2-7-22 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001All right. But I do have eight and it is 601. Um, so it is my honor to call the board of education special meeting budget workshops committee of the whole slash um Oh, there's Beverly. Yay. um uh to order in at 601 and today's date is uh February 7th um 2022 and our first um order of business is um the solar panels at the schools >> and we have a presenter coming. >> Oh, we do. Are they here? >> I'm looking for their name. Kim, excuse me for just a moment. I'll be right back. >> Absolutely, Matt. >> She's here. Emily? >> Yes. >> Okay, she's here. >> I'm looking around for my co-presenters. >> Welcome to my world. >> Would that be Alan? >> Yeah, >> I see a Vince that I don't know.

002Is Vince one? >> No, Vince. Vince is a community member I've talked to a couple times. Hey, Vince. I'm glad that you're here. >> Hello. Thank you. >> Okay. And I think my other one is coming on shortly. And I do have some slides to show if that's okay. >> Yep. Mark, do we have everybody or Caitlyn, do we have everybody able to share slides tonight? >> Okay, good. >> Sorry, I'm gonna share my screen. I think I also sent your slides out to the board members, but it was I think today when I received them. So, >> thank you. Okay, can you guys see those? >> Yes. >> Thank you. All right. I think my other co-presenter is jumping on, so I'll just get started. Um, thank you everyone for for having us at

003your meeting this evening. My name is Emily Basham and I'm with the Connecticut Green Bank. Um, and we are here to talk about uh solar projects on two of the the Graten schools. Um, I'm joined um eventually by my colleague Mackie Dykes who is our VP of financing programs at the Connecticut Green Bank and also Alan Sabins from CSW Energy. So, we've been working with the town for the last two years to design solar projects at Mystic River Magnet and Grten Middle as follow on projects to the construction and renovation work being done. Um, and tonight we're here to introduce ourselves and present the final projects and agreements um to the BOE. So, Gratton's been participating in the solar map program of the Connecticut Green Bank. Um, the Connecticut Green Bank is a quasi public

004state agency created by the legislature in 2011 and we were charged with providing sustainable long-term financing for energy efficiency and clean energy projects. Um, we use the the limited public dollars that we receive to attract multiples of private capital to make clean energy investments in the state and help us meet our clean energy goals. Uh and we've partnered with dozens of municipalities across the state uh since our inception to offer financing for solar projects through uh what what's called a power purchase agreement. Um and I'll go into the specifics of of what a power purchase agreement is here in a couple slides. But through this work, we know that there's a lot of steps and barriers to work through to do a solar project um that are in addition to financing the project. So, three

005years ago, we created this program specifically for um towns and cities to help our municipalities um and provide technical assistance in addition to financing. So, the Connecticut Green Bank partnered with CSW Energy to support solar map um selected through an RFP and CSW Energy is very experienced in developing municipal solar PV projects um and there are technical partners for the program. They provide the building and system analysis. So the goals with solar map with this program are really to just be a trusted partner uh leading towns through every step of the process to going solar. And that's from the early stages of identifying you know where is a good site for a solar project all the way through the financing and construction and the long-term management of the system. So on the screen are the

006um kind of the program steps and we're really at the final step looking to execute a power purchase agreement. Um but I think it's worth just kind of walking through these steps to show our approach and the work that's been done to put the projects together. Um so first with you know starting off with site analysis and project development. Um, we worked with the town staff and stakeholders to gather a lot of information about these two sites um and see, you know, of of all of the sites, which ones are good candidates for solar projects, you know, looking at roof age and electric bills. Um, and then working with our partners at CSW Energy, we got onsite, did sitewalks, um, we developed system designs, and then we secured the utility incentives that are available for

007these projects called Z-Rex. Um, and we put these this all together in preliminary project proposals. Um the preliminary project proposals helped us understand that these projects were technically feasible and they could also provide energy savings to the town. Um and so that leads us to to the third step. We included them in an RFP to select an installer partner who would build these systems. So the RFP that we ran last fall included nine other towns who also participated in solar map and went through these steps concurrently. Um so we were able to include Grten's projects um and a larger portfolio of projects to achieve economies of scale and really get competitive pricing um with the um with our installer partner. Um so that leads us to to the final step, the fourth step where we

008are now. um we've got all of the pieces in place and finalized the project proposals um which we'll go over tonight. Once um they're approved and PPAs are hopefully signed, we would move on to onboarding the installer partner and then constructing the projects. Uh as I mentioned, we created this pro this program about three years ago. So, this is our our second round of towns. Um, we've had about 14 or 15 towns go all the way through the solar map program. Um, and and this is sort of our our cohort of of rounds. Um, Graten's participating in round two. This group is uh 22 projects, four megawatts of solar and our projects are providing um solar energy at a discount to the utility energy about a third. Uh, and lastly, we've had about 14 or

00915 towns, as I said, go through the program, but there's a much larger network of Connecticut towns that we've worked with um and provided financing through a power purchase agreement for a solar project. So now I'd like to turn it over to my colleague Mackie to run through um what a power purchase agreement is and then we can um go over the actual projects um at Graten Middle and and Mystic River Magnet. >> Thanks Emily and thanks everyone for letting us join tonight. So, I wanted to talk through the the actual agreement structure for how this the solar would happen. Um, instead of the BOE going out and and purchasing the solar system yourself, will instead uh do the project through this power purchase agreement? And there's several reasons for this once we'll which we'll

010talk about. Um, but first, how does it work? Uh, so in as I said, instead of you actually buying the system, the the green bank and our partners will essentially buy it. uh we'll build it and we'll own it and we'll sell you the power from that system. Um so we'll we'll front all the capital for the project. We'll oversee the development, the construction and then for the the term of the PPA which is 20 years uh will be responsible for all the the asset management, all the operations and maintenance. Uh the the BOE will simply purchase the the electricity from the system. Next slide. The primary benefit of this structure is the the upfront savings that that you receive. So there's no cost. Um you just immediately receive a discount to your your utility

011bill. So the the price the electricity from at simp at the simplest the price of the electricity from the solar system is cheaper than buying it from the utility. So right now you're getting an electric bill from uh for each of the buildings. uh after the project, you'll still get that energy bill from the utility. It'll just be a lot less because you're not buying all your electricity from them. Uh it'll be partly replaced by a payment to us for the solar power, but when you combine that with the reduced energy bill, it's less than what you're paying now. Next slide. Uh some of the other benefits of this, as I mentioned, there's no upfront cost. Uh and as the owner of the system, the Green Bank and our partners are responsible for all the

012the operations and maintenance. Uh and we bear most of the risk under this because it's our money that you know we're paying for the system and we only get paid back if the system's performing. Uh you're also able to lock in the the electric rate. Uh this would be a fixed price for throughout the 20 years. Uh so you know utility costs tend to go up over time. So you'll be to a certain degree insulated from that uh that expected increase in utility cost. One one of the other benefits not mentioned here actually though is uh you know there there's a lot of federal tax incentives that make solar pencil out. Uh you know a town and BOE doesn't pay tax federal taxes obviously. So that money is just left on the table when you

013purchase a system. So, power purchase agreement is the we're able to, you know, through our partners monetize those tax credits and pass some of the benefit on to you through the lower PPA price. Um this is the structure that a lot nonprofits uh municipalities BOE the state of Connecticut this uh unless they're you know receiving grants or incredibly cheap funding uh this tends to be the structure that makes the most economic sense because of you know the fact that that those federal tax credits are just left on the table under a purchase scenario. So Al, I think the next next slide is going to move us right into the projects. Uh before we uh jump into that though, since we just went through a lot with the program and then that that structure, the PPA

014structure, we paused to take any questions if that's appropriate for the meeting. >> Sure. >> So just wanted to make sure that the board understands that this is just a presentation tonight. There is no voting on this tonight because it's not in our agenda as a vote. Um, and I do know that um, you guys have been working with the probably Sam could help um, answer this question too. You've been working with the permanent school building committee, I would assume. Is that correct? >> Yes, they've been working with Rick Norris and the committee. Yes. >> Oh, okay. Okay. So, are there questions from the board so far about what has been presented? >> I'd like to hold my questions till the end. >> Okay, Andrea, you're muted. >> Thank you. I hate that. I have

015two questions and one may be naive. Um, the first one is how do you make money? I don't see anything about the the company that's that's doing this getting paid. I don't know where the money's coming from. And the second one is um you know 20 years is a long time. Five years from now the system could be outdated. What happens then? >> On the first question uh we get paid by selling you the power. So it's a you know it you're paying less than you would have paid from the utility but you're still paying something. Um so that's how we get repaid uh and our investors get paid back from the you know the capital that we front to to build the project. Um in terms of the the second question um all the

016equipment whatever you want to say equipment risk or uh responsibility for keeping the equipment up and running rest with us. Um so if and as we would expect over 20 years uh certain pieces of the of the system aren't expected to last that long. Um so it's our responsibility to uh to replace that equipment with uh you know whatever whatever is the best available at the time. Um which I to get to your first point, we we're not going to get paid back unless the system's up and running. So uh you know we're incentivized to make sure that we're you know we're doing any equipment replacements or any other work or maintenance that needs to happen to the system uh in a timely manner. >> Can I ask a followup? Uh, Kim. Kim, can I

017ask a followup? >> Sure. >> Yes. >> So, I'm not talking about things that break. I'm talking about things that that needed to be upgraded. You know, the things that there are new inventions. There are new think there's new thinking. How do you accommodate for that? Um I mean I guess we we both sides go into to this uh eyes wide open on what the the expectations are under the exist with the existing equipment uh and the the sort of the savings that you'll see uh with with that. Um I mean we we get into here and talk about the projects here. Um but uh you know we would expect this equipment to be good and functional uh at least on the panel side. I mean again some of the some of the other pieces

018we'll have to replace but I mean we expect this to uh especially on the panel side to work for 20 years and produce the the savings that we all expect um to see from the from the project. So, we wouldn't plan on replacing functioning equipment with with anything different. >> Thank you. >> I'm gonna recognize Jay and then Bev. >> Um, I'm going to hold my financial questions, but I'm I'm just curious. These obviously are brand new buildings. So, um will this installation in any way damage the brand new uh roofs on these buildings? Um since these panels are only going to last 20 years, we expect the roofs to last much longer than that. Um and because you say you're going to own it, then obviously if there's a hail storm, that's your issue.

