001Can you hear me? You see me? Good. I apologize for coming on late. I couldn't do uh I couldn't connect to the meeting right away. So, uh want to just make sure we do have quorum. Looks like we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven board members. So, we do have quorum for today. Um so, let me call the special board of education meeting uh dated 519 uh 2025 to order. This is a virtual meeting only. Um, we'll call it to order at 5:33 p.m. Um, don't have the agenda right in front of me, but I next on the agenda would be for our uh pledge of allegiance. So, if you're able, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
002the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty, justice for all. Okay, thank you. Um, so our I wish I had this open in front of me. Our agenda for today, just title of Let me see if I can find it for a second. [Music] All right. So, our uh agenda item for today is for the Oh, boy, that doesn't work either. discussion to take action on the 2526 budget. Um, and the reason for that is that we had a um, board of finance meeting that was held last week. Um, Jeff and I attended that meeting in person. Um, and it was as a result of the failed budget referendum um, that had taken place. Um so the discussion was regarding um that um failed referendum reasoning behind it and what
003the board of finance wanted to do um as a reaction to that as well as to some communications that received from the town both um mainly through emails that they received. Um quick synopsis of the meeting uh was there was an immediate motion um to restore the 66,000 to the board of ed as well as the 34 to the town. There was a lot of discussion that had taken place after that. Um one of the board of ed our board of finance members um summarized the letters that were received um from different towns people um some for and some against the um increase to the taxes. uh most and the majority were in favor and a uh notices to the board of finance that they did vote no uh because of the cuts to education.
004Um there was some inconsistencies in the numbers that were laid out in the meeting from one of the board finance members. Um and the chairperson had a different uh tally of the letters for and against uh but still had the majority being uh a a a um vote down of the budget because of the cuts to education. Um so that went on to discussion regarding um you know I'm sorry so I should step back. So, the motion that was put on the floor to restore the whole $100,000 66 and 34 um was voted down by the board of finance um with discussion that they did not want to increase taxes to the town. Um that led into some additional discussion and again I'm summarizing trying to keep this as brief as possible regarding the non-lapsing
005account that uh we have as the board of education um as well as the town surplus um that the town holds. Again, both of them being contingencies, both being items that are allowable by state statute. The request was for uh Superintendent Susa and myself um to come back to the board of education um with our support of uh taking another $66,000 out of our non-labsion account. um they had questioned on several occasions whether or not you know Jeff and I would come back to this board and support it. Um our response was that we can't speak for the board. Um you know I personally as the board chair said that again I am not in favor of reducing um our statutory contingency. Um, it would actually amount to a net of around $100,000 left in
006our nonlapsing account, which is our contingency, which is only 1% of our total budget. Um, that was after we take away 66, but as well as take away our current um our current projected overrun for the current school year. Um, is that accurate, Jeff? I think it was net $100,000, correct? Yes. Um, so again, I wasn't 100% a proponent of it. I did voice that. I said again, it would be hard for me to support it. Um, again, only having 1% left. Um, there was discussion over um the board of finance having the authority over that non-lapsing account. uh Superintendent Susa corrected them um again regarding the state statute that allows the board of educations to hold up to 2% of their surplus on any given year to hold for um unknown or unforeseen items.
