001really everybody here. >> Yes. >> Are we all set? >> We're going to go ahead and proceed and call this meeting to start. If everyone would stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and [snorts] to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> And Dr. Po over. Oh, is there anybody here for public comment? >> Dr. >> Thank you very much. So, we of course are on night three of our budget presentations. Uh this evening, we'll hear from uh special education and we will hear from facilities maintenance and we'll hear about human resources. So, uh we will begin tonight with Dr. Kulkin. Um and she is joined by supervisors Mrs. Bergner
002and Mrs. Phillips. >> Thank you, Dr. Good evening. I just want to point out as I get started that the presentation of that first slide does not necessarily match your first slide of your book and it seems moving in the past and had a date is January 20th of 2025. So it's corrected there but your it still has the old prettier version of the slide. So, I want to thank you for the opportunity for having Lauren Bergner and Kristen Phillips and I here with you as I guide you through the highlights of the student services department as it pertains to I want to share with you my appreciation for the privilege of working on Maryland. Kristen Phillips, supervisor of middle and high school and supervisor of prek through grade five as well as with the
003teachers, the parent educators, administrators, related service staff include certified behavior analysts, our related service staff also includes the psychologist, speech language pathologist alo contracted providers who work with us here privilege to be in the roles. since the start of July. Also want to share with you that the parents I've spoken with and the beginning of my work here are advocates for their students and it's been a wonderful partnership and seeing that their efforts are Oh, I put together. >> Okay. >> Are they right here? >> That's it. >> There's the mystery. >> Mystery solved. >> I'm sorry. No, that was me. >> We're all looking at facilities. We're all looking at facilities and going, "You're right. It doesn't match. [laughter] >> A big discrepancy. We're not that far off the cookies. Um, so I just
004want to uh share with you the great partnership with the families and how proud I am to work in a community that really prioritizes and seeks to address the necessary change so that we can realize the district's mission and allow all students educational opportunities realize themselves learners. >> [clears throat] >> I will agree your mission or our mission to the department. I think we turned through all of the presentations over the past week and up to week. But the reason why I do provide this slide here, the impact on the slide once more is just to remind you that our student services department aligns our work with the district's mission. We strive to realize the district's commitment to all students and ensuring that each and every student is prepared to excel in an everchanging world.
005[snorts] In consideration of the district's mission, the Department of Student Services has drafted a revised statement of belief to serve as our department's north star. [snorts] And to summarize what you see in front of you, I want to share that we believe in collaboration and partnership, seeing the whole child, not just their identified disabilities that qualify them for special education. We truly believe that through intentional design of systems and instructional practices, all students will be successful and these four areas serve as our guide for work ahead as we look upon the foundation of special education across the school district. With this in mind, since the start of the school year, thus far, the department has engaged in several central areas of work. I'd like to highlight So it's with gratitude for having the findings of
006the 2425 opportunity with you [cough] demonstrated a true commitment of you as the board of education and the district to ensuring that the district engages in continuous improvement processes to address the needs of students with disabilities. With that end with thanks for the dedication of our professional staff. I'm pleased to share with you some of the work that we have begun and that we will continue to focus [clears throat] on. And through this work, collaboration, communication, and continued growth are foundational elements in our actions to bring the work that we believe in. We regularly scheduled meetings as a department administrative team and a variety of stakeholder groups including teacher union, par [clears throat] educator union, our building administrators, teams of teachers and staff addressing best practices in special education. We collaboratively problem solve. We identify
007proactive steps for improving student learning and addressing staff needs and ensure excellent teaching and learning and effective and efficient use of our resources. We regularly examine outcomes for students, our practices, and identify shifts and enhancements as to how we will best address students and staff needs. We've also developed an ongoing department professional leadership team structure for examining our special education practices throughout the district. We work to align understanding of and implementation of best practices and leadership of the special education department across the prek through 12 plus grade spectrum. As an illustration of the dedication of district administrators and staff for examining and improving outcomes for students with disabilities, we have a district-wide team of professionals participating in a year-long planning and placement team leadership instituted which is facilitated by the state department of education circ
008and CPAC parent organization state [clears throat] of Connecticut. Through this process, we have teachers, administrators, and related service professionals demonstrating [cough and clears throat] understanding and expectations of compliant and high quality PPT meeting facilitation. Through this year-long leadership teamwork, we have identified areas that will greatly benefit from improvements in how we prepare for, communicate about, and engage in the IEP development via the planning and placement. In fact, we're in the midst of developing a district standards and corresponding toolkit for use across all of our schools. Also, [clears throat] an internal department website's been launched for staff. It's meant as a collaborative effort for memorializing and providing information and resources that directly impact their work as members of the team. At a recent board meeting, we discussed the introduction of a comprehensive program that includes professional
009learning for understanding student behavior tools for promoting adult and student emotional regulation, helping students in the deescalation process, and responding to instances [clears throat] of emotional dysregulation. The aim of being to improve students and staff reduce the frequency of restraint and seclusions and adults. Those are a few of the overarching areas the department's been engaging in. It is no doubt a collective effort. Okay, I'm glad to provide you a review of the department's organizational structure with information on the next few slides. Excellent. So, in the department, there are three administrative positions. That's us here before you. Three central office students serve as secretaries who are incredible the work that they do. There are three board certified behavior analysts. Currently, we have six Excel preschool classroom teachers. with two teachers at the Lichfield Hills Transition Center.
