11-15-21 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Mrs. Johnson, do we have a quum? >> Yes, we do. >> Thank you. Okay, I'm going to call the meeting to order at 7 o'clock. >> Not at six. Change the clocks. >> I know. >> Thank you very much. >> I hope we all the minutes. I have a motion for the minutes. >> So move. >> So support a second. Second Rita Vman. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. On number four on this under proposal for the culinary rooms at Fitch High School. Number four says tapping. I should say staffing. So >> Joan, I just thought I'd catch you up on that. >> I caught it this morning. And then Roman numerals five up there should be update, >> right? >> So these are you you caught these already? >> Yes. I let uh the necessary

002parties know about it. >> Oh, okay. >> Bringing it up. >> I'll make sure the necessary parties fix it. >> Thank you, Mrs. Johnson. We'll move to the to the third we'll move to the third item on the agenda. >> Oh, we haven't. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Um I want to say sustain. >> There's Kim. >> Oh, there's Kim. >> Kim. >> Anybody who didn't vote or is we going to vote? Sorry. Sorry. What's the word? I'm um Kim, did you wanna um chime in? I see you waving. >> No, I just was waving to say hi. >> Hi. >> It's very weird to have this perspective. >> I know. >> Abstain. That's the word. Anybody? Okay. Motion has passed. Now, can we move on? >> Okay. So, we have a report

003on um ad rising at the high school and are they >> I'm looking to see if Laurel and Lauren are here from the high school to report on Ed Rising. >> Do not see them. >> Did they have an invitation? >> They did. >> They Yeah. >> Well, let's table that for now. We can move it. >> Okay. So, communications update on Facebook and and social media. Are you doing that, >> Rebecca? Yes. >> Oh, I am. Did you want to say anything first? >> Um, just that this is stemming from a from a conversation um that we've had in the past. It's been on our uh referral list, I believe, to discuss um the possibility of starting a to district Facebook page in order to improve communication uh with our community and as a

004way to um get it, you know, just get more information out there and be able to respond um to our uh to our community. So, I think it's it's been brought up in the past and nothing's um moved forward. So, we wanted to sort of bring it up again is is it something that I think we need to um uh personally, you know, my opinion is that we need to do more to communicate and find ways to reach our families. And so, um these days, I think we're going to talk mostly about Facebook, but we're also want to look at other means of reaching people depending, you know, things change pretty quickly. Um, and I think even a um a communication study that was done a couple years ago, um, Rebecca and I were discussing

005how um, how much has probably changed since then in terms of how people best communicate and receive information. So, >> I think it's worth taking a look at and beginning the discussion and I'm sure the information that's going to be presented tonight will help get that get that moving in the right direction. >> Okay, you ready? >> Hi. >> Did everybody get a copy of the handout on the table? >> No. Well, the people that are hybrid are not unfortunately. I I was hoping it would be in our packet. So, we did not >> It was given to us in an email um yesterday, not yesterday on on either Friday or Saturday. >> I believe Joyce said she emailed it out perhaps later Friday afternoon. >> She did. >> All right. I'll check it out.

006I'm before the board notes or after? >> After. was here for the board notes since this was sort of a last minute edition. >> They're really just talking points. So, Rebecca can certainly present it in that's all it is. >> Yeah, I didn't. It's like a Yeah. outline. >> We kept it brief because we really just wanted this to lead into more of a discussion as um special PSA said. So um going back to our communications plan, we are talking about social media for a couple of reasons. We think it really would provide a great platform to share our story and tell our story as well as um and when I say our story, I'm referring to things that support our vision, our mission, our teaching and learning as a district, as well as um

007general news and information, calendar updates, um things such as that. and to get them out quickly and efficiently and in a way that we know that people are consuming media um and and what they're using. It's less about how we want to push out the information and more about how are we reaching them in the way that they're consuming information. So, it also would um expand our two-way communications opportunities for dialogue and engagement with our community. um it can help to build trust and transparency with comments and replies and engagement and being open to that. Um we would look to have awareness and exposure for all of our schools and programs even though this would be a district page. Um and it would help really build that district-wide community. You know, right now if folks

008follow a specific school page because their child attends that school, they may only be familiar with that. However, we want them hearing about all of our schools, all of our programs at all of our levels and feel like a full community, not just a Charles Barnum or Northeast Academy, so on and so forth. Um, and then many other organizations in town have Facebook pages, Goten Park and Wreck, our military partners, um, lots of other community pages. So, it would provide us with a platform for more um, online relationship with them. you know, we're we're talking about should we have a district page, and I always say it's not a question of whether or not we want to be on Facebook. We are. We're just not running the conversation or starting the conversation. We're in a

009very reactive versus proactive position right now. So, our own platform would really allow us to be pushing out information, sharing our story, um, and providing credible, factual information versus, I'm sure we've all seen, posts and things that go rounds and rounds and rounds of people trying to get information, people sharing the wrong information. This would allow us to push out the right information, credible information directly from the source. So, it really comes down to who do we want telling our story? Um, and we already have a lot of subgroups in our community using social media. We have the student nutrition program. Um, the school building program had a very successful um, social media page uh, that tracked the the actual building progress of our new schools. We do have some of our PTOs using that

010um, and other groups and clubs. All of the districts surrounding us are using social media. Learn, Ledger, East Line, London, Norwich. uh really everybody right around us. >> When we start having this conversation here, we tend to lean towards talking about Facebook initially because if we're going to dive into this, um we want to do it right and we want to do it well. We don't want to spread ourselves too thin. So, we would rather take on one platform and do it really, really well. And Facebook still has the greatest reach um and the most um user engagement among parents, the community at large, alumni, older generations. Um so that would still be perceived as the best place um and the biggest bang for our buck, sort of to speak. terms of what we would

011talk about and what that might look like. I always talk about content buckets um physically what the post would look like. We have a lot of text but visual posts get so much more um engagement. Uh I was just reading some statistics about how uh just how your brain now that we live in such a visual environment processes visual information. Um, so visual posts through our photo stories, videos, infographics, and of course we have Mark Russell. We have we have this wealth of images and photos that um we have to share um links to other resources and and shared content from other partners, as I mentioned, other resources. Um, and then crowdsourced content, which could be, uh, you know, if we ran a little first day of school campaign and parents wanted to share pictures

012of their kids and things like that, and that would be, you know, potentially up to them to do, but that's, um, just different ideas. Um, what we would actually be talking about in these, different types of photos and text and infographics, um, achievement and recognition, celebrating our teachers, our students, our schools, our staff, our alumni. I know we've talked about um trying to bring back in our alumni before um our teaching and learning highlights from our schools and classrooms, the IB program, our magnet schools, um and our magnet themes, our district-wide initiatives and programs, our curriculums, um calendar reminders, you know, tomorrow is a TLI day. Little reminder about that. board of ed information, meetings like this, links to um to the presentations and the YouTubes, general district news and updates from superintendent or assistant

013superintendent, um student family resources, you know, the food services calendar, tips from our food services director on a snow day, how to make a great cup of hot chocolate, um you know, January 1, uh some of our coaches or PE teachers jump on the bandwagon, you know, exercises you can do at home to get fit in the new year. Um things like that. Uh we can have a lot of fun with it. It doesn't all have to be super super serious. Um transportation, you know, all the things people look for. And then, you know, theme days and mini campaigns, you read across America day kind of thing. Share your favorite summer reading book. Um so, as we talk about all of this, if it is something we determine that we're going to proceed with, we

014do still have some steps to take. We need to define um team roles and responsibilities here um with the page in terms of creating and scheduling content, monitoring it, responding to comments um and things that could come up on the page, reviewing metrics for the page, um actually building the page, which is a fairly straightforward task, but you want to create rules for privacy, content, um comments and reviews, profanity filters, things like that. Um, we want to review our um our photo policy, make sure we have everything all set on that. We want to review student privacy settings. Do we name students in post? Do we not? If we do, is it first initial only or first name only or no name? Um, and then we start to develop content. Ideally, you want to develop

015content ahead of time and then be scheduling it. You don't want to be racing around and saying, "What are we going to post today?" you want to sort of build out a calendar and you might have uh you know every Thursday you kind of do the same thing every Monday and then you weave in there as well um popups or breaking news or things that are going to come up throughout the month. Um and then we would look at you know a timeline when we going to do this ideally maybe sometime after the new year. Um, so that's really their top level look at what and why and how this could all work. And, um, I think we want to get feedback from the group on how the group feels about taking this step. It's

