001Um, good evening everyone. I would like to call the January 31st um, special board meeting budget workshop to order. Um, and I am just clearing off my screen. Um, and um, once again I would just like to say thank you very much for everyone for thinking about me and my family. Um, keep up the thoughts because it's I think it's a process. Um but we will uh we are going to kind of get through this. Um we are going to be working on the budget um following the agenda which is also following our meeting schedule and um Susan dutifully uh gave us a whole bunch of information with our budget uh I mean excuse me our board notes uh over the weekend and I just kind of want to chunk them together a little bit.
002We are going to be discussing the class size um stuff um when we get we are going to be having another meeting and we're going to have Ted and Peter join us so that we can have a larger conversation um around um around class sizes around what Susan and what Ted and what Peter thinking about in terms of the secondary that was that was a point that was asked for us to to talk about. So I just wanted to let you know don't lose this stuff but understand that we are going to be um really going in depth with that at a at a later time. We were given um that wonderful sheet. Ken you about putting all the projects together um with Sam the CIP and then also all the CIP. What a that
003was so helpful. Um and um we are going to be discussing that when we talk about the maintenance um piece which is going to be on February 7th, so next week. So hold on to that. But that has been created. Um the other the other the other one that we received is kind of just we use we've been using this for the past couple of years where we take a look at what does a twopoint um a budget that has zero point increase to a one to to a three. I don't know if some of you remember that maybe um and I asked Susan to do something similar to that. And so obviously we're not going to be talking about that tonight, but that's something that's going to be towards the end of our conversation
004as we have looked through we've done the journey through the budget book um so that we can make our decisions around some of that stuff. So hold on to that as well, but I wanted to put that into context. Um and then the school closure checklist is just something that we have done um that was created and approved by both the town council and the board of ed, I believe. Um, and Susan just put it in a nicer looking document. Um, and so that is just something for us since we are going to be closing two out of those three elementary schools and um, what where are we in the process? So, wanted to kind of get you guys updated on that. Um, I think that those are what we received in on Wednesday. Um
005so um um and also just to remind people that we are having a Wednesday meeting with the town council and the board of uh the the RTM education committee in for multiple years it has been just the town council and the and the board of ed meeting. Um but the past three or four years we've invited the education committee to be part of those discussions since they are also going to be looking at the budget. So be prepared for that and we're going to have a budget session after that because we've got some work to do. So there we are on that. Um so without further ado >> clarification >> yes >> the uh latest schedule had both of those meetings set for 6 pm. So, I'm presuming that the Well, let me not presume
006a thing. >> The special meeting is at 6 PM for the town council and RTM and that is diff. Is that different from the canceled meeting at 5? >> The what meeting? >> I'm looking at the board of education calendar. There was a 5:30m meeting that's been cancelled and there's a 6 pm meeting with the with the town council and RTM on the budget or is that discreet from the budget? So, you should receive you should have received an agenda um this past weekend um that talks about our February 2nd meeting with the um town council and with the education committee um and that after following that meeting we are going to go into a budget workshop. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. All right. I am going to move it to Susan and to Ken.
007>> All right. Um well, I our focus tonight is really going to be on the special education budget. We're going to start with preschool. So, I have Naen Mlin who's been um amazing at organizing preschool prek and really checking in with them. you know, they are now housed in our two new schools in Thes River and at Magnet at um Mystic River. And so for consolidation of all kinds of services, that has worked out very nicely. And Naen is in both of those schools um for like half a day at least each week. And people are so pleased to have that. So, shout out because I know that that is really a welcome um addition for her support. And of course, Denise is here as the director of pupil personnel and she will help us
008guide through the process. And I see Carrie Carter is here and he is our administrator in charge of the um program for um students who have dropped out of school to continue and get their Fitch diploma. So, it's an adult night school program. So, we'll start marching through. I want to orient you to page 542. I think that's where we're beginning. Is that right, Ken? >> It is 5-42. Um, do you want me to put up the um put up the pages as we and and like we do and discuss them a little bit, bring them down so they can be a fold. >> I think it's helpful for people out there that don't have the pages, too. And I see a couple people. Um, so that might be helpful. >> All right. >> Put
009it down. So if we put it up and then we can take it down. >> So this is the page 5-42 function 1205 preschool. >> Um, you want to take it away from here, Nadine? >> Sure. Good evening everyone, members of the board. Um, my name is Naen Mlin and thank you Susan for that wonderful introduction. Um, so I'll be discussing um the uh fiscal year 23 proposed budget uh in comparison to the fiscal year 22 budget for preschool. So um as Susan stated, our staff, they're just thrilled to be in two buildings. Uh that's where the classrooms are housed at Fames and Mystic River. And it's going swimmingly. They love being together. They love to collaborate. and the fact that they're in just two locations makes it really um just advantageous especially for our
010families as well. So I'm just really really excited about um this year and the year that we've been having. So to the budget. Um so in terms of our special education certified staff, we have uh two members of our early childhood staff located at Charles Barnum and that is our ECAT, our early childhood assessment team, um which is comprised of one special education teacher and one speech and language pathologist. They are uh located at Charles Barnum. year. If you move down to Mystic River Magnet, you see that we have four um FTEEs located at Mystic River Magnet School. Um and that includes our four special education teachers. Um and that will remain the same moving forward for next year. at the um we started this school year um off anticipating uh ECAT being located at
011themes river. However, um just due to um we didn't have a room for them. So, we had to change their location to Charles Barnum. And so that's where you'll see over um for the fiscal year 20 2022 2023 that there's um a minus2 FTE um and that's the only change because uh ECAT was located at Charles Barnum and that is um the plan for next year for right now at least and so altogether excuse me and we also have three excuse me full-time special education teachers located at Fames River um and they are the lead teachers for our integrated um preschool classroom. And altogether we have nine um staff for our uh special education side of preschool. And down below um we also have our regular and our special education teacher aids. Um so at
012Mystic River um we're going to change the number um for Mystic River from 7 to 8. Um about a year or so ago, we um were granted the opportunity to employ two full-time um classroom aids in each of the classrooms. So, at Mystic River, because we have four special ed um teachers, uh we also have four, excuse me, eight uh special education teacher aids um at Mystic River. And then for themes, uh that number will change from seven to six. um because we have three uh classrooms um at ths three special ed classrooms at ths and we would also have two paras per classroom or two classroom aids >> so the total doesn't change it just where where they belong has changed >> correct any questions on this page before we move on to 5-43
013>> Kim I have a question >> absolutely Rita Um I I want to know the Charles Barnum proposed um it's already actual the Charles Barnum special ed they do not have any aids in their classrooms. >> No. So at Charles Barnum that's our early childhood assessment team. Um >> they have no no children. >> So our speech and language pathologist she has um itinerant speech students only on Fridays. So they come in for about an hour of service. though she does not have a classroom. No. >> Well, why are those two people How's Charles Barnum and why can't the central office special education staff handle those that early education? Why do we have two FTEEs with really only having students you said on Fridays one of them? I I don't understand why it's not being
014managed by the central office. Why, you know, why we have to have a special team for that. I can understand having a lot of special ed teachers and paras when you have students, but I can understand it when we have a large central office staff in special ed that we never had before. And now we have a lot of people in central office, not just Denise. I don't understand why these two people why we need these two people just to be really blunt. >> Sure. So, our early childhood assessment team um they wear a number of hats. Primarily they are the evaluation team that um teams with birth to three in the community. So, any student who's turning three who receives services, they um chair the um transition meetings. They also chair um all of
015our PPTs um that we have for any students who are coming in. Um ECAT, I'm sure we can get a number, but they evaluate a large number of students. Um students through child find. So if there are parents in the community of three and four year olds who have concerns about their child's overall development, they field those calls. They evaluate. They do a comprehensive evaluation for all of those students. They also team really well with our community preschools. So, Riverfront, ECDC, um TVCCA, just to name a few. If those community centers have students with concerns, they will speak to uh those team members and sometimes even go out and do observations, provide strategies. Um and then if a evaluation is warranted, they are the ones who complete the evaluations, develop the IEPs, and also place
016students in our integrated programs or or our self-contained programs. >> But you never answered my question. My question is why isn't this being handled by our central office special education class? Why do we have two FTEEs doing this when we have a large group of special ed administrators in the central office that we never used to have before and we do now and I don't understand why we have these two extra people doing all this work that to me should also be done in the central office. So, >> I would say that this this duo has been um in existence for um as long as I've been here. And it comes with a highly qualified speech language pathologist, which none of us are, and also a a really skilled preschool special education teacher. That's these
017are really two teacher leaders who are really integrated when we talk about outreach to our community. these two people are constantly outreaching and making sure that the students who are in Grten from birth to three um are serviced and then come into our schools. So I would say it's it's really it's been an amazing resource um that I've seen and they really do have specialized skills to be able to do this work and they are very busy. I can get you the numbers, but when you think about the numbers of pre Can I just finish? >> When you think about the number of preschool children that each of those schools has, and Ken, you probably have that number on the top of your head, but it's a couple hundred students >> um in each school.
018So about 400. That's a school in of itself. >> Just >> Yeah. The numbers, Susan, the we have capacity, arita, for 208 preschool students. Now a portion of those students are typical peers. Um but in terms of the you know the other half that have special needs there's at least two meetings um sometimes more that's required number one to do that 90day transition meeting that's required with birth to three. Um then to meet to um plan the evaluations and then third to meet uh to review the evaluations. Um, and ECAT conducts those meetings. They complete the evaluations. They write the IEP. They bring the parents over to the receiving school um, and introduce them. They are parents first um, experience in the district and um, and they do an exceptional job. They also, as Naen
019said, interface with um, all of our community preschools. They provide um, SRBI. they provide like a pre-referral support for students who are struggling um in order to help them succeed and um you know and they do evaluate more students that that don't qualify. But the majority of students, especially the ones we're seeing who haven't had any preschool experience dur during the pandemic, um there are a large number that that do need the services. Well, you know, they're wonderful teachers and I would really like it if they had a case load. Also, I mean, this is a yearround program and we do have a central office staff that could be doing this. I mean, maybe they need to come up to the central office and help out the staff that's there and maybe reduce the staff
020that's there's something going on where the special ed is expanding. We do have a lot of special education students in grind, but I I just don't understand this budget. Um, and there has to be some way. I mean, I would rather see more parents and helping these kids one-on-one and not one to three um than what we have now. So, I'm not sure they're getting all the services they need. And it's great to have these two people, but if they're so wonderful, they need to have students that I mean, I know what you're saying they're doing, but that to me is something a central office job, an administrator's job. >> Yeah. The nature of their job, Rita, is to have a rolling um case load because we're required to provide what's called FAPE at age
021three. So, we have to have the IEP in place and available to the children when they turn three. and ECAT coordinates the referrals, the the assessment and the PPT and the implementation at age three. >> Good. >> They kind of have like a rolling case load. >> I know that I understand everything about the program and I would really prefer rather than calling it ECAT if you called it early childhood assessment team. I think for the public it it makes it much clearer who these two people are. And I understand it's rolling. I I I understand. I know all about Learn's program. They're birth to three. I do understand all this. I just am confused. I just wish these valuable people also had students that that >> I was going to say we can put
022it in the narrative, Rita. But we have it there. So, I think we just have to >> Yeah, we have it there. Yes, we do have it there. But nobody else is looking at this right now but us, >> right? >> And I mean, if you could see the little print, if you're, you know, watching it at home. Yeah. >> So, I'm gonna um Cat, Beverly, I'm gonna recognize you, but I know that Cat had her hand up as well. So, I'm going to recognize Cat and then I'm going to go to Beverly. Um having this located, I when my son u in the previous iteration was assessed by this group, there were a lot of toys around and a lot of manipulatives and a lot of stuff and there were two people who did
023it at once. Is this just a matter of space up at the central office? having as having them located elsewhere. >> Um I think the original plan was actually to have them in the new schools. That's why the numbers shifted over. But when we got into the new schools, there really wasn't room. So we're looking at a a different space for them for next year, but we needed to be able to have them. Um and there were some portables at Charles Barnum, so they're there for this year, but we're going to look at a better situation for them next year. Thank you, >> Beth. >> Thank you. Um, first of all, I'd like to agree with Rita that I would like to see more Paris in the classroom than and to help with the special
024ed population. Like Rita said, one to one is better than one to three. So, um, I just want to tag along with Lita on that. I was wondering, did the um preschool population decrease at Dames Valley Magnet School? Is that why you're down the two FTEEs also? >> Um no, no. So, uh the original plan was to have ECAT located at Fames River um for this year um but they are now located at Charles Barnum. So that's why you see that minus two because that accounts for the two staff of our early childhood assessment team that are now located at Charles Barnum, not Fames River. >> Okay. Each school really has >> I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. Go ahead. >> I was going to say that each school really has three. Mystic River has three
025preschools and so does Thames River. But at Mystic River, we have the ABA program that is a very specialized autistic autism program and we do have a preschool that feeds into that autism program. So, we have another small group of students additionally um at Mystic River, but other than that, we have three of the um preschools that are halfday preschools with typical peers at each of the schools. And um I don't know if you do this or if you know the answer to this. How successful are these preschool programs? Do you watch the kids as they go through our school system? >> So, not that I'm biased, but I would say that our programs are are very successful. um our teachers, they run a very structured um schedule, a very structured um time that our
026students are with them for the half day. Um you know, when we compare students, some students, not all, um who have not had the opportunity to have preschool compared to the students who have come through our program, um we do see somewhat of a difference. Um, so I definitely um can support the fact that students highly benefit from being in a structured preschool program um especially in preparation for kindergarten. And I would say Naen overseeing the entire program and providing professional learning um with some of our learn colleagues for our teachers and bringing in th assessment programs like the dots and the bants and having that close eye on monitoring kids progress has really been a step up um for Grten. So, um, her smarts too in on this program have a lot to do
027with the success. >> Dean, thank you. >> Yeah, just almost a housekeeping question. The the way we have these people deployed here on paper, is that fixed or for example, is it possible to say, well, you know, uh, Fame's need is now greater than Mystics, the numbers are lopsided. Let's let's send one. I imagine that would be the case, right? That if you if you decided you needed instead of four and three, you needed three and four that you could that's what would happen or people permanently station in schools. >> I think that they're placed in the place in the school that's closest or the programs that meet the kids needs best. So, for instance, if a child um is identified with a specific um disability, they may go into um Mystic River for a
028particular program. Um but they're constantly looking at those numbers to really kind of keep them in sync and balanced. Before they were in four or five schools, so it was it was a little more challenging to do. Now, they're in two schools. And um I think it's much better to have the resources together. >> Yeah. I'm just saying so Mystic River is proposed for things proposed three. Suppose in our experience during 22 23 it turns out that it's the other way around. I presume that the that the uh the extra person would be able to go to the other school that has a greater need than we thought. for example, if in fact >> I think the children who are in that extra program will go to Mystic River because that's where all the resources
029for that particular program are. >> Oh, I see. So, in other words, the the faculty's fixed and we move the kids to the faculty, not the other way around. >> Well, and it's also a a specialized space. So, it's really meeting their needs, whatever their specific needs are. >> All right. That seems odd to me, but then what do I know? >> And it's a little hard to project. Typically at the beginning of the school year, our numbers are um lower um and they, you know, we'll go ahead and increase, you know, monthtomonth as students come in. Um so it's a little hard to um project at the very beginning of the school year, okay, we're going to, you know, shift shift the classroom to another building. Um and and just echoing what Susan said,
030there's a lot of factors that go into place. You know, space, whose classroom are we going to um put that program in and who's going to move from there to another building. There's a lot of um factors that would go into um a decision like that. >> Yeah, Dean, think of them as district-wide programs and the children become admitted once they turn three. So they turn three throughout the year and we monitor the enrollment in each class so that they're they're balanced throughout the year. Many of the children will go back to their home school for kindergarten. So the children from Barnum Northeast and CK will go back to their home school. We try to place the Mystic homeschool kids and the themes homeschool kids in those buildings so they can stay for kindergarten. Okay.