010Nearly 60 students uh nearly 60 teachers, special education teachers from K to 12. In those positions, four of them serve in formal leadership roles. They also have contracted assisted technology, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. Dr. Prol proposed in his budget presentation last week a reduction in 0.5 special education teacher positions at each of the elementary schools in the K2 realm for the 2627 school year. That reduction will increase average case sizes at NES from 7.8 to 8.6 and the result at HPS at Hill and Plains is estimated to be from six and a half students on a teacher's case load to 7.4 for with that reduction. So, just wanted you to have frame of reference for the impact of that reduction. Moving to other elements of the student services department, other staffing. Additionally, our department
011includes 9.4 nurses, point4 of which currently serves Faith Academy. We have seven school psychologist positions, nine social worker positions, 9.4 speech and language pathologists. Approximately 100 power educator positions currently are filled with combination of skill for public school employees and through contracted agencies substitute staffing agencies. We also contract for student care workers working in our schools. In addition to the board operating budget, I think it's just important to recognize that we also utilize IDA funds to pay for some a portion of the student services staff salaries and benefits. Collectively, we're serving construction programs approximately 18 and a half% of your legal folks. Over recent years though, New Milford public schools remains slightly lower than the state average with regard to the prevalence rate for students requiring special education. The prevalence of new Milford public school
012students requiring special education programming has incrementally incrementally increased over the years and in many cases students needs have also the information here for you represents trends by primary disability classification over recent years. And when we review the trends in classification administrated here, you might notice that there's [snorts] been an increase in the prevalence rate of ident >> [clears throat] >> identification of students with autism, mental disability, and other health impairments. Other health impairment does include diagnosis and identification of ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity. There's also been a slight increase in trouble for students with intellectual disability. There's and also a slight decrease in the prevalence rate of students identified as having learning disability, speech and language impairment and other disabilities which can include death blindness, traumatic brain injury and other disabilities. [clears throat] This pie chart
013represented [clears throat] on the slide in front of you provides you with another view of the new Milford public schools 2024 25 prevalence rate by category of primary disability. That is the most recent information published [clears throat] by the state department of education as they're familiar with typically at least one year behind in the year >> we're operating in. Am I going too far? >> No. >> The information on this slide provides you with a snapshot of the year-to-year comparison of the numbers of students with special education programming within our schools in the district. These numbers do not include students attending out of district programs that are necessary to meet their educational needs. uh within the Hill and Plane and Northfield count our excelled at preschool students are include those with IEPs are included in
014that number those numbers and also I think it's important for you to know that the number of students in our schools who require special education and instruction and related services do shift over the course of the school year shift from week [clears throat] to week month to month so this is a snapshot of the time I also want to draw your attention to the anticipated enrollment and the planned enrollment at LHDC found at the lower right hand corner of the slide. The 2627 projected number for LHTC is drafted as 20. We know that we have 17 students who will require and will be attending LHTC next school year. We have the um capacity for bringing in three additional students who may be students of ours here in the district, but also we have students from
015other school systems, other eleas, local education agencies. We're enhancing our referral process and anticipate the potential of having additional three students joining us. Um certainly that would increase our revenue from school districts because they would be paying a tuition rate and our program is staff to be able to provide for up to 20 students at this time. We have a great model program so do well by other students in other towns if it meets their needs. This next the information This next slide regarding Excel preschool students with disabilities notes the historic information that has been used over time to determine projections for Excel student enrollment. As of the current month, January of 26, we have 63 students enrolled currently have IEP. An additional 19 students who are in the process of evaluation or anticipated enrollment
016upon turning three. Based upon the number of preschool age students we anticipate and the needs of the students as we know them, we have proposed as Dr. Carlo had reflected an additional.5 preschool teacher [clears throat] to be located at Hill and Plains for the coming school year. Just as a procedural reminder, referrals for preschool are ongoing throughout the school year as children approach their third birthdays and many more students are remaining in preschool due to the change in legislation regarding the age of kindergarten entering. [clears throat] Another special program that we have here in the district as I referenced earlier is the Lichfield Hills Transition Center. program is led by a dedicated and skilled staff teaching and coaching students requiring continued special education services post 12th grade as they develop their vocational employment independent living
017skills. The Woodfield Hills Transition Center collaborates and partners with state and local agencies and community businesses. Through these partnerships and the dedicated work of the LHTC staff public schools [clears throat] our young students, our young adult students, excuse me, with the skills necessary for pursuing their vocational and educational interests for life after they receive public schools. The LHC program coordinator also serves as the district transition coordinator which is required by public act 137. The coordinator, Larry Veterco, who's new in the leadership role this week this year, is clearly invested in the work and is working with staff throughout our department, middle and high school staff in particular, especially to further develop our transition programming process for students with disabilities as we're required to do and have in place for students upon them turning 14 years
018old on their 14th birthday. His work extends into our school buildings beyond LHC. You may have noticed in your budget book the proposed budget for LHTC LHPC supplies has significant increase. That increase includes providing funds for the purchase of food and other grocery items which are essential supplies for the daily living instruction and independent skills being taught at the currently. families or andor students are covering the cost of those supplies weekly. Given that a $25 weekly per student, given that $25 weekly per student is needed for those course materials such as ingredients for making meals, prepping for their lunch they then eat during the school day because they don't have district cafeteria access. We propose building in the cost for the supplies into the department. Additionally, as Dr. Colorado noted last week giving student and
019programming needs for the 2627 school year we proposed to reallocate nursing staff and para educator staff between district buildings and programs the results of that then in a reduction or result in a reduction of a 0.9 nurse assigned at LHTC and redistributing the assignment of that nursing position in other buildings which also then allows for coverage and a reduction of of point4 nursing staff districtwide. The reallocation of the current nurse position brings that reduction forward and will not impact our schools by any other reductions to be [clears throat] school buildings. It will actually provide a reallocation to enhance enhance and address some of the high rate of office visits and customer. In doing so, a partial reallocation of a PAR educator position from the Milford High School to the LHTC program for8 full-time equivalent needed
