001hard work how are you thanks for coming app it ma'am okay thanks everyone for coming I'm going to call the new Harford Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting 25th at 7:01 p.m. if you would please join me if you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance we I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay next agenda item is order of business I have no changes to the order of business we'll move on to uh item C Communications to the board of education and public comment so since last meeting we did receive a couple um Communications from the community I shared them with everyone the one came from um Mrs Mrs wilzak first
002um who was here she spoke at our meeting she did share her information with us after the meeting um so that'll be part of the record we also received um I received through text some information from Christen CBA um that I also shared with the board so that'll become part of our minutes and the final piece came from Samantha Ward Samantha Ward uh regarding budget that was shared with the entire board so that'll also become part of our minutes for today and I don't believe we have any additional Communications the board okay um next that a public comment would anybody like to address the board all right seeing none we'll move right on to item number D superintendent report superintendent Sosa thank you so much and thank you for all of our participants that are
003here our leadership team and for Lou joining us from the board of Finance much appreciated thank you thank you so much for coming tonight all right um we'll kick off with our just a quick update regarding our HVAC systems so the engineering reports have been completed and that we need to make sure that we um state that publicly today to fulfill the obligations under the Public Act to make sure that our indoor air quality is tested yearly and our HVAC systems are updated or yearly not tested for every five years um so we're in compliance we've completed all those reports the purpose of this update is just to Simply allow the public and all to know that it is posted on our website for public inspection that includes our HVAC inspections our Tools for Schools
004um checklist and also our indoor air quality that's reviewed briefly um during our last meeting any questions on updates for HVAC on that report that Kelly Anne had sent out they mentioned that some of our systems are fair or poor do we have a ballpark figure like how much it's going to cost to fix them or replace them orever no because those items have just arrived so that report is there's a lot of recommendation so then the next steps will be to convene with our um facilities team to review the report and to provide recommendations um nothing is failing there's a lot of recommendations in there to consider but nothing is something that is dangerous or out of compliance or anything of that I didn't think that but it just said like they should be
005you know we're recommending that they be replaced because they they're at the end of their so I was just curious yeah nothing with imminent immediacy thank you of course you mind Jeff if I can just again kick off the next item for the superintendent's proposed budget um for tonight this is a report right this is for our board this is a report out um of the superintendent's proposed budget um please ask any questions for clarification on the content right of what's in here the formatting anything like that or what the item might be for um but again all the questions similar we had done last budget season I'd like everybody to take this again it's our first read through it take it home right U review it for yourself and feed questions through me I'll
006compile those questions from all board members get them over to superintendent Sosa to be able to um then take those questions respond to all those questions and have those available for us at our next meeting we canie um I don't think we're gonna how quickly do we need to have that done I can work on the weekend so Friday would be ideal but we have a number of times that we're going to be getting together so prior to um March 4th is our next meeting and our budget timeline so ideally Friday of this week if not Monday at the latest to provide me time to review all of the questions um last year we had well over a hundred so it does take time to go through them and make sure that I have responses
007to all of the questions that are proposed by our board members and then again it is best when you send them over to me again if you if you look at this budget and the format of it um each one of the items comes with a a u category you know I'm looking at technology 2400 and then a line item um each of them has a number so if you give me those questions in that order make sure use your compile and I'll try to put everything together um to make it as efficient as possible and try to eliminate any repeat questions good fair enough yes thank you also want the number you said if possible yeah y the more clear you make it for the question you're asking the easier it is for me
008to pull it all together again awesome thank you all right so we'll kick off I have our budget presentation here all the materials that are board members inclusive of this presentation are available online for our viewing public so thank you so much for everyone that's logged in and viewing as we kick off the budget season of 2526 in our preparation there are many many phases for new board members or those that are in the public will'll review that timeline the first of which is tonight's presentation to provide the information performance for our 2526 school year inclusive of everything that we do contractual salaries Health Care everything is here within the budget so but why do we do what we do every day you could see the beautiful smiling faces that are here before us this
009is exactly why these are the heartbeat of everything that we are doing on a daily basis so all of our students here improving their lives and providing a very important Educational Service to our families and to our New Hartford Community I really want to emphasize before I continue that this is a we effort this is not just the Board of Ed and isolation this is not the superintendent and isolation this is not just the board of Finance this is everybody collectively working through this entire budget process to provide the absolute best educational opportunity for our each and every one of our unique 433 students that we have this year um and going forward so today we're going to take a very high level look at some of the objectives that we want to accomplish but
