001All right. Thank you, ma'am. >> All right. >> Hello, Mr. >> All right. So, it is 605 607 and I would like to call the committee of the whole meeting on November 8th, 2021 to order. The first order of business um is the approval of the committee of the whole minute meeting minutes. May I have a motion for accepting of that? I've got Lee. >> I have a second, please. >> Second. >> I got Okay, Rosemary. Um, any discussion? >> Yes, I do. Um, under Roman numeral 4, it says discussion regarding alliance district funding. Can you hear me, >> guys? Hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Um it's very unclear here. I'm not sure what is being uh gear. It says Mr. Knight stated that he and Miss Austin met with
002the state and is was determined that Grten would be getting $200,000 for fiscal year 22 and fiscal year 23 in alliance funds. Now is that per year or is that um each year? That was one question. Um and I know that we got >> per year and each year. All right. >> Maybe we should say it one way or the other though. I thought we did review that. >> I thought we did. But then the next thing was is this is very unclear. I don't know Rita what you meant. And what you meant was what did you mean by u noted that there should be a line item for student who need help from a teacher. I don't understand that and I need clarification on that. and a suggest for the future topic for discussion
003is what can do for these students. So I just was um I don't understand those. I would like a little clarification and and maybe clean it up a little bit. So you know because um >> thank you becomes a little um you know they go go out to the public and everything and I've been asked about that as well. I think you were talking Rita about tutoring underneath alliance district. So I think was referring to a line item with regarding tutoring for student tutoring >> for students >> for >> and then you suggested a future topic for discussion >> like what are we doing for these students that have you know that have fallen behind. >> Yeah. A future topic for discussion is what we can do. We as the board or we as the
004district. >> Well, I would say the district. What is the district doing for students who >> for the budgets? >> Right. Okay. Well, I just, you know, it's unclear and um when I was asked on it, I had no answer. So, I wanted to make sure that I I asked for clarification tonight. I I wanted part of that money, that $200,000 to be actually have a real line item for how we are helping students who really need that help, who have fallen behind. >> Okay. >> So, I wanted it clear how much money is going to those you know those students. >> Well, and we have I think I had mentioned that we have the esser and the art esser one, two, and three and then the arbser. >> Yes. So that we do have
005funding and tutoring in multiple federal funds. So that's something we can certainly bring up bring to the board. >> I just wanted to, you know, clarify like actually see a line item and how much of the money is actually going to these students. >> Thank you, Rita. Um John, um I'm going to change it to Mrs. Bothman suggested a future topic for discussion as to what the district can do for these students. I want to make sure everybody's comfortable with that. >> Or what we are already doing for the students who've fallen behind >> and what we could do in the future, >> right? I think she's talking about the future. >> I am. >> Yeah, that's our thought. >> I hate I've hung out with you for 10 years. I'm starting to understand how
006you think. >> That's scary. >> All right. Any any other questions about the minutes? >> So, just I'm sorry. >> The first statement from Rita, are we adding the word tutoring? >> There should be a line item for student tutoring or stu or what? >> It's just for students who need help. >> Oh, can we make that plural for students? >> It is plural. >> So, we're not adding the term tutoring. We're just saying there should be a line item for students who need help from a teacher. I I find that to be so nebulous. It's so unclear >> and I have a hard time. They need a lot of things. >> Oh, I know. >> Mute this. Sorry. >> Um, put your volume all the way down. Okay. >> Okay. I think that should
007be worded differently. So, we're gonna add ting. >> I don't know. >> Miss Vland noted that there should be a line item for students um >> who are receiving tutoring for teacher from teachers. >> Right. That's her words. So, >> tutoring is the natural go-to when you think how do you bring kids up to speed? You think tutoring. >> Yeah. >> But stepping >> stepping back from that, I have to ask a very neutral question. Is there anything else other than tutoring as we know it? uh or is tutoring just the single most logical word you can use in there for bringing the kids up to speak? I don't want to foreclose other methods. >> Right. So, I would see that tutoring and I I'm going to um defer to you, but that tutoring is
008kind of like the umbrella and that things are underneath it are for around the tutoring. That would be my guess of it. I also don't want to spend all of our time sort of word smithing this. >> Um I think as long as we know what what was meant by it. I think grammatically I think we're just trying to get it in more in sync so it makes sense. >> Okay. >> I just like I said I got asked I want to be able to >> you want to make sure that it's not confused with special ed. >> That's right. >> Yeah. That's why I think uh tutoring is is um the appropriate word because that's how you would spend money. >> Okay. You could use the word intervention, but some people might not understand
009because we have the tiered intervention during the school day. We have the after school before school. It could be, you know, in the way of tutoring certainly. >> It could be a social work. >> It could be social work. It could be Yeah, we don't even know what the >> So, can we go for tutoring? >> Make make it plural. Students >> students. Yes. Well, ultimately the question is we're fooling with the minutes. We're not actually in the discussion itself. So maybe the question should be what was meant at the time the minutes were taken. >> That's right. >> It was tutoring. >> Okay. I thought >> Thank you. I remember >> all those in um so with those um >> with corrections. So, all those in favor of approving the committee of the whole
010minutes of October 18th, 2021 with the corrections, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> Oppose. Abstain. This motion has carried. We're moving on to agenda item number three, which is proposal for the culinary room at Pitch High School attachment two. I see my good friend, Mr. Sam Kilpatrick is here. Are you going to be talking to us about this? >> Yes. Did you want to introduce it or >> Well, I've actually done several walkthroughs in the vintage part of this and specifically in the culinary space. Um, and it was really set up more for a home space. And now as we're unfolding more of these careers program and know how interested kids are in foods and culinary arts and even as a career choice in the future that we really want to have
011a a facility that's equipped to have the professional kinds of um equipment that they would need or they would see when they go into a business instead of just a home setting or home. Um, so I think that's part of the shift in kind of college and career readiness, workforce readiness. And so in looking at that, um, Congressman Courtney has provided us with a career kind of counselor in a grant that he's done, um, in the STEM careers grant. We're also looking at being able to support these careers program. And then in the Perkins grant, they actually have put in to put some equipment into the Perkins grant. So this would be then looking at the facility and the major equipment like the stoves, the refrigeration, that kind of thing. So I'll had prepared something
012for us back when Dr. G was here. Um, well, actually this is when I was here, 2021, aren't so >> I would think it was him, but he probably had the idea. >> And so the paper that you have in front of you uh that was included uh as an attent attachment is for a proposal for architectural fees for uh designing it with the the space uh to bring it up to a more commercial grade uh space. Did this go through the finance? >> Yeah, >> we did. >> Yes, >> this will also be uh um this is one of the items that we'll be asking for in the CIP >> and this is the the actual planning of this project is the 75,000. Sorry, >> I have a question about this. Rita, Rita, I
013Rita, one second. I just recognize Lee and so then I'll I'll recognize you afterwards. Are >> are we adding um more room? >> No, we're we're uh reconfiguring the space that's already there, >> but we're not getting any more. >> We're not square footage to the building now. Not at this time. No. what we actually need $60,000 worth of design. >> Yes. By the time you get done with uh um plumbing, electrical, all those consultants, uh HVAC, and the architectural design itself. Yes. It's it's totally reconfiguring the entire space. >> So things will will not look. >> No, they will. >> But it doesn't include appliances or anything like that. >> This is just the proposal for the design. >> This is just the design. This is not for the >> Thank you. the construction