020regarding out of district placement and historical tuition costs. In preparation for the 2526 school year, the district budgeted for the tuition and related expenses of 37 to receive special education services and program. An additional five tuition placeholders were also included in the current school year budget based upon the actual number of students attending out of district placement and those that we anticipated for the 26 27 school year as needed out of district. We're projecting a reduction in the number of students requiring tuition in 2627 as well as the corresponding out of district transportation costs. The impact of increased tuition rates and excess cost calculations also factor in to the dollar amount that you see on the slide before you. year out of place currently less students attending placements than we have been projected to have
021for this year. Additionally, your students currently in the process of being referred to out of degree programs, but we do anticipate and we anticipate that if those placements take place, they will likely continue into next year. We're also aware of a um number of students who because of multiple factors will no longer be attending out of district placements the next school year. We anticipate that that rate will decline and as you're aware the proposal is for one less place for the school district will decrease. It's my understanding that annually the board has been provided with the figures associated with the 10 highest costing out of district placements. For your reference, the information on this slide provides an overview of the current 10 highest cost. Included in related services are any amounts for residential services if
022applicable. And as you'll notice in the first column, the tuition calculation includes if the student has tuition costs associated with their annual expense. >> That's extended school year. >> I'm sorry. Yes, I should have broken that. Okay. Students with disabilities as of the 2425 school year, which is our statistics available public state department of education, indicates that our rate of out of district placement is below the state average compared to other um leas across the state of Connecticut. And so while we continue to require students having access to and out of place across the state, the rate at which we're doing that compared to other school systems is significantly lower in many cases. [clears throat] And then in conclusion, bless you. >> Thank you. The proposed department budget will allow us to in our commitments
023of celebrating students and honoring their individual learning needs as we teach the whole child. Allow us to provide staff with tools and resources to implement highquality practices in their field. Will expand partnerships and collaboration with parents, families engaged in any stage of the IEP and PBT process. will also allow us to enhance systems to ensure high quality procedures and experiences related to New York public schools special education and student services for all stakeholders. Thank you again special education instructions. >> Thank you. I'm going to I'm just going to start real quick because I did have something highlighted on page 49 and I just want to touch base that is the um it's the per pupil health services that's an increase of 22,176. So the um object 532030 it's about halfway down. Is that what you're
024referring to for the um the supplies and the food? >> Um the supplies and food are in the LHTC budget. >> Okay. >> 53. >> Thank you, Anthony. >> H3. What is third line? >> The line that's going up $17,195. >> So that's the $17,195. >> Yes. >> And who was covered? the parents were covering this cost before and we're going to want to cover it because I'm just asking why. >> Well, their instrual supplies for students in LHTC uh they don't have access to our cafeteria food and so part of their curriculum was to shop plan for shop [snorts] and buy the food needed for their classroom. Um and part of that is preparing lunch for their for their classroom. So, this is essentially it's instruction supplies that we were asking parents to send
025$25 a week in for. >> Hang on one sec. I just want to um Okay. Are you going to piggy back on what I just said? >> Yeah. So, so with LHTC, parents were paying had to write checks of $25 or send in $25 and then you would take the kids shopping to buy their food. Was it a hardship? Will you get was it a hardship for some parents to do that? Is that why now you try to >> express that it they're doing it but it makes it difficult because it's $100 monthly >> and what is and so that's going to be an additional 17,000. >> Yes. >> For the for the whole year >> $5 a day per student. >> I did have it highlighted. Um, if I mean I can come back,
026Brian, if you want to ask your question, I can circle back to page 49. >> Oh, it's okay. Go ahead. >> So, page 49, the one that I had highlighted for the increase of 22,176. I was just curious what that is exactly. [clears throat] >> Let's do page 49. Did you say >> 49. Thank you. And it's the 22,176. It's about halfway there. >> That's that's a partial realignment. So the line below it is [clears throat] for a AEDs that we don't need to replace because we got all new ones in 2526 current year and it's partially being reallocated. It's a line above that you pointed out that has an increase of 221 176 and that's for the CPI program and reframing behavior and deescalation. I think Dr. >> Oh, that's that new program, >>
027right? >> The training. >> I'm just curious, what would the cost for the next budget be for that if we approve that in the budget for next year? >> I don't have it up at this point. >> I might have it quick. >> When I'm done, I >> We can put it in the We can also put it in the questions. Thank you. >> Throw that in the questions. >> We will put it in the questions. >> Okay, Brian, you're up. Um I have a couple of questions. Um earlier in the presentation in the slide it's the I guess it's the six fifth slide. Uh you mentioned the um number of students in the case. Can you I missed that. So how many in each um >> for Hill and Plane and Northville? >> Hill
028and Plane and Northville. So it was six >> because that's where there was going to be a reduction of >> Okay. But she'll tell you. Yes. >> Right. That reduction would impact people who playing teachers. Currently their case loads average 6 and a half students to 7.8 students and it will by only half of reduction of teacher. It increases their case load to 8.6 7.4 respectively. >> Thank you. Um just in I and I know it's a huge difference but what's a say a middle school and a high school case? >> About 15. I mean, there's a little bit of a variance, but roughly nearly all of the middle and high school teachers um I could share with you that the the range at um Scatakoke Middle School ranges between seven and 18, typically [clears
029throat] teachers whose case load um is for a program of students who have more complex needs and more time in the self-contained classroom, their case loads are more often a little bit smaller. So the range is from 17 to 18. And then similarly, well somewhat similarly at the high school, the smallest case load seems to be 14. So about 14 to 17 is the average range at the high school. >> You're welcome. >> I have another question, but I can wait. >> Okay. Sarah, please. Okay. Sarah, Wendy, I was wondering how many students do we have in residential settings right now this year? It's it's very few. >> It's maybe two, but don't hold me to that. It's Yeah, we'll get the exact number, but I do think it's two. >> And my other question
030was um the students with disabilities attending out of district schools and programs and we have we [clears throat] have 20 that are going to public schools in other districts. What would be the circumstance why they would go to another public school? >> Oh, uh that number actually is previous. It's not current. I think you're looking at the slide >> slide >> of 2425. Okay. >> So, some of the circumstances and there could be several when a student is placed in program such as run by a resal education service center public school. >> It's not like they're going to shap. >> Okay. Yeah. So if I go to the beam program in Danberry that's run by at advance. Yep. >> Understand? >> Yeah. Yeah. There's public out of district placements and private out of district place.
