1-27-25 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001i' like to call the call to order the meeting of the Granton Board of Education being held on January 27 2025 at 6 o'clock it's being held in person and online um today in attendance we have Matt Schulman Jen white um Melanie our student rep Dean antias Ian Thomas Adrien Johnson myself the superintendent the assistant superintendent we have Jay online and anybody else online Dr a Dr aaman yes and what about Mike Whitney no okay is there you said yeah yeah okay the first thing on the agenda is Pledge Your Allegiance can we all stand take our hats off thank you no no it's just people say it all the time if you can stand up and please take your hat it wasn't directed at you it's just a comment being made okay I pledge

002aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic andice thank you okay the next one is recognition and participation of visitors and delegations I don't think we have any the next item is comments from citizens in regard to agenda items and other subjects of concerns concern that lie within the jurisdiction of the Board of Education this is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens each presentation should be limited to five minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments presentation should be related to manners matters Pon to gron board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comment of Citizen portion of the board meeting citizens should make their presentations from the podium and

003state their names and addresses for the record would anybody like to speak tonight I feel like I'm in your face sorry about that uh Porsche bordon 24 Jefferson Drive for full disclosure I'm a town council member for full disclosure I'm also Ian uh Thomas' Board of education's spouse former pair in the district as well as a Fitch high school graduate um again uh 24 Jefferson Drive so I guess my concerns tonight is uh for all the complaints um recommendations for improvement on last year's budget process this year seems to be very much the same so far to me um incomplete disorganized um and riddled with errors as you know I'm a town counselor so I'm doing my due diligence since the board of education budget is more than what 70s something percent of the town's

004budget so I come to these meetings where I watch online everyone every budget meeting and even if I miss it I rewind it and watch it again to make sure I take my notes to prare for my time to take the budget um it's unclear to me when the superintendent will complete the budget so I know there was a consensus from a lot of the new members on here that there'd be a concise time frame uh it's just seems unclear numbers are changing I understand that they said it's a uh very Dynamic budget so is in every budget right every budget is dynamic even my own house budget um and I looked at other towns superintendent presents the budget in its entirety if if the members have changes they want to make they make comment

005about it but they don't keep changing the numbers from the district level meaning the superintendent that can come after um but at some point you as the body need a full budget and a date exact date and a timeline when this presentation is going to end so that you guys have at least four weeks five weeks perhaps to process your budget and you do your due diligence because it's a large budget yet you guys are usually given less time than we are from the Town Council side and you guys are dealing with a larger percent so I'm just concerned with that I just feel like it's a little all over the place um the presentation the board of a definitely shifts in departments by Department it's all over finish an area complete right like we're

006we talk about education like it's incoherent here start in a section complete it in the presentation move to the next level of the presentation complete it you guys take your notes your comments you can just have deliberation as Mr Schulman said here write all that down deliberate right hear each other's comments and then she can write you know superintendent can write their notes and decide if they want to make changes before presenting it finally but I just feel like I'm a little I'm lost already I don't know how you guys half the time you guys don't have the sheets you're getting them at 4:00 can't operate like this we're talking about taxpayer dollars in money needs to be more concise needs to be more efficient frustr see to see the policy V rision stalled the

007revision review stalled out it seemed like it's ambiguous all these assertions of attorneys opinions yet none have been presented so I guess TR I FY what's those attorney opinions and why are we not moving forward why are they still sitting um p3120 was proposed as at ad hoc committee it was a consensus to move forward yet it's still sitting I know seems like a stall out to me overwhelmingly the people spoke about the inconsistencies in the budget for year after year as a person who served on the RTM on the education committee seven years ago these are my concerns I remember sitting with superintendent Austin Vice she was with Dr Ganer back then and asked where's this rigorous budget with Jay oh you're you're right let's look at the packet we're going to review it

008we're going to make it more in depth still hasn't happened this is not something new this is something been asked as a firm believer in funding education I think it needs to be open and transparent and the process in which you guys are doing it I don't know how you're following it this page this packet here there you can't operate like this um so I just ask that this a hoc committee that concisely agreed to move forward with the new changes what's the plan when are you still going to have your budget when are you going to start when is it finish other districts do it very openly and I just am concerned about this process again as I spoke I am concerned about closing achievement gaps show me where in this budget I haven't

009heard anybody ask this yet where in this budget you're showing where you're closing achievement gaps where's that funding where's those math scores that we are failing on where in this budget are you guys allocating that money to close those achievement back can you show me the page number on that please ask those questions where are those questions where is the full-time career counselor that has a a population larger than Stonington and yet we don't have a designated career counselor we have a part-time career counselor but we call oursel career and college readiness and IB this and College Prep courses not general just College Prep courses yet we're not prepping them because we don't have the proper Staffing we have to put our money in our mouth where we say we're we're going back to your

010whole thing which is very obvious teaching and learning let's get back to that um we should be looking at this budget not just looking at what we're funding here how are we closing those achievement gaps to make sure our students are going to meet the next level math that we're not meeting English writing reading where are those things being met in this budget I don't see it I haven't been brought up we're talking about pencils and pens and uh school supplies and I'm very concerned when you start cutting and saying to tell the principles to hold their site budgets that's affecting teaching and learning um so that's a concern so it's um already to me off to a rocky start um I'm hoping that there's going to be some changes but um I definitely have

011major concerns at the start of this and uh I had another friend look at this in a different district and she was blown away she's like this is how they do their budget she's on Board of Ed been on it for 20 years so I'm not the only one also I just also wanted to voice a concern where a friend of mine reached out um Mr Goodridge perhaps um and he was looking he was very inspired by the RC program he agreed to donate 3,000 of his own money to support the program in in the name of his uncle who passed who was a military personnel and he also wanted to start a private scholarship in his name and it seems as if like now they were told oh the Board of Ed has to

012handle this and oh he can't pick the person and the scholarship when they write it and it has to be all handled inhouse unless he opens it up publicly outside his goal was trying to keep it with fish students right graduates and people continuing I don't know maybe maybe someone on the board can ask the questions what is the process I thought you know I saw one person present on behalf of his wife with breast cancer and he pck I thought he picks the the pipian right I I don't know so I'm just confused on that so that's another concern again I know you guys have a hard job and I thank you for all you do maybe I'll run for Board of Education maybe that's that was my heart uh a while ago when

013I was on the RTM is uh on the education committee and then I saw the need to get on the council but maybe maybe in the next election in November I'll consider running on here because this is really where my passion is um and I think it needs some help thank you okay next is student representative report Melanie so my first item is um our debate team has been having a great season so far with a lot of high scores within the past few meets um and they'll be having their second home tournament this weekend on Saturday so that'll be a great opportunity for them to continue succeeding um the spring theater production was just changed to Greece um it was previously another play but there was a conflict with the cop copyright um cuz

014there was another production doing it around here so they had to change it so now it's going to be Greece um also the National Honor Society has been getting an influx in tutoring requests and um we've been able to fulfill all of them so far so um everybody's getting the help that they need and also Falcon Academy has been there's been lots of people coming in and there's been lots of opportunities for them to get a lot of support so that's been going great um I know on one of the agenda items is the cell phone policy um I think I've touched on this before but um I've heard a mixed review on the cell phone policy um I've personally seen a really good impact of um students being more engaged in class because the

015phones are away um but I have also heard some people saying that um you know teachers are enforcing it like they're supposed to but sometimes they'll have like a text from their boss or something like that and they um haven't found the right way how to like respond to it because we not supposed to have it in class so that's the only kind of critique I have on it so overall I think it's been pretty positive so far yeah that's good question yes uh I'm delighted to hear that you're having an influx of tutor requests uh and that Falcon Academy is having more people come that you're able to meet them could you give us a little more color on the numbers and the range of types of tutoring requests that you're getting are they

016all concentrated in one area different subject matter areas um we usually get um it varies week to week but I've been seeing it's usually about two or three per week um so we'll get a message from uh the counselors and we'll request uh member who's not good in those areas to support that um in subjectwise It's usually the AP and honors subjects um we've gotten a few for AP Statistics um and then I think we might have gotten a couple in like honor science areas um so that's what I've been seeing for tutoring mostly um in Falcon Academy we get a lot of uh history requests um just figuring out how the best way to take notes would be and just kind of general just how can I improve my grade um we get a

017lot of the athletes so that they can stay on the team um because they have to keep their grades up so um it's usually a variety in Falcon Academy but yeah for tutoring it's mostly um math and science related thank you very much any other questions or comments from M oh just a parliamentary inquiry um we did skip over the response but comments from citizens oh yeah on the agenda I'll get back to it any other comments for m I just want to say thank you for uh sharing all those thoughts and um definitely appreciate the notes on uh the critiques on policy and the recommendations for tutors appreciate it okay now the comments or questions but okay thank you Melanie appreciate it thanks for having you want to go back to give Ian a

018chance to comment on me I didn't get there yet I'm sorry I'm gonna say it right now response to comments from citizens okay any responses from comment on the comments from citizens I just want to say I appreciate uh pora coming out and sharing your thoughts and I share a number of those concerns and look forward to working with this board to uh resolve those concerns in timely manner any other comments yeah um I also appreciate coming out and speaking and I would en other um residents to come out and speak because we love to hear from you so thank you anything else moving right along I'm going to ask if we can put the staff portion of the agenda before we do um superintendent and administration so we're going to move up on discussion

019on Charles B magnet scho break four and five ma trip and the robotics team and the high school's music department and all the curriculum we'll move that up before the superintendent gives her report and administration thank you okay excuse me Dev yes really should have a motion to change agenda I make a motion uh we move to uh change the order of our agenda adding nothing new but just changing the okay do I have a second second Thomas okay uh Matt made the motion Joan and Ian second it all those in favor say I I opposed exstension what that online Jay and Andrea how did hi hi okay 9 z z thank you very much okay all right so I do believe that Mr Danner is on to talk a little bit about the field

020trip with his um group that goes to um that does hiking they actually hike or they do team Builders every Friday with him and some staff and I think he would like to be able to tell you a little bit about it and the trip coming up first I like a motion so we can discuss it and I can read the motion myself to approve Charles Barner magnet schools fourth and fifth grade field trip requests to Nicholson Park Family Campground in Chaplan Connecticut scheduled for May 22nd 2025 through May 25th 2025 do have a second second second Dean okay okay Seth go ahead all right so I I submitted the paperwork for this um I don't I guess I'm kind of here to answer any questions that anybody has but um we changed the way

021we did things this year um we wer we weren't very successful last year um and we're kind of short on cash so we re rechanged or not rechanged but changed all the not all I guess but some of the stuff that we do I guess if that makes sense I've been doing the same thing throughout 15 or 16 years so we modified everything to I guess that's a good word to just stay within Connecticut so the last trip I didn't realize it but the last trip um I thought we were okay because it was in it was in the state but I think because we're missing two days of school I put in for our Thursday and a Friday um and Saturday um I had to come tonight so that last trip is a trip

022to Nickerson Park my family camps there um it's on a river it has access to a state park a state forest um with tons of acres in it um there's some history there the first general in the Civil War was born right across the river um and his birthplace is still right there well his his the fireplace and some of the house is still there the rocks of it um and he was killed I think in Missouri and was sent back home and his grave site is up the roadway so we have a little bit of History to look at while we're there as well too some interesting facts from just here from within our within our own state so we've got that um we've got a river there to play in um there's some

023swimming there's plenty of hiking uh we've got plans to cook I just had them Camp um I think a couple weekends ago uh we were cooking breakfast in the kitchen uh so they're learning to use cast iron and doing some different things so that's um kind of the quick overview of the stuff I've been doing it for quite some time so always modifying I will say a shout out to the police department not that anybody's in that room tonight but I can still do it um they showed up uh when we camped in the school at 9:00 um at night couldn't get in the front door because it was locked came around to the back door and two boys saw them they came and got me and said the police are out back and I

024said well do they want in and they said I don't know we came and got you didn't let him in the building so even though police were standing outside um they didn't let him in the building they came in and they hung out played games um and did things for about 45 minutes with the kids that night which was really nice to have so shout out shout out to the police department and then I think I'm here for questions unless I froze which could have been I have a quick question real quick sure on the back of the application it says um 25 minimum persons is 25 and it's $35 per person but I see that you're charging $50 so can you explain what you're going to do with the additional 15 or is that

025a mistake on the back of this paper uh I don't think it's a mistake we've adjusted what we do each year based off our budget so um we're getting sweatshirts coming up pretty soon and our fundraising has um not been as successful as it has been in the past some of the things we've done so we we will clearly um let the parents know exactly what they're paying for we set up to 25 students the campground I think is 875 or 25 so we have to pay that regardless um but we're only going to charge the parents that want their children to go for their portion of that we'll use fundraising to supplement the rest and then the other part will be for sweatshirts and food and things like that does that does that help

026answer yes thank you you're welcome I I would say in in general speaking a three-day trip for $50 let's just say $100 I've talked to quite a few parents three days for $100 is a pretty good deal Jen you have a question I do um you might I do um Mr derner um just a quick question I noticed there's only three chaperon is so that's roughly like eight students per adult um do you feel that's adequate considering they're like fourth and fifth graders yeah I've done the same thing for 15 16 years we I just know what happens I submitted for 25 students we will not take 25 we had 19 at our last one so I I don't think I have taken over 20 students in all the years I've done it maybe one

027time that might be it maybe twice I I don't think it's been more than that so I know that the number will be under 20 uh and based off the last campaign one I'm I'm pretty certain it will be that way because even though they're part of the club and I need to be upfront about how many we have in the group um not all will go not all are comfortable doing it we also have another camping trip in um the spring that we'll go to a campground and that's another trial run before we we do this one so yeah I'm pretty confident perfect and then part two is I know $50 is relatively um steep for some families um and I know you said fundraising hasn't been as good um what other opportunities for

028disadvantage families is there to participate to be able to participate um I've always been able to manage to get someone to donate so uh we have we have parents that offer every year last year I had multiple parents said I'll pay double if someone can't do it um and then we'll we'll we make it it always works out so in everything that I send um hats for kids sweatshirts for kids um camping fees um I ask for donations if we're cooking like send in eggs or send in English muffins or whatever it is that we're doing chicken we Fried Chicken last year and made fried Oreos we we did a bunch of different things so I asked for supplies and donations and that covers everybody um but everything we send that requires money we always

029put the asteris there that says if you cannot afford this or this is a burden on your family email one of the two of us the two people that are in charge and we will make sure that it's covered we money and we say it right up front money should not be a concern for anybody it should not withhold anybody from participating perfect thank you any other questions um appreciate all your efforts on this sounds like a great trip and glad the tradition is continuing I'm just just curious to know like how do you um handle the swimming situation with uh students who are interested in going but maybe do not know how to swim that's actually a really good question um where we're going the majority of it is like maybe knee high not

030even so um I have not taken kids there was one place that we've gone in all the years where we let them swim and I asked that question right up front like can you swim and I'm we're always right there nobody is ever unattended in anything that we're doing so like um somebody had said earlier they're fourth and fifth graders got to be watched Pretty closely so um we we have a pretty close eye on what's going on very well thank you any other questions for Seth but Seth thank you very much for your neat application it was very easy to read well I did it wrong the first time just for the record of I had to do it a second time I appreciate that okay matth you have anything take a vote yep

031take a vote okay all those in favor of approving the Charles bar and magnet schools fourth and fifth grade fail trip request to Nicholson Park Family Campground in Chaplain Connecticut say I I opposed extensions Andrea did you vote I did I I even put my picture up okay all right so approved that that's nine to zero to zero next item is this thank you Seth yeah thank you Seth thank you thank you everyone have a good time on your trip oh I will uh the next item is discussion and possible action regarding approval of the robotics team fail trip request to eastern states Exposition in West Springfield m Massachusetts scheduled for April 3rd 2025 through April 5th 2025 um I could the motion to approve the robot robotics team's Bill trip request to Eastern State's

032Exposition and West Springfield Massachusetts scheduled for April 3rd 2025 through April 5th 2025 d a second I'll second Mike okay anybody online do we have um Sher fakas or anyone online you see Clint this is their usual field trip that they take each year um they actually have practice tonight they might be really getting ready for it so okay he's not online okay well everybody read their application any questions or comments about it I would just say that I'm familiar with the robo robotics team's um operations um and I I think uh it's a great thing to do and think no okay anything else yeah we should make note uh because we do list fundraisers we should whatever it's worth highlight here the fundraisers in encourage people to go and do their part you could

033talk about it okay so they they've noted here they're going to hold fundraisers I don't know when at Chipotle monson's chocolate and Panera Bread again don't have the dates I expect those will be publicized but for anybody listening anybody who's going to be listening be aware any other questions um one just um um as far as um families that may not be able to afford it is it is it um basically common throughout the district that we offer I mean s answer was great um the way the district handles it so is that that would include things like this as well absolutely all right thank you anything else go ahead Dean I think in this case this is for members of the robotics team so we already know what that population is and who who