007Um case in point, this year's current projected overrun. Again, should we not have had this non-lapseic account, um it would require us to go to the board of finance to get approval um instead of having our own contingency to be able to fund that. um the board of finance as well on the town surplus side. Another reason again that that we've talked about not supporting that is there are uh advisements and averages for town surplus um that we as a town are above and beyond. Um so we have more town surplus than what would be advised or what the averages are. Um so at the end of the day the board of finance through all these discussions uh there was a motion I should step back again there was another idea asking us to split
008it 3333 to be able to fund the 66,000 that was that was eliminated or cut from our budget. Uh but ultimately at the end of the day, they uh did motion and approve that they would take the $66,000 um out of the town surplus and it would fund the the board of education um originally I should say our second adoption of our budget. Um so that's why we're here. Um so the board of finance took action. Um now we have to take action because our current adopted budget does not align with what the current approval is from the board of finance. Um so we have to do two things. We have to one um resend our adopted budget and then put forward a new um a new budget for the town referendum. Um that again
009I don't think the date has been has been um set yet on when that referendum will be. Any questions? a lot of information in a very short amount of time, but any questions on what I just tried to describe in a in a in a in a quick summary. Tim, I have a question. Before we approve that, are we going to see the new budget for the board of ed? Yes, the new budget uh was sent out by Superintendent Sus. You should have that in your inbox. Um he also will pull up on the screen here prior to us voting um a summary and a chronology of our current or the budget from the beginning of the proposed budget by the superintendent to where we stand today. So we'll pull that up and and we'll
010share that document as well. Okay. Thank you Tim. Uh just in looking at a lot of the Facebook groups regarding this this vote, like people were completely confused about the vote. Like truly completely confused about the vote. All you have to do is go look at the comments and all of the different pages and they were completely confused about what they voted for. I think that the vote on the referendum was very confusing. Obviously, we understood it, but people in town did not understand what they were voting for. I I would agree. I've heard the same thing. Again, I'm not social media, so I don't have I don't look at those comments, but I have heard the same thing verbally from several different people. Um we're hopeful that the um spreadsheet that we'll pull up
011in a moment um helps explain the track record of the board of education budget from as I said just a few minutes ago from when Superintendent Susa originally proposed his first budget to us and each of the actions that were taken from then until the action that we're about to take tonight. Um so hopefully that clarifies it. Um, we've also were requested in one of the public comment at the board of finance meeting um to have an explanatory sheet similar to this um that would be available for those coming in to vote. Um there was also discussion and I don't know where it's going to land next. I think there's a board of selectman meeting potentially tomorrow night. Um but there's discussion about should there be a question on the um on the referendum that
012gives some indication as to why they voted yes or no um to the budget. Um so that that again is to be determined because again those questions are are customary in other towns they do those so that there's uh there's some feedback without uh what we had done was I know there were some Facebook posts in in in social media that was soliciting people to respond to at least let the board of finance know at the end of the day why the why they voted no to the budget. Um but I get it dear we're going to do our best to try to explain um our side of it. I can't do that for the council. What it boils down to, if I understand, is we essentially can go back to the original budget that
013we proposed. Yeah. At the end of the day, and that's a great that's that's exactly what happened. So, at the end of the day, you know, and we'll show it on the spreadsheet, um, when the board of education um, had the discovery of the development with this bus contract, um, the retirement of of an executive assistant, um, as well as the meeting where we motioned and and it was approved for the use of the non-lapsing. Um, we are right back to that. So, we are using $66,000 of our non-lapsing um to support the two positions that the community input and feedback provided that we should keep um in the in the 2526 school year. So, we're right back to there. And on the town end, they essentially will be putting out to vote ultimately the
014same amount. Correct. Yes. At the end of the day, the um the the net result to the town is is is zero um because it came out of the contingency or the town surplus. Um so the net result is zero, but the town will be voting on a slightly different percentage increase. Um the percentage increase we voted on at the last referendum was 4.55. If I recall correctly, that 4.55 was it not? Penny, I see you're shaking your head. What was the number? I think it's 3.55. 3.5. Okay. 3.55. I thank you for correcting me. 3.55. And the number, as I understand today, is going to go back at 3.67. Uh 3. I know. I think it's 3.57. Uh I could be wrong. Yeah, 3.55. It's going up 02. So 3.55 to 3.57. Thank you,
015Penny. You're welcome. So it will go back at 3.57. The reason for that 02 increase is there was a clerical error or a mistake in reflecting the board of ed's grants. Um the number we had in our budget did not match the number that the uh board of finance overarching spreadsheet for our town budget um had included. So they had to make a small clerical correction and that clerical correction is increasing the percentage by 02 in the next referendum. But again there wasn't anything on the board of ed side. Um our numbers were accurate. Our numbers were correct. It was just again a a a call it a fat finger when they put it into the other budget. It was off by $6,000. Yep. It does seem if you have an advisory on a vote,