031Gota understand. Thank you. >> My um question. >> Sorry it dove tales question. I'm sorry I'm totally interrupting my main >> You're not. >> So we're reducing our placeholders uh to 4.5 right? or four >> four placeholders instead of five. Correct. >> How many placeholders? Um how many of those the five placeholders have we used this? >> That was my question. >> Currently, we're still under the I don't think we Yeah. >> I asked that. >> I'm sorry. >> I don't think we used >> currently under the placeholders. We're under the estimated seats >> and haven't used the placeholders. >> No, we haven't used the placeholders. There may be have been a period of time in the beginning of the school year, but based upon student enrollment currently and student placements, we have not maxed
032we were not even in the placeholders. >> So, we still have five open placeholding positions with five open. Do you mind if I run with that because that's exactly where we're going to go. Um, thank you for that. >> It's only January though. >> I I I I feel your fear. Just hold on. Let me finish. Okay. Just for the record that the dollar value for placeholder again, you said it the other night, Anthony, and I don't have it in this set of notes. >> Yes, I think we provided an updated dollar amount in our question answer >> probably. >> Just give me one minute. >> But while you're doing that, so we've a few years back we I think the the highest number that I can recall it's probably is around seven. Yes, we
033all recall. Okay. And there was much discussion over touching that seven. >> And then the next year came, how many did we actually use? And >> I absolutely understand the concern about getting hit with a surprise. Um it's there's, you know, not a lot of places to take it from and and in in past, you know, we we have to kind of look at things. But so the five that are in the budget that we're in now, >> Yep. >> out of the five, none of the placeholders are being used. >> Correct. Correct. >> So with that being said, even with it being halfway through January, why would we only reduce it by one? >> Oh, well, it's too it's a volatile number though. >> I understand. >> Very volatile. You just don't know. >>
034You have a 100% of five that are open as placeholders. >> Sure. So, you're lowering that number. This is surely just me being, you know, thinking and I I'm not Please don't I I'm just we're subtracting it by one because most likely, and I appreciate looking at this, you can almost safely, unless there was some kind of um you know, huge change, say we have five, we haven't used any of the five. It's fair to say that four we would still be >> pretty okay. I I I I understand that. I I do understand, but I just want to understand the the the rationale behind that. So, I wanted to get the number straight. >> May I um I don't know if I want to explain the worst case scenario. Like, let's say we had
035no placeholders, right? >> And two students moved in and they were extremely expensive, meaning they needed out of district placement or enormous amount of services. What would happen to the board of education if we if that occurred? If we didn't have any placeholders in our budget and then we ran short? Oh, we do have placeholders in a budget. >> We do. That's why I almost don't want to give the scenario, but I like us to think ahead in case of well, what if we just got rid of all the placeholders? That would allow me to reduce the budget by X, right? >> Um, >> so when that line item at the end of the last fiscal year because it was the same, the number of placeholders was the same the last fiscal year, that line
036item should have been positive because we didn't use all unless there were other things that transferred in and out. >> That's correct. At the end of the year, there was a positive balance there. >> Okay. The amount of one placeholder in 2627 the budget proposed in front of you have would have 45,000 allocated towards transportation and 114 allocated towards tuition for a grand total of $159,000 >> for one place >> for one >> and it's I will tell you this it's very wise of this board of education to have those placeholders in >> and we have done it we've had had the conversation in and >> because if we if we run then we need a special appropriation >> 159,000 >> indeed and that would come from the town. We'd have to ask the town
037for additional money because we didn't budget for it. So >> or take it from something else >> and just in my experience having worked in that world. Um March and is is the way you can start getting >> kids from all over the world. >> I understand but we haven't exceeded our placeholders in the last five fiscal years. I want to be clear on that. >> That's great. >> Numbers are very clear that we haven't exceeded that threshold, nor have we even gone beyond it and we have actually felt short of it and not used all of it. >> Just just >> and then another very wise part of New Milford public schools is that it allows that money to fall to the bottom line and then eventually to our capital reserve which allows us
038to maintain our wonderful buildings. >> Right? >> That's also important information. The money doesn't go back to town. It doesn't float in the sky. It it becomes part of the capital reserve >> because you have a little bit of I don't like to use insurance but you are prepared and it is there. It's just a balance of how much and where. >> That's my only point. >> It's not the theory of why we do it. I know why we do it and I know that we make a motion to send all the money back to the capital reserve and that capital reserve goes back to the taxpayer. I get that. It's the balance of the number. That's all I just wanted to understand. I'm not sure going in a different >> I appreciate that. I
039just >> I just have two more number questions very quickly. When we are running through the year-to-year out of district placement slide um and it is the I think it's the third or fourth and the last and it's right it's the it's the right above the highest out of district placement test. I just want to make sure I jotted down the numbers correctly. So, in 25 in the budget that we're in now, how many do we have? How many students? >> Five district placements. >> Yes, please. >> Oh, that's >> I think we budgeted for this year 37. >> That's what I wrote down. 37. >> Okay. So, okay. That's what I had. And in the So, I All right. And in the in the next coming budget, what is the number on that again?