034does and who does not need need that sort of help so maybe that none of them maybe the half of them do I think I mean I hope the adults would handle that unlike the camping CP where I expected sort of you know anyone can can sign up for it so this is a much more known group yeah so hopefully know they'll figure it out and a transportation the parents are dropping them off and picking them up and the same thing with seths I think okay so no Transportation no Transportation okay all right any other questions or comments okay all those in favor of approving the robotics team's fail trip request say I I I oppose I thank you Jay oppose extensions that passes 9 to zero next item is discussion and possible action regarding

035approval of fit high schools music Department's field trip to Orlando Florida scheduled for April 9th 2026 through April 12th 2026 um the motion reads to approve F High School's music Department's failure request to Orlando Florida scheduled for April 9th 2026 through April 12th 2026 do I have a second second second Adrian all right discussion do we have any teachers on board or administrators on board I think I saw Amy Makenna I don't know if she can speak to the music department I know they've taken the strip before I don't remember recently though that they've had this trip I think it's one of those every few years huh leave I Co yeah maybe curious are they going to Disney World or someplace else in Orlando I I don't know if Disney might be part of their

036like singing there but we can find out I don't know what it doesn't say um it did say something about Vision yeah it Amy is online but not any of the teachers that I recognize so I don't know Amy McKenna do you know anything about um the music trip other than that yeah it's kind of a one that they've taken before in the past I think it's a competition it's on page two yeah good evening everybody I I don't have the specifics of that trip um in front of me right now um I know that the the teachers of the music department could probably do a much better job of answering the questions that I could for you in this moment um I just offer that on the second page in the descript description it

037does say the first sentence um is a proposal to Disney World staying on site and then there's a numerous number of mentions of Disney so I believe that it will be the central focus of the tri I saw that too yeah yeah I don't see that it's Disney as in going the rides it's their references to Disney uh yeah Hotel a Disney Shop Performance schedules so it says students it says reason for trips students will perform at a festival and attend Master Class workshops my guess is it's linked with Disney's facilities next time can we please have somebody from music to exp this would Jen and then might do we do we know why the student cost is more than the teacher cost I don't have a clue do we need to vote on this

038tonight or can it wait till next I see Beth forer's hand is raised I don't know if she has information hi um as a parent of a cast member at Disney and of children that have gone to there for these festivals uh what they do is they work with Disney's conductors and musicians and other maestros that are brought in and they conduct workshops and they also sing in a festival atmosphere and they have very busy days within their programming and for their learning and their competitions and then they might get some time in the Parks also but it's a very um prestigious uh invitation it's usually rotated through every few years so it's not they're just going to Disney they're going there to perform their craft so I just wanted to plug give that plug

039in there and uh to know that it is quite an honor to actually to go to the um the workshops thank you Beth Jen you all done I still don't have a respond as to why teachers cost is lower than the students okay Michael I'm surprised they charged the teachers at all yeah so what I was going to ask about is so the sites in Florida and I'm constantly hearing things in news about some law pass or some initiative pass that's against lgbtq plus um what what protect do we need an extra layer of protections for our students while we're there good um it's a I think a lot of um uh students might feel nervous about going because they're made to feel nervous Pardon Me by Florida [Laughter] by any other questions or comments

040do you feel comfortable voting on this field trip without um where Jen doesn't have answer to her question but do you all feel comfortable voting doesn't matter to me but um I would just offer as a response you know I believe it it's a matter of just like it is I mean the teachers are going to be chaperon so there is like you know they are going to be on the clock so to speak and you know having you know done something similar to that in my life 90 plus kids yeah work $500 yeah that's like a discount with all the other kids that I there track of everybody okay they're earning their discount I know that we were just very concerned about it when um the trip to was it Spain came last fall

041so it was just um I was just bringing it up but I'm okay I totally understand like The Prestige of Disney my husband was um in the band when he was younger and this is very um a good opportunity for Fitch to show case the talent of our students so definitely in support of it it probably might to answer your question those chaperon are there for a reason they know the kids and so hopefully you know that would make them feel more comfortable if there was ever a situation that made them uncomfortable yeah I just suggest they uh can talk about it before before the going I know for years um um as a state employee we we weren't allowed to travel on state business to certain States because of they um um positions and

042laws Mississippi was one of them I remember that well but um that I don't think that's the case here with Florida and this is not State business but something it's is something to consider Dean yeah uh this to me resembles the London trip of the marching band some years ago uh where the kids spent most of their time with they're not wer performing than practicing it was basically a work trip for them less of a work Tri for the adults if they had spare time there was some sightseeing that's kind of what this resembles to me and it was quite an honor at this thing yeah take out yeah said D yeah okay um also just reading the details here um first line says three four three nights four days Disney Disney World only I

043believe if I'm reading between the lines correctly I think it's pretty much going to be focused completely on site of Disney World within the parameters of Disney World which my understanding of the situation down there that Disney World is kind of uh cording itself off like the Vatican ways as far as like establishing its own Rule and culture within its borders from the clan outside I think we have a music teacher online Sandra Hall hi Sandra we tried to get you on earli go unmute so sorry do you what do you have anything you want to tell us about this trip well I'm excited the kids are excited um we uh the only thing we're looking at right now is trying to figure out if it's manageable for these students to go next year or

044if we should hold off till the year after um I want to make sure that we can keep providing these travel and performance opportunities for our students but it needs to be sustainable where they're not fundraising every five minutes you know um so I I can tell you that uh Andrea the band director and I are looking at that just to see if we have a a good amount of um um fundraisers lined up that would actually help them raise the money when we went to Hawaii I spent a lot of time finding extra donors um so that's that's part of it too but we're we're excited I I don't know much about the program um I believe my cohorts at ledgard are doing something very similar this year um so I'm excited to talk

045to them to see how it goes if this is by invitation for 2026 will you get invited in 2027 if you postpone it um we could we could it's it happens every year um and I'm assuming because we'll we'll have the same Talent if not more or better um continually growing in our music department um I I don't see why there'd be a reason why we couldn't attend yeah yeah any questions for Sandra request uh if you go this year I hope um perhaps somebody with your entourage can take some video that we can put up for the rest of the community to see always we um we were so honored when we went to Hawaii to have uh Mr Russell with us he's just F he's just amazing he is amazing um and so

046you know don't don't think we won't be calling him and saying hey you want to go to Disney he can be my travel buddy so you'll definitely have those coming back to the board thank you do you have an idea what kind of fundraising you're going to do um we have one fundraiser that was very successful for those that that actually did it we did a calendar fundraiser and that's all on the students they're given a calendar um and the the premise is that every day on the calendar they need to try and sell so if they sell the second then whoever they sell it to will give them $2 they sell the 30th they give them $30 and so on um and that by the end you can get a really nice chunk um

047of your payment for the trip so I I'm ass sure that we'll do that again um car washes are always really great money makers during the summer believe it or not so we'd probably schedule some of those um and we're very very fortunate to have our boosters our music boosters because they will also um give a certain amount of money towards the trip or sponsor someone um just depends on how much we actually fundrais um will know how much they will be able to give towards the cause okay thank you Sandy any questions for Sandy okay all those in favor of approving pit high schools music department fail trip requests Orlando Florida from April 9th to April 12 2026 say I hi i j okay oppose extensions approve 9ooo thank you guys let me know

048if you want to come along I'll teach you the music let us know about the fundraising I will absolutely and hey while I have you here next Thursday the 6th um is our come together concert our Black History Month concert um at the high school so I I hope to see some of you there you have a flyer have you put it on on Facebook yet I have I will I will send it to you right now and we'll get it we'll get it out there too for you absolutely all right thank you good good good to see you guys thank you so much thank you Sandy too bye bye bye um the next it little one they're twins the next item on the agenda is discussion oh on yeah discussion and possible action regarding

049the approval of Ed rising to curriculum and um I'll turn it over to Adrian yeah I'll make a motion to approve the Ed rising to curriculum I'll second second okay you want to talk about it a um yes we we've talked about this a couple of times in curriculum um it is a followup to the Head Rising course that we are offering now so um I believe they're going to try to right now Ed Rising is um a Yukon class offered to Juniors and seniors um they're trying to expand um the offering so I don't know if there's another one um that has to do with special ed I believe I don't know if that one's on the agenda tonight um that's coming but we're trying to um add some educational offerings to help support

050students that might be interested in becoming a teacher when they when they graduate um is there anyone here online to talk about the course specifically um I'm here um so yeah Ed Rising year 2 is just an it's an extension off of the year one curriculum um so it goes more in depth with like reflective and responsive teaching practices uh like as I had outlined in the um curriculum document so some of it is like stuff that we touch on this year but this one goes way more in depth so kids that like maybe took the course not sure if they were interested in education and are definitely interested in it then they can do a deep dive um into that and then it'll be like a more you they'll clo work more closely with

051um a subject area of their choice or a specific teacher like this year my students are at the element and middle school doing observations and some field work and a lot of them have actually been able to narrow down like specifics on like what they're interested and what they're not interested in so if they were to take the course again next year they could like instead of going to both locations they could just go to the one and they could work more closely and they'll like develop their portfolio do um a lot more lessons within the classroom and like help the teacher teach this year we only do like they my students are getting ready to um teach their lesson at either the elementary or middle school before I leave for maternity leave so they're

052doing it a little earlier than I would have um planned but next year the hope would be that they would do you know more than just one lesson with their teacher and then yeah we are expanding the education career Pathways so um Stacy Nara is going to be teaching a introduction to special education topics class so students that um are also like maybe have taken my class can also take that class as well or they could take that before want to add anything Susan or Amry well we know that every freshman gets to pick their pathway and this is yet another pathway and we know that growing our own whether it's staff that we have in house that we can encourage to become teachers or whether it's our own students to encourage I think it's

053really wonderful Pathway to choose I can say that after 45 years of so thank you Laurel for all the work that you've done inspiring your students to want to follow your path it's been so much fun I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to do this any questions or comments I just make a comment from the uh committee it was apparent that this within a couple years would probably fill the capacity the the demand is there for the course do we have a teacher already in place for this course or do we need to hire a teacher well Laurel is the teacher for the part one and potentially for part two doing the deeper di yeah I would be I'm more than happy to do the the year to um I spent some time you

054know doing the curriculum and I attend monthly um Educators Rising meetings through the state and meet with other um Educators and districts that have this this course at their school as well and I'm in the process of reaching out um about seeing which school districts have the year two because we might be like one of the first few to have it um which will be cool but a lot of a lot of school districts are just starting off with the club and we've been really grateful to have the class and um um get that going so there's more opportunity for our students how many students you have in your class now I have 20 students last year I only had seven so it's quite a bit um you know and I'm anticipating another full class

055next year and we're opening it up to U sophomores as well and then um you know getting like the information down even to um fresian if they wanted to to take a course um so then they could like since our career pathway has is um growing so much with like education and whatnot um having them start earlier will be beneficial for them so that they can take some of these uh courses do you know how many of your 20 students now are interested in this course so out of the 20 students that I have now seven of them are juniors so they're all eligible to take the class and are interested and then I also have one student that took the class last year that'll be a senior next year so she could also take

056it so it would start pretty small um but then the hope is to like now that people know that there's a second year they could take it earlier and then um get into get get into it hopefully be bigger next year any other questions or family yeah yeah I've got one well a little bit um so Ed Rising one is a Yukon class um is there what level will this class be offered at for now or do we have that um worked out yet um so right now like in talking with admin we had just developed it as an honors level course the Ukon course is the um one I guess that's in higher demand the Ed Rising Year One course um we were in the process of looking into if there is like an

057ECE offering for like a seconde education course but we're not sure that there is so we might have to um like if we wanted to offer it as college credit we might have to look at some other like um colleges that like offer you know different like education courses like we have some affiliations with Eastern and stuff like that but um I know that with the ECE program the one course that Yukon offers is that if you love it teach it and our Ed Rising year one is paired with that so that's kind of where I'm at in that process right well thank you I I really appreciate all the work you've done on this thank you I've thought of many ways of saying this spare you most of my verbiage most of you will

058not be shocked I'll be voting against this the document is loaded to me loaded with um the favorite Buzz words and phrases it the weeks of a political agenda uh not all of it I'm very pleased that we're offering a course like this I just cannot support a structure I could go on at length but I don't believe that I'd have an audience for this I don't think I have the voice for this tonight but I wanted to register my no vote for the reason for my no votes some summary the reason for my no vote none of what I was going to say anyway would be a secret to anybody in this room that's it that's it is not enough Amber thank you um I have worked uh with programs like this in my

059previous district and know of some universities that do offer college level credit so I can um I'm sure I can get with the uh Folks at the high school and um help them to hopefully get college level credit um with some local universities thank you any other questions or comments no all right ready for a vote all those in favor of approving Ed rising to curriculum say I I I oppose Dean abstentions none so it passes 8 to one to zero thank you very much thank you Laurel thank you thank you guys for your time uh the next item is the discussion and possible action regarding the approval of the event and Sports Photography curriculum and the motion reads to approve the event and Sports Photography curriculum do I have a second th okay who's

060online for this one B Christina's here how are you good how you doing good thank you are you ready you are you do you want to speak about this um photography and events curriculum uh sure if anybody has any questions uh just to give you a quick overview it's been sort of in the works the kids are really excited about being able to take their skills that they're learning in this class and using them in the other parts of the school whether it's sports or it's drama or music or events within the community some of them have worked closely with Mark over the years so this just sort of extends the classroom uh Beyond you know what they've been learning and applying it to something they can use as a career and it has recently

061fit very nicely in the marketing career Pathways as well uh because it would give them the opportunity to do their work show their work and how to Market their work so it would be an addition to that pathway as well are we supplying the equipment or do they have to bring their own cameras and so forth and so on so at this point I have all of the stuff uh so I have plenty of cameras and things over time looking for Grants to maybe buy some telephoto lenses and things like that but uh I do have everything that would help get the kids up and off the ground well that's great that's great Matthew good evening thank you for the program what are the prerequisites for this course so they would have to take photo

062one and two so they would get to understand how to compose pictures how to use the cameras understand the basics of Photoshop and then in photo two they would work with the cameras completely on manual understand it in different settings and uh be comfortable with how that works and start to begin to apply this to projects of choice and so after they've sort of completed these two I think that they're ready to be working and photographing and being out there because they're going to be more comfortable and in class you know if we're working and we go and you know photograph an event that's happening during the school day they're not nervous that they would be able to take these pictures come back ask questions you know I can work alongside with them and as

063they get more comfortable they can begin to work at events after school hours I would like to offer an idea I'm not sure it'll be an amendment or not that there be the prerequisites as you have or the permission of the instructor and the reason I add this possibility is a we have a transient population we may have somebody come into the district who does not have the academic credits but who may have the skills and or we may have someone who is a I hate the term an underachiever somebody who didn't have the self-confidence who wasn't motivated in the past but would be really interested in doing this and to give you the Authority or or the whoever the instructor is on a given year the authority to assess a student so that we

064have it as you know we're not starting with somebody with has who has no experience and no skill set but uh let let's open it up to those who may have it but just haven't been filled with joy at the possibilities and you're going to give them this chance does that need to be an amendment I don't think so we're we're just we're just approving the curricul well I am suggesting that the if the pr I asked what the prerequisites were and this curriculum seems to have some prerequisites which would not allow that to happen if if you must take the photo one or two and you don't have them then we would either need an agreement uh informally or formally to make that a possibility again the key is uh permission of the instructor

065so the the gatekeeper is the one who knows what's required to assure that you have a student who will fit in and be ready to go from day one along with others he or she may have a strength or a weakness that the others don't have but by and large we open the door to everybody who's qualified do you have a response to that um so with our transient population we deal with kids coming and going and um how you know what experience they may or may not have at other schools so we have had the opportunity to work with kids although it can be challenging because their skill set is different so there is a little bit of a difference uh in what's been happening but we've been able to accept kids and get

066them going and encourage them to continue even if they've changed schools and they didn't necessarily start out with what was suggested through gr public schools and if we had a young if we had a younger wait wait one second Andrea okay yes and if we had a youngster who did not take the courses but was motivated somewhere along the line and had had a private mentor and now had the skills would he or she be able to come to you and get admitted to the program as it's structured uh it would go through admin and they'd have to have a portfolio and you know references and background that sort of thing to say like they're capable of doing this as long as the path is open and that's fine thank you Andrea uh Beverly I

067think that um Susan would would um cooperate what I'm going to say but that's the military compact would speak to somebody who comes into the um to our district and doesn't have the the qualifications but the military compact would address that and I think Susan would back that up I don't know about the other um question that Matthew has it's a valid one well that would help the military students but not students coming from other districts that's correct but it sounds to me that there would be a process by which if there was a student who asked for that course and had a portfolio or had that kind of level of training and you know could fit into the class that that would that we would be open for any child who expressed that desire

068and had the skills to do it I think the key would be to give the teach ad the opportunity to make an assessment that's all we ask so Matthew you had an amendment on the FL I was asking if it was necessary okay if if I'm assured that it's not necessary there's no need to do it go ahead do you have a question oh I was just gonna General comment as is my understand that there is sort of a procedure before that for students coming in to be able to kind of bypass prerequisites to be able to demonstrate certain master or progression but I I did see kind of I see him don't I see him and I imagine like the principles would have something like on the ground they probably handle this routin thank