010also some of the drivers and assumptions and we'll go back and forth from the presentation here and we'll jump into very highlevel categorical conversations and information within our proposed budget that is U sitting there before you so what are we doing we're fostering friendships as we can see here we're also fostering wonderful experiences uh for our students on a daily basis whether they're field trips or something as simple as recess and we're providing those conditions for our kiddos we're modeling that and we are very very proud of the work that we do so much so I'm not going to limit it to some professions but I mean even the pre- students they want to be dentists so here they are working on their Dentistry um some are showing you their teeth others are not you
011know um they're working on it but we are so proud again to offer such an expansive um education for our kiddos and prek being one of those beautiful highlights that we have within our district well we also have entrepreneurs we have Architects we have mechanics we have future everything um here you can see some of our friends smiling with their beautiful faces and some of their free play time that they have which is so critical to creative thinking to compromise to social interactions to negoti to being kind to their peers to caring for others our mission is also very clear in terms of what we're here to do we are partnering with our families and our community our entire Community to inspire and prepare all children to become independent and enthusiastic Learners who Achieve Personal
012Excellence by providing a challenging and exemplary education program that's different differentiated inclusive and dynamic so our students deserve the best and together we are absolutely committed to doing so so here are some more smiling faces across the breath of grade levels that we have here in New Hartford some of the things that again Drive our work our mission statement our kids being the first and foremost are some of our goals that are located within our bylaws of what the Board of Education some of the jobs that we have some of the the goals that we continue to strive towards are providing exemplary curriculum that holds the highest expectations for student achievement this is supported through our new El education through the support of improving our instruction and here are our kids engaged in new literacy
013curriculum and new math curriculum as well as some of the highlights another goal that the board of education has is to create and sustain an educational Community responsive to the intellectual social and emotional needs of children so this is supported by um the investment in our new I'm sorry let me flip to the next page this is uh supported by reviewing student progress every single day um on a quarterly we look at students on um throughout the school year we have very specific dedicated times to our mtss process but our obviously all of our educational experts are evaluating kids on a day-to-day basis um even so much so um that we're reiterating again those very important um conditions of connecting with ourselves and our peers uh such as being kind be the ey in kind
014taking care of others and even some Mohawk Specialists as well here for your viewing pleasure goal number three we want to encourage and assist all students to develop their fullest potential to their fullest potential and to be the initiators of their own learning so here we see kiddos working together on a scientific experiment here working on erosion and discovering what it is what is exactly happening as water is running off of sand for example um so this is just another example of providing so many opportunities for our kids to learn and explore at their levels and to encourage that thirst for knowledge so with that in mind our number one focus is our kids what we want to provide for them it and it has to be the best because that is exactly what new
015Harford Public Schools um Endeavors to do some of the budget assumptions that are going to drive some of the decision-making that we have going before us and some things that we need to absolutely know about are we have increased cost for employee health care we have increased costs for transportation these are not new these are on a yearly basis we talk about these there's a decrease in excess cost grants so at the State Legislative Lev level I've informed the board before I've even written to our legislators of that impact that that has when those grants don't come in and they're decreased and we also have increase in outplacement so students that come to us from every Walk of Life wherever they come from students that are with us currently as their needs increase and we
016are found that within LR or least restrictive environment that we can no longer provide services here it goes through the PPT process it is made as a team decision to have students to be outplaced but that is another driver of our um budget so let's take a look a little bit deeper into some of the other drivers of our budget you'll see our employee salaries are listed here those are for all certified in contractual increases plus their Step at $161,000 our employee benefits our insurance right now for the town and the Board of Education working within our Consortium is approximately 11% which calculates out to be about $153,000 a purchase service that the board has discussed in the past is for an armed security guard at Aeros security at a cost of $75,000 in under
017regular education we have our Connecticut Junior Republic which is a current program that we have now unfortunately we do not have grant funding for this any longer but this is a program that's provided to all students regular Ed or General Ed for every child to help families to be able to engage in counseling supports within the school day not outside of the school day so it's very very very powerful program that we have currently going uh our Improvement of instruction as we talked about and in part of our board goals continuing to our new literacy uh curriculum in roll out with professional development and materials previously that was Grant funded with the right to read grant that is no longer the case at a cost of 23,000 for Pupil Transportation our bus contracts for regular