04030 and four. >> 30 and four. Okay. So obviously with those changes that correlates to the transportation issue as well that that has to have something to do with Anthony could you correct me on the transportation when we look at the audit district transportation cost just under shared transportation that number that total transportation line is that transportation how is that serviced >> who's providing that transportation >> there are various providers. Correct? >> Yes. About eight or nine different providers. >> Okay. And out of those eight or nine vendors, are any of them under our board contract with our current bus company? >> No. >> Okay. That's what I thought. So, this transportation number is separate than our general transportation line. I want to be clear. And out of those vendors, how do we handle those
041um those I'm sure we must look at them every year, how we can consolidate, what we can do, how we can move things around because it's a it's quite a large number. >> Those are put out for sure to bid um based on the placements and the routes are designed, based upon which vendors can um actually accommodate them. and we try to combine students on runs where uh possible even with other districts if possible. >> Would you say by any chance? It's hard to tell from this because we're we're that line item is down which is a great thing and it's down substantially. That's a big number. Um, but is it down because of the student change or is it down because of some of the efforts that we're doing with consolidation and and with
042those efforts or would you say it's a combination of both? >> Um, on my end from the billing it's a combination. I don't want to >> Yeah, for sure. Dr. Kulkin can give you the substance along with what you have. >> I just transportation's a it's a it's a tough one, >> you know. It's a tough one. We have to provide it. >> They're very individualized in some of these cases and I just wanted to go on record to see how we are doing that. That's all. >> And that goes out to bid. Correct. >> Yes. >> Yeah. That goes out to bid like our bidding process. Just so we all know that. >> Yep. >> On that topic, if I remember a few years ago, there was such a shortage of >> Yeah. >>
043transportation providers that we were paying through the nose to get anybody to drive um special ed. Has that gotten better? Is there more competition now? I keep tomrnatives >> slightly. >> It's a little better. >> Still a ch that's one of the discussions we had where we were looking at some runs that I think it was Brian that actually made the comment he wanted to open his own transportation business. I seem to remember that um very very well. So um yeah, >> right. I just wanted to understand it. That's all. >> Well, I more of a generalized question. And you had mentioned something about questions being submitted because I have some more nuance questions that I doubt we're going to be able to answer like right here. Will I be a when will we submit
044those and is just a >> So we take the questions that we might need a little more detail on and we write them in that document that we send out to everyone. >> So if you al also want to submit questions, we'll include it in the document for everybody to see. >> Yep. >> Can I just make a com um someone made a comment. I'm not sure if it was um Dr. Parlatto or Dr. Kulkin, we we are and I know this for a fact. Um, one of them is mine. Um, we're we're losing um a couple of kids due to transitioning out of the district that's saving us considerably because that class was a huge class that came in and now all of those kids are cycling. She's Lauren's laughing because she knows exactly
045where we're going and they're all cycling out. So that is also reducing your budget this year because you got those heavy hitters leaving, right? >> Yeah. I mean, she's not going to respond to that only because Yeah. >> will no longer require [snorts] >> and that's just a cycle of what happens. Like, you know, it's it's every year you've got more kids coming in and less coming kids. I but I know that this class and I'm outing myself. My son is one of them that you they're they're all now transitioning out of um the the 22 >> public schools. Yeah. >> Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. >> Thank you. Appreciate you guys. >> Thank you. >> Who's up next? >> Mr. Cunningham. No, [laughter] >> nothing. >> Thank you, Dr. Cole. >> It's easy. >>
046Thank you very much. >> Go. >> Everyone has um Everyone has a copy. Yes. >> I'll get you one, Bri. >> I don't either. Yeah, we we only have the uh >> I'm very oblivious today. >> Thank you so much. >> Go right ahead, sir. >> Great. So, as you know, I've done a lot of slide presentations throughout the year. We do summer projects, capital improvement slides. So, I'd like to think you're all fairly well informed and fairly well immersed in some of the facilities and what we do. But just so we're grounded, I have a couple slides here to sort of walk through. That's a nice shot, too. That's 1967 aerial photo of Hill Plains School. And uh I brought that in because you're going to see a recurring theme as I sort of
047bring up the age of our buildings and some of the subsequent challenges you face as our buildings get older. >> Is that the we still have on that building? >> No. No. >> Oh my gosh. [laughter] >> Oh boy. thing is that fighting have a lot of equipment that is still from 1967. So you know that was addressed in in an addition done in 1985. This organizational chart for um we have almost 50 employees within grounds maintenance and custodial custodians across our five schools and 200 acres of property. And I'd like to sit here and go through them all. We try to embrace the four key words. The superintendent has uh appointed four ideals that align with our work. The first is focus. You know, I've spoken to this project a little bit. Certainly a
048lot on the subcommittee, but during this last spring break in April, we went and uh did some work on these dialectric units that we think were part of the root cause for some of the temperature and humidity fluctuations we have here. But um the real focus on this was we went in over a spring break in which you drain the entire building. So going back that Monday for spring break, if you do not get this work done, you have no heat if you need it. You have no air conditioning if you need it. During that time frame, then we had three crew, three teams that went in. One was sort of on a demo where they removed ceiling tiles, they removed the uh insulation and they removed the old unions. A second crew came through,
049propressed in the new unions, and a third came through there and this sort of the mop up where they replaced insulation, put the sealant house back. We replaced 70 of these in three days. All were done in-house Thursday, right before Good Friday. Obviously, we were filling up the system and it was ready to rock and roll. So, I think that that certainly uh shows the ideal of focus heart. This is to your left used to be Lady Gaga, a Gaga ball that was put in no correlation to Lady Gaga whatsoever. [laughter] I don't want to get sued. um little boy to >> the right was the the purchase the engraving bricks that we set up there in front of the uh the high school. So I think those show heart because those rings things are
050a little outside of the typical custodial maintenance things that we do that still enhance the experience for our students and staff in the community actually collaboration. This was the revitalized or revamped >> here at Senobyl. I mean that's a collaboration between MIT uh facilities and certainly the observatory committee and we got that back up and running and it's uh I think most of you were able to not see that. It's certainly something that a lot of school districts don't have and uh it's pretty high-end creativity. So this is an approach we took over at Scatter Coke Middle School. So as I've spoken uh we have a very antiquated pneumatic control system there at Scatakoke. This is over in the science wing, Z-wing, the addition put on in 93. And as you get these leaks in