019And at the end of it when it comes time to dispose of all the toxic waste uh that's on you as well. So on the first question um yes we new roofs are ideal uh for solar or newer roofs because you're right the life will extend beyond the life of the roof is going to extend beyond the panels. You don't have to worry about trying to replace a roof with panels on there. Um, we at this point until we, you know, sign the contract and and do a u structural review, we can't say whether we'll need to actually attach the panels to the roof. But either way, we will work with your warranty holder to whatever's in the pre-post inspections to make sure that you know there's there's no issues in terms of of jeopardizing

020that warranty. Um and you know if god forbid there is some sort of damage that materializes later you know leak or anything that's that the solar is is is the fault of then that's our responsibility uh to you know to to fix it. Um in terms of the yeah you're right the the risk of hail any any damage to the equipment is is our risk and we carry insurance to against that. Um and then the the final question on the end of life. Um there's there's a couple options. Uh one, we just come remove the system. Uh and you're right, all all disposal and sort of bringing the the roof back to uh to normal is our responsibility. Um we can extend the power purchase agreement. you know there is still expected life in the

021system after 20 years or you can purchase the the system from us at whatever the the sort of the remaining fair value for the equipment is >> thank you >> so I'm going to do Beverly and then Sam >> thank you um I think you answered my first question what happens after 20 years my second question is what happens if the company goes bankrupt. >> Um so the company um I so there's a couple different parties to this. Um there is the company that's going to actually install the system. Uh that's the green bank will will choose that installer and pay them and uh you know we'll get workmanship warranties and and and things like that through them. uh they go bankrupt, it's that's really us that that loses out there. Uh we still have

022the obligation to to sell you the power uh and and keep the system up and running. Uh the your counterparty will be initially us and then we have a a nonprofit that we're associated with. You you need you can't just have you know to the point about the the federal tax credits. Uh we don't pay taxes either. So we we uh and just sort of per our model, we work with private investors to leverage our our public dollars. So, you know, we have a a nonprofit that we actually do these projects through. Um they will be the the the counterparty to the PPA, but we're the investor in them. So, if they go bankrupt, then the green bank steps in uh as the owner to the system. Uh and as a a quasi state agency,

023you know, we we can't we're an entity of the state. we we wouldn't go bankrupt and um in more uh the I guess the the rest for us would be uh somehow the state getting rid of us or something but this the state I mean they can't legislature can't break contracts so the state will will have the obligation no matter what to uh you know to to stand behind these projects as an investor in Okay. Thank you. So, you're saying that if you go bankrupt, if bankruptcy happens in any form or fashion, we're safe. >> Is that the long and short of it? >> Yeah. That really we we we can't declare bankruptcy. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Sam. >> Yeah. Yeah. Mackey, I was informed through Rick Norris that these systems were going

024to be uh ballast uh systems which would not pen we wouldn't have penetrations in a roof, very limited number of penetrations in a roof. So um and and I would uh I would probably insist that that would be the type of system that we would want on our roofs. >> Great. Yeah, that's certainly the the preference and that where we go in. As I said, the you know, we we for every system we're doing that that that's getting a structural engineer in there to make the make sure the hosting capacity of the roof can can handle that and also that you know things like wind and stuff that u we can't have any risk that those panels are going to come off the roof. So, um that's we'll have to do that report to ultimately

025uh confirm that, but that's certainly the the case going out. I wanted to be careful with my word. I didn't want to 100% confirm that given the need to do that report. >> Dean, I saw you. >> Yeah. Thanks. Uh, two questions. One, um, you may have covered this and I may have missed it. Uh, size of the project in terms of kilowatts that you you project. >> We haven't covered that yet. May maybe we do that next couple slides or do you guys want to keep >> Okay. And I'll have one more question and that could be asked anytime, but I'm already on. So, okay. Is there a um a model text model agreement that uh one could peruse? >> Yes, the power purchase agreement has been provided. Um Sam has it and um

026we can circulate it along with um I could provide it to to Joyce or or who whoever else um to get it circulated. >> All right. Thank you. Peter, >> I have two quick questions. One is, are you exploring is the town of Grant exploring doing this on any other of their town owned buildings? >> Um, I believe that we started with the list of buildings that were um only available for the program through being uh serviced by Eversource. And then it was actually um the the committee and town staff that selected these two sites as as preferred. >> Right. But I meant like town >> at this point at this point. No, we're not reviewing any other town buildings >> because if you did, would that bring the electricity rate down further? >> Um

027the the proposed rates that we'll get into um are specific to each site. So they're more relative to um they're determined by really the conditions of the system that we can install um not necessarily how many projects we do. >> All right. And my second question um is do you also do solar fields like panels in in fields like if you go down um Route 95 in Westbrook there's a very large solar field. Do you do those? We do look at groundmounted installations, but we don't typically develop those large massive, you know, >> acres upon acres of of of solar installations. There's there's quite a robust um activity of developers that are doing those projects and um so so we're really sort of focusing our efforts on developing projects with our municipal partners. >> Thank

028you. How about if you move forward because I think that there's other questions coming but it might be answered in your presentation. >> Okay, Emily, you want me to take Okay, I'll take these. Um, this is Mackie. Uh, so first at the middle school, um, and Dean, here we go. These are the the details you were asking about. Um, so project size just over 300 kilowatts. Uh, if you look at the image on the right, the the little black squares represent the proposed locations of the panel um of the panels. Uh, you got the production there. Uh, and to give you some context of that that annual production, uh, you look at the last number, the percent solar offset to utility. So what does that mean? that we look at how much does the electricity

029does this building use in a year and how much of that will the solar system be able to offset and that that's 32%. Um so you know obviously we we like that number to be higher because you know we like more green power plus the more solar you're buying the less more expensive utility power you're buying. Um but in this case we're we're limited by just the the roof space that that's available. Uh so we're only able to offset around 32% of the usage of the building. Um you're currently paying just under 10 cents per kilowatt hour uh from from Eversource. The the proposed PPA rate would be uh 7.7 cents. So that's a 26% discount uh to to the Eversource or to the utility power. So essentially 32% of your power would be 26%

030cheaper. Next slide. >> Mackey, did you have a figure that would go with that? What that would mean in dollars? >> Yes. Well, about to get to that. I think we've got that at the end. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. And then the magnet school system about half the size. Um and again limited by the roof space here uh we can produce uh just over 20% of what this uh of what the magnet school uses. Uh PPA right here is slightly higher uh.7 or 7.9 cents which is a 21% discount. So they're the bottom line numbers uh to the to the question that was just asked. Let's go to the next slide. So the the first year we'd expect you to save just over $10,000. Um and then over the term almost $400,000. Uh and then

031you see this other number in there, average annual savings. Uh so what does that mean? Why is it different than the first year savings? Well, we uh as we all experience, utility rates don't stay the same. Uh we would anticipate uh and it has historically borne out uh they they rise. So, and that that rise it tends to be around 3% when you look at it over over decades. Uh we we were a little conservative in the number. I think we used 2% here, Emily. Is that right? Yeah. So, we've assumed that utility prices rise 2%. So, again, as as that as your your purchase price for electricity goes up, your your avoided cost for electricity is higher. So, you're saving more because the PPA rate is fixed. So that average number is obviously the

032the average annual savings across the 20 years as you see the the electricity uh prices increase. So I think we have a next step slide. Um or we can Yeah, why don't we go to that? Uh Emily, you want to take it from here and we'll take questions? >> Sure. Um, so we've got uh the final PPA rates and and a power purchase agreement um which we can circulate to more inboxes after the meeting. Um, and we're looking to have um all of the towns in this round um consider and hopefully approve and execute power purchase agreements um this month or next month. And um once those are signed, we would onboard the contractor partners that we've uh selected competitively through our RFP um in this uh second quarter of this year. Uh once they're

033um brought up to speed, they will start doing all of the engineering, the full engineering and final designs of the systems and then submitting the projects to the respective town departments for permitting and approval. And then we would look to actually start constructing these projects in Q3 or Q4 of this year. And that brings us to the end. So we'd be happy to take the additional questions. >> Beverly, I'm sorry. Um, what is the initial out-ofpocket cost for the board of education? there is no out-ofpocket cost. So part of uh the the goals of this program is is to provide this additional um project development and technical support um for no cost. And because we're the the structure of using a power purchase agreement, the green bank is um owning these systems. So we are

034providing all of the upfront capital to construct these projects. Um, so there's there's no cost. Um, the only obligation is that once these systems are turned on, you're agreeing to just buy the power that's generated from them. >> Okay. >> And my second question is, Mr. Make sure you can hear me. And my second question is, do you use union labor? I can >> we don't we don't have a requirement for that in our RFPs when we procure the u the construction. >> Do you think you will use union labor or what? >> Um let's see I I would have to check uh with the with the chosen installer. It's not something we we typically ask for. So, I can't speak to whether uh in this case whether the contractor plans to to use union

035labor. Um but it's something we we can find out. >> Thank you, >> Matthew. Do you have questions? >> I do. Uh I have several questions. Why don't I just ask them all at once and you can take them in whatever order you think is most appropriate? I understood you to have said that the cost we'll pay over the 20-year term will be stable and not change at either 079 or 077 depending on the building. Was my understanding correct? >> Yes. My second question is u assuming that there that needs to be dismantled at the end of the 20 years uh you are the owner can you reaffirm that you will bear all of the cost for the dismantling if that's what's needed and similarly could you tell me uh that's going to generate lots

036of waste can you tell me how you plan to handle all of that waste at the end of project life because That's also an environmental factor. Um, bear with me one more second. You mentioned that at the end of the 20-year period, it would be removed or extended or that there would be a we would have the option of purchasing it at is at a residual uh depreciated price. Is that residual purchase value defined in the agreement? And then finally, uh I understand we can't do all things at once, but was there any particular reason that uh Fames River and Fitch High School were not considered to do these all at the same time so we would have more space and generate more power? Thank you so much for your consideration. >> You want me

037to take a stab at it? >> Sure. I think the first question was regarding the fixed cost, the fixed PPA price. You're correct in your understanding that it won't change over the 20 years, the the 7.9 and 7.7 cents. It's a fixed fee. um the end of term options confirming that we we are responsible for um removing the panels and returning the buildings to um their original condition. There are other options in the contract as you mentioned the option to purchase the panels and that is at a fair market value. It's not defined that price is not defined in the contract now um since we we don't know what the panels would be worth um in 20 years. So it's it's determined at at the time. Um regarding the other projects under consideration the the