018Ed and special education is still out to bid so we have requested proposals and we are doing this collaboratively with region 7 and pupil Services as I mentioned before our outplacement tuition is up to $300,000 again with students that need outplacement yes sir okay is it one or two things oh okay okay my apologies okay thank you that was might might have been an older version that was printed off earlier so I'll make sure that well again everything's provided online that's updated but I make sure that we have all the newest versions across the board thank you for making me aware of that so here yes correct yes Connecticut Junior Republic so were were yeah we had a grant that covered this and a grant that covered all of these gone that is correct yeah
019or we have applied and were're not awarded for the Connecticut Junior Republic Grant something that funded that grant that would that we did not receive that and this this grant is gone so the state of Connecticut provided uh $40,000 at the onset to begin to launch the new program uh for our schools and now that that is over now the um expected um contribution is the $23,000 for our consumables and other materials that we need to continue that work on the other side of the coin we have decreases so these are the grants that are projected that we'll be receiving I want to highlight that it's $434,000 that's approximately 4% of our budget or $400,000 so without these grants these are all included within the budget you'll see them typically in red and their offsets
020so these grants are extremely well received they we are extremely grateful to both federal government and to the Connecticut state government for all of the assistance that they provide to new har for public schools but also across the state of Connecticut so this is the breakdown of the grants that we receive on a yearly and also another decrease that we have is applying our prek tuition against the salaries um and you'll see that later on within the budget presentation as well this is a pie chart again just demonstrating where a majority of the monies are spent um this is a yearly uh repetitive portion that certified staff salaries take up the majority for both regular education and special education followed up with employee benefits at 19.4% of our budget so those are the top three
021main drivers our contractual obligations and our health care that we provide to our all of our staff and their families as we dive a little bit deeper and we're going to take a look now at our categories if you would follow along with me we're going to go into the actual proposed budget document so we'll start on page number nine 10 and 11 we'll start with regular education I'll just go over some highlights under each one some main drivers or some main changes okay so the first one within our budget if you guys would turn your attention to page number 11 you'll see here uh some of the um more significant changes is under instructional assistance under 112 you'll see there that there was a reduction of $45,000 that's because our data system specialist was
022moved to the technology line so we'll see that later reflected that was um through bargaining um and through collective bargaining with our unions that position was located there and we've um replaced that or moved that to our technology line under Connecticut Junior Republic under 320 under purchase Services as I was mentioned that $350 or 300 sorry that $35,000 is no longer Grant funded purchase Services also provides for our White Memorial Field Trip dare and others um and that's located in the narrative on the pages beforehand but those are just some of the um highlights that I wanted to point out under regular education if you turn the page over to page number 12 you'll see what I was just referring to a moment ago for our textbooks and our resources you'll see that the projected
023smalltown right to read Grant is no longer um available because that was just to start up the programs for all of the school districts so um based on some of the calculations and then again getting quotes from our companies that we utilize the cost difference there is about $25,000 but the language arts component for our new curriculum is 23,000 out of that amount again without any offsets there turning over to special education we could take a look over on page number 16 looking specifically at tuitions which is uh the largest driver under this category of out placements you'll see that there's a a rely $290,000 increase and that's again to meet the needs of our most fragile and needy children that are not able to engage in public education here that need either a more
024therapeutic setting or an alternative setting um that again has been decided at the PPT process through the PPT process continuing on I'd like to direct our attention to page number 21 under Health Service these lines represent all that we do to navigate viruses colds uh and keeping us all as healthy as possible so a great uh Kudos and shout out to all of our nurses at our three buildings and doing so and some of the uh materials that they need to make sure that we are staying healthy under Improvement of instruction on page number 23 again we can see there that um the arpa re right to read Grant under professional development 324 is no longer um something that's available to us because that was uh previous available only previously so we see an increase
025there in professional development under Improvement of instruction moving on to page number 2 our um our library media specialist Mr miltmore um he's I don't know how he does it but he's in all three buildings running three libraries providing resources for all uh and collaborating with all Educators to provide the best for our kids uh not just book recommendations there's so much more to the library media center and its curriculum and the collaboration that takes place for research projects whether technologically or with you know written resources or electronic resources as well so kudos to Mr miltmore and continuing um our very proud library media centers which are little heartbeats of our school because it's a hub where kids are always at and engaging in uh research or conversations or even some of our stem learning