014or reconstruction. This is just >> That's why we have multiple grants on this project. So, we have um Congressman Courtney having a careers counselor who can help kids get into the right career workforce. And then um we also have the Perkins grant which is looking at some of the different um big pieces of equipment. And then this grant which is looking at the facility itself. And then uh in addition to that, what they are estimating is $600,000 in construction costs for the following. So the design will happen this coming year uh with the construction happening the year after. Uh and that estimate was for 600,000 I believe. Yes, >> that would include equipment too. >> Right. That's in that's what you had sent us. My question is, Sam, right now there are four four kitchens
015in there. So, we're only allowed 16 students, four to a kitchen. How does this alter that? So, more students will be able to be in this room. How many more students? I can't find on here how many students then would be allowed to be in this room. >> That would be one of the things that we'd be asking the architects to make sure that we design it so that we ca can get more students involved in a program. When I walk through with the principal and the culinary um arts teachers, their idea is to have more of an island so that you can get more kids around instead of the four corners of the room which prevents it from getting up to 20 to 24. So their idea and then to use the middle space
016which has been storage also as another space for kids to work. So they're really looking to you know almost double the size of number of students that can take these courses. So, >> not in one space at one time, but they're looking to really increase. >> But we have such a a fabulous um kitchen area where our food service um staff prepare our lunches. Is there any way that that could also be utilized for students, you know, for prep work to, you know, rather than in addition to this utilize our our present kitchens that we have. be something that when we think about workforce ready as kind of an internship to have them learn in that kind of setting that that's actually a very good idea Rita but I don't think the number of classes
017that we have they go full throttle you know they're using that space 247 and it's still not enough um space for the number of students who would like to participate so I think the restructuring of this having someone who really knows design to take a look at that um is really the important first step >> and there's no other space that could be attached to this for even more students. >> Well, that like I said, there's some wasted space in there. As I walked through, I saw like storage space and they're really their idea is to really start fresh with all of that space so that we can do as much as we can do and have as many kids participate as possible. >> Would we still have those kitchens? I mean, they were very
018expensive, you know. They really are old and antiquated. You wouldn't want it in your home and never mind in a >> Okay. >> Well, one I remember we bought new when when Fitch was >> You probably did. You probably did, >> but it's not new anymore. >> That was a couple years ago there. >> I'm I'm gonna um >> I'm going to ask Liz. Liz, >> I just wanted to address um the suggestion about having the kids and Rita's a good suggestion about the kids being in the the formal kitchen area, but they start preparing breakfast at at like 7 before 7 o'clock in the morning and then they're starting they go right into preparation for lunch. There's not that much time to even have a class in those kitchens. So the only thing I
019can think of that would work would be having internship but to me that's not a as I think about that's just not viable to have kids in our formal kitchen where we're preparing for um the the for the student body. >> So I I want us to stick to the design proposal because that's what's on our agenda. >> Thank you. >> So I agree with you but they can't these are are kids who they can't use industrial stuff. But that's not allowed to. All right. Thank you. So, do you have a question on the proposal? >> Uh, yes. Because we're going on the presumption that we're if we say yes, board votes on this, yes, that we're going forward with the design and then if we like the design, we'll go forward with the the
020actual build out. >> I think we're looking to bring this to CIP. So, really to have the board support and bringing it to a CIP. >> Right. Right. So the question that's going to come up, >> the question that's going to come up is does Graasso have this not the first time I've mentioned this either, but does Graasso have a program like this? While it's nice to think of Fitch as the center of the universe, anything you need, it's available at Fitch. Is there an ongoing program? Are there kitchens like the ones we would like at Grasso? So that whatever the interest is, could Grasso satisfy because they do that in other areas as well. >> So I got you. >> Yes. I just don't want the perception that we're building basically parallel facilities for
021the same purpose. Grasso is having introducing people into, you know, this is how you put things together food-wise and we're doing the same thing. My guess is that there's probably a scale difference between what Grasso Techch because that is more that is a culinary program that that a you know would be involved with for three years um versus sort of what we will be offering here. But I don't have the answer to that. Um, >> yeah. >> If this was a space that was not equipment equipment heavy and and you know requiring electrical and plumbing work and all that jazz and HBAC or that would be different to provide square footage for I'm going to just throw it out there arts and crafts or something like that or mathematics instruction. this is an equipment intensive
022area and so that I think that's a natural question that someone's going to raise which is is grasso right down the hill doing the same thing and you said it's a question of scale that you're the sense that you're doing something on a far greater scale that's not a total answer because again the question is if you have 16 kids or 20 kids or 32 kids or whatever interested could grasso accommodate that is there any practical way to do that >> rather spending >> no $7,000 on I don't know if how would Grasso be able to accommodate um our fetch kids kind of coming in and out of a culinary we did that in other areas. Kids are interested in something Grasso has gotten that we don't >> only there's going to be an afterchool
023project that they can receive credit but that's more in the robotics or the manufacturing end. >> Okay. >> Um they you know and it's going to start slow and grow but that's only to get receive additional credit after school. But we've tried to do things during the school day and it really has not worked out because our schedules are so different. The way they operate versus the way we operate is just very different. Liz, >> I just also want to say that this upgrade will support the careers related program by the international balora and it's one of our new you know the career related program is what we're really focusing on and if that's what we're going this this is a necessity and also those I've been in those kitchens I wouldn't cook in them
024but this is what I kept calling the third pathway it's kids that are looking for jobs, but they're probably not going to college. They may work in the culinary field, but they're not going to become chefs in the kitchen necessarily, >> or they could be. >> They could be. >> So, I'm I'm going to bring us back to the proposal. Is there any further questions about um the propos proposal? What I hear um from Sam is that um the proposal this proposal has kind of gone through the pathway that the board of ed uses which is has done it went through the finance and facilities. I'm doing it this way um and that it's come to the committee of the whole to make sure that the rest of the board is aware um of this
025and that we are going to vote on this at the end of the month. >> I think you have to tap the board here. Um, it's going to come it's going to go to the end um the end of the u oh my goodness it is going to go to our business meeting at the end of the month as a vote. That is what I meant to say and I'm sorry that it got done. Any other questions about the proposal? If not, we're going to move on to the next agenda item. Thank you. All right. So the next is um was a referral request which was a staffing review at um the Mystic River Magnet and the Thes River Magnet and it's attachment is what is on and I see we have Steve Willer. Are