038these two projects were sort of brought to us as initial projects to sort of I would say you know as it was explained as be sort of demonstration projects as like a first phase of projects. Um so there wasn't any extenduating reasons why um the other two sites that you mentioned weren't considered. I don't think we can >> actually no there so Fitch uh we look the roof was too old there. Um, we never we don't want to have a situation where >> we're putting solar on a roof that the expected life is going to be shorter than the PPA term because then we're you're going to have to pull that system off to replace the roof or you know you could the likelihood of leaks and stuff increases. Uh and then uh Tim's River

039is uh it's served by Graten Utility, not Eversource. And uh Graten Utility does not offer uh they don't compensate you for the for the solar power that you produce. So the economics don't look there. >> Great answers. >> And then in terms of the waste, um I we don't know yet. Um I mean that that's 20 years off. Uh the it's a it's a very good question and one that the uh industry and customers are grappling with to to figure out how to deal with uh all these panels are going to be reaching end of life in you know 5 to 20 years. Um I mean I can say that you know as an organization that's you know driven it mission is driven by uh protecting the planet and uh u reducing carbon uh emissions

040we're going to at minimum follow whatever uh and and work with you getting regulatory structures in place to to govern this and at minimum we're going to follow those um but right now you that's like I said sort of an evolving thing within the industry and not something in my sorry and then I can answer. >> Kim, may I ask one more follow-up question? >> Sure. uh with regard the residual purchase value, I understand the necessity for doing it on fair market value at that time and how difficult that would be to prepare, but uh how would you personally respond to defining the process by which the fair market value would be determined within our agreement? Um I believe it's defined in the agreement is like we uh we can mutually decide upon an appraiser

041to come determine the the value. So we we again we mutually select an entity to to figure out that that price for us. um you know there there's a couple other I mean frankly there we we might just look at the I mean think it's 20 years from now but you know there this is in the not in the contract but I mean you asked what my reply would my personal one would be I mean I think in in a lot of cases whatever the cost to remove is is going to be more to us than the the the the value. So, you know, I we're going to take that. It'll be a negotiation and I would anticipate taking that in and and you know, in some cases, uh you there it might just be

042a we turn it over to you, but we can't put that in the contract because of the we can't put a definite price or a handover to you uh be because of of issues around the tax credits. Uh the the IRS just won't let us put that in there. So um I mean like there is a process in the contract to determine the value by us agreeing upon uh an appraiser to to determine that um if it if it comes to that uh or you know it can be negotiated based upon sort of removal cost and sort of how much value we both both think is there. >> Thank you very much. So next steps would be and where's my friend Sam Kilpatrick >> here. >> Thank you sir. Um what are next steps? I

043believe the next step would uh would be for the finance committee to get together and uh determine whether this would uh whether they would want to move forward with this and move it on to the full board. >> Jay, would you um assert to that? Would did that make does that make sense to you? Yeah, I think it would be good for for us to see the the actual purchase power agreement and see if there are any other questions before before we approve it. >> I'm also wondering, >> Jay, I'm also wondering if it would make sense for us to also have someone from the um the permanent school building. Also, Sam, I know that you're part of that, but just to kind of hear what their process has been thinking about um the the

044organization, it kind of makes sense to me. So that um because has it already been approved, Sam, by the permanent school building? >> No. Uh they've just acted more or less um have just uh Rick Norris uh through the town has really handled this. It's gone through Rick Norris and and public works department more so than the uh permanent school building committee other than updating as they went along. >> Okay. Okay. Um so maybe that's our point of contact. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. And Susan, um, does the board then is it then the understand is it my understanding correct is then it needs to come back to the board for final sort of vote and approval. Is that correct? >> Yes. I do like Jay's idea though to take a closer look

045with Ken and um Sam and if there's someone from the town who is you know helping to orchestrate this, they should be there too. And and I'm wondering for the will of the board, does it make sense that it's just the finance and facilities or is this another committee of the whole meeting where we all kind of grapple with the issue? >> Kim, I I think it >> I I think it should go to finance and let them, you know, pair it down and get get it presentable and then bring it to the CO. >> Okay, Liz, >> I confer. I concur. Excuse me. I concur with Andrea. >> All right, >> Jay, will it be a will you be able to kind of get it onto the agenda pretty quickly? >> Yes. I mean,

046we um due to budget, we're not meeting this month. >> Okay. >> Um but we can meet at the beginning of March. >> Okay. >> What is the timeline? What is the timeline that you folks are looking at to to to get this reasonably signed so you can you can move on it? I mean, um, we had hoped February, but understand there's a, um, that's not not possible here given what was just outlined. Um, so, uh, March would be would be ideal into March. Um, And so what's driving us is there's a >> we have you know I think as Emily mentioned part of our process was to secure the incentives for the project from the utility. There's a a deadline on those. We need to have the systems placed in service by a certain

047point in time. So that that that's sort of what starts driving it. >> Yeah. >> I mean I'm not opposed to having an earlier finance meeting if um the superintendent can find a spot for another meeting. >> Yeah. So un unfortunately this it's very difficult for the board of ed at the very beginning of the year because we actually um we get proposed the superintendence budget for next year um in January in January and we have to it has to be by Tom charter it has to be ours by February 28th. We've had to vote on it and we are in the midst of doing that at the present moment. So so I I don't think that we're not um trying to be difficult. I think we're just trying to say we want to we

048want to hear I think we want to hear more information. I think it's important um that we kind of get a better look at that hear from the town side about what they're thinking about that so that when we make a vote we're making a vote that's um meaningful and productive and has been thoughtful because we're looking at 20 years. So um so I think that that's where I would like to leave that. If you guys have further questions and maybe maybe one of your representatives can zoom into the meeting of the finance and facilities so that if there are questions they can be that they can be asked and maybe those questions for board members if you have additional questions and you're not on the finance and facilities please make sure that J that

049Jay or Susan gets them so that they can an um answer those in your in your behalf. Um, but that also know that we're going to get a chance to be able to talk talk about it as well. Again, >> I'm really glad though that you came to the entire board with the slideshow and we could get this rocking and rolling and have these conversations and elicit these questions and take a deeper dive >> into what this is going to mean. I think that was really helpful. So, I appreciate it. >> I agree. >> Thank you. And I did not mean to I wasn't trying to pressure y'all to rearrange your schedule for us. Certainly under 20 years is a long time. This is a serious commitment. So, and yeah, I think the the timeline

050that was outlined is fine. We can work with that. >> Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you guys were aware of what what we are facing right now. In fact, once you guys leave leave our thing, we are going to be going into a budget workshop. So, um that's great. Bev, do you have a um further question for them? >> Yeah. Uh not for them. Probably for um Susan or Sam. Is this the only company that we talked to so far or did we talk to other companies that provide solar power? >> So that would be a good question to give to Jay so that Jay when he when when the public works person comes and has a conversation and I actually Bev I think you're part of that committee so that would

051be um a really good question to ask. All right listen thank you very much for showing up on our screen. I really appreciate that. Um, you did a great um um job presenting and we wish you uh have a fun evening. I guess that's I don't know what I'm saying, but have a fun evening. >> Thank you for having us on your agenda. We appreciate it. We look forward to chatting with you guys again. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, guys. I'm going to move this meeting for Susan and Ken. Um, and it looks like our next thing is support services, staff, and general support. Is that correct? >> Yes. We have quite an ambitious schedule, but let's rock and roll and see how far we go. >> Let's go.

052Let's do it. >> So, Phil is on and he's going to start us out with support services and staff and um really the whole teaching and learning department and the work that um you know Paula helps us with every day. >> All right, everybody. Good evening. Hello. Um I will take you through this. What you're looking at your screen right now is just the outline of um who is um up here in teaching and learning. The data manager um that is Tom Londale who we all know. Um it would probably be easier for me to list the things he he doesn't do. Um but I'll try to outline. Um you know he is he generates and analyzes and reports all the data that we look at uh in the district. Um he does a lot

053more than that. He, you know, he's a district-wide uh testing coordinator. He helps us analyze our standardized testing data, uh prepare statistical reports that we've looked at here in the meetings, and he's been part of presentations. He helps me co-lead the district data team, which uh we did today, uh where we uh look at um look at data across all levels of uh the district in terms of uh attendance, in terms of academic achievement, um in look at a number of different ways. um most recently of course um under the equity lens, but um he's really a jack of all trades and and of course he runs our student information system as well uh power school and generates a lot of our data through that for all of our our state reports. Um the grades

0546 through 12 curriculum coordinators, those are all half positions. So we have three of them. Um we have one math, one ELA, and one social studies uh world language. Um so those are six through 12 positions all have positions which uh equal to the 1.5 um >> and science right and science right >> well the it's STEM the one is STEM >> science technology engineering and math and then the other is humanities which is your social studies and world language >> okay >> and then one one person for ELA >> sorry I was using the wrong titles >> that's all right >> and the clerical of course is Paula up in the office uh with me. Looking below on 579, um you could see the salary uh for Tom's position as well as the three

055coordinators um as well as the clerical. Um there's a line in there for some OT uh occasionally when when Paula has to work um extended hours. Um under the salaries and wages, those are the general increases with the insurance and the workman's comp and social security and Medicare. Uh the line items for travel for admin and travel for workshops and conventions. Um those are for all of teaching and learning. Um uh the the travel for administration, you know, takes care of Tom going um around. He he does a lot of work in all the different buildings and is often traveling um from building to building throughout the uh throughout the district. Um and the workshops is for um again for for all of teaching and learning for some of the workshops we've gone to for

056the student information system. Um uh I've gone to some for the my program and that takes care of uh travel for that. Uh professional materials. >> Thank you for calling a dog. Your call may be recorded for quality assurance. Um, professional materials includes uh books, uh, materials for training, uh, the Marshall memo, which I know a lot of us are familiar with. We should all be receiving copies of that. Um, and the dues and general uh, the general uh, admin dues uh, include uh, the Connecticut Library Consortium, uh, ASCD, um, uh, the National Council of the Teaching of Math, NCTM. Those are districtwide due dues that we pay for for for all of our teachers. Um, I think that covers everything in this section. Not sure if anybody has questions. >> I see Bev. >>

057Bev. >> Um, can you please explain again um, line 108, the grade 6 through 12 curriculum coordinators, what do they do? What specifically do they do? And are they full-time, part-time? I missed that. I'm sorry. >> No, that's okay. The the uh coordinators are half-time uh teachers and.5 um administration. Um so they're um their workday, they have one teaching day. Uh they teach three classes. Um they attend admin meetings, they attend student support meetings, um SRBI meetings, building administrative meetings. Um and during their administrative day they engage in um informal observations of teachers. Um they meet with assigned teachers uh three times a year. Their goal setting conferences, their mid midyear conferences, end of year conferences um as well. Um and they really support teaching in the classroom. Um they're in the classroom. They're they're