031But I I I for some reason I presume that Mystic and Thes had equivalent spaces for this service. And so what were we looking at as a projection that Mystic River will need four, Themes will need three. And that's why I was wondering maybe it'll turn out as the year rolls on. It should be the other way around, for example. So we don't move the teachers, we move the kids. Well, Mystic has four because they have a um an a a an extended day preschool program for students with significant needs on the autism spectrum. >> I see. >> And then they um graduate or they kind of transition into those specialized autism classrooms at Mystic. >> All right. So, it's not the case that one school is going to wind up with, oh, it looks
032like somebody's going to be, you know, swatting flies and and the other school, the same faculty, same team of people are going to be uh underwater, one water one arm paper hanger, so to speak. >> No, balance it. Somebody, you would move them. >> Yeah. And they're running they're running screenings throughout the year to um to give slots to our typical peers. And that's one of the things that that we are very proud of that we don't charge tuition for our typical peers. So they come to the program free of charge and we even um I believe we provide transportation cor Oh no >> that's for the >> they are this year. Oh, this year, right? >> So, before I recognize Rita and Beverly, um I just want to make sure to see if there's
033anyone else who um So, Andrea, >> I don't I don't want to beat Trigger here, but I did want to go back to Rita's original question and ask it in a different way. And I I think it's important because I I think anybody else who's listening u may may want to hear the answer. And I I understand all of the wonderful things that the the people in in the buildings do, but I think Rita's question really was what's what is keeping the um the personnel at the central office, what are they doing that is preluding their their offering services to the kids? I I think that's really what Rita was asking. >> Yes. >> Okay. Right. So, we can talk about that now. We do have a page dedicated to central office. So, if you'd
034like me to answer it now, I can. Or we can wait until we get to the budget for central office. >> That's fine. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> To to wait, Andrea, or would you >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> Thank you. >> I'll make a note. >> Um I'm going to recognize Jay and then Rita and Beverly. Go ahead, Jay. >> Okay, thank you. Um, so I just want to understand the two FTEEs that were showing at Charles Barnum are supporting this early uh childhood assessment team. They are not classroom teachers. They could not run a classroom and uh administer this program which is a statemandated program. Am I correct? Um and they typically do um instead of classroom teaching they're they're their speech and language. >> Yes. >> And I don't know
035if there's is there a psychologist? >> No. Um the second FT is a special education teacher. >> Okay. All right. So there but they're required to to do all these things by the state for anyone who lives in the town from what is it two two and a half Yes. >> And older. Okay. So, I just want anyone that might be watching at home to understand it's not as though these folks, the these two FTEEs could somehow uh teach a classroom full of students and carry out the state mandate at the same time. >> Correct. That's right. >> But the state mandate also includes things such as OT, PT, um psychology. So there are other there must other be other support personnel within the district that are supporting this program over and above these two.
036>> Yes. >> Because there's a whole basket of services that are required under this early childhood uh uh assessment team. Am I correct? >> Yes, you are correct. Um and whenever a student comes in and uh there's a need for additional um services or evaluations, they will reach out to personnel within the district to support. Um and typically, you know, our our evaluations um do cover social, emotional, and behavioral. Um and so they are able to um address those concerns through the evaluations that they do. Um, and we now have a early childhood social worker, which we're really excited about, who's going to also begin teaming with ECAT um, during the week as it relates to that social, emotional, and behavioral piece. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Sure. Matthew, I see you moving
037your hands. Were you just moving your hands or did you have a question? >> I had a fly bothering me. I apologize. >> That's all right. >> Let it fly away. Um, Rita and then Beverly, >> I I had a quick question. Um, when I toured Mystic River Magnet School, the preschool special needs class was on the second floor. Um, are they still going to be located there or are you going to be able to move them downstairs? Especially because these children, some of them cannot walk at all. and you know to take the elevator up and down and I worry about if there was a fire. So have you relocated that classroom and will you relocate that classroom? >> So that is a great question Rita but I would like us to stay as
038much focused on the budget as possible but let's tag that as a future agenda item because I think that's worthy of having the board hear about and know about. But let's keep it let's see if we could kind of keep our conversation to that. So, Miss Joan, if you could just write that down as an agenda item for us in the future to bring back Naen, that would be great. Beverly, um, Susan, does the Mystic River Magnet School and the Dames River Magnet School, do they offer the same programs or different programs are offered in each school? >> I was trying to explain that, Beverly. Three of the programs at Mystic River are very similar to three of the same three at Dames. The only one different one is that extended day program that Denise
039was talking about for our um you know students who need care longer during the day and um it's affiliated with the autism program that is housed at Mystic. >> So that's the only um program that has some additional services. >> Okay. What what's the class size for um the preschool program? >> Well, it it typically starts out with um we usually have our eight typical peers and we could have five to six special ed children in the beginning of the year, but by the end of the year we'll have eight or nine. So the the total amount is usually about >> 18. Okay. >> By the end of the year. >> Yeah. 18 a.m. and 18 pm. So, it's 36 per class full day. We do have a couple classes that are capped at uh
04028. Actually, we have one class capped at 28 because we have some students that go in there to spend time with non-disabled peers. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just had a quick question, Kim, on on line number um 581. >> Okay. Okay. So, we haven't gotten to that page yet. >> Oh, okay. >> Any further questions? >> I think that's a good segue, though. >> So, Ken, if you wanted to bring up the next one, that would be great. Thank you. >> Okay. So, line item 102 um accounts for our special education certified staff's salary. Um and the increase um is attributed to their salary increase. it's not an additional um staff member. Um line 111 um our regular and special education teacher aids. Um that is for our paras who are category one
041uh with insurance with the insurance benefit package. Um so you'll see that there is an increase there of a little over $4,000. Um, moving on to the subs that there was no increase or decrease with that line item. Um, and there was just a slight increase for special education sub teachers. Um, so that just accounts for, you know, whenever our teachers are are absent, the subs who cover them, um, it comes from that line item. Um, so going on to line item 2011 for group insurance. I just want to bring your attention to that. I believe that's something that's going to be fixed in the final the finalized budget. Um, so if you just want to put a marker there that that 11,452 uh decrease. Um, I believe that's something that Ken, correct me if
042I'm wrong, is going to be corrected afterwards. >> You're correct, Naen. Um, the all the group insurance lines are going to be adjusted in the final uh product. practice. Uh so thank you for that. >> All right. Thanks. Um I will jump down to line item 581 for travel for special education. Um that is for our early childhood assessment team. Again, they do travel into the community um to team with various uh preschool uh agencies and uh programs if they have a student who is a Graten resident for whom they have concerns about. Um, so that accounts for their travel expenses throughout the entire year. And then line item 615, that is our special education supply aotment. Um, and each teacher is allotted $750 per per teacher. Any questions about the budget? All right. Um,
043I'm gonna recognize Rita and then Beverly. >> Um, when you look at line 131, about 15% of the staffing for special ed certified staff is going to pay for special ed teacher a, you know, special ed when special ed teachers are out and they need subs. Is that correct? Is that what I'm seeing? Special ed teacher aids temps. >> Correct. Is that what you said to us on under under 131? >> 131 is the pair of twos. So we have pair of ones in line 111. >> I thought we were going to do >> in line 131, >> but I thought we were going to do away with the pair of ones and pair twos in the in the new formula for funding that we were um since we were raising all their salaries. Are
044we still going to have pair of ones and pair of twos? Wasn't it changed? >> Yes, we still do in the contract. >> We're not hiring, but we have >> We're not replacing them. So, as we retire, >> right? As they retire, we replace them with pair of twos, right? >> But do they have a different name now that we're paying them in a different way for ones that have more duties, you know, that have the children that they have to diaper? And I mean, I thought we were increasing their pay. We are there there is a general wage increase for all of the paras >> and more so for the ones that have more duties. >> No. It's based on their steps. It's a it's a step increase. >> Still it's still going to
045be the step increase. >> Yeah. That that was what we talked about in the last parah negotiation. >> Right. I remember that. But I just thought with the new budget that we were doing increasing everything. I thought that was there was going to be a change. >> No. So at learn there is there is a big change now at learn in terms of those aids that are maybe I'm I probably got it confused that are doing a lot more. >> We do have we do have a proposal for that Rita but the par union asked for it to be tabled. >> Um okay >> and we are we are going to revisit it. We've been have having some communications with the paras about our proposal. >> All right. Okay. Thank you, >> Beverly. >> Thank
046you. Um, Denise, can you tell or Susan, can you tell me the difference between a par one and a par two? >> The par ones were full-time and they've been here um for quite a long time. Um, I think when Mike and I got here, we just we really started the trend to hire the pair of twos, but Denise, you can speak to that probably even better than I can. >> Yeah, I believe it's kind of a legacy um um category in terms of paras that were hired um many years ago who have a contract, who have the option of receiving health benefits. um they have a different wage and different um different uh benefits in terms of hot paid holidays. Um and then the remainder of paras years ago were considered temporary paras. So
047what we did uh quite a few years ago was we worked with um the union uh through negotiations and we merged the group so that they're now one group but we still have some of these parans um who are still working for the district and as they retire we we replace them with what we now call parat twos. So all the paras have this whether they're par ones or par twos they all have the same duties except for the special ed paras >> they're all special ed paras bev the only yeah they all >> they all have the same duties >> yes >> so Beverly um Lori Leine just put it um u the answer in the chat box and let me just read it so that everyone can see it is parah um ones
048and par twos do the same duties but because parrot twos joined the union much later they have a different pay and benefits but I believe that that's being rectified by not adding anyone um once once you retire from par one there's we're not filling people into par one but those that's a really good question Beverly thank you are there are there any other questions about this all right hearing none let's move All right. So, um I'm going to move on to function 1210, which is the special education summer school program. Um, this is a mandated program for students who require extended time when school's not in session to master um their goals and objectives and really so that they don't regress or lose the skills that they ma maintained or or earned during the school
049year. Um, this program is supplemented through the idea grant. Um, the board does contribute a small amount uh $20,000 to the program. Um we service approximately 110 students in the program. Um and it runs um either four weeks or six weeks from 8:30 in the morning until 11:30 in the morning. We have a full complement of a director, teachers, paras, and related services staff. Um last year you'll see um Ken just scrolled to the budget page. you'll see um under um FY21 um under line 101 classroom teachers, there's a zero there. Um the reason being that the state had a grant or a stipen last year that we applied for and received. It was in the amount of $20,000 and we applied that to the summer program. Um, but for this summer, we expect to
050use the funds in this budget to offset the cost for our extended school year program. >> Matt, >> I think Denise's uh color that she gave to this was extraordinarily helpful. And again, uh, I do see the expanded budget narrative, but I think that something like Denise said, just using this line item as an example, that little extra narrative about specifically what's done and how many students is served with at least 49 people going to review our budget between the RTM and the town council, the more color we can give in the narrative, the the more they'll be likely to understand without having to ask as many questions. >> Sure, we can definitely add that our our enrollment which is about 110 students. That's fine. >> I think that's great and I hope we follow
051that pattern in in all we do. The more information we can give by expanding the narrative box, the more citizens and the ones who are going to question us will be informed and make good decisions for us. >> Thank you, Matthew. Um Beverly, I will recognize you. I just want to make sure that there's no one else that wants to be recognized. All right, seeing none, Bev, please go ahead. >> Um, Denise, is the summer school program in the beginning of the summer or at the end of the summer? >> It's from July 5th until August 11th. We usually start after the Fourth of July holiday so that we have a little bit more of a consistent week. And again, how successful do you think this program is? Do you think it's um do you