016something we've we've talked about off and on for quite a few years. And uh, so I think we're at the point where we either want to make a decision to proceed or not. Are there any questions or >> Hi. Oh, I'm sorry. Addressing you. Um, so I'm all in favor of getting news out. I always thought we should do is emphasize stuff that we're doing, right? You know, rah rah like rotten public schools. That's one function. And the function of course is people looking for going to our homepage or our website looking for information, basic stuff. uh not so basic stuff whatever we have know have currently um one the wheels probably already been invented elsewhere so are we going to be patterning ourselves or learning from other pages we are >> yeah absolutely um

017I have gone to final site trainings which is our website provider with other school districts who um have we've collaborated and provided great insight but final site itself our website partner provides tremendous valuable resources and continuous information actually on social media as well. Um >> and I don't mean to cut you off. I apologize but and I've also reached out. I'm part of an assistant superintendent collaborative and I put something out when we started talking about this and um all the responses I've gotten have been that they're using all platforms you know Facebook, Twitter, Instagram um and I I plan on following up with them to get access to you know and I'll start following them and sort of see what they're posting what you know what they think and I'm meeting with them on

018Friday as well. So I plan on having that be a topic on our agenda. So um because I think it's it's the right move to research what other people are giving to and what they're using it for. >> The other question I have is this. Um there's a there's at least it starts with a sort of a one-way approach which is we would like in addition to providing a space for people to look up information but they're moving toward us. We're looking to put information out. Do we have a sense of maybe from I don't know whether we got anything from this climate survey or any sort of other survey. we have a sense of where people typically go. So for example, you say Facebook is the most widely used. That's true in general, but

019you know, if you could ask people ever, ask all parents and if you can get honest answers and ask them where do you, you know, where do you go so we can be there so you can find us, you can see the good news. Hey, you know, we've got a tip or something good news or something like that. Um, also when you were talking about Dr. You're talking about multiple platforms. It can be a shotgun approach. It's possible. I'm not saying that it is possible. You'll spend 95% of your efforts reaching a very marginal portion of the, you know, we're everywhere, but really most people are, you know, here where we're also BNC and no one's really watching us on BNC. Do we have a feel for where people are going to catch all this

020wonderful news we're going to be putting out there? >> Well, we have data from two years ago, but as I said, things have changed quite a bit in two years. So, we were just discussing today the possibility of um putting that out again, even just that one simple question, >> you know, maybe listing all the different social media platforms and say where do you go? >> Um and that might lead us in the direction like you said, so we're not spreading ourselves too thin and reaching the um fewer people. So, I think that's a good idea. >> And I think the platforms we're talking about, the the core audience that we're starting with is parents, the community at large, our older population probably wouldn't be reaching our students per se because we know that they're

021not there as much anymore on on Facebook or even on Twitter. Yes, on Instagram, but you know, we know they're more on the Tik Toks and the Snapchats and the things. And I don't think we're comfortable heading in that direction yet. Um, >> well, my oldest was 21 now when he was at Fitch and I said something about Facebook. He said Facebook's dead. >> It is that generation. >> I don't think it's dead, but it's definitely, but it's not being used by that generation. Exactly. >> But I don't think that's initially we're trying to get information to our, like you said, our parents and even alumni, which I think is a is a great use of this. >> But there's that close connection between Instagram and Facebook. So, you can really almost launch both of

022those at the same time. probably more people >> because you can link the account so whatever's posted on one is posted on the other. >> That would definitely be a logical um step to take and there's a ton of integration. Also, good social media is also going to drive people to our website. Um good a good media and strategy and campaign from communications perspective is going to be very integrated and all of the different tools and resources we have are going to be intended to work together um and push to each other. Um, and that's where you really start to see a lot of benefit and you know you're reaching people. But I'm still confident that based on the data that I follow and look at um that that Facebook I you're absolutely right that

023the younger generation isn't isn't on that more uh anymore but that it's still has the greatest cross section and breaches initially who we really want to be reaching. >> He may not be the demographic. Not yet. Not that we don't want to be eventually engaging our students more. Um, we absolutely do. And um, but I think that would be another layer and level down the road. >> Yeah, he's not he's not homesick yet. >> I think Rita and uh, Kim had questions, too. I thought I saw them raising their hands earlier. >> Kim, go ahead. >> So, Rita, Kim, and and then Liz. >> Oh, you want me to go? Okay. Well, since I am not on Facebook and I know a lot of people who are no longer on Facebook, um I feel that

024it would be it would be fine to do it if we were putting on information, but I would not want to have a two-way dialogue on Facebook responding to what people write. To me, that is going down a slippery slope. I think it's dangerous. Um, you know, when we had a board member who was no longer on the board because of postings on Facebook, I just wouldn't want anybody to be able to respond and go back and forth with someone on Facebook. To me, that is not what we should do. I'd like to know who would be responsible for posting on the site. Is do we have is that another position? Is it somebody that we already have hired who could do it or will there be a financial cost? And I would not want

025parents sharing pictures of their children. I think that that again is privacy and it's not something that not on our site. They can do it on their site, but not on a public school site. Um, and I go to the Graten Public Schools website. So that's just how I feel about it and maybe somebody can answer my questions after Kim and Liz. >> Okay. And I have the same uh questions that you do, Rita. I'm looking at where where would the pitfalls be? So Kim, >> yes. >> So um I guess I have some of the similar sort of questions. I guess for me, let's start let's start what our role is, right? our role is board and as a board we're responsible for policy and so Phil as you go to those um conversations

026with the assistant superintendent and with Rebecca I think that before um before we do this and I and please don't assume that because I'm asking this doesn't mean that I'm not for this method because I'm actually am I think that we need to get caught up with the other districts um in doing in doing so and I've heard a lot of comments about that. So, I would want to know sort of like what is the policy? And I'm sure Cabe has a social media policy, but I would be interested in in um Phil if if you in your conversations with um the assistant superintendent if they would be willing to forward policy for you because I think on our level, that's actually what our our most important le goal would be is to make sure

027that we have decent policy um around um implementing um social media. Um, and you know, my other So, so if we did that, um, I get it. Facebook is not for the young, but someone like me, me. Um, or actually, I guess I'm old, so it wouldn't be me, but maybe that's where the parents would need to get, um, information about that. Um, and I love the idea, Rebecca, about the filters. Um, so that we can kind of block some of that stuff off. Um, would that would be that would be really good. There's there's several of us or a couple of us and I know Matt Schulman is is here who also attended um this uh CABE uh workshop was about um posting or not to post and Rebecca I can make sure that

028I can get that to you so that you can take a look at what this attorney um was stating. Um, and he was just really clear that we have to be careful about when we make decisions around um um blocking someone because they make a they make a comment um is is that we have to be careful that we're not breaking their first amendment rights. And so how do we make sure that this there's this back and forth whatever um platform that we use um but how how do we allow this back and forth? But if it becomes nasty, what do we do and how do we make sure that we take care of that? So, we're not violating someone's um someone's first amendment right. And so, I think that that's like that that was

029where the concern for me was was like how do we just work around that? Clearly, other people have been able to do that because we have they have um they they they have their websites and they have their and they have their social media campaign. So, those are just my that's my thinking >> and and Kim, just to comment on those two things, I can definitely reach out and get examples of those policies. I think that's a great idea um to start with and I can get those relatively quickly. And I also I reached out to that lawyer who who did that workshop because I wanted a copy of the PowerPoint because the copies he gave us were too small, you know, when I went back to I couldn't read everything on the slides and

030so he's already sent those to me and and offered to come um and really speak to us if he really had more questions, which was which was great. >> Um >> I don't mind I don't mind him. I I think though we should use our own attorney for that, >> right? And um and I think we've reached out to him. >> I have reached out. >> Oh, super. Thank you, Susan. >> We'll get that information. >> Yeah, I was going to reference because I was at that workshop and um a slide 49. I can actually tell you the exact slide and um you know their recommendation was to you know narrowly tailored content neutral time, place and manner restrictions are permissible in public forums. Consider whether additional disclaimer on social media account clearly stating that

031certain categories of speech will be deleted or blocked. And then consideration consider adoption of social media usage policy to protect your district from first amendment vi claims or violations. And I think those are things that we definitely need to have in place. Um, one of the things, one of the comments that I had written on my side here was that you may not want to enable comments. That would be push primarily focusing and pushing out information but not allow not having this two-way dialogue because who's going to respond to those things and that's a concern. You know, I mean, is it the administrators of the uh of the site or is it going to be a responsibility of the superintendent, the assistant superintendent among their other many duties? I mean, it's just um a concern.