016you really only would need an advisory on the no vote. Yeah. Ultimately, not the yes vote. Yeah, I know there's going to be further discussion. Again, I don't have any say into where it goes as a only as a town member. Um, and again, if that's something the town would want to have, which I don't think there's any reason not to have it, um, that that that can be put on there as an advisory so that they have, um, immediate feedback as to why, um, a budget was either approved or not approved. And I have one more question, then I'll shut up. Was there was there enough letters to cover the I think what was it 12 votes? 14 votes. How many letters did they receive? There were around if I Jeff you might remember
017the numbers better than me or Penny actually because you probably filed them but I think there are around 50 in total. No, there was I thought it was 23 23 in total of the last bunch that came through. Yes. Okay. That are going with this set of minutes from last Tuesday's meeting. So there were not not not not very many. And again, as I had said earlier, and I did go through a lot, um there was one board of finance member who had a different take on the letters, um whether they were in support of education or they were in support of not increasing taxes, um were the two sets of letters. Um but in either case, the inconsistency between the chair and that board member um still both were were majority um for the
018board of education. I should note that again as we talk about this and it's a net zero impact to the town by taking that 66 from the town surplus. Um the board of finance did not reinstate uh the $34,000 cut um to the town side. Um and I believe that as my memory serves me the only discussion on that was on the original vote or I'm sorry on the original motion that was to restore the full 100,000 and increase taxes. Um, so there wasn't a lot more discussion on that 34. Any other questions or do we want to look at the sheet and just kind of walk through the sheet so we could see where it is? So, let me just say this. Of the 23 letters that were received, um, the chair said that
01913 were in favor and 10 were against. is where the other board of finance member I never did hear him say how many letters he disputed with the chair's number so I I he read off his tally Penny so again that should be on the on the recording but he did read off his tally um for and against as well as um in support of I think it was spec he had he actually broke it down even further than just for and against. Maybe I haven't gotten that far into the recording yet. I don't know. Okay. So, Jeff, can you pull that up for us so we can just take a look at that? I don't know if you can maximize. I'm only seeing a portion of it. You want to make that larger. Is
020that on my side? I can read it. Okay. Sorry, Tim. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's probably me. The entire screen on my side. I apologize if not. The only thing I see, the last thing I see is clerical aid, then the next line is cut off. Yeah, that's all mine is. I got this ribbon up top. I don't know how to get rid of it. Everybody, this was sent to all of us. So, we can just open it up on our own computers if we need to. Yeah. So, what this is showing us just again, and I'll run through it, and uh you know, Jeff, as I go through it, please help me if I miss something. But what we wanted to do was give a look chronologically over um the start of the of of
021our 2526 budget uh to where we are today. Um so the top the second row you see there um all the way on the left hand side in column A shows our superintendent's initial proposed budget to us on March 4th of 25. That budget included an increase from our 2425 budget of 10 I'm sorry of 71,145 or an increase of 8.86% 86% for a total budget of that 10,75676. Now, we all reviewed that. We all had a lot of questions and responses from our superintendent and the administration. Um that included, you know, some many cost and contractual um as well as legal requirements for outplacement um contractual increases due to the u negotiated contracts with our with our teachers and with our um with all of our personnel. Um but again that was our original
0228.86 and I think everybody would would would identify that number. Um the board of education requested from the superintendent um a a list of proposed eliminations from the budget that would align with different levels of an a budget increase that ranged from if I remember correctly a 4% increase a 4 and a.5% increase a five and a five and a half I think were the four we asked for. um our superintendent came back with those reductions and on 31125 we evaluated those and we accepted the reductions that he had provided on the initial sheet uh which was uh to get us to 5%. If I recall correctly and then we also included the school counselor which is the last line on there of the 715 to get us to the 4.99. So I think it
023was five and a half and then we we accepted that to get us down to the 4.99. Um these eliminations were intended to be and are intended to be the proposal from our superintendent's administration which are least impactful to the students. So we um adopted that budget on 318. um that adopted budget reduced the the overrun or I'm sorry the the the increase to our budget from the 871145 and it reduced it down to $490,495. Um that came with a 4.99% increase in a 10 million 325026 budget um for adoption by the board of education and submission to the board of finance uh for their review. We submitted that budget. Uh they did hold a meeting um and had discussion on the budget. Jeff proposed it um on Saturday morning. There was a follow-up meeting