058um you know I I kind of describe it as they're they're a teacher. They're also a teacher of teachers. um and they uh support our teachers in in um improving their instruction. Um >> can I also say that um just an anecdote to this that they really are a catalyst for making sure we're articulating between the grades and between the levels. So between the middle school and the high school and this board really felt that was really imperative and they've been instrumental in doing that job. Thank you. And that's one of the key parts is that they are in both buildings. Um and they're they're able to help with that vertical uh alignment that we want to see um you know throughout the district. Um does that give you a better idea as to what

059they do? >> Beverly, >> she's muted. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. Um when they teach, are they high school teachers or middle school teachers? >> High school. Right now they're part of the high school schedule. Yep. Okay. So, the other part of their salary is under on the teaching line. >> Yeah. >> Matt, >> Thank you. Uh, thank you, Phil. My question, I think, is a Ken question. Uh, I see on the total salaries and wages, we're up 2.1% and on total employee benefits, we're up 110%. somehow. Could you explain that to me? >> Yeah, the the allocation for group insurance uh did not happen uh uh uh across here. So, it it's been corrected in our in our final version, but uh your your your benefits uh uh number is a little messed up

060on our on our individual um uh functions, but in total, the the the benefits number is appropriate. Um, so I'm going to ask you to to try and ignore the uh the the the group insurance number um uh on the function level until we get the final version. >> Okay. Thanks a lot, Ken. >> Sorry. >> Be do you have another qu Oh, wait. I need >> Rita. >> Um >> and then Dean. >> Yes. So which union are there? They are then these people are in the administrators union as opposed to the teaching because they're only teaching. At one time the curriculum coordinators were considered teachers and they were in the teachers union because it was 6040. So what is it now? What is the percentage? >> They're the admin union. Correct. >> They

061are and they have some summertime work because a lot of the curriculum work goes in the summer. So they have a few extra days that brings them into the administrator. Plus, they're evaluating teachers, which was really a great concern at the high school and middle school level that there was so especially with the G plan, there was so much to do around that. >> So, will this 9% um increase, will that be offset when you redo the benefits? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. So, it won't be that high. >> Um, actually, it's uh I I' I've done it already. It is 1.9% so it's >> Thank you, >> Dean. >> No, I withdraw. Sorry. >> No, >> I'm going to do and Andrea. >> Okay. I heard Phil say that the the uh curriculum

062coordinators did informal observations, but now I hear that they're they're evaluating, and I just I just want clarity on that. Yeah, they they do both. They do both. I didn't mean to I guess I misspoke, but it's informal and formal observations depending on what level you know what where the teacher is in the in the program. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Before I recognize Bev again, is there anyone else from the board? >> Okay, Bev. Um um can you please explain um on the administration line 105 FY22 it says 71 $71,800 and FY23 it went up to $93,000. Why the change there? And that's Can you please explain that for me? >> Yeah, I can explain that. Uh so uh this that position the student data manager we did have an offset uh this year

063with uh the ESERT uh ESRE 2 uh and actually there is an offset next year but it's it's a different amount. So it's being offset by uh by some grant funds and it was offset more this year than it is going to be next year. >> So this isn't his real salary. Is his real salary higher than the 93,000? >> Correct. which is real salary. >> I I don't think I have that right here. I can't >> Yeah, that's something we have to get from HR and that would be we could, you know, do that not in a public meeting. It's dealing with someone's >> allies are public. >> Well, I know, but I'm just saying that I think the right >> I know what you mean, but they're all they're all public. Any other

064questions on this page? If not, let's move on. >> The next page 580 um is our diversity, equity, and inclusion. Um it's worth noting the the program description listed there is our um our mission statement for our DEI work. Um and it's also um worth noting at the tops the stipend for coordination of diversity, equity, inclusion has been funded by um uh the ARPser grant um for the upcoming year. Um moving down um we see the stipen for the position. Um and again um Ken I want to make sure I'm saying this right. it was placed if you see it under FY22 um as uh $15,000 um that was uh later paid for by ARP esser we didn't have that at the time the budget was made so it was placed there um and then

065to instructional improvement and professional materials which you'll see that total um the 116 and the 34 um equal that $15,000. So that's where that money uh is going and the stip and the position will again be um paid for by the RPSER uh grant. Um the instructional improvement services and the professional materials are similar um to what I spoke of uh before in terms of any any supplies needed within the building, textbooks needed uh you know um we've used that to purchase materials for the for the libraries in terms of uh diversifying our um our classroom libraries and our school libraries. Um so that explains just that difference from the 15 to zero. Um and then from the zero under the uh line 322 to 11,600 and on line number 690 from 0 to 3400.

066So it explains the increases there. Does that make sense? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I've said it a few times in my head. I think I think it makes sense. Are there any questions? >> If not, >> I have a question. I'm sorry. >> Absolutely. >> Um, so line 322 instructional improvement, that whole $11,600 just gone for library books. >> No, that could be used for for a number of different things. Um, I know we've purchased books for um teachers in terms of uh the district-wide um read that we've talked about a number of times at the at the board meetings and uh in um around culturally responsive teaching um and and then anything the schools deem um uh that they're move pushing towards the uh program mission uh to diversify and educate the staff.

067Okay, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> If there's no more no more questions on that, let's move ahead. >> Um the next session again, no FTEEs in this section. Um this budget, you know, supports the new instruction materials, uh support materials for teachers, professional resources, curriculum development, uh which we'll see in more detail down on 583. Um so we'll see um down here a lot the um top line item is uh 101 is used for uh curric the curriculum work and professional development and prep time uh for workshops that we you know we do when teachers are are um we're doing some in-house trainings. So, we give them time uh to prep to uh prepare their materials and their instruction for teachers. Um the uh the workman's comp and social security and Medicare um and

068the graduate credit course, that's all part of the teachers contract. Um in terms of um um the only one that we haven't seen in other sections is the graduate credit course where uh we pay a percentage um and again that's according to their contract that they're pursuing higher degrees. Uh line 321 in instructional services that's what provided uh to the students. Uh that line item um it's worth noting the next few line items are driven by the school site budgets um as well which explains the larger uh totals. Um again that's all the um you know this is uh the element like for instance that $19,100 14,600 of that is is the elementary um budget split split amongst the elementary schools. So again those line that line item is driven by the skite the the

069school site budgets. um instructional improvement services. That's again for uh teachers um you know that's that's instructional improvement for uh teachers um as well and that is also driven by the the school's budget what they want to provide to uh provide professional development for their teachers. the district travel uh 584 um again driven by site budgets that's separated for for the you know that's in a total for all of uh the district in terms of and we do we do um obviously over the last couple years that um workshops have have not been in person. They've been online. We we we'll assume um a percentage of those workshops moving forward will will maintain will remain online but a a large number of them will also be uh in person. And so we'll involve some travel.

070Um and and again those of you who have taken part you know we do believe just like just like for the kids uh I think the true learning comes from being in person and having that conversation and that collegiality. Um there is a value to the online stuff and the virtual stuff because it's easier. Uh more people can attend. Um but there are some things that will require travel and we do expect that to uh to increase um as we uh continue to move forward. Line 612 is the computer software. Um uh again worth noting a large portion of our computer software budget is paid for by SR2. Um 150,000 of that. Um what's left um is what's in this budget here. Um, I also want to note that one part of the job that

071I got when I first came here was to sit down with Tom Londale and take a look at all the instructional computer software that we've put in since uh since COVID hit. Um, and as you can imagine, as we move forward and as the kids return to school, there are areas that we can now uh pull back. Um so so one of our tasks was to look at the uh software see what was you know there's a number of softwares that were just strictly for for the virtual learning uh which we're not learn which we're not using anymore. Um we also took a look at the usage data which which we have access to for all the different softwares that we purchased. we could see who's using it um which buildings are using it and

072we made some decisions um that we were able to cut um just under 90,000 um in this first year as we return to in-person learning. Uh this is something that we continue to monitor and that uh Tom and I will keep an eye on in uh in terms of additional uh cuts that we can make. And again, a lot of it is is based on usage. We want to see what the kids are using, what the teachers are using, what they find valuable. Um, and we did also use teacher input as well. We did a survey of of teachers to find out what they what they wanted us to keep u what we could do away with and we use that information as well uh to make those decisions. So, we're continually looking at that

073and seeing how we can uh how we can pull back and hold on to the things that are most valuable for the for the teachers and of course uh more importantly for the kids. um the line items for um 628 food supplies. Uh that's the food that we supply for orientation and uh convocation and the various professional developments. Um we usually provide some light refreshments for that. Um and professional materials again could be could be books. Um it could be um uh any kind of materials that we use um for uh for our professional developments, our convocation, our orientation, that sort of thing. Um and then the dues and fees um that's going um down to zero. I believe those have been placed in other um you know that was on an earlier page. So,

074so that was uh moved from this line item. >> Any questions on all of that? >> Matt, >> uh I have no problem with anything that I'm seeing in software. I'm just trying to be mindful that uh after FY24, we're not going to have RPS or funds available. And I'm looking at the growth from 45,000 to 66,000 on 612. And I don't expect any hard numbers, but are you projecting similar increases over the next couple of years? What do what what's our blue sky on this? >> I might be able to give you a little bit of uh um background on the uh on the 40 uh 45,000. So that that's impacted by uh we had both esser 2 funds as well as some alliance funds that offset this year. Um so um um so

075I think that number actually it was was a little bit larger because we were coming off of last year's uh uh ver virtual uh learning. Uh so um I don't I don't think you can draw an inference from the 45 to the 66 and necessarily think that's that's how it's going to bump up. Um, so that that's just a little bit of background on on where that 45,000 comes from. >> Thank you, >> Beverly. >> Thank you. Um, a lot of a lot of the stuff in this budget is being funded by the the grants and like Matt said, a lot of the grants are going to end in 2024. Is it possible I'm asking this now because I don't want to forget about asking it to get a list of all the things that

076are funded by grants and tell us what we want to carry over after what we're going to have to pay for after these grants run out and how much that's going to cost us. So say we're paying for software now with grant money in TW after 2024. Do we still want to pay for this out of our budget and how much is that going to cost us? So all the things that we're paying for out of grants now, what do what does Susan really think we're going to need after these grants run out and what is that going to cost us? I want to know that. I don't need to know that now, but I'd like to know that soon. It's a good question and that's part of the reason why we're doing this very

