech staffing to address the preschool programs and the ABA programs. So we have certified teachers working with the children, not speech paras

164or speech tutors. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Move it on. >> Well, that's that's >> that's it >> for special ed. And I think we should probably take those couple other things that we missed and put it on the ETH. Um I think this board has worked very hard for two and a half hours. And I I really applaud you because when we put this down on paper, I said, I don't know how long this is going to take us, but I certainly appreciate my staff being here and my colleagues being here to help explain. And I've got some good notes so that we can um clarify some of those narratives. And um certainly when this becomes the the board of education's budget and we get our marching orders to what that should look

165like, you know, when we give it to the public, it'll have all those changes in it. >> Yay. >> Hey, listen guys, this was >> it does help us as a board also if we do have to make cuts. >> Hearing from the staff is so important. >> I agree. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. I I also what I love about what we have done in the past several years um is that our budget becomes our story, right? Like we know now more about our services and what we do and what we don't do because our budget tells a story, which I think is a great way to kind of frame it. Um so at least that's been helpful for me. All right, listen folks. Good work for all um staff members who came

166and spent lots of hours with us. Thank you very much once again. Lori, it was good to see you. It's been a It's been a while. Um, and also board of ed members, thanks. It's good to see you. I haven't seen you in a little bit. So, um, good night everyone. Have a have a safe have a safe whatever because of us are probably >> See you Wednesday. >> Good night. >> Y. All those in favor say I. I. I. There you go, John.