052think it might be more successful if you had it at the end of the summer with the kids going into the school year or do they lose anything in between? What do what are your findings on how successful the program is? >> Well, we try not to have for some of our more disabled students, we try not to have more than two two and a half weeks in between uh where there's no services. So having, you know, two weeks at the end of the school year and then two weeks at the end of our summer program seems to um to work very well for our students with more significant needs. And then I will say that we have a wonderful partnership with Graten Park and Recre. So many of our students um go to Camp
053Button which is located at the same site where we have our program and they they go to Camp Button in the afternoon and then they go all day on Fridays. So it really um it really gives the students the best of both worlds in terms of maintaining their skills in the morning and then having that that socialization and recreation in the afternoon. >> Thank you Denise. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? Rita >> Rita you are muted. So my comment is that um I I I feel that the special education department should be complimented that even during when our regular classrooms were shut down, they still maintain that summer school program servicing these children and that was you know such a huge benefit to them. So I I I know that it was not easy
054but you you you did it. So that was great. Thank you. >> Thank you Rita. They also were the ones who had full-time in person um coming back to school too. So they were really um >> you know tried their very best to service these kids as much as we could during co >> there are no other questions. Let's move on. >> Okay. I believe Phil's going to take the next two pages for English learners. Thanks, Denise. Um, the easiest way to look at this, I would think, is to really uh you can see the change from last year to this year and and I don't it's it could be a little misleading. You see the 3.0 uh has changed to a 2.0. Uh we do have three um three ELLL um FTEES. However, the
055uh there is one funded by the Alliance District grant. So we are maintaining our staff although one will be uh paid for through uh alliance district funding rather. Um so we have one based at the high school at Fitch uh one at Graten Middle School and then the third which you see kind of split.3.3 um is um one teacher who works at both at CK Mystic River and Themes River. So that sort of explains the changes at the top that's reflected in the uh on the page uh below. uh you see the uh the decrease in uh the salary that's being taken over by the alliance district funding um and everything else sort of um um you see um the short you know a short dip in the uh insurance uh short you know small
056increases in the workman's comp social security u and the Medicare decrease as well and Ken correct me I'm assuming all that is related to the uh the salary being taken over by the Alliance District funding. >> Yeah, for the most part, you're correct. Yep. >> No, >> there does seem to be an increase in the tutors. I know that we're um constantly kind of moving that um those resources around in this in the way that um Dean was suggesting, you know, based on our enrollment of EL students in the different schools. Kim, Andrea, >> Kim, the um the the teacher who is being funded by the alliance district, is that a teacher that was already in place or did we hire that individual because of the alliance money? I guess my real the crux of
057the question is if it's an individual who was already in place but now is being funded through alliance when that goes away if it does will we will she come he or she come back into the regular budget that's my question >> Ken do you have the answer to that I believe it's it's something that's now being taken over by the alliance district funding correct >> yeah it was a person that we had in place before we got uh the funding for this year and uh and for next year. >> So when when and if the funding goes away then that individual would were that individual to be retained would go back into the regular budget. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> We also have a title three budget that um helps to provide for some
058of our tutors. So we use that in different ways each year to provide professional learning for our teachers and any support systems. So we we do have those grants as well specific to EEL. >> Um Kim, do we um receive any special funding from the federal government for for the English language learners? >> That's title three. Yes, >> that's the title three. Okay. >> Right. >> And we might even be getting additional bilingual because now we have more than 25 I think um at the high school and potentially at the middle school for next year. So, we're watching our numbers very carefully. And there's an additional grant that supports bilingual education. Yeah. Being Um, Susan, I was just wondering, I I heard you say you funding one of the positions with their Lions District money,
059but you all were already paying for that teacher prior to getting the Lions district money. Is that a good way to spend the Lions district money, do you think? because we originally Beverly we only had two EL teachers and that was just you know we have too many students for just two people. So when we were able to add a third person on specifically to the middle school we did it through some of the esser funds and we just felt alliance was the better place to put it at this point. if I take it on in an operation budget in the future, we'll have to do that because our numbers show that we need that many certified um teachers. And in our case, we're fortunate because they all have credentials in T-OL and bilingual or
060they're they're in the process of getting that. So, we're very fortunate. >> So, this position was never funded in your operational budget. >> I don't believe it was. It's a pretty new program. It's only a couple years old. >> Um >> I'd have to look back with that with Ken, but I believe it was funded through some of the CARES Act ESER funds. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We'll look at that and find out. >> Any other questions? >> Oh, once again, Lori, thank you. Um it was a tutor previously and the funding allowed us to upgrade to a teaching position. I remember that conversation. >> That's right. Thank you, Lori. I'm glad you're there. >> I'm so glad that someone has holds history. Um, if there's no other questions, let's move. Let's move on.
061>> I think I think Matt has one. >> Oh, Matt, I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Uh, >> thank you, Bill. Maybe you plowed this ground already, but I looked and said districtwide tutors were down 15% and I I it's not clear to me if why that's the case. I'm sorry. And uh with regard funding that we're having from other sources, uh the question is when these sources run out in FY25, unless the need goes away, um is there would it be useful to signal to the RTM and council that at some point if the need doesn't go away, we're going to need to put it on our budget. Well, I mean, I I think that that is that is a question that all districts are asking or talking about in terms of how do you
062use this how do you use this money? And I think that Graten has done a really nice job at trying to really support what where we feel um our students have struggled the most during the pandemic um and tutoring and the this board has been very clear that we want to make sure that we have more more bodies with with kiddos. Um and so um I I think that that is probably a conversation that we can kind of continue to have with the with the with the other bodies. um is that but they also might back and say that's fine if you want to if you need those then where else are you going to take from that >> okay >> I don't think they're going to commit to anything either way >> that's right
063now >> the idea was not to get them to commit to anything was just I I like the idea of inoculating people to what's coming down the pike so that when and if we need there's no question in what you said the necessity of what we're doing. Perfect. But if the needs don't go away and the funding does go does go away and we're not lucky enough to find additional grants, we're still going to need to make the need and letting them know in advance. >> It's your judgment, it's the group's judgment, but perhaps it's worth just giving them a heads up at some point. I think it's I think that should always be part of our conversation is that this is what we're doing. The the problem though, Matt, is is that the town
064council could change every two years. Um and so we could actually be working with a different town council. Um and same with the RTM. So, um but I think it's important that that we continue with that message and I don't think that that message h hasn't happened. Um but I think I think that that's um I think your point is valid on that. Thank you. Um perhaps Kim we could not only list where the funds are coming from but how long we have those for. Would that help clarify also? Like if the alliance funding is for the next two years, we can kind of note that in the narrative as well. So we're not just telling where it's coming from, but for how long we have that funding for >> and alliance is a little
065tricky because we've gotten different amounts different years. One year we didn't get anything, right? >> And so it just I think it's whatever they feel like they have left over for grten. I mean there's no real rhyme or reason. >> There's a formula I heard. Um but but um Phil I think that we do um we do do that when we talk about our competitive grants that we have gotten is that we kind of talk about you know where we are in terms of the phase of that grant um and how do we um how how do we plan to sustain things that we have. >> Yeah sure >> Beth. Thank you. Um, when I was on the RTM, that was always one of the questions that the RTM members asked when you were funding
066positions at a grant money. Was this going to be sustainable or not? So, um, I remember them always asking that, okay, you're paying for this at a grant money. Who's going to pay for it when that grant money runs out? And I would say that um you know the careful charting and graphing that Ken has done with the central office team kind of showcases how those funds will be and you know what happens at the end. Where does it go then? So we are keeping track of all of those um staffing. We prefer to use other things too. We're hoping that with the extra tutors that we we have in multiple different grants including the titles these tutors but we've added on because of the COVID and the need to have you know more highly
067skilled people working with our children who have lost some education. But there is this hope that with all of this help we'll be back on track and we won't need as many of those tutors. but we'll always have money for some of them. >> If there's no further questions, let's move us on. >> Okay. Um, so the next page is where we have all of our special education teachers and pareducators. Um so our special education teachers uh teach either um in a self-contained classroom for students who need a small highly structured learning environment or they teach a resource room which is where they support students who spend a good portion of their day in the general education classroom. Their primary role is to modify the grade level standards so that the students are instructed at
068their instructional level but they still have a connection to that grade level curriculum. Um they modify, they adjust, they accommodate the environment. Um they also conduct individualized assessments which we'll look at when we get to the budget. Um, as of October 1st, we had students identified as requiring special education in grades K through 12. Um, so when you look at the breakdown of where our teachers are assigned, um, you can see that at the elementary level we have 24. There is an adjustment that will be made to Mystic River and Thes. Uh, Mystic River has 6.5 and Thames River has 6.5. There's one teacher that is split between Mystic and Thes. Um, we have um at Grten Middle School we have 14 teachers and at Fitch High School we have 12.8 and um that 12.8
0698 um includes uh Mark Paluso who's.5 um it also in I'm sorry Mark Paluso's uh at Graten Middle School is.5 the 12.8 8 includes uh Adella Hagerty uh who teaches at the transition academy 8 and 0.5 is Sarah Whitley uh who teaches also at the transition academy. The other um part of Sarah's day is in remedial instruction. She teaches our um expelled students and students who need a separate learning program online at central office. So we have again a total of 50.8 eight special education teachers this year and we're not recommending a change next year. We do have a few positions that have been added due to grants. Um we have um one of one teacher um in addition at the elementary level that's funded through ARP esser and we have one teacher at the
070high school level who's funded through ARP idea. >> It's Liz. >> Hi Liz. >> Um Denise, did you just say that Mark Romano is going back into special ed? >> Mark Paluso. Oh, Marko, sorry. Thank you. I miser. And I was like, wait a minute. >> Yeah, he he's a >> go on, Denise. >> Okay. He's a grade 6 through 12 uh PPT facilitator. 0.5. So, you'll see him when we get to our admin page, but he's also 0.5 teacher. >> So, that's Palooo, not Morano. Romano, right. >> Sorry. I heard the the O's, you know, and I went, "What? What?" >> Sorry. >> Yeah. No, that's okay. No, Mark Romano is the athletic director, >> right? That's what I >> Happy back. >> And then you're welcome. And then the bottom portion of page
0715-48 is our para educators. Uh we have 93 para educators at the elementary level. We're not recommending a change for next year. Uh we have 44 at the middle school that will stay the same. And we have 35 at the high school. That brings us a total of 172 K through 12. And we do have an additional 21 parah educators K through 12 that are paid for out of the idea grant. And many of those paras um as we talked about earlier are onetoone paras uh for students in our self-contained uh programs. I think this goes to Ma Matthew's point is that the more information that you could put in the narrative about the some of the tutors are being paid through the the ESER and the IDA makes a lot of sense. Um so
072people understand sort of where our funding is from that that it's not just from our budget, right? >> Um but it's um supported through um federal grants. >> Okay, I just made a note of that. We will do that. And then um on the next page you'll see the budget. Um you can see the line for our um certified teachers. Um Ken, I don't know if you wanted to talk about the um Thank you, Matt. Ken, I don't know if you want to talk about the increase under the special ed certified teachers for salaries. >> Sure. It's um this is um uh per uh the contract. we just uh stepped everyone that was supposed to step and and applied the general wage uh increase per the contract uh that we just uh finalized. Uh so
073that that's what that's what drives that um that increase in line 102. Uh lines 111 and and 131, those are our par ones and paros. Um you'll see there is a little bit of a of an increase here. Uh and that's being driven by the uh the the increase in the wage that we we just recently um uh pushed through for the uh for the par two positions. >> Thank you, Ken. There are uh funds in here for substitute teachers. Those are primarily for our teachers in our self-contained programs because some of those students stay in those classrooms all day. Um whereas some of our resource teachers, you know, we don't always have a sub for if they're out for a day or two, but those self-contained classrooms, we do need to have substitutes present.