077thorough audit, not just one year. We did it last year, we're doing it this year, and we'll do it next year so we can really hone in to those valuable um resources, softwares that prove to us that we're closing a gap and that kids are benefiting from this. And so I think that's a really excellent question. And we do have several charts and graphs that we monitor um through Lor's office with staffing and Ken's office. Um the story of the threeers was one indication of what we've been doing over time, but we'd be happy to just talk about that one time. That's a really valuable um way to look at it and one that we look at trends so we can identify how do we sustain what we're doing. >> Thank you. And will you

078have dollars dollar signs with um like say you hire three social workers and you pay for them under the ESSA grant or whatever grant. Do you still want those social workers when the grants run out and how much and if you do how much is that going to cost the board of education? >> Yep. That's >> that's the stuff I want to know. >> And we need to know what the money the dollar sign shows us. You're right. >> Yep. Can you get that to us at, you know, maybe not next week, but Okay, >> we will do that. I'm I'm just trying to look ahead here. >> Yeah, I know. I'm doing that all the time. I'm looking in my rearview mirror and I'm looking forward at the same time. Thank you. >> Any

079other questions for this? All right, I think we're done with support services staff general support. Is that correct? >> Yep. >> All right, so we are >> we're going to go to 94, right? >> Yes. >> And Sam's on. >> Right. All right. Let me pull it up here. Oops. There. >> All right. 94. Um, so I I'll I'll give a little um synopsis of course Sam can um um um share as well, but >> can we make it a little bigger? >> Yeah. Let's see. >> I don't know if I have a full screen that that just might be. >> How's that? >> This is 5-94. Um this is the operation and maintenance uh function uh 2510. Uh you'll see for FTEES we have um have uh the director of building and grounds. Uh

080we have a total of 39 uh custodial uh personnel uh throughout the uh district uh by building and then we also have some district-wide uh custodial staff and a supervisor. Uh 39. That's the same number that we had uh uh uh this year. We're proposing for next year. Uh there are 13 uh uh positions within maintenance uh group. There's a maintenance supervisor and 12 uh 12 maintenance uh uh workers and then one uh one admin assistant. And just a note on uh changes uh notes and changes for this this coming year is that uh we did convert the telephone system uh from the uh from the uh the the old system to a voice over internet system. Uh and so therefore we've moved all the cost for telephones uh to computer support services. Uh so

081you'll notice when we go through this uh that there are no uh charges for u telephone system in this function. We'll go down 5-95. Uh this this particular function goes over two pages because there's so many lines. Uh but on 5-95, uh you'll see under salaries, uh we have those same positions that we spoke of, uh the custodial maintenance group are covered by uh union and those increases are uh per their contract. Um we have uh um custodial and maintenance. So we have overtime uh for the time that they have to uh uh do extra work uh which unfortunately when it snows they do a lot of extra work. Um here we have uh the group insurance and employee benefits uh an increase of 1.4%. Uh line 331 is professional services. These are services that

082um uh like I think Mystic Air Quality is one of the one of the u professional services that we utilize. Uh we are uh proposing a 2 and a half% increase uh on on that. Uh you'll notice for FY22 actual the 50,250 that includes uh the um the study review plans for the fieldhouse. That's why it's extra high uh there. uh but we don't anticipate that will uh repeat. Uh under the 400s uh we have purchase property services. These are services that uh we uh contract out for. Uh you'll see water, sewer, garbage removal. Uh those are like 1% increases uh for inflation. Snow removal, we're keeping it at the $50,000. We're hoping that uh we've had some really good um um experience over the past couple years. We're hoping that continues. Uh last year

083we spent 27,000. Um we're hoping that uh we spend uh um you know the less than the 50, but we're um keeping that number in there just in case. Um repairs uh that and we have a lot of repairs uh painting. Uh so total for purchase property services an increase of a half a percent over last year's budget. Then we're going to skip down to 5-9 um seven. I'm going to skip uh that one page. And uh the top of this page is liability insurance uh 522. Uh so we did build in a 10% increase uh because we knew that the newer buildings uh have a higher value and therefore uh cost uh more money to ensure. Uh we did uh have a discussion with the town in which we were informed that we're going

084to have to uh increase this uh uh even more. uh that um uh the school buildings now because of these these three new buildings uh and their values where we're representing almost 60% of the total uh portfolio of uh properties uh that the insurance company uh insurers. Uh so um we need to pick up a bigger piece of that of that liability insurance uh property insurance. Uh telephone you'll notice is zero as discussed before. This is um uh been uh charged over to the computer um um function 2540 which is coming up. Uh so overall for uh these purchase services actually shows at as a negative 3.5 uh% but we have we're going to have to increase this. I forget the number but there was a number that the town gave us that we have

085to increase uh our cost for. Uh under supplies uh you'll see electricity uh is actually pretty much the same as uh this year. That's because we're going to remove uh three buildings from our portfolio that we have to uh electrify. Uh and so we are uh we're estimating that it's going to be about the same amount of money for next year as it is for this year. Uh there are more uh natural gas uh heated buildings uh in in the in the group now. So there's an increase there over this year. Uh but a decrease in the fuel oil, the the heating oil that's used uh because we have less buildings that that require that uh that fuel. Um there is an increase under custodial supplies. uh past couple years we did have a surplus

086of supplies uh that we were able to utilize but th what we those supplies are are are being used up and so we anticipate next year uh needing uh 164 802 overall for supplies it's a one and a half% increase over last year's budget. Uh we did put $10,000 under line 731 which is replacement of non-instructional equipment. Uh this could be uh uh you know floor scrubbers uh any any sort of equipment uh you know piece of equipment that has a life of more than one year. Um and so there is an amount of $10,000 in there which is the amount we spent this year actually on some equipment. Uh and then some dues um um for I don't remember the name of the organizations but I know Sam does so I will stop the

087sharing. Oh, so overall for this group, uh, operation and maintenance, a 1.4% increase over last year, $92,000, $239. >> Kim, I have a question. Maybe I should know this. Um, I can, but can you help me understand clothing allowance? >> Yes. Uh that is uh that is in their in their contract actually and it's um um it's like uh like um I don't know exactly what they are to be honest but uh work shirts. Sam, you can probably answer this better than I can. >> Who knows? >> Yeah, it would be for any uh safety uh supplies that an individual might want. It might be safety shoes, could be uh safety glasses, uh along those lines. I guess no one could hear me because I was muted. I'm really sorry. Matthew, do you have a

088question? And I'll recognize Beverly after that. >> Thank you. I see that uh I know not all electricity is for heating. Maybe not any, but our utilities are about a million or a half dollars. Um, at least for the propane and fuel oil, I'm hoping you'll tell me that we participate in some kind of intermunicipal purchasing agreement. Um actually yeah for for next year we are planning on um uh there is a a consortium of uh of uh of um um of municipalities uh that we will participate with in regards to fuel oil and diesel oil. uh for electricity and propane. Uh we we actually um uh join with the town um and uh purchase together um to to you, you know, uh uh to to get get the best price uh but we're not

089necessarily uh uh in a outside of the town at this point. >> Thank you, >> Beverly. Um, can you explain um account 138 maintenance temp? No, custodial temp. I'm sorry. Uh, is that like when somebody calls out sick, use somebody comes in to take their place? Can you explain that to me, please? >> So, we we do have a number of uh part-time uh custodians that we do call in on on a temporary basis. Um um and that that would get charged to that line versus the the the the folks that are there that come in on a regular schedule. Yes. >> And sometimes we just need extra help and so we would we would charge this uh uh this uh this line, but it's it's all part-time uh custodial um work. >> So, do

090you call them in when your full-time custodians call out sick? call out sick or we need extra extra hands uh to to help with whatever uh needs to get done. >> How's the attendance in this department? Is the attendance pretty good? >> I'll have to let Sam answer that one. >> Attendance could always be better. I would have to say though during a pandemic everybody's attendance has been a little off. You know we've been having um positive cases especially with this opron um recently and um so you know I think that that has impacted our kids, our teachers, our employees. So, um, we're we're getting through this and, um, hope to see a better day when people aren't getting sick and taking days off like that. >> So, before the pandemic, it wasn't this high.

091It was much lower, I take it. >> I do see we've seen a spike or an increase with attendance issues because of um, illness or um, exposure. And you know, we have real safeguards in place for people when they come back and how they need to stay out. So I think that has made an impact. But like Sam says, I guess we always hope it gets better for everybody. You know, it can be better. It's also true that uh throughout the entire pandemic uh the maintenance custodial staff were in on a daily basis and we had only one issue uh with a positive case during that whole time up until the schools came back full-time. So, uh and and the ones that we've had recently have been mild cases, which we're all thankful for. >>

092Okay. Well, thank you. I just was wondering like prior to 2020 2021 that this line item was lower than the $199,000. So I I'll look at that and see for myself. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> No. have a comment. >> Um I'm just I I just hope we all, you know, have a mandate in our schools to keep wearing masks and having everyone stay safe. >> I agree. >> Yeah. >> Unfortunately, let's keep it to the budget. >> That is part of the budget. That's I was addressing the absences due to the um the um the pandemic. We might have had more. >> All right. Any more questions? If not, let's move on to transportation. >> Okay. On page 5-98, this is pupil transportation function 2520. Uh for FTEES, we do have two

093clerical um uh personnel that work in the transportation office. Um and we do have uh 18 um a little under 18 and a half um aids uh that work on uh the uh the buses. Um there are no um changes uh over last year to note. Um here on 5-99 you'll see the expenses. Uh we get cost for the clerical and school uh bus aids. Uh that's a 4 um 3% increase. Um I believe the aids were uh did get an increase over last year um due to the um uh the review of the minimum wage um that's uh going coming in going into uh into effect during this uh fiscal year. Um employee benefits up uh 2.8%. Uh but the the the dollars in this particular function are under um other purchase services 510

094and 511. These are the buses that are contracted uh from STA. Uh we do have uh one more year left in the current contract with STA. It will go through um uh through the end of FY23. Uh there's a 3% increase um in that in that contracted rate. Uh 510 are the are the longer buses. 511 are the are the the shorter um the shorter ones. Uh 512. This is special ed transportation. Um that uh that we utilize uh this is mainly curtain um that uh the the smaller uh vans and uh and getting students uh not not so much in a bus but more on a local level. Uh so overall for other purchase services a 2.9% increase being driven by that STA contract. Uh and then uh under supplies uh the fuel for