069you very much Jay have a question I just want to um thank Christina um Scala uh for the the years of uh doing the uh photography programs and you know allowing students to explore their passion with that and I think this is a a great uh progression for them to go to you know for those that have an interest to go into this and um also just a quick shout out for her work along with uh Stacy n over the years with the Unified sports thank you very much thank you Jay Amy hi thank you so much um just wanted to recognize that oftentimes you know it's it's it's great to be a new student in Gren public schools and our schol counseling department often does have to field um you know questions of what

070students are qualified for so this is something that is already and would be in the future with new classes taken on a case-by Case basis and certainly if a student you know demonstrated the kind of skills needed to enter this class then we would we'd be more than happy to you know to to make room for them so you know this is something that already happens and would continue to be our practice thank you very much thank you Amy do you feel comfortable absolutely okay all right any other comments or questions General come out uh thank you for the efforts on this and and I looking through it I just I love the practicality of it and uh you the the um skills and the techniques that are mentioned in here and the approaches philosophical

071and practical so thank you for the work they've done on this and theal committee as well thank you any other comments or questions okay all those in favor of approving on the event and Sports Photography curriculum say I I I I oppose extensions carries 90 Z thank you very much and good luck thank you have a great night you as well the next item is uh discussion and possible action regarding approval of the unified music curriculum and the motion be to approve the unified music curriculum uh do I have a second second second okay anybody online yes I think I see Stacy Naro and Sandra Hall hi hi hi oh Sandy is still here okay I actually helped write the curriculum too so I'd be able to help answer any music um UniFi or just

072in general unified questions done the art for many years so okay do you want to talk about the curriculum um sure I have been working with Cara who's just speaking um who has been an awesome mentor and guide for me um because she's had years of of teaching uh unified art so with it being my third year I've been thinking about this since my first year really um at Fitch and was curious why we never had a unified music curriculum it's a universal language there's so many therapeutic aspects to it um long and short there's no reason for them not to have music um and so I I was really excited when uh the opportunity came to work with Cara and get this on the table for next year so our um students the unified

073students the curriculum will run um closely the first year it would be most equivalent to uh probably one of my general music Elementary classrooms for the curriculum uh just until I find out where everyone is what what level that they are at what they're capable of um and then go from there and and grow the curriculum as as we move through the year um it will include movement and singing and playing instruments and hopefully at some point um we'll be able to get a performance aspect into that whether it's performing just in front of the uh typical peers that are in the in the classroom with them or um recording and sending a video home to their you their Guardians their parents any questions or comments you want to add anything any yeah yes um

074can you just explain to us the um aspect of how many students with needs like in a typical classroom how many students with needs and how many peers might be in there just so everyone understands I can um answer some of that um it varies year to year and as far as um the amount of typical peers in my um art class this past semester it wasn't as many as we had hoped um but we are expecting more typical peers as these courses like the intro to special education happened the Ed Rising a lot of those students were hoping um will take on a unified arts class many of them are already doing um unified PE so we do get um a little bit of a crossover um and depending on who is being put

075in the class it could be more of an adapted um situation um with those students who need a little more assistance there is you know also the need for um their paas in there and you know the Reg um the typical pairs have done a great job in meeting different expectations of all these students because in the past we've had like I said more kids that have more disabilities um physically um and then also just some that are a little delayed I don't know if that answers I I would I would like to chime into that as well Cara um I can tell you that I have a really good base of students that uh not only want to become Educators in the Ed Rising program but they want to become music educators and I

076can tell you when I went to school for my undergrad man could I have used a class like this um to be a typical peer a fly on thewall whatever just to have that experience and so I think um I think if we're looking at this unified music that we will have no problem having uh peers in the class typically it would be nice to have kind of a 5050 um so everybody had a partner um that would be an ideal situation um and we have had it close to that before in our um in past years it just kind of depends all right well thank you any other questions or comments danan wonderful idea once again something program put a service of a political program will development understanding di through the lens of music

077music for the purposes something else that I can't I uh I just want to um commend you all for the work on this and and I really excited to hear the idea of pairing this up with like the Ed Rising uh program as well or having that that Avenue open that thought process out there um so um yeah I mean you never know what uh what aspects might catch a person's uh attention and focus and um discover a talent or passion you know very delicate balance between passion and talent you know there some famous quote out there I can't grasp right now but it has something to do with Talent it's just passion focused with discipline and time um something so um I look forward to seeing this developed in the future thank you thank

078you Anan any other comments or questions would you like to um you don't have to but would you like to respond to Dean's concern about um the students will develop and an understanding of diversity equity and inclusion through the lens of Music how all that can happen um I think I I mean in a nutshell I think you know we're trying to get our kids to be kind to one another and understand that every human being is different and if we can be more aware of that as just in general a human being then we're doing our job as Educators and I think this class really I mean I know I understand the Dei is a hot button but we're truly we're rooting for our underdogs and we want our kids to be successful and

079I think these unified classes um have helped tremendously um like somebody I think yanet said earlier Stacy and Christina had started our Unified sports program years ago and I can't even tell you how humbling watching these kids work together is over these past years it's you know the best buddies the um unified Foods it's just it comes down to we're trying to um go with our mission our mission of Gren Public Schools right to send students these adults out into the world and be good so I appreciate your time thank you very much thank you for that response also okay we ready to vote thank you madam all right all those in favor of approving um the unified music curriculum say I oppose exensions all right so passes 8 to one to zero Dean is

080opposing all right thank you all right so back to the beginning now we'll go back to the beginning of the agenda and we'll go with the superintendent and administration reports so we have a budget calendar that um we are up to already the week of um January 27th tomorrow we'll be doing a review of town obligations and health insurance as well as finishing up some work with technology Clint will um continue with that and um so I just wanted to say that on the week of February 3rd we have a budget work session and then the possibility of a public um Board of Education special meeting on the budget so um if Beverly did you want to say what we had found through the town office about um think I gave you that P paper

081yeah but I think we have it on the agenda okay it's we're going to be voting on it later but we did find that the town Charter obligates the Town Council to have a public hearing and we've always joined in with that public hearing and usually you get a pretty good crowd they come out to talk about education the library and lots of other things but I don't think there's any wording in the charter that it's it's absolutely has to happen through the board but it's something you can consider and you'll be voting on it later correct so that's really all I had to say about it okay um reps from staff Director of Finance yeah Director of Finance so we'll put up his narrative um Ray are you on there yes we are I

082know you've had a really busy couple weeks here you didn't tell me it was going to be this busy well we were having you do a town review and it became so much more well came to our resue surprise surprise surprise um what and and I do apologize for the brevity of this this report um I've been you you'll see it on here that U with the aid of one of our new people we've helped pull to pull it together uh in the 11th hour here and I again I do apologize for the brevity of it uh do we get this report Ray I don't see it in my packet uh they were supposed to print it off and bring it to the meeting tonight I did you I don't know I didn't see it

083on my desk but we'll make it right now okay I'm sorry kind of hot off the press from him today because uh well i' I've been I've been working with the state on our year- end report um tomorrow I'll be finishing finishing the audited report and sending it off to the Auditors I was hoping to have it done for yesterday um but um I was hoping to have it done for this morning but we ran into some issues that the balancing didn't want to work and if you know anything about this state uh report there's about um probably a 12 or 15 different segments that have to tie out and if they don't tie out you you can't submit it so um that's why it had been submitted but the Auditors asked us to open

084it up again I believe right oh that was well long story short it was submitted back on 93 now having said that on 93 we did tie out we were Within I have to be up on one of the file on one of the reports it's called the local uh expenditure file we have to be tie out to within a dollar plus or minus $1.99 um but that includes when we do that tie out that includes all expenses and potential expenses so when I left they uh were working on working down the encumbrances cleaning up expenses possibly doing some uh budget adjustments not budget adjustments but expenditure adjustments to balance to the town well the number I had in on the top now changed and I have to balance to that number and we had

085some issues trying to balance to that number long story short we have it worked out I just I'm just filling in dotting the eyes and Crossing some tees on a few other uh segments there's some uh validation reports that have to be run but I should have a submitted somewhere between 10: and 11: tomorrow morning so that that should be off our table and then I can I can actually jump in and help out with some of the budgeting and um uh really dig into the Weeds on uh anything that's going on um but can you make your sheet a little bigger is Clint here Clint would have to make it larger he was he's displaying it this is very similar to uh the file that um Irene had presented um we just we cleaned

086it up a little bit and it's actually the short version of it can you just give us like a a hot minute to look at it before you start talking about itess okay a minute you good with that okay we recess for five minutes and we'll take a look at the sheet and then come back again okay all right thanks Ray yep okay ray you want to explain this uh basically this is U very similar if not the same report that was being uh provided um I guess for the last three four months five months um this it's it's different from what I provided because I uh the other file had so many links in it they they were breaking and it was not a was not a pretty file to try to maintain let's

087put it that way so this is this is it looks to be I I don't know what questions you have because it's pretty much self-explanatory I think I have a point of parliamentary privilege um the projected image is not visible to to show the percent available clearly uh can we adjust it down to maybe like a 175 Zoom or um right now we're at 200% maybe we scale down to her Mike you have questions well that that scaled it a little too much away with it eating a j oh Andrew like that can't take on to his yeah R from her uh can you put that back on the screen I that's um somebody uh behind the scenes has that to put up there go thank you right all right Mike yeah so R could

088you explain the the first two columns the differences between them they come up to the the same number 87 m9580 that was the adopted budget for FY 25 but um I'd say over half of the line items there are different between the 2025 budget and the 2025 budget book I assume the second column is the adopted budget I'm wondering why the First Column is different again this is before my time I'd have to do some backpedaling on this um when I get some extra time I I can I'll do some digging um I don't have an answer off the top of my head to be honest with you I I'm looking at it I knew the question would come up as I was sitting here listening to everybody um I know the budget book I

089don't know what was approved I do know what was entered and what and is put out there so when I again when I came on board I was this is the budget and we uploaded it but the first First Column is what's what was entered um into what system the only system we have the e finance system and is that a town system or is it a no that's the e that's our financial system and where did those numbers come from when when you entered them they came from the detail behind all of it that rolled up so once they roll up they should have equaled what's in your budget book they uh obviously they did not so Ry one of the things we talked about today was to have um a staff person work

090with you on looking at what was put into e finance versus the Board booked so that we could have more clarity on that because that question's come up before correct so is this is not a fast process because you're going back 10 months now 12 months so I'm gonna have go back again three4 of the staff in the business office is is new or relatively new and it's going to take some time to dig this out um I'd rather fix it going forward to make sure that we don't it doesn't happen again I mean that's my my take on it but if you if you really want to know it's going to take some time to dig it out I can't wait I'm not going to promise how what when or where now now for

091me following on that just taking the salaries for instance um the budget book has it at um 53994 462 and then that First Column has it what it 174 175,000 um dollars higher I believe um that's a big difference I was only I start on the board of ad I think maybe in May um and you and this was entered you say in June June 30th or somewhere between July 4th and June 30th okay so I was on the board then and I know while I was on the board we never approved any differences from the budget no but in in defense of what was entered you have approved prior Board of Education financial statements yeah I don't think that's these numbers have not changed since July 3rd at the latest okay but but the

092the difference that I'm hung up on and which was real during a budget um recent budget session is that these categories are quite different from each other they add up to the same um they're definitely uh different among functions uh which uh the board has to approve uh transfers between functions they can be made for emergency purposes but then um we have to uh then be informed form Med and improved them after fact um as for me as a board member uh seeing those differences was quite a um a surprise I I don't know if any other board members knew about it or remember voting on this but I really failed to see how um we have an adopted budget that was first voted on by the Board of Ed then taken the Town Council

093they reduced it voted to reduce it it was restored by the RT TM and what's published on our website uh does not have this First Column of numbers it has the second column of numbers it's really troubling to me and it doesn't just seem like an accounting error it's it's a reshuffling of funds and I'm so are you insinuating that we're doing something underand I'm gonna be I'm not insinuating anything but then what are you trying to say I'm trying to I'm saying exactly what I'm saying is that with is let me just say this okay I'll read them off here are the categories we have salaries they're different benefits they're the same purchase Services they're different Property Services they're the same Transportation insurance come I don't know what communication tuition they're different supplies they're

094different equipment they're the same dues and fees they're different grand total they're the same what you ask let me ask a question let me speak budget trans that first let him finish please that First Column is not what was approved by the town are you asking me okay are you asking me to do a budget transfer to balance to the budget book I'm asking someone to explain what happened that's what I'm ask I'm telling you it's G to take time to decide what happened it was 10 months ago I don't know what happened I was not here when the budget was developed I was not here when when things went a right I'm trying to fix things by throwing insinuations it does not fix things I need to get to the root cause that's what

095I'm trying to tell you okay all right I not making an insinuation at all that's what it sounds like to me they're two columns of numbers they're different no one has explained why and the board didn't approve it so what happened my question to you do you want me to do a budget transfer to balance out to your budget book yes or no I want the superintendent or someone to tell us what's going on what happened back then nobody seems to know Mike but we're going to look at it very closely and we'll get you an answer am I remember that has a problem with this no no not no Ray can you look into it and get back to us as soon as possible I'll get back to you as soon as I can

096do you want me to work on this or do you want me to submit the state finance numbers we need the state finance first that's what I thought yeah we have a we have a canceled Finance meeting next week could that be uncancelled it could be uncancelled I'm not gonna guarantee I'll have your your answers by by what Monday Tuesday holding I already worked six days this week to try to fix some stuff for you guys you want me to work another six or seven in a row well just get to us as soon as you can ready with this that's but I promise you I will get it to you as quickly as I can okay there's a lot of work to go do to dig out how what when because how many lines

097there there's what just in the EFS I've got 1,700 lines to balance on this there's uh I think 20,000 lines something like that so to get to that type of detail to figure out which line went a rise and why it didn't roll up right I do I can't say this much Marik and I'm not trying to be a pain as I stated the other day there was an issue on the upload it failed it crashed so there was a lot of manual data entry uh that went on to put this in so I mean the bottom line it did balance so now we're going to have to go back and rebalance the line by line I mean but we'll have to get to the detail behind it yeah because the 2025 budget and the

098book should they really should be the same amount so and and I'm and I'm not saying it shouldn't I but it's just gonna take time I can't wait I mean I'm coming in in the 11th hour here to try to fix some stuff and uh it's it's going to take some time and Ray I'm very appreciative of all that you've done for us and continue to do in leadership here with um I'm not trying to give anybody a hard time but uh I I've been in your shoes and and it and I asked and I'm gonna stop right there I'm not gonna know I'll we'll work on it we'll get to it and we'll let you know when it'll be ready and I don't think Michael is insinuating anything I think he just wants answers

099to the questions that's all I know and and the same question and I again I'm not trying to push back with these same questions were asked two nights ago or late last week when we during the budget process when we were in the detail lines again and and I said the same thing that it's going to take some time to get to that that level of detail the the data load for each of these individual lines went in and it crashed we had to manually go in and up ate them I'm not saying that it's an excuse but it should not have crashed so um to go back in and at least the bottom line matches that's that's onethird of the battle now the rest of it is to get the the balance of the

100uh the lines to to balance so we'll get there when I'm ready to do the budget transfer I will come back to the board and say this is what we're going to do these are the lines we're going to need to move and then you can either reject it or approve it okay I'll I'll ask for your approval to to do that transfer because that will take for approval all right so get back to us as soon as you can and um let us know they're gonna have to be it's gonna have to be itemized so that each total adds up okay okay that's that's what I'm trying to get to Matthew I'm good you okay Dean yeah we're clearly talking right past one another uh and I appreciate that Ray's position that he's been

101working very hard and he was not present for a lot of this and that he has no response to this and why he has no response to this I can appreciate why Susan might not have a response to this I can appreciate why there might not be anybody in this District anymore that has a response to this but I want to understand what the problem is second column is what we agree AG to we voted on got it got it usually what happens is you vote on the budget if that's the budget then you go forward if you underrun categories you underrun if you overrun you overrun but that First Column is neither of those right right first column doesn't represent a a live version it's it is an slightly alternative budget and that's the

102mystery that's the Rock in our shoe and if nobody has an answer right now I get it we still like one because I don't know if the district's been operating on a on a sort of on a slightly alternative budget I think we would we would like to know how that happened even if it's purely historical and totally in the rearview there and it's never going to happen again once we get competent people in place I'm still curious about it I'm not the only one and as far as this but Shing in order to resolve the problem we have to get to the root cause and if we do a root the right root cause analysis we can fix it and we can move forward with it um again we'll have to get to that

103detail level to realign the budget the way it should be as far as as far as finan facilities committee meeting goes I thought at the time when I was asked by choice whether we should have one I thought well if this usually what's on there is a report from facilities and and finance director and you know uh well we're already in the middle of the budget what am I we're gonna have one more meeting where three of our members are going to attend and anybody else wants to show up to hear what we're already you know hearing so I thought you know let's just spit dispense with it for now but if you want to hold one on this issue but again I would ask if we have a meeting next week um a finance