032And so, I I really would I have my I pulled out my PowerPoint. That's why I got up because I meant to have this with me. And um just the the concern too is this going to be a government site? because if it's a government site, it has a whole different there's a bunch of different um priorities and um applications. So you you know we have some discussion we have to get some answers here >> and um but I just um and Rebecca I would be glad to share this with you if you would like this you I'll give it right to you >> with all my comments on it. >> Thank you. Um but I I just think that was one of the best it was the last conference or workshop of the day

033and let me tell you I wish it would have been the first and um I wish Dean you had been there because you I think you would have really liked that one >> probably. >> So but um thank you all. >> Dr. Piaza had mentioned that he was attending that on >> Yeah. And I think our next steps would just be to do our research. You know I'll talk to the surrounding districts and get to see what they're doing. We'll follow up with our attorney just to get his advice on different things. We'll follow up with the information um that was given at that workshop as well. And I think, you know, that was definitely part of of the plan that Rebecca uh the very first thing for next steps was define team rules because

034we know that's going to be important as to who's doing what and and how we're going to proceed. So that will all we would never proceed without having that um stuff lined up. So, I think we'll just plan on doing our research and sharing that with the board as quickly as possible and >> just keep the conversation moving forward. >> Thank you. I'm Kim now. >> Kim, I'm Kim. Um, I just also want to um make sure we add there that we need to create the policy. >> We definitely need to create policy around this before we implement. >> Yeah, I'll get examples of policies from other districts and we can start there. Madam Chair, you know, Liz was talking about uh having it be a one-way thing to be on the safer side rather

035than having it be interactive, you know, responding to the post and whatnot. Uh I'm remembering now something that I've been thinking about for a while. This is a topic for another time. I want to raise it so that other people can remember it because I'm liable to forget it myself because if I tie a string around my fing and that is this um we've experienced not constantly but it happens once in a while our meetings or gettogethers are punctuated with the feeling that parents usually who want to communicate with the board are frustrated. You've heard this in other settings as well. I remember experienced this in the town council. What do you mean I only get three minutes? What do you mean I only get five minutes? when you have a regular meeting and you

036have citizens comment or there's email but I think there's a general frustration. I don't have an answer. I'm not proposing that our social media project be two-way instead of one way as you propose. simply raising the issue so we can think about how we can satisfy the desire on the beha on behalf of that the community the parents for example have they feel like how do I vent how do I you know other than I can't always address all the issues some people let's face it will sort of never be satisfied as no you could provide them with a hundred avenues of communication they'll it's not enough they 101 but I I'll bet you that there is a general feeling not just the boards of vetted with other bodies as well. People feel as though

037I can't get to them. You know, I send an email and nobody ever responds or email is not my thing or I go to the meeting and they only give me, as I said, x number of minutes. So, just a topic for the future. How is there a way to address this so people feel like I can talk to my representatives? You know, I feel like I'm getting through. That's But listen, you mentioned that. I thought of that. >> But I just want to clarify, please. >> Yeah, sure. I just wanted to say what this person was telling us about the one-way communication. It's not necessarily my personal opinion, but um this was what one of the recommendations that came out that this was what something we may want to consider, >> right? >> But

038the way it's set up. >> Oh, and I Yeah. And I I completely understand the concern whether it's yours or the presenters uh about having essentially a free-for-all on social media. That can go south pretty quickly. I get that. Uh but like I said that said I'm still thinking about possible avenues to to address the the accessibility >> I agree issue. >> Are there any other questions or comments? If not we'll move on to >> Did you have a closing comment? >> There are um some limitations when you set up pages in terms of turning off commenting. And so limiting the two-way communication is a bit tricky. And I think as we look at the page setup that that will likely need to be one of the in addition to the policy which I think

039is very important um and critical the whether or not that's even really feasible and manage it and manageable because um there are only certain types of pages that you can actually do that with uh and there may be size limitations on those. So that's something we are going to have to take a peek at because um as to whether or not it it's an option or not um and if that impacts how we proceed. >> Thank you. >> I just had a quick question. Um could somebody let me know who would be responsible for maintaining the page? I >> think that's a question for all of us, >> right? We don't have an answer, but we know that um Rebecca has been instrumental in gathering the evidence and keeping us on our communication plan and

040she's really been the lead communicator in the district. Um so, you know, we but we do have other people in the district as well who can help support the initiative. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I think we have to wait for Phil to come back at least in and your meeting. Sure. >> In that case, if we finish with that, we go on to minimum wage. >> And that was an attachment as well. >> Thank you all. Pleasure to see you all. >> Rebecca, it was good to see you even if it was by Zoom. >> Good to see you, too. yellow and orange. >> Can I um Madame Chair? >> Yes, Madam Chair. >> Um if I could just ask um I love the fact that we've spread people out. I think that that's

041really good. What has happened is that we have a very limited view. So, I see all of Phil and now I see most of Lori, but anyone who's sitting on the other side of them, if they could just even announce themselves so that I mean, I recognize Dean's voice. Um, but if there's anyone else speaking, I may not. And so, that would just be helpful for um for those of us who are um on the hybrid. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Are you ready? Is this something you're doing? >> Oh, are they here? >> I think they would have to just change the view. Kim, >> you really can't be changed. >> All right, we ready? We're ready. We're ready for Lori. >> So, um I'm sending around an additional some additional materials um

042that is that's included with the original attachment. Um I just like to clarify I did send an email over to Rita Jay >> and Kim. Did I miss anybody else? >> Rosemary's on there. Rosemary. Okay, let me do that quickly here. Was there anybody else? >> Lucen, if I could get a copy. >> Yes, we'll make sure you get a copy. Joan. >> Yeah. >> What's she not coming up in the spell? >> Rosemary Roberts. Roberts. >> R E R T. Okay. >> There she is. Robertson. >> So, so is this one different than what was sent in our packet, Lori? >> Uh, Rita, no, it's the same uh introductory page, but there's some additional attachments. I'm going to speak to you. So, I did send it over. You guys could at least pull it

043up on the screen. I just sent it at the start of the meeting. >> So, I just want to walk through what's here, talk a little bit about the issues, and this is something that Ken and I worked on together. So, Ken, feel free to jump in. Um, so we met with the finance facilities committee um a couple of times to talk about the current status of the minimum wage and I mean we've been talking about it for quite some time with the board and we know the minimum wage is coming. Some of the issues we're experiencing now is that um we're experiencing quite a bit of staffing shortages this year. It's very prominent to the point where we're getting extremely concerned. And what we're finding is that a lot of uh businesses, organizations, even

044school systems, they have advanced their wages and they're paying minimum wage or higher. So, the district is now fallen behind in its wages. So, what we wanted to do is talk through the proposal that we have here, which is to address that concern. Um and then um in the process of talking about it, we'll also talk a little bit about cost and funding because we've been working on that as well. Um but what I'd like to do is just kind of walk through this initial page. There's some additional supporting um competitive market data we'll talk through and then kind of go from there. So um in the minimum wage analysis and proposal that you have, basically what we've done is identified all of the jobs in the district that pay less than minimum wage currently.

045We put together a proposal to move them to minimum wage. And then for those jobs that were making above minimum wage, we did account for some incremental advancement of those positions to make them more um comparable from a from a market standpoint. So we took a look at jobs that were making above 15 and move them at a comparable pace to those minimum wage jobs. So Ken and I spent quite a few months kind of looking at this and dissecting it and we feel like this proposal at least gets us a a good starting place. We're currently, as I mentioned, we're we're currently behind the market in in every job at this point. And so it's it's creating critical hiring shortages. And it's also um shifted, I would say, in the last month or so

046to kind of critical retention issues. we're starting to see individuals leave our district and take jobs in other school systems because um they they're they're going to make more money. So where not only do we have a hiring problem, we have a retention problem. So um and it's really gotten to a critical stage. Um so that's what that's what brings the proposal forward. What I'd like to do is just mention a couple key things about the first sheet. We do have a proposal related to the pair of professionals. they are below minimum wage. We have not noted it on the sheet. We've indicated um that we need to negotiate that with them. But we do have a proposal which is similar in concept to what's on the upper part of the page to address the

047minimum wage hiring requirement uh for new hires, but then also some incremental increase for the pair of professionals themselves. Um what we would propose doing is if the board supports moving forward with this, we would enter into negotiations with the pair of professionals um to kind of work out those details. Um and then so I'd like to turn to the next page in the packet which is basically some analysis of sub rates that we collected some data analysis which indicated the daily sub rate building sub rate and long-term sub rate. So for those just to give a little uh background daily subs are those that come in and out on a daily basis um take assignments on a day-to-day basis. Building subs are individuals who report every day to the school system and they they