024where we had discussion um there was no action taken by the board of finance um on that adopted budget that we sent to them. Um on 4325, the board of education came back to the table after the development in the discovery of the finalization of the bus contract as well as the savings from the retirement um of one of our executive assistants. the board of education at that meeting on 43 voted to uh reinstate as a as a um offset to that the um if you look up a little bit Jeff if you would scroll up we highlighted in blue to reinstate White Memorial Talented and Gifted as well as the fifth and sixth grade band and the school counselor. um those again between the bus contract and the retirement we had enough funds that
025we could reinstate those. Uh we also at that 43 meeting there was a motion to um use $66,000 of our non-lapsing account or our contingency. Um that non-lapsing account, as we've talked about before, is intended for nonrecurring costs. So we used that 66,000 and we applied it to the volatile expenses associated with uh special education outplacement. That 66,000 created an additional surplus in our budget maintaining the 4.99% that we had previously adopted it sent to the board of finance and we use that money to reinstate the clerical assistant I'm sorry the instructional assistant and the clerical aid. So you can see that in this spreadsheet in the let's call it a beige color. Um and again removing those eliminations that happened on our fourth three meeting on 48. This was brought to the board of
026finance for a vote. Um and at that 48 meeting the board of finance decided to cut $66,000 from our budget. And this is where they also cut the $34,000 from the town budget to equal an even $100,000. Um that $66,000 the board of finance cannot tell us where to cut within our budget. Um, but you know, it was known already that again that $66,000 in the assessment that our board of our our superintendent as well as our administration had already proposed to us that we would have to go back and eliminate or remove those uh those two positions again in order to achieve the 4.31% that you see up there uh at a budget of 10,258676. So that's where we are as of the referendum. That was the budget that was sent to referendum um
027as again adopted by the board of education following um the direction of the board of finance. After the meeting that took place on 513 last week um as I had just described, they reinstated $66,000 um out of the town surplus to be able to fund our budget, putting us right back to where we were if you go all the way back to 43. Right. So, we're we're back to where we were on 43, using $66,000 of our non-lapsent, applying it to the special education tuition, using the savings from the bus contract, and using the savings from the retirement of the executive assistant to rest reinstate or remove the eliminations for um all of the not all, but the majority of of of feedback we received from the community and the in the in the um
028input we received on what was from the community's vantage point um necessary to be able to maintain to the best of our ability within the restrictions of of finance um moving into the 25 26 year. Does that all make sense? Tim, can I say something? Absolutely. Okay. Unfortunately, I don't know how this happened, but the town's people seemed to think or the majority of the town's people seemed to think that when the 66,000 was removed by the board of finance, they were saying that you needed to that we needed to cut those two positions of the two aids, which the board of finance cannot tell us what to cut. They can only tell us how much money we need to cut. So, I mean, they said cut 66. They didn't say that we had to
029cut the 28. The 66 could have come from any place else. And I think that's why that's what they're trying to say is you need to cut 66. Not that we want you to reinstate these two positions just because it equals that amount. You have to find $66,000 someplace. That is a it is a correct statement that the board of finance cannot tell us um exactly which line items to cut within our budget. They can tell us what they can tell us to make a cut. Um coincidence or or or or by direction. um that $66,000 um as we had already seen from our superintendent was the proposal to be able to get us down to the 98%. Right. um when we remove those again that was our superintendent as well as his administration's suggestion
030to us of being least impactful to the students in telling us that we have a very lean budget with very little room for any unforeseen. Um we've heard that over and over at our meetings. Um I was at the meeting when the 66 was cut. I believe if you look at the tape it was it's not a coincidence, right? where where again they knew where it was going to come from even though they couldn't tell us where it was going to come from, right? Um but at the end of the day, when you look at our budget and you look at a $10 million budget, we've taken money out of emergency repairs, we've taken money out of, again, you look at this list. Um the board of education has looked at the budget very closely
031and we've sent our superintendent back with the administration on a half dozen occasions, right, to to tell us in their professional opinion as those who are operating our educational system where we'd have to make that cut. And this has been the answer every single time. Are there any further questions on this sheet? I mean, again, is it clear, right? Because we want to use this to be able to communicate the message to the community. Does anybody have any suggestions on on changes or do you think that this this lays out the I think it works. So, we just need to make a motion to remove the budget from the town referendum. Yeah. The first thing we'll need to do is we'll need to um I'll need a motion to resend the board of education. um
032adopted budget of 10,258676 at an increase of $424,145 or a 4.31% increase to the board of education budget. I have a move by moved by Tom Buzzy, second by Tim. Yep. Right. Any further discussion? Can we make this sheet that we're looking at right now available to the public? Yes, that's the intention of it. Yep. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I could see everybody, so please signify by raising your hand. Uh that is unanimous. Okay. So, the second thing we need to do tonight is we need a motion to adopt a revised budget of 10,324,676 or a 4.98% increase at the value of $490,146. A motion to adopt that budget. A motion by Tim. We get a second. Uh either one. We'll get a second by Kristen. Any uh any discussion?