026that Mr milmore has engaged our students in moving on to page number 27 you'll see they under 112 our data system specialist has been moved from that other bargaining unit to here so this is an individual that works under the guys of Mr Paul Carman our Technologies director to provide data reporting um and also all of our system structures not just Power School um for our entire district and then from plant operations we moved uh several contract so you'll see that because they were not really aligned it became plan operations was more of a catchall for every single service that we had and we wanted to really do a better job in cleaning up our budget and putting things again every year we do uh make some overhauls so we move the data managing licenses
027from the plan operations to technology where it really belongs and the description of all those are listed on the uh narrative on the page before on page number 26 moving on to board of education on page number 30 as our next area or Department or category we'll see that there's an increase there for our legal fees of $155,000 again that is to protect our district our interests and uh our schools and all of our staff members and any decisions that are need to be made whether for any student or staff member in consultation with um our attorneys on the next page again see one of those on page 33 line number 320 our professional technological Services was moved again from Plant Services it really was again just a catchall but these Professional Services are very
028specific to a districtwide function for central office so those are um to prepare review and submit the educational Financial system which is one of our auditing uh measures that we submit um as a state report and that we also work with the town's independent accountant to do so so those are the charges that are um accounted for there under School offices it's strictly uh contractual increases on page number 35 and these are for our educational leaders sitting here in the room tonight thank you for being here they evaluate staff provide feedback and I can't even continue to list all that they do um they're providing feedback to improve the practice of our Educators and they are educational experts as well and they are always thinking of children first that's their first and foremost so I'm
029extremely impressed with them they also Foster a climate and culture of all the buildings that is positive and nurturing to our best interests for kids and they do so so much more um also our administrative assistants our secretaries there they are incredibly organized they basically run the ship not just answering phone calls they're providing information to and from all the time either central office or parents that call in or addressing any other needs that come into the uh into the schools they're also our first um smiley face that you'll see when you walk in so very important first impression so plan operations is our next area and again we took a uh some of these items you'll see listed on pages number 38 and 39 and move them to more succinct areas of where they
030belong so you'll see there's strikethroughs there but we wanted to make sure that the dollar variance is still comparable from last year to this year um you'll see there that um there's again many that are stricken through that have been moved to different areas um and plan operations essentially ensures that our schools are clean the custodians are really really instrumental for that that they're gleaming that they're safe they are in charge of removing God knows they've been here over the weekends to do that as well and even the ice to do their absolute best with that so that's located on page number 38 and 39 y Pages 38 and 39 so I'm discussing uh plan operations some larger drivers there are under utilities again with the anticipated increase in electricity costs that's one driver there
031um one other positive there is Communications because of our department of justice Grant uh We've essentially eliminated our phone bills for the next um four to five years as you can see there from a $14,000 cost yearly to about $1,000 which is a nice win there for us but utility cost are not helping with that unfortunately at the bottom of page number 39 we'll see that fuel uh right underneath fuel you'll see postage um so Postage and advertising were just sitting in an category all to its own and we really felt that that was more of a districtwide function for plan operations so we've moved them here just to consolidate our budget and that's postage for all of our schools and central office but also advertising for vacancies for requ for proposals for the uh
032for the entire District so that's why we've moved it under plan operations again further level highlights that we have under employee benefits on page number 42 you'll see there the increase for medical and dental at approximately $153,000 our pension fund for non-certified staff offered through the town is increased by 23,5 A5 unemployment compensation is a great highlight it's dropped by $15,000 which is nice to report out and our tuition reimbursement instead of being under Improvement for instruction it really is an employee benefit our staff are encouraged to sign up for a program of studies uh to further their um skill sets and uh professional degrees so when they do so contractually we have $10,000 every year that we award as reimbursement to our teachers for their credits that they take at universities for Approved programs
033of study so that's why that's been moved there that was previously under the Improvement of instruction it just sat there and the real benefit is to have it be something that teachers can access so that's why it's under employee benefits instead sure sure if and when we get those solar panels then will we benefit in that line item so reduce our cost yes you know I don't it's not going to be this coming budget year correct yeah I if I would if I knew that now I would obviously put it into the budget now but without knowing that that's the projected cost of what electricity will cost for us um that could be a potential area of savings going forward but again um I made it clear that without having a very good deal for