048work as a substitute teacher, but they have a commitment for the entire school year. And then long-term subs are specific long-term assignments covering mainly leaves of absence where they're going to be around for an extended period of time and they're um responsible for all the planning and uh assessment and grading in the classroom >> and require certain certifications. >> Certifications, correct? Um so with this I would say a couple of the highlights are um with the daily sub rates the majority of the districts are $100 or more per day. Um you can see that in the breakdown of the data. Building subs are a little more about um they range anywhere from about 110 to 125. Um so that is what kind of guided our proposal for substitute teachers. We had proposed we propose 105

049and uh for daily subs and 125 for building subs. No changes proposed uh to the long-term sub if I recall. Um so we feel that at least um we feel like we can retain the subs that we have. We can um hopefully attract new ones in. what what we don't want to do is keep losing them to other districts because that just creates continued shortages. Um so that is the information I would say kind of the high points of the subteer rates. Ken, do you have anything you want to add? >> No. Um so we put this together. You notice there's no there's no districts listed. I put this together. I I I failed to put those in. So I apologize that but we did get this information from a combination of uh uh through

050learn and from Casp. So yeah, I feel comfortable at these. These are up to date. >> I have a question, Andrea. >> Yes. >> Um my question is, um since we're increasing the cost and um and with our long-term subs, we pay them much more than other districts, it seems. $44.21, 21 cents. Is there a way to lower that rate to cover the cost of the additional cost of the daily subs and building subs? >> We're we're paying a bachelor's rate one for those long-term that require certification and you can see many others on the list that do the same >> all the way up because it it does look like there's a large discrepancy with the other districts like $4427. >> I don't see where you're looking. Yeah, that's based on the average Rita,

051but if you look at the detail itself, there are some 250s, 256, 260s. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, 263, 250, 257. So, there's quite a few that are up in that range where we are. We can certainly have that conversation when we talk about cost. >> Just a thought. I was just trying to figure the union hourly rate. My feeling is that a custodian entry level should be at least the same as a secretary entry level. You have it a little less. I would like to see it the same. Um just I just think it would make more sense. >> Okay, I'll make a note of that. >> That's just something when I look at this to me that is something that I would like to see. I'm all for raising all of these because

052we are far behind especially with our paras. So thank you. Thank you, Rita. >> Any other comments or questions? >> I just want to say um I appreciate that you you pushed this out so that the people who have been here in Loyal still get an incremental raise and I think that's important because that's not happening everywhere. And two, it's a 2% am I correct? Is that it 2% across the board for those who are already here or is it more? >> It's more. It's going to vary depending on the position and how much the um entry level job moved to meet the minimum wage. >> Okay. So, but but you have made that adjustment and I just wanted to commend you for that because it's very important that we demonstrate that our that our

053people who have been with us that we appreciate that and that we stay that they are they're valued and I think that says a lot. >> So, I just wanted to say thank you. You're welcome. >> And then I'd like to speak to the next um handout. Um this is just some competitive data related to pair professional rates. So it says at the top brought pair professional chapter and it lists the dur anglic and contigious. Um so it just gives us all a sense as to kind of where we are and you can see in all of the groups we're below on the minimum which is the entry level rate. >> Um and then we're also below on the maximum. Now obviously we realize we can't solve all of this in this one adjustment and

054we have negotiations coming up that we need to take into account. So what we would be looking to propose with the pair is when we negotiate with them is possibly considering maybe a one-year contract extension to address the immediate issues and then from there um continue to look at this data in you know as we move through the negotiations process with them. and looking to January as the time to start making these moves, right? >> Yeah. So, the proposal uh that we've prepared would would have an effective date of January 1, 2022 um for for the um proposal that we have in front of us. Um let me just take a peek if there's anybody have any questions on the paraprofessional data before we move off of that. Ken, anything to add? Just kind of

055highlighting. >> Kim is waiting. >> Um, >> it's so hard to understand sort of what's going on. Um, I guess what I what I to understand I guess in a nutshell is is that we are woefully underpaying um the folk that are doing the work. Um and so um I am just wondering in terms of process um is do you need to have before the next um regular board meeting, do you need to have the negotiations meet with you, Lori, to kind of go over what this one-year contract would look like um so that we could then vote it vote on it next week? >> Yes, we would need to Well, we need to vote on it uh we did need to vote on it in December. once we negotiate with them with the pair

056of professionals. The rest of the groups on this page are non-union that are um targeted for adjustment. So the only group right now that we need to bargain with is pair of professionals. >> Okay. So I would I would absolutely make a recommendation. Well, and if you need to Okay, so we have the 13th is our next regular board meeting in in December. Not I'm not talking about November. Um and that is when our board is um being sworn in, but we seem to want to make sure that we have this information kind of sealed up before then. Is am I thinking too much out loud? So Kim, what I would recommend if the board would give me permission, I would be happy to reach out to the pair professionals unit and um have some

057initial conversation with them to gauge their interest and then I could schedule a session with the negotiations committee with them. Is that suitable? Just >> Yeah. The only hesitancy I have, Laura, I think that that's a great I think that that's a great plan. Um the my only hesitancy to that Lori is um we are we will have a new board at that point which is fine but we also could have a different um negotiating committee. So I was just trying to kind of keep um some consistency um that that's >> we could do a special meeting too if need. I think I think that that's what I would uh prefer to have and that we could even have and once again I'm not cutting the new board the new constellation of board members out.

058I just think that um this is so this is something that we have been talking this board has been talking about quite a bit. Um, and so I'm just thinking that that makes the most sense. And maybe Susan, you have a much better head around those things than I do. And maybe you and I you and I, Phil, can talk about what what that would look like in terms of calendar and stuff. >> Absolutely. >> That would be great. >> So, as I mentioned, the the targeted effective date is January 1st. Um, I I'll let Ken speak to the cost and and what we uh propose in the way to deal with this issue. Uh, but what I will say is as the board's considering the issue, it's not a matter of if we do

059this, it's a matter of when and how we do it. And knowing that we're really at a critical crossroad with our workforce, I'm very concerned if we go beyond January. I I just don't know what the state of the workforce will be. We're really already in a detrimental state. We recruit every week. We're doing everything we can, but the reality is is um we're not competitive. So people aren't taking the jobs and then now we're losing them on top of it. So I know um you know that if we ever if we want to hear from the administrators, I know they would certainly be happy to comment and and talk about some of their challenges and struggles with having u not having everything that they need. No, I mean I I I can only speak

060for me and I so I'm sorry, Madam Chair, for interrupting, but um I just I I don't feel like I personally need to hear about the struggles. I think that there's enough anecdotal evidence that you need staff and we are this is, you know, I'm looking at Rita's face through this, you know, through the zoom and and and we talk about this at all of our um liazison meetings with the um HSA and GA. So, this is nothing that's all that new and surprising. And like Liz said, as long as we make sure that those who are who are sticking it and being and and staying with us that we make sure that they get compensated as well. So, I would look really forward um to hearing about that. And maybe folks maybe maybe it's

061the board is the negotiate if because I think we're running out of time. Maybe the maybe the board becomes the negotiating team and that maybe we should just schedule a special board meeting with a with a with a possible purpose of actually um voting on it um in a special board meeting. That would be my recommendation, but I haven't talked to um Susan yet. And Susan, you're so far away from me. I can't I can't see what your expression on your face is. >> I'm I'm nodding my head. Yes. And we need to take care of it sooner than later. and we've really figured out the cost for this thing and it is doable. So for this year it's half the cost of what it's going to be next year >> because we only have

062half a year that we're doing it. >> Do you want me to speak to that at all? >> That would be great. >> Can I do that? >> I I I would like to see this done by the end of November and not on the December meeting. I I believe we could vote on it um even next week if Lori has the chance to reach out to the pair of professionals. >> Yep. Yep. >> She's saying yes. I'm planning to speak with them on uh Wednesday. >> So, >> I mean, I think this should be, you know, we've been asking for this for a couple of years, so I think as soon as possible and then it would go into effect January 1. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Feeling. Um, so one other thing before

063I turn it over to Ken about the uh cost is there is one item on the proposal. It's called a registered behavior technician. It's called an RBT. It is a highly skilled pair professional. These are common these have become common in other districts. We're proposing to add this to the district. Um, and we've indicated that in the proposal. We have a job description ready to review with the pair professional unit. It comes with um specific uh training that the uh RBT would need to complete to become certified in order to have this job. And it's really um focused on putting these positions targeted into our uh self-contained classroom. So our ABA rooms, ourmies, our proposal is to start out in one per room and get them functioning and then reassess and and certainly we anticipate