026you here because you just have missed us or are you here for this part of the question? He's here because he he knows the dynamics and um the real um effort that's been going into opening these two very big schools. >> Um >> sorry, we are having technical difficulties on on this end. Um, superintendent Austin's phone is either talking to her or ringing, but but she's not hearing voices because we're all hearing it, >> just in case you guys were concerned. >> So, as you remember that the capacity for these two schools could be as big as 600 and we're almost there. We're kind of in the mid 500s. These schools also house our preschool, prek, um, TK, um, so our primary um, programs and with the look that we could go with a universal
027prek someday. We just have to be aware of that. And so they're the only two buildings that house from prek all the way to grade five. They are also the only two buildings that house both our ABA program for our autistic students and also our academy program for um behavioral and emotional support. So I have to say that they probably have the most stress and the most number of students than anyone. They're four tier schools where most of our schools the schools that they came from were two or three tier schools and the schools that we have um are really mostly three tier. However, the other two magnets CK and NEA have three or four tiers at the K and and one but these are the only two buildings that are full throttle four tier
028schools. Um, we had when we first the reason that Ken put together this chart was originally take you back a couple years when we were looking for efficiencies by closing three schools and opening the two. We felt like administratively we could reduce. We felt secretarial we could reduce. We thought through teacher unified arts we could reduce and we did say take some reductions but then we had to add back. So secretarily those two buildings having one secretary each was not was impossible at the start of the year and we really were holding on. We had community coordinators coming in overtime. Um you know it was just impossible just even managing busing and bus communications never mind all the other things that secretaries have to do. Um we also had a split of a assistant principal
029who was focusing on special education. Now all those preschools preks um and ABAs andmies along with all the rest of special education have to be serviced have PPTs that person could not even handle all the PPTs never mind other things that would be needed to be handled. So we found the stress right away was really pretty insurmountable. um our classroom teachers. If you take a look at the chart FY21 and then the budget um currently of FY22, you can see that Dames River Magnet currently has four total administrators um with the one principal and then the one and a half assistant and then the one and a half secretary. You see Mr. River two has one principal, the one and a half assistant principal and the one and a half secretary for a total of
030eight compared to last year with the three a total of nine. So, we really have one FTE there that we had reduced, but really are feeling the need that you could really have two assistant principles for each of those big schools to service special education and all the other things that are happening. One of the things I've heard Steve say, and he can certainly come up and speak for himself, but we look at our principles as instructional leaders. They need to be in classrooms. They need to be evaluating teachers along with the assistant principal, but you're talking about many more FTEEs in evaluating than what was happening at SV Butler or Claude Chester or even Mary Morrison. So the fact to even just evaluate, never mind, Steve is used to and so is Jamie walking
031through those classrooms all day long and you know that can't happen when you're opening a new building. you are now the you're you know you're handling all of the um punch list and the things that need to get done for the building. Um and so I've heard their cry loud and clear and I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Um and see what we could do here to help support them. Um remember >> Susan before you move on to teaching I have a comment but whenever you get before you finish administration >> um that's really what I wanted to say administratively you know communication is so key so communicating with parents you've seen the communication come through with buses it's so important you saw a prek student it was really important that the
032secretary was on the phone with this parent while they were trying to locate the child and the child was there on the bus. But it really that person that secretary who has the the phone to with the parent has to stay calm, cool and collected and you need someone who can do that. So or an assistant principal or a principal. So, it's really busy trying to get 550 kids on a bus at the end of a day and um get them home safely and um and get them in safely. Safety is kind of a key component to all of this. So, I just feel that um you know, while we knew they were going to be large schools, we didn't live it. So we went from these much smaller neighborhood schools to this much larger
033and you know they they are wonderful schools and they are beautiful schools and we just really want to do our very best supporting our students and their families in these schools. >> Vita your question. >> Yeah I have a couple. I mean when you think that our middle school which has like 900 plus and our high school which is about a thousand have one principal and three assistant >> princip that's four and these schools have populations of close to 600 and they're having you're you're proposing them to have um two and a half I believe. Is that what I see? >> Yep. >> Two and a half. right >> um at a school. So you could see that how the strain and then you have Konasi and some of the other schools that have a
034population of a little over 300 that have two and so you know there there isn't there isn't equity in our schools in terms of administration and I know there are differences but it's it's something to consider you know um for I I totally understand how difficult it would be at the river and Mystic River not having the um enough principles and assistant principles being staffed at that school. >> So, I am all for this and maybe rearranging some of our other schools because again, it's an additional cost and figuring out how do we make equity with all our schools. So, Rita, you might remember and I think um the board was so supportive of this, but when we had our both our middle school and our high school hovering around a thousand students, it came
035up that it was really necessary to have coordination 6 through 12. So we added, you know, a teacher administrator in three of the core areas, humanities, ELA, and STEM, and also in special ed to help support with the many um, you know, PPTs. So in addition to the four in each of those schools, administration, we had four others that helped support it and now a new athletic director who's an additional admin to help support athletics. um for both schools six through 12. >> So then you're making a case then for one less vice principal at the middle school and the high school >> basically that's really what we should be considering and staffing up our elementary schools. It's taking all those people, Rita. And especially >> it might be taking all those people, but if
036you're if you're thinking of equity for our schools, it's the elementary that should we should be staffing up and maybe thinking about reducing a little bit in our I mean, in my opinion, in our middle school and high school to have three, we never had three vice principles except when we had the person was head of guidance, you know, it was different. We had then we went down to two and then back up to three and now we have all this additional staff for evaluation and um a full-time athletic director. It's sort of over the top. I would say that evaluation in the past eight years has um led by the state has been you know a real significant process that is you know that has been developed by our own graten teaching and learning
037collaborative and it's a very fair process and it's for all teachers and it really requires our administrators to be in classrooms >> right but that but what I'm saying is that it's not fair to our elementary staff who have to do all that plus. >> So, I'm going to recommend that when we start going through our budget time period >> and we get to the salary portion, the administration that we actually have um we actually have uh people prepared to kind of talk to us about what would it look like if we um scaled back >> um what would it look like if we added? So that when we're thinking about what we can what we can afford or not afford, it's in context of us going through a budget. Does does that make sense?