104and Facilities committee meeting next week I mean Sam's got something he'd like to add and talk to us about uh and and Enlighten us about um if nobody knows anything more next week then what what will we do happy to have a meeting but I want to make sure it's actually we actually do something with our time okay Ian thank you um I just want to uh voice my my shared concern um and and what Mike was pointing out um and I just want to identify that policy 3160 as it is currently written uh requires um that uh any such transfers between functions um you know needs to be uh notified the Board needs to be notified um you know in a timely fashion so um whatever's happened is outside of policy so you know

105the board is only as good as as our policies uh dictate everything else below that is Administration um so um in that light uh you know what would be a reasonable time frame to expect uh an answer on what occurred how it occurred like I know you said as soon as possible but I'm just thinking ranging outwards roughly speaking are we talk in a week two weeks a month two months because we're in the middle of a budget session now or budget deliberation and you know it's a bit of a shake to the confidence as far as uh you know going through these deliberations and making these allocations and reviewing these notes we've discovered a number of discrepancies uh in the process already and um so it does it does uh shake the confidence moving

106forward on this budget if we're not even Square on the budget that we approve nor are we uh you know whether it's by accident or intent that that who knows um but uh you know we're not we're not following board policy when it comes to this uh budget management I just wanted to point that out a160 is still in effect as it written it has not been revised there are Provisions that have been proposed recomendation committee um which differ than what was that that differ vastly from what was proposed by the administration so um that those are all areas of concern and need to be discussed so what would be the reasonable time frame to expect some sort of analysis on this and may I interpers something well I'm ask it's a privilege I'm asking

107you if you would allow me to goad you could speak man no I'm defer I'm deferring to to I'd rather hear from the administration I'm asking he doesn't he said soon he R you want to say what you said before a rough time frame what do we think weeks months calibrate my expectation go ahead Matthew what do you want to say well while while Ray's reflecting on his answer I think the key to me in is that we are dealing with two as I perceive things we dealing with two discrete issues one is the issue of the handling of the budget where we have these apparent discrepancies the other piece is the budget that we're working on as far as I'm able to discern Ray did not have any part in the budget that is

108on that we for which we have concerned I personally want to have faith that Ry is up and up doing a good job and I would like him to personally like to see him focus on getting the current budget done right and we have some warts on this current budget but to get this current budget done right and then go back as long as it takes and as much as it costs to get this right so we can find out what happened and why but that's just my personal feeling that um my my concern is that the budg that we're deliberating now for FY 26 is based on the previous year's budget we have that as a reference point and a lot of the numbers have not been squaring up to what we approved so

109it just makes it hard to calibrate I guess is what I'm saying so we need to sort of get square on fy2 you know and and get a thorough understanding of of what was actually spent where you're not mistaken you're not mistaken the challenge is one can only fit four quarts in a gallon container and our container is not a gallon our container is the available human resource that we have whether we allocate those Four Courts to do this first or to get our current budget we're so close up against the wall it's a choice for us to make I'm not I've shared my opinion but it's it's a group decision I I think we need to focus on this and if we have to put an asterisk in our report and indicate our internal

110problems then by God we'll put in the truth with the asterisk but we've got to get through this year's budget yes we do let me go with Jay and then Jen and then Mike go ahead Jay so as I'm looking through the numbers under the column 2025 budget book uh this lines up exactly with um the published uh approved budget um I don't know what that First Column represents I don't know who created it um I know that Rey inherited this report um I think the value of this report is the approved budget versus the year-to-date expenses and year-to-date incumbrances and the pending deficits by the line if we could just uh agree that that first column doesn't agree with with the approved budget but that the other column does then I think the value

111of this document is in discussing the pending deficits um until Ray can determine you know how that I I don't even know what that First Column is supposed to represent but the second column does represent what was approved and all these find out Jay with that First Column but I think I think the value of this document is to determine why do we have these pending deficits in these other lines um so I I don't know whether Ray had any opportunity to study that yet either um but I just want to point out that uh you know I think that's what we should be looking at the adopted budget versus the year-to-date expenses and incumbrances and what's available can tell you this much on the uh purchase Services you're you're running we we've got some

112heavy expenditures for um special needs students that we're we're actually U encumbering with right now so and we don't I've given instructions not to over encumber but encumber in in reality what what some of our uh needs are for these students um and we're trying to one of the things that we're doing looking at down the road is actually uh increasing the bid process internally on the business office so that we can actually reassign some of the some of the processes that are being done there as well but uh it's it's again it's the same same thing you've been asking about was the uh purchase services and the Property Services Property Services I haven't I don't have my uh my arms around that yet again when I came back a little more than a what

113a week and a half ago was to uh concentrate on the uh the audits um then other things happened as you're as you're aware so um I am trying to get my soon as tomorrow is finished I've got one other important thing to do and that is testing of our new of the upgrades on the operating system and then get back getting then jump into this full full both feet I mean I'd be asking some of the same questions you guys are and I'm not and again I don't I'm not trying to give anybody a hard time um but I'm I'm I'm back new in in here again and it's it I just can't wave a magic wand to come up with answers quickly um it may take two weeks it may take a month

114it may take two months I until I find out what happened and what it's going to take to resolve the issues i' I've got to put my arms on it and oh by the way the other thing is the operation review is in in kicking into high gear too so the staff that we would normally apply to to doing our normal job we're going to be taking some of them and siphoning off because they're going to be going through interviews so it's going to take it's going to take a a a United effort on the part of the business office let's put it that way to to fix a lot of little things then and then Jen no Jen sure she had a hand yeah I just didn't say you about now calm down go

115ahead Jen so um when you're doing your comparisons right are you doing are you doing gu the budget book or that um nebulous budget I need to figure out what happened so that the budget got entered why is why is there a variance between what they're showing here and what the budget book is I you know what I I don't yeah um what I think um where we can solve this is we need to understand the Staffing levels when this budget was approved we're seeing the Staffing levels now so if there were additional staff that was added and um funds were transferred from purchase services to salaries that is where we can sort of identify because that's where the increase is I I not to interrupt J and I apologize for that but um to

116the best of my knowledge there was no intentional increase or addition of salaries in that 54 million that you're seeing there because this is I can go back and see if there were budget transfers once this was loaded I think the only thing that was done was to try to correct it to bring it to within the budget book but I don't believe there were any intentional um salary moves yeah yeah you're still under you're still you're still under staffed on on the projections if you notice exactly so I don't think it's that I think if we increase the population um I don't think somebody signed thems up for a race there is no not implying that you know that R I'm just there's too many checks and balances for that to happen this can

117be answered if we get a full Staffing because that's where the increas is and it correspondingly decrease from purchase Services which I always think of as outside Services um so that's just um that's from how I would normally attack this first um and then especially in that Supply category I believe our um like the monies that we had set aside for the 100,000 for the it was in there too so I'm not sure if that got utilized and actually it is overspent this year already we had to remember on the dod I would look at it but um yeah no if you so I know we're not that much I know for a fact because before I left back in September I had to uh we we we went over budget almost immediately because we

118used to fund our Microsoft software which everybody in the district uses we had to fund that out of our own budget because it got cut out of the dod funding yeah so that 150,000 put them right over the right over the top immediately exactly so um and that's not with me looking at the numbers that's just looking at a high level from what you've provided that's where I would start looking to help yourself out there where can especially where you can see um just as our regular um you know our regular sheet you can see that um about this sheet here yeah and the one that Irene gave us before she there was an increase in the salary line and IID asked her what exactly it was for and we never saw her again so

119um I never got a response to that but it um it's definitely 105 yeah so yeah well you will get responses it's just gonna I I need I know I'm not I please don't please don't um it you know how I am look at the numbers you know Mike looks at the numbers we can um everyone in this room like we're all number Geeks so um um so yeah no offense taken we know you're jumping in we totally um appreciate that we understand like you're um in a position where you're limited staff so our environment is finite so we need the questions resolved and answered but first of all we need to file um we can't miss filings um but when we're filing we need to ensure that what we're filing is accurate so timeliness

120is important but accuracy is probably more important it's no sense in having something timely and it's wrong and then we have to refile totally agree yeah yep one on your side yep I just don't want you to we're all on we're all on the same side oh I know I know and the same things um and we're all asking it so um it's just gonna take me a little time to get it that's all and and again I'm not trying to I'm not trying to push back I'm just trying to it's like I I heard it when I was listening in the other night and I know we spoke about it at a meeting earlier today and it it's on my list of many things to do right now is to dig get the get

121the detail we've got some new Young staff that we need to train so this would be good to let's see how how good we can they really are so I may I may do some reassigning there so yes especially if they took forensic accounting yeah find this we've been there all right so so my first question is simple one are we going to look at the object code breakdown that we provided as an attachment for this meeting or are we we going to stick on this one no if we're go to the next one I've got I've got specific questions about uh overruns do you have the optic code one that we got in our packet I do have it in front of me yep I think Clint's gonna be let me just make sure

122he's gonna put that up this is the one that's very very small when he puts it up by the way yeah yeah well that's that's fine I guess now Mike I do apologize ahead time I'm looking at this about as um like I like I told be the other night I'm I'm picking up pieces here so I I apologize ahead of time if I don't have an answer I will get back to you I've just got a question on on three three codes and at least on one I can uh probably provide some background but I I'll wait until it's done it's 105 well he has it in front of him I'm looking at it the screen Ian you want to jump in yeah I just wanted to kind of follow up on a couple

123things um one the uh which I think you're going to talk about right now but uh the positions that were mentioned about in the administration line oh you can do that instead if you want if you want to do 105 yeah it it was a 105 question which I did send an email follow up on uh in January earlier in January um and [Music] uh Lori only responded that there was an account in 10 it's just that was the line but there is no history attached to it as far as like where it came from who approved it but there was a position that was described as having should have been assigned to the 114 line but the 105 line um so that is a bit of a a question um as to like how

124that happened and and and how can we prevent that from happening there's h four staff members this is an email dated December actually December uh December 19th um there are four staff members that are miscoded to account 105 they should be expended to count um and that's why like there's count 105 was showing a projected deficit um as to what those titles were or where how they came to be that's another like those questions were not answered um and this the crash of the software um that happened recently no that happened last when we were uploading the budget itself okay the budget upload crashed it wasn't the software it was the upload crashed that was in July right that was that was early July ju okay um I'm not sure I don't recall uh were

125we notified about that that part of a report that's an internal operating process no um still I think all in all it would be good to make us aware of that in the future uh of something like that happening because that could lead to also these these you know um ancillary glitches you know if there would had to be like a a manual entry they recover um understandably that's a daunting task and I do appreciate everything you do right I don't mean to be I'm not trying to be compation way well no I'm I'm I'm listening I mean yeah and and I just wanted to question the operational review you know my memory is that we had agreed to try to cap that the the amount that we participate in that to a certain amount

126so it did not disrupt our normal operations as much as possible I thought we were G to the hours well we always knew this was a very difficult time but I didn't realize we would lose yet another business director and we would be dealing with some of thing the Fallout of this so I think that it's um would you say Ry it's kind of coming waves like there was some initial work and then it quieted down and now they're asking for more now is that right yes yes now I haven't seen who what when and where that he's asking for but I have heard that he's he wants to come in and speak with individuals now so um it it's tough because we're in the middle of training new staff uh we're in the middle

127of cross trining old staff and we're in the middle of building a budget um so it but you know something we'll get there mean if we stay positive we'll get there one way or another well and I think the 20 the the Auditors are wrapping up on 2024 as well as soon as as soon as I click Send tomorrow and we get it certified and I send off all the documentation to the Auditors we will be we will will be done I hope unless they come up with other question to to revisit that subject and and check my understanding my memory you know I thought we had a consensus on the board that we were going to try to cap and limit our participation in that to a point where that it did not inhibit

128our ability to get through this busy time of year where we do have all these things happening with the budget construction Liberation review and all that you know and you know the town would have to understand that you know the operational riew is is a certain level of priority um whereas our day-to-day operations and our future setups are in my opinion a higher priority I couldn't agree with you Mory so uh you know again I I just wanted to kind of revisit that conversation at some point in the very near future or just you know if we could just get recalibrated on that and make sure that we're not um losing our people's efforts on the immediate needs of the district and the filing requirements in order to serve the operational riew I've said that

129that we have to prioritize and important reports that go to the state and Audits and those things that are timely need to happen first and getting this budget together and working with you all on 2026 is our top priorities for me so and I do want to interject I'm not using the operational review as as a as a crutch I mean but it it is it is on the of other things that we do have to get done as well but I don't think I should supersede and I'm just kind of curious to know do we have like a firm cap on the hours far how I don't think we have firm cap I don't know of any cap but I think that I think Ray though you would say that you have been focused

130on first things first with the 24 audit wrapping up that's not the question that's not the question that I mean that we all agree with that but I don't think that's the question right no we don't have a cap can we set a what what might be useful as an adjunct is uh how far are we into this process one of the challenges we faced is that the scope of work was not was not really defined it was this is the scope of work but we may add more stuff to it later I would be very helpful to know if they could say we're about 20% through we're about 40% through then we'd have an idea of what we've spent and what we're going to look forward to spending and it'll also help us come

131up with a figure so that when we go and ask for some support from the town we're not asking for a blank check but we're giving a a figure based on not only our needs but also on their assessment of where we are in this process we could find out how far they are with the operational review I'll I'll ask John okay that' be terrific all right Dean no wait I I the only reason I get my turn because they hadn't projected it yet oh okay I wait patiently but um I want to I want to look at scroll down to um account 634 that's um uh basically um gas for buses and I'll wait for the scroll by not gonna are we at 634 can we highlight it or something but but marker on

132it it's right at the bottom the bottom it's the last one so we're we're currently overs spent in this budget uh could you say what the um the total amount uh we have in the budget for like you know as the uh the budget to work with I'd have to go back and calculate the number of gallons but there were some leftover gallons in there no sorry sorry just we can't see the columns here the Colum names U so could you just for 634 what was the starting amount to work with the the budget you're working with the budget that we were working with I believe it was 289,000 uh just online 634 I'm wondering uh so it's 200 can you say exactly at the top of the first number 155 131 is that the

133column you're asking about yeah that was year to date 2023 as of 13123 so remember we looked at a couple years no I just want I just want the like the fy2 budget number that you're working off of oh that was the 289 28983 y okay so it's that it's that third column 28983 Y and we're over by$ 71,0 67 is that correct got to remember that's a projection right now it's encumbered too because of the encumber now if we use if we use less fuel you may come in pretty much balanced on that depends on the amount of fuel that's that's actually used for the buses are we expecting to encumber more no I would not I mean most of these encumbrances for example most of these encumbrances um are pretty much locked in

134because we did a a a pre- buby last August to lock in our pricing we're looking at locking uh doing a pre-b for this upcoming year as well the only and normally when we budget for a pre- buy we put in that that budget number plus maybe another couple of percent increase only uh to cover any storage fees that may arise down the road um what happened here was there there was you had some leftover gallons so we ended up paying storage fees on that and then we ended up buying the remainder of the balance of the fuel that we're going to use um we're using the same source as as the town we're using East River and um we're actually getting better prices than than a couple of the resks like correct and um

135a couple of the other ones that are out there um because what happened the way I've worked it out with East River our pricing comes in less than some of the resks because they were not paying delivery like from here to Lichfield because they cover the whole state and what they do is they advertise some of those delivery fees across everybody that's part of the that that particular Consortium so we're we're pay we're actually saving about eight to 10 cents a gallon in the upcoming uh um contract so uh over over the current rks as a matter of fact our upcoming budget um is about $270 a dollar I mean $2.70 a gallon for diesel and about the same price for heating oil all right but but currently based on this sheet it's $71,000 over

136which is4 almost a 25% um uh deficit and that's from that $289,000 83 number correct in the adopted FY 25 budget book that is on our website that the town approved the number is $387,500 that's a better so that's up by that's that's $19,300 higher than this 289 uh $83 number you're working with which is I understand which was what was entered but what I'm saying is that the adopted budget approved by the town had sufficient funds to cover gasoline for school bus what has been entered in does not have sufficient funds to cover gasoline for school buses and it is because of this over $100,000 difference lower what is entered in that number uh than before and I'll save the time let's go up to 633 fuel oil you can see it's $190,000 that's

137that third column over that's what you are working with at the school system is working with in that object code for fy2 budget you might not be surprised by what I'm going by what I'm going with here is that it's different and lower than the number that was in the FY 25 adopted budget book so in instead of$ 190 uh, there it should be rightly $242,700 which would be more than enough to cover I admit a small deficit but we'd be in the Surplus there so the the 63 3 and 634 are two object codes because of their nature and purchasing I think would be really quick to look back and figure out how those two lines are different from uh what was approved in the adopted fy2 budget I don't think that would take