064adding additional in the future, but we think the responsible thing to do would be to add one per classroom in the program and get them operating and get all those individuals trained. The training is not expensive to do. It can be done online, can be done fair in a fairly reasonable amount of time. So we feel strongly that this will recognize those pair of professionals that have been have been or will be operating with a much higher um level of training in these classrooms and and we want to compensate them appropriately. So we feel as though this would be favorably received by the unit although we have to speak to them about it. Um so I just wanted to point out that is an addition that's part of this proposal. >> Yep. It's very common

065in the districts around us. Most of the districts around us have these positions as well. Stonington Ledger Ledger just posted one today, I think. >> And they would report to a specialized behaviorist. >> Yes. >> A BCBA. So, they would also have that mentoring happening right there. Um, so we're really excited about this as a way to grow our own staff and to give them additional training and to respect the the great work that they do because it is quite a challenging job, but and there are people who are really good at it and so to really honor them and give them more training and have that mentoring I think will be terrific and I think it'll be terrific for our children. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Yeah. >> So, I'll turn it over. Ken, do

066you want to L Lori, we have we had talked about this even when we were negotiating with the Perils about having that group of people that were, you know, get receiving more money. But now that you're putting a different name on them, would present our present pair of professionals be able to apply for this if they do the training? >> Absolutely. And that's our goal is that we reward those pair of professionals that are already in district. We're going to allow them to do the training in order to be eligible for this position. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Who pays for the training? >> We we would pay for the training. Okay. >> It's nominal. >> It would go with our regular PD. >> You also mentioned a um another position. Is that somebody that's

067already on staff or is that something that we're going to have to go in and and add another position? >> Are you talking about the >> BCBA? The BCBA is not currently on staff. Somebody's got to click the >> Somebody grab the board. >> Can you go tap it? >> The BCBA is not currently on staff, but was targeted for uh funding through, forgive me, was it alliance or >> BCBA? The BCBA? >> Um, >> we identified a a grant to fund the position. >> Uh, ARPA. >> Oh, thank you. >> Yes, we that's another um funding source that we can tell you. We've brought it to finance and facilities, but specifically for special education, there's an art section for special ed. Um, we also have a preschool, preK, K social worker in there as

068well because of some of the behaviors we've seen and the transitioning back. And so, at least for the next few years, I think that will be um very helpful. >> The grant would cover this remainder of this year and another year. >> Yeah. Kim, is that something that you want to talk about now or during budget time? >> Um, I I think we it's it's two parts, right, Andrea? Like it's the what we have to do for the immediate to make sure that we cover what we need to have starting January 1st, but it's also then part of our journey. Um, okay, so here's the cliche journey through the budget, right? Like what is the journey? What is our story um about about the budget? So, I think it's a two two-part thing, but that's

069a good question. >> Yeah. And Ken, Ken, do you want to >> Sure. Uh, this is Ken just uh you can't see me. Um, so the cost that we anticipate from this proposal uh to increase uh to the district is probably in the range of about $120,000 uh when you when you add in all the all the folks that we're talking about here. Uh but the we're actually going to be able to uh fund this in that uh due to the power shortage there has been a cost avoidance. Uh we've literally not paid people that we had in our budget. Uh and through um through last week we had a cost avoidance of around 111,000. So you can see that um uh that this this that will be able to fund uh this proposal and

070we anticipate that by the end of the calendar year that's probably going to be closer to 221,000. So um I I think uh we'll still be well within budget uh even with this proposal at least for this year. Then we'll have to talk about the impact next year, >> right? We'll have to budget for that. Yeah. Yeah. >> Any other comments? Well, then thank you again. We'll move on to the initial predict prediction of budget FY23. All right. >> So, that's me again. This is again, >> do you want to come sit over here or are you good with your computer? You're all set up. >> I like being off screen. >> Okay. voice. >> All right. >> Um, >> but uh I I Susan wanted to uh wanted to understand where we think uh

071the FY23 budget will land. So this is this is a very high level. It's not looking at detail at all. Um it's looking at big buckets. Uh of course our biggest bucket being salaries. Um and it it just kind of goes through uh you know starting with the FY22 budget. Yeah, this is the uh uh page with a yellow bar across the middle of it. >> Uh so we start with um our current budget of 77,438. Uh and then we're adding in the uh the increases. Most of these are based upon uh contractual increases. Biggest number on there being the the teacher step and GWI that we just uh just finished negotiating. Uh that alone adds a million63,000 uh to to the budget. Uh we're anticipating um uh six retirements which will uh be a

072cost avoidance of $90,000 next year. Uh you'll notice in the in the highlighted area, these are the uh positions we were just talking about. reason they're highlighted is um they're grant funded, meaning we we've made some put funds away in these other uh funding sources, the ARP IDA and IDA recovery uh fund which are good for this year as well as next year. Uh and then uh as well as the ARP esser uh so th those those well they're an increase and not they shouldn't increase our our operating budget. Um so then all all the areas the par professionals uh uh 2% we haven't um we haven't negotiated anything but we put in a placeholder uh tutors uh clerical staff um custodial. You you'll notice the very last line under salaries is minimum wage impact

073of 253,000. That's what we're talking about uh uh on the on the last item. This is the fullear impact for next year. So, it's going to impact us by 253,000. So, uh that's why that's added in here. Um and then just to move on a little bit, uh employee benefits, uh an estimate on health insurance increase, uh social security and Medicare costs, as well as u increased cost of transportation based upon our contract uh with SDA. and then some estimates on our out of district tuitions and then a small amount of increase under expenses and I have to say that inflation rate as of last week was 4.6%. Uh so at a this year plus 2% we're really not we're we're losing ground here but uh um hope hopefully we can make all that work.

074Um so the total increase is the second column not the first column the second column that we anticipated somewhere in uh 2.3 million uh range based upon these assumptions uh which is a 3% increase. >> Are there any questions or comments? >> No. I wanted you to kind of see a baseline going out of the gate so we would have our bearings straight. We kind of did this last year when Mike was still with us. So we had a before the holiday view of, you know, without any other changes, here's what, you know, a 2% and contractual looks like going into the budget cycle. So I thought that was really important and also considering that the cost of living is up to 4.65%. you know, we just have to, you know, be mindful and certainly

075we'll be as efficient as possible when we go through this budget, but just know that this is, you know, we've done 0% for several years. Um, and you know, it you can only do it so long without actually cutting into your program. So, I just want you to be aware. >> And I guess one thing to add is we don't have school consolidations to to to help us. you know, we had school consolidation past two years which helped us to, you know, move positions around, eliminate positions in some cases. Uh, so that's not an area we can go to. And then, uh, we've also taken quite a bit from the health insurance reserve. We're at a point where we just can't keep doing that. We're at a level where if we cut it much more,

076we we we impact the future. And so we don't don't have that as to go to as much as we've had in the past. >> And we've been responsible in paying our debt with OPED the past several years besides coming in at zero. And um you know, so we we've been stretched pretty thin. So, I'm just letting you know where we are coming out of the gate so that those disc discussions will be really fruitful as we go through March through the budget. >> Anybody else? >> I I have a um you know, I know contractually we're bound to these, but the ones the positions that are not contractual, we might want to think about being 1.5 um because there there is just no way I mean 80 That's just such an enormous sum of

077money. Um I just can I mean 3% that that's that's really very very high and um I know we'll have to make cuts and I don't want to make teaching staff cuts. I don't want to make a lot of cuts that going to impact our children. So um you know in some way we're going to have to find savings somewhere along the line here. Um, we can >> Oh, the the percent I'm sorry, the percent you referred to are the contractual percents. The other ones we've just discussed um at trying to get the minimum wage up to par and then taking care of those pair of professionals. So, that's just based on what the plan game plan is for now. >> Well, there are other ones in in this in in here besides pair of

078professionals. um there's administrative staff, there's central office staff. Um there, you know, we're going to have to find savings whether or not we cut positions or do something. You know, it's it's just that's a that's an tremendous increase and there are a lot of people who are suffering right now and I I just hope that when we go through this starting in January, it doesn't look like this. That's just my feeling. >> Well, you know, we'll do our due diligence. We always do. I know you will. Yep. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. So, then we're going to move on to the review of enduser device. >> Clint, do you want to come up here? >> Sure. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Exit. Are you >> not afraid to be on camera? Do I have the

079floor? >> You have the floor. >> All right. Thank you. >> So, this is a a quick update as promised from when we met two weeks ago. I gave you a general kind of overview draft proposal of what we're thinking about from uh staff devices that they're using day-to-day. Um uh a couple of board members asked for a deeper dive of version two with some more details. Dean, I think you mentioned it and others. Uh, so I wanted to come back with some more details um and a more accurate reflection of of current staffing models and so forth. So that's what I tried to lay out here. Long story short, I've shared there. This is a two-page document that everybody should have should have gotten in their packet on Friday. Um, the second page is