074Um and then down below you can see line 322 is our professional development line. Excuse me. We did bump that up a little bit this year um just to account for um some of the new learning that um around dyslexia. That's a fairly um current trend right now in special education is training teachers in the Wilson reading program. Um so we included that. We also have um our PEX program for some of our non-verbal students and a lot of work around SEAL as you know social emotional learning. Um line 561 is our um vocational skills tuition. Um again this is for students um who require services beyond the four years of high school primarily in um pre-employment and uh independent living. Um as you're aware the state um recently increased the maximum age of eligibility
075to 22. So the students stay until their 22nd birthday which has um increased some of the students participating in these programs although we do have um a reduction in that account because we are very cautious. Um sometimes we have the students attend these programs for maybe three days a week so that they're working on uh applications and resume writing and applying for competitive employment the other days of the week. We also have travel. Uh some of our teachers are itinerant. Um especially our split teacher and our uh some of our other teachers like Mr. Paluso. So they get travel reimbursement. Um we have a little bit in there for field trips. Uh it's primarily for the bus. And then we have pupil tests. Um in special education we are mandated to um determine eligibility using
076standardized assessment measures. So, we do have to purchase those assessments when there's a new uh normative sample. Um, and we also have to purchase the um the protocols, the teacher record books, the student workbooks um and make sure that you know we're not allowed to copy. So, we have to make sure everybody has what they need. Um we also have uh now nice computerenerated scoring programs um where the teachers can go in and enter their their raw data and the computer prints out nice graphs and tables. Um so we have funds for that. And then lastly we have funds for their instructional supplies. So each teacher gets um a certain amount of money each year so that they can purchase specialized supplies to meet their students needs. Um and that consists of explicit, you know,
077phonics materials. Um some of our Edmark reading programs for students with intellectual disabilities. Um we have um special um materials that are needed for some of our students with more significant disabilities, but we also purchase um benchmark book assessments. um a lot of materials to supplement um stu this the teachers case loads primarily to meet the needs of students if they're working on a lower grade level. >> Any questions about that that budget >> Dean? >> Oh no, I didn't have questions. Sorry. >> Do you have the same fly that's in Matthews? >> We we share we share together. This is >> No, it's just an itch. Okay. >> Sometimes I have a niche I can't scratch. >> I have a question. >> Beverly. Yes. >> Okay. Uh Denise, the vocational skills tuition, can you
078name the name the programs that these students attend because I'm I'm assuming it's not inhouse. That's why we're paying tuition. >> Sure. Uh we work uh closely with Sharp Training. uh they these are students who are eligible or appropriate for competitive employment. So this is an agency that would take them out in the community and they would work in a small work crew with a job coach. Um they have sites at Moheaggan Sun Khan College and the students learn those appropriate work behaviors. We've also worked with Project Genesis. >> Any other questions? Um, do you think it's important for people to understand that? I mean, even though there is a uh I'm going back to the vocational skills tuition, Denise, do you think it would be important that in the narrative we put the the
079change in the state law that we are actually requiring to service um people to the age of 22, which is which is amazing, but I think that if we can keep it, it helps with the story going forward in other budgets. It um >> certainly. Yes. Thank you. >> If there is no other comments, let's move on, please. >> Okay. The next account is our teacher of the blind. Um, we have one day per week for our teacher of the blind. So, you'll see 2ft. This is Miss Hagerty. The 0.8 of her position is in the transition academy. Uh we're fortunate in Connecticut that there is an a state agency called Board of Education Services for the Blind and they this year for the first time have been supporting a student that we have in
080our district who um learns through Braille. So, this allowed Adella to continue to teach the transition academy, which she loves and does a great job in. And um she does have a few students that are consult only, but we're fortunate that when we had a student that needed quite a bit of direct services, um the board of ed services for the blind was able to support us and and they don't charge the districts. >> That's wonderful. >> So, we we do maintain Adela as one day per week just to consult with teachers and and some of our students. um who have visual impairments. And so there's a small budget here for Adella um for um her salary and her insurance and um benefits. All of her supplies and her testing budget comes out of the
081previous budget we just reviewed. Matt, >> uh I notice on line uh 2011 group insurance that it has uh 50% reduction from last year and and it shows the same FTE and I'm amazed at this and I wonder if there's any more uh places we can apply. How do we account for this difference? >> Can we? So >> group group insurance is is allocated across all of the functions and so the allocation that uh was done on this version that we're looking at here wasn't done correctly. So that it's going to be corrected in in the final um >> okay >> assessment it's about a 5% increase um in group insurance year-over-year assuming the same number of FTEEs. >> So then theoretically it would be the 65.88 plus 3% Yeah, but but overall we do
082have it's it is reflected in here. The 5% increase is just individually the allocation process did didn't work according to plan. >> Okay, thanks a lot. >> has been fixed. >> Anything else? All right, let's move on. >> Okay, the next page is our treehouse program. [Music] I have as our next page is 556. Is that true? >> Oh, yes. We are skipping that. Thank you, Ken. >> Yeah. Let's see. 5.56. Uh, >> so it's the hearing impaired. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. So, this is a budget for our teacher of the hearing impaired. Um, she is a full-time teacher of the hearing impaired. She also teaches um ASL, an honors ASL3 class at Fitch High School. Um she is an itinerant teacher in that she travels throughout the district supporting
083students with hearing impairments and students with auditory processing disorders which means they require uh both groups of students oftentimes require amplification equipment or equipment that would amplify the teacher's voice so that the student can hear that signal uh more clearly and more directly. Um she does have a case load of students that receive direct support and then she has a case load of students who receive indirect support where she monitors their equipment and consults with the general education teacher. Um you can see her salary and her benefits below. We do have um on line 430 repair of equipment in the budget. Um it's a small amount, $1,200. Um this is um fairly expensive equipment because all of the amplification equipment now is a Bluetooth uh technology which is excellent because it's a very clear crisp
084sound that the students receive either to their hearing aid or directly in their vicinity. Um however it is very costly. Um, so we have money built into the budget to repair the equipment. Um, purchasing new equipment is generally taken out of the idea grant and when we expend these funds for repairs, we use the IDEIDA grant to supplement. >> Any questions on that? >> All right, let's move forward. Does this mean that we're going to 58? Right. >> That is correct. Uh this is function 1310, high school completion. Um did you want to take over here uh Carrie or do you want me to uh kind of go through? >> Um I can I can go through. >> Okay. >> Good evening. Um I'm >> one of the um co-directors for adult education. um and
085just walking you through the the program um where students can uh earn a high school diploma program. Um we also have a partnership um with New London who manages our ESL and GED portion of the program along with all uh data entry um with the state of Connecticut. Um it's myself and another part-time administrator. Uh and we oversee um 12 part-time staff members. That includes uh two secretaries and two school counselors. Um we operate Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 8:30. Um and we recently increased our uh credit requirements um per the state is going to match um Fitch next year at 26 credits in order to be eligible for a evening division diploma. Uh so it's currently at 24 this year. um and walking you uh through the functions. Um 106 uh
086would be um myself and my co-director. Um 124 would oversee our 10 plus teachers which varies um dependent on the semester and the need that we have um for specific classes. Um because as students enroll, we tend to not know unless they're coming directly from Fitch a kind of background of their transcripts and what classes they may need in order to reach uh graduation requirements. And then for 133, we have um two part-time secretaries as well that do uh data entry and coordinate our um data with New London on a daily basis. Um, going down, I don't want to skip over anything. Um, would be, uh, to our instructional improvement services. Um, last year, as you know, during the pandemic, um, the state gave us the option really to have classes um, hybrid, and so
087we were able to have some students hybrid and a lot of teachers uh, teaching online. And with that, we were able to graduate 10 students um this past school year. Our current enrollment, actually, tonight was supposed to be the first um night of our second semester. So, right now, we're looking at, I believe, 15 students and whoever else uh we have um that enrolls from um the Grten area. Are there any questions? this one. >> Hi Carrie, it's good to see you. I do have a question. Can we go back up to the narrative? You said that currently students must complete 24, but here in the narrative it says 22. >> Yes. Um so we developed a plan um per the state because by 2023 they wanted graduation requirements to match the high school. Um
088and by then so we instead of you know drastically shifting from 22 to 26. Um those that started when we were uh with 22 were grandfathered in and >> as of this year we went to 24. >> Okay. So, >> if students are still not complete to the 26th, there it would still be grandfathered in uh to the 22. >> Okay, >> that might be a good notation to add. I think >> that's >> the goal is to get them up to the 26, but we're kind of grandfathering them in. >> I like that. >> I mean, and that's also taking into consideration uh next year with the mandated uh black and Latino uh studies credit that will be required. Cat and then Beverly. Oh, actually Beverly, before um you go, it's gonna be Cat,
089Matthew, and then Beverly. Thank you. Um, can you tell me um how many positions are grant funded and what that grant is? >> How many positions are grant funded? Um the actual program itself um we receive a support percentage uh grant um every year from the state and that actually goes directly back to the town and grant is based on uh the population medium home value and income and currently I believe our percentage this past year was 42.17. So every year that that grand How many um positions are in that grant? >> It sounds like it's revenue that goes back to the town. >> Sorry, I didn't hear. >> Yeah, >> I'm sorry. Yeah, that grant pos um is with within the whole program. It doesn't uh specify to support certain positions. Matt, >> my
090question was answered. Thank you. >> Did I did I miss you telling me how many um positions are grant funed? >> Sorry, the the grant supports the whole program, not um certain positions. >> How many positions were grant funded? >> So there's a lot percentage that goes back. So, it's like about 50 close to 50% that goes back to the town to support the program. >> I'm sorry. I'm looking at the page >> Katrina. It's difficult to hear you. It says excludes grantf funded positions. What does that mean? >> That's something that we put on on all the pages though it's not specific to this uh to this >> maybe >> um staffing s summary at the end of that it says excludes grantf funded positions. I'm wondering what Yeah, that says that on all
091the functions when we when we >> Thank you. >> Okay, >> Beverly. >> Um, how many students are in the adult ed program? I missed that. >> Oh, I'm sorry. So currently as of um our registration we had 10 with I believe some more coming from the high school. We also just had eight students graduate in this past semester January. So we we did have 17 enrolled just in the diploma program. We also have uh 11 ESL students and four GED as well. and the night school program students have been walking um at graduation with our Fitch High School students. So, that's also been um a nice addition to see them. >> Good. How many ESL students again? >> Um right now we have 11 and that's and they and um New London oversees that
092program and they um typically have um three different tiers of ESL uh courses. >> Okay. Now, you said 50% of the program is funded by grant. Um, can you give me a dollar sign to that? >> Um, Ken might be able to speak to that. It would be I guess you know 42.17 of >> Yeah, it's it's approximately 40,000. Um, I don't think I have it broken down here. It's it's it's funds that go directly to the town. Um, I I can let me work on that. I I think I have Do we see that do we see that that goes into the narrative that our this program is is funded and the funds go back to the town >> and is it on the revenue chart somewhere Ken probably >> so >> there is
093it's it's under other state funds on the revenue chart I think I need to um I want to try and look see what I can um see on the on the underlying um uh underlying schedule here. So, give me one. >> Matt, I got you. I'm just um I didn't want to throw too many things at Ken. He's pretty amazing, but probably holding that many plates in the air is probably not. And Beverly, do you have more questions as well? >> Nope. >> Okay. Uh so we do we we have gotten in uh this past year 100 113451 uh to support uh both uh this program as well as the uh the next page the adult education >> but that's what goes directly to the town that doesn't come to the board. Right. Matthew, Matthew,
094you're muted. >> Thank you, Kim. Mr. Carter, as a as a new member, uh I'm not as familiar with your program in Bratton as some of the other longer members, but I am amazed and impressed at the breadth of what you're doing, and I hope that you can add to the budget narrative the three different subprograms that you're doing, the number of enrolles, the number of successes. I think a great job and let's share that with the public. Oh, >> absolutely. Thank you very much. >> Any other questions >> or comments, Matthew? That was really That was really cool. >> All right, let's move on. >> Where are we? >> This is This is page 5-60. function 1320. This is adult education. Um this is uh we um we partner with uh the town or