138weeks I don't think it would take months and I don't think it's searching through many many subcodes this one look at 633 634 and I think you'll start to find out what happened and why it happened without board approval and what happened between what was adopted and what the school system is working off of thank any other comments Dean so along the same lines everyone's already figured this one out but I figured I'd dve into it myself this First Column the so-called First Column of the sheet that we got tonight quot in 2025 buet that was my question which is in in the proposed budget when we're looking for comparisons which one of these two columns the book budget or the alternative the shadow budget or whatever you want to call it it's the alternative

139one that's used in every case and you spotted a couple of instances of that so for example and I won't go through everything and I can't go through everything when we look at our latest version of you know the proposed budget we've got the proposed f26 budget and then the 25 budget that figure that's in here is really the First Column not the second column not the one that's actually published in our budget book so as advertised it's a we're the proposed increase in salaries and wages is 5.3% in reality it's 6.2% from what we approved last year so to the extent that we are thinking about the 26 budget and and and and thinking it over and wondering is something reasonable unreasonable what happened what didn't happen to the extent we're relying on the

140older figures and admittedly they're not all tremendously out of whack but maybe some of them are we can't rely on that middle column here that says FY 2025 budget those are as far as We Know fictional numbers maybe most of them are correct they do add up to the same thing at the end but on some of the bigger categories like salaries for example uh and purchase Services they don't right and I don't know which lines are the culprits when I look at these object codes so I'm not even taking it with the greatest fault I'm just not taking it a all right Ray I just want to start um and say that I appreciate you um I think lots of people on the board really appreciate your work and um we would be lost

141without you right now to some extent um so I do appreciate that's that's what I'm saying but um so I I want to you know I I understand your frustration with our questions um but I I also wanted to share the sentiment of everyone else that's spoken on this that um I'm sure you can understand our concerns how um five categories out of eight have changed and the net sum of those changes is exactly zero um you know so that that's you know it's a concern at this point and it's something that um that we really need to to get to the bottom of um and and to switch over to the um Town's operational review I I would like to request that um the board have some discussion because um the town has not

142agreed or offered to fund the appliation review and under all of these numbers this the bottom line 87 m9580 there's no money in there to fund um the um basically we're paying um time on raise work on it so that's just straight time that's not in our budget and um and it's also taking away from other things um so without um without any money to pay for this I would like to have some real board discussion on how far I mean are we going to spend $20,000 $100,000 more um and what is the effects on our students going to be um if we are going to spend a lot of money on this so I would request that um if workload from that operational review is ramping up I mean we originally told it was

143going to be a couple hours a week or something and now it seems like it's more than that um well that's when we had um a business manager and Ray and Ray was going to do the operational review now we don't have the business manager so yeah and our needs have changed uh specifically Ray needs for you um so you know because you're you're you're um wearing a lot of hats right now so um I think that um or at least I would appreciate um some real board discussion on how much we want to get into the operational review right now um versus um well just the general how much financially is the Board of Ed willing to contribute to it and um if we can wait until after we put out you know get

144through the budget or at least just not and I apologize for interrupting um uh just to let you know I think I've spent most of my time was spent Gathering all the data that the auditor that uh the operation Joe was looking for um the rest of my time is basically been spent working on um stuff for the board in in support of uh this month anyway but was in in support of U the uh EFS and different things like that right now and some budget work not a lot right now but some budget work so um it just it just um it's it's there's a lot on the plate right now let's put it that way how much time would you say you spent on operational review already R 15 18 hours tops not

145not that much I mean and that was all in December I haven't all I know is we've got notification that um they do want to set up some appointments and some meetings with with with some of the staff I don't know who I don't know the specifics um but that's the extent of what I know so far did they e go through you for they normally been go they've been going through they didn't know that I was on board here um to help fill in they've been I believe they've been going through U Susan at the moment yeah so uh just I'm not sure how this is structured but I I would be concerned with our staff Consulting with the operational review people in an interview status without some sort of legal counsel well I'm

146just concerned that we have staff that is new and staff that's been cross trained and staff doing the work that needs to happen for this budget for the current budget and for the proposed budget and so to take them offline even for interviews and to answer questions at this time is just not feasible I mean in the future once gotten through this perhaps but and also to that end I mean I would be interested to know like are all these inquiries that are coming through the operational review being vetted by our attorney to make sure that they're legitimate and within the jurisdiction of the oper I haven't I haven't seen anything about the interview or interview questions I knew that they wanted that was in their scope but I haven't seen any details about their

147scope but is it their legal jurisdiction to to ask that's what you know I'd be concerned about because you know there's been some overreach in the past all right did you donate um yes I I do have qu I was concerned about interviews and taking more staff time um but I um I Echo Ian's concern with um we need to make sure that that um we're doing what's best for the district or what we're required to do anything else so can move along okay ray you have anything else you want to say heck no thank you you think I want to be labor this anymore I just want to get it done well thank you Ray and we appreciate you and thanks I promise everybody I mean I I don't get upset when when you

148guys I know I upset some of you and that's not my intent um we're looking forward your answers well we we'll get them for you okay all right thanks have a good night everyone you too Ray can we five minute recess yeah five minute recess it is 8:47 about and we're back from our recess caucus the next item on the agenda is um Sam building director of building grounds giving us a school update just items to [Music] tonight the first item was uh radon testing the state required radon testing in our schools was completed a little over a week ago sent out to the laboratory by Mystic a received the results today and all seven schools uh were reported clear and all the testing so all Ron testing yes I'll be sharing that with the

149principal so that they can share it with some teachers um with the teachers and with the with the Union uh the second item on my list is the uh leachers at Fitch High School somebody asked why it isn't on the uh CIP list again uh that is because it's in the field study task force uh area which they're still working on however um Matthew asked me about the report regarding that that we uh commissioned from Silver Architects um and their recommendation they assess the bleachers and found that they are degrading obviously um they said they are 60 years old plus um the bleachers on the home side may be 60 plus but the ones on the uh visitor side uh are not because they did not exist when I went to high school here 54

150years ago at least it was 35 those were the same they're younger than 54 oh something like that and and so their recommendation is actually to there recommendation to build with new because it would not be cost effective to retrofit the existing bleachers uh with the the level of degradation of the structure presently uh and also in uh ring new uh new grand stands they would be uh handicap sucessful Etc present codes if that were done so I will um share this with uh um I I'll probably share this with the field task committee too at some point when I get a chance to would that be a useful document to share with John Bert and the mayor in your opinion I can do that do you think they build to the same capacity I

151don't know if the large size is needed or not for the home ones I'd say yeah um I think that um well first of all the handicap accessibility takes up quite a bit more room in that space so um you may not have as many uh seats available for the general public but I know that first row is going to be wider so that you can get Wheelchairs and that sort of thing in there so I would guess that they'd be roughly the same size close to the same size but maybe not the same capacity there would also be a um a Press Box on top as well which would be a module of Press Box in included in it at least that's what recommended by silver Chelli and I haven't been keeping up with

152the the field uh task force but um it's expected that there' be going out for bonding for this it seems like it's going to be quite a large set of project they um their estimate for removing the existing bleachers uh demolition Etc um and building the new is 3,637 wow wow 3 million what just for the bleachers that would be two sets of bleachers yes and and then I'd assume that'd be done because the field of course as we all know still talking about assume that might be done as a a project I'm worried about the timeline it's taken a long long time to not because of the school system but because the the task force and and the the size of the the scope of the projects too but yeah that's that's presuming the

153lid paint that you were talking about um well those again those bleachers were painted many times over before I even arrived here 10 years ago so um while um the paint on the outside the outside layer appears to be and tested to be um latex in lots of places I suspect that others are probably Leed paint as well so that would all be done as part of the project testing it completely and having it removed in an appropriate way um yeah I know that the the aftf was was looking at you know the project does include like everything like the big dodet and it would but that's like a huge like I forget what the latest price tag is but it's it's like I think 20 million that's that's a generational invest of the project

154can see have generational invest they lasted a long time um but uh so you know I I would hope that you know we would try to look at a way to really try to partner with the state or or find whatever Partners we can you know maybe through e fiser and and wherever else we could look um to try to get it get the big project done because doing it peace meal I don't think would be a great way to address it um but that is a huge lift and but it would it would take a huge a CommunityWide effort to do and a lot of cooperation but that is would be the most efficient way to correct the issue in my opinion you mean all Town fields that they're think or I'm just thinking

155mostly about the high school facilities like but yeah like the big big project is is yeah townwide but when you're looking at the high school I mean there's a lot of integrated need you know so like you go well the proposal for fixing the fields actually has the bleachers moving more towards into the hill um and then also creating a whole practice field downhill uh and uh so there's it's they do in peace Mill like it would take a lot of strategic planning to do it in pieces have it all into lock as you do each piece so I think you know my my estimation the most efficient way to do it is to do it all one big thing at once probably most cost effective too yeah probably I'm taking an informed guest that

156that would include the bathrooms and prob as well you know the aftf has been very comprehensive and and I think it's Kent Frost or or is doing the design um the Design's you know again very comprehensive they did address they they took in all the concerns that you know the community uh voiced about you know the facilities the access for Ada you know and and you know and also just you know and the big the big decision point of course is it's synthetic versus natural but that's just that's a bit of a cherry on top as far as the whole structural reframing of the athletic facilities there because he also looked at ways to turn the upper field into a into a softball field have like a a combo like football like baseball practice field

157off to the side of of the main football field and the football field becomes multi-purpose too right exactly so expand the track yeah so I mean I I look forward to working with them and really trying to Advocate strongly for this this project because I I think that you know would also be a great thing for the board to get on getting support of because it enhances you know the draw to to the and students to you know families to come to this this District yeah it's every bit is a much of a signature piece in the the towns um um really uh properties and and Facilities as the Fitch Auditorium that's used all the time I think about that vintage Wing too just a quick question if I could uh Sam I this is

158a little bit off topic of of what you were talking about but just in general the lead conversation got me thinking um it's my understand that the state recently lowered the levels for like lead and water I'm just wondering like how we doing with our testing on our I just got to um for instance this building uh is monitored by Southeastern Water contractor for here and I just got actually a bunch of forms fill out for the new recommendation so just starting here with this building but we'll be moving forward to the rest shortly but we don't drink this water we have water brought in right so did you do lead testing already or you doing it I haven't done it in a while okay are you planning on doing it um if the board

159wants to do it yes yes is is that a thing that we could just make part of like a like every other year by annual or like set up some kind of regular schedule to monitor it's I recall from years ago the year might be a little too soon I think right of course I'm just throwing that out there as I recall from years ago I think there's a water fountain in the Vintage wing for fit that uh test a high and lab L I think that was just uh sort of turned off I don't know if it was turned on again somehow but and it was change pipes and and then uh when that thing went when it broke we didn't have a replacement for it okay it was old so we took it

160out and then there was uh maybe at Northeast Academy bottle to us throughout the building yes I think we still have two more to put in the the bottle fillers are very much appreciated filtered water um I think there was a maybe a sink in the nurse's office at Northeast Academy or or maybe in one of the bathrooms that needed was tested high and then uh is this the um process was to uh run it at the start of the days maybe that was like started each day to run the water and then uh that was um implemented I don't know if that's still going on yes okay and that was Northeast Academy I think and I can't remember any other places was saying maybe because the levels had dropped maybe you could start testing

161lead in the water again yeah well we're going to have to put some money in the budget for it too because it isn't cheap the city charges us for that BR utilities charges us for that testing or if we had to go to another contract if I'm able to be recognized um yeah when they came if you guys go back if if you guys go back to when the state reps came and spoke there's money in the state budget for repairs of lead because they're lowering the levels I don't quote me exactly what the grants are but please find out uh summer spoke and Connelly uh you know that they no what you talked about these pipes things can be possibly replac out to theming I don't know what the yeah okay so maybe you

162could reach out to Senator some is and Andre since Chris is no longer all aent um I was just gonna ask speaking specifically to the current safety of the bleachers was there any opinions asked for or voiced on that they didn't they didn't mention any particular problem with using them presently all right but I didn't ask them that specific question either but I think they would have said something if they thought that was unsafe to use it but they don't meet code yeah so no I know that the the gaps between the where the foot rest section and the seats are are pretty big so a small child might might be able to fit them and then there's not like the handrails are probably insufficient um and and climbing so um is there a timeline

163on when the athletic fields committee might be making a recommendation do you know that um yeah actually they they're um they're reaching they've already reached out to the Town Council to do presentation with them theyve um and they're waiting for us to fit them into their they're going to come to us after they talk to the town Town Council but they have basically everything ready to go they they got the package they believe is is good they have you know the numers they're they're satisfied they're essentially done with the project as far as the extent that they can go the rest is up to the town and the board and the community at large as far as like what kind of investment want to make and definitely not in this budget cycle of course you

164know basically like I believe it's going to be proposed as a referendum at some point we have coming up towards the end of this year so it is conceivable like in the months between now and and uh I believe the cut off for referendums is like September or October they have to get filed um so come on the ballot this year so if you I can send that report to anybody who wants it or you can stop by and read it if you want or if somebody wants it I'll email it to them would you mind emailing it to the board Everybody Wants It All yeah you all done sir I am hang out all night with us did you finish with the HVAC testing thank you pardon the HVAC testing did you finish where

165you doing at yes at both Northeast and CK that was done got the report okay all when you get the report I'm sure you share with us told me last week they had the report last week but I still I see okay any other questions to Sam no thank you Sam thank you Sam thank you Sam make one note I was curious the the answer in there the STS as you see them are not 60 years old the substructure is 60 years old the the Consultants believe that the aluminum replaced wooden which makes sense that would make so you're thinking how 60 I mean I know aluminum oxidize the way uh steel does but that explains why they look a little more modern than just 60 because the wood was replaced I can believe it

166now 60 years ago would B wood plant colder is Right much colder we want heated bleaches yeah put that in the [Laughter] bud5 okay um next is committee reports policy Matthew okay so um thank you Sam we're g to be doing a couple policies here I will make a motion for the purposes of discussion I move to approve policy no no no just committee report oh I'm sorry well you hear the policy committee report in a few moments okay curriculum all right I'll be quick we just did most of it um the first half of the meeting was discussions on Ed Rising event Sports Photography and unified music and we approved sending them to the board board's obviously already approved that um the other thing on our agenda was discussion on honors offerings Beyond 10th

167grade that discussion was um it it went over our AP and IB offerings and some of the reasoning um that we we offer some honors classes in some subjects um in 11th and 12th grade um but some others not and um and they went over the reasoning for all that in that meeting interested anybody give any additions to that M no it's a very enlightening meeting so it's a must C TV was it was a great meeting and um we had um two Vice principes and the principal of Fitch there so we had great presenters and it was very informative and great reasoning behind a lot of the questions that we've had as board members okay all right next is finance and Facilities we know you didn't have a meeting January no there was either

168either there was a scheduled conflict of some sort or maybe I think overall I remember my conversation with Joyce I think overall that was I think because budget diving into budget so unless we could find something special to put on the on the agenda for the committee it's just going to be a review of finances and Facilities well we got that already so okay next is learn um at learn we had a meeting on January 9th and we talked about the teacher vency program remains a key program for learn which functions similarly to an apprenticeship targeting individuals with a bachelor's degree who are looking to transition into teaching and we have one person in our program I think we have two this year maybe one for next year okay and uh these participants work as

169par professionals and districts while comp completing coursework through the agency's alternative root program allowing them to earn certification within one year and begin teaching the following year um over the past four years the program has successfully placed 134 diverse feates so that's pretty good um the second thing we talk about was the legislative session officially begins that was this week January 9th and the Senate bill has been introduced aimed at increasing resources for students schools and special education however there is a need for further clarification on the specifics of this bill lawmakers are aware the pressing need for more Educational Funding but challenges remain due to the end of federal funding and existing budgetary constraints in Connecticut and the upcoming session is expected to be competitive and full of negotiations and then you all had

170a legislative breakfast also right maybe you'll talk about that later on um the Friendship school had a museum night and they had like 9 family members that was great and oh learn is undergoing significant changes as part of its Evol School structure the FRC school will transition from prek program to a prek Tok model next year the school opened its Lottery January 1st with 250 applicants already received the Marine Science Magnet High School opened its Lottery on October oober 1st and will close in the coming weeks um the Regional multiculture maget School will phase out its kindergarten and add a sixth grade they learn they want to go um to a middle school so they want um the RMS rmms school to go up to the eighth grade so when they build their new Early

171Childhood Center that's going to be kindergarten II and the Regional Multicultural Magnet School would be 3 to eight are they going to have preschool too though yeah they're going to have preschool too and the infanti program I know yeah sure and that's off of that I won't go on and on so that's interesting they're moving back to sort of a primary school model yeah they are really interesting so okay uh athletic fields um pretty much already covered most of the essential items on that with talking about the the project design and costs have all been kind of rendered pretty well firm U and the task force now in the process of reaching out to Town Council go to bed and uh looking at ways to get it funded possibly bring to a referendum do they

172still have two options on that like artificial fields or natural fields or going mix or like that's still a little like you know they have like basically option one option two uh Trails they meet quarterly not until March uh Library nothing new to report uh could I make a comment on legislative breakfast we had I would say 60 to 70 people there full house it was a full it was a full house he signed um three things our legislature noted that even though it's supposed to be a long session there's already some discussion about the potential need for a special session um once the priorities of the new federal Administration become clearer uh and legislative and executive decisions at the federal level have made for Education this means keeping an eye on forthcoming title funds