080what I shared two weeks ago. >> Was it this one? >> Correct. The first page uh is new information and what I shared was really kind of a device selection criteria that we've been working through as a team as I work with the IT department with building leaders with teacher representatives and the like. Um and then I wanted to get to some more specifics as well as what this would cost. Uh currently right now in GR public schools we do lease uh copers and printers and so forth. I think it is high time that we we do this with enduser devices um to get into a regular refresh cycle to modernize and to align and really standardize the devices we're using uh across the board for better management but most more importantly uh consistency across

081what we're doing uh in our classrooms providing you know teaching and learning activities and the like as I mentioned before we have a wide variety of tools and devices being used by professional staff that range changed numerous years. Um, and that has happened over time. I'm guessing I wasn't here, but it's very common in that you have a certain amount of dollars and you can upgrade a certain amount of equipment and then you move on. So, it it creates these issues of many different versions, many different pieces of hardware, many different pieces of software and the like. So this again is our attempt um to cover both uh teachers, admin and co staff, pair professionals and tutors appropriately so that we can lock into a regular payment on a yearly basis um at as low

082cost as possible to provide that consistency and move forward. And again, I will mention it one more time. Um, from a security perspective and as I kind of audit our systems and so forth and as we work with, uh, our insurance providers and the like, I need a certain guarantee that what we're putting out there to secure personal data, per PII, as well as student data and the like is there. Um, that is a reality of what we're talking about and things like two-factor authentication and so forth needs to be put into place so that we can continue to be covered. god forbid we have some type of ransomware uh issue or other largecale security breach. I'm hoping we don't. We were working diligently to avoid that. Um but we're again we're seeing it grow

083and we want to be diligent and and address that. >> And there's been no final decision though on the type of this is just an estimate on the type of devices. >> Correct. >> Right. I have a question. Go ahead, >> Clint. Um, I see here you have sample yearly payments for four years. What um what how does that compare to what's happening currently? >> I mean, is there is there a savings here? Is this a >> So, currently we do not lease uh devices. We buy them outright or have historically. Yeah. >> Uh no devices were purchased right now or since I've I've taken over, we're we're using devices that have been purchased previously. be it Chromebooks, be it right laptops for staff and so forth. So again, based on historical practice, it's typically

084purchased, not least, >> and it's purchased when budget dollars are available to do that. And it has been >> inconsistent from it hasn't been on a regular purchase schedule. That's why we have such a wide variety of different model types and ages on these from a year old to nine years old, uh, and so forth. So I think my question and I'm sorry if I didn't phrase it correctly um currently understand the situation what for maintaining what we have >> is there a line item for that >> is there a budget line item and how does that compare to what this is? >> Sure there is a there is a small line item as far as hardware would go you know replacing screens and keyboards and the like. Uh, a lot of this would then,

085you know, be put onto the shoulders of tech staff that would need to be able to repair that and so forth. A lot of this equipment is out of warranty and well beyond life cycle. So, I can't guarantee that I can fix all of them in all situations. Um, so yeah, that's uh we will obviously do our best and and keep whatever we can on the road as long as we possibly can. That's what the schools do, >> right? But that that's a key piece. If we're out of warranty and and we you know I know if you can't find the pieces >> and and it's more time in repairing hardware, less time with our tech staff working with teachers and pair of professionals and others to integrate technology, working on projects and so forth

086in the classroom. So there's a finite amount number of time hours. So that would be you know one for the other. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? D. >> Yeah, I was just thinking of this. I may have mentioned it last time as well. Um, a device replacement fund. One of the things you're trying to solve here is the um the partial replacement of equipment you'd like to replace. Let's assume we started with >> equipment of all the same vintage, but over time we we don't feel like replacing. We can't replace can't spend the money to replace everything. So we we replace half. It's kind of like repaving some of your roads but not all of them. Right. >> So rather than incur these large jumps, we say, well, we've got a bunch of

087laptops out there and they're getting to be six, seven years old and it's recommended that we but who wants to spend all that money? Well, let's replace half of them and see if the other half will live along. Okay. So this attempts to solve that problem by basically leasing. So you somebody else does the updating, you continue to pay a lease. would having a a device replacement fund that we would put money into every year where we would have planned out the obsolescence or maybe I shouldn't say obsolescence. You want to get rid of these before they become totally obsolete. Would how would this compare to that? I know you wouldn't get the uniformity. >> Um >> but how would that how would that look? This is my attempt to do I think what you're

088what you're talking about again because >> because because >> we're we're breaking this we're we're accepting all of the equipment up front and then paying you know 25% of it over time based on a lease. I'm solving for the we don't have that big leap of capital infusion once every x years. We're meeting that out over time, but I'm also solving then the inconsistency problem of having different types of equipment, different ages, different maintenance contracts and so forth on those. So, if I understand your question correctly, in essence, I'm trying to do that by switching from purchasing to leasing to solve those two issues. And then there would be that lower cost every year that would be consistent in the budget that we could count on presented to this body each year. >> Yeah, that's

089that's my question. That's why I should phrase it that way. Would would this where we're basically leasing somebody else's equipment? >> Yep. >> be cheaper than funding annually, which of course would be at our discretion, which could be mischievous with, but let's assume that we're good and we annually fund a a uh a device replacement fund so that as we need to, this will create different vintage machines, but as we need to, we have the money. we don't have the fiscal jumps and you would have to live with the fact that we have different vintage equipment but you know welcome to the real world kind of thing lots of places have that I raise that only because I'm thinking if you do this are we guaranteed as much as anything can be guaranteed in this

090life are we guaranteed that we will from this point forward have a we will solve the problem of the inconsistent vintages So, I've hedged on this a little bit. >> Yeah. >> What I've done is instead of a fair market value lease, which after four years, you don't own any equipment, you hand it back, you paid your money, you didn't really earn anything for it, this is a this these numbers represent, I think I noted it, kind of a $1 fair market value. So, at the end of four, a $1 lease as opposed to a fair market value, meaning at the end of four years, we have built up some goodwill in this equipment in that we can buy them outright for a dollar. So we could say you could say after four years we

091have a financial downturn or whatever the case may be is you have some options. You can say well we don't have dollars to continue this type of plan so let's purchase them outright for a dollar a piece and Clint you and your team need to stretch and make it work. Do what you can to make it work. Or we could take the value inherent in those machines, turn them in, and then negotiate an a new lease where we had that additional benefit that we have equipment that we now own and we could get to the good by turning that back in and having new equipment. So we have options. So it sounds like in the future we could still have a situation where this is money aside still have a situation where we have equipment

092of all different vintages and presenting the problems that you you now have with well that you now have with equipment of different different vintages. So then the question becomes what was cheaper paying every year into a device replacement fund or leasing all this stuff? >> I guess I don't know what I I paying into that fund each year. Are you saying build up a a nest egg, so to speak? >> Exactly. We put we put money away. We pretend it's not there. Try to be good so that when we do need to purchase equipment according to a schedule that we lay out, we're going to have these laptops for five years, whatever it is, so that we can we have the money there. We don't have to go actually budgeted that year. >> So what's

093>> Ken probably has an idea on this >> fiscal year? I'm not sure. Oh, we're not allowed to carry it over. That's a whole different effect. >> We do with the supplemental um impact aid. We do are able to do that for at least the student computers and other needs that we have in technology. So, in a sense, the federal government gives us, let's say, $400,000 for this extra impact aid supplemental that comes right to the board. And then we have a plan to make sure we have that onetoone Chromebook now even in elementary school. So looking at the number of Chromebooks, seeing what has to be refreshed, seeing what other needs are there. So that's a year-to-year kind of area where we can use those savings so to speak. >> But so we can't

094but the town can >> but the town do it for us. We'll pay the town. We'll pay every year. we'll fund the fund and when we need to the money is there the way that we have money for police cars and things. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that but it sounds like >> that sounds like something we'd have to meet with the town. >> And the reason I'm doing this is I think I'm close to that. Obviously, it's a different approach. I think we're close to that because we're keeping this yearly cost low. In essence, what I would ask you to put in that reserve fund anyway, but I can get the equipment up front and I can be using it today and and consistently across the board. And that's selfish. I wanted

095this equipment so that I can do that across the board today with staff to fix this immediate problem in front of me. >> Right? >> But in five years, we could be back to where we are now. >> In four years, we're going to make a decision. Do we spend roughly $500 or $600 and then we own all of them outright and you could say, "Hey Clint, I need you to make it last not four years, five years, six years." Um or we could then enter into a new four-year agreement. >> It's just hard. I'm I I confess it's just hard for me to be able to gauge the uh financial effectiveness, if you will, of this. Yeah, without some further research. You know, it's like do I buy a car or lease the car?