038>> Yes. >> Okay. And that's kind of why I prepared why I had Ken prepare this chart so you could reflect back on what was you know what we thought we could do. And if you look at each category, whether it's administration, we saved an FTE. Whether it was um the teaching staffing, we saved um over 7,567 over one FTE. And then with the custodians, there was another FTE savings. So there was some savings to that or cost avoidance, right? Well, we're finding out that the avoiding the cost has not worked. >> Well, yeah. >> You know, because we even though we closed three schools and we opened two, we still have as many kids or more now in those buildings and they're going to just grow because if we have universal prek or all
039these submarines coming in, it's just going to get bigger, not smaller. So, I'm I just wanted to kind of make everybody aware. So this was my awareness chart and a big shout out to Fames River Magnet and Mystic River Magnet because they've done an extraordinary job administration, teachers, custodians, you know, just taking a brand new building and making it a school and the continuous work that it entails. And I can't wait to bring you through on your walkth through because you will be so impressed. Can you know this chart would also be good if we had the same chart and also had um Konowski and Charles Barnum and Northeast so we could compare you know the number of students there with the teaching staff and I had a question about music teachers >> is are
040you including band is that why it's more >> um >> music teachers should be banned course, whatever. >> Yeah, >> probably. Yeah, >> it should be. It should be. >> It should be. >> I have to check. I'll double check with Lori just to make sure I'm right on that. >> I'm sorry. What's the number at Mystic River? >> One and a half. >> That's That's band and um general music. >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll get clarification on that though, Rita. >> Yeah, because you know we went actually went down in that and we still have the same amount of students. So, I was just curious. >> Yeah, I'll have to double check with that one. >> You know, the and even art art teachers, we have one less art teacher for the same amount of
041students. >> Well, we just have two art teachers, one in each building. >> Right. But we had three before. >> Right. Right. But I don't think the three was necessarily key to the number of students. It was key to the number of buildings. Each building have an art teacher regardless of how quote busy they were. So it's two buildings or a teacher. The ultimate question is can the school however many teachers there are can they accommodate the students that we want? >> What's the need? >> Right. And so I guess that's a really good question to have as we think about our budget. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> We knew we would need additional classroom teachers because we had more classrooms than we did in the three buildings. We have more classrooms in a
042four two four tier schools which is eight total classrooms across the two schools versus the three classrooms that had two and three. So if that makes any sense. But we had more classrooms to fill with teachers and kids. >> I um I um very much in favor of your idea about I love this chart, Ken. I think you do a really nice job at sort of visualizing all this stuff, but when we come to that portion of our budget when we're talking about staffing, I think that that's going to be really important for us to take a look at. And then also really hearing about what is the need. um knowing though I'm saying this that people might want it it to look like a certain way but we may not be able to afford
043it. We may not be able to to meet that. So, um I think that I want to make sure that we give our district what we need, but we also have to be careful about what what we'll be able to pass through in terms of increase in budget. So, that's my only comment. Any other um questions about this? >> Okay. Um I forget from the budget discussion how many media specialists I assume one for building but did they also have LTA support >> media and LTA >> that wasn't on here >> I don't think we've had LTA in the elementary for a long time >> no LTA in the elementary school >> 12 years 12 years 12 years since we had LTA I just remember in the last budget we discussed whether we needed to
044because there would be so many students in the building you know we asked to discuss whether we needed to bring it back that's a a large number of students per >> so maybe work that into our budget the discussion. Yep. I'm making my notes. Don't know if I may need them, but >> Well, I got you back. Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Any other questions about this? >> No. >> Yeah. I just wanted to reiterate something that Susan said and then I said all along when we were planning to build. We can cut all the the personnel that we want, but we're still going to have the same number of students. >> I just want to make sure that everybody realizes that. Well, it's not only the number of students either. It's it's
045the needs of those students. >> Right. Right. Exactly. >> And those needs have increased. >> Exactly. >> All right. If there is no Thank you. Um, and once again, I'm looking forward to um, Susan, your staff to kind of um, help us lead our conversations around staffing needs um, you know, in both the elementary and the high school and what would work and what not would work. Um, and being able to kind of give the board some options to kind of take a look at or what we could build towards in our budget time. So, if I'm hearing nothing more, we are going to go on to the Nessa for her to say. Um, not really. I'll be uh update on the treehouse finances. Um, and this has been hanging out for a while for
046us to talk about. So, >> yeah, it's um it was actually on a couple of uh finance facility committee. I don't know we ever actually got to got to it. So, >> No, we never did. >> But, uh, so what we have in uh I don't know what attachment this was. more. Sorry. Um this is uh just a quick uh top level analysis of the revenue and the expenses for the treehouse program over last fiscal year. Uh and you'll notice that um uh it it lost money over that year. Uh believe that the beginning part was severely impacted by COVID. Uh and so that's why you see that those severe negative uh amounts uh in the beginning. um uh but uh kind of leveling off um as we get uh towards the end of the
047year. Uh so our our our cash reserve in the uh in the treehouse program is 63172. This is one point uh almost one and a half uh uh months worth of reserves and that kind of sits within our um our recommended uh uh reserves of between one and three one and three months albeit on the lower side. Uh but I still think uh it um it begs the begs the question as to whether or not we're charging enough if the program is is set up properly. Um, I do know that there is a meeting later this week with the uh with the group that runs the treehouse I think at Phil uh to to review that. But uh this this is this is where we ended up at the end of last year. >> So
048is your recommendation Ken for the board to kind of making sure that the the financially we are offering what we're offering and what we're charging um meet. >> Yeah, exactly. It is a sliding scale for pretty house, isn't it? >> Yes. They parents um they can sign up to get um the cost either reduced or >> Yeah. >> whatever. And of course during during the pandemic >> that actually had to be at work were the people who were making the least amount of money. People shopping through their shelves and stuff. So, we'll probably even off. >> I hope so, too. >> I think we will. >> Does it does it make sense for this to kind of go back to finance u and meet with Phil and around what's the structure um moving forward in
049terms of payment and stuff? >> Yeah, our our agendas have been very full lately. >> Yeah, you have. the discussions are we only allow one hour for the meeting because it's butts right up against one of these cases. So um we really are not getting to the entire agenda. One thing we did when we set these rates originally the market study a few years ago. I wonder if it might be time to look at that again. We we never wanted to for this to be some sort of huge money maker. We wanted to at least, you know, provide our cost. >> Yeah. The best >> um service, you know, without so I think we should >> agreed. >> So that would be a good thing for you guys to kind of muddle through and then
050make recommendations for the upcoming um year for them, right? That would be July. >> Okay. Super. That that feels good. Any other question? Yes, Rita, >> I have a question. What schools have the treehouse program currently? >> It says on top of your um the No, >> just to be clear, that was that was last year for those schools. >> That was last year. So, this year, >> all five elementary schools have Treehouse. And um through a grant, we actually have an afterchool program for middle school students >> really >> to get homework done and to um you know raise student voice and it's been wonderful actually. >> That that's great. So then there should be more revenue next year with five schools having it plus well I don't know about the grant but um