173idea funds and OA streams I had sent a letter out about that potential some weeks ago uh the number one item talked about was special education and how the current reimbursement formula uh can really make a huge difference with one or two high needs students coming into the district one District present there had two high needs students go off the district and drop their budget requests by 3% and the the neighboring one got those same two students and had to bump their uh budget up so they're hoping that there'll be some revisiting of this reimbursement and uh Senators Austin Summers and Marx uh assured us that special education Aid formula is the top item of the legislator's uh agenda as Senate bill number one did I miss anything no you did a nice job okay

174I do have I was going to put something in a board Note too but we do have the C casbo has published the legislator legislative priorities and that's a pretty good document and so I can also include that I'm sure that'll be appreciated um Library Matthew um nothing to report okay okay next is the consent agenda uh do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda so moved second I'll secondly all right any discussion on the consent agenda everybody got to read all the minutes yes I did I know you excited to read all this stuff Mike you got something you want to say yeah just uh in general with the minutes um for for instance tonight we got that um last minute handout that happens from time to time and uh at meetings

175um I don't know that they have to go they have to be I'd like them to appear they should appear somewhere either in the agenda or the minute side of things so it's online for later Joan always asks for that so we do get that to her even if they've been late coming to you didn't make it in the agenda we always give it to her so she has it then for the minutes but but then but then to post it online I I guess the only place you could put it is with the minutes at that point because the there's two if you go to a meeting you can look at the agenda and then you can click on these attachment links which I hope are permanent and then or you go to the

176minutes after they been approved it'll be up there sometimes we miss that document in that in the sweep uh and I think it's important later on to have that good point all right anything else about the minutes just that's amazing but she keeps track of it all really and then I have Joyce who also double checks and yeah so we have our team okay all those in favor of approving attachment three four five six seven eight 9 10 and 11 say I oppose extensions approved 9 to zero all right no old business okay on to new business and the first thing is policy discussion and possible action regarding a first reading of policy 51 3181 electronic devices attachment 18 you're on Matthew uh so I will make a motion for purposes of discussion that we

177approve policy P 51318 electronic devices as a first reading I second it okay so for some time there's been question as to the positive and negative effects of having unlimited or inconsistent uh policies in the various schools regarding appropriate student use of cell phones um you all have seen some of the background information I shared about how districts in Connecticut and Beyond and even beyond the country have approached this issue uh over the course of the last five months we've had a number of meetings at the policy committee that have involved principles at fit and middle school and Clint and Susan um and the administration on its own adopted uh the equivalent of regulations I'm not sure if that's the right word for it and the new policy which differentiates at the elementary middle and

178high school is in the student handbooks as of this year and has been in effect since the beginning of the year there is no permitted use of of under these RS Susan correct me if I'm wrong it's been in the handbook for a while but we're sticking to what's in the handbook so they've reviewed it so it has been hand for a while yeah okay I'll leave it at that um there is no no student use during the school day and Elementary School level there is no student use in the middle school during from first Bell to last bell and in the high school there is no student use allow in classes during instructional time students they're they more mature uh they can use them in hall hallway periods lunch periods and obviously in transportation

179obviously if a student has a particular need that's recognized in an i or 504 that trumps any of our regulations and there is also sufficient latitude that if a individual student has uh a specific need Ian mentioned that there are certain applications on cell phones that can help somebody monitor their blood sugar levels uh there may be a case where somebody is very ill in the family that these will go through the principal's office at the high school and individual adjustments will be made I think that's the background to it would either of my colleagues like to add anything Andrea Ian before we discuss the language itself no I have nothing to add no I'm fine with what you said okay so you have the document ahead of you it is brief there's only one

180line that's being recycled from the old document um we don't need to read that aloud do we uh do we it's up on the it's up on this screen so I guess we're all open to questions and now it more carefully monitors regulations that are strict were stricter than the original policy yeah the the old regulations did allow us some latitude on a class byass basis according to the teacher but having observed when I was briefly working as a substitute there was differentiation between teachers and it was a bit confusing it was confusing and now we have Chromebooks and they have apps and they have other resources that you know back in the day they were using cell phon for any questions um so to just to go up melan's thing about staff this has

181nothing to do with staff correct it's just students that this policy this this policy has is about students only uh if the that was our focus in the policy committee at this time if the board wants to look at staff use uh we can take a look at it but I I'm not advising that I'm not advising I think I just wanted to Michael just quickly so along with this there's a companion regulation which is consistent with the the handbooks but it's right after yeah and and so but that wasn't in like our board policy this is a new this is a new regulation in the sense that it's hasn't been bundled with our policy before I couldn't find this particular one we basically took what we had in the there was a lot of

182work that built up to this principal's meeting over the summer and and how they were going to make sure that they were following the handbook regulations even before we redid policy and then one thing that always comes up I'm sure came up your meetings um is so of course there's the carve out for the I APS right um the there used to be in our policy it used to stipulate these things but of course now I like the umbrella term better but I was wondering about um in emergency circumstances where the safety of we used to have that language actually I can read it in the policy it was a you know an articulated carve out is number c unless the following circumstances so I'll just read them one the supervising teacher grants permission I

183can see why we wouldn't want that anymore um because of that consistency B use of the device is provid in students IEP that's still here it's just not particularly it's handled the regulation uh then C I don't know about this one if it's anywhere if it is needed in an emergency that threatens the safety of students staff or other individuals as a parent um that was a my kids having a cell phone in situations like that could arise um that that was a a benefit I thought but I don't know if we still have that in our policy it's not it's not specifically in our policy but I don't know where it would be in the regulations I don't think we discussed that specific specifically in the committee I can share my personal view but

184I don't think we didn't discuss that in committee did we no it's is it in the regulations somewhere or no uh you're saying for emergency right SCH emergency or emergency at home no actually school I think this is school emergency it's what's in our our current version it's actually the last statement so it's the F unless the following circumstances it's statement C it is needed in an emergency that threatens the safety of students staff or other individuals we certainly have many examples of those around around the country unfortunately uh but I was wondering that in our new policy that would appear well it would and and the challenge is the challenge is is that the word emergency is in the eyes of the beholder oh I think they'll know but hold hold on I'm still

185speaking I just like I don't see it specifically in our policy and I'm okay with that because we have this sort of new umbrella term which I like it makes it more like it it feels more like a policy and the regulations feel exactly like a regulations um from the schools but what I'm asking is um in the regulations is there any statement about that and if not I don't see any maybe there should be um because this is unfortunately front and center on our minds often uh as students teachers parents everybody just Society good I respond so read it again real quick Michael and then go ahead this is just the old policy so you all have it it's that last Red Line and I'm not asking to add this to the policy I'm

186just to the regul to the regulations yeah okay I see it it's it's a it's it is needed in an emergency that threatens the safety of students staff or other individuals to be clear if we if we added it to our current policy it wouldn't J with that General nature that it has but but if it could be included in the regular and that's a superintendent principles matter I I think I think it' be helpful because students are going to pay attention to the cell phone policy right they'll read that letter by letter um and um and so I think they that would be helpful because it'll be on many people's minds that's a good idea I don't I don't think we could forbid the use in a true emergency I mean I can't imagine

187any student complying with such a rule in a true emergency nor should they it's an affirmative statement I think that's that's helpful and assuaging fears or it doesn't hurt to have it in there no yeah I think so too you could see if there's a situation where say there was a fight or something student using their phone to contact someone else in the building like that way it's kind of carved out that they're allowed to do stuff that if it's going to affect safety anything else sandrea go ahead yeah um I'm I'm opposed to that language because if there's an emergency what teacher is GNA say put that phone away and you're GNA be punished it's it's ridic it's just a ridiculous I idea it's it's online mine as a parent and when I read

188that it's not in there like oh what would they do well it doesn't hurt to put it in there there's no harm in putting it in the regulations Andrea not the policy it's going to be in the regulations I hear you I just thought I would say what I had to say yeah thank you I appreciate it it's decorum situation there though all right so all those in favor of improving policy a181 raise your hand say I I oppose extensions okay approv 9 to Z next one is a discussion and possible action regarding resending policy p411 18112 P 51455 prohibition of um sex discrimination approved on January 7th 2025 and reinstate policies p411 18112 and P 51455 sexual harassment rised on January 25th 2021 that's attachments 19 and 20 uh I'm going to give it

189to Susan First Matthew so she can tell us you don't have need your second oh second give me a second no I'm not going to Second you're not nope all second Jen okay and I know Denise you're on thank you for staying around all night um to explain the ascending yes no problem good evening everyone um so the um the new policy which is titled sex discrimination and was put into effect um August 1st 2024 uh was struck down by a federal judge on July 9th I'm sorry on January 9th 2024 um um and now that the Biden Administration has come to an end without an appeal of that decision it um it's clear that the 2024 Title 9 regulations will not be resurrected anytime soon if ever um so in the absence of that

190um there's also been um communication from the new presidential Administration um that has referenced the 2020 regulations those were the regulations that were in effect prior to August 1st um so at this time um legal council is recommending for all school districts that we resend the August 1st 2024 policy and regulations and revert back to the prior policy and regulations that we had adopted in 2020 um so we are have been in the process of communicating this to our administrators because they um in the building are the first usually line um of defense and communication when there's a complaint that comes about in their building so we have shared um the the 2020 regulations and um policy with them and inform them that at this time it's very likely that the board uh upon legal

191recommendation and the administration's recommendation will resend the 2024 policy and reopt the 2020 policy uh any Matthew you have something you want to say good M I just have a quick one first um um so we'd be voting on resending and adopting how's that um usually we'd have first reading reading of four things this this is quite different from that process so I'm wondering like can can we do it and why aren't we doing first reading second reading well um I believe because the 20120 policy and regulations have already been approved yeah but they're no longer current so they're no longer our policy well they're still our POS policy because we didn't vote on the other did we vote on it completely janary oh all right we completed our process January H go ahead Ian

192um yeah to to to build off of what Mike was just saying I think due diligence and just to follow the the process and you know um I'd like to have this I I would rather see this get tabled for now and send it back to commit the policy committee so we can take a look at the recommendations take a look at everything all the documents associated with this all the communications and get a better handle on what it is we're being told to do where what are we being requested to do or recommended to do are these orders are these recommendations suggestions um I've not seen the documents I've just you know I would like to be able to dive into a little bit and understand exactly what's being communicated here um so board

193of directors and they're doing the same thing as we're doing so I would guess most school districts are doing the same thing we've been advised to's doing exact exact same thing descending yeah that is there a communication that says that from like issu who gave the advice and on what legal Authority so we have recommendations from both shitman and Goodwin and Burch and Moses um and I will note that many states had filed an injunction on the new August 2024 policy and uh regulations so they were you know in many states they were not being implemented um and at this time we do need a policy and regulations to follow well if we don't act on this tonight then the other policy that we approved the second reading that's still a policy is that correct

194that's my understanding okay so it's it's been uh vacated by a a federal judge on January 9th so it's been found to be unconstitutional yeah so the policy we wrote that we just approved in in January 7th or whatever date it was is that is that no longer valid correct that's correct oh of last year right or no this year this year this year yeah so okay so you're saying that policy is no longer valid so as of now we don't have a policy on sexual harassment that's correct and that's why we're asking the board to reopt the 2020 regulations uh based on advice from our legal council so we can readapt and still send it back to policy to look at the old policy that's the board wants to do so it and look

195it back look back at it again but I mean I don't think there's any use in looking at the new one that was just done if it's been deemed unconstitutional actually yeah that's correct I believe we could we could reopt the 2020 policy and regulations and I believe you can send any policy back to committee at any time for a review okay Matthew I have concerns on two different levels go ahead first let me talk about what I think the legal level is and then I'll talk about a a board Administration uh process concern with regard legal it is correct that some federal judges have placed to stay on the implementation of this new policy in certain states to my knowledge as best as it's possible as of a couple of days ago uh this

196has not been a national uh a national decision uh that the administration is acting as if it is a national decision is certainly the administration's prerogative but it is one that is also being challenged in court and I personally believe that we are being rushing to judgment without adequate information having said this and knowing that we do have two councils that have given us advice I'm going to turn to my second concern when you got this information the U is Administration I am astounded that the policy committee was not advised of this was not shared with this and in fact the board members never got to see what the what the new policy looks like you're voting on a new policy that none of us have seen here if you look at the policies we've

197been given they're the ones that exp that are from 2021 that we're being asked to adopt uh I I find the whole process very disturbing if we are supposed to be the bo the committee that makes recommendations to the board and the administration brings things as a fatal comp without having gone through the committee I say foul so I would you want to make a motion to table this I will second that motion if it hasn't gone through committees we'd have to suspend the rule to vote on it Mrs Washington go ahead let me hear Denise go ahead Denise thank you Miss Washington I just want to uh provide to the board that we just received uh guidance from burum and Moses on Thursday January 23rd so this is very recent and I just heard

198this on Friday January 24th we could have had an email sometime in that period I think that we have a process we had a policy meeting on the 23rd we could have had a process and I'm really disturbed by this this absence of process I don't take it on a personal level but what's the point of having a policy committee if things are brought to the board to be acted on without the policy having policy committee having looked at it and without the policy that's supposed to be reenacted in front of your eyes so you can ask questions just on process uh I'm going to go I'm going to yeld to De actually I'm GNA Point Miss Washington can I just provide one more clarification wait wait wait go ahead no no no go ahead

199go ahead Denise I just want to add that oftentimes you know oftentimes we don't get to our emails until the evening or sometimes the next day uh depending on the events of the day so this is something that um we weren't able to share with the policy Committee in time because we just were unable to get to our emails in time yeah okay so point of my point of order is um that this action would since it has not gone to the policy committee I thought it may have um that this action in my interpretation of Robert's Rules is would have to go uh we'd have to suspend the rules to do that which would require a vote and I'm I'm not going to make that motion but I think we'd have to make that

200motion to even uh then vote on this and and for that matter really discuss it uh I that's my interpretation uh and that's admittedly from working on the RTM so if if you're if the board of aded is different uh please let me know but that's just my feeling yeah Dean I was gonna say this is and Jay is with me on this one uh this is another example of how why we should not parrot or mimic a legal language whether it's statutes or regulations state or federal too closely because that some of those statutes and regulations are shifting Sans some areas more than others and I understand if we adopted policy policy that said with respect to sexual harassment let's just follow federal law so everyone now has to go turn to the you

201know federal law to find out that it's it's easier to have it all kind of spelled out okay so you don't have to go hunting around in federal law to find out what the policy is but it is a risk you take that when you follow too closely every time there's a shift at the national level at the state level you now have to go back to the policy committee you know tweak your language or maybe wholesale adopt new language that's the danger in in uh in having something so specific is so tied to previous uh legislation I am confused on one point and that is we're being asked to go back to our policy of 2021 in other words up until January 7th what we were given was our policy so what we're the

202complaint I'm hearing is that the that the January the policy adopted January 7th didn't go through the policy committee yeah it did okay it did and I presume the one that was adopted in 2021 went through the policy committee it's no longer the policy yeah that's no standing well no longer the policy have well apparently if in fact the federal government is correct we have a policy it just won't meet no no the 2021 was no longer exactly does not exist but I'm just saying the language was previously in there so while it's technically not our policy anymore it's not correct to say that we've never seen it before it's in our book it's okay because online it's still the old one well it takes a couple weeks to get something like that out but

203um so is it the will of the board to postpone this uh motion until it goes back to policy and then comes back to the board is that the will of The Bu I I'll take we do know that our next policy meeting we're taking it we have some agenda items that have to do with the budget that are going to come first okay well that's up to you I'm just saying U go ahead yeah okay so pending the final resolution at whatever okay pending the final resolution of this question at whatever level if action is taken under the policy that we adopted on January 7th and it turns out that that policy is say unlaw then do we have a potential lawsuit on our hands by whoever the losing party might be let's say

204somebody was was a disciplined under the policy but under the new policy but wouldn't have been disciplined under the old policy but frame it in general terms like that it turns out that at the end of the day our new policy is unlawful and was unlawful as as of the time of its adoption then what do we have we have somebody who was what wrongfully disciplined I think not because everything that was was uh precluded under the old policy is also concluded in the current policy they just added another layer of uh another layer of protection yeah I'm speaking generally without having the two texts in front of me because I wasn't at the 7th meeting let me ask Denise a question Denise if we don't do anything tonight can we use the policy that

205we approved on January 7th and if not does that mean we have no policy at all for sexual harassment well I I I will read to you from burum and Moses um their recommendation their summary is that a federal judge in Kentucky declared the US Department of education's 2024 Title 9 F final rule fatally tainted and struck down the rule in its entirety with Nationwide effect the decision states that that the Department of Education exceeded its statutory Authority in interpreting Title 9 that the final rule violates the constitution in multiple respects and that the final rule is arbitrary and compre in its interpretation of Title Nine that is why it is recommended that we revoke that policy and reopt the 2020 policy and guidelines does that mean wait a second does that mean tell me