095New London public schools uh and we pay a fee for this service. So there are no FTEEs or uh anything really on this page. Um and once again, this program is partially paid through the state of Connecticut grant which is uh sent directly to town. That's that $113,000 number that I quoted. >> And that's what um Carrie Carter was referring to, that partnership. >> And uh we've we've paid uh $27,000 both last year uh I believe in the year before. Uh um yep. And uh we're put we put in a a small increase in in case there's any increase in the in the tuition cost. Um, so with 564, I'll speak to it. Um, just my first year looking at uh this number and kind of understanding where those funds go. Um, New London operates
096um both adult education during the day and at night. So, our Graten residents uh have access um to their facilities both day and night and all of their different programming um that they can take advantage of. um in addition to uh doing our data entry and also paying their own staff. And I'm also happy to report they're adding um two enrichment classes that will take place starting this March um at the high school. I believe one is um EMT training and the other one escapes me. Um, so we're starting to branch out a little bit of not only adult education but uh enrichment courses that they offer in London as well that are coming to Graten. >> So that'll happen right at Fitch High School. >> Yes. So yeah, that'll be on the other the
097other section of the wing. >> Well, will it be in the um the lovely brochure and booklet that they give out? >> Yes. Yes, it will. Yep. We've confirmed that. So >> good. Matthew >> enrichment uh when I've seen it advertised in the past is usually comes in at somewhere between 14 and $1,800 uh tuition enrollment. Is any of that covered through our district participation? >> Yes, I believe u that would be free um for of our Graten residents um depending on what the the actual course is itself. I'll let me just share that uh the Grten Ambulance is uh stressed for volunteer memberships and uh perhaps I you may have already done this. If so, I apologize, but maybe touching base with them and seeing if there's some way you can communicate to enrolles
098or they can help drive more enrollies to the program to meet our town's needs. >> Absolutely. I will um bring that up. Very good suggestion, Matthew. And especially since we are looking to expand and grow our health >> careers pathway for kids. >> Any further? >> I just I just had a question. The two courses that were starting in March, was the first one EMT? Is that what you said? And that's why Matthew's question related to >> I believe so. that was the one that was um scheduled and I was um coordinating with uh Denise Spelman who runs adult education in New London. And I know it was it was a trial because this is the first time that we've brought their enrichment classes over here where we've always obviously had the opportunity for our
099students to go over there and enroll in them. >> And and this is a student or can it be any graten resident? I believe it's for any graten resume. >> And and what was the second course? >> Uh uh it escapes me. I I don't know off the top of my head. I search >> We'll look it up in the book when it comes. >> It will definitely be in the book. >> Thank you. >> We've made the book, Beverly. >> Uh so, Mr. Carter, the classes that New London offers are different than the classes that we offer in Graten. Sorry. What >> the classes that that are that we're paying tuition to New London for, are are they different than the classes that we are offering in Grant? >> Um, in terms of adult
100education, no, but they but they do offer, you know, a wide range of other enrichment courses in in addition to adult education that our um GRE residents can take advantage of. Okay. For example Ed sends out and that they charge residents for, are we paying that course that that that um tuition price? So say they have um in their brochure um uh American Sign Language and one of our residents wants to take that class, are we paying for that in this um in this function? No, no, not to my knowledge. No, I believe >> I think it's prorated. >> Yeah, >> they get a discount >> on the course. >> But I think the the difference is that our high school, we have a diploma program. New London is running our GED program, >> right?
101>> So there there is a difference that's separate from the courses that residents could take >> and our EL program, >> right? We're considered New London residents in terms of of like taking um like a cooking class there or something, but that's different than the GED program that we pay the 210,000 to have them run our GED program. I think that's the confusion. >> Thank you, Rita. I was confused, but thank you. >> Perfect. Any other questions? If not, let's move on. And it looks like we are moving to >> 5-66. Yes, >> this is function 21101. This is the um u the central office um pupil personnel um department. Do you want to take this over Denise? >> Yes. Thank you, Ken. So this is the um special education administrators that we were speaking
102of earlier. Um you can see we have one director that would be me and then we have three supervisors Naen Amy Roullo who was unable to be here uh this evening and Katie Vaness who just started replacing Lori Luciani who moved to an assistant principal position. We also have Mark Paluso. He's our 6 through 12 student facilitator. He chairs PPT meetings and section 504 meetings at Fitch High School and Graten Middle School. He's on an Aday B-day schedule. So, he goes between the two schools to assist the administrators in chairing um those meetings. We also have 2.5 secretaries. We have a secretary that deals primarily with preschool and elementary school uh students with enrollment exits, transfers, and um uh IEPs, 504s. They're all every meeting that takes place in the district ends up on their
103desk um and it gets processed by them. Uh they also handle all state reports. The other secretary that's full-time uh does the same duties for students in grades 6 through 12 and out of district. Um and then we have a 0.5 secretary that works for the supervisors scheduling their PPT meetings and is in charge of all of our student records. So, she um sends records when um our students move and she coordinates records for requests that parents and and other individuals, doctors, attorneys may have regarding our students with written consent. Um so, she's um they're all very busy and they do a wonderful job on behalf of all of our students and teachers. >> Um Did you want to speak to um specifically their area of expertise or will you get to that? >> Sure.
104Sure. So, I'll get to that now. So, when we look at the special education administrators uh between myself and the three supervisors, we have some common duties. Those are teacher evaluation and teacher supervision. We support the buildings in terms of evaluating and supervising special education and related services teachers. Um, we coordinate programs. So, I coordinate the multiple disabilities and autism programs. Naen coordinates all of the preschool preK programs and e and and the early childhood assessment team. Um, Katie coordinates all of the academy programs for students who have difficulty regulating behaviors and emotions. And Amy coordinates the high school programs, including our alternative high school program. We all have an outofd district case load. Uh we manage and supervise uh our students who are placed out of district either by agencies, by the board uh
105or by parent choice due to magnet programs. Um, and we also have uh certain schools that we all uh are assigned to. Um, because if there's an initial referral, so if there's a referral of a Graten student from that school who's struggling, we're the ones that uh go over and hold the meetings and review the concerns and plan an evaluation and start that process. Um, I coordinate that process at Sacred Heart. Naen does the elementary magnet schools and Amy does the middle school and high school magnet schools and Ledger VOAG. Um we all um coordinate professional development. Uh we coordinate that for our certified staff who need specialized PD as well as our para educators. Uh we also uh coordinate our tuitions with our um administrative assistant in the business office, Jodie Moore. She works
106directly with us in terms of managing um the the the flow of students uh either coming into the district or leaving the district and manages those tuitions and attendance. Um we also facilitate uh monthly staff meetings with our all of our teachers. I coordinate middle school, Amy does high school, and Naen and Katie do elementary, preschool. Right now, we're working um very hard on uh suns setting our frontline IEP program and migrating to the new Connecticut IEP and CTS. So, we're working very closely with the teachers to start to migrate the data over to the new system. And we're all in training on the new IEP because Connecticut will have a brand new IEP as of July 1. Um and then additional duties um that we all do is we all support the buildings. We
107are here to support our principles, our assistant principles um and our staff. So when there's a complex uh case in the building, um it could be, you know, having difficulty meeting the students needs, could be difficulty communicating the program to the parents. Um we we support the buildings. Um, so we meet with them, we team with them, we we offer uh advice, suggestions, uh, professional development, um, guidance, expertise, um, to help move some of those conflicts forward or complex cases forward. Um, and then additionally, um, as the director, I coordinate the VNA with the nurses. Um, I coordinate the OTP in the district. Um and that includes our BCBA contract with learn. Um we do we try to do a lot of parent outreach so parents are informed and they they're you know up to
108date on what's happening in our um our department. I also coordinate um homeless youth so I identify any youth um who's homeless in the district. I coordinate um title nine sexual harassment. I'm the section 504 compliance advisor. So, if there's a student um who does not need special education but who has a disability, I uh coordinate with the school counselors, the social workers, the psychologists, and the assistant principles the process for creating a section 504 plan. Um I supervise the three supervisors and the two and a half secretaries. I also coordinate the Medicaid program with Jodie Moore. Uh so for students who receive a medical service like OTPT counseling speech um I coordinate a comp program called complaim where the teachers go in and they enter their services complaint submits the services to the department
109of social services and if students are eligible meaning they are Husky recipients the district gets reimbursed for those services. So, we upload new users. We communicate updates on the platform to the staff. We send out monthly emails letting the staff know if they're a little behind in their logs, just giving them friendly reminders to update their logs. Um, and we coordinate the parental consents because we don't get reimbursed unless we have parental consent. So, that's what we do in a nutshell >> and and probably everything in between >> and co Yeah. And co >> and co and social emotional learning. >> Yes. And we also Yeah. We we we facilitate the safe school climate committee as well. >> Andrea Andrea. >> Yeah. Denise, I'm not being facicious, but I know that if people are watching
110and I know that it it hit me as well. I heard coordinate at least 25 times, maybe more. So does that term have one definition or does it have 25 definitions? >> Well, by coordinate I mean we facilitate. So we um we we we communicate information to all to the district staff. So oftentimes these programs have updates um and we have to be sure that you know we're communicating information so that we're meeting the compliance standards of these programs. So, and we have staff supporting us. We have Jod Moore in the tuition office. Um, we have our secretaries in our office. So, we're making sure that we're communicating information. We're calibrating to be sure we're all on the same step. You know, we're assisting people, troubleshooting, answering questions, supporting, coming up with documents, guidance documents
111that we send out because oftentimes people need information in writing. Um, there's a lot of information that gets sent out. Um, and sometimes it's, you know, it's it's easier to manage it in writing. So, you know, we meet and we talk about, you know, what do we need to share with our staff this week? You know, what's happening um, you know, in the 504 world or in the world of social emotional learning. >> All right. I know what you do because I've been there, but I just thought we could have some clarification on that. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome, Emily. Thank you. Um Denise, where in the budget is that reimbursement um for Medicare? I think it's Medicare for Medicaid reflected. >> Um Ken, I believe it's in revenue. >> Yeah, it's in revenue
112on page 1-3 and we are proposing um 192,100 uh dollars. Uh and again that goes directly to the town. >> Okay. And and Denise, who supports the parents? >> Well, we field quite quite a number of calls per week from parents. Uh lately it's been questions on our health and safety protocols um that we try to help parents understand because they get information from the school and they either don't agree with it or they don't understand it. So, we've been doing a lot of support with parents on health and safety protocols. We also get questions about from parents, a lot of military families who are thinking of moving to Grten. They have questions about our programs. We also have parents call and say, you know, I don't understand this IEP or I have questions about
113the program. Can you come to a meeting and help me understand it? Um so we we interface a lot with parents both you know parents who are experiencing homelessness um you know parents who just you know for whatever reason need support to help understand their child's program or their disability or um or to get the services that they that they want or that their child needs. oftentimes I would say the administrators in the building also outreach to our to Denise and our supervisors to get support for the family so that they can be there you know meet with them prior you know with the principal and help them you know understand with special education you know it's quite legal and we have to be able to do what we say we're going to do it's
114in paper it's a legal document and so it's really important that everybody understands. So coordination is important. Everybody understands what's on that document and what has to be done for that child. So parents and and the teachers um anyone who is providing services >> because I you I often heard um from parents how overwhelming the um the PPTs were a lot of school staff and it might just be one parent or two parent and it was very overwhelming and that's what made me ask that question who supports the parents. >> It can be very overwhelming. Absolutely. I agree. Um, so if you look at uh the budget that Ken just put up, um, you can see our salaries and our benefits uh at the top both for >> We lost you, Denise. Maybe >> she
115won't be happy with >> Oh, there she is. Denise, you're freezing up just a tad. >> Okay. Yeah, I'm getting a message. My internet is unstable, so I I apologize. Um, so Line 331 is um our Medicaid program. It's called Compu Claim. Um that's a vendor that actually um has a platform that the teachers go in and they enter their services on and then Compu Claim filters out the students who don't have parental consent and they submit the logs to Department of Social Services for reimbursement. We also have a little bit of translation through Frontline, our IEP program for parents who speak a language other than English. Uh we do pay for uh translation of our IEP documents out of this account. Um the next lines are travel. Um prior to COVID, we did travel