096The perennial question. and and because the the low to zero financing rate to me it's the money is even but I get one platform and I get it now which is the advantage to leasing as opposed to different types of models over time and I get a quarter now a quarter next year a quarter the year after and a quarter the year after is why I'm going >> but you're still saying it's possible that we could wind up in the same situation anyway what we have >> you have yes but you have a decision you you the advantage is instead of being forced into it. We have a decision. The board has a decision at that point to say, "Well, I we're not locked into it. We can jump out and go back to the

097old way or we can continue this new model." >> Thanks. Sure. >> Are there any other questions? >> Yep. And I have a couple of questions for Clint. >> Hi, Rita. >> Hi. How are you? >> Good. Well, at one time for upgrades to our um computer devices, we we did use DoD money and it we had a plan that you know every year, you know, we use this for technology. Do we still do that? I mean, we do it with the students, I assume. >> Yes. Yeah. Do money. My understanding is that has been used in the past for technology and I would love to consider it uh for this current ask. >> That would be great. And and I have a question. The mobile device management license $18 per MacBook Air. What is

098that for? >> So what a mobile device management system basically allows you to push applications in and out of a device and manage it. Um the this $18 is based on the system that Groten currently uses and has been using. It's a system called J Pro. Um I have been looking at alternatives to get that down closer to five or $6 per person per year as opposed to 18. There are pros and cons with that. Um, but ultimately it's it's how do we manage the applications and the licenses on each of the machines and in the case of a malfunction or a theft or a uh where we have to reset the machine uh a tool like that allows you to bring back your applications, your data and so forth and you get back to

099good uh much more quickly than trying to do that peacemeal oneoff and so forth. >> Okay. And when in March 2020, I know you weren't here, but we did um send a lot of computers to our teaching staff and our parents also so that people could work remotely. What type of computers were those and are they still functioning? >> Uh it is a wide variety of them. Most of them are Windows-based PCs, but a good portion of those are also Chromebooks. And what this now that we have the ability to to the Google suite is really being used across the board K12 with students. So when a paraprofessional or a tutor is working with a student, they're having the same technology that they have. And we've recently now allowed that. So Chromebooks can actually use

100the printing facility. So as tutors are working with students and preparing lessons, be them in school or outside of school, they now have same technology plus the ability to print on those Chromebooks as well. Chromebook to the teachers laptops that they presently have. I mean, some of them must be fairly new. >> Yeah, they're like I said, it's a variety. It's from one to nine years old. So, the plan would be, should we do this, we pull all of those back. We refurbish them. Uh, and we turn a good portion of those into Chromebooks, especially the older ones. Anything that's older than four years, that's well past its age. uh by putting Chrome OS, which is the operating system on a Chromebook, um you can get more length uh more time out of that hardware

101as opposed to running an operating system like Windows or Mac OS or something that assumes better hardware. >> Okay, thank you. >> Sure. Yeah. So, I would love to use those old devices, continue to use those as back fill for student devices and other needs across the district. So, they will they will not go unused. >> Thanks. Okay, I'm gonna go to Jay next. >> Yes. Hi. Um I hope I don't repeat too much. I did have to step out for a minute, but as I understand it, Clint, um we've got devices out there up to 9 years old. Um no consistent plan for replacement, these uh teacher and admin laptops, correct me if I'm wrong, are the weakest link we have in terms of security. uh and ransomware attacks and this sort of thing.

102So by initiating this now u ransomware attacks are probably not going to start within a a student Chromebook. Am I correct? >> It is an advantage to a Chromebook in that it is a more secure device as we've seen demonstrated by data over time. None of these devices are 100% but certainly a Chrome OS device is more secure from a traditional ransomware attack. >> Okay. But the the idea is though that these teachers and admins probably have more access to uh databases that are going to be subject to ransomware attacks. So by rolling this out and replacing all of that and then using the devices that are still uh usable for students um then we can uh make sure that all these frontline devices uh have the most up-to-date uh security. It's an, as you

103know, it's an ongoing battle, but this proposal puts us in a better secure posture moving forward to address some of those security concerns that school districts have around the country than if we hold the line, what we currently have. >> And and by having this one sort of all new platform, you can push out the updates you need to push out, I assume, more easily than dealing with vintages of computers that could be nine years old. Yeah, correct. Currently, the way we image and update computers uh is a variety of techniques because of the vintage of the computer and the operating system on it. >> Okay. And um since we have the uh DoD supplemental, I know Dean was talking about like setting up a syncing fund, which I believe the town has talked about

104for many many years for vehicles, but I don't think they ever did it. Um they also were talking about doing it for their IT. I I don't think, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think they they ever actually endorsed it. So, we already have that in a way through our DoD supplemental. Um, and so we can just finance this right away. And you told us at financing facilities that um after four years, you could just do a dollar buyout. >> Correct. >> Okay. As I thought, you mentioned something about a $400. Again, I stepped out for a minute, but so in four years there's a huge budget crisis. We can't afford to buy um the new computers or extend the lease. You buy them for a dollar and you go another year or two.

105>> Correct. >> We're still in a better situation than we are with our 9-year-old machines. >> Yeah. Again, there the alternative could be a fair market value lease, which would lower the yearly premiums somewhat as a percentage, but then we wouldn't have that opportunity to have a buyout at the end of four years. It would be we we would return the equipment and we would have we would have built up no value within it. So, um, that is one option I'm proposing that we use the B dollar buyout, which then provides options for this body after four years to make a determination. Then, >> and if I could just ask Ken, I hate to put you on the spot, Ken, but at this point, how much have you budgeted for use out of the DoD

106supplemental for the student needs for next year? Um, I don't think we have anything uh necessarily because because we got so many student um devices uh during the during the pandemic time. Uh I don't think we I don't think we actually need any right now. >> I am not going to be proposing any new student devices in the current budget coming up. >> Okay. And as I recall that uh account is very healthy right now. So if if there were a time to do it the the the time is probably right. >> Absolutely. Okay, thank you. >> Did you have something? >> No, I just uh I know that um I think up there on the chat there's some of the teachers here from Ed Rising. >> Yeah, I wrote that back to Jay. >>

107Okay. Sorry. I just Okay. Are there teachers here? >> No. No. Okay. >> Okay. All right. So, we're going to move to transportation update. That would be you. Do you want to be in view here? We'll play tag. [Music] >> I'm not shy about being on TV, Ken. >> So, I have a transportation report tonight. Um, as of this morning, uh, it was good news at SDA. They were up 100% in their staff, fully staffed. Uh however, by the end of the day, that was no longer true. They actually had a driver quit today. Uh but they do have a driver uh testing on the 23rd, so uh another week or so. Uh and they should be back to full, but in the meantime, they're borrowing drivers again uh because uh they're still combining runs

108and quite a few runs uh when we look at the list. Uh and uh and that is because they're still getting a lot of call outs. Uh Monday morning call outs. Uh in the last week, you may have heard >> Friday afternoon. >> Some of the problems were uh the afternoon. So they came to work in the morning but then called out in the afternoon. Something like nine or 10 people. So uh but they are borrowing drivers from the other towns and have been fully staffed the last couple of days with the exception of those afternoon call outs. Um the there is a driver safety committee meeting on uh Wednesday uh that they are going to conduct. I will participate in that meeting. I believe there's also a parent that's going to be joining that

109meeting as well. You may have heard that there was a a child that was on a bus for a long period of time uh just over a week ago and that parent will be joining that meeting to discuss some of those concerns that they have. Um uh we are also scheduling a meeting with uh the STA management uh along with my staff uh and we will be talking uh about uh uh making some um updates regarding some of the some of the problems that we've been having. We uh transportation has the transportation department has problems every day of the week and they're normal problems that we have. you know, kid uh moves into town and we've got to get that kid on a bus. Uh somebody typed in the wrong number, we got to we

110got to change it. So, uh there's a lot of little things that happen every day in the transportation department. But when you add these other uh issues with combining buses um and uh add in storms that happen on Fridays and things like that, kids getting off at the wrong stop or being left off uh without uh proper supervision at at that stop. So those all those things add up and those are the types of things that we're trying to work out with STA and uh I I see it as a probably a monthly meeting with STA management and my staff. uh the six of us at least getting together at least monthly, but we're going to start in the next week or so. Uh I did see um I didn't have it written down here,