206now does that mean we don't have a policy if we don't resend this the new one oh we've got one I can answer that for sure well it it means we would have a policy that has been declared unconstitutional and I think Dean has a point I think we would be um we would be you know at risk of implementing it if there were you know potentially um any push back go ahead uh can we have all Communications that were sent uh regarding this change from any attorney any office fored to us now can you send that to us by email tomorrow Denise how about now computer I have it right here yeah but we have phones like I just want to read it reject what do you all want to do it's getting late

207do you want to postpone this policy I'm not I'm person not comfortable making any choices I'm not I don't have okay so then we could postpone it and do it attorneys we don't have any Communications okay all right I hear you I hear you do we have any do we have any case do we have any uh do we have any complaints now that uh um would fit under the provisions of the current policy that we want to excise as Denise I am do we have any complaints uh that are current we do not right now but that doesn't mean that we couldn't get one tomorrow or the day after good then I'm willing to roll the dice and say if we get the stuff today and call a special meeting for next week we

208can deal with okay yeah I just want to say we need to suspend the rules to vote on this if we don't the vote would be you know wouldn't be we wouldn't be approving a new policy anyway that's my interpretation so if if we are going to vote on it tonight suspend the rules and vote on that um I would not support that but that that' be the way to do Adrian yeah so um my thought is is obviously I feel pretty rushed on this um it sounds like everyone else and the 20 21 policy um it you correct me but you did a lot of small changes in language that probably is constitutional um and they were good changes um I believe with with just some of the you know the way we refer

209to people and um specific people and things like that am I correct in that that there was a lot of massaging and I guess where I'm going is I would rather not just go back to an old policy that may be flawed also I'd like to make make sure that if we have to change something from the new policy we make sure that what we're changing to is you know the latest and greatest of what our my recollection is that we did do some changes Denise are you in agreement that we made some changes as well yeah there are there are some pretty substantive changes to the new 2024 regulations which is why there has been an injunction in several States that's um barred the implementation of the policy um in several states that that

210have the Junction in place Connecticut was not one of them so what we can do is vote on this vote on this motion it could fail then the motion fails right I think you need to suspend the rules to vote on it because it hasn't gone to committee that's my interpretation but I might be alone on that I'm new to the board I agree so you want to make go ahead make the motion oh I'm not making that motion I don't support suspending the rules but uh but uh you know I think we need to do that otherwise the vote wouldn't count unless I'm wrong on this and I could be so I think procedurally you're correct I think the board can do what it likes I'm just saying without referring anyone else can make

211well we can make the motion and the motion's already on the floor we just vote and it doesn't pass if you if nobody votes for it did yeah you know on on the motion on the I I mean I could be way off on this I mean just a volunteer from the RTM and and now on the bo from my house exactly but so I don't know every point of Robert's Rules but I just I just know that in that body we we'd have to bring it to committee first if not we'd have to suspend the rules so actually in my interpretation the motion itself right now is out of order okay Jay what do you have to say you know anything about this Jay Robert's Rules uh well uh tonight's meeting was posted as

212a special meeting and I think uh Dean might have an opinion on whether you can even suspend the rules on a special meeting I thought that was only in a regular meeting stop so what do you think Dean you're a parliamentarian oh am I really didn't we vote for you to be there no not then I would have turned it down um so yeah it's true this is a special meeting but I think even and I have to refer to the statute look up whatever it is I think I think if enough of us vote we could still add something to the agenda I think they're really egregious fences where you meet under the rubric of a under the title of a special meeting and then add substantive matters that's where the public has a

213right to say wait we didn't know you were going to discuss that if we knew we would have been there with pitchforks and torches what we would be doing um is not adding anything substantive or adding something procedural clearly we have advertised that we were going to be discussing this matter we're talking about procedurally getting around what is what is a perceived uh flaw on that question um I'm not understanding I don't believe that Roberts prohibits you we are the Board of Education we wearing that hat tonight uh it may be that we have adopted rules and I got to go back to the big fat rule book The 9 the 9,000 section it maybe with that we adopted a rule that says we must follow this procedure and if we don't then we're out

214you know then we're out of bounds you could do that Roberts isn't the be all end all but I don't think Roberts itself says that we're not allowed to read this unless it's first gone to one of our subcommittees that's why I say that's why I said we could do what we like we're the board if we wanted to vote on this we could vote on it if we don't want to vote on it then let's not vote on it let it LO Let It Whatever uh we I may now that I have the the mic I don't know what the differences are between what was adopted on January 7th and our 2021 policy it may be while we're talking about risks that the bulk of what we have is a policy the old one

215or the new one that was adopted the one that we have now the only one we have technically is inoffensive and what's really being discussed is language in the corner somewhere perhaps language that we will never have to run across in our district I don't know so if we're thinking about risk maybe it's a much smaller risk than we're thinking in other words not every sexual harassment complaint and determination is going to fall within the within the uh the the Ambit of uh you know the claimed unconstitutionality it maybe the most of our current policy has adopted and January 7th is perfectly fine and would be fine in a situation like that but what that's worth but I you know if you you've got the you've got this screen up I don't know what you're

216looking at maybe you could look up what one of our one of our rules because I like I said if one of our rules says No this must go this route then if we're outside that policy that policy that we've adopted for our procedures then let's go out then we're outside but if we don't have a policy that says this must first go if this is the procedure this is what we do and we like to have first readings and second readings and all of that that's what we do it's not necessarily an illegal Mo to have it on here Jay do we have a policy that says um all all motions have to go through committee we have a and we have a policy that says there has to be a first and second

217reading okay okay all right now does um resending due to a court order is that a different animal um you know we have received an indication from the attorney but I'll point out that these changes took place over a year ago and we were going under the 2021 rules until January 7th so um if people are uncomfortable with voting on this tonight um I'm I'm actually with uh the idea that um you know we take a little extra time but I basically the the policies that are promulgated here are unenforcable anyway if a judge has struck them down so the government isn't waiting to see what we're going to do there that those those have already moved so Jen so what's the issue with voting back in the policy from 2021 then sending it to

218policy to put back in some of the language that was tweet that is not in violation so why why can't we do that like what's I mean that's to me it's like a simple answer and I don't I don't understand like why we're holding on to something that we know or got advice on from two different legal firms stating that hey you're now your your policy that you just put in place is now like um in violation so why are we holding on to something um if we clearly know that it could expose the district uh that's my question I don't think the board got those opinions though yeah we haven't them I mean I don't doubt that they're there but what Denise just you didn't receive them but Denise just read you the opinion

219but you didn't physically receive them I get that I get get I can I can I can I'm okay with as long as the policy committee gets it right so um if you guys didn't get it okay then you guys can have issues but as for me as like other another board member I um you know like we have like as long as you guys get it um all of us don't need to be cooks and up you know um being involved in everything I think there's another dimension to this and it's one with which I'm uncomfortable because it can produce conflict which I really don't like but it's been made very clear to me that there's a division of labor oper operations and policy and the board is not supposed to get involved in

220operations and the administration is not supposed to get involved in policy and this has been a matter of some they do get involved with policy because they have to help us with no no no but but there has there have been a number of occasions where there's been some Discord because there have been differences of feeling as to whether an Administration acting saying that it's a matter of operations and then the board saying it was a matter of policy that's not the case here this is a policy issue and if we I I don't have any problem with the content of of of what we had before I have a problem with the process and I really there's not many Hills I'm prepared to die on Susan but this is one this this Administration has

221got to treat the board as the board and when there's a matter of policy see I agree with Denise she probably couldn't have gotten the information to us on Thursday but she could have sent an email they could have made a phone call they could have left a message and we all check our email at least once a day and oversight but it is a structurally important oversight and I want to call it this time okay yeah Matthew if I could just clarify I believe you were emailed on FR um by whom uh by Susan and Joyce and I before we added this to the agenda for tonight's meeting uh I'm no reason to doubt to doubt you're telling me what you believe to be true but I have no recollection of having received that

222I'll check it when I get home okay something from berim and Moses that they sent out yeah we we would have never bypassed you as the chairman of the policy committee all right so what do you want to do um I'm just a exhausted okay so what do you want to do that doesn't move us forward you're being exhausted I'm I'm personally confused as to why like the chair of the policy committee would receive the information but not well let's not drag on that what do you want to do to move us forward let what do you want to do to move us forward we can argue about what the administration didn't do but that's not moving us forward right now I think they heard that loud and clear I I would like to suggest

223that given that every other everything that was covered in the existing policy except for the quote offensive piece that the judge in Kentucky eliminated is is in the new policy that the chance of somebody coming up in the next seven or eight days with a complaint under the provisions of the Biden Administration is mathematically possible but functionally close to nil given that I would say it should come back to the policy committee and we can meet as early as the members are willing to get together okay so why couldn't we just table it and bring it back to Poli that's what we okay we'll table it bring it back to what's it difference Jay Jay go ahead yeah I just want to point out um to you know there's been some pretty strong language used

224tonight and I really think we've crossed the line under Quorum if somebody would just read their board notes it says right there that title 9 was rolled back due to the rescinded court case on January 9th 2024 it was all given to us on Friday the entire board was I appreciate it I said I got it from the attorney were not and on January 10th pulman con get everything sent an email uh about the same thing so I just want to um say that uh I don't see where we were left out thank you J were told I got the information too so you I don't know if you guys are reading your board notes or not but whatever um anyway we're stuck here it's almost 10 o'clock it's late um I have to be

225up early J Jay Jay are you still there yes oh maybe you know um Dean tabled when I was at learn a board chair said if you table you're just taing it for later on in the meeting so you really shouldn't table things you should postpone yeah we say we use it we use the phrase table we use that very Loosely yeah that's what he said people say that as a way to say let's deal with it later really mean is to postpone postpone that's what that's what the board CH you postpone a Time definite but in in this case and I may be wrong in this um if if this very motion was out of order because it didn't go to first um to committee first and we didn't suspend the rules um a

226way out of that would be um for the person who um put this motion on the floor to um you know retract withdraw that motion and then the second to agree um because what I'm concerned is we're postponing the time definite uh a motion that's um inherently out of order unless the supended rules all right I I'll be to move it along I'll I'll beend my motion I second it right so yeah okay so now we're postponing it to your next policy meeting and then you'll take it up okay yes so so I like I like Mike's way which is which is clean which isn't never happen and and then you yeah and then you get to refer to the policy okay I'll refer this to the policy yeah I'll refer um to resend policy

227one2 p514 5.5 back to uh the policy committee okay and I'd like to thank Denise for hanging out with us this long to be able to explain this because it is very complicated and um I'm surprised that I didn't put the burchman Moses linked to my board notes because I'm usually that thorough so get it to you though we did just receive it welcome I just sent both of them was in the board and I copied you Susan yeah and thank you Jay for talking about the Quorum because um we have to watch how we speak to staff members and that's all I'm going to say about that um number 10 discussion and possible action no no number nine uh to rec I'll read the motion to recognize February the 3rd 2025 through February the

2287th 2025 as school counselor appreciation week and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to school counselor happy to do it I have a second Adrian discussion all those in favor say I oppose I I okay nine to Zer to zero I think all the counselors have been reading for okay um number 10 is discussion of Poss action regarding conducting a public hearing on February the 10th um because we already have public comments on when do we have those public comments second um not yeah we had public comments when last week last week so that's why this is on the agenda so here we go to conduct a public hearing on the 2025 2026 Budget on February 10th that's the motion I think that's second second okay so again do

229we still want to have a public hearing on February the 10th Mike yes or no I'd be okay with it yeah I mean we I want a hearing okay are we discussing or voting uh I'm just going around making this quick Matthew yep okay Jen yes okay aent yes now you could discuss it on your yes or whatever you want to say yeah I would also I was unclear are we doing the joint session with the Town Council T night or no now on February 10th no I think we were they were talking about February the 11th but we were going to talk with them to see if they really wanted to do that I was going to talk with Rachel and find out about that because it's supposed to be February 11th on their

230day on that day just historically usually like that I know that's what's usually been done in the past is usually it's theed RTM education Council public hearing so you can pencil in your account this for February the 11th for um so we just changed dat for that be they changed the date would that be a town council meeting yeah that' be a town council meeting so they're inviting us to their meeting um you done with qualifications or not with conditions no no conditions okay well sounds good so Dean would it's not our meeting at all it's their meeting we're invited to their meeting what that's how it's always been we always went to their meeting remember you came last year about field trips we both that was the joint meeting yeah and that's what this

231is but but I thought you were talking about the public hearing no he started talking about the joint meeting I was talking about public hearing that joint meeting um we all hold tight hold tight hold tight we're on public hearing okay all right I let Ian get off track so let's s with the public here I'm just I'm just and I was asking for clarity sake because historically the that public Hearing in February has been held with the three bodies together and each B has convene their own meeting and then it was held at 355 yep that's always how it was done so this is that's all I'm trying to identify is if we're going to do it on a public Monday February 10th and we're hosting it by ourselves that's a change the liaison

232meeting was this was really it used to be a very lowkey meeting we would meet at the annex and it was posted Always by the board get you but each each one opened up as Ian said their own meeting so it was like a oh yeah yeah we all together right so wasn't like part of somebody else's meeting right right right but my thing is we're going to them we're going at that it's we're going to the town council's headquarters I'll say they're not coming to us to our meeting you know what I mean right I think it's been at the Town Annex before it's also been at th55 before to and it's usually followed by somebody else's other meeting whether we did a public meeting after that or they did something else after that

233we left I don't know D okay so if we if we go to the town council's meeting on the 11th say we're invited a weo we're not actually done yet we haven't adopted our budget no no right so we're in no position to actually competently answer questions we can sit there and we can have a bow session but we are going to be at their meeting and uh so what would be the purpose and going Say howdy that's my thought right right so and we have a budget to work on so all of these things that we're doing are adding to you know the date looking at though the motion on the floor is for February 10th yeah and that's a Monday and that's us that's our public hearing so I just want to identify

234that's that's a change that's us doing our own thing right and it's not going to be that joint session some people in the community may remember no so that's fine I'm in favor of doing our own public hearing and uh carrying on with February 10th and that'll be here or 355 here here we only got two people last time for public comments oh really much noticed we didn't have much time to get the word out you got to get the word out okay well well it's a public hearing do we have a hearing last year like did do we actually have a public hearing on the budget for for the education all right we always do a real successful public hearing with the council once you have your budget that's really when people come out

235once that we have the budget and we're explaining it to the Town Council that's when people really come out to the public hearing but a hearing is a separate thing like I um so I'm trying to think is there has there been a specific hearing for the Board of Education part of the budget was there one last year that's what I don't know did you have one last year I don't that's I was trying I could say my years past we did have a public hearing um for the border education budget separately in the Town Council no because I something happened the only meeting had was the one with Town Council Us in RTM and the joint joint one and then was one later on when that one always happens with the council with the

236council yeah I don't think our R TM were um members were present but they were not part of the meeting so those were the only two that I remember at 355 last year at 355 the education committee for the RTM uh held a meeting um and so we I did roll call voted in and we adjourned Board of Education to the same thing Town Council did the same thing so it's like a try a try meeting um but I don't think I can't I don't think we had a budget hearing part for that on on that meeting I don't I don't remember that part it was scheduled right and it just never happened I'm a bit confused that what date are we expecting to have the the superintendent's budget or take possession of the superintendent's

237budget and make it ours because I would think that that's the point at which we would want to have the public hearing and the public can ask discuss questions or when we have our budget in front of us while it's still the superintendent's budget it seems you have to vote by the end of February so it can be sent to John Burke yeah so you have to vote on it officially to your budget we have a budget meeting tomorrow Town obligations and health insurance and then on Monday February the 3D we have a budget work session I I don't know what's left what what's going to be left Susan for you to go over after that we have um still some things for the Board of Ed and for the superintendent's office um we have

238some other things that are special services like social workers and those kind of pie so when do you think you'll be finished February 3rd the 10th the 12th how's that what been said okay sorry I didn't know you saw me so I would say that we can probably wrap it up on the 3 oh finish either yeah unless we needed more time after the public hearing but I mean we're going to do Tech too on Tuesday technology for Clinton okay okay so you're thinking that on February the 3D you said you're going to be done well I have to go that's going to be a long night because it's going to be wrapping up anything left over okay so then when I understanding that when we go to the meeting on the 11th with the

239Town Council that Susan will be making a presentation on what she has presented to us as amended up to that point which then becomes ours well I don't know if you're G to have time you're gonna take some time to do the amending I would think some time yeah we're gonna have to look at what our budget is and then it becomes our budget then we start looking at it and making what are we're gonna do with it so if a citizen says wait Jen Jen was before you sorry sorry buddy um I think it was on Wednesday the 22nd or um that meeting um I was forcing this issue remember I was saying like you're dropping it in the mailbox it's done we can't keep going we the board um need to take over