095school buses uh we are proposing a 7.7% increase uh due to the increase uh in the cost of fuel. Uh so overall for pupil transportation $182,981 increase or 3.1%. >> Rita, >> hi. Um I had a question. um about the bus aids. The increase is over $100,000 from a year ago to this budget and then projected for even more for the following year. Could you tell me why >> we didn't utilize many of the uh we wouldn't use as many um uh bus aids uh during the FY21 uh year? uh there was just uh um um the there were less uh buses and there were were less aids to uh to actually um take those positions. Um >> I'd add that we were not in full inperson. We had that hybrid model so we had

096fewer kids taking the bus and you know on a daily basis. >> So that interesting to see what it was then the year before that if you could >> Yeah. We could look back. Yeah. Also of note is that $20,000 or 19,000 plus uh for the um uh for the bus aids, the increase in the bus aids at $19,000. Uh bus aids have been paid uh uh uh $13.60 for about the last seven years. And so with this uh raise that they just got recently to bring them up to minimum wage. uh that's why that number's uh looks pretty large, but certainly well worth it. >> And we really haven't always been able to fill those positions. So, we're looking to because the special ed buses that and the buses that require them um really

097require them and we really need them on the bus. So we did get good news though that they are um in some of our negotiating with the bus company over you know lots of different things in the beginning of the year the challenges that we were facing. One of the things that both Sam and I brought to their attention was it was imperative that we had new cameras on these buses. Oftent times when we were looking into an incident they would say the the old cameras were corrupted and that wasn't a good enough answer. So, they did put in um I think at least a dozen in the beginning of the year and we came back to them and said it's still not good enough. We really need them in all of our vehicles. And

098I think over this weekend the shipment came in and they were putting them in and I couldn't be happier. Sam, do you have any more information on that? Yeah, they uh they started making sure that all of our special needs buses got the cameras first and they will finish up installing all the cameras in all of our buses by Wednesday. >> And this was their their cost that they the company took on >> I think and I'm just very appreciative. So the reimbursement that um we receive for bus transportation per student does that go directly to the town? >> Yes. >> Yeah. For for for transporting the magnet students, >> right? >> Yeah. Directly to the town. >> Directly to the town. Okay. >> Beverly, >> we must have that in our pie chart, Ken.

099>> Yeah. as what is, you know, the the monies that support the town budget that go directly to the town >> Beverly. >> Thank you. Um, fuel for the school buses, do they go to a gas station or do they fuel up at the site where the buses are located? >> Yeah, the STA has a tank at uh the bus garage. Um, however, it's a two tank and it hasn't been approved by the town fire marshall and building official yet. So, they uh the buses that do use uh gasoline have been going down to the local gas station and only charging us the same rate that we're paying for the fuel. >> Okay. Thank you. And my other question is um how do you determine what the cost of student transportation is? Like when you're

100negotiating a contract like 512 and 511 and 510, what do you base the price on for student transportation? Is it how many students you um you carry on the bus and the bus aid specifically? How do you calculate that? We we pay we pay an amount uh per bus per day. So we have a daily bus rate. Um it's actually the same for for for either size bus. Uh and so that rate that we pay that includes both the usage of the bus as well as the uh personnel to to drive it as well as personnel at the at the uh at the bus depot that um that coordinates everything. So we we pay a daily a daily rate. Uh, so that calculation, the number that you see there is the number of buses times

101181 days times our rate. >> What? >> And the good news is, can I add this Beverly? The good news is that it's from 6:00 a.m. to 6 pm. So our after within Grten, whether it's field trips or, you know, the middle of the day runs for our preschools or our afterchool tutoring or afterchool um sports, you know, getting kids home, late buses, those all are the same price tag. We don't pay extra for that. It's only when we cross the bridge or we go to another town that we might have to pay additional monies for that. Well, they've also done field trips to uh Mystic Seapport and a few other places that are uh close by that they haven't charged us for additional, >> right? And I think the Guard Theater in New London.

102So, they've done a few of those as well. So, they have done some kind things to inkind things. >> Okay. Oh, that's nice. That's good of them. Uh how much do we pay per day for the buses? >> Our rate for 2023 is 36671. Does it go by the size of the bus or the small buses cost as much as the larger buses? >> They cost the same. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I really appreciate your questions because this is something that we have been looking at because it's a five-year contract for us and so the fact that you're asking all these questions helped remind us about sort of like where we are in the contract and how much it does cost. So I am appreciative of your

103inquiry. >> One more question on line 512. Um the other how much do do they pay that you check? They charge 366 $366.71 a day too. >> No, the this this is curtain um uh transportation. And so those are really uh uh uh by by trip. So depending on how far they have to go, uh you know, a lot of those are um some of those anyhow are students going out of district that we uh we utilize curtain for or picking up um um I think we also pick up uh those that are homeless with with curtain. So they are in town, but but those are dependent upon the number of miles, not uh it's not a it's not a flat fee. >> And and some of those routes are are very long. go to

104the other end of the state. >> Right. >> Thank you, Dean. >> I'd feel warmer and fuzzier if the bus actually picked my daughter up this morning. Uh, whatever bus was assigned to the route picked up everybody except kids in our neighborhood. So, not all the bugs have been ironed out. We had a pretty good run for a while, but So, I don't know what's going on. Sorry, off budget, but >> no, just make sure though the information gets to Sam or our staff here so that they can follow up. It's really important that we are on it all the time. I found out discovered. >> Yeah, I think I think it was labeled as bus 20 and for some reason bus 20 according to my wife, bus 20 did not find its way into

105our our neighborhood this morning. >> Yeah, I like to follow up on those things. >> We'll do. >> Thank you, >> Liz. Thanks, Ken. Um, I just want to clarify, please, Ken, what's the price of a bus? Is it $366 or is it $3,66ome per bus? >> $366.71 per day. Per >> per day. Okay. I I had the wrong number down. I wanted to clarify. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Little bit of a difference between that 300 >> just a tad that's why I put my hand up >> Jay >> uh so can um >> Wendel Gaston and Scott Kpatrick Gaston said interview tomorrow morning with Michael Varn with Brian >> that's fun thank you >> um that's why I always mute myself between conversations. Um so um Ken in previous years you

106have I I guess you've um locked in the price of the bus fuel because basically our our expense you're paying STA the daily rate that includes the bus the maintenance the drivers the insurance this um uh the cameras And then we purchase the fuel. >> Correct. >> And so you're still locking that in uh in advance. >> That's correct. Yep. >> Okay. And just as an example, how how far is it locked? >> Oh, uh we're locked till the end of end of the um fiscal year. So June 30. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? >> All right, hearing no more. We are going to go to technology. All right, here we are in technology 5-100. We made it to three digits. Um, let's see. This is function 2540, computer support services.

107Uh you'll see at the top we have uh FTEES, we have a director of IT, uh under technicians, we have a network administrator, a system administrator, and we have um six uh computer technicians uh that are um I guess one's at the central office and the others are in the school buildings. Uh and one admin assistant. Uh I'll note again that um the uh some the change over last year uh we converted to a voice over internet um telephone system and so all the costs for that telephone system are now um uh uh classified under under this uh function code. uh 5-101. Uh we have the uh salaries and wages uh for the FTEES we just spoke of. Uh you'll notice a decrease in technicians. We did have two long-standing um technicians retire over this

108past year. Uh and um uh we replaced them there are they have steps and so we replaced them with folks on the lower step. Uh, so overall for salaries and wages, it's a $5,000 increase or 6%. Uh, employee benefits, um, insurance, workers comp, social security, um, $1,480 or.9% increase. Uh, line 331, professional services. Um, we utilize a a company to help us with our e rate. Uh, that's a discount. uh and we utilize a a company that takes care of that. Uh I think that's what drives that uh that $9,455 uh cost. Uh line 343 are computer network services. This is everything to get the uh internet in and around the district. Um there is uh a $15,710 increase in that line. overall for purchase services uh is uh a 6.1% increase. On line 430

109uh repair of equipment um we have a budget of 25,000 uh decrease of 4,000 over last year this year's budget. Uh rentals other 441 uh this is uh this is our this is our copers that are uh throughout the system uh throughout the district. Uh they are uh allworked together. So uh teacher can print off off any copier within the district. Um and we um we have a a reduction of $7,866 overall for purchased property services. It's a uh 10.1% decrease. Uh line 530 telephone. Uh you'll see it looks like a big increase. In previous years, uh we would capture just the cell phone um program here, but now we're capturing the entire telephone um both cell phones and the uh and the new VoIP system. Uh so it's $91,400. It shows a $69,390 increase

110uh but it was reduced out of uh out of the operations budget um that we already looked at. Uh so overall for other purchase services it's it's an increase of 70,000 uh but there is an offset in a different function. Uh under supplies we have uh a decrease of um 39,500 under computer supplies. This is mainly driven by in the past before we had this uh copier network copier uh solution. We had uh HP printers, those little one-off printers uh throughout the district uh that we that we leased. We no longer lease those. So uh uh we have a reduction under computer supplies uh computer software 122,880 uh a decrease of 8585. We are uh supplementing this uh with the DoD u supplemental impact aid as we did uh for this year. Um overall for

111supplies it's uh a reduction of $50,87 or 22%. And under equipment uh we have 21,500. Again this is being supplemented by the um by the DoD supplemental impact aid. Uh but as far as what's getting charged this budget, it's uh uh very similar to the prior year, a reduction of $789. Uh overall computer support services uh an increase of 24,49 or 1.6%. >> So I'm going to recognize Matt and then Jay and also just say hi to Clint. Welcome. >> Hello everyone. Um I seem to remember that there was some discussion of moving from a computer and software lease format I mean purchase format to a lease format. Uh I don't see capital expenses for technology here. Are they somewhere else? So, uh, Matthew, the reason you don't see that is, uh, the leasing laptop

112program that I presented to, uh, month multiple versions of the board of ed committee and then a cow meeting that is coming from DoD funds and that's why you see quite a considerable decrease in kind of the 730 through 736 the total equipment line. So, that the that is coming out of DoD funds. I think then in terms of the budget narrative then that might be a useful place to point out that we're affecting some savings by doing XYZ. Let's just make a robust narrative to answer the board's RTM and town council's questions before they ask them. >> And that goes to Beverly's point which is what are we what are we purchasing with grants? >> Yeah. Thank you very much. I also think we sent out a chart in board notes too that addressed

113how we're kind of spending down our but with with resp with responsible you know spending down um those DoD supplemental funds. >> Yep. >> But I agree the narrative is a good other place to put it there just to you know remind us and show the public. Thank you >> Jay. Now, I know when um we invested in the new voiceover IP system, it wasn't completely to save money, but it was that we had an archaic system. Calls were not being completed in and out of buildings, between buildings. Uh so that all had to be modernized um just from that aspect. But if we're looking at line 530, does this still include any equipment or has has everybody now been tied in to the voice over IP system? >> So this does not include equipment,