051and didn't we last year raise the salaries of the staff for Treehouse? >> I think that was two wasn't that a couple years ago >> years ago but we did raise it I remember not last year last year was such an anomaly. >> So um Ken what is the 63,000 cash balance mean? uh what does it mean? So that that that's the amount of uh of funds that uh that have been left over in the account after you bring in all the money and and you pay out all the expenses as of uh June 30th. So it it it's actual cash. So there is still some receipts that are would be coming in. Uh but um that's that's that's the balance they were at at the end of June. >> So it's it's probably quite
052different now. I wonder if we could get a halfyear statement. Yeah, we we could we could take a look through uh uh September, I think. I don't know if we got October in yet, but >> yeah, I that makes sense. That makes sense to kind of go back to the finance and facilities to kind of take a look at that and make recommendations to I think the committee of the whole about how we should move on that. >> I agree. >> Any other questions? Hearing none, let us move on to um let's this was another um referral item that we were able to get to which is the um uh the it's the audit. Is that correct? >> Yeah, the uh the comprehensive annual financial report >> like what you said. >> Yeah, I just
053read it. Um so uh the the the report we are uh included with the town uh town of CR uh and so uh it's funny uh with us being such a big part of the expenses we're not really a main player in that report. Uh what we do here is very from an accounting standpoint is somewhat um basic. You know we we we pay out bills. Uh we're not doing a lot of uh additional um uh things. So that's why that's why when we talk about our numbers, it it doesn't it does it it doesn't take up a lot of room in the statement which I'll show you guys. This is this is last year's. So it's it's about 150 pages back uh forward and front. Um and uh you know we're on just a
054couple of the pages really. Uh the main page that really uh talks to what we do here is uh the second page of the attachment. It's exhibit A3, page 94 of the 2020 um report. And um if you if you look at this, you should recognize some of these numbers. The budgeted amount 77438090. That's that was our budget 20. Also our budget 21 and 22 just to remind everybody. >> And then the uh the third, fourth and fifth column, this is what we actually spent in that year in 2020. uh 2021s won't be available until the end of next month. So, we're still looking at back at 2020. Uh just to clarify and everybody understands what we're talking about, under the actual columns, there's an expended and encumbered. Uh expended means cash went out the
055door. We wrote a check, we we did payroll, something where where cash went out the door. Encumbered means we put money aside. We're we're waiting for a bill, waiting for an invoice, we're waiting for something else to happen. Uh and so that 6661,000 um was just the amount of of invoices that we had not yet processed. Uh so the total amount on the on the far right column of 97, 008. So that's the amount that of the budget that we did not actually request from the town. So theoretically, it goes back into the general fund and the the town gets to spend it um as as they see fit. Um so that that's that's kind of um our page um our one page in this that that's all ours but um education comes up in
056a number of different schedules and that's kind of what I tried to put together on this page with the with the blue lines. I'm just trying to trying to give you guys a flavor of of when you see different numbers what they really mean. So we start with the uh the actual expense the 77 341 uh which was from that that page 94 and the first thing that uh that accountants like to do is they like to uh um apply the gap basis that's generally accepted accounting principles and you'll notice that it goes from 77341 to 89,14 uh $14,000 the the main difference there is is um the uh the TRB contribution ution. TRV stands for teachers retirement board and this is the cost of the pension for the uh for the teachers for this
057year for this particular year 2020. Um and so they add it to expense but they we also add it to revenue because the town doesn't pay anything. This is a state program. Uh it's added to both expense and revenue. There's no impact to the town. Uh but uh accountants like to like to add things in like this. And so we've added it in here and and so now our our cost is at 89 million. Uh then that we added in the cost what we spent for grants. This is money going out to to um support th those grants. That's 5,385,000. Then there's also the cost. This is just the cost the expenses for food service. So this is the labor, the food, the supplies. That's another 2.3 million. And so you get another number that
058shows up in this uh on this report page 21 of 96 million. Uh and then we add in uh what they what they call governmentwide expenses. This is this is really just depreciation. Uh so they calculate a depreciation amount uh and they add that on. And so the number that uh that goes through in this account in this uh uh report was 99,314,979. And then I'll make one more one more point is on page 10 of this report they said that education increased by 6,280,000 year overyear and and it's driven entirely by the increase in the TRB contribution. So it's really nothing we're doing here. It's it's it's the cost of the of the uh pension program uh that's that's driving this difference year-over-year. So it looks like education is costing more but in essence
059we're really holding things pretty steady. >> So in other words what we what the TRB is showing it gets paid back whatever what goes into it. So that 11 million 92298 while you know it gets paid out it gets added back in. >> That's right. It's yeah it gets added to both sides. But but when you look at the expenses, it looks like we're we're our expenses are increasing at a at a rapid rate when it's not really not really true. >> Um Ken, do they ever make any recommendations the accountants about um asking you for more clarification or what else they'd like to see from the board? >> No, not No, not really. Occasionally they'll if if if they examine some um some of our policies and if uh we're not uh following a
060policy like a couple years ago there was a federal grant policy that we weren't quite following. They'll make a notation of it within their uh within their um discussion. Uh but no, they don't they don't typically make recommendations or anything like that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah. uh the 2 million 354936 that's the reimbursement from the federal government to our food service. >> No, so that that's the actual cost uh the actual cost to uh to run the program. >> The reimbursement would be another number. It's very close to that actually. Okay. >> Because that program doesn't doesn't typically um um you know make or or or cost money. >> Uh but it is a different number than that. >> Okay. And and just to clarify, they also test your records.
061They do everything that a like a corporate uh CPA audit would do. They they test your record. To Rita's point, if there were anything weren't following, they they would make the note and it would appear in this report. >> That's right. Yeah. if they found a discrepancy in controls or uh in their sample, they they would they would bring it to our attention and and if it was they would bring it up here if it was a concern >> and in the current there is >> correct. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Dean. Just so you know that that's not the same. >> No, that they don't print the book for me anymore, they >> Oh, yeah. 04 right there. if >> All right. Any other questions? >> Oh, I should also mention the complete
062report is available for viewing on the town website. >> That's correct. >> It's not easy to find, but you have to on the new town website, you have to find the search bar up top consolidated financial. >> Yeah, you could go department finance financial report and you'll find it there as well. >> Okay. Any other questions? All right. Um, update on facilities and transportation. Uh, oh, he's got that bling in his eye. >> He always has that. >> I know. >> Yeah. So um uh thankfully we have now received our CO for Mystic River School and and of course I reported the last time that we were very close to getting Fames River at that time which we did. So we have COs for both buildings Mystic River and Fames River Magnet Schools. So that's
063number one. Um buildings and ground is still delivering uh delayed uh move items to the uh new schools. there were some items that um they're looking at um how can I explain this? Um furniture and things that um they might be able to purchase through the uh budget of the project. And so uh as those come up uh if they can't meet that in the in the project, then we are delivering some of those uh older furnishings uh or equipment to to those schools. So we're still doing that. >> Refurbished a little bit, right? >> Yeah. Well, we Yeah, we we we've refinished quite a few of them already. So, um and and somebody was asking me this evening where her stuff is. So, >> it's on the assembly line. It better be, she said.