051your pneumatic system, then it's hard to control these valves. We got to the point last winter that we actually had to go and manually throttle some of these valves to help modulate the heat in that area. So, what we did is inhouse on the right side, you see, we replaced all of these valves on the probably about 24 classrooms there on the radiators. We on the left installed new digital thermostats. Those were able to sync in to an application that our team members now have on their phones. We have on iPads and essentially we created a small sort of closed loop building management system akin to what we have with Seammens. But we're able to do it for pennies on the dollar. Now we have automation. All those rooms stay whatever temperature we set them
052at. And we were able to uh again as I said do that in-house and definitely cut some costs. So this is a slide I want to show just because as I've spoken in the past, it shows the recent major developments or improvements I should say we've done at the schools. Uh 2001 was the last time we did a major renovation. It was here at Saranova as we transitioned from the high school to the middle school a year after the high school opened. Prior to that, you're looking at 92 and 93 for any additions that were done at uh Hill and Plane Northville and Scatic Oak. So that's well over 30 years or at least a quarter of a century now work we've done here and that impacts us a lot. When you try to go
053and source equipment uh let's look at this way. If you tried to get something for a 1992 Toyota Corolla you would struggle to find [laughter] you'd have to get something aftermarket uh the cost associated with the scarcity of that would go up exponentially. So that's what we run into. Now uh we also have a lot of contractual obligations. you know, especially the fire equipment, the inspections, repairs, sprinklers, pumps, extinguishers, that adds up. And all these contextual agreements are roughly about a quarter of a million dollars a year that we have that third parties that were mandated to have to come in. We can certainly not work on elevators. We can certainly not work on the fire suppression systems, the generator, the codegen system we had as part of the energy conservation project. So, we're obliged
054to stick with these. We're not asking for any increase on these. We did last year, but know that these go up to 3 to 5% as the escalator. So, we're going to try to absorb those with operational money this year. Um, and trying to come in with a low budget on our end. But one thing we are going to be asking for is the addition of a solar prop contract. And I believe that's around $9,000 that Mr. Genon has put into the budget. Um, I know when we first looked at this project with ESG, when they put this in as part of the town's energy conservation project, we reached out to them understanding and recommendation that uh we were going to have to worry about any kind of preventive maintenance with it. But as time
055has gone on, we've been told that with these two systems, it behooves us to have a third party come in and provide those services. We have a midsize array here at Sarah Noble that's about 600 kilowatts and about 1,800 plus panels. We have about 400 plus panels at Hill and Plane School and 100 what's considered a small system smaller 150 K. So but in order to you know be sustainable and to hit our goals that we've set up with the town to get savings we have to ensure that these things are working properly the kind of equipment that we can deal with in house. So some of the things we do do in house that we have to take care of is uh air handler units, our large ones, and what are called variable frequency
056drives. So, the air hand high school, we have about 50 of these throughout the district. Uh the high school ones are so large you can literally step inside of them. Um and variable frequency drives are essentially computers that if you think of it like a dimmer switch, it's going to allow us then to [laughter] turn down so we don't have to always be at 100%. Uh in the past if you had an air handler on it was either on or off zero to 100%. Now though it's uh we can certainly save electricity and the wear and tear on components by modulating those. But no, we have probably 50 of these and they go for roughly $7,500 each. So in conjunction motors [clears throat] that we look at on some of these larger air handling units
057could be rebuilt go for5 to $7,500. So collectively you have three quarters of a million dollars worth of equipment and just motors and the controllers for them in our district. And here's sort of a chart of some comparison statistics of some things we do have. As I said, we do have 50 there. We have well over 300 units and cab heaters we've worked on here. dozens of pumps, the VFDs I just mentioned, over 50 of those, dozens of hot water heaters, and uh certainly over 10,000 doors in district. And that doesn't sound like much, but you have to remember that each one of those is fire rated. They need to positively latch. They need to have ADA levers on them to be ADA compliant. They need to be able to lock the walls. So, uh
058just to give you an idea, the median size of an existing home is under 2,000 square feet. We have equivalent to 375 houses that we take care of every day throughout the year. And I wanted to use AI like everyone else. So I created this nice little cartoonic device so that when you do leave and if you're sitting here and you're talking at the grocery store and you say, you know, we take care of like 375 houses every day. That's a little bit of what we do as far as the square footage that we cover. So really the drivers for this budget are we're look we have our annual utility increases that Mr. um we have And then we have the solar array maintenance project that we're looking to add this year. I will point
059out that the hot water heater on the left side here that's being replaced at Scatterbrook Middle School is about $20,000. So just to give you an idea, residentially your house, you might have one that's roughly $1,000, 1500. When you get into commercial, the sizes and the standards necessary and the number goes up exponent. >> Question. So, uh, for another contract, is that I think you said >> 9,000,000, >> correct? >> Is that that will be per year? >> Yes. >> Going forward, do we have is that locked in for a long period of time? >> Just like any preventive maintenance contract, there's going to be escalators within it. They're typically annually renewing and then on average, we see 3 to 5% increase, >> okay, >> on those. And that has been teased out. So, the
060energy conservation project did solar at a couple of the facilities in the town. in that office school. We've just teased out though buildings and including our budget. >> We hope that'll be the last surprise from the ESG. >> I wouldn't count on it. >> I have some follow-ups to that question. >> Good. >> On the ESG. >> Um, okay. So, just I just want to get the numbers in my head. The annual utilities increase. Let's start with utilities. What are we budgeting for utility increase, Anthony? And we partner with the town, correct? >> Yes. Um there are different amounts for different services. Garbage and refuge recycling is 5%. Um the electricity combined is 6 and a half%. Um the difference escalators based on um >> the type of service. >> Yes, that's exactly right. >>
061Okay. So on the contract itself, we have the line item for energy and the savings out of that line item pays for the the actual payment. Is that correct? >> Correct. They go to the bomb payment for ESG which is due December. >> Okay. And do we have 19 more years left? >> It's 18. >> 18 I'd say now. Yeah. >> Okay. I just I'm just trying to you know I won't be here then. I just want to make you well. >> [laughter] >> I said 18 years ago. Um so and we're up to date. We pay we make that payment in December. How do we do that? >> Um it comes from prior year fund balance. >> And do we pay it in June or do we pay in other words it comes from