034us to engage in with the first selectman and myself agreeing to that we're on pause and on hold until we feel like we've got a good deal for our town of course under Pupil Transportation um again because that's out to bid right now I'm not going to offer public comment I want to continue to make sure that we leverage our negotiating power on that we are out to bid with region 7 on that hope to have more information on that before the end of the budget cycle so that we could have more hard numbers in this particular area but until until then I'm not going to comment um and then Communications as I just stated you'll see that has been moved over to plant operations instead of being a category all on its own wrapping
035up at the end of the budget you'll see a couple Pages which I'll refer back to they're also located in our presentation so for our Capital requests which have been reviewed and we did this very with a very strict mindset on the fact that our operating costs were going to be greater so we try to significantly decrease this and ask for the bare minimal for our Capital requests um we have a board of education minivan that is currently um rusted has had significant issues and is not uh very conducive to driving um this board of AD minivan travels our mail from our schools to central office all of the time for postage it also retrieves equipment from outplacement facilities and back to us or from school to school and central office as equipment is needed
036so that our custodians use the minivan for those purposes um I had presented this to the board of Finance uh under our five-year Capital plan uh already our indoor air quality is to continue to maintain that and make sure that we're compliant and our technology is to continue our refresh process every single year for our incoming kindergarteners as well as Promethean boards so these reach end of cycle um Paul Carmen and I meet and discuss that all of the time we go through approximately three or four Promethean boards a year we attempt to replace them especially because they're out of life cycle or out of support and the same with our student Chromebooks our students are they receive Chromebooks as kindergarteners and they travel with them all the way to sixth grade by that time
037seven years later they're out of service and they are obviously newer Technologies available so then that's part of our re refresh process thank you reviewing our five-year Capital plan as well which we reviewed um again with the board of Finance earlier and we've obviously had it here at the Board of Ed just want to quickly review this it again reiterates this year's um requests with projected years going out and this again is a fluid document as priorities or other things come about we have to adjust and M um make sure that we are providing what we need to for large capital projects very thankful to the board of finance and the board of education for continuing to support what we need um that are larger projects for our schools all right if I could rewind
038a little bit and bring everyone's attention back here so the total request is 871 14555 as it stands right now that is subject to change as we go through our entire process or an 8.86 budget increase request so other good news to share with the Board of Education and with our entire town is that educational cost share is the amount of monies there's a formula I could go into more detail at a completely different time but there's a formula at the state level that has been tried to it's been tried several times to be corrected and our legislature continues to work through this but um a historical just a quick little snapshot this is the amount of money that the state of Connecticut provides our town if you want to think of it as a
039reimbursement so every year about 3% of our budget is covered by this so educational cost share in the past 1920 you could see that we had two years where we lost money again according to their formula and then we were held harmless for the next three years meaning we didn't receive any we also didn't lose any so we've been stuck at $2.9 million that is sent to the town from the state of Connecticut to help with the cost of education so if the cost was $10 million 2.9 would be coming back to offset the cost of those two point uh of that $10 million so good news in this current year that we're in right now we are receiving an extra $5,195 anything is better than nothing and um right now as it stands in
040uh 2025 26 with the governor's um proposed biannual budget New Hartford Public Schools an extra almost $100,000 for our educational cost share that the state of Connecticut provides to uh for all education here in New Hartford which is great news just visiting back oh did someone have a question yes dear Dre yes ma'am no this no it's not a yep and that's town a grant that offsets this is just giving more put forth e e e Jeff for the armed security shouldn't there be an offset on that for um yeah I'm on here sorry shouldn't there be an offset on that for the money that we had set aside so that that would be the position we e e e thank you I I might have been muted I apologize so I'm I'm with you
041on class sizes and then it tailed off because I was on mute correct yep and if you look at 2425 the projection at time was 428 we ended up with 433 they're best guess scenarios based on birth rates and um I could tell you next year that that will be increased significantly because all the covid babies there's 66 that were born that are going to be coming through the system so there'll be another large bubble yeah yeah so 25 26 that's what we're looking like I 418 is a guess it's an estimate just like everything you know really is in the budget because things happen all year long that you can never anticipate or project but that 418 I would guess would be over 420 pretty easily um we typically get about half a dozen