116quite a bit throughout the state. Um that's been significantly reduced since most of all of our meetings are on Zoom and we're really just traveling throughout the district. Um we do have a little bit of um funds in here for uh supplies. These are basically office supplies. Uh we need a lot of heavy duty staplers. We have process a lot of paper um folders, binders, things of that nature for our IEPs. Um and then some dues because we do have some professional organizations that we belong to. questions on this page. Rita, >> um I had a question. Um I think before and I don't know if it's if it's again here. Mark Paluso who is at Fitch and at the middle school. You said he is also reimbured from travel. Does he walk between the
117two schools or does he drive? I mean I don't I don't understand. So he drives between and he's reimbursed for travel. >> He could be. I don't think he's ever submitted anything but just in terms of travel >> say that that is that it was in here for travel on on the other page. My other question is that in a future um board of ed meeting uh CO I'd really like to understand the BCBA contract with learn as well as how many students are in the Ocean Avenue Learning Center the you know how long they're there and what we pay. I don't know. Is that in another page in this book someplace? >> Yes, we're getting to that tonight. Rita, >> we're getting to that tonight. >> It's the last page. Yep. Under tuitions. >>
118Under tuitions. Okay. And then but if you could ever I think we with new board members to understand that BCDA contract and the support that we receive from learn and how students are outplaced at Ocean Avenue Learning. I think it would be very helpful um for the board and the public to understand this. >> And I know their tuitions are all going up quite a bit. So >> yes, I believe we're going to get to that actually um >> Yep. >> Any other questions on this page? >> I do. Denise, how do you determine uh travel reimbursement? Uh how do you pay by mileage? Yeah, the business office has a chart with the mileage through from school to school. >> Um, and then town to town. So, we use a preset mileage and then it's
119the IRS uh reimbursement rate. >> You know what that is now? >> I'd have to look it up. I think >> 56 cents >> gone up this year. 58 and a half. >> Oh, is it 58 and a half now? >> Yeah. Stephanie just sent out an update >> for January. Thank you, Denise. >> Sure. >> Let's move on. >> Okay. The next page is our uh district social workers that alone. >> Um so Matt just asked if we have any interface with homeschool parents. Thank you, Matt. That's another program that we coordinate in my office, which is uh parents who choose to homeschool their children do need to notify the district and there's a a process that they go through to indicate their intent to homeschool. So, we do share information with them on
120that process and then work with Susan for her to approve it and then we notify the schools for the students to be unenrolled. Um, so this page is our uh district social workers. Um, many of our >> What pages you're on now? >> 5-68. >> We have uh social workers in the district that support both students and families. Um, they focus um primarily on social emotional learning. Um, at times uh sadly they do have to do some crisis intervention. Um, but they're all very skilled, they're very well trained, and they all um are very student centered. So, we have uh one full-time social worker at Charles Barnum. She works in our grades uh four or five uh academy program. That's for students with emotional behavioral disorders. Um and then we have two full-time social workers
121in our academy programs at Themes River. One is for children in grades K to one and the other is for children in grades two to three. And they provide that social emotional learning so that the teacher can continue to instruct if a child's having um you know a difficult time regulating or attending. uh they're really there to provide those strategies and that intervention and they interface quite a bit with um with parents with outside community agencies and the like. So we have three social workers at the elementary level and we have one at Fitch High School who again does some peer mediation um counseling and crisis intervention u for the students at the high school. And then we have several other positions that are grant-f funded that are not uh included, but you can see
122down below. Uh they're funded either out of title one, out of um ESSER, um title 4, and we have a new one funded out of um American Recovery Plan idea. >> And this this uh uh narrative needs to be updated. Uh this was this is just copied from last year but it'll be updated in the final version >> and we also receive military lia family liaons in several of our schools and that's provided from the military and they they work with small groups of children with permission from parents and it could be a military child and his friend that's not military. So, um, it's really been a a terrific program that we so appreciate, but no, none of our dollars go towards that. So, we have 12 social workers in total. Uh, four paid for
123out of the board's grant and eight paid for out of I'm sorry, the board's budget and eight paid for out of grants. So, if we go down to the budget, uh, the primary budget is salaries and benefits. Um, these individuals have a little bit of travel. They don't travel much. We only have one social worker that's split between Charles Barnum and Northeast Academy who would travel. Um, we have some funds here for their supplies. They generally use the same supplies as the school psychologists. Again, they support social emotional learning with a lot of the same curriculum materials like the zones of regulation, for example. and we supplement their supplies with the IDEIDA grant. Beverly. >> Uh Denise, I'm very happy to see that you hired more social workers because I remember when I was on
124the board before, we tried to eliminate social workers and hire psychologists. And boy, did I receive a lot of flack from that from uh other social workers saying that social workers and psychologists, they don't do the same thing. So, I'm very glad to see that uh you got back on the path of hiring social workers. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you, Denise. >> Well, thank you, Bev. But I have to say that credit goes to Susan. >> Thank you, Susan. >> And and the board and the board >> and the board and the board for that. That was >> I think the success the success of our academy program is pairing a very highly skilled um special ed teacher with a highly skilled social worker and we've had layers of professional learning and um
125support from Dr. Mari Rington. So it's it's helped not only those programs but really our schools in general in knowing how to really work with our kids. Well, thanks again. >> Thank you. >> All right, let's move on. >> Kim, I had a quick question. When we go over this, um, is the CARES Act, >> will that be ending next year or is it two years? >> So, there's a series of ers, I don't know if you remember that wonderful chart that Ken made. >> Yes. >> And it it lays out through the years. So the last year ends 2024 at the end of 2024. >> So that's when this would go away. The the social workers that are funded with the with this grant, >> right? But we do have several in title one
126and in other grants that we received year after year and we're we're pretty certain of the amount. So >> and and title four I I'm not familiar with title four. Can you tell me what title four how you qualify for that? I think that was just the enhancement, right Susan? It was >> enrichment and it was for social emotional learning um specifically. So we were able to um slice out carve out funds for our alternative program and provide uh so extra social work support at the high school specifically with that one. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Everly, do you have another question or or is your hand Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, let's move on. >> All right. This page is our school counseling department and our school counselors um attend all
127uh IEPT meetings for students on their case load. Their case load is about 200 to one. Uh they also have a case load of their own students who are in uh who have a section 504 plan. um and they um work very closely with students um around uh college and career planning uh scheduling and uh social emotional support and social emotional learning. So we have six counselors at Graten Middle School. We're not proposing a change for next year. They're two per grade level. They do loop with their students, so they stay with them all three years at the middle school. And then at Fitch High School, we have 6.6 six. Again, we're not recommending a change. They they're assigned via, you know, via alphabet and they stay with their students all four years. The point6
128counselor is uh in our career center. Um and we do have I believe through our grant we're adding a 1.0 O counselor for the career pathways at the high school, >> which means that once once the life of the grant is over, we are going to figure we will need to figure out how to continue to have that guidance counselor. >> Correct. >> Any other questions about that? >> If not, let's go on down. I I have something to say if you don't mind. >> Um Denise, when I was campaigning, a lot of people they were concerned about the high school counselors that the case load was too high that some of their um children were not able to see the counselor because a lot of time, especially if it's a senior, the counselors were
129busy with college prep and all that stuff. So, do you find do you see a need to decrease the case load in a high school or any other place? >> Well, I will say I work very closely with the counselors. Um, and every time e every counselor that I've ever interacted with has known their student. Um, they have a a a well um rounded knowledge of the student and they are very available to um to meet with them one-on-one, to meet with them with their parent. Um, you know, oftentimes I'll come up and meet with students and I ask if they join me. Um, I I find them to be very flexible, very available, and very student centered, >> Kim. >> Okay, thank you. >> Um, before Beverly was on the board, we had this
130discussion. Actually, it turns out the counselor case load is about one um one counselor to about 160 students and a lot of students have have said that their counselors are just very unavailable and they weren't able to get a get a hold of them easily and they wouldn't get answers back. So, we did have a discussion about that and maybe it's something we need to hear from the counselors themselves what what's really going on because I I understand where you're coming from because I've heard the same thing from students and parents but it's not because they have too many students. Um actually there are much less than before because our numbers have gone down in the high school but the counselors have stayed about the same. >> Yeah. Yeah. because I did hear that from
131several parents. >> Yes. Yep. >> Yeah. You'll see when we look uh down at their budget um we do have um in their budget uh funding for Oops, turn the page. Uh funding for their salary and their benefits. Um there is a line uh 113 for their clerical support. There are two um secretaries in each school for um school counseling. These individuals again handle records. They schedule meetings for PPTs and 504s. They schedule student um uh they schedule the students to see the counselors. Um and they talk uh quite a bit with parents on the phone when they call with questions. Um we also have um their insurance And then you can see um there is a little bit here for travel. Um we did decrease the postage. Uh we do a lot of electronic
132communications now with school messenger. Um and then we did decrease the travel for workshops, conventions because so much is virtual with Zoom. Um there is uh some money in here for travel for field trips. um they do a lot of traveling to um to colleges to college fairs. In terms of pupil tests, line 607 um there's a slight decrease, but you can see we we increase their um their support services supplies. Um, so it's it's kind of flat. But in terms of pupil tests, um, this uh budget really addresses the PSAT fees for students in grades 9, 10, and 11th grade and the rental for the buildings for the AP testing. And then in terms of uh support services for supplies, um, this line uh pays for uh the anonymous alerts which we have at
133the high school. So students can submit a concern anonymously. The counselors uh are very good at following up on those alerts. Um this does also pay for buses for field trips. Um and it pays for their um counseling supplies and some school climate resources um that they they use to you know to improve the climate at the building. Um they have a little bit of professional materials. we did decrease that a bit in terms of their dues um and their professional materials. Um so overall um it's about it's a decrease of 2.4% for supplies and an increase for 2.5% overall for the school counseling office. >> Any questions? Matthew, >> I I have a quick question. >> Wait, wait, I got Matthew first and then and then you >> Thank you. Uh, on line 11
134line 120, regular subteers. I'm kind of scratching my head. Um, do we have substitute count student school counselors? Is that what that refers to? Could you >> Yes, we've had some of our counselors um out for extended absences um maternity leave, uh military service, and we've um we've you know, we've brought a sub in to cover their case load. >> Thank you very much. >> Sure, Beverly. >> Um Denise, when you said rental for the building for AP test, what does that mean? Um, I believe Susan, do don't they rent the church next door? >> Yes. I don't know if it's just for AP or it's also SAT, but yes, the church um they have a collaboration in order to use that space. >> And I believe Beverly, it's because that happens during the school
135day. >> Okay. >> So, they have a quiet separate quiet setting to take their AP testing. I think it's a week of AP testing or at least four days. >> All right. Thank you. >> Sure. >> All right. I'll move us on. Um this page is our clerical uh worker in the Fetch High School nurse's office. 0.5 um school health aid in the nurse's office. She assists our nurse. And in terms of the budget, you can see line 133 is her salary. Again, she's part-time. No, a little bit of uh benefits there for Social Security and Medicare. Um so here's where you see uh some special education expenses. Line 332, other professional services. Uh we've budgeted 556,885 for next year. This uh addresses outside evaluations and consultants. Um there are some students that require specialized
136evaluations that the district pays for. It's usually a neurossychological evaluation. um or we have some students who are referred for special education who um English is not their primary language and we need to contract with um an evaluator who speaks uh primarily Spanish. Um so they conduct bilingual evaluations for the students. Um and here's where you'll see our BCBA uh contract that Rita was talking about. We do contract with learn for a boardcertified behavior uh analyst. We have two, one full-time and one part-time. And these are individuals that work specifically in the field of modeling um and shaping behavior. They're experts at uh behavioral strategies and interventions. Um, they're also experts at helping our staff collect data and analyze the data to develop individual plans uh to help address behaviors of students um whose behavior