114but the handsets that come with all VoIP lines Jay are included in our regular service that we pay out front here. So that was question number one. Question number two, we are not fully complete. We were delayed in some of the VOIPE installs because if you recall the switches that were slated, the 26 switches that were slated for the two new river schools uh were not available for the start of schools. So we took the switches that were dedicated to the VoIP project. Had those installed so that we could start the year off in those two river schools. Uh those remaining 26 switches had been coming in. We have now taken possession of them. uh and we have uh three schools, excuse me, four schools remaining. We're doing CK uh on next week on the

11515th. Uh so we are midstream with that now that we have those switches in hand. Uh and we're trying to be very careful when we're actually flipping the switch so to speak uh because we have to be careful with obviously with students in the buildings, teachers in the buildings, and so forth. We cannot bring a phone system down. So we've been looking for opportunities during half days, breaks, and so forth. get everything in, installed, ready to go, and then flip the switch, so to speak. >> So, now these handsets that you're you're talking about, is this something we're paying for every year? >> This is that's included in the monthly charges for uh each of the VIP blinds. >> Okay. And so this this figure includes all the cell phones in the district, the the

116voiceover IP, the handsets, and then of course we're still paying local exchange carriers for when you dial 9. You're still obviously going to have to interconnect. >> Well, we do have a we do have quite a few analog lines still in all of our buildings. These are things such as uh elevator connections, alarms, uh we do still have some fax lines around and so forth. So yes, there are analog lines that are separate from the new VoIP system uh that we are maintaining in a minimal fashion. >> But um would you say then that this this number is is the is going to be pretty stable because you're saying it doesn't include any of the upgrades that was paid for. It's just they weren't delivered. >> Yeah. No, we Yeah. This would this does not

117and will it it will not include things like switch upgrades and so forth. That has been covered. So yeah, I I I would imagine unless we see unless we see any additional building projects across the district uh or or any other major demographic changes, this should be very stable. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> I'm going to recognize Beverly and then Rita, please. >> Okay. Online um account 105 administration. Does that mean that this person is getting a $10,000 raise? >> This this is this is our director of of it. Um we um we did get >> we did not have a full year last year. He came to us later in the year. >> I don't understand. So, >> is are they getting a $10,000 raise? >> No. No, he wasn't he he

118was not in place for a full year last year. So, that indicates the salary that we had for this past year. >> Okay. >> Which wasn't a full year. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Rita, please. >> Yes. My question um Mr. Clint with six computer technicians. Do you feel that that is adequate for our seven schools? Does that meet the needs of the teachers and the students? >> Uh so to be very clear, those six technicians are part of the bargaining unit and that includes our power school administrators. So it's five technicians that are spread out throughout the schools. Uh and then that sixth person who is our power school administrator who is also uh qualified uh she is an educational technology specialist. So she will flex into not necessarily the traditional break fix but

119a lot of the integration efforts that we'll do working with teachers and so forth to integrate technology with the staff. Um uh it's a fair question. Um, I think part of the reason why I've been a very strong supporter of this idea of leasing laptops, uh, is we've seen, um, Graten Public Schools obviously push it had a onetoone program, excuse me, at the high school prior to the pandemic. Graten public schools has gone onetoone across the board and actually in many ways two to one at the elementary level where we were providing devices for students at home as well as in the classroom. Um the plan is to continue a onetoone fashion but post pandemic we would need to increase funding to keep a 2:1 environment. So that is a prelude to saying if we

120are with these laptop upgrades I'm comfortable with the level of technician support because I'm now having modern laptops not as we talked about anything from one to nine or 10 years old with 16 different varieties. I'm trying to baseline so we have a single model that's new and that we have a regular refresh cycle which then does take a lot of those support needs off of those technicians that are in the building. So when we do things like that in addition to um wonderful new networks at three new schools those do start to help pull back some of the needs but then it also does shift in a way because we're going to take all those teacher laptops and pair of professional laptops and so forth that we have in the field now and refurbish

121those. so that they can be used for instructional purposes with students, you know, where appropriate. We're not probably going to do that with the nine and 10 year old laptops, but certainly anything that's within the last four or five years or newer, there's value in those. We turn them into Chromebooks, and those can be used for instructional purposes. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Beverly, do you have another question? Sorry, you couldn't hear me not right now. In a minute. >> Anything else? >> Kim, if I may, I'm sorry. I'm looking at Bev and Rita here and so forth. And it really was uh interesting to take a deep dive into this budget. Last time I did it was uh 2004 as a board member. So, there's a few things that have changed

122in the interim, but uh uh I appreciate it and I'm I'm excited to get through this and and and do a lot of these upgrades that this board has been supporting over the last couple years and uh I'm going to do my best to uh shepherd them through. >> All right. Thank you, sir. All right. If there are no other questions, can we move on to the miscellaneous Hi, sorry I was on mute. Uh 5-102 is uh function 2560 health services for staff. Uh this is um inoculations to provide provided to staff members uh and testing uh staff who may have been exposed to pathogens. Um, we budgeted $2,500 here last year. We're we're suggesting the same. Uh, la uh in uh 2021 uh we only spent $253. Uh so I I think um I

123think that that amount should be more than enough. Um and I'm I'm just going to go on to the next one. Um on the top of 5-104, this is non-public transportation. Uh this is um transportation to um for the students that go to Sacred Heart. Um we are budgeting I think it was it's 2% of our uh of our our bus uh cost. Um $92,000 plus uh 4550 for the fuel for school buses. Uh it was a little bit less last year uh but that's uh due to the um not being in full at the beginning of uh last year. So share >> and that's a mandate for us to pay for, right? Like we don't necessarily have an option not to do that. >> Correct. >> Okay. And and that's another one that's reimbured

124to the town. Correct. >> Correct. Any further questions about that? All right, guys. We did a great job on doing a budget workshop. Um, and so we have one more agenda item. And Susan, before I pass that on to you, um I just wanted to say um thank you to Jay's leadership um at getting information for us for us to kind of take a look at in terms of the graduation. And so um I so that so there was a so so to the whole board, the reason why we're having a conversation is that there has been a new mandate or as of 200 Jay, help me out here. um >> 19, right? >> And so there is this wonder if the board needs to um set a graduation date. Is that correct? Like >>

125um so that we can have that. But there was some also some understanding about the interpretation of sort of what was happened on the legislator. So, um, I figured we should probably sooner than later at least start to have a conversation. I don't say we have to go to a vote tonight. Um, but I do think that we needed to have a an open conversation about setting the 20 um 22 um uh graduation date. So, that's where I'm at. And I think I sent a calendar for the board to to kind of view to see what the possibilities are for that 180th day versus the 181st for students as well as the law that passed um in 2019. Um we have had conversation with CABE which indicated that those 1808 80 days had to occur

126no matter what we set. But I've been trying to reach the state department of education to get more clarification on that. So I'm I'm still not firm on what to do. So Jay, you have your hand raised. Maybe you can help out. >> So I'm going to do I'm going to recognize um Jay and then Dean. So, I reached out to Representative Chris Connley and asked her for the history of the bill that passed in 2019 um along with the legislative intent. And so she passed along to me the uh office of legislative research bill analysis um which indicates that under current law that they were speaking in 2019 a local or regional board of ed must wait until April 1st to set a firm high school graduation date that provides at least 180 days

127of school. Prior to April 1st, the board may set a firm graduation date no earlier than the 185th day of school noted in the school calendar that the board adopted for that year. Now, this bill um uh 7258, which uh was effective July 1st, 2019, allows a board to establish at any time in the school year a firm graduation date no earlier than the 180th day of the board adopted school calendar for that year. And the bill also specifies that bills that boards can set their calendars to begin any day before or after Labor Day, which was another restriction at one time. So, uh, it looks as though the legislative intent is that we can set the graduation date based on our original calendar. um no earlier than the 180th uh day based on that

128calendar and that intervening snow days would not uh change the graduation date. So, I'm not sure if the state department of ed has somehow modified the regulations, but this was the legislative intent in 2019. So the the actual um law that I sent you is also the 2019 and it's really an interpretation of language. So I got um Vin from Cave on the phone and his understanding was that we had to get the 180 days in. Um I you know I couldn't get much more from that but um you know I would think that you know the state department if someone would call me back could help with this. I just don't want to set a date and then have to change it on people either. No, I agree. But I mean parents, you know,

129are asking um they want to be able to set something. Um and you know, that was the intent of the legislature in 2019. Now, if something changed, uh I can't find it. Um and like I said, this this came from from Chris Connelly. She also included all the transcripts from the House and the Senate on this, so it's pretty pretty comprehensive. Mhm. >> Um but anyway, so I'm just putting that out there. >> Yeah, >> Dean. I'm Dean and then Rita. >> Yeah, thanks. Um the former statute before the the law in the change in 2019 uh had more qualifications. It it it did provide that you had to wait until a after April 1. It doesn't say didn't say so in the statute, but the implications very clear. They wanted to be clear of

130any winter events since we don't have any seismic events. I think it's just the snow that they were talking about in 2019. They've stripped out language and it very clearly says that the hund we don't have to. It says the board of ed may I'm not sure what who else is going to do this, but the board of ed may, but it has to wait. The graduation date can't be any earlier than the 180th day that we originally set. I don't know why Cable would say we have to have 180 actual instructional. Now, mind you, I'm not advocating that we set it at 181st day. I'm simply saying the statute says we are allowed to set the graduation date at any time, any date, as long as it's beyond the 180 days that we originally

131set. Now, it would be wise to take into account if we wanted to snow days, actual projected, etc. But the statute's very clear. The 180 is the original 180day period. And I would say that in reducing the language and removing the qualification, the legislature is really saying, "Hey guys, if you want to, you can set the graduation date and ignore snow day." So you would, we could legitimately have by the statute a graduation date that that uh that took place two days before the 180th day. if we wanted to and that would be legal. So, it's really simple, really straightforward English as far as I'm concerned. If I was to rule on that, I I wouldn't look at the legislative history, frankly, unless there was some ambiguity in the language, and there isn't. So, it's

132nice to talk about the history, but um if you wanted to bring the history in, I I'd argue that the history actually argues in favor of we can set any damn date we want as long as it's beyond the original 180 days. Period. End. So, now the question before us is what would we like to set? Do we feel comfortable setting a date at this point? And what date would we like to set? So, what's the original 180th day or 181st day or whatever it is? Well, the 100 original 1801st day because that's what the board agrees to give students, although you can modify that to 180. >> Um, was originally the 17th. So, on your calendar, you see that I've highlighted the 20th and 21st as 180 versus 181. um at this point >>