033I just have one question. How what was the difference between, you know, you said the 002% or something like that? Do we know an actual dollar amount? $6,000. Yeah, there was there was a clerical there was a clerical mistake or error made in in transferring our grant number from our board of ed budget that was accurately reflected into the town's overall spreadsheet or their budget and that was picked up and the inconsistency was brought up at the last board of finance meeting that was corre corrected. That'll be the 02 difference between the previous referendum and this referendum because what had taken place at the board of finance is no net increase to the town's no no additional net increase to the town taxes and it was again taking money from a surplus or a contingency
034and applying it to the board of education to support the 66 and the community feedback that was that was received. And did you say there were there was no mistake on our end and No, our numbers were accurately reflected. Yep. Okay. Any further questions? Tim, so you said the board of I didn't get a chance to go to the board of finance meeting. The board of finance um voted all of them voted down to in this increase of the budget. The board of finance voted down increasing the taxes, right? So, every board member on the board of finance voted down for increasing taxes in the town. I believe that's accurate. Penny, you might know more. I I don't recall the actual vote. I don't know if it was unanimous. The vote, Wait a minute. The
035vote to the vote The motion was made to add back in the $100,000 and it was def the NAC took it and there was only one yes. Okay. So that's the answer dear you're looking for. So there was one who voted. So one person voted yes to put 100,000 back into the budget and the remainder of the board of finance voted no on increasing taxes to the residents of this town. That is correct. And we're making decisions based on 50 letters from people. Half of which said don't increase and half of which said uh please keep this money in the budget for education. Is that what I'm understanding? Yes. That's all. That's the only information that any board can use. Right. Is what's received. So we have 6,000 people in town and we have a
036100 letters some for some against for tax increase. That's correct. Okay. And there was only 474 people that voted in the referendum this time. That is correct. Which again, if if we have that conversation, that is actually a high output of voters for a referendum in the town of New Harford as as stated by our first election. Usually, it's around 300. Frank, I I see your mouth moving. I think you might be on mute. Are we are we allowed to as a board be involved in any kind of a get the vote out? What do you mean get the vote out? Encourage communications. No, we can communicate. Yeah, we can we can put communications out through the Friday folder, which again I think would be something we could look at. We could get the vote
037out through the PTO. U my understanding from what I'm hearing is they're they're active right now in the social media world. Um again there's a sign again and that was a big topic of discussion at the the board of finance me meeting as well with public comment was how do we get more people out to vote but that's not a challenge that we can solve as a board of education. They also said at the board of finance meeting that it was suggested maybe sending out a postcard to remind people to vote in the referendum and that costs at least $2,000 to send out a mailing to everyone in town. But we have the have the sign down at the town hall in front of the town hall. You also have that sign up here by
038Antalini School by the road that goes into Antalini school announcing the referendum. And it's up to people to read those signs. If they don't read that and they don't read social media, I don't know how else you're going to be able to tell people to get out to vote. Have they set a date? No. Tomorrow night is the board of selecting meeting at which they will select the date for the next referendum. If the next referendum gets voted down and there is no budget passed, then you will go back to having your tax bills sent out with last year's tax increase, then you'll have to play catch-up in January when the second tax bill comes out. That's correct. Well, I appreciate that the board of finance um did what they did and listened to people.
039I heard from a lot of people who probably didn't write letters that they voted against the budget because of the cuts on the education. But in some of those letters that were received by the board of finance, people were under the impression that these two positions were teaching positions, which I don't believe that they are. I don't think we can really speculate regarding the intentions of every person who wrote a letter. I think we can take the action that we can take right now. Um, and if if we're taken, we believe, generally speaking, I believe most people on this board believe that this was granted to us in order to help fund these positions in the schools. And if this we can verify that by essentially passing this budget that will allow for us to
040keep those on staff and then we go back to the town and then if people voted down again then we can figure out a way or it's not really our full responsibility to figure out a way to get more input from everybody because it's not just our budget that's at stake that people are voting for. I understand everybody's concerns about interpreting stuff. We just we do not have hard enough data. We just have the data that we have. So is there any further discussion? All right. Seeing none, um we'll again signify by raising hands. Again, this is to adopt the revised budget in the far right column, column G, at 10,324676, a total increase to the board of education, 49146, and a 4.98% increase um to our budget. All those in favor, please signify by
041raising your hand. Uh all those opposed and any abstensions. So I see uh one, two, three, four, five uh 54, two against. So the motion passes 520. That is our Oh, what is it? Five to zero. You had few. No, five. Yeah, 520. Oh, okay. Um, that's our business for today. Can I get a motion to adjurnn at 611? So moved. Moved by Kristen, second by Tom. All those in favor? Thank you all for joining. I appreciate your time on a special meeting on a Monday night. Enjoy the rest of your night. Look forward to