064Okay. And it will be. And um so uh we are uh again prepping Mary Morrison School, moving things in that building so that robotics will be moving in there in the very near future. I'm waiting for now a timetable from the robotics uh um manager uh to let us know exactly what their plan is, how they expect uh to get stuff into that building, and how long it will take. Uh uh town manager Bert asked me last week I believe what the timet was. Soon as I get that I'll be sharing that with the with the town manager. Uh we are working with uh Myers uh which is the company that's doing has been doing the moves to the schools and we'll be uh working on cleaning out the uh schools that closed SP Butler
065and Claude Chester. Uh, so I'm working with Meyers and Tom BB who is working for Arcadus on on doing all that stuff. Uh, so SB Butler and Claude Chester uh continue to be emptied out. So we're readying furniture for the auction, but before the auction, actually the town required that uh any of this equipment and materials uh be auctioned off rather than just be tossed. And so we're getting that stuff ready for auction. prior to auction. Um we will allow uh the principles of the schools to go through one more time in case there's something that they see that is uh to their liking and then we will offer it to other town agencies and departments within the town. We'll let them come through on a day or two and uh in case there are
066things that they may want, there will probably be file cabinets and other types of furniture that other departments might want. I know the library took quite a bit the last time. So, we'll give give the opportunity to all those other departments before we actually have the auction. Then, uh Tom will get that stuff to the auction. And so, that's it on facilities for now. And if there are any questions, I'd answer that before I move on to transportation. >> Jason Polardi chairs, are they gone? >> You can answer that after. >> I'll have to answer that later because I have to All right. So, any other question for that part? All right. Transportation. >> Okay. So, um STA is now up to full staff. They they got drivers that we thought we were going to
067get that passed their test and so on. So they have the right amount of drivers uh for staffing the buses. However, we don't have any additional drivers uh at this point. Usually they would have four or five additional drivers for call-ins when those happen on a basis sometimes. And as a matter of fact, this morning there were six call outs this morning. Uh some I think were attributed to the accident on 95. People got stuck over on the other side of the bridge for quite a while. >> Um but uh >> others uh because it's a Monday morning, I think, but >> big >> uh so uh we're working on that and they also have four drivers uh in training right now. Uh it takes uh quite a bit of time to get that and
068up to 14 weeks to get it done. I don't know what stage they're in. They've been doing it for a few weeks anyways. Uh so hopefully by the end of the year those those drivers will be ready to uh join the force. Uh I did um get the opportunity today to go down to the bottom of Fort Hill and speak to the traffic control person who's working for Graasso Tech. Uh but that person really isn't interested in in staying there any longer uh when it comes to that traffic light down at the bottom of the hill. So, we're going to have to uh work with the police chief uh and figure out exactly how we can get somebody down there to run it after that person leaves. >> We're actually setting up a meeting that
069would include the police department um some staff here, SDA and STA and the um you know to really work through some of the the agonies like the lights for instance. And so the chief of sorrow has been very responsive and they do have a policeman that gets out right across from Fitch and then also someone manning the lights at the top of Fort Hill and if we can get someone also at Graasso for the parent it's not the buses that are down there that's for the parent um congestion um that would be helpful. So we figured hopefully this week we're going to be Joyce is working on it to get a meeting of everybody and it would be great to have a board member. I think I sent that out in my >> Yep. notice
070is just keeping you informed on all the meetings that we've been having having um and responding to some of the concerns that the parents are having. So, >> yeah, anybody who's come out of that light at the bottom of Grasso Tech uh the middle school knows that that's a very long light. Um and so it's kind of critical to get somebody there to man that switch uh so that we can get parents out. And also don't forget the buses are coming down the hill too. So, we want to keep the buses rolling once they get they can get through the high school because we have a police officer there and most times there's somebody at the top of the hill to Mayon that light but then we get caught on the hill. So, uh while
071the middle school is really up their game and gotten the buses out earlier, it's still taking seven to eight minutes to get past that third light right now. So, if we can uh cut that down by three or four minutes, it would be really helpful in getting the kids home in a timely manner. How long does the guy from or woman from Brazo how long are they going are they willing to stay until >> I don't know what time he stays till now but he's not there when our buses come down the hill. >> So he's just doing Graasso. >> He's he's there for Graasso and Grao only. >> I mean that's something though the police chief is willing to look at. He's actually sent staff down there. So there may be a way that
072we can get someone there even if I have to pay for it without time. >> Maybe >> what? >> Just for an hour maybe. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Just to alleviate that congestion. >> But it's not just the traffic uh that um coming down the hill from the schools uh in both both directions, but also the traffic that's going up for hill at that time. This is quite a bit of traffic even going up the hill at that time. So, it needs to be somebody who is really qualified to run that light, >> right? >> I don't like the color of your car. Thinking the same. >> Sorry. Inappropriate. Sorry. Go ahead, Sam. >> Uh, yeah, that's what I had. >> I had a question for Sam. >> Yes. >> Um, Sam, I had
073two questions actually. One is, is it possible for the buses to loop around and exit out of the Fitch driveway so that they don't have to wait for that light? Or have only the buses that maybe are going to be going towards Mystic and then the ones that are going towards Grten, you know, go down to the light? You know, >> they all exit out. They all arrive in the Fitch parking lot and exit out of the Fitch parking lot. Now >> I I thought I thought you said the issue was the light down near Sutton Park. >> That's right. But that's for the parents. So the parents are going in and out of that. >> Only the parents. >> Yeah. For the pickup and drop off. Yeah. >> So they're not allowed to go
074out the f driveway. >> No, they're not supposed to go out the drive the other driveway. >> No. We've really separated the parent pickup from the bus pickup for safety reasons. >> But the buses do get stuck on the hill by that light at the bottom of the hill at Sutton Park. >> Right. Right. And and my question is I know I saw the beautiful sign for Grant Middle School that is up there. Is it going to be illuminated in any way? Because it's dark. >> It is. The business office uh requested or asked for an account uh last week, I believe. Agenda Bell asked for that last week. So as soon as the account is uh confirmed by Rotten Utilities that uh that will be illuminated. >> Thank you. >> We have another question
075here. >> Just had a couple more items. >> Do you have >> it's an observation which is was any of this or maybe is a question. Was any of this foreseen when we were first talking about sighting that the middle school? I mean, did anybody see that the ring drive for hill intersection was going to be a choke point of some sort? >> When you first said the plans and the first plans were coming out. >> I mean, nothing can be done now, but you sort of wondering whether that was >> being part of the 2020 dean. I remember we you have like a traffic an you have like a traffic analysis. Yeah. >> So I think that that traffic analysis was done, >> right? So >> So I mean I think >> lessons learned.