133because of snow days. >> What's that? >> Because of snow days. Is that why you did that? We've had how many? >> Two. >> We've had two. >> Right. >> So for our younger students or anybody, it it's really 6:21 right now. >> Yeah. >> To have the 180. So then we could set graduation for the um end of that week, the the let's say the 24th if people still want to have it on a Friday, which is usual. I mean, I'm all for we've always set a graduation date and allowing for possible snow days and whether or not we had the snow days or not, the graduation date stayed the same. So I feel we should set a graduation date. I think you'd be safe in setting it on the Friday. Um, you know,

134but if you felt that you wanted an earlier date, um, you know, you could do that, too. It sounds like >> it seems that though for, um, people that have relatives coming in, they always seem to want it on a weekend or close to the weekend. Um, so I know the Navy community has always stayed with that. I'm I'm all for tonight setting a graduation date. I think it's the right thing to do. >> Liz, >> I'm with Rita. Um, I'm going to say too that quite frankly, um, I think the six 17th, the original 180th day was the grad was the 17th And let's face it, the seniors are ready. And you know, and you know, the 17th would work. Um, it's also would be the anniversary of my graduation from Fitch, but we

135won't go there. Um, because it was back in the other century. But, you know, the thing is is that I really think I'm all for definitely um having graduation for seniors. Now, that does not mean that we can't that the it's just a small part of the population that will be graduated and then if we have to finish out the following week, we finish out the following week for the underclassmen. Um, I don't see there's a problem there. And, um, speaking from experience, as my life as a high school teacher, um, they're they they're ready to go. Let them fly. Let the Falcons fly. You know, it's it's time and it's a the 17th is I think the place that we need to look at. Thank you. >> That's fine with me also. I agree

136with you. They're ready to go, >> Ed. I can agree on setting a graduation date tonight. The 17th or the 24th is fine with me. Um I I agree with Rita that for families the 24th on a Friday is better probably if they're traveling then they can stay for the whole weekend. They don't have to worry so much about days taking off from work. Um but it either way is fine with me the 17th is the way to go. Jay, >> I was just going to mention I know that uh Dean's not uh interested in the legislative intent or history, but one of the things they did mention um was that this allows uh folks that are reporting for uh military duty to graduate with their their classes, which sometimes a later graduation date um

137prevents. I don't know what those dates are off the top of my head, but the legislature specifically addressed that in their debates. Um is to make sure that that those students can graduate with their class and then still report um uh and other um you know still still report for what they've committed to be. >> Do you have another question? Um so Susan um and Phil can you talk to me a little bit um or talk to the board a little bit about what's the pluses of going to the 17th what is the negatives in your as an administrator? What are the negatives? Well, I guess I would like to verify with the state department. You can vote on this either way, but um I think that CO definitely had an impact. Although last year,

138remember, they were very relaxed and gave us 177 days, >> right? >> But this year, you know, no remote learning. They've put other legislators have put other things in place now because of COVID. So, I just um I don't want to make a mistake on that. You know, if I it does it did sound to me that you had to cover the 180 days that but then you could set you know, you could set the date at any time. I agree with that. Um so, it's a little confusing and um you know, Cab was confused too, I think. Um, Jay, before I recognize you, I'm going to recognize Matthew, but you need to be unmuted. >> Thank you very much. Does Robert's rules allow us to authorize the superintendent to pick her choice of the

13917th or the 24th as she thinks is best suits the needs of the district? >> I don't know if it's a Robert's rules thing. I think we can as a group make a decision about um you know if we don't vote it vote on it tonight and Susan can get more information and then we put that on an agenda for vote for the following week. Does one week make a difference for people? And that's I mean that's up to the board. Um but I think I would much rather do that than to um I don't know. I don't that's just my opinion, but I'm I'm at the mercy of of the other eight of us. >> I would prefer the 17th to tell you the truth. So, if the language is that and the kids

140can graduate on the 17th, I agree. I mean, that was that's kind of been what we've been doing lately. You know, that 17th date has popped up several times, >> right? Um, I don't want to hold them for another whole week, you know, with a couple snow days. But, um, I just want verification that they're not going to hold us, you know, in contempt at this state because they didn't get their 180 days in. >> Jay, >> yeah, I was just going to simply suggest what what you had said is there is no emergency for tonight. I mean, I I do appreciate that we've been able to discuss it tonight. uh if we can put it on an agenda, I just don't want it to get lost uh as you know it sometime as things

141sometimes do. And so if we could put it on for next Monday once um Susan's able to uh you know confirm that there isn't some strange regulation >> or emergency order >> that has modified this statute that, you know, we're not aware of. So um I mean I'd be fine with that, >> you know, I'm gonna recognize >> next Monday. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's um I'm gonna do Dean and then Matthew. >> Thanks. I'll be brief. It's It's not that I'm It's not that I'm uninterested in the legislative history. I am casually but strictly speaking because I consider the statutory language to be very clear about what the 180 days means. I would have no reason to go back into the legislative history to define what the meaning might be, what the

142legislative intent might have been. So it's but again it's educational. It's simply not necessary I think in view of the unambiguous language. And I would prefer the 17th over the 24th. I >> we were all seniors once. I think we remember what we were doing the last couple of days. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I was studious. >> Oh, I think you were. >> I really like >> Wait, I Matthew and then you. >> That's okay. I'd like the 17th >> and whatever. I think though I want to give the superintendent the freedom to to do what's best for the district with her knowing that the preference of the board if it is such is the 17th >> and her own. >> I just want to make sure we're legit and you know we can do

143this. >> I think we can do this tonight if if you want want to. I agree and I I feel that it's very important to have a lot of the teachers there and sometimes when it's put off and it's days and days after the the students have really graduated you know I I think it's very important to have the staff their teachers there and when it's too late sometimes there aren't that many teachers there so I like it the 17th So, I mean, we could vote on it tonight, folks, but I would just much rather have a yay or nay from Susan, and I promise you it's going to be on the agenda for the following Monday. Does one week make a difference because it seems like the will of the board is to go

144to the 17th. So, let's cons that like that should be done. But then, how about if we just give Susan that chance to get a hold of the state board of ed? >> That's fine with me. >> Me, too. Dean, >> when when do we I mean I got my mother-in-law to go by. I haven't gone through the F school system myself and I can't keep track. But going by my mother-in-law who used to teach at Fed, she says, "H how come you haven't set a date yet? We always set a date by now." So >> my question is when do we typically if anybody can remember uh when do we typically set the graduation date by when? Well, if we understand this and follow what they're saying, Dean, we actually can go back. If

145we get this all straight for this year, we can go back to next year and set a date and put it on the calendar. >> Yeah, we can >> like now. >> I'm just saying historically, >> I just want to make sure we've got, you know, this >> historically we would set it when >> Yeah. I mean yeah historically when do people expect a graduation day to pop out from the board of >> edi >> about now >> I would say yeah especially when the grad parties were really big they wanted to have as much uh ahead of time >> and there was that April language in there too so we always like to get that done right around then >> well we always did it when the calendar went out >> like the beginning

146of the year >> but it was tentative No, >> it was always subject to >> No, >> it was because we used to allow and at one time there was built-in snow days around Memorial Day weekend and you know there it was all padded. So we always had a graduation date set when the calendar came out. >> All right. >> Such an interesting concept that we padded. >> We did. We did. We used to have quite a bit of padding. We had like four or five days. >> Yeah. >> Back, you know, like in the 80s. I think it was the 1980s, early 90s. >> All right. So, does anyone is anyone hugely offend offended if I just say let's just put this on the vote for we'll hold a special meeting next week so

147that we can get it on and parents can know and families can make this decision. Does that >> We do have a meeting scheduled for the 16th anyway, >> right? >> All right. It's not on Valentine's Day. That's right. It's So the the vacation is Okay. >> The vacation's the next week, right? >> Vacation's next week. So, don't we have >> No, it's the 21st, isn't it? >> No, we have a meeting on the 16th. >> Yeah, but the vacation is the is the 21st for Valent I mean for President's Day weekend. >> Right. That's right. You're right. 21st and 22nd is the long weekend. No, we get we get we get to we get to spend Valentine's Day together, folks. >> No, I don't think we do. We get the 16th together. >> Yeah.

148No, >> we cancelled the 14th and went with the 16th. >> Oh, we did? >> Yes, we had the 14th. Oh, great. Okay. >> I'll figure that one out. All right. >> Well, you guys did a great job getting through all of this. This was a lot tonight. >> We did. >> Can I ask one more question about the budget because I'm still unclear about an item. >> Is that okay to take you back a couple of pages or No. >> Oh, right. We're still on. >> We're still on. Go. >> Okay. Um back to um 5-101 administration line 105. Now, to me, it's still a $10,000 increase because on FY 2022, they were going to make $132,000 and then on FY23, they're making $142,000. That's a $10,000 increase. >> So, it's a matter of

149working 10 months versus 12 or something like that or, you know, so it's an increase of time doing the job. So, they weren't here a full year, so they didn't get a full year's pay, >> right? That's what you said. >> We're assuming that next year they'll be here a full year. >> Okay. But from FY22 to FY23, that's a $10,000 increase. >> But the person was hired >> and probably hired at a higher rate. >> This is a new person. >> Yes. >> In this position? >> Yes. >> Okay. Oh, okay. So, you hired this person at a higher rate. >> Our salaries are out of this world. I'm telling you. I'm going to come work for Grant. >> Thank you. >> I will uh uh take a a motion for adjournment. >> May

150I ask one thing for good and well? >> Second. >> Oh, wait. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. May I ask one thing for good and welfare? >> Yes. >> I really think on this business of reimbursements where the reimbursements go directly to the town, we should very prominently be able to tell the town that have our budget of X. Y is going to come back to you directly to the town. so that you're authorizing us for X and we're spending X, but you're going to be getting back Y and that will lower your net out-ofpocket expenditure in terms of the increase. Thank you. >> I couldn't agree with you more. That's why I've got that nifty slide. And if you notice, every presentation starts with here's how a a town um is able to

151afford education. And it's not all from the taxpayers. a big chunk of it, remember, is from, you know, monies that come into the town. So, it's the greatest slide to start with. >> Okay. So, we have a motion. We have a motion that's on the floor >> and it's been seconded. >> So, all those in favor of the motion on the floor, which is to adjourn, please say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? Abstain. >> Say good night, Gracie. >> Good night, everyone. >> Good night, Gracie.