137impact their learning. We also have some consultants in this line item who provide specialized reading instruction to students uh rather um such as Orton Gillingham and Wilson reading and that's primarily uh we don't have anyone in the district currently trained in Orton Gillingham but we do in Wilson reading um however Wilson does require oftentimes an hour per day and um it's it's difficult for the teachers to carve about an hour per day and some of these students receive the services before school so it doesn't impact their daily schedule. So that's um where some of these consultants um come the purpose for this line item and then line 333 is our OT and PT. We do contract occupational therapy from learn. Uh we have 12 days per week of an occupational therapist and 12 days per
138week of a certified occupational therapy assistant. They work with students who have fine motor delays or students who have sensory integration um delays. Either they um they need sensory breaks, sensory diet or activities to address their sensory integration. Sometimes they're overregulated, sometimes they're underregulated. Um and then we also have um eight days per week of um obviously these are you know more than one pe one person of physical therapists and they're contracted through physio care um and they work on gross motor delays students who have difficulty with um you know with ambul ambulation uh and then health services supplies is line 622 too. We do purchase um all of the health supplies for the nurs's office. Uh we contract with the VNA for our nurses, but we do pay for all of the supplies. >>
139I had a question and Denise, under OT and PT, are some of these students also under 504 plans? >> Yes, they are. >> Okay. Yes. Thank you. >> Yep. Any other questions? All right, hearing none, let's move on. >> All right. Um, so the uh second to last category is uh all of our school psychologists. We have um 11 school psychologists in the district. We have um six at the elementary level, three at the middle school level and two at the high school level. Um our school psychologists again focus very much on social emotional learning. Um they provide counseling services to students either individually or in small groups. They also provide direct instruction on social skill development to students individually or small group. Um they also conduct individual evaluations. Um sometimes it's to determine eligibility
140for special education. Other times it's to get information on uh function of behavior so we can develop an individual behavior plan. But they are um very important members of the planning and placement team and um and really um experts when it comes to helping us identify how a student learns best. And I think you might want to notate that at Graten Middle School, one of them really supports the academy program at the middle school. >> Yes. Yes. >> And I think we also have some support at Fitch as well for their program. Yes, we have one uh school psychologist in the academy program at Rotten Middle and one school psychologist in the new beginnings alternative program at Fitch High School. There is um you can see there's three psychologists at Graten Middle and only two
141at the high school. And the part of the reason for that is that as the students become juniors and seniors, there's less of an emphasis on conducting those individual assessments. were really planning for their transition to college career or um or the world of work >> questions. I was just curious um why we have the 1.5 at the two magnet schools. >> Oh yes, thank you Rita. Uh so the there is a psychologist that is split between Mystic River and Themes and she predominantly assists with testing. So we're required to assess a student when they're referred to special education and then we're also required to reassess every three years to determine continued eligibility. But there are some instances where we may determine that we need more information in between that three-year cycle. and um and
142so there could be a need to conduct an evaluation uh you know in less than three years. So >> and it goes back to the situation where we had three schools that um consolidated into two but we still have as many actually more elementary children this year. You can see in the enrollment. So those two schools really are, you know, um looking like they're going to be 550 to closer to 600 next year each. >> So my my my thought in this is that a lot of these duties except, you know, except for that one that you said is doing all the testing is an awful lot like what our social workers are doing in the schools. Um, it it seems as if there, you know, I've always thought that the the school psychologist so
143much of their time was testing that that's why we needed the social workers, but you're saying that we need the social workers and all the school psychologists and they're doing the same about the same thing. >> Well, the social workers really don't uh do the testing. I know they don't do the testing, but I'm saying how much time are these school psychologists spent doing testing as opposed to working with students? >> Um, I would say it varies, but I would say it's um it's probably 5050. um oftentimes, you know, when they're assessing a student, they're um they're getting to know the student, they're collecting data, they're conducting observations, they're in that general ed classroom environment. Um but I would say it's it's pretty 5050. I would say that also the um the school psychologists in
144working with Dr. Mari Writington have really outlined and been very much a part of the QBI process which is qualitative behavioral um intervention and so they really are um leaders in a school crisis team when it comes to that. So, um I see them really in the special ed world in delivering services that come through a PPT specifically um where a social worker tends to do um counseling for the whole school and especially for kids who have some needs that arise sometimes through a trauma or you know COVID or a divorce or a situation that occurs where the school psychologist is really specific to the IEP and the process. >> Yeah. >> And the counseling in that. >> Yeah. The school psychologists are really a important member of that um intervention team helping to come
145up with um a plan strategies that would help students be successful and not eventually referred to special education. >> Thank you. >> And Denise, I'm not too sure if you already mentioned this, but they also at least at the elementary level, they also chair the 504 meetings. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you, Naen. Beverly, >> that was my question that Lita asked. Uh so the school psychologist their counseling would be totally different than the counseling that a social worker would do cuz as I understand it the school psychologist when they counsel was more based on education and learning and the social worker is more based on family individual needs or issues. Is that correct? Well, you know, they both both roles support the students in school. So, they're both considered mental health providers and both
146of them focus on social emotional learning and how to help students be successful in school. So I would say that the social workers have a little bit more um focus on the family unit and um you know and working you know from that lens whereas the psychologists I think have more of a focus on data and interventions and assessment data. Um so I think there are areas where their skill sets differ and then there's areas where their skill sets are very similar. They use a lot of the same curriculum like the zones of intervention. Um Michelle Garcia winner's social thinking, uh the fix versus growth mindset. Um so there are definitely areas where they overlap, but then there's areas where they're kind of skill sets go in different directions. >> The goal is the same.
147What's what's good for the student? How the how to help the student be successful. >> That's right. That's the goal. >> That's right, Beverly. >> Right. >> It's like a vend diagram almost, right? You're right. Intersecting >> and then there's a huge place where they intersect but they come from different perspectives. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions about this? Um Kim, I have a question that I should have asked >> if if I could that I should have asked four pages ago, but I I was hoping that it would come up and I don't see it anywhere in the in the in the book. So, you can tell me whether it's this is appropriate or not, but uh Denise, I saw for the high school there was a a nurs's aid, but I haven't seen
148that for any other schools. Are there other nurses aids available? >> Was that the clerical aid for the Fitch High School nurses office? >> I thought you were clerical. >> Yes. >> Oh, not a nurse's aid. >> I might have called her a health aid. I'm sorry. She's a clerical assistant. >> I see. All right. But we do have we do have health aids though >> in each of the schools, right? >> Okay. >> Yes. That they're paid for in the VNA budget. Okay. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Y Matthew, >> that's fine. Thank you, >> Beverly. Do you have another question? >> No. I'm sorry, Kim. I keep leaving my hand up. I apologize. >> No, no, not a problem. I just I just also don't want to overlook you, so I'm
149going to keep on asking. That's all. Um if if no further questions on that page, let's move us on. >> Okay, so we have their budget down below for the school psychologists. Um we did have some cost savings. Um you can see uh under uh line 102 for certified. Um, we did, although um, Ken, I'm not sure that this is this is showing an increase, not a savings, but I know I have down that we had a a senior psychologist retire and a psychologist with lesser experience come in. >> Oh, maybe that's why it's only 0.6% increase. >> Exactly. >> Okay. Um and then down below you can see um other professional services. Um this is where we have uh a consulting psychiatrist from learn that supports us with students that need um a higher
150level of assessment. Uh we also have a little bit of travel in here because some of uh our split psychologist uh at themes and Mystic is um is on the road a couple days a week. Uh we do have underline 607 um an increase of $2,000 for pupil tests. Again, um these individuals use standardized assessments and behavior rating scales which uh are updated and often and we are you know continually replenishing our our um our inventory. We also um replenish annually their uh protocols, their record forms. Um however, we did decrease their supplies. um they they their supplies don't change that much in terms of in terms of their instructional materials. >> So overall, uh it's a just a 0.5% increase to this budget. >> Questions on that? >> All right, we're almost at the
151home stretch, folks. Thanks for in >> doing a great job, Denise. It shows it shows all of your leadership. All these things. >> Thank you. This is our last page. This is the speech and language pathologists. Um we have 11.6 in the district and these individuals are our experts when it comes to communication ex there's three types of communication expressive, receptive and pragmatic. And um we have a lot of children who are working on their social language. Um so these folks are really really key players. Um we have um at the elementary level 8.6 you can see um at Kathern Kolski there's a point4 to support a self-contained classroom. And then the balance um of that individual is at Mystic River. That's the other 6. And then we have a 6 uh supplementing Themes River.
152That's to support our preschool program. Almost all of our children who qualify for preschool services have delays in communication. So the speech pathologists um are very busy in preschool. >> Um at the middle school we have two full-time speech pathologists given the number of students and at the high school we have one. I will note that we added an additional speech pathologist at the high school this year. She's funded out of the ARP esser grant. Is is it hopes that once we have moved through the pandemic that you're not going to need that extra speech and language? >> Well, I I I don't think so. Um she is supporting our transition academy which again has you know like 15 of the most disabled student young adults. Uh many of them well not many some are
153non-verbal others have significant um language delays. Um and we also have a growing population at the high school. So this individual supports the high school and the transition academy. So, is that something in the future the board is going to have to take a look at the possibility of needing to speech and language? >> Yes. >> Okay. Yeah, I would >> we might want to notate that in the narrative too. >> Yeah, >> that we have one being covered. >> Definitely. >> Okay. And then in terms of budget, uh we have their salary and benefits. um just a little bit for travel. Um pupil tests again um $10,000 that's stayed pretty uh constant throughout the years. Um they again they administer individual assessments for language. Um, we have support services supplies. That's to buy their
154instructional materials because they do a lot of games, activities um to increase vocabulary um and to increase social language. And then um the dues line 8/19 you'll see is new. That is their licenses through the department of public health. So, each speech pathologist is required to hold a license with the Department of Public Health and it's about $220 um per teacher questions about that. >> Beverly, we pay for that. Denise, why do we pay for that? Why do we pay for the licenses? Uh I believe Sure. I believe that that was um part of their contract. >> Oh, it's part of their contract. Okay. >> All right. How many students receive um speech and uh speech therapy in our in our district about >> look at my data chart. I don't think I have that
155data. >> And and Beverly to go back to your question about paying for their license. I don't think that we pay total. I think that we I think that that was part of what we negotiated. Um is that we pay a certain amount per per I don't remember what that is. >> Is that in other contracts also? >> I don't think so. >> Okay. >> It's in the teacher contract, the GA. And I think it's specific to the speech paths. >> Yes. Um so I do not have uh the number I can tell you that there are 16% of our students have autism and all of those students receive speech and language support. >> Um 11.3% have a speech and language impairment so they receive speech support. Um so that's um that's about that's about
15627% of the population. And then we have other students um with a multiple disability who would definitely receive speech support. So I would say at least a third maybe more. >> But I can exact numbers. >> Yeah. Yeah, I bet you our preschool program has a lot as well. >> Absolutely. Right developmentally delayed. Yes, >> our speech language pathologists have very large case loads and we're constantly monitoring that. We've actually had to go out for additional um support in different years. So, um, you know, we take a close look at that, um, to make sure that the ratio is doable. >> Any other questions on that, Dean? >> Yeah, I just uh I'm looking at the renewal application fee, speech and language pathologist lensure. I might be in the wrong place at the DPH. It's
157$25 for the renewal fee. >> Thank you. >> I don't know if that's the same fee. I think it may be. Thank you, Dean. >> Sure. In which case, we were paying 100% of the >> But it doesn't matter either way. It's it's whatever the whatever the uh the CBA says. Whatever we agree to. >> All right, let's move on to our last item, folks. >> All potatoes. And that would uh does that take us to 106? >> Correct. Page 5-106. And this this is our tuition's uh page. I I will say that um below the narrative box there is a um special education out of district um um uh students. Uh just a number. Uh this was as of last year. So, we do have updated numbers um that this will be replaced with.