076I mean is that accurate or next time we do something? >> Well, but also we have the issue of there's a lot of traffic on from coming out of Grton Middle School from parent pickup. It's also a pandemic. So I'm I'm wondering what would happen once the buses become more fluent that and we're not having so many parents coming in and out whether that changes. I mean, that's all hearsay, but I appreciate the fact that we do need to look in the rearview mirror to see should have, would have, could have, but we got it. Like, this is this is ours. >> Yeah. And and one of the main concerns was dismissal time or what they looked at was dismissal time, too. So um with Graasso Tech being a different time from the middle school,
077the dismissal doesn't mean that the lag and when teachers can leave Graas Tech now interferes or or coincides with the parent leaving the middle school. So I I think that exacerbated the problem. >> Uh couple other quick things. We did have a meeting with STA this morning and uh um through that meeting uh Tony MGO reiterated and Joe Paresi reiterated that they will be uh uh reminding drivers that they are to do the full routes uh how they are printed. Um they'll be checking the buses after each run uh which uh the the uh safety person has always required them to do but they'll be reminding of those uh items uh along uh with a retraining session coming up uh with their safety person Marie uh Illingworth. So those three things are are going to
078be reiterated over the course of the next few weeks with all drivers. Yes, >> Sam. Um, are buses still sitting for a long time at the middle school in the morning before they can disembark? >> Uh, longer than we would hope. Yes. But I I think we're going to be talking about a potential solution to that. >> Okay. We discussed some of that this morning and then I'm going to follow up with the principles of those two buildings and see what we can do differently. >> Thank you. It's November and we're still talking about buses. I know. >> And I I just my my heart goes in in all seriousness, my heart goes out to what this means for the children, what it means for the families and for our staff. Um but I would
079have hoped that this would have >> been done by now, >> been cleared up. Jean, >> I know this is a touch she going to find out what happened with >> Did something happen? Did we quote lose a kid? >> No. Get get off not get off when they were supposed to. >> Okay. >> There was there was some confusion. We did bring the parents in to speak to STA. Okay. So, we were able to really listen to their full side of the story and the STA staff I thought were very compassionate and um very responsive. Um the CEO basically said if a driver ever left a child unattended that that would be the end, you know, that they would be fired. So, that never happened. >> Okay. >> There there certainly were mistakes made
080and certainly they're dealing with that. Um, so >> yeah, I mean you you'll appreciate that even though I don't want I don't want to stir anything up, but when you're board of education, people will say, "Hey, you're on the board. What's going on with >> Right." A lot of times you don't have that. >> Well, you can assure everybody that uh that we viewed the tape as soon as we could get it and and get it downloaded so that my staff, the the coordinators and I all looked at that tape and reported to Susan immediately. Yeah. this and we had the parents look at the end of the tape too. >> We had talked at one point about in the future about having that where the parents can that GPS app. >> Um have we
081looked at the cost of that or we talked about that? Is that something we should be looking at for next budget season? >> I think Tom and Dr. Kennedy are talking about that and taking a look at >> actually I think they're going to actually test it out. >> Okay. um in a couple of the schools to see how it works and then that would be something that we could budget for next year. But they want to really test it to see if it would work. >> We test it with administrators at a couple schools first before it's rolled out. >> Yeah. >> Administr >> so that they could >> Yeah, I know. I'm just like, okay, I just um New Haven has just gone to this from what I understand in the news that
082New Haven is is using this GPS for students so parents can see where their children are. And I just was in light of this situation. Um I thought something that we we should really definitely be looking at. >> Well, I mean I think that when we were talked about I start the sentence one more time. Please do. >> It's it's Monday. Um I I think that last summer when we were um having conversations about the new roots, the two tiers, I I had the impression that the GPS was something that wasn't a done deal. I I don't think that that was sold to us, but that it was much more um uh palatable that was going to be coming down the road road. So, I guess um that's something that we should probably be having
083a larger thought about. >> I know QPS for bus navigation. >> Liz was talking about being able to basically track. Yeah, but we were that would be an app on your phone, right? >> Yeah. Where my kids on bus 36. Where's bus 36 now? >> Right. And that's what I'm That's the same thing. Yeah. Thank you. >> Um I do appreciate um uh Susan that once the the issue came to you that it was um that a couple of back to the board members um was able to forward that you were very responsive to that and responsive to the board and I do appreciate the fact that you kept the board really up to loop since lots of people reach out to us. So, never I actually would rather be over informed about some of
084these things because I think people um do a lot of either posting or asking us about what's going on and so that feels like that would be a good thing. >> Can I make one quick comment? >> Yeah. You know, I saw this originally it came out on a Facebook page of the Graten Community Forum >> and my thought was again maybe Graten Public Schools needs has Facebook. >> I agree. And I think that's something that maybe Dr. Kennedy needs to >> maybe we should direct Dr. Kennedy to be looking to to post to create a because >> so interesting that you're saying that if you go because I think you're planning to go to the cave convention, >> right? >> Okay. So, one of the workshops at Cave Convention is to post or not
085to post looking at the legalities of a district having a Facebook. So, that actually might be an interesting one for some of us if whoever is going to go to that. Is there a posted agenda for that? >> Yeah, you have to I'll I'll talk to you afterwards. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Anything else? >> Uh I don't have anything else at this time. >> Sam, the work that you are doing, the what you are doing with all the facilities and transportation is is just amazing and thank you very much for your service. You're welcome. >> Talk about being responsive with the capital R. >> Yes. >> Jay, do you have any questions? I just you're at my back so no I just I I agree Sam two >> moving and moving part >>
086but speaking of communication I I don't know whether Dr. you had a chance to put our board event email address on the contact page but people don't have to copy and paste each of us individually. It' be nice if there was just one click they could write to all of us. >> Yeah. >> So we have the official communication comes directly to us. We we can't all be looking at Facebook every moment of every day. that the parent has a concern if they clicked on that uh distribution list email then then we would know about it. >> That makes so much sense. >> Well, we requested that I think a couple months ago, so just look to have that followed up on. >> Well, now's a good time to change it. >> Absolutely. >> All
087right. Um, uh, CIPs again >> because >> Jim, do you need this? >> No, I have it right here on my iPad. I I actually charge my iPad today so that I would see it because I can't see it on my phone. And so, uh, we have, um, I I believe five items that are, uh, listed to go to the town for, uh, request to go into the CIP list. Uh first one is the Fitch High School athletics. Uh and that is the uh recrowning of the football field and to add um irrigation uh to that uh field at the same time for um watering to make it more efficient and less costly to water that field. And so that request is for um fiscal year 23 of $215,000 assad and recrown the field and
088uh 28,750 uh for the irrigation of that field. Now uh the fields committee is still working on this. So I I don't know where this one will go when it gets to the town or to the planning department. Uh these things have been cut by um I believe two two two different areas could probably cut it before it got to the town council or the town manager could cut it or or even the planning commission I think could actually not at least not forward it on to the town council but we'll see how that one goes. So that's the first one. Uh the second one is uh the Charles Barnum Elementary School roof replacement and uh that is for uh a million dollars to replace the roof at Charles Barnum. Uh that one we put
089in last year for um replacement. It's well over its uh expected life expectancy of 20 years. Um uh but we've been able to um patch it as we go along. Uh and u uh the state will reimburse it at at about 50%. So we're going to ask again uh for the replacement of that roof. The third item is the Northeast Academy uh air quality stuff and uh that is to actually um we're pushing that off uh another year. Um, with regard to uh changing out the HVAC equipment on the roof, it's about $200,000 a year to start replacing those units. But because um we have uh instituted the um process uh the active dehumidification at the school. It has mitigated the humidity problem in that building. Uh and uh we will be working on the