062our our fund balance? Understand? Because that's less that gets turned over to the capital. Correct. >> That's correct. So when the auditors make their final presentation >> in February, yeah, >> they will um state what the spending board announces and then they will carve out the amount that's required for the bond payment for ESG. >> Do you know what our bond payment was in the last fiscal year? >> Yes. Give me one second. I could hold that up. And then with regards to the the the contract, I agree that we need to plan for it, but it was unexpected because I was part of those conversations and I I had never been told that that was something to expect. So all these 9,000 add up when there will be surprises. So is it is the
063town also I would imagine because they're [clears throat] part of the contract that they would have to have some solar expense. >> That's correct. We got a joint quote for solar between both bodies and it was $14,900. Um the town finance director let us know that um we should be planning for paying 66 and 2/3% of that which would have been roughly $9,900 and in between time um Mr. Cunningham had gotten a revised quote that brought it down to only 9 grand. Okay. And with the re with the actual savings, how that whole program worked out, have we been to a point where we're comfortable with those amounts that were provided in a full report, what our savings actually are so we can tease out how those numbers fit with the board of education. >>
064So, we received a very large comprehensive 100 plus page report um a few weeks ago. We've asked ESG and NB5 to work together on providing a summary report which we just received today actually and that'll be forthcoming at um facility subcom in February is the [clears throat] >> okay but I I don't have that report so I'm in the middle and I that is not meant to be I'm just saying we're in the middle of budget and so is there anything on a preliminary basis in that report that would cause any kind of stir with where we are? No, it shows that it'll match the savings required for the >> That's where I'm going. [clears throat] If I need to look at that number, I need to look at it by tomorrow night. >> So,
065it doesn't appear that I have to. >> No, you do not have to. There [clears throat] provided for year for this coming year based off of the measurement and verification report that they're providing time >> and this will be a different conversation. We'll look at facilities. I would hope that and I don't know what the schedule is on those reports, whether we receive them annually, by annually, quarterly, what we are, but I'd like to get on a schedule with those reports to make sure that we're on target. >> A quick question >> on the um solar panels that we currently have on the schools, are they maxed out on those schools or is there room for more? Are there any plans to extend? >> I think that they took up certainly at Saran Noble the
066footprint is probably maxed out. in plain skull probably because they want to look at the size that they're going to give them. They do a study a photoic study and to determine how many exposure they're getting to the sun and so I think to put them on any of the other roofs at Hillers would not be getting enough hours during the day to make are we on any other school all the schools have them? No, just telling plans. >> No plans for that. >> Given the state >> working on the Northville roof >> given the state of utilities, you know, just know and uh there are obviously you have to go and do engineering studies before you put them on associated. We don't have that set up that would really have to come from the
067talent side. I think that's where they technically their town building. Uh the town has looked into doing a phase two. We were talking about Have we looked or discussed sense to have like a Tesla wall or something like that? We have not then I know that they are having a meeting next Monday at the high school to talk about that would be storing energy um electricity in sort of a bank of batteries. So certainly something that we have not pursued in house though >> maybe we can think about putting in our own little nuclear plant somewhere >> system. >> I mean I'm doing it at work. That's what we do. >> I have a couple. What's the overall facilities budget increase, Anthony? I want to make sure that I'm capturing that. >> Um, it's broken
068out. Custodial is currently going up 1.5%. >> And the um maintenance is going up 2.82. >> That's what I have. Okay. And there's there's no staffing changes. Correct. >> There are no staffing changes. Um, >> that's correct. There are no staffing changes within those either of those divisions for next year. Do we have a dollar? I can add the two columns of the overall dollar amount increase. I mean, when you compare that, it's pretty minimal considering what we cover, quite frankly. >> Um, I, you know, this is not reflective of one department over another because I think all of our staff, they do amazing, uh, you know, what they do in this district, whether it's, you know, teachers, administrators, food services, whatever. But the facilities team is is exceptional as well. >> It's tight. It's
069really great. >> And for me, you know, we have some board members that are quote in the business or a little bit more prone to the construction realm. Some of us have different questions. The visual, the drones, the things that you've brought to the facilities committee have been very very helpful making educated, you know, um, decisions here at the board. So, I really appreciate that. Makes it a lot easier. >> So, the combined is about 136,000. That's what I >> But you have to also remember um close to a little bit over $60,000 of that is tied to utilities. >> Utilities. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. That we are Yeah. They tell us in >> So So quite frankly, [snorts] it's it's it's almost flat. >> You have to back out $60,000 worth of utilities and
070then the solar PM for roughly nine grand to get the real roll over for it's about a $65,000 increase. So out of 375 homes, how many of those homes in their own personal homes are their budgets flat? >> I'm just it's just a >> they're not. >> Well, hence the reason I was asking about the solar walls utilities is the driver of that number. So it just might be I don't think they're going to get better anytime soon. >> So my questions good. >> Anybody else? We're ready to move on to HR. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Thanks so much, Matt. What page is HR on in our book? >> Um, it's on page. >> Do the tab page >> 65. It was so close. I was on to get there
071first. >> My wallet. >> Oh, 65. >> Does everyone have the handout? It's only a one picture. Yes. >> 67 was 200. >> Is this updated from this one? >> Uh, no. >> The same. Got it. Cuz we just broke it out just cuz >> And you have it in hand. Yep. >> Wait, what do we have in hand? >> Uh, the human resources page >> in color. >> Oh, I don't have that either, >> Tammy. >> I'm not prepared either, Jim. I'm sorry. >> Holy moly. >> What? Listen, I start plates out. >> What? What? I'm >> really tired. missing >> the page that's in the budget book, but it's in color. Same page. >> Does anyone need it? >> I'm all set. Thank you. Apparently that side of the room. >> I think
072I think you're right. We're so sorry. We didn't actually >> There you go. >> Okay. Mr. uh Jivoni is going to review this for us. >> So, the Department of Human Resources here accounts for the shown above. What is in the superintendent's proposed budget is an increase of roughly 17.35%. I'll talk about at the bottom those highlights three items that are changing. Um the first one has to do with our substitute line. Um increased usage is the main driver here requiring more funds. We are in contract with ESS to provide these subs their current contract with them for next year. There's about roughly a 5.2% 2% increase, but beyond that, we need more money based on activity. We're engaging with more subs. The next line down the salary line reflects change in the proposed budget