042kids that move into town um over the summertime it's been a consistent trend okay there no questions contat everybody have a clear understanding how Tod and prepare to SM whatever questions you have prior to Friday or on Friday if possible that way I can compile them over the weekend and get them to Jeff so he can work on them on Sunday I will he knows he knows that's what I'll be doing church and then work all right thank you everybody so much for your attention I appreciate it I have kind of a new board member question abely so you have the capital budget which is separate from this budget yep and how does it get decided whether it's capital or like plant op operations yeah typically the threshold is around $10,000 or greater and if
043we know that that's a cost that um can be fulfilled through the capital project that's what I've been um advised to do so going forward from when I started working here as a superintendent and I also I think we also look at it is maintenance related items wouldn't fall into Capital right so Capital would be again new purchases or large as Jeff just described large Replacements or repairs that are required any other questions for now okay uh moving on to the next item on the agenda is Board of Education chair's report I do not have anything for tonight uh moving on to routine business we have the approval of the minutes for the February 4th 2025 meeting I will ENT entertain a motion to approve I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes of
044the February 4th February 4th yeah I'll second move by Penny seconded by Frank um any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by raising your hand that is unanimous all right next item is the expenditure report um I'll entertain a motion to approve I'll make a motion that we approve the expenditure report motion by Penny do we have a second second by dearry any discussion on the expenditure report the only question I have Jeff and I was I actually should asked for when we were in here um any closer to the fin audit we get any information from the Auditors at this point for um no they asked for some clarification just recently so we had worked with one of the individuals at King and King uh we clarified something that they had
045brought up to our attention just the way that uh funds were reclassified it had never been a problem prior to so we adjusted that and resubmitted our component uh for the entire Town's budget um the entire Town's audit I should say so awaiting finalization and I believe that they would present next to the board of Finance if I'm not mistaken correct yeah okay so it's in progress which is good good excellent are there any other questions on the expenditure report seeing none all those in favor please signify by raising your hand uh that is unanimous okay we have no new business for tonight moving on to Old business we have some second reads of policies ready ready okay so the first first one is policy 92 whoops sorry the first one is policy 9274 bylaws
046of the board board member code of conduct we went over this at the last meeting so this is just a second read any questions comments there no questions or comments can we get a motion to approve make the motion motion by Tim a second second by Eric any additional questions or comments seeing none all those in favor that is unanimous next one is policy 9273 bylaws of the board conflict of interest again the only changes were that we added new Harford where there used to be a blank space or probably ex's to reflect our schools and our Board of Education any questions comments you get a motion I'll make a motion that we approve them motion by Penning I'll second second by Frank thank you any questions or comments all those in favor that is
047unanimous and the final one is policy 61 63.3 instruction live animals in the classroom it was regarding service animals in school what is permitted what is not permitted any questions or concerns or comments about live animals in school like dogs and not h I have not reconsidered no thank you our policy does State no miniature horses please nor snakes nor ants can spiders can I get a motional approve please motion by dearg second second by Frank thank you any additional questions or comments regarding the type of animals we're allowing in school okay um all those in favor please signify by raising your hand that is unanimous uh that concludes our old business uh next item is public comment for agenda items only anybody like to address the board going once going twice okay I will
048entertain a motion tojn wait a minute I'm sorry you can we get a copy of the updated budget or do we want do you want us to print it off from online no I I will take care of it okay thank you most up to date not draft some draft and some not apologize that was my Tim I know this might be out of order but I have just a quick question sure can I ask yeah before we adjourn if it's related to the negotiations on um transportation have we ever done a bus audit to examine use and efficiency of the buses because sometimes I'll look and I'll not see many kids on it yeah that's part of our RFP if we want to take a look at it online it's a very lengthy document
049but we've done the audit so that we're asking for specifically what we feel is needed so it would be a reduction but that's online publicly so I could state that and again just to the board you know when we talked specifically about bus transportation several years ago there was a A subcommittee in the board approved we actually paid a higher yearly rate for several years so that we could align our negotiations with region 7 so we had more buying power um so this is now going to tell us I guess whether that was a good move or a bad move right but again aligning ourselves with region 7 gives us again the ability to you know if it's dco again which again we hope it is dco again but you know they've done a nice
050job for us but again we can align those and get more buying power by using all all the schools in the in the district here in New Harford as well as region sou all right can I get a motion to adjourn at uh time is it uh 7:57 so moved moved by Penny second second by Tim all those in favor thank you you could also be just on the buses for x amount of minutes no you can't the little kids can't be on the buses too awfully long and that was part of the agreement that's why sometimes you only have one or two kids I think ours is is one hour if I recall her