240the budget and start being able to look at it and if it is identified that Susan needs to make changes we will make changes as we are going through and reviewing it ourselves we keep prolonging this we are going to come back that we the board will only have two weeks and I don't want that to happen when we left that meeting and maybe I need to watch the video again but I thought the 28th was going to be the last day of presentations and it's going to be our starting the third to do as we please that's what I 28 I mean I'll get through what I said but there'll be other things that you haven't seen that we haven't reviewed together so you want the 28th to be the drop dead date well

241I never said that that no no that's how I understood it okay um I was trying to force to be done that night you know what I mean like Susan's reviewing it and presenting it but she wasn't going to make changes going forward whatever was presented and reviewed unless it was like a gross mistake right um which we may think there is we definitely know the FTE counts have to be fixed and now it looks like the line item I would um demand that the line item budget that we compare to ties to the budget book that was approved regardless FTE has been reviewed and we can review it back with you so we no the FTE Mike identified were in error he said they were they're basic3 yeah the and it's just been posted

242I I think you just posted maybe today the proposed superintendent budget that still has that whole line of any FTE chart is still from the I think I looked at it just a couple are from the 20 uh 32 wait yes 232 4 budget instead of 2425 um I noticed uh just in looking at that green tab uh the total number of of personnel is different from the the second version we got or the third version we got that's different from the second so those are still in that's a new thing that's in flux from what what we've had before and I didn't look at the other sections but so even more reason that we're going to have to take the third to go through some of these things may need to have another meeting

243that week so we can get started on our budget are we gonna are we okay with having the the hearing though I'm still I'm still a little lost like so are we good with the hearing on the 10th because on having saying that I'm not I'm not comfortable having the meeting on the if the meet if we don't have the superintendent's budget Final in our hands and have had it for a good couple of days to start working with it ourselves know we need to have the full document comprehensive cohesively complete from the superintendent's office here and we're going through it start making our changes that's when we take in public input again and we can make our own judgments and I think moving numbers yeah that's a good point and I think there's a

244longer lead time on on setting up a hearing which is why we're talking about it now um but is there a longer lead time in in canceling it it wouldn't look good but uh I'm just saying like I I'm with Jen that we need a deadline deadlines are libery deadlines end things like so we need a deadline when we can expect this document to be done did you say February the third and and whether we review I'm just talking about reviewing the document I have a complete book you should all have a complete book well we got it in pieces and I'm not sure what's what like what well you can always great to have like one that's done and all the way through like this is the final version because we've gotten the team

245has spent a lot of time getting you the function codes and now the beginning of the book and I think there were directions on how to put it together but if you need help I can help you we have one full thing bring your stuff in and they help you bring your stuff in give them the stuff that old this is all the versions I've received no all the new stuff this is everything that I was given that I think is okay give it here and then this is the stuff that handed out in the past you for it's not your meeting so I would like to have just one simple binder okay give it here give it here give it here give it here give it I don't want to take his binder we'll

246I got my notes in here I've been saving all my drafts but like I have all thefts in here I have a clean book a second wait a second wait a second we're talking about public hearing let's get done with the public hearing and that go through you you're unhappy with your your book here okay let's go back to public hearing propose for consideration that we unhappy with your book may we I propose we add another meeting in the week of February 3rd we conclude our uh we conclude all of our review with the superintendent by the 3 and then on the fourth or fifth or whatever date that week we start a review of our internal Board review of the document and any time after that is when we can have the public hearing

247when it's our budget and we can get input so you want have a meeting when on Wednesday we only have one meeting scheduled for the week of the 3 and I'm suggesting pick any other date I'm good no you don't oh with something else you do we have the me my birthday what's your birthday and theth we have to Joint don't okay I'm to the fth okay February 5th will be our final budget meeting with Susan and then the then after that it's all okay so Wednesday February the 5th you got that mic that's the final superintendent budget meeting right the final superintendent budget meeting and then when would we get the budget the superintendent's budget you already have it we okay so the budget version that we have um it's is really it go

248it it doesn't help the budget process because um the the numbers we're comparing to in the FTE charts are not for this current year uh and then the numbers in all the spreadsheets those function codes we've been going through um they're going against something that's not the fy2 adopted budget and so all those % changes of the increases decreases of FTE you can't you can't get anything from that and how where's the public confidence going to be in that as it as it Transitions and those are clearing errors that I agree just mistakes uh well maybe not the adopted versus the um the current budget years that I don't understand what happened there um but it's it's not a very useful document as is and what's put put online is different what was put online

249tonight is different from what I have at least in that green tab so maybe I missed an extra handout in all the um the FTE uh but it is different and that was different from the one before and that's kind of central because it says well this is the Staffing um have we added teachers removed teachers added AIDS removed AIDS um that's vital importance and different from what we seen so um what I see is for the superintendent budget that we've got is a rough draft um replete with errors that should be corrected I you're not going to correct the budget that things that we brought out well that's what Ray was saying that he'd need time to do no not not this year we have a budget book that's adopted that's online it's on

250our own website it has all the numbers um for 2025 for 2025 that is not currently reflected in our function code breakdown that we've been going through for a couple of nights and we continue to therefore all the percent change are off um I think it's a separate document as you've explained before it's not an Excel sheet um maybe it's a Word document that has all the FTE charts those as of the last meeting we had I think it was point out quite clearly and accepted um that uh the column there is what's saying it's 2020 20 2025 budget is really just from the last time the document was worked up it's from 2023 2024 and that's what the all the changes in do we add a teacher remove a teacher add AIDS or remove

251AIDS uh so in math this would be called this this is a basis Set uh which we're comparing to and um what you have is a basis set that's uh that in the document that's not what we should be comparing to and not what it says it is either so I've got a big problem with that and it really makes it hard um to make strategic moves about the budget um and so so that's that's what I have to say so Ness the the budget book and what you have paper matches that's going to be a problem that's the short end of it so so so if we finish the superintendent's Budget on the 5ifth with all the corrections Susan would then only have roughly two days till Friday to get everything uh in a

252final complete version to make all the corrections or the comments that we make in the last section I think that's doable though it won't be fun what do you think well I made made things happen so far haven't I okay without the help that we needed okay good thank you so Dean did you have something I've just been put in mind of something we came up with in high school when you do your exercises and you check the answers in the back of the book If the your answers don't match the book's exercise the book's answers we multiply by something we came up with was called the variable constant you multiply your answers by whatever number you needed to to get the god oh forget it okay I don't know how Okay since we clearly

253know that like what we're comparing our budget to the proposed is wrong right can we just cancel tomorrow's meeting because why waste our time and then let Susan and her team do whatever they have to do tomorrow night fix it and so we have something good to look at because to be honest with you I don't like wasting my time time is valuable time you can't get back and I don't want to look at something where I know the numbers are wrong and I'm thinking like oh yeah it's an increase it's a decrease but in reality it's neither so and be honest with you I'm sorry I'm getting thany because I probably like well Susan said she'll be happy with that if if the board agrees to that are we going to replace it with

254a meeting we could replace it with another meeting um we did I thought we added the dat we just added one yeah we just added one February 5th excuse me B to be go ahead Joan um I'm trying to follow these meetings that you want to have I have to know okay the the one meeting that we have added so far is Wednesday January no Wednesday February the 5th at droing the third we're keeping the third okay so it's two that week yeah two that week we're dropping the 28th yeah we're discussing now about dropping the 28th but we haven't gotten there yet okay if we drop the 28th would it make any sense to have something on the 30 that would give Susan two days to get it together and then we'd have an

255intact book we wouldn't have lost the meeting time and we'll be ready to rock yes I don't know if I'm able to do the 30th yeah either well why don't we plan it and if you can't do it we'll have to cancel no no let's let her look and see now what is that uh nothing's been decided Joan we're still struggling I see that everything's contingent right but we're still on the the public hearing item exactly and so so we'll just when we come back to Advanced planning they'll say um add or subtract the meetings we agreed on here I mean like don't have to do this in a a different part but I I see we can decide it now but just have all right so you still want to have the public hearing

256on February 10th we have a motion on the floor and we have a I made the motion Jen second it all those in favor having the public hearing on February the 10th say I I I thank you Jay Andrea hi okay so it passed 9 to Z to Zer okay done with that information and proposals um this is the part where you get letters communication and comments by board members on meeting items and other items in their jurisdiction I'll start with you adri all right um we have seen and received lots of communication of the uh school safety and threats in in communication of that um I know that our superintendent leing um as much information as she can um I have my own you know frustrations with that also learning things in the day

257but um I understand that that's the way the process I guess has to work um and um I do think that we should talk about how that happens at least so the board knows what to expect more specifically I I would personally like that um I think everybody probably received a letter on chronic absenteeism um and um I don't know speaking for everybody but um I know that that's um Forefront that we're we're concerned um and then um another personal opinion is just we had a budget task force that did a lot of work um and they spent a lot of time in the middle of the summer what I was doing other things I would uh occasionally tune into meetings um and I appreciate the work of that budget task force am a little

258disappointed that it hasn't really turned into um like a lot of the recommendations haven't really made it into policy and haven't um you know there was lots of hopes that that this budget process would be different um but it it it um it doesn't seem to be um substantially improved I guess would be the best way of saying it um from last year um so I I would love to see um some of those things get some of those um policies get passed as quickly as possible right thank you Jen com Matthew Mike yeah um well I've been to a number I had the pleasure of being at a number of um uh concerts and and uh sporting events since our last meeting um actually someone who was in tendance uh from a at the

259last weekend from another school district uh re remarked um because I I told who was watching it too and their athletic director was there and our our principal was there and and and uh she said it's just it's wonderful to to see them at these events and I said well they're at everything it's very dedicated Administration um and then uh just for comments on uh meeting items I know it's coming up in advance planning um when we had our last public hearing or public or maybe as a public comment on the budget we added in um we had an agenda item that was for U budget discussion after or budget work session I understand a hearing is a meeting onto itself but I would suggest that we add a a budget work session meeting um

260right after um the hearing because we'll be here assembled and if it is shorter um then we can take advantage of that time and and we know we're free that night um because we could get a lot of comments so think that might be a good idea um to do thank you I think great idea attend special meeting it' have to be separate meeting because of the a hearing is its own thing though yeah on the 10th yeah it says Board of Education special meeting on budget too do we have that I don't see it it says public heing and then slash Board of Ed special meeting on budget it's the question mark So I think that's causing a concern there's no question mark she oh I'm seeing I'm looking at the agenda went out

261yeah oh that's only because um yeah but it still says special meeting on the budget so we would still have a meeting we just wouldn't had the budget we just wouldn't have the public hearing but now we voted to have the public hearing both yeah and we'll still have that special meeting on the budget okay it's just different from so our our agenda for tonight's meeting has the calendar and on February 10th it just has special um Dash public hearing re-budget is that does that mean there's a special meeting and a public hearing already is that what maybe I just read it wrong oh yeah I don't know so so we're going to have both I'm happy with that yeah that's not right and the location and is it 555 it's going to be right

262here right yeah so they'll correct that so it should say public hearing slash or n bard of Education with special meetings special meeting on the budget and it should be right here at central office okay okay I I was looking at the other sheet Mike I was looking at uh this calendar that we have here oh that's from like Friday or so yeah that's what I was looking I wasn't looking at this anything else Mike nothing no um Dean what he said what who said what did he say no I'm going to see if he knows talk talk about the the budget committee the ad hoc budget committee disappointment in the how a lot of the recommendations were not implemented hope something will be done about it yeah okay I'm watching my are you all

263done Dean yeah yeah I appreciate Adrian's comments and and Dean's comments um I had prepared some comments very similar to that um as chair of the adack budget procedure committee I am uh greatly disappointed with the way that budget has been rolled out so far a number of the recommendations that my colleagues Mike and Jen uh uh all collaborated uh with me on um you know we had a sort of a very specific idea of roll out that would have given a lot of time um but it all was contingent on having a finished uh superintendent proposed budget by uh early January at the latest but uh ideally before the holidays so that we would have had the holidays to intake that budget on our own time and then come back in January ready to

264go ready into work sessions um again like the presentation model and the review model um personally just speaking for myself not the committee um I feel like it it just kind of drags on um it doesn't really get us where we need to go um you know I feel in some ways like you know we're finding typos and errors and things and we're in some ways we're kind of doing the business offices job for them um I'd rather just get to a point where we have just a clean draft that is all comprehensive all cohesive incomplete and to itself and that's the handed in homework that then we review with in consultation to ask questions with the administration but to go through pages by pages and having changes made in the presentation mode is is

265just it feels as as as as Jen noted it feels like a bit of a waste of time um of our time um so um along some other items um you know also like one of the things that we had talked about as a committee was trying to have more details already put into the function codes so that they have like the drop- down aspect to it where you know you wouldn't just see purchase services or other purchase Services you would actually see what the items were purchased in that department um that also has not been adjusted for and um and you know one more reminder is that we still have not we did allocate some money into the fy2 budget for um budgeting software upgrades um that uh has not been purchased and um

266has not been reviewed uh we had some notes in the interim report that we submitted uh before we were dissolved um that uh you know suggested some other possible softwares to look at and while munus may be ahead of the curve and the preferred uh product since it matches up with what the town does and could possibly produce a product similar to the town's budget in detail and organization um it is I think we need to do our due diligence as a board to to review what other options are out there along with munus and then actually have that vote and make that decision and allocate that money and and I am very curious to know where I believe it was 150,000 that had been allocated or possibly 300,000 I forget 115 I think 115

267115 all right so where that money went into the budget FY 25 since it was not spent on budget software um and for the sake of time I'm going to uh not go into any more length about that I would just encourage oh well one more thing the remaining budget policy revisions proposed as proposed by the committee the P 3120 3160 and 3200 I believe need to take a a priority um in the policy committee meeting that's that's uh going to be scheduled in the very near future it's scheduled for the 11th and to that we're going to be adding a um review of the sexual harassment I thought you said you're going to schedule within the next week or so I can try to do that um my concern has to do with 3120

268in particular because that one has to do with like um constructing the budget document and um some aspect of Communications in there as far as things that are specific to being guidance so um and 3160 has to do with transfer between budget functions and 3200 has to do with transfer between budget categories so Andrea and Ian would you give me your availabilities this coming week and we'll see what we can do I have something every night this week but the committee can meet without the can it yes uh I woulde he's got his plateful too oh I think this is that special meeting just on the sexual harassment you're talking about no no we're talking about the the the we have stuff on the agenda from the last policy committee meeting that was not handled

269we we we met several hours and uh but if we can get these three things done in the next week that would be lovely yeah I mean it's really like is there somebody you just give give thought and give is there somebody you could designate to represent you and we could very I know I know if pressed I guess we can carry on as we need to um so that that's all I have to say about that and um I'm glad to hear that we have committed to February 5th as the pivot date where we will re I would just ask that we get a clean copy fresh little document so that we can discard or just like put these all these old address on the Shelf it start fresh start thank you okay um

270two things um and Marie wanted to do since you all had questions about the IB Program am Marie wanted to do a presentation on February the 3 before a budget meeting um I'm throwing that out there if you guys want to how long would the presentation be like an hour no half an hour half an hour okay with questions an hour for the board let's be realistic I mean hour yeah but then questions on the bo yeah right we riew those well remember Adrian and some other people had questions about the I you don't we don't have to have it February 3rd I'm just throwing it out there she's ready to give us a presentation on IB Program stud would like to talk students talk and the um parents yeah so if you wanted to

271hear that on February the 3 before the budget it would be from six to seven say and then we'll do budget but it's up to you guys can we spare the time from can we spare the time we need up to you you can say this is a yes or no question Mike yes or no um I wouldn't want to do it before we get the super like before we''re done with the superintendent's budget phase you want to do after that be my preference because we'll be talking about those larger issues okay so that's a no yes or no no no yes or no no in March yes or no I'm excited to hear it but I don't think it should happen that okay no yes or no no no okay there you go Susan

272on the other thing my other thing is this is I'm sorry what you to now no no J no okay the other thing is the superintendent goals Susan gave us her revised goals right this is a yes or no question do you want to go over her revised goals with her or do you want to just you guys recommended okay do you want to review that the revise goals with Susan at a meeting at some point or do you want to just accept the goals as she revised them and move on yes or no do you want to meet with Susan yes or no months of this year to get these goals done just saying I'd be fine with that you want to meet with Susan I'd be fine with that I know what the

273time yes yes yes yes yes yes yes um Jay yes yes and Andrea there Susan goals For Heaven's Sake not ours no no well you're outnumbered sorry all right so we'll have to plan when we're going to meet with Susan and look at her goals again I'll be ready for next year's goals that's fine I'm just gonna forward for the next years that's fine we decided what we're goingon to do or whether we're gonna adopt January 30th as a meeting day yeah we're in the advanced planning one right can we just January 30th are you available I got an appointment I've got to see if I can get out of it I don't know so as of now we're not I'll let you know we will okay uh Andrea what okay cool you want me

274to say what you usually say oh my goodness is that I have something to say before before I say that okay listen before I say what I always say I have something to say and that is when I signed up for bard of Ed I did not sign up for this this is insane motion to adjourn good night okay thank you I know late all in favor I I we are jour