111but I did see uh an email this afternoon, later this afternoon, uh that they are going to have their driver um appreciation u meeting coming up very shortly. I didn't uh I don't know what the date is. I'll report that when I see that next time. And uh that's pretty much what I have on transportation. If I um um I'll take questions, but if I could uh ask the chairperson's uh permission to give up uh one more comment on a facility item. I know >> you want you want to add it to the agenda. Is that what you're saying? >> Yeah, I'm asking if I could just it's just one little piece of information I think will be uh helpful. >> Where's the parliament area? I >> we don't have one. >> Madam Madam Chair,

112I think we can listen. >> Oh, >> we probably wouldn't be able to deliberate on an additional >> Yeah, it's not it's just for information for you because I know you don't like surprises later on. I got a call today from Rick Norris. This is a facilities thing. Uh got a call this afternoon from Rick Norris and uh the people that are working on the solar projects for the new schools are going to have a PPA for us uh proposal for us next week. purchase power agreement proposal uh that will come to us next week. Uh and so I'm hoping that uh we can invite Rick Norris to the next finance and facilities committee meeting to uh update us on that on the particulars of that and uh then it would go to the board

113after that because I'm sure that we're going to need your approval to put solar on on our project >> and that would be for Mystic River magnet and for um the Graten Middle School >> because we can't do it because ths River is in the city. >> Things River is in the Graten Utilities and they have a different program. So, it's a little more difficult. It may take us a little more time uh to hopefully get something there. >> Any any Okay. >> It's always nice to have. >> Yes. So, >> I I'm I'm curious about one thing, which is when the buses are done with Fitch and then they line up for the middle school. This seems to be where there's some variation. How long are the buses waiting at the middle school? Again,

114something that my daughter goes through. Sometimes it's okay. Sometimes it's long, a lot longer than she expected. So, are they ordered in any particular way? Because there's no room for all of the buses to be parked in front of the school so that the middle school comes out and the buses are all there. They're lined up beyond the school, aren't they? >> Yes. >> Okay. And is there any order? >> The middle school you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. It goes all the way up to the artificial field, >> right? Is there any order that they're lined up in or that's just too much to choreograph? >> No, they uh they leave the bus garage. They tried to leave the bus garage in order that the uh so they're in order when they get to the

115school in the same order each day. There have been a couple of cases where people uh drivers didn't get to the lot in time. So uh they alert the school that that bus is not in that line that they're at the end of the line. So um anytime a bus is late, it goes all the way to the end of the line. So um they get to the high school, they're lined up there. Uh it's reported to the high school uh the order of those buses and then they go over to the middle school >> in that order. >> Okay. >> They've been getting out of there um uh in in about 10 minutes uh recently. So uh in the afternoon. >> So when when they get to the middle school, they're all lined up.

116only so many of them can fit in front of the school or available at the >> about 11 or 12 in front that then there's about 11 12 that go from uh the flag pole up to the first corner and then there's another 11 or whatever the last number is. >> So you've got assuming that they all came in the order that you want a number of buses in front of the school. >> Are just the kids that get on those buses called to go to those buses or is there where are they gathered to then where are they mustered if you will to then get on the buses? They they were calling them out by grade level, but I think they're almost dismissing all of them at the same pretty close to the same

117time right now. So, they're all going out there at about the same time. >> So, all the kids regardless of whether the buses are in front of the school or not. >> Yeah, they have an idea where the buses are before the kids go out there. >> Okay. I'm just thinking where >> they're having they're very prompt about leaving Fitch and getting to the middle school. And I know Sam has worked with the admin at the middle school. We've looked at other possibilities. There's a real safety issue if you try to line the buses up side by side and if the buses take off and a child should be in between. I mean, there's safety issues. So, they're just trying to be as safe as possible. We've talked about getting them out by their bus.

118So, you know, we've looked at a lot of different other possibilities, but they feel this is the safest. Last I checked, they were exiting by 2:45. >> Right. >> And so, uh, one of one of the well, one of the most important things we'll be talking about in this next meeting with SDA is, uh, coming up with a plan. We we have a better idea now of uh the longer runs, the buses that take a longer time to get uh to the elementary schools for instance. So we we are going to talk to them about getting uh realigning the buses and having those buses that have the longer runs between the next run uh to get in line first so that those buses >> fill them up at pitch fill them up at GR and

119get them out of there. >> So is that is that happening because I no longer have kids in elementary but is that happening where kids buses that should be at the elementary school by time X are not? There's a few There's still a few that are late, >> which that pushes their runs. >> It's gotten a lot better, but there's still a few >> except for Friday. Mostly they're >> getting there by 3:35 and getting home by 4:45. >> Yeah. Okay. Um Sam, just quick update. Um are they still staying on the buses in front of the middle school in the morning? Are the middle school kids not allowed to disembark for like 15 to 20 minutes? >> That's correct. >> So that are we working on a plan to change that? >> We have

120some ideas. I don't know if they've been accepted yet, but we have some ideas. >> We're working. >> All right. Could you get back to us about that, please? Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? >> Is um Rita, is that is your hand? >> I have a question. If Jade if Jade has one also. Um I is it is it because we have to have renegotiate with our administrators and our teachers about the not letting the children off the buses those 15 minutes why they have to sit there. What is the reason why they have to sit there? >> We need staff. So the contracted time at the middle school starts at 20 of and um and that's when actually the time that Fitch has to be starting their bell well their bell

121starts soon. So yeah so we probably need to get the two closer aligned. So there's some conversation I need to have with both administrators and teachers. >> Okay. I I think we should be doing that now. I mean, there's no reason why children should be sitting on a bus. That just seems >> and we're collecting data. >> Even if they're dismissed into the cafeteria to have breakfast or something, >> right? >> You know, that where you could where you could hire um pair of professionals besides teaching staff or administrators to monitor the students. They could be having breakfast. >> You're right. That those are some of our thoughts, too. Thank you. >> Jay, do you have your hand up? >> Uh, no. My uh question's been answered. >> Anyone else? I I have a question

122about after school. Who's supervising? When those all of the the middle school gets out, who's super supervising >> after the middle school is gone? >> No, before when you said they all the children are dismissed. Oh, when they go out to the buses, there are uh probably seven >> uh teachers and administrators out there. There there are quite a few administrators and teachers out there. >> Remember, you have two sides of both the Fitch High School and Graten coming in and going out. So, you have the parent pickup and drop off on one side of Fitch and then you have the buses on the other. At the middle school, you have the top end buses and the other end is the parents. So, it's pretty complicated. You need a lot of people on both ends.

123You have Mr. Kh Mr. Kentucky and Mr. Daniel at the upper level along with teachers and then you have uh uh Mr. Bass and uh Mr. Davis down below. >> Okay. So there there's a sufficient number. >> Yeah. Okay. Very good. All right. We're on the referral list. Take a look at that. >> There anything on the referral list in terms of curriculum? Well, we talked about that. our curriculum meeting this afternoon. And what about policy? >> Well, I think one of the things that was brought up tonight is looking at our policies around Facebook. So, there's electronical information security. There's a a host of those that we were kind of waiting for Clint to get here. Um, so we we do have to start >> I think we have some time before we have

124to worry about a policy for Facebook. >> Well, first we have to create the wheel. >> Well, these are all kind of related. They're communication and technology. So, they're things that we probably should do together as a package deal. >> But yeah, it doesn't sound like it's gonna happen. >> Well, we'll see. Yeah, >> we'll see. Yeah. Okay. In terms of the CO, is there anything that should come off or should go on? >> Okay. >> Um I think this is where we have the education rising, right? Is it on here? The one we were going to have this evening? >> Well, yes, it's on here, but we'll have to we we had to um table that. So I have to find out >> what happened >> when when they do reschedu if they could

125send us the presentation in advance that would be helpful >> rather than hearing it as soon you know if they could send us their presentation in advance and then talk about it with us rather than like show slides and so forth that would be helpful. Okay, thank you. Thank you. And suggested topics for the future. >> Oh, don't forget we got finance. >> Oh, anything on finance and facilities? >> Well, we did just talk about the building substitutes and looking at all that data. That was Rita's question. >> Um, >> do we need to take that off? >> I think that could probably come off. and then substitute teachers, parents, those are all really part of the same thing. Um, >> can we wait to take them off until we vote on the races? >>

126Okay, you can wait. Y >> any so future topics that you want us to consider and put on the list. Well, in that case, somebody to do it. >> Yes, you have to do it. Motion to return. >> Second. >> Now you have to say it. >> Oh no, it's you. No, I just said motion to adjourn. >> She moved. I second. >> You gotta say good night. Say good night. >> Good night everybody. ruined