090drainage uh hopefully this summer after the engineering uh is is drawn up uh and hopefully that will uh again reduce any concerns with humidity and maybe we won't have to change those units on the roof but continue on the way that we are. Uh and uh 5D is coming up now. Um is uh uh HVAC upgrades at both the pitch high school uh what we call the vintage part of the school, which is the older part of the school. Uh when uh when uh these building projects took place uh back in 2008, um the new section of the building of course was built and the office space in some of those areas, nurses spaces, those were all upgraded, but they did not touch the uh the business wing or those areas down in the back
091of the building. So, um this would be um an engineering study uh to uh make uh make some improvements in that area as well as the HVAC system at the Charles Barnum School. So, we're asking for $50,000 to do an engineering study and plans for those two areas of those two buildings. And then the last item uh is of course the for high school culinary arts uh that we just spoke about earlier in the meeting. And uh you can see uh for fiscal year 2023, we're asking for the $70,000 for the uh study and plans. And uh the $600,000 would be for construction the following year, which would include uh equipment as well. did. >> Yes. >> I just want to reiterate. So, I talked to to uh Sam about why, you know, we're continuing
092to put the uh field back on the CIP pitch field. And even though the current council, you know, wants to put this through a athletic fields task force, that has sort of stalled while they decide what to do with Chester. And since we've been asking for this same renovation since I joined the board, u we just want to be consistent that this is not a need that somehow magically went away and that it's still there and uh just report that, you know, it's not getting any better on its own. So that will need to be addressed either through the task force or through the secretary. >> Thank you, >> Dean. >> Uh the source of funding uh for the Barnum HDC upgrades, you have it as a but what does a mean? >> Uh well
093that actually the source of funding is determined by the plan or uh the town council, not by us. >> Oh, okay. I just don't know what I've never seen a before exactly. I mean, I presume it's capital reserve. >> Uh, there could be other, too. >> On mine, capital reserve is C, but >> right, most everything is C. >> Yeah, >> nothing's going on the bonding. I'm just wondering what the A was, >> but >> I know there's no code here. I'm walking through it. >> I was wondering too, >> these are forms that are given to us by the planning department. >> It says funding C is for capital reserve fund. G is general obligation bond but it doesn't say what A is see >> also on the summary page the fish culinary is
094listed funding source A should be see this in the detail but that these are just small >> well this hasn't gone to the planning commission yet so that that will be uh determined later when it gets to another level >> maybe there's somebody beginning with >> it could be that >> it could be me >> I was going to say and >> thank you for the service that you've offered. >> Any other questions about the capital improvement projects? >> Awesome. All right, guys. We have done a lot of work in a fair amount of time. Thank you. Uh we are now at uh the referral list and also the suggested future topics. Um can someone tap the Prometheian board? >> We should have like a little rubber. >> That would be sick or something. >>
095I haven't got that would be so >> I didn't get anything either. >> I haven't got anything. I'm just like very frustrated with them. I sent them an email. >> But thank you. I appreciate that. >> Um >> this is my first one. And so, so Dean, I know that um I had been um I've really been hearing your comment about the referral tracking and uh also future agenda items. I just I figured we would start thinking about that um as the new as the new board comes on. And I actually think that this is a a great item just to kind of think about um in a retreat form where we can kind of have more looser conversations about how we want to do stuff. So that's what I was thinking about. That's why
096it's still on. It's not that I haven't heard your >> Okay. >> Are we gonna have a retreat? >> Yes. That's my that's that's my goal. >> So once the >> January >> Yeah. Yeah. January, February. Remember January February is a very busy time budgets. >> So we have to sort of think about that. >> Um so I am I will entertain any conversation about that. Um I I just so people know what I have heard is that a referral um to the finance committee around the treehouse and looking at that. Does that make sense? >> Um would house >> I I have a question for the board. Would it make sense for the finance and facilities to get a first crack at um returning the buildings back to the town or should that be
097a committee of the whole action? >> You know, there's a big procedure. >> Yes, there is. >> And I guess it >> we meet with John Burke this a month, I think. Not next month following. >> Yeah, but I think that the board has to meet with it and we have to figure out what needs to be done. So, I don't know if it makes sense that the financing facility says, you know, within the next 6 months or whether we, you know, allow you guys to kind of think about that and have it come back to the board. I just I was just thinking out loud. >> I think we can handle it at the cow level because it's not a question. The real work has to be done by the town. Our only job
098is to run through a procedure which we can't think of off the top of our heads now >> to turn it over to the town. Then the town has to do the magic work of figuring out what to do with these things. Okay. >> That's their business. >> So your your recommendation is for us to kind of throw it on the >> Yeah. Have staff and like to what the procedure is. We can do the research on our own, but then have a count meeting and both >> Okay. >> have explained and do our business. >> I've had that on the referral list in September 13th. >> September 13th. >> It's already under the cow. >> Yep. Oh my goodness. Look at you go. >> So, I mean, I think it should be as soon
099as possible. >> Yep. >> Time to get started. >> Are those buildings used? I have a question real quick for Are those buildings being used at all? Bartum, for example, other than >> got kids in it. >> That's the only thing Butler has been used for. >> Yeah, that's right. Butler was used >> Butler was used for voting and so was Mary Morrison. Mary Mars will be used for robotics. Clochester hasn't been used for anything other than uh we're using that as a a place to refernish refinish some of the furnishings that were moving to the new schools. >> Yeah, I asked because I remember when knowing school was was given up. If they sit too long, they become more and more unusable, right? >> Without a lot of expense. These buildings have to be
100lived in. Yep. >> To kind of keep them up. >> You are right. and and Dean um the town should then be responsible for the they heat the buildings and take care of them. They're supposed to >> doing it. Um I had a quick question too. This is Sam. Um do we mow the lawn or does the town mow the lawn at our schools? >> Our landscaper uh does the lawns for us at all our schools. >> We have a landscaper. Okay, thank you. Um, the other referral item that I heard um was what are we doing for in our district to support our students um uh to help them sort of uh bring them uh up to speed. That's not the word. But um I'm going to make sure that we uh >> close
101the achievement gap left. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Close the achievement. I think that that's on here also. I think you're right, too. But I'm I'm just saying that I think we can kind of talk about that. >> Well, we we were talking about line items, so I don't know if that goes under finance and facilities. >> Well, um I think actually that feels like a really good committee of the whole is to kind of take a look at what is what what are we being done instead of just having it in the curriculum, but having that through all and then also kind of talking tying that to then how does that how does that fit our budget? Kim, can can I I I didn't finish the answer to uh to read. >> You want to
102finish? >> Well, I I I finished, but I I didn't I didn't tell her the whole truth and nothing but the truth. >> Oh. Uh >> oh. >> So, uh actually, uh and and I I I shouldn't uh ignore the fact that Parks and Wreck actually helps us with a couple of our fields, too. They do the high school uh baseball field, football field, and they do the new grass fields at the at the middle school for us presently, too. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Nice partner partnering. >> Any other >> um you know, I I I believe we could take off 2021-17 because I believe Ken discussed that tonight, the audit report. >> Oh my goodness. Thank you. But it's I mean that was you Kim I believe >> is that is that
103what you were talking about KW? >> Yep. >> Where are you sending that? >> Yeah. Thank you. Anything else folks for either the re review of the referral list or suggested future um topics? Where are we with one card, one community? >> Yeah, I was thinking that too. >> Can you say that one more time? >> One card, one community. It's um >> 2021-8. >> Yes. >> Under Cal 71221. >> You can probably get an update from Clint Kennedy. Yeah, I know he had a meeting maybe a week ago. >> So maybe that could be thrown in the board notes if there's an update. >> Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. >> That would be great because I know it's getting because that's I would love to see that that get wrapped up for
104you. the one card, one community. >> Well, if not, I I would like to be part of it on the library. So, >> absolutely. >> I'd like to be part of it. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Anything else? [Music] >> Your agenda topic. Could I just suggest um asking Susan like to tell us in our board notes what they're planning on doing about vaccinations in our elementary schools? >> Yep. Perfect. >> Thank you. All right. I've got a motion on the floor for adjournment. It has been seconded. Sorry, we did second it before. >> By Jay. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Oppose. Abstain. This motion has carried. Good night, folks. >> Good night.