158I can provide those if if if you need me to put them up. >> We could probably after, you know, put them in our board notes too so that they could see and compare them. >> Okay, I'll get those to you. >> Um did you want me to go through this Denise or >> uh No, I can I can give the numbers. It's um right now we have um in terms of IEP, uh last year there was 86 students outplaced with an or school choice with an IEP. This year it's 72. Uh last year the 504 numbers were 36 and this year they're 32. And last year the total was 122 and this year it's 104. So we're down 18 students, which was what we were that we've been on that task forever to make
159sure that you guys had the supports necessary to keep kids in district. Yeah, we're seeing more magnet students come back >> and we're seeing less state agency placements, but that might change once the pandemic lessens. >> It might. Um, so I believe the first account is 567. Um I believe Ken helped me out. This is uh Ledger Voag, >> correct? Yeah, this is Ledger Voag. Th this uh this first uh 567 uh this is for general education students and the next one down 566 uh magnet school. Uh so that's for the the learn and new London uh primarily um magnet schools. Uh and again for general education it's uh in uh function 4121 that we start to talk about special education um magnet and uh and placements. >> Where is that? I Where's the one
160you just mentioned? Not the regular ed, but the special ed. >> A 41 >> on on page 5-107. There's there's like there's like four boxes each each with >> the very bottom. >> Yeah. So it's the bottom two are special education. to talk to our general education and we only do we only do this to to save paper and and and space in the book. So >> So the the first one 4121 would be students who attend a public school like a magnet school, RMMS, the Friendship School, New London Magnet um who receive special education services. So, we pay um a general tuition and then we pay for their specific services um for and it's itemized. Uh so, there's a fee for speech if that's in their IEP. Whatever is in their IEP, we are
161build for. And that's why it's so important to have the supervisors going to these meetings >> and chairing these meetings and making sure that the services that are being provided are in fact required and asking for data when new services are requested. um so that we know that these services that we're paying for are in fact needed. And the supervisors have established um great working relationships with all of these magnet schools um in terms of you know making sure that the teachers come in with their data to support this these services. So there is um a decrease um of 1.6% to this account. >> Rita, did you have a question? >> I can't I can't understand like the line 562 and 563 tuition special ed tuition state total other purchase services for special ed non-public
162schools. Is that like sacred heart as or what what do you what what is a non-public school? >> So a nonpub Well, first of all, we're at 4121. This is all public school. >> Yes. >> So this would be the placing agency. So 562 is the board. >> So if the board places the student, 563 is if the state places the student. And 568 is if the parent made the choice. Right. >> Kim, Kim, >> Andrea, >> Kim, uh, Denise, then I'm I'm assuming then that any hospitalizations or, you know, a specific school that's, um, that a state the state may place a student in that's um, a non-public school. Do you know what I'm I'm saying? I can't think of a name of >> that's that's um, account 4122. So the non-public specialed schools
163would be our approved private special ed programs like the Bradley School or Waterford Country School, >> right? >> Um the Ocean Avenue Learning Academy, which Rita is talking about, would be up above in 562. That's a that's a approved well actually that's an approved private school, but learn is considered a public school. >> Right. Right. So these are students who we can't educate in district because they have such specialized needs. They really need a separate program that's smaller, that's more individualized and that has more expertise in terms of specialized staff. >> And do you know how many students we have in placements like that? >> Yes, we have 22 right now. Okay. And some of some we have placed and some the state has placed. Is that correct? >> We've placed 22. Ken's going to
164send this chart to you Friday. And state agencies have placed four. >> Thank you, >> Matthew. >> I may have misunderstood. I thought 566 magnet school. Somebody said learn and I was wondering about um Yeah. And then you also I thought somebody said 562 was referring to learn. Did I miss something? >> Sure. So 566 is um the students who are considered general education students. So they would attend a magnet school but they don't receive any special services. And that would be um like a learn magnet school could be the regional magnet um the RMS. It could be the >> science science. But then learn also holds a special ed um Oceanside. So that's that's where the difference is. >> I got it. Thank you. >> Yeah. Beverly >> Denise on 563 special ed tuition
165state. Is this the line item where if a student was in DCF DCF custody and they lived in New London and um they came to school in Graten? Oh, so their home was in New London, but they they were in foster care in Grten. And do we have to pay tuition to New London? >> Yes. So, so this is um there's two main state agencies that place students. One is DCF and one is the Department of Developmental Services. Um that's referred to as DDS. So DDS has pretty much eliminated their placements. So, we have some legacy students in these placements. That's why it's only four. Um, I have several aging out this year at 22. Um, so the DDS placements have pretty much been eliminated and our students will age out very soon. Um but
166DCF does still remove children from the home and if they unfortunately and if they can't find a foster home close to the students home sometimes they have to place students um in districts that are very far away and then we pay tuition to those well we coordinate the PPT and we pay tuition to those districts. Some of those students um cannot be educated in the public school district. So they attend a private school, a private approved private specialed program. Um and we pay that tuition as well. >> But Denise, I think it's the the opposite. If it's a Grten student who is placed out of um out into a foster home in New London, we have to pay the tuition to New London. Is that correct? >> Yeah. But but very but re more often
167than not it they're placed farther away because there's not as many foster homes as they would like to have, right? >> So we would pay tuition to the district that the student is living in >> or to their uh approved private special ed program if their needs are such that they can't attend school in that district. >> Right. It it's just it it's the opposite coin from what um Beverly was saying which was in an East Hartford student being placed in Graten. We don't pay tuition. East Hartford pays tuition to Graten. Correct. >> Yes. So the residency is really dependent on where the parent lives >> in those cases >> and they that would be the responsible school district. >> Dean. >> Yeah. Um, I was I was going to say how how unjust is
168that that the state decides where to put the kid and all of a sudden they're a graten resident and then we pay the tuition uh for them to go someplace else. It just I don't think that's what that's what people are thinking about uh as a graten kid. All due respect to the kid. Uh my my question has to do with just in general. So we're we're paying to send I understand the ledger VOAG program. We haven't had a VOAG program, if we've ever had a VOAG program in this district for eons, I'm sure, before anybody here was born. But Ledger still has one. I get that. But as far as the other things are concerned, just in general, would is it have we determined or when was the last time anybody did a study
169that it's cheaper to pay somebody else the tuition for these kids as opposed to providing these services here? So that's that's when we got the magnet schools, right? Is that we were we were paying a lot of money for kids to go paying the tuition to go to other magnet schools. And that's why there was this huge push by the board to really um develop our own magnet themed um district. So I think that we've done that. Um, but I don't know if we've ever done a study to see whether we need to have a marine component to our high school or a a VOAG um animal husbandry program to >> Yeah, that that's probably that's probably a lost cause to bring back a VOAG to Graten. I'm just thinking of other services that if
170people are taking their kids if kids are being placed in other districts and we have to pay pay for our kids to go to other districts to get services that we're not offering. >> Uh, no. It's It's because they're removed from their home, Dean. So DCF would remove them from their home. >> Yeah. I'm not even talking about the foster kids. So the kids in foster care, temporary care. I'm talking about the five million can't be all for foster kids. This is very this is various things all together is, you know, showing up where the bottom line is $5 million. Uh, so >> I would say that as we've gotten more competitive and and had these offerings in Graten, we've seen more of our kids coming back. >> But the problem, >> we could probably
171work up those numbers to show you. But um but the problem is >> but the problem is that and we we even spoke to that is the the tuitions from all these other magnet um programs have also increased. So even though we're bringing more kids back, we're still paying the same amount of money. Maybe not. I'm just making an assumption. um because the tuition for their program has raised. >> Are we paying retail as opposed to wholesale? >> No. >> Okay. >> It's basically because the state has capped the Magna School tuition in our area at about $7,000 and we all know it takes more than that. >> Yeah. So we pay the difference from what the state pays and then we pay the difference where if you go to school in any of the
172Harford magnets the state is paying 14 to 15,000 and now with the new chef versus O'Neal they're going to get even more money those schools where the other magnet schools in the state they're not getting the money that Harford area does >> and there's a moratorum so that we can't offer our magnets. to other districts that I'm aware internally. >> Yeah. We we can't be part of an interd district, >> but it's really the state, you know, our um learn keeps asking the state for more tuition money and that would offset what towns would have to pay, but they just for years now they haven't increased it. But but Dean, the other thing to to recognize is is that we're, you know, we had the career um IB program and that might also keep some
173students who would want to go someplace else to learn some um to learn something else. So I think I think we are I think we are stepping in the right direction. Beverly and then Matthew >> Denise on this page. My question is what about vi residential um tuition when students are placed in a residential environment? Is that on this page? >> Yes, that would be under um 4122. >> Um so right now the board um has not placed any student residentially. >> Um good. any residential placements that we have have been made by either DDS or DCF and we only pay the educational costs. We don't pay the residential costs. >> How many students do we have um living in residential facilities? >> Um it's a very small number. It's less than five. >> Five.
174Okay. >> And one is aging out in March. >> Okay. Thank you, Denise. Matthew, >> when I was campaigning, I ran across two parents, two in different places, two different families where the children were enrolled in schools. One was Isaac, I forget the other one. And they said to me in our conversation that if we had had magnet schools at the time they went in, they would have kept the kids in Grten. But that they're the kids are acclimated to those schools, they're going to continue there. So, I'm expecting that as those kids work through the system, there'll be other families whom we might have lost who will stay with us and the net numbers will continue to work in our favor. >> That's a goal. >> That's the goal. >> That's a goal. Any
175other questions? >> The only difference is the regional um magnet school, they offer a foreign language and we're not there yet. >> We might be soon. Oh, good. Susan, >> there's a grant in our future, Beverly. >> Right. And the other thing that the regional multicultural magnet school, which is K through five, is that they have the elementary IB program, which then the students from fifth grade, you know, will transition, let's say, to grten to our our program in sixth grade. So that's what was all the alliance grant the money that we had to make our schools IB um 6 through 10 learn used it for their regional multicultural magnet school >> that's that was the MSAP grant which is coming to an end but there's another one in our future so >> yes I
176know >> Ericson and I are coordinating on that one >> so that also needs to get to be agenda topic so that we can hear about that too if Miss Joan if you can make note of that. So folks, we are done with our section. We worked pretty hard today. Thank you. >> Well done. This was a real challenge. A lot of good questions. Thank you. >> Oh, wait, wait, wait. I got two questions. I've got Cat. I'm going to go to Cat first and then Matt. >> Okay. Um when dur um early in Dr. Grineer's tenure, we had a committee or maybe It was just a few people that met with him that reviewed budget changes. Um, after we not budget changes, but budget development and things that we thought for the process might
177need to include in the budget or how information was presented in the budget. Could we um consider doing that again once we hand this over to the town council? >> Sure. Let's put that also as a is >> Do you need to repeat that? >> No, I got that. I I what I hear is is there a need to have like a a small committee um of people working together to see if there's a a better not a better way, but a more um is there ways that we can improve and what does that look like for the budget? Perfect. >> Oh god, you're the only person that will think of that. I'm going to go Matthew first and then Rita. >> We when we started this process a few weeks ago, we looked at
178page 13 for example, which has a lovely pie chart to break things out. And uh while my wife thinks I'm crazy, I love spreadsheets. Not everybody loves spreadsheets. And I find that visuals will people help people grasp things. And I'm wondering as we listen to the narrative this evening and talked about things that were off district budget and not off district budget, how much would it be worth the effort on some of these charts that we looked at or spreadsheets that we looked at today to have an accompanying pie chart graphic that breaks out what we pay for, what state pays for, what ARP essa pays for, what a grant independent grant pays for so that people get an idea of what they're getting and how little they're paying for work relative to the total
179cost. >> I I think that those are really great ideas. What I think we also have to understand is that we can't bog down our business department >> on to do all those things. So if >> another idea for next year perhaps >> um I was going to ask you about our upcoming meetings. I know Wednesday we have the the joint meeting with the town council and RTM. Um, but are we going to be doing those three meetings on the Wednesday the 23rd also? Do you think are those all going to be necessary to have so many more budget meetings? >> Um, we might need them. Um, so I'm not I'm not I don't want to get rid of them until we have to. Um, >> I'm just curious just that they were so close
180together. There were so many. Well, um because there's a lot going on and we still have to hear the secondary thing. We're going to bring that back. If there's other things that need to come back for us um to look at and we also have to set what we um what we want to be our budget. So, I'm not ready to get rid of any of those until until we until we have voted on this budget. So, um it's just the stuff that keeps me up at night. Sorry. >> So, are are have you asked then? I know. I thought I saw it in one of your notes that you have asked if to red if we wanted to reduce this budget where would be the reductions >> and that and that's going to be
181a conversation Rita that we're going to hopefully hold in one of those meetings that you were just saying do we need them is to kind of take a look at what does that look like and having the staff kind of come back and say so if we had this reduction if we move our budget down to blank blank what what are we going to lose >> but are we going to get that ahead of time so we could look it over is when I >> have well we do have we had the start of that we do have it Rita because we got that from from Susan >> so but >> there was so much in those board notes Rita >> yeah I know >> it was just chalk full >> I'm just wondering if
182we're getting other ones or just that one >> n that one for now >> okay >> hearing no other comments I'm going to look forward to seeing everyone's great um at our um joint uh meeting I would >> and before I move to adjourn I just want to say Denise you coordinated this beautifully >> I here here here fabulous job >> it's a team effort naen and I prepped with Ken Lori Susan Phil so we we had a lot of support but thank you appreciate your kind words >> it It was your coordination. We know that >> it was you. >> so a motion to adjurnn. Can I have a second? >> All right. All those in favor, please. >> I suppose abstain. >> Bye. Good night. >> Good night, everybody. >> Good night.