073for the forthcoming um HR director, which will be posted shortly, >> Friday. and that is currently budgeted aligned to the administrator bargaining unit schedule with the hopes that someone who comes into that position might be also certified 092 etc. The next line down, that's going up $2,518. That is strictly tied to frontline and ASAP increases that the Department of Human Resources uses to run the department, scheduling absences, replacements, and um absence management. Those are the only three lines that are changing [clears throat] human resources next year. >> Ryan has his hand up. Go ahead. >> Question. Um, I see the and I I understand the increase in substitutes. Um, are there any incentives that that we use to maybe keep PE to maybe incentivize people to take days >> within the contract? Not really. >>
074Not the contract, but within the build. I don't know. Fun little building things. >> We have a lot of fun little building things, but it doesn't always correlate to viewer absences. >> No, I know. I just used to I worked at one school where we got like a $100 gift card if we're perfect attendance. [laughter] >> I got that gift. >> That's not part of your >> Oh, Brian, where'd it go? >> Yeah. No, that's not part of uh our bag of tricks, but yeah, I appreciate the sentiment for sure. >> Sure. [laughter] >> Anybody else? >> There's not much really to say to >> really. There's really not much to say. Yes. >> Just curious with the subs. Um I don't know if you know this or not, but like on an average day
075>> Oh, we'll have to get that. >> How many? Yeah. How many positions uh are not filled even with some more people have to cover? >> So, we'll get you two numbers. One is the average number of subs who are absent >> and then the number of unfilled positions. We'll get those those for you. >> And a lot of times too, it's not absences. It's either it's a whole bunch of different meetings meeting or new meeting. Like sometimes it's they're not gone the whole day. They're just going for classes and you need that. So >> do we pay them half day and full day or is it just a full day? >> Half. Keep in mind also there's legislation that impacts absences such as Connecticut paid sick leave >> uh where people can take uh
076time in one hour increments for the first 40 hours. >> Um and so that changes usage a little bit. >> I was going to ask how you going to reflect that back in terms of substitutes like you know >> well we have it in our that's that ASOP and front line allows us to track absences. So we're able to figure out when people are using Connecticut paid sick leave uh because it's its own drop down. Um, so we could break it out by personal, sick, uh, >> by a day though. It won't be like a day. They're called, you know what I'm saying? So, how >> tell us how long, how many hours they use. >> It's going to be an hourly read. >> That's how you have to do it for Connecticut Pickleia. >>
077A minimum of two hours. Is it what is it? >> One hour at a time for the first 40 hours. >> That's it. Okay. So, but clearly that along with the challenges of it >> 100% are the driver in that line. >> There's no doubt. And we're not the only district that are facing this challenge. >> No, that's an entire nation. >> An entire nation. >> United States of America. >> So if it were unique to New Milford, that would be one thing. >> Nope. >> Um kind of like shortage areas. >> Same thing. Same same shortage areas, same challenges with absences and understanding why. >> Yep. >> Gift cards. Oh, >> did we did we raise the sub rate? Uh we did last year or the year? >> Last year I think >> yeah
078I can't remember what Anthony offic >> can you can you get that Anthony what what >> you might have right there. >> Yes. So for next year the bill rate this talk teacher full day via ESS is $184 and the actual pay rate is 144 >> because ESS is the processor. >> Correct. They're the facilitator, all of the paperwork, and that's the >> And the recruiting recruiting. Thank you. >> And that's for a full day, >> right? >> And there there in lies the problem, too. Not that it's a problem because people, you know, deserve to take sick time, but if you call in a sub to work a half a day and they only need to work that one hour that that that teacher is gone, then you have a sub for another >>
079two and a half, three hours. Generally speaking, we're able to u find places >> people have teacher meetings. They have PPTs. They have Yes, >> there's plenty of open spots, right? >> Use them. >> I would agree with >> Thank you for doing that. >> Thank you. >> Is that it? >> That's it. >> Are we opening the floor for questions? >> No, but I made >> Well, if they're short and quick questions. >> Well, I can't. Oh, yeah. [laughter] He's sitting next to me. So, I make mine very short. Mine are >> up when Leslie runs the meeting. >> Did you want to ask questions or No, >> they're going to be want somebody to email them. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Everyone will get the answer anyway because we'll send it
080out on the sheet for everyone. >> That's right. Thank you. Thank you for that. >> Can I just make a point on that question and answer document? We'll of course get to any and all questions that need responses, but if you're sending ones in this evening, tomorrow morning, if you could just mark those which ones you need. um information >> for deliberations tomorrow night. We will fasttrack those and on any other ones that might not need um might need for decisions tomorrow evening. We will get to those but we'll prioritize the other >> it might be more >> I have a question. It's going to be annoying and I apologize in advance for that. Um at the beginning of the uh budget I asked about the 13% trend on insurance. Do we have any change
081on that? >> Uh that's today. >> We do. >> Wow. [laughter] Um but there is no change, >> zero change. But we got the information today that they're they're staying strong at the 13 >> state held their um January update and said that there's no change the projected trend for the 2627 budget >> for all districts in the SP. >> I just want to be on the record not not unique to New Milford. It's the SP in general. >> That's right. >> There was h you know hundreds of people in this uh Zoom call. It was given to all districts across Connecticut. That was a donor >> fund who are in the state partnership plan but not specific. >> And do you know what the public trend is as of today? If you're in an
082ISF, >> I do not. >> It's over 13 though, I believe. >> Yes, it is >> 13%. >> I I I I saw something yesterday that was over 15%. >> I'm sure that's correct because some districts have 22% increases. >> The average of ISF or self-unding or something other than SP was over 15% trend. I was just curious if you knew that because we're still below the goalpost obviously >> to advise us that it is higher than the projected rate for SP increase. I just don't know what the exact number >> I understand. I understand >> greater than the range for SP right now is based upon um county and regionalization and the range is from anywhere from 13 to 15%. >> Now you were on that call right and I don't I don't mean
083to I'm just curious because I followed the SP from its infancy. Did there was there any mention of any kind of financial support into the SP statewide or did that not come up? >> No. As far as shoring it up, >> Yeah. >> No, they're never going to tip that hand at this point. I don't think >> on the phone. >> Yeah. [laughter] So, okay. >> Thanks everybody. >> Thank you. >> Public comment. >> We appreciate that. [laughter] >> Thank you. Well, we'll adjourn for tonight and then we'll pick it up tomorrow. Yeah, we're going to >> same time, same place.